When you get up the motivation to begin a health journey, you’re ready for results. In fact, you’re likely tired of the way you’ve been living for a while: feeling out of shape, carrying extra pounds…. Unfortunately, our routines don’t always meet with our immediate expectations. Maybe we even find ourselves sidetracked after enjoying some initial success. What gives? While we should expect a certain ebb and flow in our progress, sometimes it becomes clear that we’ve stalled out along the way ..read more

Think for a minute…. What would it be like to power through your gym session with energy to spare? Today I want to talk about the popular supplement class dubbed “ergogenic aids.” Why take them? Are they safe? What are the dos and don’ts ..read more

It’s officially that time of year. The time of year where you start to notice more sniffles and coughs from your coworkers.  More runny noses and feverish temperatures from your kids. Or perhaps – no shows from your invited list of guests for a birthday party or fall gathering because they’re home sick with the flu ..read more

When it comes to exercise and achieving fitness goals, it can be so easy for members to fixate solely on the effort put into a workout that they can forget to make time for other beneficial components of a fitness routine such as recovery. More specifically, heat therapy. With benefits that help stimulate hormone production, rid the body of toxins, improves cardiovascular health, and speeds recovery and injury rehabilitation, heat therapy is one recovery method that your workout routine can’t afford to miss out on ..read more

Magnesium is one of the most important essential minerals for human health, along with sodium, potassium, and calcium. It’s known to be a vital cofactor for several hundred metabolic processes that keep us alive and well (some estimates suggest magnesium is need for up to 600 different biochemical reactions in our bodies!).  Our bodies contain about 25 milligrams of magnesium, most of which is found in our bones, muscles and brain.  About 1% of our magnesium circulates through our bloodstream ..read more

Serious athletes, stay-at-home parents, busy executives and most other mortals succumb to the effects of under-recovery from time to time. Under recovery is slightly different than overtraining. Most non-athletes would have a hard time achieving “textbook” overtraining syndrome since it’s difficult to achieve the high training volumes related to overtraining. Under-recovery may be related to training volume, but often is a result of poor lifestyle and nutrition choices, which compete against the effects of an intense training program. Not surprisingly, the symptoms are very similar and stem ..read more

Each day we encounter a number of different physical, emotional, physiological, chemical, nutritional or environmental stressors that we need to respond or adapt to. Whether it’s stress induced from a workout, the pressure to hit a deadline, harsh chemicals looming in the air or mending a difficult relationship, the way your body physically reacts to stress will always be the same—the same physiological systems will be involved and the same hormones will be released. While not all stress is bad, when we experience too much for too long, there can be serious consequences to our health ..read more

The buzz of summer is coming to an end, and while transitioning into a new season never goes quite as planned, there are some smart ways you can capitalize on the change of pace to get back to healthier eating habits. Whether you’ve been off track for a week, a month or maybe even longer, try implementing these effective strategies that can yield big improvements to your nutrition ..read more

Sugar has a sneaky way of making it into our food, and if we’re not careful, too much of it in any form can lead to a variety of health issues. Too much sugar can not only impact our waistline, but it can also have a negative impact on our blood sugar, energy, mood, gut health and even worse — can cause you to have more cravings. According to data from the USDA, the average American consumes 90 pounds of sugar per year (that’s equals 1.7 per pounds per week and 3.9 ounces or 110 grams per day ..read more

Here’s the thing. The fitness journey can feel monotonous. And generally speaking – it really is because you continuously are sending your body the same signals (eating healthy, working out, sleeping, etc.) over and over. As fitness pros – we feel you. Eventually we can tire of the same exercise circuit or meal lineup. But, simple tweaks in our weekly routines can have the power to stir up new enthusiasm and even push us to the next level in terms of physical change, metabolic function and mental game. At the end of the day, we want you to avoid any inkling to throw in towel or fall off trac ..read more