Why We Fail at Reaching Our Goals by Mitch Davis As a coach of 14 years, I have had the privilege of watching hundreds of athletes and clients alike reach their goals. In a much more rare occasion, I have seen individuals go on to do far greater things than they once sought out for. A young wrestler of mine had the hopes of winning a local tournament. Just a year later, he is nationally ranked. Watching humans achieve and surpass their goals is something special.  But in order for something to be special, it must be unique. That is, this is something that happens rare ..read more

Why Having a Coach Matters by Mitch Davis When we decide that enough is enough and it is time to start exercising, one of the biggest questions we ask ourselves is “do I need a coach“. For some, this comes down to financial issues and for the sake of this post, we won’t be including that factor. But, for others, it comes down to our beliefs regarding the efficacy of hiring a professional. Is it really that necessary to hire a coach? Will I actually be better off with someone instructing me on what to do?  The short answer is it depends. But, for many of us, the answer is a ..read more

The #1 Exercise that You Absolutely Must be Doing By Mitch Davis I hate extremes, and that includes comments. I try to avoid absolute certainty as I am one to believe that there is far more nuance when it comes to exercise than most coaches are willing to admit. However, just this once, I will live in one-hundred percent, absolute, unwavering confidence in my certainty.  There is one exercise that reigns above all others. If this exercise is absent in your training regime, you are missing out on all of its benefits. Coaches and trainers can spend all of their time arguing about what is th ..read more

How to Make the Most of Your Off-Season by Mitch Davis I’m sure there is some bad-ass motivational quote that talks about how winning doesn’t occur in-season, but it is the off-season that matters. Since motivational quotes are stupid, we’ll get more to the point. First, what is your off-season? For a college athlete, this means 7-9 months. For the multi-sport high school athlete, the “off-season” might never truly occur. To keep things organized, we’ll assume that the off-season is anything we’re doing to prepare for our main sport, regardless if you’re a multi-sport athlete. First, I believe ..read more

Top Beginner Fitness Mistakes By Mitch Davis The first mistake, generally speaking, is being happy. This brings with it a sense of accomplishment and pride, which means next to nothing, as in the end, we all die anyway. Beyond that, over-thinking crushes us all. Many of us have heard of the phrase “paralysis by analysis”. We get so caught up in the “do’s and don’ts” that we never even begin. The fitness industry is plagued with “experts” who convince us that we absolutely must train a certain way. Some fall into the biomechanics camp, where they will show you, via fancy graphs and charts, how ..read more

Barriers to Exercise by Mitch Davis Each year, politicians and healthcare professionals alike lament over the fact that more and more Americans are growing unhealthy. We are climbing in obesity and diabetes numbers, heart health, and more. We’ve tried to correlate these numbers to a lot of things. Professionals have tried to blame alcohol, yet our current numbers do not match those of previous decades. Carbohydrates have been deemed the culprit, but again, our numbers are not nearly where they were in years past. And finally, sugar. Again, the numbers don’t add up.  Is it really a nutriti ..read more

Nutrition Tips for the Holidays by Mitch Davis You’ve worked really hard the past few months and have noticed your hard work paying off. Your friends and family are showing you with compliments and you’re eager to continue to make progress. However, it is that time of year where we’re surrounded by an abundance of food. Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Year’s pose a serious threat to our gains. So, we turn to strangers online for advice, knowing that they’ll have the secret formula for success.  So, being that stranger with the secret formula, I will tell you exactly how to manage your nu ..read more

Why Am I Not Seeing Results? by Mitch Davis Many of us have struggled with reaching our goals. Whether this be a specific number on a certain lift, or more subjective in nature such as “getting stronger”. There are a few areas that we can look at to determine some potential reasons as to why you’re not seeing the results you want. This is by no means a comprehensive list and if you are dedicated to reaching your goals, I would suggest reaching out to a coach (shameless Power Train plug, I know).  The first reason you’re not seeing results is because you’re not taking anabolic steroids. We ..read more

How to Live to 100 by Mitch Davis I wanted this article to be titled “How to live a happy life, physically, emotionally, relationally, and spiritually, while learning to not take things too seriously, as well as ensuring that you are living your greatest life, regardless of the years spent on earth, rather than thinking that old age is the only indicator of a life well lived”, but our creative team decided that title wasn’t catchy enough. So, here we are. How to live to 100! Living to 100 is simply an idea. It is a way of putting life into perspective. It ensures that we are feeding into our s ..read more

NFL Baltimore Ravens Strength and Conditioning Internship We sat down with Tony Fernandez, Performance Coach at Power Train Palmyra, to discuss his internship experience this past summer with the Baltimore Ravens as a member of their strength and conditioning team. How was your experience? My experience with the Ravens was really good. I learned a lot of new stuff, met a lot of good coaches down there and the players were all very good. I came away with a lot of new stuff that I was able to bring back to the Power Train facility.  Biggest takeaways? My biggest takeaway was learning from ..read more