Last Few Weeks in Pictures

Beginning to look a lot like Fall…

Nov072015

NETA Group Exercise Workshop in Los Angeles

If you read our recent post about NASM’s effort to enter the Group Exercise market through their strategic acquisition of AFAA, you might remember we discussed the current hierarchy of certifications in the industry. While we didn’t give you the whole picture, you saw a glimpse and got an idea of who the heavy hitters were in group exercise. One organization we didn’t mention happens to currently be one of the only two that has NCCA Accreditation for both their personal trainer and group exercise instructor courses. In fact, I’ve looked through a lot of fitness professional catalogs and they might have the most diverse of all. They are NETA. (I spend at least ten minutes a day explaining acronyms in the fitness and aquatics industries to people.)

Source: NCCA

Nov062015

30-Day Yoga Program

Last week, I told you guys that I need to learn how to stretch again. I’m here to report I’m doing a fairly good job! What’s one of the best ways to stretch? Yoga! I wanted to restart my stiff, non-flexible body so that I could feel limber again and be able to touch my toes. I found that I had really isolated a big part of my physical health: my flexibility. These 30 (hopefully) consecutive days of yoga will open up my hips, my hamstrings, and overall help my flexibility. I learned the hard way that you can’t ignore one part of your fitness; each part of our physical health is important. If you ignore one part, something bad is going to creep up on you. I am happy and look forward to my yoga each day. But how did I pick one?

Nov052015

2015’s Best Protein Powder

While in Petco tonight, I was questioning my normal choice for dog food and needed assistance. Under great duress due to my indecisive nature and love for our animals, I decided to head over to a reliable website. While we might look to Amazon and Yelp for reviews or thumbs up on YouTube for that matter, we often forget that anyone can contribute to those ratings. The result is something far more subjective and far less consistency.

When I need to make a more important decision, I might head over to Cnet or review.com because I know that they are professionals, getting paid for what they are doing, and therefore to a certain degree, their lives depend on providing high quality and far more objective reviews. While I don’t know them personally, their reviews seem to be extremely in-depth and considerate of more than just, “we’ll give you some money to recommend our product.” Sadly that happens far too often, especially in the fitness and nutrition industries!

Gotta get our protein on to stay hungry and fit!

Nov042015

Join a Society of Strength

This is a post that I recently wrote for Society of Strength, a new organization trying to bring all strength sports together in one supportive group. The article is called “Defining Strength” and while you might read the post here, please visit Society of Strength after and look around! You never know what you might learn! Often I have seen individuals fall in love with powerlifting, strongman, Crossfit, and more. What’s even better is that more often that not, those individuals are not athletes but just average people who love the cooperative nature of those sports, as opposed to bodybuilding or some other disciplines that can be very lonely. Either way, your experience is what you make it! Read this and you’re already going to be one step closer to being hungry and fit!

Nov032015

Are You Working Out Hard Enough?

There are a few ways to measure whether you’re working hard or not. Well, there are a lot more than a few ways, but there are only so many that are relatively accurate. When it comes to exercise, the best way to measure progress is over time. We can watch our strength and conditioning grow as we can do more pull-ups or as we can see more abs in the mirror. As our mile time decreases and our lean muscle mass increases, we receive positive feedback from our body and it feels good. But what about during that painful workout? What can keep you going during the hard times?

Let’s go back to the first statement made in this post and reconsider the two most popular options. The first one is called perceived exertion, which basically makes you subjectively rate how hard you’re working on a scale of 1-10, or 1-20. It usually takes me a few minutes to explain it enough to your average fitness enthusiast before they get the general idea. It could take them weeks, months, or years at that point to fully understand it and apply it. It’s not reliable enough for most people. It’s too qualitative and not quantitative enough because of its subjectivity. So what is the second option?

Nov012015

What NASM’s Acquisition of AFAA Means Right Now

Yes, this is old news to most fitness professionals, but it came up in the office the other day and I realized that I never shared this with you! If you click on this link you will see that NASM (National Academy of Sports Medicine) and AFAA (Aerobics and Fitness Association of America) are both listed on the same screen, on AFAA’s website nonetheless. Don’t be confused, AFAA has not acquired NASM; it’s actually the other way around. On this particular page, AFAA is offering a NASM Group Personal Training Online Workshop for $129, granting 7 AFAA CEUs. Essentially, you read a bit, watch some videos, and take a quiz that you need to pass in three attempts.

Image source: NASM

Oct302015

LA Residents: Workout with Hungry into 2016!

Every year since 2013, the Westside Family YMCA (in the Sawtelle neighborhood of West Los Angeles) has had a three-month program to help individuals make it through the most challenging time of year for maintaining a healthy lifestyle. The holidays present all kinds of travel issues such as staying at hotels, going out to eat a lot, huge meals with your family where saying no might be impolite, and just overall craziness. In this chaos, it’s hard to maintain balance, but we know that consistency is the key to success. Whether you’re trying to gain muscle mass, cut body fat, or just become stronger, you need to have a realistic and smart nutrition and exercise plan to accomplish these goals.

Oct292015

How to Sleep Better with Arthritis

This post is brought to you by our friends at Adjustamatic

If you suffer from arthritis, you’ll understand how it can make even the simplest of everyday tasks like getting in and out of bed a major challenge. The discomfort caused by the condition can also lead to low-quality sleep, which can have a detrimental impact on your overall well-being. If you’re struggling to nod off at night due to painful, stiff joints, this simple guide should help.

Oct282015

Giveaway: Lululemon Bag from Phitt

It’s just two months away from the most wonderful time of the year, for us at least. What’s our favorite part of the last two weeks of the year? Giving, of course. Thus, we want to share this opportunity with you. Our friends over at Phitt are currently giving away an amazing Lululemon Gym-to-Win Duffel Bag. This bag runs about $150 and could be the perfect holiday present for yourself or someone else, so you might as well try.