When beginning your New Year’s resolution of better health and fitness, there is a lot of information to sort through – some helpful and some just plain confusing. No one knows this better than local personal trainer and founder of BODYCONNECT Exercise and Lifestyle Coaching, BJ Morgan.
Morgan has nearly 30 years of health and fitness experience and was awarded the Cochrane Eagle’s Readers’ Choice Gold Award for ‘Best Personal Trainer’ in 2014.
“Physical activity and eating healthy can be a life transforming catalyst. It doesn’t get more important than that,” said Morgan.
“Obviously we feel better day-to-day, but we also have more mental and physical capacity to continue making changes that increase our quality of life in other areas.”
Morgan said that he has spent a lot of time with clients sorting through the overwhelming amount of information on health and fitness that people are ‘bombarded with in the Internet age.’
He advised to look deeper into ‘supporting footnotes and comment sections, read the authors’ bios and apply common sense’. Anything that looks sensational, is pushing a product or isn’t industry or government sponsored, should raise a red flag.
“Most good information on the Internet gets to the point fast and has no strings attached,” said Morgan.
Anecdotal evidence is just as important as science-based evidence when it comes to health and fitness, he added.
“Nothing trumps real life experience.”
As for some of the best fitness trends Morgan has seen, one is the home and garage gym. It is a concept he said isn’t new, but the equipment and training style is evolving.
“A person can get everything they need for about $220 with a quality set of bands, a suspension trainer and a stability ball,” he said. “There are literally hundreds of effective exercise and program variations at your fingertips with equipment that can fit in a small backpack.”
The second is what Morgan referred to as ‘hacking the human microbiome’, which he explained is ‘understanding the role essential bacteria plays in our body’ in effecting everything from mental health to weight loss.
But there are a number of trends that Morgan also warned people should stay away from.
While food and fitness apps seem to make counting calories as simple as clicking a button, Morgan cautioned that nutrition is too individualized to rely on something like this.
Another is exercise or nutritional programs that are centered on ‘one essential product.’
“There is no magic pill, powder or contraption,” said Morgan. “If ‘bikini’ or ‘beach’ is part of a trademarked name it likely isn’t going to serve you. In my opinion the more one-dimensional a product is, the more one-dimensional your results will be.”
Finally he said to be cautious of CrossFit, a fitness trend that has gotten a lot of mainstream attention over the last few years.
He pointed out that with CrossFit there has been an ‘inordinate amount of injuries’ resulting from ‘advanced movements done under speed and high levels of fatigue.’
“Unless you enjoy a competitive atmosphere and have a solid background in athletics you should not just jump into a CrossFit circuit without a lot of preparation and patient coaching,” he said.
The most basic steps people can take to stay healthy that Morgan recommended was assessing what he called the ‘four cornerstones of health’ in order of priority – adequate sleep, healthy movement, proper nutrition and emotional health.
“Whichever is the most critical warrants the most initiative. There are various ‘lifestyle questionnaires’ online that help quantify your state of wellbeing, but I’m sure most people can intuitively rank them on their own,” he said.
Morgan said he adds links to excellent health and fitness sources for those who want more information on the BODYCONNECT Facebook page found at facebook.com/BODYCONNECT.ca.
