The Blog
January is almost here and many of us have started to research ways to help our 2018 New Year's Resolutions come true. When it comes to fitness and health goals, whether it is dropping 50 lbs or improving your golf swing, teaming up with an educated, experienced personal trainer can often help ensure success. DIAKADI founder and owner, Billy Polson, recommends considering the following seven key elements when searching for your ideal match.
As fitness professionals, we have been squatting for a long time. We learned to squat with “proper” form, and that form was reinforced by certifying organizations like NASM, NSCA, and CHEK. As part of the certification process, we’ve been trained on not only how to squat properly, but how to evaluate other people’s squats.
Should I squat with my feet straight ahead or should they be rotated out? If you ask a panel of kinesiologists, physical therapists, and biomechanists—professionals who are best qualified to opine on form—you’ll find that even within disciplines there’s not a clear favorite.
Everybody needs inspiration from time to time. Many of us athletes look to sports movies to inspire us as well as to entertain us. However, watching the same movies over and over can be as dull as an hour on the treadmill. To keep you focused through rest of the fall sports season, we have compiled a list of our favorite little-known movies featuring Football, Cycling, Soccer, Boxing, Martial Arts, and Hockey. Take a gander and see if one or two of these gems can help you get you out of a slump, inspire you in your training, or at the very least entertain you.
Looking to get a little outdoor activity in after being stuck in your home office all week? Explore the Bay Area and West Coast outdoors, get an awesome workout, and see some incredible views with these DIAKADI trainer suggested hiking trails.
WE ARE CROWNING THE ‘NUMBER ONE HEALTHY HABIT TO PROVIDE A WELL-TUNED BODY AND HEALTHFUL LIFE’
We here at DIAKADI love a good championship bracket. So when Yale BUSTED all of our March Madness brackets, we decided to put our 16 favorite healthy habits head-to-head. The Bay Area’s most educated fitness trainers and performance coaches have voted, and the results are in.
As a fitness professional, having an understanding of the structure and function of the human anatomy is vital to helping your clients work as efficiently and safely as possible. Whether you are new to the industry, or a seasoned veteran, it is always worth investing time into continuing your education on anatomy and physiology. But as there are so many options to do this both online and off, how do you know which to choose? Here we list sources for coursework, workshops, and classes recommended by our own in-house personal trainers and physical therapists.
As one of the most highly recommended courses by our trainers, NeuroKinetic Therapy corrective movement system is an invaluable resource that addresses the causes of dysfunctional movement/coordination problems at their root. NKT will help you focus on assessment and correcting these dysfunctional movement patterns in order to provide the tools your clients need to perform a successful workout program.
“In NKT you jump straight into muscle testing and this was huge as I was starting out as both a bodyworker and trainer - it helped me literally get a much better grasp of biomechanics because in order to properly test muscles, you needed to functionally understand origins, insertions and fiber alignment.”
- Austin Villamil , BS Kinesiology
For more than 30 years ART has been used to treat the body’s soft tissue through manipulation and movement. Learning this technique will provide trainers with an in depth and tactile understanding of the human anatomy, as well as be an invaluable tool to help their clients work through a multitude of musculoskeletal conditions.
The difference between ART and other techniques is that during treatment, the patient actively moves the affected structure while the practitioner presses or maintains contact on the injured area. This allows the practitioner to feel the structure as it moves under their contact, and to effectively treat those restricted muscles, tendons, or ligaments.
’ART is an excellent way to brush up on your anatomy, although their coursework can be pricey.’
- Dr. Kevin Fong, DPT
NOTE: In order to take ART coursework, you must be licensed as a CMT, PT, or chiropractor.
We recommend Massage Training as a great way to familiarize yourself with the muscles in the body through hands-on work with actual patients. In this way you can receive tactile information from feeling the structure and connections of the muscles and joints, which is much more comprehensive than simply reading material and memorizing diagrams. Though the training itself and the techniques it provides are geared more specifically to working as a massage therapist than a personal trainer.
“I’d recommend massage school. It opens up a lot more doors to touch clients; it's quite the commitment though. Anything hands on really helped improve my anatomy knowledge.”
- Derrick Lee, CMT, Corrective Exercise Practitioner
Kenhub is a wonderful online learning platform dedicated to helping you learn anatomy faster, smarter, and more effectively. You will be provided with a variety of study tools to choose from based on your own preferred method of study; an anatomy atlas, articles, videos, quizzes, etc. that focus on the body region of your choice as you progress.
“Kenhub provides extensive human anatomy learning resources spanning gross, clinical and cross-sectional anatomy, histology and medical imaging. Our dynamic, effective and guided approach to learning anatomy is brought to you via a full anatomy atlas, in-depth articles, videos and a variety of quizzes which can be tailored to your level.”
“The human anatomy is a complex masterpiece, and the trainers and practitioners who have truly developed a clear and advanced level understanding of it are far better equipped to assist their clients with achieving success. Never stop challenging yourself to gain a deeper understanding of the human body. It is your best tool for your clients, your business, and yourself, and should always be kept sharpened.”
-Billy Polson, CSCS
DIAKADI is thrilled to be a part of something new. We're partnering up with Muttville Senior Dog Rescue to incorporate exercise into this amazing foster home. Find out how you can join in the fun!
Happy Holidays from DIAKADI to you!
Not sure what to bring for a dish to pass? DIAKADI Trainers have you covered with these delicious, healthy, holiday appetizers, entrees, and desserts.
First off, WELCOME TO SAN FRANCISCO! The Bay. The City. Nor Cal.
You'll never find yourself bored in SF with its neighborhood diversity, steep rolling hills, mountainous terrain, and of course, The Bay. Our DIAKADI Trainer recommended their favorite activities that will want you coming back for more.
DIAKADI Announces Partnership with Newest Bay Area Professional Soccer Team
DIAKADI Fitness Performance Life, San Francisco’s most comprehensive fitness performance facility and the leader for fitness entrepreneurs in the Bay Area, announced their partnership with San Francisco’s new professional soccer team, the San Francisco Deltas. The North American Soccer League's newest expansion team will have DIAKADI as their HOME for strength and performance training throughout their inaugural season.⠀
Planning a night out and don't want to sacrifice flavor for a guilt free dinner?
Our DIAKADI Personal Trainers not only know nutritious foods but delicious meals too. Their recommendations of the healthiest, tastiest restaurants in the Bay-Area will leave you feeling healthy and satisfied whether you're gluten-free, plant-based, vegan, or just really dig organic, fresh foods.
A San Francisco native, Devin Wilborn is an 80s baby with an equally unique perspective. At the age of 7, Wilborn found his first love in his parent's Canon AV-1 & his second in the landscape that surrounded him. Since then, Wilborn has captured his lust for life from every angle, producing works in photography, film, and mixed media. An experiential artist, under his project StudioBT, Wilborn collaborated across genres, building with independent fashion brands & upcoming models. After a brief hiatus to explore the unknown, Wilborn is back with his boldest work yet: Glitch.Please.
So you had a New Year’s Resolution to start and maintain an exercise program at the gym. You started out so strong and with so much determination, but here we are at the middle of February and you haven’t been to the gym in over 2 weeks. Your initial motivation has petered out and it looks like an exercise program is not in the cards for you this year, right? Well before you hang up your gym shoes, we think that you should give it another shot. We ALL experience times when it's hard to get ourselves into the gym...but there are lots of reasons this happens. We need to match the right solutions to the roadblocks. Once you’ve cleared any roadblocks, you can get your New Year’s Resolution back on track.
The beginning of the DIAKADI Difference Program, which allows a participant to work with trainers once to twice a week for three months, focusing on fitness, diet, and lifestyle choices.
DDP focus: The Medea Project: Theater for incarcerated women
Meditation affords us the opportunity to find inner peace amid our often hectic daily lives. By clearing the mind and practicing mindfulness (a term we'll explore more later), we can calm the swirling tides of our thoughts and emotions and see things more clearly. However, meditation can seem daunting. It takes practice to be able to tame a mind that is so used to having free rein all the time. This level of mastery is difficult to achieve with a few sporadic meditation sessions sprinkled throughout the week. That's where Spirit Rock comes in. Sprawled among the woodlands of Marin County, Spirit Rock offers immersive meditation retreats designed to deepen your personal meditation practice by combining the teachings of Buddha, insight meditation, and loving-kindness meditation.
Our very own Billy Polson, as well as a long time DIAKADI client Gary Loeb, were able to attend a full 5-day silent meditation retreat. We interviewed both of them to get a sense of what they experienced.
Somehow the New Year has come and gone, and we're now on the fast track to February. How did that even happen? Nevertheless, the "new year, new you" mantra is in full swing and if you are the type of person to make resolutions, let's do a quick check-in. How are they going? If they're no longer going, don't stress. Our DIAKADI trainers say it's time to regroup, start over, and get this show on the road.
We’ve all heard that you get out of your workout what you put into it. No matter what your goals happen to be, there are many variables to consider when crafting your most optimal training program. The particular combination you select will have a direct impact on the physical results achieved. These variables include: the total number of sets per exercise, the number of repetitions (reps) per set, the intensity of the weight used with respect to a benchmark (e.g. 1 “rep max” or “RM”), the tempo of the repetition, the amount of rest between sets, and the frequency that you train each muscle group per week.
Looking to hit the slopes this snow season? DIAKADI team members have some of the top recommendations for snowboarding and skiing in Tahoe this season! From secret runs, to ideas on fun family activities, this is truly the inside scoop to the best spots in Tahoe. Read below for some of the best recommendations in the Bay Area.
Every December I set intentions to strive for in the upcoming year. While writing my intentions in 2015, I had this desire to REALLY give back and spend time working with an organization that speaks to me. I discovered The Her Initiative through the power of Instagram seeing the lovely Jenna Kutcher talk about her experience. Since then I kept 'Her' on my radar and was inspired by their efforts, grace and compassion.
The Olympics Games are the holy mecca of athleticism. As the world's largest and most watched sporting event, only the best of the best individuals and teams get to represent their country and compete. So how does one become an Olympian? Great genes and luck, of course. Just kidding. But seriously- the answer is actually pretty straightforward, just ask Sean O'Brien, one of DIAKADI's very own trainers.
