Working out is essential to maintaining your health. If you work out and get minimal results, it doesn’t mean you need to perform harder. Oftentimes, you can utilize small tips to get maximum results. Following these simple steps can bring you closer to achieving your dream body.   Drink more water Physical activity is draining. Because of this, consistently drinking water is essential. Thirst is a sign of dehydration. Many athletes work out without properly hydrating, which leads to further damage. If you’re working harder during workouts, dehydration may be…

  Live Healthy One day at a Time     by Jennice H. Spence, Jan. 1st 2020 Hello again, and welcome to the new year. 2019 presented plenty of challenges and obstacles that have made my family and I stronger than ever.   This past year my family and I have been able to do so much more physically since Jenna's first birthday. Her independence has allowed Isaac and I to travel, go on more dates and keep with a strict To Do list. However, in the midst of everything…..we…

  193, 194, 19...5. My scale kept climbing toward 200 lbs. At 5'8, that is not a healthy weight. I managed to gain 40 lbs in one semester of college at Penn State's Main Campus. It was no secret why. Well at the time, I did not know why exactly.  Here are the no-brainer reasons I gained 40 lbs.   1.) I drank way too much alcohol (beer and mixed drinks for the most part)   2.) I ate way too much pizza (often after a night of beer and/or…

Forward head posture, rounded shoulders, and a hunched back are just some of the many problems we increasingly face on a daily basis.  These can result in shoulder pain, lower back pain, neck pain, and more.  I personally went through this journey after years of bad posture from improper driving positions, constantly looking down at my iPhone to text, write emails, work in my programs, and surf the web, as well as jutting my head forward while working on my computer.  It finally came to a point where I was…

    Making your way to better health can take a lot of sacrifice and self-discipline, and it is rarely easy to make lasting changes. This is particularly difficult if there are issues of drug or alcohol use, or other bad habits that cloud your decision-making. For me, my tumultuous relationship led to weekly drinking, and subsequently my physical health fell by the wayside. It took a move back to my hometown for me to realize that I needed to make some changes, so I turned a negative life event…

Having a training program as a beginner is an ideal step towards gaining a healthy body with “custom made” muscles. With that said, a journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step. As you progress with consistency, you start noticing substantial progress in strength, power, muscular, and endurance. However, as time progresses most beginners start feeling convinced in their achievements and start doing what works for them. God forgive them, their progress starts dwindling and eventually come to an abrupt halt. Others end up inviting life-threatening injuries or…

Usually Saturday has been a cardio day for me. Sometimes I run long distance, and for someone who is primarily into strength training, four to six miles at a medium pace is a relatively long distance. I felt the itch to do my long distance run this past Tuesday instead. So today, the gym opened up at 7:30 AM. I usually have a client around that time, but she is out of town, and since I am an awesome trainer, I did not ask my second client to wake up…

Harder, bigger, faster, stronger… you could easily count these as typical fitness goals. But how do you work on growing your muscles while also managing to build your stamina and endurance? Finding a balance between the two can be difficult — but it’s certainly not impossible.   One of the most common concerns is that, by focusing on both strength and endurance, you’re diluting your ability to excel at either. While this is a valid concern, plenty of recent research has suggested that concurrent training regimes (i.e, those that involve…

Earlier this week, we came across an excellent article on MyFitnessPal, which listed 67 Science Backed Weight Loss Strategies. From the list, we came up with some of our favorite numbers. I personally have used many of these strategies, and I recommend them to my clients. There are some new ones on here as well that I will share with my clients and everybody reading this article. Here are some that personally helped me out and have helped out my clients. 7. Prioritize your pantry - It is recommended to…

A very common question I come across is whether exercise or nutrition is more important for weight loss.  Well, the answer has multiple parts. In short, nutrition has more impact. It is easier to reduce 500-700 calories in your diet than it is to burn 500-700 calories in a workout right away unless you are a little more advanced in your physical abilities. In addition, with the busy schedule of most people (career, commute, children), it can be tricky fitting in exercise as often as you want to. However, it…