As a coach and gym owner, my goal is to create clients who are successful athletes. Over the years, however, my definition of “successful” has evolved. Originally, I would deem an athlete successful when ... Continue Reading
Do Drop Sets Build Muscle?
Drop sets are one of the oldest training techniques known to man. They are something of a training rite of passage. If you haven’t experienced the horror of your gym crush walking past, just as you finish ... Continue Reading
Balance and Efficiency: A Method to Stabilize Your Body
Have you ever worked systematically on a skill, doing the work required to be find a high level of competency, only to get stuck, plateauing in a bog you can’t seem to claw your way out of? Maybe you ... Continue Reading
How We Can Combat the Saboteurs of Our Health
Over the past four weeks, we’ve looked at a collection of industries that I believe are every bit as deadly and corrupt as Big Tobacco: convenience food, pharmaceuticals, and addictive technology. Today, ... Continue Reading
It’s About the Athletes First
When you’re on the road as much as I tend to be, finding someplace to work out becomes part of your travel planning. I do my homework as best I can, to find out about the facility, the programming, and the ... Continue Reading
Project Manage Your Health and Fitness
In my prior article Society Is Aging Us Prematurely, I made the point that unless you want to follow the masses down a path to early aging, reduced physical performance, and chronic disease, you need to ... Continue Reading
5 Essential Yoga Poses for Runners
Are you feeling sore, achy, or tight after a run? Over time, running without proper mobility and stretching can lead to imbalances in the body resulting in sprains, pains, and injuries. Yoga is a wonderful ... Continue Reading
Sciatica and the Sciatic Nerve
The sciatic nerve is the largest nerve in the human body. It runs from the buttocks down the back of the thigh all the way to the foot, on either side of the body. Sciatica refers to any condition in which ... Continue Reading
The Weak Runner’s Guide to Starting Triathlon
If you are an athlete thinking about triathlon but the thought of the run portion makes your stomach turn (or you know it’s the area where you need the most work), then you are in the right place. While it ... Continue Reading
How Fast Should You Gain Mass?
How quickly should you gain weight during a bulk? As a newbie, you can pack on muscle at a good rate. However, once you’ve discarded your weight room training wheels and graduated to intermediate or ... Continue Reading
How to Talk to a Fitness Newby
We argue all day about the benefits of CrossFit versus bodybuilding, distance running versus spin classes, kettlebells versus Olympic lifts, and Pilates versus Zumba. We can and will argue about every ... Continue Reading
Falling Out of Love With the Process
As an editor, I have developed an allergy to clichés. This presents a problem for many of our writers, as I have become likely to nuke from orbit any sentence that references “the journey” of fitness, or ... Continue Reading
Train Less to Gain More? High Intensity Interval Training Explained
Photo by Bev Childress In our current fast-paced society, it can be easy to get overwhelmed by subpar time management: too many tasks to accomplish and not enough time to do them. When it comes to ... Continue Reading
Training the Way Nature Intended
Most modern training programs are variations on the same scientific themes. You take a human body, and measure its capacity. Then you subject it to repeated, measurable stresses, rest, recover, repeat. ... Continue Reading
Society Is Aging Us Prematurely
In my previous article Be Your Own Expert And Turbo-Charge Your Training After Age 50, I wrote about how I'd achieved things that went against expectations for a 54 year old, things like resolving the ... Continue Reading
Rethink What It Means to Be Mobile
The word mobility has flooded the fitness culture these last few years. With the rise of gymnastics and martial arts inspired “movement” training from numerous different “gurus,” mobility has finally ... Continue Reading
The Failure to Progress
If you know me personally, you know that for the past seven years I've arranged my schedule to make room for teaching ski lessons in the winter. I love to ski and I'm happiest when I'm able to teach others ... Continue Reading
Why the Ancient Greeks Believe Competition Was Sacred
When we think of competition, we may think that its sole purpose is to prove our superiority over others and to find out who is worthy and who is unworthy. Whether it is spectating or participating as a ... Continue Reading
When It Comes to Fitness Start with the Right Questions
According to Google, the most commonly sought topics for health and fitness last year included Tabata workouts, burpees, the “Murph” CrossFit routine, and even the “Tom Brady” diet. While these searches ... Continue Reading
Muscle in a Hurry: Full Contractile Range Tri-Sets
To fully stimulate a muscle, you must challenge it across its entire contractile range. Just doing a full range of motion (ROM) in the big lifts won’t achieve this. Moving through a full ROM is very ... Continue Reading
Finding Intensity in CrossFit Again
Photo by Bev Childress Photo by Bev Childress I’ve never been an intense exerciser. I don’t have an intense personality, and while I work quickly and with intent, there is no real spark to ... Continue Reading
The Cures That Are Killing Us
“There’s a pill for that.” “That’s not normal. You need medication.” “There has got to be an easier way.” “I wasn’t blessed with patience.” “I’m just not able to focus.” “It doesn’t come natural to me.” “I ... Continue Reading
Committing to Your Why
Think back to “why” you joined a gym, began training, or committed to your fitness journey. What did you want from it? What changes did you want to see in yourself? What did you want to learn and ... Continue Reading
Superheroes in Training: How KidStrong is Turning the Tide of Childhood Obesity
It’s become reflexive to collectively shake our heads and mutter “kids these days.” That trope used to refer to the somewhat innocuous change in culture from one generation to the next, but today it ... Continue Reading
