“BACK TO FORM” FITNESS

Last week I found out that I would have to attend a funeral in Tucson. I lived in Tucson for 13 very good years before I moved back to the great state of New Jersey, so going back to Tucson this time, would be a bittersweet trip for me.

After I got my tickets online, I realized that I did not have a suit or sports jacket that fit me anymore. It had been years since I wore a sports jacket anywhere and the one I had was excessively tight around my upper back and shoulders. I immediately ran out to a store that specialized in suits and sports jacket thinking that I would be able to get a nice suit or jacket in no time. Read the rest

I was fortunate to travel to Los Angeles this past weekend to see a couple of Eddie Vedder concerts. (If you have never seen Eddie or Pearl Jam in concert, I highly recommend it.) I met up with my good friend Jason Ferruggia of Muscle Gaining Secrets fame. If you don’t know of Jay or his work, check out his site and products, they are top notch. More on that later. Read the rest

“school is out and it’s a sort of a buzz
a back then I didn’t really know what it was
but now I see what have of this
the way that people respond to summer madness
the weather is hot and girls are dressing less
and checking out the fellas to tell ‘em who’s best” 

 Spring is in the air, and that means one thing to me…summer is not too far behind.  Personally, summer has always been my favorite time of the year. Like many people, I love the beach and ocean. I love to be outside when it’s warm. I love to swim, wear shorts, sleep with the windows open, etc… OK, before this starts sounding like a cheesy biography (I just re-read what I wrote…it already does,) I do have a point. Summer is the time when most people like being outside doing summer things. Wearing fewer clothes than normal and having opportunities to bear their bodies to the public. I asked this question a month or so ago and I ask it again…are you ready?   Read the rest

 How hard should you push when training? How much can the human body take before it gives out? Are you pushing too hard? Not pushing hard enough?

I am old school when it comes to training. Not all of the education in the world means a whole lot when dealing with the human spirit. As a fitness coach I can monitor heart rate, and breaths per minute and measure someone’s estimated anaerobic threshold, and all of the other “physiological markers” and it really doesn’t tell me much in the grand scheme of things. The majority of people out there will quit mentally way before their body gets to a point of any real danger. I have taken people to their own personal limits, only to discover that there are entire new boundaries that can be and need to be pushed through with a little more work and a lot more mental training. In fact, I have not trained many people that have come close to the real physical breaking point. Some people have suffered muscle cramps, asthma attacks, dizziness, etc…but in the end, all of these people were fine physically and in almost every case, it was other factors that caused these scenarios and not the actual training that was taking place. This is not to say that these people were not trying, or consciously gave up. Rather, these people have yet to learn how to push through the barriers that have caused them to stop. It’s a tricky problem for most. Each time you push through a new barrier, you become more resistant to “quitting” the next time out, while training at that same level. Read the rest

 If you want to put some real muscle on your upper back, you know the kind that looks good in a tank top, or for the women out there, in a dress or bathing suit, you need to work on “pulling” exercises more often.

One of my favorite exercises for building that ‘upper back’, effectively and efficiently is the Incline Dumbbell Row. Read the rest

Combat to the Core

In this recent news story, Combat to the Core, Staff Sgt. Carlos Diaz discusses strengthening of our service men and women discusses a comprehensive approach to their abdominal training.

Here are a few excerpts:

“Core strength refers to abdominal and back muscles used to support the spine and keep bodies stable and balanced.” and Read the rest

I graduated high school with Kelly Ripa. I guess that is my claim to fame. Well, not really. However, Kelly and I were in three classes together throughout our senior year. I was even her dance partner during P.E. class for a semester.

What does that fact have to do with fitness, and more so this blog?  Nothing directly, but there is a point (or 3) to be made in this post. Read the rest

 As people get older and start to drift away from that active “athlete” they once were, many have no reason to workout. Some cannot get motivated to do what they must or need to do. Others will read a blog like this and tell me that I am out of my mind if I think they will do any of this stuff…what for? There is nothing to train for anymore. Read the rest

 If you are one of the many people out there that have a gym membership, you have without a doubt witnessed many strange things. I know I do every single time I step foot in any fitness facility. I thought I would list some of the things I have seen and continue to see. Read the rest

I get many requests from women for products or training programs specifically tailored for the female. I have written reviews in the past on fat burning, abdominal sculpting, and strength and muscle gain. While each of those products can and have been used by women with much success, there are a lot of women out there that want something that fits their own needs, needs that only women know and share. Read the rest

 As I get older (and no, I am not THAT old) I hear more and more from friends and acquaintances how screwed up their bodies are. “I can’t turn my neck to the left”, “My back is killing me”, “I screwed up my knee, so I can’t go skiing”, “I would love to work out more, but my shoulder always hurts when I do stuff”. Etc…

Why are we so messed up at such a fairly young age? I recently spent some time at a birthday party for my 92-year-old grandfather and was amazed at how well he moved, and was more amazed at the things he was able to do. Read the rest

 This past weekend, I was interviewed by Mike Roussell on Naked Nutrition Radio. NNR is a pod cast where Mike interviews some of the best fitness professionals in the business. Mike packs each pod cast with tons of great fitness, and nutrition information. Read the rest

 Emotions fuel everything you do. At least that is my belief. Learning to use your emotions in a constructive way can fuel your own fire and help you do things you never thought possible before. In my own life, recognizing that I am angry or sad, or even excited about something can help me covert that particular emotion into needed energy and produce an action that breaks down walls, sets new records or achieves more than I ever thought possible. This was the case for one client that I had a few months ago. Read the rest

When I was a kid playing sports, I would, like most kids, have endless excuses to why I didn’t perform well, or why I lost on a particular day. Kids want to impress their parents, coaches and friends all of the time, so the natural defense mechanism is to make up excuses. “My arm hurt,” “I feel sick,” “I am tired,” “it was the other guy’s fault,” “it was my coaches fault,” etc… Interestingly enough, these are pretty much the same type of excuses I hear from fitness members, clients and other people I deal with that are trying to ‘get fit.’ Excuses come out constantly and they are much like the ones I used (and most other kids) as a child. Read the rest

I found mine when I was 10 years old, I think. Every time I hear the music, I drift into a memory of me, in my basement, doing 100s of sit-ups, push-ups and shoulder raises. I would follow those up with 20 minutes of jump roping and then off to hit my speed bag. I trained with fury and I was destined to become as great as I could. No, I was not training for boxing, and although I was a wrestler, I did this in the summer when wrestling was over. So, why would the theme music of the movie Rocky inspire me to train as hard as I could, in my basement every night, when other kids were playing games, or watching TV? To this day, I am not sure why. I do know this however, that movie inspired me and caused me to take action. Read the rest

Who doesn’t want a six-pack? (Abs, not beer…) Maybe not all of you, some people like to just get a “flat stomach” and not six-pack, rock hard abs. Whatever you desire, we can probably agree that most people reading this want a firm, flat stomach of some sort, and if you can get some abs showing, all the better.

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 Are you committed?

I was pulling out of the gym where I train the other day and I see a very large, obese man walking to his car. He is carrying a bag with a salad in it from the Salad Works store, which is on the far distant side of the plaza. This man parked his car in the very last spot of the entire parking lot about as far away from the salad works as you can possibly get. The interesting part is that the parking lot was not full whatsoever, it was pretty empty. There were spots everywhere, including many in front of the Salad Works, which looked about a ¼ mile away. It seemed that this man, who was visibly overweight, CHOSE to park at the other end of the plaza, walk to the salad place, buy a healthy lunch and walk back. Maybe I read the situation wrong, but it appeared to me that his commitment was outstanding in his quest to lose weight. If he did this each day, or each time he parked somewhere, he would increase his general exercise by a ton, burn more and ultimately lose more weight. Now some would say that he should have been in that gym, on the treadmill, or lifting weights…that is real commitment. I do not agree. He was an extremely large man, who was obese. Just that walking was a full workout for him. He didn’t NEED to do it, but he chose to. I thought his commitment was obvious and pretty cool. Read the rest

One of the biggest problems that people have with fitness is getting started. For some it has been months and others years since they did anything remotely fitness related. Diets have become routines, filled with convenience only, and no nutrition or conscious thought into what a person eats comes into play anymore. Exercise is almost non-existent unless people count taking the trash out, the 5 minutes of sexual activity that occurs with their spouse and chasing kids around. Read the rest

 In this installment, I am going to list very simple, basic exercises that anyone can do to help keep the hips healthy. This article will briefly cover strength training for and around the hip complex. Plug these exercises into your routine to help keep strong, healthy hips. These exercises are meant to be simple and things that you can do at home, even if you do not have a lot of equipment.

Remember, this is a basic list. There are plenty of other exercises that you can do too. Start with these and move up from there. Read the rest

 In the last article I talked about how to identify three common hip issues. Hopefully these tests helped many readers better examine their own problem areas around the hip. In this installment, I am going to give you a few “fixes” for those common hip problems and also some preventive exercises as well. Read the rest

 The hip complex is one of the most important and under-trained areas on the body. With that said, it is one of the most important areas for everyone to train. Low back problems and knee problems are the biggest areas of pain and dysfunction that I have dealt with in most of my years working with injured people.

Tight, and/or underdeveloped hips will cause knee problems along the way. Low back problems usually find their roots with bad hips. Most people have tight hip flexors, weak glutes, and under developed lateral hip muscles….not to mention horrible rotation in the hip joint. All of these issues will surely cause major imbalances in the rest of the body, especially the lower extremity. Read the rest

 As I was driving back to work from my lunch break a few days ago, I noticed something about three blocks ahead of me, in the distance, in the middle of the road. As I got closer, I saw an extremely large, obese man attempting to cross the street. Naturally, I slowed down so I would not hit the man, but as I did and the other cars were approaching, it became painfully obvious that this man had no ability to “hustle” up to possibly save his own life. You see, this road is a busy road with three lanes of traffic. Yet, this man in his attempt the cross the street could only hope that people would see him and slow down enough so he would be able to make it across safely. As the other cars were approaching, he looked desperate to get to the other side and more desperate that he would survive the walk. I stopped in the road in hopes that other cars would follow my lead and at the very least, slow down. Some cars did, and other cars did not. Two cars came extremely close to hitting the man, but still, he did not, and could not move any faster to get out of harms way. Lucky for him the cars were able to stop at the last second to avoid smashing into him. The man easily weighed over 400 pounds and he had obvious physical limitations because of his weight, yet he did not look a day over 30. Read the rest

“We are a product of our habits, and all of mine are bad!”- K.M.

I spend way too much time telling people what they should eat, what they should do in the gyn, and too much time telling people how they should take care of their body. Don’t get me wrong, I love doing it…after all, it’s what I do. I get flooded with those questions daily from everyone…family members, friends, and even total strangers.

Some of these people get it, and actually do what I tell them. They see results, feel better and look great. Most however, ignore the advice and go back to their old ways.

Sometimes I think it may be easier to tell people what not to do and maybe that will get the message across a little better. Read the rest

I will keep this short and simple. No theories, no major explanations, no stories…just some facts based on years of experience, education and experimentation.

Do these three things and you will increase your chances of losing major fat, in the quickest time possible.

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The first thing I noticed when I first received my Turbulence Training package was just how much I got for that price. It was loaded! Beyond that, and most important, was the quality of information provided in the book.

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 Middle-Age-itis

 I am not turning 40…just wanted to clear that up. I am a few years off that number, but I have many friends that turn the big “4-0″ this year. I have some other friends that are turning or have recently turned 50 as well. Whether you see middle age as 40 or 50…or any age, it really does not matter. Middle age is not a physical condition (it’s not a condition at all), rather it is a mental outlook. Either way, if you are within the ages of 35-50 you probably are feeling a bit different about your fitness than you did when you were in your twenty’s and early thirty’s.

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 5 things learned from the Super Bowl

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 What is H.I.I.T.??

Without getting deep into the exercise physiology of the thing, I will do a little back log into the WHAT, HOW and WHY of HIIT.

High Intensity Interval Training is just what it says it is, performing very high intensity, intervals for a short period of time. Why is it effective? To answer this question we need to backtrack a little and look at the more traditional type of training and the one that most people out there still do; Low Intensity Cardio training. Read the rest

Unstable training came from the ‘rehab’ zone. Back in the 80’s rehab really took off. Physical therapy was becoming more popular, sports teams were hiring Certified athletic trainers, and sports medicine doctors were popping up on every corner. If you had a physical problem, you went to rehab. Therapy became first-rate and research was being done in alarming numbers. Soon enough, the “functional training” era was born. Therapists started introducing new techniques that would change the industry forever. The industry started paying attention and new rehab toys were produced that made rehabilitation not only more effective, but fun too. Balance discs, Bosu Balls, foam pads, etc… were found in every PT clinic and Athletic Training room across Northern America. Soon functional training took on a different identity and was full of activities that encouraged unstable training. Read the rest

 There is a really bad attitude out there that has people just accepting that with age, comes pain, dysfunction and lack of real progress. I hear it all of the time…things like “At my age, I am just lucky if I maintain some of my strength.” Or “I am not looking to improve much at my age, I just want to keep my strength up so I can live out the rest of my life more comfortably!” Those are real quotes from people I have worked with. Age does not mean that you cannot progress. I work with Eight year old kids all the way up to eighty-six year old trainees. Some of my greatest success stories have been with my “older” clients. Read the rest

Jason Ferruggia’s “MUSCLE GAINING SECRETS”

When it comes down to really understanding how to get bigger, how to get stronger, and how to get better, there is no one better-qualified in the business than Jason Ferruggia. In my 17 plus years in this field, I have never met anyone that has better practical experience in changing people’s bodies as Jay does. Whether an athlete, fitness model, average Joe, whatever…Jay can get you where you want to go better than anyone. Bottom line, Jason gets results!

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 New Years has come and gone already. We are just about a month out and I would bet that most people have either strayed away from their resolutions, haven’t started them yet, or totally forgot that they made them. New Year’s has become a joke in the fitness world, because year in and year out people make empty promises that are rarely kept. Read the rest

You are only as strong as your weakest link. Our body is connected in more ways than most know. When there is a long standing orthopedic problem somewhere in your body, chances are the problem is connected in some way to another area of your body. If your ankles or knees hurt just from walking, I would guess that you may have some issues with your feet. Even if your feet are hurting, there may be an issue with your calves. Tight calves can lead to problems in your knees, hips and lower back. This in turn can cause problems in your upper back, shoulders, neck and even head. You see, everything is connected, a kinetic chain. When a part of this chain is weak or damaged, it will affect other parts of the chain. Those parts affect other parts and so on. Read the rest

Welcome to ‘Back to form’ fitness. Back to form fitness is a brand new web log that I created to give readers as much quality content as possible to help them reach all of their fitness goals. The major reason that I created BTFF was in response to numerous email and personal requests that I have gotten in the past year from people all over the world needing information on how to “get back to their best physical form” in the greatest way possible. Read the rest

 I like stories that make people think. I love stories that can change behaviors.

I sometimes tell this story to my athletes and clients who I think “need to hear it.”

This is not my story; this is a hand-me-down story from my high school wrestling coach which I never forgot.. He tells it better, but I will do my best to get the story, and most importantly the point across. Read the rest

 Check out Men’s Fitness for my article on “Rotator Cuff Exercises to help you push more weight.”

In this Men’s Fitness article, I write about The Bent Over Row. I explain how to achieve great form, a few different variations, and why it is such an effective exercise for upper back and full body development.