Needing Workout Motivation? As I’ve noted many times in my blogs as well as essays, I get asked a lot of questions in the gym, or even amongst friends and acquaintances outside of the gym. Naturally, some are better than others, such as do you think my particular case of Ankylosing Spondylitis is something that
The Best Cardio Machine For You As a gym owner for over 11 years now and having been an Austin personal trainer for well over 20, I get a lot of “what is the best..” then fill in the blank questions. People will often ask which is the best type of protein, the best cardio
Will Yoga Make Me Stronger You Ask? Every time someone decides that they want to get in better shape, for whatever reason, be it for a sport, for weight loss, for strength, bone density, etc, the one thing about fitness that makes it unique, is that you have many options. Back many years ago, that
What Are The Best Tricep Exercises? As one can imagine, if you have owned a gym for 11 years, and been a personal trainer in Austin for over 20, you’re going to be asked about what the best exercise for this or that is many, many times. Another thing you can take to the bank,
Are You Asking Yourself How Do I Firm Up The Back Of My Arms? As a personal trainer in Austin for over 2 decades, as well as a gym owner for over one, I hear a lot from women that they want to lose weight, make the caboose a little on the smaller side, etc.
Isolating Muscles In A Workout: Can It Be Done? This morning a young man signed up at my gym and proceeded to do every one of his lifts incorrectly. He is the type of guy who spends a lot of time admiring himself in the gym’s mirrors and prides himself on the amount of weight
Which Is More Beneficial? Group Fitness Classes VS Personal Training? Any time we decide to step out of our comfort zone and embrace something, or at least give it a shot, we may be able to reference our friend’s recommendations, a magazine article, or whatever the almighty Google has decided is in our best interests.
How I Became an Austin Personal Trainer A question I hear with great frequency is how did you become an Austin personal trainer and gym owner? The true answer spans decades. Long before I was a successful personal trainer, I was a skinny little kid from New York City who marveled at the physiques of
Are Fitness Apps Worthwhile? In the health and fitness industry, there are many products one can buy to aid themselves in the pursuit of their goals. There are a plethora of supplements one can purchase, and there are a lot of different services one can pay for as well. A testament to that is the
Which Is Better For Pectoral Development? Flat Bench VS Incline Bench Press? Of all of the great debates in the health and fitness world, and there are many, few are easier to settle than flat bench vs incline bench press when it comes to which is more important for pectoral development. As a personal trainer
The Best Bicep Exercises One thing that shines through in all of the over 2 decades that I’ve been an Austin personal trainer and gym owner, is that men want bigger arms. You always ask potential clients in their free consultation what it is they are looking to do health and fitness wise. Without a
Should I Run? Should I run is a question I have fielded from any number of gym members and personal training clients over my many years as an Austin personal trainer and gym owner. It is widely held that running is the purest and most effective form of cardiovascular exercise as it pertains to weight
Having Trouble Keeping the Weight Off? There has been a lot of recent coverage of enormous weight loss, followed by people experiencing difficulty keeping the weight off. On such television shows as The Biggest Loser, for example, this seems to be the norm rather than the exception. The premise of that show in particular, is
Asking Yourself Why Am I Fat? I had a rather amusing email land in my inbox the other day. It was from a young lady whom I have never met and she simply asked, why am I fat? Granted, I make myself readily available on such websites as quora, etc, and it’s not too hard
10,000 Steps Is A Long Way To Walk Over my many years as an Austin personal trainer, I’ve written of the many fitness fads and trends that become the next great sensation. Everything from pole dancing classes, to CrossFit, and seemingly everything else in between that has ever been a blip on the fitness radar
Feel Your Way To Fitness Results When young men, discover weight training, it almost seems a rite of passage to see if they can keep up with the big boys, so to speak. I can bench this amount of weight for this amount of repetitions. I can squat 3 plates per side 8 times, etc.
How to Go About Overcoming Gym Intimidation One of the biggest reasons people shy away from fitness, especially in gyms is because they are intimidated. Gym intimidation is rampant and is not confined to any one demographic. Over my 20 plus years as an Austin personal trainer, I’ve seen everybody from professional athletes, to beginners
Wondering How To Find A Good Personal Trainer? How to find a good personal trainer is a difficult, yet astonishingly easy question for me to answer, despite my bias. As a longtime personal trainer in Austin, as well as a gym owner for over a decade, I’m certainly biased when it comes to personal trainers.
What Is The Difference Between Leg Press And Squats? As a 20 plus year veteran Austin personal trainer and gym owner, one question I hear asked of me a lot at the gym is, what is the difference between leg press and squats? There’s a lot of different machines in the gym. Some machines are
Try Swimming For Weight Loss! A lot of people think they know the best exercise for weight loss, but I’m a little skeptical. The reason for my skepticism, is that I see an awful lot of heavy folks jogging in the hot sun in their attempt to lose weight. While jogging is certainly a reasonable
Walking vs Running For Weight Loss: Which Is More Effective? As long as there have been gyms, there have been fitness debates. These debates have taken place in many social circles such as within the scientific community, the gym rat community, the “bro science” community, and of course, if the walls could talk, they’d echo
Wondering What is the Most Effective Way to Lose Weight? Most of the questions I field as a longtime personal trainer in Austin, TX, are well thought out questions from people who often times, have little experience in the weightlifting and/or exercise world. I’m always happy to answer their questions, provided I’m not in the
Asking Yourself Should I stretch Before Or After My Workout? As I’ve pointed out several times before in previous writings, there is a lot of myths and what I call science fiction strewn about the health and fitness landscape. There is no shortage of sweeping statements, wonder pills, and amazing breakthroughs, that will give you
Clearing Up Myths: Will Exercising Make Me Live Longer? An interesting question came across my proverbial desk this morning from a long standing gym member. He asked will exercising make me live longer? There’s a lot of differing opinions on this matter, and like anything in the stereotypical health and fitness world, there’s a lot
Wondering How To Get A Flat Stomach? When you’ve been an Austin personal trainer as long as I have, you certainly get to meet a wide variety of people from many different backgrounds and with an equally wide variety of goals. A lot of men want to become physically larger with big muscles, usually pectorals
What Are Some Exercises I Can Do At Home? As an Austin personal trainer for over 20 years, and a gym owner for almost a decade, I’ve learned a thing or 2 about what people are looking for when it comes to their workouts. I’m also rather well versed in what people expect from a
Workouts: There’s No 1 Size Fits All Workout One thing I’m frequently asked for as an Austin personal trainer by clients, as well as prospective clients, is for a workout plan. Workouts and workout plans can be found virtually any and everywhere. You don’t need to hire a personal trainer to hand you a random
Thinking of Building a Home Gym? It goes without saying, that convenience is a major determinant of how we go about virtually everything that we do. It often times dictates the choices we make in a variety of things from what, and/or where we are going to eat, when we are going places, and even
Wondering How Long Should I Rest Between Sets? One of the most frequently asked questions of me as a long time Austin personal trainer and gym owner, is how long should I rest between sets? It’s a very common question, but like anything else in the health and fitness world, there’s no generic, one-size-fits-all answer.
In all of the many years I’ve been a personal trainer in South Austin, as well as a gym owner, one of the most persistent questions asked of me is how do I lose belly fat? People ask everything from how can I get a skinnier face, to how can I increase my bench press,
Are You Wondering How Can I Lose A Lot Of Weight Quickly? One question I see asked of me online very frequently, is how can I lose a lot of weight quickly? It is a seemingly innocuous question, but the parameters of it are so large, because so much of that question is open to
How To Go About Finding a Personal Trainer The other day, I had an interesting conversation with a personal training client of mine, who unfortunately for me, as I very much enjoy working with her, is moving out of state. It put the shoe on the other foot, so to speak, when she asked how
Thinking About Finding a Workout Partner? Over the many years I’ve been an Austin personal trainer, and a gym owner, I have written about how everything in fitness is individual, countless times. Sweeping statements should be swept under the rug is what I’ve always believed. This holds true to virtually everything in the fitness world,
Question Of The Week: How Long Does It Take To Put On Muscle? How long does it take to lose weight? How long does it take to gain weight? One of the most frequently asked questions, in fact, is how long does it take to put on muscle? Having been a personal trainer in South
Wondering How Long Does It Take To Lose Weight? Everybody wants instant gratification, no matter what it is that we’re talking about, and fitness is no exception. I often get asked how long will it take for mew to put on 25 pounds of muscle? How long will it take me to be able to
Are You Wondering How Long Should My Workouts Be? One question I get on a regular basis as a 22 year veteran Austin personal trainer and gym owner, is how long should my workouts be? As anyone who has ever read any of my numerous essays or blogs would know, I’m not a proponent of
Needing Workout Motivation? As I’ve noted many times in my blogs as well as essays, I get asked a lot of questions in the gym, or even amongst friends and acquaintances outside of the gym. Naturally, some are better than others, such as do you think my particular case of Ankylosing Spondylitis is something that
Are You wondering When is the Best Time to Workout? One great question that generates a lot of opposing answers is the classic, when is the best time to workout question. I’ve seen plenty of people chime in their opinions all over the internet, naturally. I’ve seen so called fitness experts, who work at Target
Asking Yourself Should I Get A Personal Trainer? Should I get a personal trainer is something a lot of people ask themselves, especially around the time of New Years. One would think that I would be a tad biased on the subject as I’ve been an Austin personal trainer for over 20 years, but honestly,
Are You Asking Yourself How Often Should I Change Up My Workouts? One of the better questions that I have gotten in a long time came this morning for a middle aged man who has been working out at my gym for a few months now. He asked me how often should I change up
I’ve spent a lot of hours writing on this site, per request, answering to the best of my professional abilities about what the best whatever it was I was asked about. People are always wanting to know what the best form of cardio is, whether they have any real intentions of doing it, or not.
Searching For The Best Leg Exercises? What’s the best leg exercise I was asked the other day by a middle aged gentleman who was looking to pack a little more size onto his lower body. I could only reply, since we had just met, that the best leg exercises are the ones that are going
Are You Asking What Is The Best Exercise To Lose Weight? What is the best exercise to lose weight a young lady with PCOS (Polycystic Ovary Syndrome) asked me this afternoon at my gym. She, like others with illness and/or hormonal issues, are in a different boat entirely from those without such afflictions, but the
Wondering How To Get Bigger Arms? As I’ve written many times before, most everything in the health and fitness world is individual. Very few puzzles are going to be solved, or theories held true with generalizations and sweeping statements. There is a conspicuous exception to this, however. I’ve been a personal trainer in Austin for
Setting Fitness Goals Common sense dictates that it’s far easier to establish a personal goal than to achieve one, unless of course, your goal is simply to set a goal. The realization and acceptance of the fact that you need to make a change, is perhaps the most vital and courageous step of the transformation
What Are The Benefits Of Lifting Weights? People always are asking if this is better than that. We always are making comparisons and trying to find out the best way to go about something. That’s just human nature. Whether we actually do something with our information, however, is hit or miss, but that’s human nature
What Is The Difference Between Abs And Core Muscles? As I have mentioned several times in my blogs, over the course of 22 years as a personal trainer in Austin, I get asked a lot of questions related to fitness and health. Some of it is trivial stuff, some of it is simply asking how
Wondering How To Get A Tight Butt? When you’ve been a personal trainer in Austin, or virtually anywhere, as long as I have, you tend to get a lot of questions from gym goers, clients, and just people you meet. They usually want your advice on how they can improve one or more aspects of
The Best Chest Exercises Whenever we begin an undertaking, such as fitness for example, we categorically want to know what the best exercises are. What are the best exercises for a toned butt is one I hear a lot from the ladies. The men seem to be much more interested in arms and chest development,
CrossFit: Is It A Great Workout Or Potentially Dangerous? Curiously to some, I’ve never until now written an essay, or even a blog post about CrossFit. There really was no specific reason for that, other than as an Austin personal trainer for 22 years, as well as a being a gym owner for a long
Do Crunches Produce Flat Abs? To say that there are a plethora of myths and falsities strewn across the fitness landscape would certainly be an understatement. On this website, particularly in some of the blog entries, I’ve debunked several such myths. I always enjoy hearing them, as some are quite amusing, but simultaneously, I feel
Adapting and Improvising Your Workouts The ability to improvise and adapt is one of the strongest traits associated with humans. It doesn’t come intuitively to all, but generally speaking, we as humans, seem to have this ability down to a science, so to speak. Improvising your workouts can be a way to get a breath
What Are The Best Arm Exercises? When you’ve been a personal trainer in Austin for more than 20 years, and a gym owner for nearly a decade, you get a lot of questions. I always welcome them as I enjoy helping people get healthier and stronger. That’s why I chose this profession and enjoy it
Wondering What Are The Best Ab Exercises? It usually goes a little something like this. “Hey Andy, what is the fastest way for me to put on some muscle”? “Hey Andy, what are the best ab exercises”? The swiftly running stream of what are the best…insert your fitness goal here, never runs dry. One of
Another 10 Fitness Questions Answered! Every so often, I like to post a different type of blog here. One with 10 fitness questions answered, as opposed to a longer blog, or essay, which focuses solely on one topic. Fitness questions abound, as does bad information. Hopefully this can clarify some of the common, as well
What Are Functional Training Exercises? What are the best functional training exercises? It depends upon what your specific needs are. It also depends upon your physical condition, your medical history, how much time and/or money for a personal trainer, if applicable, you are willing to spend. Functional training could be anything from an NFL linebacker
Interested In Some Circuit Training Exercises? There are many ways one can approach a weight training regimen. You can work towards getting stronger, and bigger, or you can work towards getting leaner. You can work to become more stable, you can work to become more explosive, and so on. Within all of the possibilities also
Wondering Where To Find Workout Routines? A couple of weeks ago, I wrote an essay about workout routines here on my website. I explained how I don’t write them for people. Even those who have trained with me for years will not get a prescribed workout routine from me. Why? Because they are useless except
