Fitness Contrarian

When I was in my teens, over 30 years ago, I spent a lot of time reading bodybuilding books and magazines looking for information on how to build a muscular body. The top bodybuilders of the time were Arnold Schwarzenegger, Frank Zane and Franco Colombo, just to name a few. I will never forget reading in Franco Colombo’s book when he said “sugar kills (…)

Bodybuilders have been using pre-exhaustion successfully for over 40 years. If you’ve been going to the gym and training your back with chin-ups, lat-pull downs or seated rows but feel that your arms are getting tired before you fully exhaust your back than you might want to try pre-exhaustion (….)

Yes, there are certain basic exercises you must do to develop a healthy body. Besides doing some form of aerobics like running, walking or biking there are basic resistance movements like squats and lunges for the legs, push-ups and bench press for the chest, pull-ups and rows for the back, shoulder press and laterals for [...]

Being a personal trainer for over 25 years I have seen a number of trendy classes come and go. But Spinning classes have lasted the test of time. I have a number of clients who love to spin on their off days when not exercising with me. The problem with spinning classes; however, is that some of my clients and their friends think that spinning is making their legs bigger. One of my clients told me that her friend said if she did spinning twice per week it helped her lose weight but if she did spinning three times per week her legs got bigger. Most people spin for the cardiovascular workout and the overall calorie expenditure, and not to bulk up their legs (…)

You should always be careful in the gym and respect the amount of weight you lift. It’s real amazing the amount of weight I used to be able to lift in the gym when I was younger. Watching an average size 170 lb. man squatting 405 lbs or seeing a 120 lb women leg pressing [...]

QUESTION: Dear Tom: If you are going to go out and have a drink or two with friends, which drink is the best when you’re on a fat loss program like BFFM? Would it be wine or a vodka mixed with soda? Is champagne better or worse than the other two? ANSWER: The first thing [...]