If you’re a fitness enthusiast then you have, at one point or another, daydreamed about leaving your job and becoming a full-time coach or personal trainer. Maybe you’ve even thought about opening your own gym. For some, the idea of pursuing a career in fitness is so appealing that they’ll actually take action. I’m one […]
Key Points The Limited Effect of Exercise Alone on Weight Loss Energy balance represents one of the fundamental principles of human metabolism. This physiological mechanism measures the relationship between caloric intake—the energy we obtain from food and beverages—and caloric expenditure, which occurs through basic metabolic processes and physical activity. When caloric intake exceeds expenditure, the […]
Over a lifetime, the average human will consume enough energy to fly a Boeing 747 jet from Los Angeles to New York just over 50 times. That’s an enormous amount of fuel to be sure, which speaks to how much nutrition plays a role in not only powering our daily activities, but also our well-being. […]
The machine chest press is defined by external stability and a constrained movement path. It is often framed as either inferior to free weights or as a beginner option. Both interpretations miss its function. By removing coordination demands, machine pressing changes how force is produced, how fatigue accumulates, and how close sets can be taken […]
Lub-dub. Lub-dub. Lub-dub. That’s the rhythmic sound your heart is (hopefully) making during the approximately 100,000 times it beats per day. Many people think the heart beats at a regular tempo like a metronome, but the reality is quite different. The time between each beat, known as the interbeat interval of the heart, is fluid, […]
Lack of available time is a common barrier to exercise. [1] Even small amounts of exercise show health benefits, so finding ways to do something is still worthwhile. We discuss how much exercise people need, and how they can still increase their fitness when time is limited. The Physical Activity Guidelines for Americans recommends the […]
Strength training plateaus are a normal and expected part of long-term strength development. At some point, most lifters experience periods where strength no longer increases despite continued training. A plateau does not mean that further progress is impossible. Instead, it usually indicates a mismatch between the training stimulus, recovery, and the individual’s current capacity. Understanding […]
Strength training programming is the process of organizing training variables over time to produce specific fitness adaptations while managing fatigue and recovery. A program includes the structured physical activity an individual performs over a given period of time, including exercise selection, intensity, volume, frequency, and effort. Programming is not the same as periodization. Programming refers […]
High Intensity Interval Training (HIIT) and Sprint Interval Training (SIT) are often promoted as a superior way to do cardio, with greater improvements in fitness, along with better weight loss and body composition when compared to moderate intensity steady state conditioning. However, most of the research on this topic is limited to untrained individuals and […]
“You can get stronger and gain muscle by lifting light weights” seems like a clickbait-y type of claim, but would you be surprised to learn there’s some legitimate (and not-so legitimate) science to support a training method to do just that? Enter Blood Flow Restriction Training. Blood Flow Restriction (BFR) dates back to the 1960’s, […]