Stew Smith Fitness News

This week a National Guard soldier who is preparing for his PFT asked a common question that many people get wrong. “Since I have a cold (head stuffed, sore throat, sinus pain) is it OK to PT or run?”First of all, anytime you go into a public facility consider it germ infested during the flu season -- especially a gym. Catching colds from your kids who attend school, from living in barracks, or from cafeterias is all too common during the flu season. By simply washing your hands and using hand cleaner throughout your day, you can significantly decrease your...

Here is an emailed question about not having the facilities to do pullups. I have a hard time with this one as I have not been a gym member for nearly twenty years and have no issues with finding pullup bars or even building my own for little or no money. Just use some good old fashioned ingenuity or buy an inexpensive pullup bar system if you need to. One observation too - have you noticed there is NEVER a line in the gym for the pull up bars? There is a reason - Pullups are hard to do -...

If you like going to the beach during the summer, you may already have a routine you like to do. Many like to just walk the beach which is a great form of exercise. However, this article is for a few young people preparing to join the military special forces like Navy SEALs or SWCC, Air Force PJs, Marine RECON, as well as Search and Rescue Swimmers as well.Here is the question from a future military man: Stew, I love the articles you pump out each week, I look around your archive and did not see anything about beach PT....

People who exercise and those who do not, often neglect the upper back and rear shoulder muscles. Life has a way of bowing your upper back and rolling your shoulders forward. In technical terms, we are basically “internally rotated” within the shoulder girdle. Many things in life "internally rotate” us such as driving, sitting at a computer, playing video games, texting, carrying backpacks, bench pressing, pushups, situps and many more exercises and daily life events. So posture is critical to performance and our confidence. Perfect Posture is possible by adding in a few daily exercises for only a few minutes.Basically,...

I recently wrote an article on Adding Balance to Your Life, but it was aimed more at beginners and for those who are losing their balance as they age. People fall everyday due to loss of balance muscles that accompanies a sedentary lifestyle. Spending your 40s, 50s, and 60s not exercising regularly can lead to a variety of broken bones and even death. So by simply standing on one leg everyday for a few minutes can help you build the lower leg muscles which will help with your reaction time to catch yourself if you stumble. This article is inspired...