CategoriesStrength Training Equipment

What Is The Best Training Equipment To Use For Functional Strength?

Someone on You Tube last week asked me why I like to use a lot of different types of strength training equipment with my own training and also with my one on one clients? They wanted to know if the reason for this was for variety and to keep it interesting so you don’t get bored, or if there was a more specific reason I do this. Firstly, the equipment I use is not for variety and fun but because it aligns with the methods I use to improve movement efficiency, strength, and overall function. Some tools are better than others, and some only apply to certain individuals who may need them due to injury or a sporting requirement meaning I may only use them from time to time. This led me to the question, what type of equipment do I find is the best? This is a question that I am regularly asked by people looking to invest in equipment for a home gym. In today’s article I will explain what my favorite types of equipment are and why.

CategoriesGut health Nutrition

Cooked Food or Raw Food – Which Is More Beneficial For Nutrient Absorption?

This is one of those tricky questions for the answer is not the same for every person. It all depends on the person as to what may be most suitable. I used to think that people cooked their food too often and were destroying the enzymes making their meal less nutrient dense and believed that raw foods were the better choice. However, while there is a loss to some nutrients when cooked, there is also a gain in some other nutrients and more importantly it can be much easier on the digestive system to eat cooked food. In this article, I will take a look at the pros and cons of eating raw versus cooked to help you determine what works best for you.

CategoriesMaster Functional Movement Patterns Strength Training Methods

Why I Like To Use Farmers Walks & Turkish Get Ups In Workouts

On this blog I regularly cover articles and videos about various methods and exercises you can use to strengthen the body to either correct muscle imbalances and injury, or improve overall movement performance for life and sports. Rarely do I provide you with a set workout to follow for it is impossible for me to know exactly what your body needs. We are all unique in the way our bodies move and the best workout is the one that is tailored specifically to your needs, instead of following someone else’s training program which may not be best for you. This is what you see all the time in magazines and social media. Having said all that, I am going to share with you today a workout I have used a lot for myself over the years and why I rate this as one of my best workout of all time. Some of the exercises I substitute for similar ones so don’t get hung up on the specifics of each exercise, instead pay attention to the logic behind the overall structure of the method that is used. Enjoy.

CategoriesWeight Loss

Why You Cannot Out-Exercise A Bad Diet

I’ve been working with clients as a Personal Trainer for over 20 years now and like most trainers who first start out, all I wanted to do was all the fun fitness exercises and methods. I always knew that diet was an important part of the training equation, but I thought that if I worked my clients hard as I did everything would just fall into place and come together. I thought my seriously intense training programs would be enough on their own to over-ride any nutrition deficits they may have. While at times I was able to have a lot of fun with some clients, and there were definitely some who did achieve great results, I felt I was failing many others for my ignorance to the real issues. I was not helping them to see where their focus needed to be which had nothing to do with fitness. Sure, I wanted them to eat well but my knowledge in helping them was flawed as I was basing everything on the calories in versus calories out equation. I felt well as long as they trained hard we could burn enough calories to counter their poor food choices. I assumed that training alone would be enough. I was wrong.

CategoriesBig toe Foot Stability Plantar Fasciitis

Step By Step Process For Getting Rid Of Plantar Fasciitis For Good

Anyone who has had that real burning feeling in their heel or underneath their foot knows all about Plantar Fasciitis. It can be a very annoying and painful chronic injury that can affect daily life and limit you from playing sports and simply just walking around. Most solutions involve stretches and massage with a spikey ball to relieve the pain and maybe some calf raises. While this may be effective at managing the pain, they are merely just treating your symptoms and will not actually deal with why you got this problem in the first place. In this article I will show you some of the simple steps we have proven to work with not just plantar fasciitis, but also with other leg injuries and feet stability problems. It is important to follow the process I have laid out this article and not skip steps in order for the body to be fully prepared for each progression.

CategoriesNutrition Vegetable Juicing

The Amazing Health Benefits Of Vegetable Juice

Almost every health authority recommends that we get 6-8 servings of vegetables and fruits per day, yet most people are lucky to get half that. One easy way to virtually guarantee that you will reach your daily target for vegetables, is juicing. However, you need to be cautious with fruit juices, especially if you are over-weight or diabetic, as these foods have a high sugar and fructose content that can cause more problems. The exception to this rule would be lemons and limes, which have virtually none of the offending sugar and fructose levels that cause most of the metabolic complications. Also lemons and limes are amazing at eliminating the bitter taste of the dark, deep green leafy vegetables that provide most of the benefits of juicing, for example Kale.

CategoriesBack Pain Posture

5 Common Daily Habits That Can Ruin Your Spinal Health

While we have all heard about someone who hurt their back due to lifting something too heavy, like a deadlift in the gym, or moving furniture in the home and like to blame that last movement as the reason for the injury. This is very rarely the underlying cause. For how do you explain the person who blows the discs in their lower back out from lifting a pencil off the floor, or tying their shoelaces? Most back pain episodes are the result of everyday activities, postures, sports movements, anything involving repetition and small to moderate forces. The little habits we think nothing of that create muscle imbalance, postural deviations, weakness, and ultimately compensatory movement are the root cause of pain. In this article, I will explain in great detail what some of these daily habits we think nothing of are, and how they contribute to ruin our movement and spinal health.