Top 3 Fitness Related Holiday Hacks
https://youtu.be/yqzeu9B7P-M The holiday season in my favorite but helping my clients navigate all the indulgences is alwasy a big challenge. Have fun and live a little but if you can follow these 3 tips to minimize your holiday hangover and get a jump on your 2020 fitness goals you will thank me later! ...
Are your hamstrings tight from sitting at your desk?
https://youtu.be/pbFnfLd9pwU Sitting for long periods of time can wreck your body by shortening your hamstring muscles. This can cause your back to overcompensate which will cause chronic pain and poor posture. I'm more of a fan of active or dynamic stretching prior to working out, however, this is a great stretch to do AFTER you have already warmed-up your legs and generally post workout. The only coaching point I would add, that is not demonstrated ideally in the video, is to keep your back and hips neutral. So don't let your butt come up off the floor! ...
How to lift heavy AND NOT GET HURT!
https://youtu.be/7JV7Lj8gjd0 Is it possible to continually lift heavy AND NOT get hurt? Well, I'm doing a little case-study on myself. Ohio State University put out a research study showing the benefits of lifting light loads on recovery days as a way to enhance joint recovery and repair between heavy lifting training sessions. Watch to learn how the first four weeks went. ...
The Four Pillars of Successful “Resolutioning”
January is one of my favorite months of the year, which is odd, considering it’s also a time during which my hometown transforms into a dark and frozen icy tundra abyss. Despite the unideal climate that could easily make a guy want to hibernate, I’m adrenalized by the sense of renewal that comes with the season. Not a do-over per se, but a fresh start. While there may be some pain that enters into my process, especially as I reflect on the prior year’s shortcomings, I have gotten better over my 10-year fitness career at acknowledging my victories and understanding that...
Fitness Myth #2: Lifting Heavy Weights Will Make You “Bulky”
By Madison Hawks, CPT and Scott Smith, CSCS If you’ve ever been afraid of looking like this from lifting heavy weights … …fear no more! Over the last few years, we as fitness professionals have been trying to instill in our clients that simply lifting “heavy” weights or working with “low rep ranges” will not make you bulky. For those individuals that have worked hard to add muscle mass, it’s almost offensive to hear these claims of women or men doing 3 sets of heavy leg presses and seeing there legs explode in size. There’s more to it than that… But first off, why...
Fitness Myth #1: You should stretch before you workout
Ok, metaphorical show of hands … who here thinks you should do static stretches before working out? Yea, my hand used to be up too. I certainly bought into the whole pre-exercise stretch phenomena. In fact, I believe MOST people have long been under the impression that NOT stretching before doing exercise is a total sin. So why did it make this fitness myth list thing? Well, here’s the deal with stretching… not all stretches are created equal. And not all stretches are ideal either. So let’s define the three main categories of stretching before deciding if pre-exercise flexibility work is beneficial. Static...
I’m Starving Myself and Not Losing Weight! What Do I Do!?
Adopting new diets to lose weight has become an American obsession. An obsession we utilize to combat our obsession with food and saving energy. And they often time work in the short-term but inevitably stall out as does our motivation to stay the course. Why is that? And how can we break the cycle and have more sustained success? I propose to you the “Zig-Zag” approach. This is not a gimmick. This is not to be confused with “Yo-Yo” dieting! This is how many professional fitness experts eat year round (as habit for me by now) in order to maintain low...
Scott’s Top 10 List of Lifts You NEED to Know: #1 Squat
Why it made the list (Why you should do them): A solid lifting regimen just wouldn't be complete without some variation of the squat. People would probably complain a lot less about "Leg Day" though if they didn't do them. That's because squats are HARD! While you can regress this movement so that it is easier to perform correctly while learning, the squat comes in at number one on my list because the intensity can be scaled higher than any other movement we know. This powerful compound movement utilizes the large muscle groups of the quadriceps, hamstrings, and glutes. Squats also require...
Scott’s Top 10 Lifts You NEED to Know: #2 Deadlift
Why it made the list (Why you should do them): The deadlift is one of the most demanding lifts on the planet due to the stress it places on both the central nervous system and musculo-skeletal system. This stress can be a really good thing if applied properly. This compound movement utilizes the glutes, hamstrings, and quadriceps to powerfully lift a load from the floor to a standing position. The heavier the load, the more critical it is to activate the stabilizing muscles in the hips, back, abs, and shoulders in order to sustain proper technique/posture. That's A LOT of muscle...
Scott’s Top 10 Lifts You NEED to Know: #3 Chest Press
Why it made the list (Why you should do them): While push-ups are one form of a "chest press" and are great due to the core building component and lack of equipment needed, I'm going to be discussing the supine position chest presses, aka "bench presses." Why bench press? Cause I'm a guy and I just can't help myself. Doing chest presses while laying down allows us to lift a substantial load and subsequently can lead to better size and strength gains in the pectorals, shoulders, and triceps. When comparing/measuring absolute upper body strength levels this is how we do it....