Yesterday I spoke about how overloading the weekends with exercise is not going to make up for too little time spent during the week working out…

The truth is it can actually be dangerous.

I don’t want to scare you out of hitting the gym on the weekends, but you should keep in mind that you’ve just gone 5 days being inactive and not increasing your heart rate to any great extent. You should keep in mind that your body is also probably pretty stiff and inflexible from sitting down most of the day and not stretching on a daily basis.

Here’s how to safely ease into your weekend program:

continue reading… “Danger: Are You a Weekend Warrior?”

Last week I spoke with a handful of people determined to get into shape before the summer is over.

I was there to answer their questions and explain to them how a balanced approach to health & fitness yields a life-time of healthy weight maintenance.

One person asked me an interesting question, though.

He was wondering why his cardiovascular endurance has dropped from a year ago?

I began asking him questions about his current workout program to see if we could figure it out together.

Here’s what we found.

continue reading “My Endurance has Decreased?”

Although more and more companies are subsidizing health and fitness benefits for their employees they still have a long way to go to combat rising stress levels on the job.

Many employees are not taking advantage of these benefits and one of the reasons is that the resources are not available to them on their company’s grounds. For instance, employees would be far more likely to exercise if their company had a health club or small facility within their building. That way there they could run down during lunch or before or after work to get in a quick workout to their lower stress levels and improve their health.

According to Gordian Health (Gordian-health.com) here are the top 10 signs employees are stressed out and may be in serious need of improving their health & fitness:

1. A decrease in productivity among employees, or marked drop-off in quality of work

2. Increased overtime, with little output to show for it

3. Frequent colds or other illnesses among workers, resulting in an increase in sick days

4. More tardiness or absenteeism among employees

5. continue reading “Top 10 Signs Employees Are Stressed Out!”

Yesterday I wrote a post on how to prevent yourself from becoming dehydrated while exercising in the heat.

The techniques are fairly simple to stay healthy and have plenty of energy to exercise for as long as you want. However, there are always a handful of people who have seen the media frenzy over drinking too much water…

Have people died from water intoxication and hyponatremia?

Yes, but the number of total cases that have been recorded is only in the hundreds and the vast majority of those instances occurred with… continue reading “Can Drinking Too Much Water Kill You?”

Here in Boston the summer is in full swing. Lately we’ve had some serious heat and humidity which can affect many outdoor fitness enthusiasts.

If you like to run, bike, rollerblade, exercise, or are active in any outdoor activities then one thing you need to pay attention to is your hydration levels. Exercising in the heat can cause you to sweat excessively which makes it essential to be sure you are drinking plenty of fluids.

So how do you know if you are becoming dehydrated?

Watch for these warning signs:

…continue reading “Dehydration Can Leave You Weak”

At what point do you hang up the gym shorts and sneakers?

I hope you answered never!

I’m willing to bet your body agrees with me too. One of the fastest ways to let your body deteriorate is to stop being active and sit more.

Unfortunately, this is how most of us progress when we graduate from college and park ourselves at a desk for the majority of the day.

It’s definitely no way to treat… continue reading “Are You Too Old to Exercise?”

If you have tons of free time and love hanging out at the gym than this information probably isn’t for you.

This topic is for everyone else who doesn’t have very much free time (or hardly any), but wants to stay in shape.

The best way to complete your resistance workouts to get in shape fast is to use supersets or trisets. A superset is simply 2 exercises done back-to-back and trisets are composed of 3 exercises in a row without resting (don’t worry about using the same body parts for all exercises).

Using these methods you reap all these benefits:

…continue reading “Workout Less, But Get Better Results!”

The key to burning more body fat and seeing better definition is choosing the exercises that are the most metabolic.

All that means is that you should pick movements that force a lot of muscle to work at the same time. These exercises should engage your core and strengthen your entire body.

For example, let’s compare these 2 leg exercises:

With a “seated leg extension” you are trying to isolate the top side of your thigh, or quadriceps.

With a “squat” you are also targeting your quads, but now you… continue reading “Get Better Results with Less Exercises (Part 2)”

Reader Question: I’ve been weight lifting at least twice a week and I’m not seeing any results. Could you explain why I haven’t seen any changes?

Answer: The first reason why you may not be seeing any results is that you haven’t lost enough body fat to see the muscle tone and definition you are creating.

You can lose that body fat through proper nutrition, exercise, and health lifestyle changes.

Let’s assume that you are eating well, though. The reason you are not creating any new muscle, tone, or definition is probably attributed to choosing the wrong types of exercises.

Most people go to the gym and just hop from… continue reading “Why You Aren’t Getting Results from Lifting Weights”

Whether you believe we’re in a recession or not is up to you…

Some people are feeling its effects while others don’t see the slightest decline in their business.

Regardless, one industry that is taking a hit is the big gym chains…

They are starting to cut prices as memberships begin to drop off.

Here’s the latest news from USA Today:

“Gym memberships, which average $35 per month, fell last year for the first time in more than a… continue reading “Take Advantage of the ‘Recession’”