Fitness Contrarian

Muscle hypertrophy (muscle cell enlargement) is an area of great debate in the fitness industry. Everyone has their opinion on how to overload the muscular system to produce growth and there are new studies coming out every week proving one method is better then another. But how do you resistance train if your goal is to get stronger and leaner while avoiding that overly developed bodybuilding look? Most of my personal training clients want more of that ripped athletic look but also want to be as strong as possible(….)

Weight training for women is not that much different than weight training for men. The principles of resistance training are the same for both sexes. What would determine the type of resistance program would have to do more with a person’s goals and not necessarily their sex. What I have found though, is that women generally have different weight training goals than men.

Women’s Weight Training Goals:

The biggest fundamental difference between women’s and man’s weight training goals is that most women never want to get bigger. Whenever a new female personal training client comes to me, one of the first things she says is “ I don’t want weight lifting to make me bigger”. They all want a strong, firm, slim and shapely body but are concerned that if they lift heavy weights their legs will get bigger (…)

Resistance Band Exercises are a great way to workout at home, in the gym or when you’re on vacation. They are inexpensive, don’t take up any room in your suitcase or home and can be used in any room in your house, office or hotel. In some ways resistance bands can be more effective than free weights or machines for creating the optimal amount of resistance which is why I use them at the gym all the time instead of the more expensive popular equipment.

What makes the bands more effective then other forms of resistance to achieve a specific goal has to do with the properties of the elastic band. When the bands are stretched or elongated they produce more resistance (…)