I am injured. And I have been for a while. In the grand scheme of things, it’s been a short amount of actual time, but for someone like me, someone who trains in some way six to seven days a week, it seems quite long, indeed. My injury(injuries) began in mid-July (now it's early October) with a strained right calf caused by running. The calf issue has been a bit recurring and is a known quantity. A little (or a lot) of rest and the usual rehab protocols would have me back in action relatively quickly if the second, more traumatic event had not occurred. On my way to work, I crashed my scooter ..read more

Are you hypermobile? Unsure if you are because you’ve never heard this term before? Consider: Are you pretty flexible? Is it easier to perform specific ranges of motion and other stretching positions, but you can also feel really tight in other areas? Does it seem difficult to build muscle or “feel” muscles working different exercises? Have you been described as “double-jointed?” Can you do some pretty fun/slightly grotesque party tricks with your body? If this sounds like you, count yourself as one of the estimated 15-20% of the population with hypermobility. Hypermobility, like m ..read more

“NOTHING IN BIOLOGY MAKES SENSE EXCEPT IN THE LIGHT OF EVOLUTION” - T. Dobzhyansky Hello again everyone, and welcome to another segment of Smartt Talk.  My last segment focused on the longest day of the year, where I shared the importance of light as the primary cue for guiding our circadian biology (that phrase given to myriad processes in the body based on the rhythm of night and day).  Having touched on that topic, I’m inspired to take a step back and offer a broader perspective on health and wellness that is at the core of my entire view on how to live a life of physical, mental ..read more

It's finally happened: the first day of summer! It’s a day that reminds me of the many benefits of daylight, sunshine, and maintaining a circadian rhythm that’s in line with nature.  That last part might sound fancy, but it’s simply keeping a schedule that reasonably has us waking with the light of the day and refraining from sources of blue light (TVs, computers, smartphones, etc.) too close to bedtime.  What does this have to do with health and wellness? Big picture: our body sets its internal hormonal rhythms primarily by knowing when the day begins and ends. In other wo ..read more

Written by Mike Smartt, co-owner of Bay Functional Fitness, musician, and personal trainer Data from a recent 5-year survey of Americans found: 12.2% are metabolically healthy(1) (based on waist circumference - fasting glucose -  blood pressure - triglycerides - HDL cholesterol) Hello my bff’s: here we are, week 20 of the SIP. I dearly hope you and yours are all doing well, staying safe, and taking measures to maintain your wellbeing.  In light of COVID and the significant role of pre-existing conditions as risk factors for the disease, I’m starting a series of articles that look at ..read more

By Lisa Vonnegut, co-owner of Bay Functional Fitness and Body Synergy FitCation, and personal trainer Have you gained “Pandemic Pounds?” You’re not alone. A survey of 1,000 WebMD readers reported that 50% of women and 25% of men have reported weight gain since the beginning of the pandemic. A global health crisis isn’t an easy time to reverse that trend. Turning to Google for an answer doesn’t simplify the process. If you search “weight loss” there are 2.8 billion hits. Add the word “supplements” and the results are still 763 million. The sheer volume of information available –much of it confl ..read more

By Mel Hilario, Corporate Operations Manager, Instructor, & Personal Trainer The COVID-19 quarantine seemed to happen quickly. First: don’t shake hands, sanitize the doorknobs. Then: stay six feet apart, stay home. And now: wear a mask, wipe down your groceries, even wash the apples and oranges, as well as navigate a constant deluge of news. It makes sense that we got overwhelmed and freaked out a little—or a lot. Hindsight, they say, is 20/20–and so far, 2020 has already given us a lot to look back on. I asked myself: what would late-April Me want to tell mid-March Me?  First, I’d sa ..read more

By Lisa Vonnegut, co-owner of Bay Functional Fitness and Body Synergy FitCation, and personal trainer Sunday, March 15, my first glimpse of what was coming. I received a message from two of my long-term clients saying they wanted to discuss how to manage their training sessions. Though vibrant, healthy, and more active than people decades younger, at 73 and 82, they are in a demographic considered vulnerable to COVID-19.  “We don’t want you to lose any money,” they said, “but we don’t want to come into the studio.” Thinking on my feet, I suggested we try training via FaceTime; them at hom ..read more

Written by Mike Smartt, co-owner of Bay Functional Fitness, musician, and personal trainer Let’s continue our look at all of the opportunities we have for improving our innate immune system. Today, we’re going to look at one of the giants: stress management - key word: management. Why isn’t “stress” the keyword? Because stress is absolutely normal. It’s what signals our bodies to adapt and become stronger so that we are better able to handle more stress in the future. But if that’s the case, why is stress at the heart of so many disease states, including a depressed or overactive immune s ..read more

By Mark Lynn, co-owner of Bay Functional Fitness and The Golden Bull, personal trainer It’s very common for athletes to refer to what they’re doing and the intensity of it as ‘suffering.’ They might say they were able to dig really deep and make themselves suffer after a grueling training session or race. I once had a sports psychologist ask me, “Were you able to stop whenever you wanted to?” I answered incredulously, “Yes. Of course.” He then told me that I was not, indeed, suffering. True suffering is a condition that we have no control over. If you can decide immediately to change your cir ..read more