In March, I’ll travel to San Diego to walk the floor of the largest fitness trade show in the US- The International Health and Racquet Sportsclub Association trade show or IHRSA, as its commonly called. Every aspect of running a health club, gym, or studio will have a presence at this event. I look for trends and to see the direction the fitness world is currently moving towards. It was at this show a few years back that I saw a clone of my studio. When I opened J & D Fitness Personal Training 2 ½ years ago, I envisioned a semi-private personal training studio that had a focus on coaching movement, not using machines. Read More

Lately I’ve cut the amount of time I spend on social media to a minimum. I think it has become a platform for people to shout their political perspective and demean others that don’t agree with their viewpoint. I’ve chosen to abstain from making political comments. I do use it as a platform to share my knowledge and information on fitness. It’s enabled me the ability to help others outside of my physical geographical reach. It’s also connected me with friends from my past. Recently, I conversed with an old friend from junior high school, via Facebook. I had to share with him the multiple parallels we’ve both experienced as we’ve carved out our careers by following our passions. Read More

As 2017 draws to a close and we push through the holiday season, it’s a good time to reflect and take an audit of your overall fitness program, or lack of. It’s also a time to create new goals for the upcoming year. Goals should be Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Realistic and Timely (SMART). I’ve used goal setting as an opportunity to take stock of myself and narrow my focus on things I need to improve. Mobility has become a priority the past couple of years. As I’ve aged, I’ve come to value the importance of being injury free. I’m currently creating a mobility program that I plan on using weekly, in conjunction with my strength training, for 2018.  Read More

I want to touch on one of the most important aspects of working with a trainer. It rarely gets discussed and most gyms are happy that prospective members don’t ask about it. It’s exercise program design. There should be some type of plan with your workout. It doesn’t have to be ultra detailed or intricate, but nonetheless, it should exist. Here’s an analogy I frequently use. Do you get in your car and just drive, or do you have a destination? There are multiple ways to get to a location, but you should have some type of route planned. This leads me to why we do an assessment on everyone that starts a program at the studio, whether private or in a small group. An assessment allows us to know our starting point. Think about when you use Google Maps; the 1st question you must answer is ‘Where are you starting from?” Read More

This Saturday I will be hosting the National Strength and Conditioning Association’s (NSCA) Nevada state clinic at the studio. We have 8 speakers (including myself) scheduled to present 50-minute presentations on various strength and conditioning topics. Training the glutes, programing specific to mixed martial arts, and how stem cell therapy has influenced the fitness industry are a few of the hot topics that will be discussed. These events provide professionals in the fitness community the opportunity to maintain their certified professional status, acquire continuing education credits and remain current in the industry. Coaches typically leave events like this inspired, motivated and ready to apply some of the concepts on Monday. There in lies the problem.  Read More

This Friday I get the opportunity to travel to Anaheim, California for the day to present at the National Personal Trainer Conference, hosted by the National Strength and Conditioning Association. My topic title is “Successful Strategies of Running a Personal Training Studio”. It was a year ago that I was approached by a fellow speaker who thought I would be a good fit for speaking at events. I have spent many years being an attendee at events and now I get to be one of the people in the front of the room. One of the reasons I never considered speaking about many of the strategies I use at the studio, is because I thought many of them were common practice. After a few conversations with a few gym owners, I realized I was wrong.  Read More

Have you ever noticed when things become a buzz topic, people find themselves using terms without truly understanding what they’re talking about? I feel that’s currently happening with high intensity interval training or HIIT. Part of why I write is to simplify many of the fitness topics that either overwhelm or confuse many people. Today’s blog post is my attempt to de-mystify HIIT training. If I start to lose you, please hang in there, and hopefully it will make sense at the end.  Read More

I have been recently reading and researching articles about mindfulness. Mindfulness and meditation have experienced a recent surge in popularity. Part of this phenomenon is that we live in an instant access, always on the move MTV era. We have information readily available to us, via our smart phones & tablets, 24 hours a day. We are always plugged in, hence we become distracted by what just happened two minutes ago. One of the things I enjoy is that when I’m training someone they have no choice but to concentrate on what they’re doing. The workouts in my studio aren’t centered on sitting on a machine where you can have a conversation on your phone while you exercise. Read More

“I had a plan, before I got punched in the face.” That’s a famous quote from Mike Tyson after he was knocked out for the 1st time. Funny, but it brings up a valid point. How many times have you had the perfect plan, to find out later that it had a few flaws? Making mistakes is part of the building process. Three years ago, I started training people in small groups featuring a specific workout. I named it the Torch Workout. It’s a high intensity interval training (HIIT) workout using exercises that improve mobility, strength and power. I used the research from Dr. Tabata & Dr. Martin Gibala. We still successfully feature this workout today at the studio.  Read More

I’m currently designing a new HIIT (High intensity interval training) workout that we’re going to feature at the studio. The name of the workout is Metabolic Disruption. It will be rolled out this October. The name is self-descriptive. The goal of this workout is to ramp up your metabolism by completing multi-joint, compound movement exercises at specific heart rate levels for a set duration. The exercises are self-limiting. Internationally recognized, physical therapist Gray Cook recently wrote a great article about what self-limiting exercises are & their importance in health & fitness.  Read More