FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS

Want to know more about Smart Strength and how our resistance training programs can guarantee 50-100% strength gains in less than one hour per week?

Click an item below to see more info for a specific frequently asked question

Is Each Session Only 22-Minutes Long?

Yes. The exercise itself will take approximately 22-minutes.

Will I Get Results By Training Only 22-Minutes Once Or Twice A Week?

Yes. Twenty two minutes is all you need to set into motion a chain reaction in the body to start building stronger muscles. That’s because there is no such thing as a “long, hard workout.” The more effortful the workout, the shorter it lasts.

Once stimulated, the best thing you can do is to let Mother Nature do its job, and give yourself a minimum of three days’ rest before your body has the chance to adapt metabolically and synthesize stronger muscles.

While “more is better” is often stated, we abide by “more high quality effort is better.” Quality over quantity!

How Soon Should I Expect To See Results?

Many Clients report the feeling of ‘something happening’ within the first two to three weeks of the program. If you’re working out consistently, by week six, you should feel stronger, have less overall fatigue, and your aches and pains should be lessened. Within 12 weeks, most people start to see the physical changes in their bodies and we show measurable improvements in strength.

If ‘results’ means to you ‘a total body transformation’ – then it may take more time. In most cases, this requires fat loss, which in turn, requires dietary changes. We partner with registered dieticians to create a team of experts should this be your goal.

What Can I Do To Improve My Results?

Nutrition and rest. Eat real food and nourish the body with essential nutrients. Also, be sure to get at least seven hours of sleep per night. Your body repairs and restores at a cellular level during sleep. Exhaustion affects your immune system and goes into overdrive thus leading to chronic inflammation.

How Does A Consultation Work?

The Smart Strength consultation starts with a 15 minute phone call – an opportunity for us to ensure that we’re a good fit for you and you for us. We learn more about your goals and experience, give you an opportunity to ask any questions. If we feel that we’re a good fit, we schedule a free workout, which you will be in and out the door in less than 30 minutes.

What Can I Expect in Each Workout?

Your Instructor will guide you through seven to twelve different strength-training exercises that will give you an intense full-body workout.

What Should I Wear?

Our only rule regarding attire is no skirts, heels, or restrictive clothing. You are welcome to wear gym clothes if you wish, but business casual or street clothing is also appropriate. Whatever you wear, be sure that your muscles and joints can enjoy an unrestricted and full range of motion.

Do You Have Locker Rooms?

No, but our bathroom is large enough to change from work attire to gym attire.

What To Eat Before a Workout?

This depends. Some people find they have better workouts without eating anything. Others need a little something so in that case eat an apple or orange. You’ll get a boost from the fruit’s natural sugar, and your body will thank you.

I Heard You Don’t Sweat – Is That True?

No exactly. We keep our facility at a comfortably cool (66-68F) temperature at all times, not to prevent sweating, but to prevent overheating. You can work harder when you’re cooler, so that’s what we’re focusing on. While some people are more prone to sweating than others, not many people sweat here.

Is This Exercise Good For Women Who Are Pregnant?

All pregnancies are different, and before you make any decisions regarding exercise during pregnancy, you should check with your doctor. Once your doctor has cleared you for physical activity, our workout prepares you for potentially the most difficult event of a woman’s life: childbirth. Data suggests that women who strength train prior to pregnancy improve postpartum recovery.

Is Smart Strength Workout Safe For Out Of Shape, Older Adults?

Yes, and in many cases, it should be the only way older adults engage in high-intensity exercise. That is because our super slow lifting speeds, watchful eyes, and specialized equipment won’t exacerbate any pre-existing injuries. Also, the older we get, the faster we lose muscle, which leads to falls, injuries, digestive disruptions, joint problems, and loss of bone density. The key to preventing all these issues is engaging in a safe, yet intense strength-training program.

Why Is The Smart Strength Workout Slow Motion?

During Start Smart we use a very slow lifting protocol because it produces 50% faster strength gains for novice trainees. After that, while the workouts will always be done in a smooth, controlled fashion, with your trainer encouraging that you never throw, drop, bounce, or heave the weights.

We do this for two main reasons – safety and efficiency.

  • Slow lifting dramatically reduces the forces that commonly cause injury to your joints, muscles, and connective tissue.
  • Slow lifting also reduces momentum, which requires the muscles to do most of the work. The result is muscle failure achieved in a minimum amount of time, giving you a much more efficient workout. When you can no longer move the weight, the stimulus for muscle growth has begun.

Armed with the knowledge that you can train without injury, you will have the confidence to push your muscles to the required level of fatigue, making your workout more effective.

What Should I Do The Days Following My Smart Strength Workout?

Rest! It’s a physiological fact that your body needs sufficient time for rest and recovery. You need to eat well and strength train, but you also need to sit back, relax, and let your body do what it needs to do if you want to meet your goals.

Once you have worked your muscles to the point of actual muscular failure, they require sufficient time to repair and restore torn fibers and build new muscle mass. This process can be enhanced only with proper nutrition, hydration, and the luck of genetics.

This doesn’t mean “do nothing”, but rather do things you enjoy at an enjoyable (not extreme) intensity. More yoga? Sure! Running with a friend at town lake? Yup. Just relaxing? Absolutely.

Do I Need To Do Cardio Exercises?

We all want healthy hearts, and we want to do everything we can to maintain terrific cardiovascular health. When you go for a jog, you’re using your legs and swinging your arms – you’re not working your heart directly. Instead, you’re placing a direct demand on your muscles, which in turn are placing the demand on your heart. Your heart cannot differentiate between the effort from riding a bike or doing squats. It merely responds to the need for oxygen and nutrients from working muscles.

Recent studies have shown that the heart can be improved more efficiently by placing an intense demand on the muscles via strength training and interval training, rather than through steady-state activities. This is incredibly valuable information because while steady-state activity might end up strengthening the heart, it carries with it orthopedic side effects that can be destructive.

How Can Smart Strength Help With Diabetes?
Simply Stated – Better Insulin Control

If you are pre or destined to be a diabetic, there are many things you can do to stave off the disease. Strength training uses stored glycogen (sugar) to fuel the powerful contractions. This both empties the muscles of glycogen and makes muscles capable of holding more glycogen at all times. This means lower blood sugar and less insulin to lower blood sugar after a meal.

In conjunction with a low-carbohydrate diet, and with your muscles sucking up any remaining sugar, insulin levels are suppressed – and that’s a good thing.

Will Smart Strength Improve My Bone Density?
Yes. The key to improving your bone density is strength training.

Building muscle directly increases bone density by putting increased stress on the bones, making them stronger, healthier, and less prone to fractures and breaks. Not only does increased bone density slow the devastating bone loss associated with getting older, but it also helps to counteract any future damage by building additional bone matter.

In addition, we have unique equipment that allows us to stimulate the bones directly. We’ve found this to be the 1-2 punch to rebuild bone mineral density.

Will I Lose Fat at Smart Strength?
That depends. Exercise alone is not going to be enough to accomplish that goal. No amount of exercise alone can make up for an unbalanced diet, high in the empty calories found in carbohydrates and sugar that we’ve come to exist on these days.

We focus on getting people stronger, which correlates with increased lean tissue, which is more metabolically active. This combined with a controlled diet will allow you to keep lean tissue while nearly exclusively losing body fat, which is actually what we want!

How Can Smart Strength Improve my Sport Performance?
First of all, with our once-a-week, 20-minute workout you won’t be spending all your spare time at the gym. That means more time doing the activity you want to be better at doing. The strength building you will get from the Smart Strength workout will reduce your risk of injury that would otherwise take you out of the game.

Sports-related injuries are either cumulative (overuse) or acute (traumatic). Should you become injured or require surgery for some reason, you’ll discover another benefit from our workout – reduced recovery time. You will recover faster when your bones and muscles were at peak performance before any injury sustained.

Will I Bulk Up From Training At Smart Strength?
The number of women Clients who express their fear of “bulking up” from doing strength training at Inform Fitness grows every day. Almost all the people who train at Smart Strength want to ‘tone up’ and ‘harder/firmer’ muscles. The fact is most women won’t “bulk up” from weight lifting.
I Have Chronic Back Pain, Should I Not Try Smart Strength?
If you have chronic back pain, you should try Smart Strength. Regardless of the cause, we discovered the most effective way to improve chronic back pain is through an aggressive strength training regimen that accurately targets the lower back musculature.

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