Frequently Asked Questions
Can this program work for all diet concerns?
At calyx health and fitness, getting you the results you desire is our top priority. Whether it's dropping a few pounds, building muscle, or making health your top priority for the first time, our programs are specifically tailored to your needs. No matter what your diet tolerance is, as long as your macronutrient needs and daily calorie intake are on track, you will get the results you are looking for.
Diet concerns such as low FODMAP tolerance, gluten sensitivity, lactose intolerance, and diabetic, vegetarian or vegan diets are all manageable with coaching from calyx health and fitness. Once you consume enough protein to support your activity level, the rest of your diet is made up of the fats and carbohydrates you enjoy and can tolerate. Factors like energy density, fiber and micronutrient content are important for your health and satiety and can have an impact on your workouts and other activities.
Healthy options for satiety, include potatoes, avocados, beans, cottage cheese, yogurt, fish, poultry, and eggs. Fibrous vegetables including pumpkin, broccoli, cauliflower, mushrooms, asparagus, spinach and squash are filling and full of micronutrients. Most fruits such as strawberries, pears, peaches, and berries are highly satisfying.
Keep in mind, the type of carbohydrate you eat, whether simple or complex, matters little; what matters is the food's nutritional value, such as its fiber and micronutrient content.
How do I begin a strength training program?
This is one of our specialties! Hiring a personal trainer is your first step. At calyx health and fitness, we curate a program specifically for your goals and educate you on proper exercise technique and progressive overload progression. This will prevent mishaps and wasted time and energy without getting the results you desire.
It can be daunting beginning something for the first time, but we have all been there! Many factors are considered when building a client’s program. Age, gender, lifestyle, current fitness level, and more, are all considered when setting the training volume (sets x reps) for beginners. Once the amount of training volume is established the next step is choosing the exercises for the program.
It is best to train with full range of motion for muscle development, strength, explosiveness, and joint health. Therefore, choosing exercises that stress different muscle fibers or stress the muscles at different lengths is implemented. Another consideration is optimizing the order of exercises in the program to emphasize specific muscle groups based on the client’s goals.
To maximize muscle growth and add variety we program unilateral exercises rather than using all bilateral movements, and incorporate both compound and isolation exercises. Since there are countless options in choosing exercises, it is vital to use a systematic approach based on scientifically proven objective criteria in selecting the right exercises for every client.
How much time will the workouts take?
With calyx health and fitness, most workouts should take approximately 45 to 90 minutes, depending on your level of training.
How do I make time to workout with a busy schedule?
Squeezing a workout into a busy schedule can be challenging. It's ideal when our schedules allow us to get a workout in at the same time each day, but some days, it's just not possible. There may be days of early morning, late evening or even lunch hour workouts. At calyx health and fitness, we will help you plan your workouts for times that work best for you. We will make it work!
Can I perform the workouts from home?
Absolutely! Working out in a gym certainly gives you more of a variety of exercises, but at calyx health and fitness we want to set you up for success in whichever way works best for you with our online fitness coaching. Home workouts can easily be done with a few sets of dumbbells paired with a step or chair.
Will I have to lift heavy weights?
At the beginning of your training with calyx health and fitness, you won't be lifting heavy weights. The benefits of higher intensity (lower rep ranges) work for strength development depends on your training experience. Beginners don't need a high training intensity, because they don't need to reach very high levels of muscle activation yet to cause muscular adaptations. However, this will change as your get more advanced.
Do I need to eat a high carb meal before working out?
For the average person hitting the gym, as long as they aren't training during fasting, getting a ton of pre-workout carbs is not necessary. Once pre-workout protein is met, very little, if any carbs, are needed for additional benefit. If you still want more energy before your workout, you can get the calories from any macro. At calyx health and fitness, we are trained in tailoring a custom nutrition a plan designed just for you. We can help you figure out exactly what your body needs before and after hitting the gym.
Do vegans or vegetarians require more protein for muscle growth?
Vegan and vegetarian diets are generally lacking in protein due to the protein digestibility issues caused by anti-nutrients found in legumes and grains along with a shortage of essential amino acids, particularly lysine. At calyx health and fitness, we will tailor your diet based on the unique nature of your preferred way of eating. Therefore, a 21% increase in protein can offset these deficiencies.
How much protein do I need to consume for muscle growth?
1.8 g/kg/d per day of protein is a good minimum target to consume. This recommendation refers to total bodyweight and is irrespective of energy balance. Vegans have high requirements. The correct amount of protein for your specific body type will be calculated into your Calyx Health and Fitness program.
How do I know what weights to use for repetitions?
Rather than prescribing a fixed number of repetitions, at calyx health and fitness we use test sessions. The test sessions take into account your physiological characteristics of your muscles which make you more suitable for either strength or endurance exercise. Since we tailor our programs according to individual variability we use the data from your test sessions to determine repetition targets for each exercise so you can train according to your genetic strengths.
In other words, people tend to respond favorably to the type of exercise they’re genetically good at. Each muscle has a different fiber type composition. Some muscles are fast-twitch dominant while others are slow-twitch dominant.
The test sessions determine the individuals training intensity in which to begin each exercise of the program. Inter-individual variability is important to consider when designing a training program because of muscle fiber types. People with a greater proportion of fast-twitch muscle fibers have a greater potential for strength and power sports and therefore generally perform better and gain more strength using higher intensities (more weight x lower reps) and lower volumes (less sets) training. Moreover, individuals with a greater proportion of slow- twitch muscle fibers gain more muscle training with lower intensities and higher volumes.