Stew Smith Fitness News

Are you worried about the New Army Combat Fitness Test?  Were you one of those who were barely passing the old test (muscle stamina and endurance) each 6 month cycle? OR are you a new recruit and all of this change of PT tests news to you?  If so, you need to get into the weight room and not only build your muscle stamina and cardio endurance, BUT now you need to add strength, power, speed and agility, and grip strength.  You still have to do a 2 mile run and pushups (sort of) so maintaining those numbers while building...

Never Give Up!  I did not know there was a National Never Give Up Day! Sounds like a good a day as any to explain the term - NEVER GIVE UP.  When you use the term “never give up” to someone who is not native to the English language, they ask interesting questions to please explain what is meant by “never giving up.” You quickly realize “give” and “up” together make little sense so you quickly resort to a simpler expression such as “never surrender” or the more popular “never quit”. But this is not just a new term from...

Hard workouts are obviously relative to the person as someone’s warmup may actually be another person’s full workout.  So, landmark workouts for people’s birthdays (like my 50th this year), holiday challenges (Murph), Hero Workouts, or racing events should be created for the fitness levels of those doing it.  If you happen to join a group for the first time on a day that there is a landmark workout, you may want pull back and go at your own level of fitness if you are not used to the volume in the routine. Whether it is repetitions, weight, mileage, or just...

When you look at many of the reasons people share about not training regularly, you will see that most typically “do not have enough time in their day” especially when working long hours, commuting an additional hour or more, and other family commitments in the evening. It is true, none of us have time to train, but as with eating, sleeping, brushing teeth, and other daily activities, we have to make time.  Here are some ways to fit fitness into your day as well as better ways to get specifics versus too general in your fitness training: 1 – Make...

Exercising and exerting yourself to the point of getting headaches during strenuous workouts is not uncommon.  However, the headaches can be typically tied to breathing incorrectly during lifts and your current state of hydration.  However, there are a few other things that can cause headaches in the gym. Check out the question from a young man seeking to serve in the military in his future but has had a few issues with headaches over the past few workouts: Mr. Smith, I am a college freshman trying to reapply to a service academy this year.  I have a question on exertion...