Open House at the Caring House in Durham

• News
• No Comments

Every year for our annual Train the Trainer event we sponsor a charity that gives a lot to the community. Our open house is on Saturday and kicks off with a mass boot camp that’ll help you jump start your day. Come out and see is!

This year it’s the Caring House in Durham. Caring House is a home-away-from-home to adults receiving outpatient treatment at the Duke Comprehensive Cancer Center (DCCC). The average stay is 18 days, with our shortest stay being 1 day and our longest 25 weeks. Most guests are from North Carolina, but almost 1/3 are out-of- state visitors and a percentage of those individuals are from other countries.

Check out this link for more information.

Exercise “Faux Pas’”

• Articles
• No Comments

Here was an interesting article that ran recently in Shape Magazine.

So, shall we have a little round table discussion about these 10 ‘faux pas’?”

I’ll start. Number 6. “Letting your knees shoot ahead of your toes, lifting your heels, dropping your knees inward. These mistakes place excess pressure on the tendons and ligaments of the knee.”

I’m going to let you in on a little secret that won’t go over well with the ‘norm.’ The knee extending out past the toe is not a problem at all as long as the knee is TRACKING the toes. What you don’t want is the knee collapsing inward toward the center line of your body or, even worse, pulling out. It should extend right over the foot. As long as it does this, bio-mechanically it is doing what it was made to do.

Olympic weightlifters have the least amount of knee injuries of all olympic sports and if you look at their form as they squat or clean you’ll see that very often they’re knees go WAY past the toes but it always tracks the foot.

The main problem with most people’s squat form really isn’t the knees, it’s the ankles. Most people need to develop better ankle flexion in order to serve the full range of motion in the squat. If someone bends to far forward and can’t get their thighs to at least parallel in the squat, the primarily culprit is most likely the ankles. This is also going to cause the body to compensate in other ways – such as the aforementioned drop of the knees toward the center-line of the body taking them out of alignment with the foot.

So all that said, which faux pas are you into?

Mike Babbitt, M.F.A, M.A., CSCS, ACSM-HFI

USA Triathlon Level 1 Coach, Master Trainer

Mike is a Master Level trainer at Empower Personal Training. He has a unique approach to fitness that combines his scientific foundation of research and applied exercise physiology with his artistic experience as a professional stage actor. For more information about Empower Personal Training please call (919) 401-8024

Empower’s Busy Weekend

• Specialty,
• Uncategorized
• No Comments

Last weekend the Empower team branched out into the community to support two great causes. In the morning we loaded up the Empower on the Move van and headed to the American Tobacco District in support of Girls on the Run. We set up three different fitness challenges including a bosu station, a weighted ball toss and the agility ladder. Participants could “win” a piece of bubble gum for each fitness challenge she completed. Needless to say the gum was big hit! Thank you for all the wonderful volunteers that organized this race and big congratulations goes out to all the girls that competed in the 5K. Check out some of our pictures from the morning on our flickr page.

After a quick lunch at the up and coming Beyu Caffe in downtown Durham we headed over to 704 Carroll Street to work with Grace Oddone and Grace Couchman and several other volunteers to frame the entire inside of a Habitat for Humanity House. This was Empower’s second volunteer experience with Habitat for Humanity as a team. We don’t want to brag on ourselves too much but we were told that this is the first time ever that an entire house had been framed in one day. Now that’s what I call a functional workout.

Thank you to the Oddone- Couchman family for organizing this awesome experience.

Ronda M. Williams, MS, LAT, ATC, CSCS

Ronda is owner/co-founder of Empower Personal Training.

Train the Trainer is Back!

• Uncategorized
• No Comments

Empower Personal Training is hosting the fourth annual train the trainer. It will be held on Saturday, May 1st.

Proceeds from the event will benefit the Caring House (link) which is a special place that provides adult cancer patients and accompanying caregivers with a comfortable, supportive, and affordable place to stay during outpatient treatment at the Duke Comprehensive Care Center (DCCC).

Come at 10:00 AM for a FREE boot camp that will be kid friendly and a lot of fun. From 11:00-12:00 we will have an open house where people can do a tour of the facility, get a free chair massage, and enjoy refreshments with the staff. The insanity begins at 12:00 PM when our clients will be able to purchase blocks of time to train their trainers! Each $25 donation to the Caring House (tax deductible) will earn you 5 minutes with your trainer.

We look forward to seeing you all on Saturday, May 1st to support this great cause and have some fun!

Katy enjoying a wall sit

Girls On The Run 5K

• Uncategorized
• No Comments

Girls on the Run is a fantastic organization that uses the power of running and being active to change the way girls see themselves and their futures. The girls meet twice weekly for 12 weeks during the spring and fall. The sessions include running workouts and games that teach important life skills such as teamwork, leadership, goal-setting, conflict resolution, and healthy decision making. At the end of the program, all girls participate in a 5K (3.1 mile) run/walk event as a final personal challenge for the season.

The 5K run/walk will be this Saturday, April 17th at 9:00 AM at the American Tobacco Campus/Diamond View Park (map). To register and find out more information please click here. Registration for the recreational 5K and 100m sprint must be done online and closes on April 15th.

While you’re there stop by the Empower Personal Training booth to meet our trainers and participate in some fun fitness activities for a chance to win some prizes. We look forward to seeing you there!