As a personal trainer, I had and still have some students, who come to me to help them recover/strengthen their knees.

It is a very common pathology and there are more and more cases appearing.

What is the difference between chondromalacia and patellar tendinitis?

- Patellar chondromalacia is a problem in the cartilage of the patella, the pain can be felt above, behind or laterally in the kneecap.

- Patellar tendinitis is a pathology of the tendon connected to that bone, the pain factors are quite similar, although in tendinitis knee swelling can appear after physical exercise.

Why is chondromalacia more common in women?

- The fact that it is more common in women is related to the axis of the female legs, which more often have a deviation known as knee valgus (knees inward), but other factors may be involved, such as being overweight, sedentary or overweight of physical exercises that involve impact and jumps.

What can you do to improve?

- Strengthen your muscles. Strong thigh muscles are better able to handle the strains that can cause patellar tendinitis. Eccentric exercises, which involve lowering the leg very slowly after extending the knee, are particularly helpful.

- Improve your technique. To make sure you are using your body correctly.

As a personal trainer in Porto, I can help you in this recovery, improving your technique.

How can you fight bad cholesterol and increase good cholesterol?

Exercise and nutrition are your greatest allies!

Start by creating a regular exercise routine.

Physical exercise will help combat sedentary lifestyle and excess fat mass in your body.

With regular and guided exercise, within your body, there will be several hormonal and physiological changes that will help you "clean" the arteries and veins with excess fat accumulated. Making there a greater and better blood flow.

In food, it is advisable to carry out a nutritional plan that helps to create a healthy eating routine and with foods that help fight the increase in cholesterol.

There are some key foods that help to lower bad cholesterol, such as nuts, vegetables, salmon, pomegranates, avocados, among others.

Any questions, feel free to contact your personal trainer in Porto by message :)

The other day I had a student of mine who asked me what “donkey pain” was? And that's how I decided to write this new article.

The “donkey pain” as it is known, has a more technical name “transient abdominal pain”

This pain is caused by the intensity of the exercise and is located on the lateral sides of the abdominal. It is usually a sharp pain and usually disappears after a few minutes.

Some of the justifications that I found in other scientific articles is that this pain can result from the reduction of blood flow in the diaphragm. Blood may tend to redistribute to other muscles that are being used more.

What to do when you have “donkey pain”?

Slow down the intensity of the exercise, rest for a few moments, and massage into the pain point to help relieve it.

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Anxiety is one of the many emotions that we have has human beings, defined by feelings of tension, worry, insecurity, ruminating thoughts, etc.

But in what, can physical exercise help to reduce my anxiety?

Physical exercise can act as an "escape" from the stressful routine.

It can be seen as a distraction, lowering anxiety levels.

Diverting your mind from the worries and thinking cycles that accompany you during the day.

In studies carried out on the importance of physical exercise in anxiety, they prove that exercise promotes the regulation of neurotransmitters, increased serotonin (hormone that regulates mood) and increased resistance to stress.

For me, physical exercise works as an anti-depressant.

Help me to relax, improve sleep quality, energy levels and increase my self-esteem.

Combining psychotherapeutic work and physical exercise can help a lot to improve control of this emotion :)

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A problem that greatly affects the female audience.

In my work, as a personal trainer, it is one of the themes that some of my students ask me. How can they fight cellulite?

Very briefly, cellulite is a condition that affects the skin, with fat deposits and an uneven surface.

The causes for this appearance can vary, from lifestyle habits to hormonal factors.

In the image I mention some tips to reduce cellulite, I hope it helps :)

- Practice physical exercise to improve blood circulation;

- Have a balanced diet;

- Hydrate and tone your skin;

- Reduce the salt in your food;

- If you are overweight, weight loss helps; (If you are underweight, the appearance of cellulite is also normal);

- Have a healthy gut;

Source 

Do you want to become a more active person?

When you decide to start having a more active life, introducing physical exercise into your life it is important to start by creating a specific, measurable, attainable, realistic and temporal goal.

One of the biggest mistakes that happens and then discourages us, is to create big goals at the beginning of this practice.

The goals should be realistic for your current form and the time you spend to train.

As a personal trainer, one of the best pieces of advice I can give you is to create "easily" achievable goals. For example, the 20/30 min walk.

If you have never been able to endure a walk followed by 30 minutes, what you can do is do a weekly plan.

Example: This first week I will walk 10min., If it is attainable that week, it goes to 20min in the second week, and from now on.

Like everything, to work it takes time and patience :)

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What are the main goals of physical exercise in a pregnant woman?

• Maintenance of physical fitness and health

• Decreased pregnancy symptoms

• Better control of your weight

• Better preparation for childbirth

• Immediate postpartum recovery it's faster

When I do a personal training job with a pregnant student, I take into account certain aspects:

➡️Mainly maternal and fetal responses to certain movements and exercises. The student's feedback must always be present!

➡️Gestation is not a time to start an intense exercise program, the goal is to maintain fitness and preparation for childbirth and postpartum.

➡️The pregnancy itself is already a training period, so one should not abuse the type of exercise and its intensity.

➡️Work with a postural correction, as weight gain causes lumbar lordosis and kyphosis.

Is exercise in pregnant women safe?

The answer to this question will depend a lot on how long you have been exercising before pregnancy.

➡️If you already exercise, there is no reason to stop, except for any contraindicated activity.

However, you should always make sure that your state of health is acceptable and that it does not pose any risk to your and your baby's health. For greater safety, the personal trainer prescribes and adapts the exercise to you and your needs.

➡️The biggest problem occurs when there is no physical exercise and is solved during the pregnancy period.

There the risk factors increase, not because of being pregnant, but because they start an unusual physical activity and to which they are not able. Therefore, nothing better than seeking the help of an exercise professional 😉

What kind of training do you usually do?

•  Despite the type of training (or modality) that you most like to practice, in my opinion as a personal trainer, you only gain by mixing a little of the three that I represent here.

•  Each workout has its goal. Be it more cardiovascular resistance, strength or proprioception capacity.

•  With the combination and practice of these three types of training during your week, you will have a greater gain for your day-to-day and in the fight for your goal.

The variety will bring challenges to your body, which will result in a balanced and better evolution!

Why should you drink water during training? 🧐

In a very short way, drinking water during training is paramount. This is because fluid intake should compensate or replace the amount of fluids that come out of our sweating. 💧

When drinking water during training, this intake should be made frequently and not with a large volume. Start hydration before training, during training on a regular basis and after training for a better recovery of your body.

There are people who do not feel well when drinking water during training, start to feel unwell because they are not used to it.

In these cases, they drink at the end of training. Like training, this situation must be adapted to the person, because we are all different :)

The quarantine brought an inevitable increase in teleworking and, with so many hours spent on the computer, it is easy to lose the correct posture of our body.

With this, I decided to create an article with some advice for the day to day and exercises that you should do every two hours of work.

Read the full article (just click on the image) and take care of your posture. 

I decided to write this article about this chronic disorder, in an attempt to explain what Fibromyalgia is and why it is increasingly present in the Portuguese population.

Describing some symptoms that can be felt and how they can be treated.

It is important to note that this article is informative, if you suspect or have any of these symptoms for more than 3 months, consult your doctor.

To read the article, just click on the image.

Collaboration with the blog "4MEN" on how to do the supine exercise, in the most correct way and with less injuries.

One of my priorities as a personal trainer in Porto is to have my students learn how to do the exercises correctly apart from adding load and more load. 

Adapting the exercise correctly to the needs of each one is one of the focal points in the training.

In this article, you can see what care you should take while performing this exercise.

Blog article "Peachy".

This article is quite interesting for those who are always starting and giving up doing physical exercise.

With the experience that I am gaining as a teacher of bodybuilding / group classes and personal trainer, I see that there are still enough 'dropouts' in the continuity of a healthy exercise practice.

In the article, I tried to pass certain points that can help you overcome this addictive cycle of starting and not going to the end.

I hope it helps!!!

Another collaboration with the "4MEN blog".

This time talking about the theme of the work of the gastrocnemius.

I hear more and more people complaining about not being able to develop, or complaining that they have huge gastrocnemius and have never done specific work for them.

There are several factors that can justify the two results, such as muscle fiber type and genetics. That is what I have tried to explain in this article.

 Blog article "Peachy".

I was challenged to create an article that exemplifies exercises that people can do outdoors with a simple rubber band.

As a personal trainer, I tried to create a variety of exercises that were simple and without many technical positions, so that anyone could accomplish without being injured.

It was a funny challenge and it gave me great pleasure to do so. Demonstrating with GIF's the accomplishment of the exercise.

If you want to start training or looking for new workouts, this article can help!