So what's the big deal behind building muscle? Who needs to? Why do you need to? What if you don't want to "get big" though? If you're new here, welcome! Let's dive into all things why you need to be building muscle! 1) Muscle is the key to movement. You literally would not be able to move if you didn't have muscles. Ever heard of muscular dystroph...

 Today I'm going to share with you my weekly meal prep routine! It usually takes me under two hours and I prep enough meals for five days of lunches and dinners. Warning - if you get bored of the same food everyday, don't follow along. Watch for inspiration maybe or perhaps to get ideas of what you can make. I'm a creature of habit and is not ...

You're probably here because you struggle with squats! Welcome to the club! The squat is an exercise that is very popular amongst everyone, as it should be. It's extremely effective at improving lower body strength and core stability and is a good indicator of adequate mobility. However, depending on how we are built, your squat may look different ...

A new year, new you! Right? Hmm... Maybe. A lot of people tell me they "just want to build healthy habits". And that's great! The idea is great. The intention is great. But what's not great is that "building healthy habits" just isn't easy.  Here's what a lot of people's perception of "being healthy" is: Do cardioStrength trainMeditate/yogaEat...

Strength training is probably the most important aspect of fitness. Even though you can stil benefit greatly from just walking or running - or really any form of activity - strength training is by far the most effective way to manage injury risk, optimize metabolism, and improve lean body mass. It often gets a bad reputation, with people stren...

Whether you're just starting out in your fitness journey or have been training for quite some time now, I always always ALWAYS encourage performance-based goals. Why? Performance-based goals are objective, numbers-driven, and you typically have more control over the outcomes than you do for aesthetic-based or more subjective goals. Performance-base...

Most of us go into new goals with good intentions. With a plan. With an idea of how things are going to go! But this is also where most of us fail. We don't create backup plans. We don't come up with ideas in case things don't go our way. Here's an example. Person X has a goal to workout for 45 minutes, 3 days a week. However, they don't come with ...

2020 seems to be the year of at home workouts. Gyms are closed, people are stuck at home, the lockdown seems endless... If you acted quickly, you were able to get the remaining dumbbells on earth before they all sold out. Now if you want to try and find dumbbells, you might as well look on the black market. $2.00 a pound?! Ridiculous! However, most...

If you've been around for long enough, you know that I'm all about SIMPLE. I'm a big believer in the KISS principle. The simpler, the better. And the best thing is that most simple things tend to be very effective as well.  So if you're someone who's new to strength training and wants to learn how to put together a simple, effective workout, w...

If you're one of the many people who are still stuck at home for your workouts, you've probably hit a plateau. You're probably finding the weights you have (lucky) too easy now or you're finding your routine to be going stale. In other words, it's not working anymore and your progress has stalled. I get it - it's hard to make progress continually a...

PUSHUPS - they're made out to be a staple exercise, like everyone should do them. But they are really really hard in reality. It's very rare for me to see just anyone bust out flawless pushups. Simple? Yes. Basic? Hmm, don't think so. It's as simple as being on all fours and bringing your chest within an inch of the ground and then pushing your bod...

You increased your weights, you nailed your sets, and you generally crushed the workout. You feel elated, satisfied, and the rush like your body is filled with endorphins. This is ideally how you want to feel after a workout, right? But have you ever walked away from workout feeling less than awesome? Feeling apathetic, fatigued, dizzy, nauseated, ...

Obviously, this post is self-promoting (hehe) but isn't that the point of my blogs? I want to explain the benefits of hiring a personal trainer. A lot of people will pull information off the internet about workouts and exercise and call it good. And while I'm glad that people are exercising (I really am; it's step one towards living a healthier lif...

Hello! It's me again. Your friendly neighborhood exercise scientist ready to stir up some trouble. There are dozens of articles out there on this subject. But if this is the first time you've stumbled upon an article like this, welcome! There's a lot of information out there on the internet and we all know this. We all also should acknowledge that ...

Losing weight and fat can be frustrating! You workout for hours, you are eating healthy, and then you step on the scale… Why hasn't that number budged? Sometimes, in fact, we see it actually go up! Which should be the exact opposite!  SMALL HABITS ADD UP TO BIG RESULTS  A lot of people try a lot of different things. They try juice cleanse...

Have you ever heard that? You mention to someone that when you squat your knees hurt or when you deadlift your back hurts and the first thing they say to you is that "your form sucks". And, logically, their criticism makes sense. If your form is bad, you'll get hurt. It's that simple. Right? Wrong. While form and technique are crucially important t...

I've always been fairly small and petite. I'm five foot two inches. The summer before I went to college I was 103lbs! That was probably the lightest I've been since before high school. When I started college at Seattle Pacific University and joined the rowing team, I gained a little weight (probably from training for three to four hours a day) and ...

Are you ready to learn how to get that toned tummy you've always wanted? WELL LISTEN UP I CAN TELL YOU EXACTLY HOW! To get a waistline like the one in the picture on the left, you're going to have to train three times a day, 6-7 days a week. That's how much volume (energy expenditure) I was doing when I was a collegiate rower. I weighed approximate...

Ahh, one of the most misunderstood and misused forms of training. It's time everyone realized how important and beneficial strength training is and how it should be at the cornerstone of your workout program! Strength training or Resistance training is when you perform exercises that put the body under load or resistance. Most of the time, these ex...