Fitness Contrarian

Most of the time, I really enjoy reading about health and fitness. Every now and then; however, I get overloaded with information or get over enthusiastic about my fitness program and diet, and wind up mislead in the wrong direction. If you want to live a happy and healthy life without making too many mistakes, my advice to you is to keep it simple.

I have devoted 25 years to the pursuit of health and fitness as a personal trainer and in the last couple of years, writing this blog. The more I research about nutrition, exercise and wellness, the more I realize that common sense and listening to what your own body is telling you, makes the most sense (…)

You have to be very careful when choosing stretches for lower back pain. Sometimes stretching the lower-back can be the worst thing you can do. If you have the type of back pain that hurts when you sit or flex your spin (round your back) then doing some of the most commonly prescribed stretches for back pain can actually make your back worst.

Probably the most common type of back sufferer is people who have backs that are flexion intolerant. Whenever they round their back too far it hurts. This type of condition is typical for someone who has bulged or herniated discs that protrude posterity from the lower-back (…)

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 (…)