Stew Smith Fitness News

Stew, I’ve been reading your articles and you have some great tips on how to lose weight. I am a 34 year old mother of two, am 5’8”, and have been fighting an extra 30-40 lb for the past two years. It seems that everything I try ends up in failure. I am afraid I am locked in an infinite cycle of Phase 1. I can’t seem to get out of this phase!I need some tough words to motivate me, with no option of failure. I am sick of the “you can do it” mentality, said with a smile. Maybe...

Changing your life and deciding to do something different because you yearn to is something you read about, but I am here to tell you it can happen to you at any time in your life. Most of us all say to ourselves, "One day, I'd like to do that." One day two men meet for the first time. One, a 52 year old Catholic priest and the other a 28 year old Navy SEAL Lieutenant. The two could never have foreseen the effect they would have on each others lives. I personally know first hand because I am Stew...

This week, a former Army Officer and Reservist emailed me to ask, "will a low-carb diet hurt my PFT scores?" He went onto state that his unit was being called for active duty and he had to lose some weight to get into "fighting shape" so he went on one of the high protein and low carbohydrate diets and lost over 20 lbs very quickly. However, his workouts such as running, lifting weights and calisthenics were not that impressive and he is not seeing the results he needs. The low-carb diet eliminates foods such as fruits and vegetables loaded with...

This week I received an email titled, "LOVE-HANDLES!! Help me lose them." I have been working on a routine that incorporates exercises that will help you work your love handles (the oblique region of the torso). Personally, I like to work my "obliques" on days I work my legs, so I created the Legs and Love Handles workout seen below. As with any abdominal exercise, you need to concentrate on three areas to help firm your mid-section. These are: 1) Healthy Diet,2) Cardio-vascular and resistance training, and (arrangement of workouts too will help burn fat)3) Abdominal exercises to firm muscles...

We all are susceptible to lower back injuries– military, law enforcement, advanced athlete, beginning exerciser, or sedentary person – we all get back injuries of some sort. The back injuries seen most in doctor’s offices and chiropractic clinics world wide involve the lower back / hip region and can occur from a variety of different causes. According to Dr. Steve Erle D.C. and physical therapist of the Maryland Disc Institute, most of the injuries in the region are lower back muscle pulls or tears, disc inflammation, or the spine itself. These three types of lower back injuries can occur from...