Stew Smith Fitness News

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...

Moving into the New Year, many look for ways to start getting serious again with everything they either need to stop (bad habits) and everything they need to do better (good habits). Here is a quick and easy motivator and mantra you can try to help you maintain discipline to be better at exercising, eating better (and less), sleeping better, and learning ways to mitigate stress:  Move More, Eat Less, Sleep Better, Less Stress   I know most in the fitness and nutrition business HATE this quote, but read more into it before you judge an "outdated mantra".  Move More -...

Pushup improvement can come in many different shapes and sizes as we all may have different reactions to certain methods.  Some methods will work better for you than others. But it also depends on your current fitness levels, recent workout methods, workouts per week, arm / hand placement, body weight, and even arm length. These things matter when asking questions on how to improve your PT scores.  Here is a question that required some follow up questions to figure out a path for this person to see improvement in pushup training. (Note, the following methods will also work for pullups)....