Oct 12
At the end of September, I had the privilege of visiting a few friends in Portland, Oregon, for about three days. The weather was the quintessential Pacific Northwest climate. It was a little colder, the air a little wetter, and some drizzle had already started in the latter half of the month. This was a …
Sep 12
“Have you read anything about vitamin K2?” asked a client of mine at the end of a training session. She found an article written for endurance athletes about the nutrients that support bone health, and she wanted to know what I thought. The article made a good case. It walked through calcium, vitamin D, and …
Aug 23
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 …
Jul 03
“Imagine if your arms and legs magically disappeared from the armpits and hips. All the muscles in the region between the armpits and hips are your core.” These were the words of the fitness director who supervised me at a gym I worked at many moons ago. I was selected to teach a small-group fitness …
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 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 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 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. …
Apr 16
There are two primary forms of stretching we use with our personal training clients: dynamic and static. Dynamic stretching is performed before exercise. Dynamic stretching can be defined as the act of moving through full ranges of motion to create short, repeated stretches that prepare the body for exercise. A few examples include arm circles, …
Apr 08
“That’s just bad math,” my physics professor told me, clearly unimpressed, as I struggled through a long equation involving solving for potential energy involving force production in overhead throwing athletes in the lab. “Use PEMDAS.” She had a way of delivering that line with just enough irritation to make sure it stuck. At the time, …
