When Santa Came to Lift

I don’t usually talk about my clients unless they talk about training with me first, but I’m going to make an exception because this client…

Deep(ish) Thoughts

Sitting in the San Diego airport enjoying a double short latte from Starbucks – yes I did give the name Elektra and no I don’t…

The Curse of the Engineer

Before becoming a personal trainer, I was an engineer. Now and then I rediscover the slight inaccuracy in that statement. While I now work as…

Bend at the hips, not the knees, and definitely not the back

If you can’t bend over to the point where your back is almost parallel with the floor while keeping the dowel touching those 3 points, then that’s a problem. Because really what it means is that when you bend over doing normal daily activities, you’re probably bending in your low back. And for many people, doing that hundreds or thousands of time (365 days per year – how many times a day and how many years – it multiplies up!) is a big problem for their back.

Foam rolling the adductors

Foam rolling the adductors

I used the analogy of the spare tire on your car – it gets you there, but it’s not as good as a full tire (unless your spare is a full tire, but you know I’m referring to cars with the mini spare tire). Same deal with muscles in the body – when a muscle is doing it’s secondary job, it tends to not be as good at it. If you continue driving on the spare tire, it’s going to either seriously limit your speed, or it’s going to blow. Same goes for when a muscle is consistently asked to do it’s secondary function in addition to it’s main function.

Decisions, Decisions

This might be the first time in my life that I’m avoiding Microsoft Excel. I used to love Excel. I’ve been a numbers geek since I was a kid. But now that I’m using it to create a layer of financial reality for my growth plans, I’m avoiding it like the plague. I spent the last month as a full fledged budget-denier. During that time, I picked out all the equipment that I want for the gym. It’s a pretty sweet list. It even includes indoor turf for a portion of my space. Yup, that sure would be nice. Unfortunately though, it’s not in my reality right now. And I start thinking back to some of the great advice I’ve received in the past.