In Part 1 of this two part series, I discussed the two articles on dieting and my experience speaking with professionals who help those with eating disorders resume/restore a healthy/healthier relationship with food…and exercise. I wrote about how difficult it is to lose weight for those who are overweight, and how challenging it is for eatingRead More
resistance training
Five Senior Inspirational Leaders to Help You Go the Extra Mile
Welcome to STEPS Fitness’s first ever guest contributor on this blog. Sally Phillips, a freelance writer, has offered to share her writings with me to share the personal stories that motivate and inspire others. I usually dispense the science. It’s nice to sometimes hear from real people who make real changes. Many seniors submit toRead More
What’s the Best Workout for Boomers? Any Workout is Best
A NYT article last week posited the power of interval training to alter the mitochondrial genes in the elderly – aaargh, those over 64; that is, MY age – versus in younger exercisers. With an attention-grabbing title – The Best Exercise for Aging Muscles- the respected author, Gretchen Reynolds dug deep into salesmanship/saleswomanship/salespersonship to grabRead More
Fit Happens Spring 2017
New Year, New President, New Gym It’s been a 2-year presidential campaign, but last November Americans made their choice and we now have a new president. Like any change, there’s the excitement and fear that accompanies it but when it comes to politics, it’s about evenly split. However, last November brought a change here atRead More
The Step-In Lunge & Row
What a blog title that is, right? Last week, out of the blue, a trainer from Canada, Olivier Poirier-Leroy, contacted me after seeing the STEPS Fitness website and asked if I would put together a small essay on one of my favorite exercises. Having already video’d my daughter for a different purpose, I quickly composedRead More
Single- or Double-Limb Training: Why Go Solo?
The new year always starts slow, especially when it comes to catching up on the old year. It’s been a very exciting year what with the election cycle and all the political news to read, to the point that I’ve let myself fall way behind on the exercise science news. So it comes as aRead More
Trying to Remember: The Tip of the Tongue Syndrome of the Aging Adult
Brain Games May Not Be as Efficient as Exercise We’ve all experienced it – starting a sentence, seeing a face, walking into a room, writing a blog…and then forgetting what we were going to say, what is the name, why did we go there, what to write. Aging is not all about forgetting but there’sRead More
Real News: October 2016
October 2016 Resistance Training and Breast Cancer-Related Lymphedema: Treatment or Waste of Time? Breast cancer is the most common cancer for American women and the second leading cause of cancer death. Despite great new techniques and echnologies for treating it, many women incur a side effect known as breast cancer-related lymphedema (BCRL). This is aRead More
Strength with Speed vs Sustained Contractions: Which is Better and Why (Not?)
This may sound wonky but I believe it highlights a few training considerations fitness pros and acolytes might consider. First of all, when it comes to strength or resistance training (RT), as compared to aerobic or cardiovascular training (AT), we have thousands of studies over dozens of years from all over the world on whichRead More
To Get Bigger, Stronger Muscles You Gotta Lift til It Hurts (a little)
The on-going debate on what is the best way to train your muscles for strength and/or size started in earnest back in the mid-1950s, about when Progressive Resistance Exercise (PRE) came into the lexicon. At the time multiple sets of multiple reps of a variety of exercises became the standard, with multiple yet to beRead More