The Gay Trainer: Up Close and Personal.

When I was a trainer at what was then Brannon Street Gold's Gym in San Francisco (now Fitness SF) it was pretty much accepted that if you walked in the door, you were gay. Yes, there were exceptions: Applying the "10% rule" at that gym, ten percent of the members were probably straight. It didn't matter because it was already a melting pot for gay culture and being a straight man created a sometimes pleasant, eye-raising distraction. This was/is the gym where the transgendered tried on their new identities, bears romped, pornstars pumped, and the steamroom had its own listing in the Damron Guide.

If you're a in your 30's or younger, being gay is becoming less of an issue since being gay is more "out" than ever. But being out was not always a choice: The choices were fear and shame, often prosecution, and sometimes death. As older gay men, we grew-up with a kind of strategic hyper-sensitivity (intuition or gaydar) that kept us very aware of our environments. This non-stop, often playful vigilance allowed us to move about more freely and "turn it on or turn it off" when needed. In other words, you knew when it was time to butch-it-up or when it was safe to kick up your heels (I'm gonna catch hell from the "str8 acting" contingent for that remark).

This extra sensitivity cuts in all directions and is especially handy when it comes to dealing with training clients. Call it a burden or blessing - I prefer the latter - this intuition is invaluable when dealing with body image issues. Like it or not we live in a fast-paced, hyper-visual society that's more and more about vanity rather than values. I'd like to think that as gay men, having traveled the road to acceptance we'd be a little more compassionate but we're no better, often worse, than our straight counterparts.

Clients come to me with real health-related issues (high blood pressure, obesity, diabetes) and also very real societal-related issues (rejection, loneliness, I want a boyfriend). The health problems can be addressed with exercise, a healthier diet and lots of motivation. But that dialog running in a client's head, that dialog of "not enough", requires a lot of handholding, listening, and sharing of experiences. Therapy is beyond the scope of my practice but I have witnessed the positive changes that healthy eating and exercise can have, and not just physical changes but a healthier outlook on life as well. Been there. Done that. It does get better.

Gay or Str8?

As a gay trainer, the worst, most bewildering part of the job is dealing with homophobia that comes from unexpected places: Other gay men. Yes, I'm still dumbfounded by the odd, queer remark that comes from a car filled with guys shouting "faggot", but gay-grown homophobia is a slur no less. A slur because as gay men (and women) we're all in the same boat and fighting the same battle. However you fancy yourself, "str8-acting" or "on the DL", don't be an asshole! Pretending that you're not gay (but ya are Blanche) doesn't make you less gay, just more self-loathing.

Acceptance starts with YOU contrary to the belief that it comes from others. Whether you're overweight, gay (out or closeted), feel you're not attractive, not a dapper dresser - any dialog in your head that makes you feel "less than" - the change has to begin in your head and heart. As a gay man, as a gay trainer I've been down that road of acceptance and not only with my sexuality but my feelings of less than (fat, unattractive, clothing from Sears). This isn't to say that straight folks haven't made the same journey. But being accepted in a society that, in some places, still finds me unacceptable because of my sexual preference made the road a lot steeper with a lot of self-discovery along the way.

Sex It Up! Training Makes it Better in Bed!

Yup. I'm pitching that working out and training hard makes for a better sex life. Own it! Don't shy away! The benefits of exercise are well-known and it shouldn't be surprising that those benefits extend into the bedroom. It's been said that our most powerful sex organ is our brain and if you're feeling better about yourself, a big benefit of exercise, you'll feel better in bed. This is not about being at 7% body fat or having rippling muscles, it's about what exercise can do for our metabolism and self-esteem.

The benefits of exercise are proven:

Improved Cholesterol Levels
Prevention of Type II Diabetes
Improved Mobility and Endurance
Stress Reduction
More Restful Sleep
Improved Self Esteem

In men, testosterone plays a big role: weight, age, and fitness level are factors. While there's still much research to be accomplished it's clear that exercise improves testosterone levels. All exercise helps to improve testosterone levels but lifting weights and other types of strength training have more pronounced effects! This doesn't mean just working your chest and biceps, it means getting many muscles groups involved by doing full-body workouts. Push yourself to use heavier weights and do lower reps with brief periods of rest in between sets.

Be honest with yourself and clear about your goals and enlist the help of a personal trainer for new workout strategies. A trainer can help with new routines, how to lift safely, and discuss healthy eating. Have fun and you'll leave the gym feeling great with lots of energy for other activities!

Walk Two Miles and Call Me in the Morning

Walking is man's best medicine. Hippocrates

One. One. One. Two. One. One. Three. Four. One. One. One. One... That's the number of people in the cars that zoom past me on my daily walks. Most are big, high occupancy vehicles wheeling down the street with driver only behind the wheel. But lets be honest: Cars aren't going to disappear anytime soon. As much havoc as they wreak on the environment, think of the economic disaster that would ensue if they were to vanish tomorrow.

I consider myself lucky to not own a car. I'm fortunate to live in a place where work is a short jaunt and there are plenty of services nearby with others accessible by a bus or trolley ride. Where I live, it would be more of a hassle to drive to the grocery store rather than walking there and carrying the stuff back home. After all, people do pay serious bucks to schlep all kinds of things across parking lots during boot camp. Why not put it to use?

We spend the day driving from one box to the next. We leave the house (box) in the morning, get in the car (box), and drive to work (box). Then after work we drive (car box again) to the gym (box), and back home (box) again. We put the miles on our cars, but our legs don't get much action.



Walking is an integrating activity for our body: top to bottom, front to back, left to right. Without giving it much thought (if any) we put one foot in front of the other and away we go! It's a great way to burn calories, about 250 per hour. When you're on foot take long, thoughtful strides along with deep breaths. With age, those steps become shorter and shorter and soon we're not walking but shuffling down the street side-to-side. Lead with your pelvis, your center of gravity, rather than leaning forward with your chest. And as much as possible, keep your chin up glancing downward with your eyes rather than your entire head.

A teacher once said that walking was like dancing: sometimes you're in step, sometimes you're not. But practice and the beauty of it becomes apparent.

Hooked on Foods that are Convenient and Inexpensive?

There are no words to express my shock and dismay after reading this article in today's Sunday New York Times: There is "...a conscious effort — taking place in labs and marketing meetings and grocery-store aisles — to get people hooked on foods that are convenient and inexpensive."

Your Fitness Journey. Creating a Map for Success!

One month into working on your New Year's fitness resolutions , it's time to make an assessment of your progress. Don't be hard on yourself but use this time to take an honest look at where you've come from and where you're headed. Oh, you say you really didn't set any goals except that you know you wanted to shed a few pounds. Oh, you say you didn't really have a plan to get to the gym. Eating plan? What eating plan?

I worked at Costco and we had a saying: Plan the work and work the plan. But a plan is just a car running on empty unless you put a goal in the tank, a motivator. Your goal needs to be specific. The more specific a goal the greater chances of success. Don't just say you want to lose a few pounds, put the number in writing.

Is your goal measurable? That is, how do you plan to measure your activity? A scale? Tape measure? Amount of weight lifted? Many of my clients would never consent to body measurements, let alone get on a scale while I was standing there. They preferred something more subjective and for them, less intimidating. The most common was how they looked or felt in their clothes. Fair enough!

Can you attain this goal? Maybe it's not a case of wanting but needing. If you've just come from your doctor and been informed that your cholesterol and blood pressure are elevated and that you need to lose weight, that changes the dynamic. In fact, it becomes more urgent and hopefully more motivating than simply wanting to lose weight.

How relevant or connected is your goal to you? Your desire to try powerlifting may not fit with an overall goal to lose weight. In fact, the reverse may happen and you'll find yourself buying larger clothes.

And finally, when is this all going to happen? Adding the element of time to goal-setting is a powerful motivator. It can be any arbitrary date in the future: Perhaps a calendar holiday or vacation getaway (yes, fitting into a square-cut swim suit is a good motivator).

Goals: Specific. Measurable. Attain-able. Relevant. Time-bound - SMART. Set yourself up for success and enjoy the journey!

Hiring a Personal Trainer 101

You've just come from the doctor and you've been told that you need to shed 15 - 20 pounds, you're blood pressure is up, and your cholesterol numbers need improving. To make matters worse, there's a history of Type II diabetes in your family and you're a good candidate unless your diet improves. But where do you go from here? Frankly, doctors aren't much of a resource when it comes to accomplishing these tasks. You'll get some general orders about eating right and exercising, and if your numbers are bad enough, you'll be put on medication.

Your choices are daunting. There are hundreds of diets out there promising one thing or another. Many employers and some HMO's reimburse their members for a gym membership, but what do you do once you get there? This is where you may want to consider hiring a personal trainer to get you started in the right direction. A trainer can provide a good starting point for healthy eating tips and safe, effective exercise. Finding the right trainer for you can be difficult, as well. Here are a few considerations:

Watch. Look. Listen.

One of the easiest things to do is to watch a potential trainer interact with his clients. This can take several days or several weeks. Is the trainer attentive to his client or is he on the phone and/or chatting with others during the session? Do the exercises this trainer is using seem like something you'd be interesting in doing? Does this trainer have a professional demeanor?

Ask Questions.

You may know the client that the trainer is working with so not why inquire about their experience with this trainer. Is the trainer on time? Is he courteous? Does he listen to the needs of his client? Would this person recommend this trainer? Ask the trainer directly with questions and concerns. Be clear about your goals when speaking with a potential trainer: The answers provided will give you an idea about this person's abilities.

The Fine Print.

You need to ask your potential trainer for three important documents: A training certification, proof of liability insurance, and a valid CPR certification. Some clubs/gyms require these documents as part of the training agreements with their trainers (incredibly, some don't) but it doesn't hurt to ask. Trainers and/or clubs may require contracts with their clients, as well. Read the fine print!

And finally, look forward to having fun with your trainer. The experience can be a rewarding one for both parties. Don't rely solely on your trainer for guidance. Arm yourself with some good reading about the topic(s) in which you are interested and take charge of the changes you want in your life. Happy New Year!

What's in Your Shopping Cart?

Show me the content of a man's shopping cart, and I'll tell you about that man. I just made that up. Actually, I think a better picture of a person's tastes and habits would be a glimpse into their refrigerator. But the stuff didn't suddenly appear. There was some kind of motivation to take it off a shelf, pay for it, and bring it home. Was it hunger? Was that motivation health-related? Or was the grab an impulse buy?

I don't go shopping without a list partially because I get to the store and forget what I needed and because that list steadies my hand in the face of temptation. You won't find prepared foodstuffs in my kitchen: No Rice-a-Roni (what the hell is that stuff?), no prepared entrees, and save me from jarred pasta sauce (they all taste the same). My last partner brought home this package of mystery meat "marinated" in, I swear, something reminiscent of formaldehyde.

I'm fortunate on the culinary front to have the skills to make things from scratch. The biggest impediment isn't preparation skills, it's the time needed to make healthy food. In one of my trade journals an article detailed the high costs of eating junk food. Not only were prepared, processed foods made of poor quality ingredients they are packed with fat, sugars, sodium and chemicals you can't even pronounce. The article featured a favorite chef, Mark Bittman, roasting a chicken and preparing veggies in about an hour. But, you still have to buy the bird, take it home, cook it, and that takes time. The article doesn't even mention the amount of skill (relatively low) needed to make this meal. Even after you've learned to cook a bird, again, it still takes time. Therein lies the lure of prepared, processed food.

Just for fun, here's my marinara sauce that's easy to prepare. The onions, cooked until golden, will sweeten this sauce. I make a good-sized batch so I can portion and have it in the freezer. Of course, it's not only great for pasta but it's also a great base for chili, as well.

Not-So-Basic Marinara Sauce

Yellow onion, peeled, chopped coarsely, 1 medium
Olive oil, extra virgin, 1/4 cup
Whole thyme or rosemary, 1/2 teaspoon
Bay leaves, 2 whole
Fresh black pepper, 1/2 teaspoon or to taste

In a large pan over medium heat, cook the chopped onion in the olive oil with the thyme, bay leaves, and fresh black pepper until the edges of the onion start to turn gold-brown.

Fresh garlic, peeled, coarsely chopped, 4 whole cloves
Salt (sea salt, if you have it), 1 teaspoon

This is the time to add the garlic and salt. Any sooner and you'll risk burning. Cook it until you can smell the fragrance coming up from the pan. Then add...

Canned, crushed tomatoes with liquids, 4 - 14oz cans
Water or chicken stock, 1 cup
(Optional) Red wine, 3/4 cup

Let the sauce come to a boil while stirring the reduce then heat to medium low and simmer for about an hour. That's it! Time will take care of the rest. Give it an occasional stir and adjust the salt and pepper as desired. Let it cool, portion as needed, and freeze.

What Are You Grateful for Today?

There's quirky vegan restaurant around the corner from where I lived in San Francisco. It's called Cafe Gratitude and is located on 20th & Harrison in the Mission. Quirky is hardly a good word for it: Cafe Gratitude received accolades in the New York Times for its vegan fare and they have, I think, three locations. I've never had a better, fresher salad in my entire life. When taking your order, the service staff, instead of asking, "What can I get for you" or "May I take your order", asks,"What are you grateful for today"?

What are you grateful for today? We're on the other side of a bountiful holiday that most people got to enjoy. We ate to our heart's and belly's content (about 2400 calories in that meal) and enjoyed the company of family and friends. I wasn't able to be at a Thanksgiving celebration and ended up at Carl's Jr. for a 6 Dollar Burger. There was a homeless person there, too, but he was asleep. As I enjoyed my 6 Dollar Burger (finally, somebody put some crunchy veggies on a burger, the pickles were a little sweet, but...) I thought about what I was most grateful for that day. For yesterday, today, and tomorrow, it will always be my health.

So much of what ails us these days is preventable. High cholesterol is mostly diet-related. High blood pressure is mostly diet-related. Obesity (and its cascade of health issues) is diet-related. Type II diabetes is mostly diet-related. I had a 70 year old male client who refused to get a colonoscopy because he perceived it to be unsafe (colon cancer is preventable with regular screenings). And least we not forget cigarettes: A government-sanctioned, highly profitable, highly taxed, nicotine delivery device responsible for thousands of preventable deaths.

Mortals that we are, we will all eventually die. Why hasten the process and erode our quality of life (what's left of it)? I used to care for a friends dog and her instructions were: Food, water, and plenty of exercise. I think this is a fitting prescription for all of us.

Fitness Paradise: San Diego!

A year ago I arrived in Palm Springs and now it's time to leave. So soon, you ask? Palm Springs has been a little strange for me. Okay, it's been weird. I realize everyplace has it's "weirdness", especially having lived in a city like San Francisco, but Palm Springs has been weird times 10.

I've decided that Palm Springs is not part of California. Its glitzy-esque, nostalgic glamor lends it as more of an outlier of Las Vegas. It's a patchwork of vacant lots, shuddered businesses and nude resorts. Walking-types beware (there aren't many here): You'll find that sidewalks, if any, suddenly narrow, end, disappear altogether, or are squarely blocked by a palm tree.

Having escaped the fitness craze is another reason for my decision that Palm Springs is not part of California. For all the great weather and sunshine, you won't find too many people enjoying it. As I observed, there aren't many people that walk or bicycle. It's a place where cars rule and folks like to drive...fast! Except for a small area downtown, it is not pedestrian friendly. And as for a good cup of coffee or a decent loaf of bread? Forget it.

For all of Palm Springs shortcomings and weirdness, the one saving grace is its natural beauty. This is the desert, and regardless of the colorful, exotic, over-watered landscaping, those majestic, weathered hills loom as a reminder that this city is contrived and is nothing without precious water. You'll find a lot of great people here and even more characters, too. Palm Springs has a "let it all hang out" attitude and some like to let it hang to the ground.

San Diego, my quintessential California. Growing up in the parched desert of Eastern Utah, it's no wonder it was the dream spot of my youth. My Aunt Aggie, a goddess of a woman living in Chula Vista not far from the beaches, would collect and mail sea shells that smelled and tasted of brine. Whether or not they really came from those beaches was irrelevant to three young boys living in a coal mining town. The dreams they inspired, and continue to inspire, were richer than the gift itself: The ocean, year-round sunshine, young-minded people, forward thinkers, new ideas, people with purpose, and lots of good vibrations.

San Diego is definitely part of California with it's gentle temperatures and moist breezes from the ocean. It's a hotbed for fitness buffs and you'll find all varieties in the water, on the streets, up in the mountains, and all in between. It's a personal trainer's paradise with an abundance of health-conscious folks seeking guidance and motivation. If there's an empty patch of grass, you can bet a boot camp will pop-up there sooner than later. Fitness is relatively new in our national, social consciousness and cities like San Diego are setting the pace. Come and visit!

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Outsourcing Fitness and Health: It's a Small Price to Pay

Outsourcing has a negative connotation these days. Corporations send jobs to foreign shores, manufacturers assemble products instead of making them, and private companies are now doing what the government used to do. How much of your life do you outsource? More than you think. It's true that some things are better left to experts, like your doctor or mechanic, but does someone else clean your house, wash your car, or prepare most of your meals? We live in a busy world and that's price we pay to have someone else perform tasks that we otherwise might do ourselves, or choose not to do.

How about your workouts? I have clients who get a 90 minute lunch break with 60 minutes of that time alloted to training. That's one of the great values of having a personal trainer: getting the most out of a workout in a short period of time. Other clients come to me with specific fintess goals, either their own or doctor ordered, seeking guidance and motivation. Whether it's loosing weight, gaining weight, improving "numbers," or sport-specific, a personal trainer is a great value. When considering health care costs and prevention the the U.S., the price of maintaing and improving health is vastly more cost-effective than the alternatives. Obesity alone, with aliments ranging from high blood pressure, diabetes, and joint problems - including higher insurance premiums and lost wages - added $190 billion to the national healthcare price tag.

Corporations outsource to improve their bottom line. You may want to consider outsourcing your health and fitness goals to improve your mumbers as well.

When a Lifestyle Becomes a Passion: 32 Years of Lifting.

September of 1980. I'd already lost 65 pounds by the end of my senior year in 1979 and was maintaining my weight at about 165 - 170 pounds, although my aunt Mary was convinced I was too skinny. I was living with my cousin Steve in Provo, Utah (yes, Provo) while I was going to school. He had a set of weights and a bench in the basement of his townhouse. You know the kind: cheap, cement-filled plastic discs that had to be bolted onto shoddy bars resting on a bench that could capsize without warning.

In the beginning, the only thing that I could do was to grasp 2, 5 pound weights and lay back on that shaky bench and do pec flys. In no time I graduated from that basement gym to a local community center with real barbells, dumbbells, and cables. I watched others do their workouts and got some basic ideas. I watched a guy, much smaller than me, do the bench press. After he was finished I ponied-up to the bench and loaded the bar with 2, 45 pound plates - the same amount he was using - and promptly dropped it on my chest. I squirmed for a few seconds when the guy, much smaller than me, hurried over and pulled the damn thing off of me.

There were setbacks: Illnesses; aches and pains; minor and major injuries (back surgery required), fitness-anemic schools and people. I look back over 30 years and can't remember any goals that I'd set for myself along the way but I do know I was in love, and continue to be in love with the journey. Lifting is how I learned to become my own healer, a place where I was both student and teacher, a lifestyle that turned into a lifelong passion. This line from my favorite song, that still brings tears to my eyes, sums it up: "Enjoy your body. Use it every way you can. Don't be afraid of it or of what other people think of it. It's the greatest instrument you'll ever own."

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Is it Real Strength or are you Slave to a Machine?

Promising I'd revisit this topic from an older post, I'm back to open this can of worms.

Occasionally, a new client will ask me to show him/her how to use the machines in the gym. It's a legitimate request coming from someone unfamiliar with the equipment having the desire to get a good workout when they come to the gym themselves. The presence of the machines do seem to offer a shortcut to a better workout. However, the only shortcut you'll be getting from a machine is a shortchange on real strength and quality muscle.

I overheard another trainer explaining to a new client that on most machines there were only two adjustments to be made: The seat height and the amount of weight to be used. Sit down, push or pull, that's it. And that is it. Your biceps, triceps, or lats will get a nice workout but you'll use few stabilizer muscles, if any. That's fine if you wanna look pretty, but don't complain when you hurt your back picking-up a bag of groceries. Or, in other words, that muscle is of little use off of that machine.

Muscles don't work in isolation and you shouldn't be thinking they can be trained that way (muscle isolation is not possible on garden-variety gym equipment). Most muscles work in pairs: agonists and antagonists. When you raise your arm towards your shoulder the biceps muscle (the agonist), contracts. When you lower your arm the triceps muscle (the antagonist) contracts. This action is also a stabilizing force for joints.

If you're content with the results of your machine-based workout, that's great. If not, then arm yourself with a great weight lifting or bodybuilding guide or hire a personal trainer who will show you how to use free weights and cables to grow quality muscle.

Putting the Function in Functional

This is Tommi. He lives in Reykjavík, Iceland and is 21 years old. And yes, that's him in the picture jumping from rooftop to rooftop minus the safety net. Tommi participates in a sport called Parkour: "...the main purpose of the discipline is to teach participants how to move through their environment by vaulting, rolling, running, climbing, and leaping. Parkour practitioners are known as '"traceurs"', with their female counterpart referred to as '"traceuses"." (Wikipedia). Take a look.

To me, the amazing thing about his sport is that it exemplifies the ability of the body's capacity of absorb and distribute impact. The skeleton alone isn't capable of handling these forces. The surrounding tissues, the myofascia, gets involved to spread this impact safely across an area to diminish the force of the impact.

I am not suggesting that you go out and leap over cars or picnic tables. What I am advocating is that you become aware of how your body moves through its environment. Take walking for example: All of us do it but are you aware of your posture and balance when you're doing it? Are you leading with your shoulders, is your jaw forward, are you looking like our genetic cousins from the ice age? A teacher of movement once tole me, "Walking is like a dance: sometimes you're in step, sometimes you're not" In other words, you need to practice this movement and be aware of how you move through your environment. More about this later.

As for Tommi and the others who practice his sport, watching that dance is pure joy.

Time to Cool Off

Those of you that know me personally, know that I'm passionate about food - cooking, eating, and sharing. Even after being in gyms for nearly 32 years and witnessing one "health" fad after another, I still find myself seeking pleasure from the food on my plate. Being a CIA grad makes that easy to accomplish.

We're in the dog-days of summer here in the desert. Temperatures will routinely hover well above 105 F soaring 10 or even 15 degrees higher! On days like this I reach for fresh fruit: Cool, fresh, ready-to-eat fruit that makes me happy in the mouth. Last week strawberries and pineapples were on sale and I decided to stock up: One-half flat (about 6 lbs) of strawberries for $4 bucks and the pineapples were $2.49. Such a deal! The berries needed to be washed and cleaned but the pineapple needed a few more days to sweeten-up. In a nutshell, a few days later the pineapple was very ripe and the berries didn't look so happy but I'll be damned if anything in my kitchen is going to go to waste.

Out comes the food processor (a blender would work but you'd have to process the fruit in batches). The very ripe berries and very ripe pineapple are placed in the processor bowl and pulsed for 30 seconds. A splash (I said splash) of fruity triple sec and Cassis (black currant liquer) are added the puree is poured into ice cube trays (a little vegetable spray helps later) and frozen. The separated, frozen cubes were placed in a freezer bag for a refreshing, ready-to-eat treat. Of course, you can do this with any fruit or combination and you can substitute the triple sec and Cassis with a squeeze of lemon and/or lime. Yummy!

Confession: No, 6 lbs of berries and a pineapple won't go into two ice cube trays. Lets just say there was a little snacking before the Cuisinart got involved.

Forced Adaptation: Making your Workouts Work!

Over at my Big Muscle Blog, I touched briefly on workout routines becoming "routine." Blame it on our highly adaptive nervous system. Our nervous system is at the front lines when we encounter the world in which we live. When I put a weight in a client's hand and show him/her a new exercise, it's their nervous system that's evaluating that new exercise, not so much their muscles. In fact, unless your nervous system gets on board with that new exercise, there probably won't be any muscle adaptation, let alone growth: Adaptation first, next comes growth!

There's a principle called forced adaptation whereas a muscle is given a new stress (a change in weight, a change in the number of reps, or a new movement) and the result is that muscle adapting to the change (growing). This translates into mixing things up in the gym. If you've been doing the same workout for several months, it's efficacy is probably on the wane by now. There's a simple solution: Mix it up or hire a trainer who will show you new movements that will keep your training sessions moving forward.

Ab Training: Balance is the Key

When you hear or use the word "abs," a lot of people visualize the muscles (or lack of them) below the rib cage in front of the torso. The most famous, sought-after, and elusive set of ab muscles, the 6-pack, are rectus abdominis and begin at the pubic bone (pubis), and runs up the front of the body and is inserted across the 5th, 6th, and 7th ribs.

Along with rectus abdominis, there are also the internal and external obliques, and the deepest, transverse abdominus, to name a few. They all have different functions but as a group, they're postural muscles that basically protect our spine and keep us up upright.

Think of your spine as a mast on a ship, except this mast is like a flexible fishing pole. The ship's mast is supported by cables (stays) that run from different areas of the ship and are attached to the mast adding support in all directions. Our abdominal muscles are just like the stays that support the ship's mast including, surprise, surprise, those muscles on the backside of our body. They work in concert to keep the spine balanced and protected...or they don't. Take for instance rectus abdominus Lets just say rectus abdominus is represented by the blue line in the illustration. Everybody loves (?) to train rectus by doing hundreds and hundreds of crunches, sometimes aided by machines with heavy weights. Now, imagine that rectus gets stronger, and tighter (everybody wants tight abs)...and shorter. That mast is no longer upright and the mast, which supports the sails (your upper torso), is weakened. That is, unless the stay's on the other side of the mast are just as strong and can balance and strengthen the mast. Good luck. Most people think no further than their 6-packs and the ab machines in most gyms are designed to train them to the point of imbalance. I've seen men and women sporting beautiful 6-packs that are postural train wrecks with bowed backs, sagging shoulders, and chins that jut-out over their chests.

Abdominal muscles mostly need to be trained the position in which they're used: Upright. You don't need your abs while laying in bed. You need them when that little kid at the grocery store, going 100 mph down the aisles, rams you with his shopping cart to keep you from flying into the display of tomato soup. Don't overlook or over-train abdominal muscles. Remember: They're for balance and they need to be treated in a balanced manner. Laying on your back and doing hundreds of crunches on an ab bench is not creating balance.

Eat to Meet your Fitness Goals

One of the biggest obstacles I face with clients during their training is food. While putting in 60 - 90 minutes a day at the gym can move you closer towards your fitness goals, proper eating is the key. I ask every one of my clients what they had for breakfast that day, and more often than not the answer is "a cup of coffee" or "nothing." Whether you're trying to loose weight or pack it on, neither of those responses will get you any closer to your goals.

One thing is for certain, your body doesn't work well on an empty tank of gas. When you wake up in the morning, your blood sugar is low and you need to fuel your body. Question: What organ is the largest consumer of carbs in the body? If you guessed the brain, you're right (your mouth is not an organ). So, let me rephrase this: When you wake up in the morning your brain is hungry. It's very demanding and if you're not going to feed it, it's going to feed itself. There's a fascinating process in the body called gluconeogenesis whereby the brain signals the liver to create glucose, food on which the brain operates. This happens in the liver by breaking-down amino acids to create this brainfood, or glucose. And where do you suppose those amino acids come from in your body? Your muscles: precious muscle that you've worked so hard to build, precious muscle that keep your body's metabolism purring along so nicely. Yes, in order to keep your brain going, it will break down your hard-earned muscle to feed itself. After all, the brain has the enormous task of keeping you going.

What's the solution? You need to eat in the morning if you want to lose weight or if you're trying to gain weight. It may be a bowl of oatmeal with fresh fruit and yogurt, a toasted bagel with nut butter, or a baked sweet potato. Eat something! Even better would be to make food plan for yourself - Breakfast, snacks, lunch, and dinner - and get to the grocery store. Like the saying goes, plan the work and work the plan!

Safe, Effective Exercise

A buddy in San Francisco is a bit of a curmudgeon. He's old-school when it comes to the gym: workout one, maybe two body parts a day; bigger is best; and avoid cardio (gotta keep that weight up). I love the look on his face when a trainer is having his/her client perform certain activities which he labels "Stupid Human Tricks" (that would be anything not involving weights, machines or cables). He'll sit there surveying the situation and then issue a whole litany of comments about what-could-go-wrong and why-it-looks-stupid while rolling his eyes and shaking his head. I'm sure my narrow-minded buddy, and I mean that in the nicest, possible way, didn't see the value in what this trainer was trying to accomplish with his client. I'm not sure that I did either. Not that what they were doing was bad, so to speak. But was this movement appropriate for the client?

As trainers, myself included, we like to mix it up for our clients to keep things interesting and fun. We take continuing education classes and workshops where we learn all of the latest moves with all of the latest gizmos (remind me to tell you the story about the Frisbees). We come back to the gym invigorated and renewed hoping to show our students something exciting. But again, are these exercises appropriate for our client's capability or are we as trainers, just showing off? I'm sure you've heard the saying, "you've got to crawl, before you walk." Personal Trainers have to be able to evaluate where there client's are in that process to provide safe and effective exercise. Then, and only then, can they transition their clients to more dynamic and difficult movements.

About the Frisbees? A class instructor came up with a brilliant idea to use Frisbees, or paper plates, for an entire workout which involved sliding all over the floor and dragging our butts along using these discs to make it easy. Needless to say my clients didn't get any of that action.

You're Sitting on Your Greatest Muscle-Building Asset

The glutes, quadriceps, and ham-strings burn a remarkable volume of gram calories while they are being trained. As a Palm Springs Personal Trainer I've directly observed the real-word benefits with clients: Those squats, lunges, and dead lifting sets take a substantial energy toll on the entire body but yield great results. Because your body works systemically (think about it functioning as a huge furnace), those tortuous leg exercises trigger an increase in your body's whole metabolism. That burn lasts long after the exercise is finished, too. It takes the body a couple hours to return to your typical metabolic state while still consuming gram calories at a higher than usual levels.

With these large muscles, you are sitting on your body's best fat-fighting resource: Your glutes and your legs – the two body parts that encompass the leading mass and fat-burning muscles on the skeleton. They're capable of fantastic bursts of energy but additionally call for sizable amounts of gram calories to make that occur. Muscle is vibrant, it's alive and needs to be fed. Fat, on the other hand, consumes very little energy. It is, after all, the form in which the body deposits excess energy, i.e., excess gram calories. By focusing on your large thigh muscles, you super-charge your body’s calorie burning capacity and also target those in which adding muscle-mass is easiest.

What's the implication? No excuses avoiding hard leg training. The possibility for muscular growth and transformations that leg training supplies for your whole entire body is too good to refuse. An effortless, twice-weekly training routine is to split your legs into front and rear. One day, focus the muscle in front of your legs, the other day, train the muscles on the rear of your legs. And if you're trying to develop a well-developed and shaped, beefy, muscular backside; do your lunges and squats! Try this training arrangement for 8 to 10 weeks and then switch it up.

The World is Flat. Are Flat Surfaces a Problem for Ankles, Knees, and Hips?

Philosophers and historians argued for centuries that the world was flat and I'm not so sure they were too far from the truth. From the moment we get out of bed our world is a series of flat surfaces. After all, this flatness makes it easier to get from point A to point B with little or no effort. But as I see problems with ankles, knees, and hips is this flat world of our really healthy for us? You'd think people who are carbohydrate-phobic and embrace a diet that they believed our paleolithic ancestors to have existed on would be a little more concerned that he didn't have sidewalks. This flat-world idea popped into my head while I was on a grueling hike that rose from an elevation of 400 feet to 8500 feet in 10 miles. Nothing was flat for as far as the eye could see and I wondered why there were so many ankle, knee, and hip injuries in our flat world. Age, excessive weight, genetics, poor body alignment, lack of exercise and more are reasons for these problems. According to The Permanente Journal, The Kaiser Permanente National Total Joint Replacement Registry estimates that within the US, there are over 600,000 total hip and knee replacements each year. Staggering! Is the flat world that we inhabit hurting us in the long run? For one thing, walking on flat surfaces doesn't allow the foot to do much inversion or eversion (see photo).

The muscles in the lower leg, like any muscles that doesn't get used much, loose their tone and become shortened. Just when you need them most, like when you have to step on to or off of an non-flat surface like a curb, you're more prone to get hurt. Add to this a pair of high heels or shoes with no ankle support and you've got an injury waiting to happen. Don't go climbing any hills or run into the gym looking for a machine that will exercise your tibialis or fibularis muscles (look them up). An easy and pleasant way to work those muscles is to take a barefoot walk on the beach or a saunter across a lawn-covered field (watch for the pet poop). Whenever you the chance, get on-to some uneven surfaces and walk around for preventative care for your ankles, knees, and hips.