Jun 19
I grew up a gym rat, starting to go to a local gym in sixth grade. The gym gave me something to do. I saw how a room filled with inanimate, stationary objects used by other exercise participants offered a simple yet engaging and fulfilling aspect of my life that had been missing. Over time, …
Jun 05
“All I did was bend over to pick up a bag of dog food,” Wolfgang explained as he eased himself onto the bench at the beginning of his training session, clearly wincing in pain as he put his hand on his lower back. “I hear about people throwing their backs out moving couches or refrigerators. …
May 31
“I almost went down stepping off the curb at the grocery store last week,” Frieren mentioned as she laced up her shoes for her morning training session. “I caught myself, but for a second I really thought I was going over.” She laughed it off, but the look in her eyes told the rest of …
May 23
People often ask me what my favorite foods are. I always give my honest answer enthusiastically. “Pizza, donuts, and ice cream,” The reply is usually paired with a look of bewilderment, “Then how do you stay so fit?” I suppose that’s a fair question. I maintain a healthy body fat-to-muscle mass ratio, and I have …
May 19
Somewhere between the ages of six and eighteen months, humans accomplish one of the most remarkable feats in our species’ physical development. We figure out how to crawl, and not long after, we push ourselves up onto two wobbly legs and begin walking. Becoming bipedal is one of the defining traits that make humans unique. …
May 08
It’s not unusual to hear that a person invests decades of their life giving their all to support their career and family. Whether logging years in a physically demanding trade or being active in high school, collegiate, or recreational sports, a common bodily signal tends to surface in one’s forties, fifties, and beyond. The knees …
May 02
Injuries, joint conditions, and pain-producing areas among our personal training clients commonly occur in the lower back, knees, and shoulders. In terms of which area of the body is most affected by pain, the lower back seems to be public enemy number one, followed by the knees as the second most compromised area, and in …
Apr 24
“Who’s that handsome guy?” My grandpa remarked after looking at his reflection in the mirror after I gave him a fresh haircut. It was nothing fancy. I simply used his clippers, stashed in his bathroom drawer, to trim the back and sides of the scraggly, unevenly grown hair sprouting from his scalp in random places. …
Apr 17
As members of the general population, we engage in a wide variety of physical activities. Some of us participate in a broad range of hobbies and chores that keep us active, such as walking our pets, gardening, or completing home improvement projects. For those of us who have children or grandchildren, our physical activities become …
Apr 16
What if getting stronger and preventing injuries wasn’t about doing more exercises, but about moving better? That’s the idea behind functional movement training. Functional movement training grew out of physical therapy, rehabilitation science, and strength and conditioning. Instead of isolating single muscles, it focuses on training fundamental movement patterns your body uses every day (e.g. …
