Enhance your exercise skill to have a stronger holistic body.

Getting and staying in good shape requires a lot of knowledge of how to apply your energy wisely. You must choose the right exercises and then perform them correctly every time. All it takes is one poor movement to create injury or apply incorrect workload to miss your growth window. Exercise rooms are littered with machinery and training regimens that don’t serve people’s goals. You really need to be very skilled to outsmart your brain’s inherent greed to conserve every calorie. You only have so much patience until you give up trying, so make your effort worthwhile.

Below are 6 important different areas I focus on to help them succeed.

1. Nutrition- I make sure your diet is very dialed in to set the stage for strength gains. My job is to teach you exactly what, when and how much to eat to compliment your workout. I have over 25 yrs of professional coaching along with nutritional certification in sports, dietetics and those with comorbidities.

2. Conditioning stage- Prior to progressive workloads I help you optimize body alignment, muscular balance, muscle engagement, stability and endurance.
Often, abdominal control and proper breathing need to be taught properly for the first time. Typical stiffness, shoulder or back pain goes away with a comprehensive approach.There are many standardized assessments that should be performed to determine a proper course of action.

3. Biomechanics- Everyone has their unique joint structure and control that dictates range of motion. I help you refine the best range of motion you need to be safe and effective. To help you execute better and build confidence, I have multiple mirrors from different angles, so you can see what you are doing. I also take videos with verbiage so you can practice on your own.

4. Physiology- It’s important to properly progress muscles to fatigue, burning and failure. I explain to you what exact muscles you should focus on, where to feel muscles working, what to feel through the range of motion, how much to feel it and when to stop.
I will help you determine the right progressive load, reps, speed, range of motion, resting period, days per week and so on.

5. Cycling- As your body adapts to the volume of workloads I help you cycle in and out exercises to prevent too much cumulative stress on tendons, cartilage and joints. You can repair and rebuild muscle but you can’t build cartilage or rebuild tendons. Once you damage it from one wrong rep, or too much cumulative stress it will never be as good.

6. Aging and hormonal changes. As a person crosses 40, it gets progressively more difficult to build strength. Pecs, lats, quads and glutes atrophy faster. Hdrochloric acid production decreases, making it more difficult to use the proteins (amino acids) you consume. ANTacids are not the solution; nutrition is.
Nerve tone from the brain stem to muscles reduces, making it more difficult to control and engage muscle. Postural issues, reflexes, balance, joint range of motion, gait function, disc and cartilage health and muscular flexibility all become more important to address. Most of this aging process can be reversed or greatly slowed.

Being in my 50s and training elderly clients 15 years straight has taught me a great deal about how to customize exercise routines that improve practical strength. Common rotator cuff and low back issues often arise due to poor posture and poor exercise execution and poor programs.
Having calf and hamstring mobility to squat and bow are paramount to off-load disc pressure.
Guys especially try to replicate what they used to do but often create injury. I teach people how to get more with less load.

IMO stuff. Staying away from barbell benches, over shoulder machines, rowing machines, ab and adductor machines is a good thing to do. There are way better ways to build and retain strength from cables and free weights. Having an in-depth critical thinking conversation with someone who really can understand you and your situation is invaluable if it can help you live a lot better and longer.