Happy Memorial Day 2014

Please take a moment to remember and honor those who died in service to our nation.

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Simple Rules To Faster Fitness

If you’re like the average person who is interested in improving health, dropping fat, and getting stronger, following these guidelines will help you get the best results from your strength training workouts:   

Always begin a workout with a full warmup. A good dynamic warmup prepares the muscles for what’s to come and allows you to work harder and with less risk of injury. If you are short on time, cut back on your working sets, never on your warmup. 

Perform a total body workout 3 times a week with at least one day of rest in between. Unless you plan on competing as a bodybuilder, ditch the musclehead magazines and their body part routines. Muscles work in groups and trying to isolate them during a workout is a waste of time for most people. 

Spend more time using free weights and bodyweight exercises rather than sitting on machines. You’ll work more muscles, burn more calories, and you’ll do it more naturally and functionally.

Concentrate on compound exercises. Exercises like Squats, Rows, Lunges, Pushups, Deadlifts, Presses, Pulldowns, etc. work multiple muscles at the same time, are more functional, and burn more calories than isolation work.

Ignore the "low weight, high reps to tone" myth that’s still floating around out there. There are exceptions, of course, but for most exercises, you should challenge your muscles using a resistance you can only lift 6-10 times with good form.

Unless you are correcting a current imbalance, make sure your weight training program is balanced between opposing muscle groups. Don't ignore exercises you don't like or do extra sets just of those that you do like. Either scenario can cause muscle imbalances and lead to injury.

Ditch the long, steady state cardio and switch to hill sprints, cardio intervals, finishers, metabolic circuits, etc. (unless you’re training for a specific event - 5K, half marathon, long distance bike ride, etc.) They’re more efficient and effective.
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Workout For St. Jude Children's Research Hospital - Saturday, May 17th

Join me this Saturday, May 17th for a fun and challenging group workout to benefit St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital.

Because of treatments invented at St. Jude, the overall childhood cancer survival rate has increased from 20%, when it opened in 1962, to more than 80% today.


As opposed to some other researchers, the team at St. Jude freely shares their medical breakthroughs. Every child saved at St. Jude allows doctors and scientists throughout the world to use that knowledge to save thousands more children.

 
Our workout will begin at 9 AM and last approximately 45 minutes, including warmup and cooldown. Please spread the word among your co-workers, neighbors, friends, and family. 

Requested donation is $20 or $20 or more in sponsor donations. If you can't exercise with us, please consider sponsoring a participant.

All fitness levels are invited. Exercises will be adapted or substituted, as necessary. Anyone 12 and older is welcome to join us.

It really helps if I have an idea of how many people to expect so, if possible, please let me know ahead of time that you’re coming. Then again, if you decide last minute, just come on down. Raising as much money as possible is obviously the goal.

To register or if you have any questions, please call Mickey at (717) 509-7777.

All proceeds benefit St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, where no child is ever turned away due to parental inability to pay and no family is billed for services not paid by insurance.

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How Exercise Could Be More Rewarding :-)

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