BY KYLE STULL Odds are high that you’ll have a training client with an artificial hip at some point in your career. Having a client with hip replacements may seem like a daunting prospect, but in most cases the new…
By Brian St. Pierre How brain signaling drives what you eat. (And what to do about it). It’s no secret that obesity rates have been rising in the U.S. (and other industrialized nations) for the past 30 years. It’s also no…
By James Heathers and Jennifer Nickle SHARE What can you do when you have serious health and fitness goals…but you just don’t like vegetables? First, know that you’re not crazy (and you’re not alone). Next, try our 3-step formula to…
By Frank Lipman, M.D.Pioneer in Functional Medicine Are you interested in optimizing your health? Are you overwhelmed by the amount of information and guidance out there? In his new book, How to Be Well, Dr. Frank Lipman organizes your health into six…
By Lindsay Kellnermbg Sr. Wellness & Beauty Editor It’s officially August and high time for soaking up the best of what summer has to offer, including vacation, beach trips, and lazy summer days. The last thing many of us want…
By JEROD LANGNESS, NASM-CPT, CES, PES, WLS, MASTER TRAINER As fitness professionals, it is easy to keep our focus on the great things that occur from having a healthy and active lifestyle. We know so much about the benefits of…
By Kyle Stull Everyone is quick to talk about “tightness.” The calves are tight; the hip flexors are tight; the low-back is tight; the shoulders and the neck are tight. It’s true that many people are tight and restricted, but…
by Dr. David Tiberio, Doug Gray Category: Applied Functional Science Share The popular song entitled “Dem Bones” is ageless. Furthermore, it is brilliant. James Weldon Johnson first composed it back in the early 1900s. Instead of quoting all the lyrics…
By Amanda Vogel MA Fitness instructors and trainers are always looking for new exercise ideas to bring to their fitness classes, and there have never been more options at our fingertips, thanks to social media. Picking up new ideas is…
BY Andrew Mills For many of us, working with individuals with tight/overactive hip flexors is a common occurrence. Learning to properly assess and address overactive hip flexors is a powerful skill in helping today’s client move more efficiently. Spending long…
By NASM Turmeric continues to make some impressive health headlines. Best known as the spice behind curry, research is showing how it can potentially play a role in weight loss, along with preventing Alzheimer’s disease, cancer and other conditions. Introduction…
By Ryan Andrews & Brian St. Pierre Exploring the pros and cons of this controversial food group. We’re often asked whether dairy is good or bad. Short answer: It depends. In this article, we’ll help you make sense of the…
By STACEY PENNEY, MS, NASM-CPT, CES, PES, FNS Age is more than a number- it’s an opportunity to serve a growing population. Every day we are bombarded with statistics on seniors and baby boomers, and the customer potential they can…
By Lisa For our bodies to function to their full capacity and to maintain a healthy weight, it is important to eat a nutritious and balanced diet that includes all the food groups in the right proportion. So, questions such…
By KATHY ZETTERBERG Static stretching is a highly debated and controversial topic within the fitness and sports performance communities and is focused around the concept that sustained static stretching could impair subsequent performance (Rossi et al. 2010; Shrier 2004; Behm…
By TATUM REBELLE Maintaining a strong pelvic floor is vital during pregnancy, yet it remains a commonly overlooked and misunderstood component of most pre- and postnatal training programs. (It’s also something many of us shy away from talking about.) A strong…
By TYLER READ Video marketing is kind of a big deal right now. In fact, there has been a big hype around it for the last couple of years and everybody’s trying to get in on it. From thirteen-year-olds to start-ups…
BY BRIAN SUTTON, MA, MS, CSCS, NASM-CPT, CES, PES Muscles don’t work alone to create movement. They work together in synergies to create coordinated movements. Here we’ll identify the four muscle subsystems, discover how these synergies work together, and how…
Vincent M. Pedre, M.D.Gut Health Specialist & Best-Selling Author The mbg Collective is a curated group of our most trusted wellness advisers. Since 2009, we’ve had the brightest, most passionate, and mission-driven leaders in wellness share their intimate stories and world-class advice. Now, we’re…
By Brian St. Pierre You’re tracking your eating and exercise meticulously but not seeing results. Has your metabolism slowed to a crawl? Are your hormones off? Is it really possible to GAIN weight from eating too LITTLE? Here’s what’s really…
By Kyle Stull Most clients, and fitness professionals alike, use the term “tight” to indicate that a muscle or other form of contractile tissue is shorter than it should be. After being in the fitness industry for more than 15…
By TATUM REBELLE Exercise and Pregnancy? Yes! See the benefits of why they go together so well and exercise programming ideas for each trimester. Remaining physically active during pregnancy can help improve posture, decrease back pain, swelling, constipation, and incontinence,…
By Geoff Lecovin Whether you’ve just finished a HIIT workout, completed a CrossFit WOD, hit your PR or finished a triathlon, your focus should move from performance to recovery. This involves: Refuelling Repairing Rehydrating Revitalizing Evidence-based strategies to enhance the…
By Josh Gonzalez On the ropes about battle ropes? See how to incorporate battle ropes into your personal training programs using the NASM OPT model. Fitness has definitely changed over recent years, becoming smarter with the application of human movement…
By Kyle Stull If you were to research IT band problems every day for the next year, there is a good chance you will accumulate over 365 different articles on causes, approaches to treatment, and quick fixes. Many of these articles would…
By TRX With the sensationalism of today’s 24-7 news, the menace of terrorist attacks and the saber-rattling of rogue dictatorships, it would be easy to believe that we live in the most violent time on record. But yet if we…
Ahhhh…. The trials and tribulations of back pain – perhaps the most elusive member of the “aches and pains” family. How it feels and where it comes from can vary drastically from person to person. It can be attributed to…
By MICHAEL YAREMKO Avoiding non-contact injuries with corrective exercise can help keep your hockey team on the ice and in the game. Anytime I mention that I am a hockey player, the first question I get is, “How come you…
By Kyle Stull Thoracic mobility is a key component of spinal rotation. See why optimal thoracic spine mobility is so important for functional movement. Thoracic mobility has become a buzzword over the last several years. This is likely due to…
By BRIAN SUTTON, MA, MS, CSCS, NASM-CPT, CES, PES · Olympic lifts and their variations have long been used as a strengthening technique to enhance sports performance. Olympic lifts and their variations have long been used as a strengthening technique…
By CHRIS ECKLUND, MA, NASM-PES, CSCS, USAW, TP A high school athlete walks through our doors and we can see their strength, stability and biomechanical control deficits from their gait pattern. We’ve also had collegiate and professional athletes come to…
By John Berardi, Ph.D. It’s a hot debate: Can personal trainers, health coaches, and other non-RD professionals give nutrition advice to their clients? You’ll be surprised (and relieved) to hear: Yes, to a degree. Here’s exactly what you’re allowed to…
By Amanda Vogel MA With 2018 now on our minds, it’s a good time to ponder how the fitness industry might change in the upcoming year and beyond. One thing’s certain: technology will continue to integrate with pretty much everything…
By Kyle Stull Foot pain can be one of the most debilitating types of pain and discomfort for both the average individual and the athlete alike. To put it simply, when your feet hurt, everything hurts. The foot is essentially the…
By Fabio Comana Drinking a protein shake after resistance-training is a popular nutritional strategy adopted by many fitness enthusiasts and athletes to boost muscle protein synthesis (MPS), but does evidence support this practice, and if so, then what type of…
By JOSH ELSESSER There are four hormones that are critical to the success of your client’s weight loss program. Cortisol, insulin, thyroid, and the sex hormones (testosterone in men, and progesterone in women). When kept in balance, these hormones have the…
BY NATALIE CUTLER “Insurance”: yikes. If you’re anything like me before I became a certified insurance advisor at Next Insurance , the word brings you anything from mild anxiety to extreme frustration. For me, the hardest part about working in…
By Fabio Comana Neuroplasticity was a relatively unknown term until the 1970s when scientists began accepting the notion that our brain is a not a physiologically static organ, becoming fixed shortly after birth with approximately 100 billion neurons (nerve cells)…
By Chris Korfist Growing up in the ’70s and ’80s, a big part of my week was getting up early on Saturday morning to watch cartoons. One of my favourites was “Super Friends” (my second favourite was “Land of the…
By Brian St. Pierre and Krista Scott-Dixon Is sugar “good”? Is sugar “bad”? It’s hard to know for sure these days. Which is interesting because… Sugar is a fundamental molecule in biology. Human bodies need sugar. Sugar makes up the…
By Geoff Lecovin Seasonal affective disorder (SAD) is a combination of biological and mood disturbances typically occurring in the autumn and winter months. SAD is characterized by recurrent episodes of depression, hypersomnia, carbohydrate cravings and weight gain. About 5 percent…
By THOMAS F. WEST, PHD, LAT, ATC Our upper extremity is designed around our hands, our primary tool for manipulating objects in our environment. To this end, the shoulder complex provides the upper extremity with a wide range of motion,…
By Chuck Leve Imagine, for a moment, the first day of your first job. Were you nervous? Anxious to get out there and prove yourself? Did you wonder which fellow co-workers were going to become your friends? Were you afraid…
By RICH FAHMY, MS, NASM-CPT, CES, PES Cueing is a vital skill that every fitness professional should master. It is essential for coaching proper technique and it creates a connection between you and your client, conveying how in-tune you are with…
By Kyle Stull Wrist injuries are very common. This is especially true for those on the ice and snow, and also in wheeled sports and activities such as skating and skateboarding in more recent years. In fact, wrist injuries are…