Category: Uncategorized

A plateau can feel frustrating.  But it usually means something important:  You were doing enough to get results.  And now your body has adapted to that level of behavior.  That is how plateaus work.  Your old behavior was better than your old condition.  So you lost weight.  Got stronger.  Built

A lot of people think exercise is only “working” when they can clearly see fat loss, muscle gain, or a big change in the mirror.  That is not really true.  Every action has a result.  Every workout has a result.  Every missed workout has a result too.  Every good meal

I watched a documentary about Tony Robbins recently.  At one point, a woman stood up and shared a problem.  She was dating someone she knew probably wasn’t right for her.  But she kept avoiding the decision.  Tony asked her a few questions and then said something unexpected.  He told her

A good way to think about strength training is like driving on the Garden State Parkway.  You do not want to be going 25 mph in the right lane.  And you definitely do not want to be going 125 mph either.  One is too cautious. One is too reckless.  Strength

I spoke with a member recently who said he hadn’t been coming to the gym much.  At first he said life was busy. A lot going on.  But when we talked more about his program, the real reason came out.  There were two days he didn’t like.  One day had

“Why isn’t my plan working?”   If you’ve said that to yourself on many occasions, this email is for you.   If you haven’t, you can skip this email and please share your secrets!   Most people start in the same place. They want to lose weight.  Get stronger.  Feel better.  But they

This past week I had two experiences watching one-on-one personal training sessions at another gym that made me think about how rare it actually is to see an appropriately coached exercise. Both trainers were well-intentioned. The issue wasn’t effort or enthusiasm. The issue was understanding how to balance knowledge with

I spoke with our interns recently, and a theme came up that I’ve seen for years when educating trainers:  Black-and-white thinking.  In a matter of two sentences, I heard:  exercise technique is “right” or “wrong”  muscles “activate” or don’t  technique needs to be “fixed”  That’s how many of us are

A few days ago, I ran into someone at the gym I hadn’t seen in a while.  A few months back, they were exercising hard — 5, 6, sometimes 7 days per week — and they were getting great results. They looked and felt great.    Then they disappeared.  When I

The other day, I spoke with a young trainer who told me she wants to open a kickboxing/MMA gym for women and train high-level fighters.  It immediately brought me back to my early 20s.  I used to think the same way:  Train pro athletes  Train high-level college athletes  Work with