Category: Exercise and Sleep

An Overlooked Cause of Back Pain

Who is more likely to develop lower back pain, the framer who hoists heavy lumber all day or the programmer who has spent twenty years at a desk?  Most of us would bet on the framer. Heavy lifting looks dangerous, and desk work looks harmless.  However, an underused, deconditioned back can cause as many problems …

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What Makes a Personal Trainer Happy

Have you ever wondered what makes a personal trainer happy? It’s likely the first guesses would be watching a client lose ten pounds, add fifty pounds to their bench press, or cross the finish line of their first marathon. Those accomplishments are worth celebrating. However, the moments that warm a trainer’s heart the most are …

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Strong Upper Extremities Traveling

A walk through an airport terminal reveals the surprising truth that traveling is a strength and conditioning event. Suitcases are hoisted off luggage carousels, carry-on bags are pressed into overhead bins, backpacks are slung over shoulders, and rolling luggage is towed across long stretches of pavement. Before a single vacation photo is taken, the body …

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Stay Fit for Recreational Sports

An engaging and fun activity after a day of labor is playing a recreational sport.  Golf, tennis, pickleball, running, and biking are some of the most popular sports among our personal training clients.  Engaging in sports requires physical capabilities and athleticism, including the ability to endure long periods of potentially strenuous activity, consistent practice to …

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Resistance Training and Osteoporosis

Osteoporosis can be defined as a condition in which bones gradually lose density and become more porous and brittle over time. As the inner structure of the bone thins and hollows, the risk of a fracture increases. Ordinary daily moments that most of us never think twice about begin to carry more weight. This becomes …

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Strong Calves help with Balance and Coordination

“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 …

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Walking with Intention

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.  …

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Knee Arthritis and Knee Strength

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 …

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Benefits of Prone Position Exercises

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 …

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Built to Last: Strong, Sharp, and Aging with Power

“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.  …

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