Having been through rehab of a major lower back injury taught me the importance of not just thinking about strength in terms of how much weight we can lift, but also what our bodies can resist! It's true, most injuries happen because we can't resist well enough the forces acting upon our bodies through activites-of-daily-living.

Your Core and Glutes

That's why training your core and glutes with the proper exercises is so vital.  We need to shift the focus from lifting weights and teach our bodies to resist forces as well.

In fact, integrating glutes and core muscles into your training is necessary in developing proper movement function. The average person that lifts weights typically strives to increase the amount of weight they lift to get stronger. That's good!  But they might be missing something...

When it comes to nutrition and diet information, everyone has some idea of what they believe healthy eating is.  So how do you know what sources or who to believe?

And each expert or association tries to lead you in their direction because they know best and their advice is going to help you.  Right?  Well, maybe…

We live in a world where most people believe that if they eat less, they’ll weigh less (eventually). If you’ve ever been on a diet, then you’ve probably cut calories.  Most dieters focus on how much they eat.  That being said, while this does have an impact on your weight and energy levels, it's not the Pot O’ Gold at the end of the rainbow in regards to health.  

The often overlooked benefits of what you eat and drink and how you eat and drink it.

What you eat and dri...

I've done it, you've done it, everyone over eats from time-to-time. But has it become a bad habit?  Ok, stand up. Yes, you! Stand up. Now look down. Does your stomach block the view of your feet? You just might be an over eater!

Holidays provide an opportunity to over eat. And it's not just the abundance of delicious food but also the people, the decorations, and the ambiance.

Here are three tips to avoid overeating at meals

(Psst, turn these into habits and ditch the willpower!)

Tip #1: Start by drinking some water

When your stomach is growling and you catch the aroma of delicious food it's too easy to fill a plate (or grab some samples with your bare hands) and dive into the food.

But did you know that it's possible to sometimes confuse the feeling of thirst with that of hunger?  Your stomach may actu...

This word “metabolism” is used thousands of times a day in books, magazines, radio and television ads, etc., but do you really know what it means?

Without getting too technical, “metabolism” is the word used to describe all of the biochemical reactions in your body.  It's how you take in nutrients and oxygen and use them to fuel everything you do.

Your body has an incredible ability to grow, heal, and generally stay alive.  And without this amazing biochemistry you would not be possible.

Metabolism includes how the cells in your body:

●      Allow activities you can control (e.g. physical activity etc.).

●      Allow activities you can't control (e.g. heart beat, wound healing, processing of nutrients & toxins, etc.).

●      Allow storage of excess energy for late...

Throughout the summer many people head outdoors, where they spend time swimming, playing sports, and going for long walks on the beach. Whether it’s on vacation or on weekend getaways with the kids, people are generally much more active during the summer months, which is good for both the heart and spirit.

While all of these activities are fun and good for you, they just can't compete with the many benefits of strength training.  It makes sense that during the summer months people want to be outdoors for exercise, but don't forget to include resistance training. Here are five reasons why you should train with weights as part of your routine throughout the summer.

1. Muscle Burns Fat, Even While Resting

While cardio burns calories, a body’s metabolism has a large role in how food is converted to energ...

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I don’t think it is a secret to anyone that the incidence of heart disease, diabetes, and cancer is higher than it has ever been and continues to rise. I hope at this point we can all agree that our diet and lifestyle directly correlate to these statistics. In the early 1980’s, about one in seven Americans were obese, and almost six million were diabetic. Fast forward to the early 2000s, when sugar consumption peaked due to the “low-fat” craze we went through, and one in every three Americans were obese—and14 million were diabetic.  But not everything about sugar is bad news. There's a big difference between the health risks of ingesting sugar internally versus the benefits of using sugar externally. Check it out.

The Good

Sugar is a natural humectant...

I was recently talking with a friend, and as my friends and I often do, we talk about people and events in our lives. I shared that one of my clients had recently moved out of state, and I was expressing my disappointment in not being able to get this person to his fitness goals because of his departure.

I'll call my former client Fred (not his real name) and as I stated previously Fred decided to move out of state and by the way, he was only with me for two months as a client.  As part of his initial assessment Fred had filled out the requisite Physical Activity Readiness Questionnaire (or PARQ as we call it in the biz) as well as three more pages of  comprehensive Health History info. What is interesting is that Fred failed to disclose two very important facts about his current state of health.

...

No matter what your age it's always a good idea to eat fresh fruits and vegetabes. But if you are 40 years of age or older, it's vitally important to start paying attention to the foods on this list.  It's easier than you might imagine to defy the aging process and maintin youthful hair, nails and skin, just by introducing these foods into your diet. Heck, you're probably eating a bunch of them already. Here's my selection of the top 7 foods that will help you stock up on some of the most effective anti-aging nutrients around.

1. Olive Oil -  It's fairly common knowledge that the monounsaturated fats found in olive oil help healthy arteries and a healthy heart, but olive oil also boasts polyphenols, a powerful anti-oxidant that could thwart a lot of age-related illness.  Olive oil is the main so...

Welcome to part two of How to Lose 20 lbs Next Month. First let's take a quick recap. In part one we recognized that super low calorie diets slow down the body's metabolism, and even though you'll lose weight on a diet like this, it's probably not all fat weight. With a slowed metabolism you'll also be losing lean muscle which is the physical place where fat is burned in the body. Too many people still believe that if they greatly reduce calories they will lose fat weight. But the ugly truth is that with a crippled metabolism the body gains the weight back very quickly and even gains a few extra pounds of unwanted fat.

The next area that makes it difficult to lose fat weight is stress. Life is stressful and if you don't take measures to reduce stress, your body will store fat a lot more easily as a...

When it comes to eating sugar a question I get asked quite often is, "How much fruit can I eat?" The sugar found in fruit is "fructose" and it is different than glucose. I hope to set the record straight regarding the fructose found in fruit and the fructose found in processed foods.

The myth is that fructose is a “healthy” sugar while glucose is bad for you. In fact, in recent years, there has been a rise in sweeteners that contain this “healthy” sugar, such as the dreaded agave nectar. I sincerely hope that this information (please help spread it!) makes more people aware of the differences in sugar types, and makes more people know to avoid agave at all costs.

Fructose is one type of sugar molecule. It occurs naturally in fresh fruits, giving them their sweetness. Because of this, many people con...