Isolating the Abdominal Muscles? As I’ve written in many blogs and essays on my site, there is a lot of folklore and fitness mythology floating around the locker rooms of countless gyms, as well as shooting through cyberspace. Especially on the abdominal muscles. As a personal trainer in Austin, TX for over 20 years, I’ve
Never Underestimate the Importance of Strong Core Muscles As an Austin personal trainer for over 20 years, one thing I cannot stress enough to clients is the importance of strong core muscles. The core is essential for virtually everything we do, be it gardening, working out, moving from one place to another, getting out of
Wondering Should You Be Changing Personal Trainers? Few things in this world can remain a constant, other than time, perhaps. It doesn’t stop for anyone, or anything. In the rest of the world, things evolve, dissolve, and fluctuate. The health and fitness world is no exception. We may change gyms because we move to a
What is Cardio? Cardiovascular exercise, or cardio, as it’s known by many, is a term used to describe aerobic workouts. While doing exercises aerobically, it means that we are using oxygen and our fat stores for fuel. Anaerobic workouts, such as heavy weights for a limited number of repetitions, is the exact opposite of cardio.
Fitness Questions Answered This site has been a labor of love for me over the many years that I’ve been an Austin personal trainer. I update the blog every 4th day, usually, and write a lot of essays as well. In either format, I address one subject and support my views with facts, science, and
What is Muscular Pre Exhaustion? When we find ourselves nursing or rehabilitating an injury, we obviously take care to not re injure the affected area. This is common sense and should go without saying. What about if we are in the gym, working on a body part that is close to the injured or imbalanced
More Workout Myths As a longtime personal trainer in Austin, I’ve pointed out repeatedly over the years on this blog, as well as in my gym to my clients, that there is an overabundance of misleading information, and simply out and out falsities circulating within the health and fitness world. Maximum heart rate calculation formulas,
What Are Alternative Exercises? There are a lot of ways to accomplish most anything that you seek to accomplish. You can build a house out of any number of materials such as wood, brick, etc, and you will have a house. You can make any number of food dishes by using a variety of ingredients.
Stuck On The Road? Do A Hotel Room Workout! They say that you can’t predict where life will take you, and to a great extent, that holds very true. Obviously, certain behaviors and lifestyles can offer more predictable results than others, but generally speaking, we assume we know what we’ll be doing and where we’ll
Should You Be Considering Personal Training? As a longtime Austin personal trainer, I can surely tell you that there’s a lot of ways one can approach exercise. There’s a myriad of theories abounding in magazines and cyberspace from the educational and factually correct, to the misinformed and possibly injurious. Fads and theories come and go.
Free Weights VS Machines? Often times people have preconceived notions of the best way to do something, simply because they may have read it somewhere, or perhaps they heard it said at some point. With health, fitness, and all that encompasses that world, it’s absolutely no different. There are plenty of “trainers” in big box
Are You Performing Workout Cliches? There are things, no matter how long you work in a field, or study incessantly, that you will never be able to make sense of. One thing I have never understood during my 20 years as a personal trainer in Austin, with the exception of nutrition and supplementation, is why
Exercise Order: Know Which Exercises To Do First? One question I often get, is what exercise order should one do their exercises. That’s a very good question, but one that has an infinite number of answers. This matter, like any other fitness matter, exercise is a very personal thing and must be thought through and
Elementary School Wellness Day Was Awesome! Today was a fun day for me. My kid’s elementary school had what they called Wellness Day today and they had asked me to be a presenter as I’m a local gym owner and have been an Austin personal trainer for nearly 20 years. I’m a rather known quantity
From seemingly the beginning of time, when we want to know how we measure up against a fellow man in the gym, we inquire or seek to discover subversively, how much they can bench press. For some reason this is the holy grail of all movements, exercises, and lifts in the gym. Why that is,
Do I Have To Lift Heavy Weights to Build Muscle? A question I get very often as a 20 year veteran Austin personal trainer is, “Do I need to lift heavy weights in order to gain muscle”? The answer is yes and no. We have 2 types of skeletal muscle. Fast and slow twitch. Each
Are There Alternatives To Squats? As I mentioned in my previous post, squats are a great leg exercise for a multitude of reasons. I also mentioned that not everyone is capable of doing them correctly and thus would be tempting fate to try it. Thankfully, there are alternatives to squats. There are alternatives such as
Ready To learn How To Squat Properly? There are many leg exercises one can do in order to strengthen, stretch, and add muscle to the legs. There’s an equally great number of machines and contraptions available to aid you in your mission of leg improvement. The squat, is not only a great movement, for those
Over the many years I’ve been a personal trainer in Austin, I can’t tell you how many times I’ve been asked how do I get bigger arms? There are several ways to go about getting bigger biceps, but you have to remember a few things. Firstly, if your arm is to grow an inch, your
The Bench Press If you go to virtually any gym in the world, it’s almost an absolute guarantee that you will find a bench press. The bench press has been a staple of the fitness world since it’s inception, as well as a barometer of how accomplished a gym rat you truly are. After all,
The Many Benefits of the Bench Press As a longtime Austin personal trainer and gym owner, I can assure you, that in the fitness world, there are a handful of exercises that are considered benchmarks for strength, as well as essential to perform if you stand any chance at all of becoming bigger and stronger.
