Why Your Weight Lifting PR Sucks
I don't Social Media often, but when I do, I remember why I hate it. It's because of your PR. Everyone who is on social media has seen someone (either someone they know, or a celebrity) posting about a PR that they set, along with a disastrous video or photo of them doing it. That video is usually accompanied by a caption that says something along the lines of "Forms not perfect, but I set a PR! Thanks to the best coach/trainer ever, I couldn’t have done it without you".Yes
Functional Fitness: What does that mean?
Today's guest post is from Michelle Gauvin. Michelle has been running her massage therapy business out of The Way HPI since it first opened in 2011, and in that same time has worked out with our trainers consistently. Michelle is not only an exercise enthusiast, but also leads a very activity-based lifestyle which includes hobbies like volleyball, paddle-boarding, hiking, and snowboarding. Because of the way she lives her life, Michelle is the perfect person to describe what "Functional Training" really entails, and does a great job doing so in this
How Physical Therapy Can Help You Run Marathons
About the Author: Today's blog post is a guest post from Amanda Smith, DPT, from Specialized Orthopedic Physical Therapy in Warwick, RI. Amanda has been a Physical Therapist at SOPT since 2013 after receiving her Doctorate in PT from Sacred Heart University. Before attending Sacred Heart, she received her Bachelor's Degree from The University of Rhode Island where she was also a member of the track team. Amanda not only has experience in treating marathoners, but has also run multiple half marathons as well as the Chicago Marathon in 2014. If you
3 Reasons That Rory (and All Golfers) Should Keep Lifting
Rory McIlroy has repeatedly made it known that he loves lifting weights and is proud of his accomplishments in the weight room, as he should be. Despite his career success and the fact that he attributes his power to his workouts, he has come under fire a few times for his off the course training regimen. The most recent example was when Brandel Chamblee commented that he should be ‘wary” of ending up like Tiger Woods. If Rory needs to give up anything to avoid ending up like Tiger, it’s golf, not lifting, and Rory made mention
3 Things You Need to do More of in the Gym
It's that time of year again. The gym is packed with people that you haven't seen since last January and won't see again after February 1st. All of the cardio machines have lines behind them and the benches are surrounded by groups of five. So what do you do? Well now may be the best time to work on some things that you don't do nearly enough of (and don't worry, you won't likely run in to lines of newbies waiting to do these exercises). Pull-ups A personal favorite of mine. While
Get Your Ski Legs
As Read in RI Fit Magazine, Pages 34-35 With the first snow of the year and winter finally showing up today, I figured now would be an appropriate time to address the most common of winter sports, and what we all do wrong in preparation for it. Many people make the mistake of waiting until the week before they go skiing (or snowboarding) to start training for it, or don't train for it at all, and end up paying for it the first few days on the slopes with unbearable leg
Striking a Balance in The Unstable Surface Controversy: How and Why You Should Use UST
Introduction The topic of unstable surface training has been one of great controversy within the strength and conditioning community for over a decade, and most people either find themselves on one side of the debate or the other. Either people love it and use it for everything, or they hate it and avoid using it for anything. That being said, I feel that we should all be somewhere in the middle on this issue. Go search the internet for unstable surface training and you will find notable names in the strength
Strength Training Isn’t Just for Physical Prowess
As many of our summer athletes head back to school, whether that be middle/high school, prep school, college, etc, it's good for us to take a step back and review our own performances as strength coaches. Did our athletes' testing numbers get better? Was our programming adequate? Was it appropriate? What could we have done better? It gives us an idea of what areas we as coaches need to improve upon, because there are always improvements to be made, and it also gives us something physical to hand our
Training On The Go
In this day and age of instant gratification -- fast food, fast cars, getting pissed at the internet taking more than 5 seconds to load Facebook -- we tend to be impatient with our goals and not realize how far we've progressed on our journeys, whatever they may be. In the fitness industry, I see a ton of clients who work their butts off for 75% of the year, but come the Summer, vacation awaits! I'm going to tell you how to keep up with your workouts, even when you
Optimizing Movement and FAI
Often times strength coaches, personal trainers, and the like fall into the habit of thinking every client should be able to perform the perfect squat, the perfect deadlift, the perfect overhead press, etc. The issue with this is that not everyone's structural anatomy is created equal. It's our job as Strength & Conditioning professionals to determine whether poor quality of movement in a client is a structural issue, which we then have to work around, or if it is a functional issue, which we can use all of our tools