Gyms ought to provide their members – their customers – with the best possible experience for fitness and health. Instead, they cut corners and make the facility and equipment the biggest challenge of your workout.
Once you find yourself diagnosed with a case of tendinosis, you’re committed to a rehab program for life. Even after you finish your stint of physical therapy, you’re not fully healed. Think of tendinopathy as a line on a graph. The line may rise above or fall below the threshold of pain depending on how…
Each day after my workout, I find myself getting dressed next to a guy who is clearly homeless. Instead of unpacking a gym bag, he carries into the locker room a camping-style backpack with a compartment for a sleeping bag. He doesn’t seem like he’s preparing to exercise, but more like he’s found a place…
I’m a fan of basic, compound movements that work large muscle groups. Beyond building bulk, power movements like squats and deadlifts cause the body to release a flood of growth hormones, stimulating further gains. However, sometimes due to choice, but mostly due to necessity, gym members spend a great deal of time focusing on smaller…
When it comes to gym etiquette, the absolute minimum is wiping your sweat off your bench and re-racking your weights. Most gyms have signs posted to this effect. When I walked into my gym’s aerobics room this morning, the pigsty stopped me in my tracks: This mess is well beyond some slob not following the…
Taking a break from the gym is great not just for the physical rest, but also for stepping away from the mental grind. I’m not even talking about what’s required to motivate yourself day after day. The gym environment itself creates anxiety and stress. One major hassle is the way you must compete with other…