Stew Smith Fitness News

This week my brother-in-law got a check up as he nears his 40th birthday and was alarmed with elevated cholesterol scores. Knowing he is not the healthiest eater and chooses to get his exercise by playing sports (basketball, volleyball, etc), he asked me what he should eat / not eat and do for better exercise. It is important to know and understand your cholesterol scores as well as know the difference between HDL, LDL, and triglycerides as high cholesterol has long been proven to lead to heart disease, the number one killer in the US. As defined by the National...

If you are like a majority of the people who exercise regularly, often the question of what do you do first - Cardio workouts (Running, swimming, biking, cardio machines at the gym) or Resistance training workouts (lift weights or PT) is discussed. This article will further discuss that question on several different levels. What combination is best for the following common exercise goals: - Fat Metabolism- Muscular Strength Gains- Overall Health- Fitness Test Training Fat Metabolism - For optimal burning of stored fat, you need to take into consideration nutrition and understand how the body uses the foods we eat...

Here is an email that I receive with increasing regularity as of late. More and more young people have elevated blood pressure or high blood pressure and this is affecting their ability to join the military. Here is an email from such a person:I'm trying to get in the Army National Guard. I passed the ASVAB and most of the physical. I said "most" because they found that I had high blood pressure. To be honest it took me by surprise because I work out, jog everyday and do not have any type of substance abuse problem. I don't smoke,...

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,...

Nearly on a daily basis, people young and old confide in me with their fitness goals. Too many of these goals are extremely broad and lack focus and many are too narrow in scope and require more elements to succeed. For example, broad goals are “getting healthy again” or “losing weight”. These can require some to stop over-eating, smoking, drinking soda or other sugary products, as well as start exercising ALL at the same time. Anytime someone tries to do all of the above in the same week, they are statistically destined to not be successful. The opposite problem occurs...