You may have read or heard about the term “functional exercise” being thrown around by personal trainers and fitness experts. With the increased awareness about the importance of core strength, flexibility, and movement patterns, functional exercise has become quite the buzz.

So what exactly is functional exercise? The best definition I’ve found is functional exercise is simply exercise that works the muscles in your body through integration in multiple planes of motion, the same way we move in everyday life.

This is in stark contrast to traditional health club machines that work your muscles in isolation. Although there are some benefits to isolating a muscle (primarily hypertrophy or increasing muscle mass) for most people who want to BOTH look and move better, the benefit of functional training cannot be understated.

It is my opinion that exercise should not be something done while “sitting down.” Exercise should be about conditioning the body within...

Today let's talk about perspective. Defined as a "particular attitude toward something," a point of view per say, we all have a perspective on things like exercise or circumstances in our lives. Good or bad, positive or negative, it will be up to us to establish the perspective we have with it.

I often look to work with my personal training clients when there's a need to establish a positive association with working out. This is an often-overlooked aspect with helping someone to develop a new habit. I don't care what the "it" is, if you dread it and only associate this thing with pain, discomfort, and negative feelings, you're not likely to persevere and reap the benefits you could from it.

If the words "working out" to you conjures up visions of puddles of sweat, pain, nausea, and feeling like you're going to collapse, you need a different perspective not to mention probably a different means of fitness training.

Look, exercise and working out shouldn't make you feel like you're...

I came across a press release this week from Science Daily regarding a research study that looked at a woman’s ability to burn fat in a menopausal or post-menopausal state. Now it’s no secret that fat loss can be more difficult for women when they reach mid-life, but it’s not necessarily for the reasons you think. I thought it would be informative to do a blog post on this subject to help shine some truth on this controversial subject.

I’ll go right ahead and directly answer the question “Can women burn fat after menopause?”

The answer is unequivocally YES! This is the truth and it’s important to embrace this truth if you’re a woman looking to lose weight and you’re in any of the following categories:

• Nearing mid-life and menopause
• Possibly or affirmatively in menopause
• Post-menopausal

Why is this so important?

Because it’s essential that you work from a place of truth, and you set your belief systems on said truth, so...

So you’re looking to get started with a workout routine for the first time, or for the first time in a long time, and the question is, “what exercises should I do?” Starting your fitness program off with the right exercises and the right routine will play a significant role in not only your results, but also with reducing your risk of injuries.

Most people who are unsure about what to do so simply watch others in the gym and mimic what they see them doing or follow a workout on-line. This isn’t a very effective strategy for making sure there’s proper personalization for individual needs. Simply put, the exercises that someone else performs may not be best suited for you at this time.

In today’s post I’ll share with you some strategies to follow when starting a personal fitness program.  

Look to begin with functional exercise when developing a foundation for resistance training.

At my Shaping Concepts Personal Training Studios, we...

We all know one of the top priorities in a fat loss program is to reduce sugar consumption. This can be easier said than done though for a lot of folks. There is no question that excess sugar in the body is one of the primary culprits behind the hormonal imbalances and inflammation that promote weight gain. However, the problem is not the idea of cutting back on the sugars, it’s often the way it’s gone about.

Alright before we go much further, let’s first review some basics so we’re all on the same page. Consuming a diet high in processed sugars, refined foods, and starch carbohydrates combined with a lack of exercise is a leading contributor to low insulin sensitivity, progressive insulin resistance, and eventually left unchecked a condition called metabolic X syndrome. This is where the weight gain comes fast and furious and the body succumbs to suppressed health and wellness.

More on how we get there.

As you may already know, one of insulin’s main...

You know a lot of people automatically assume because I'm a fitness trainer that it's easy for me to stay on track with healthy eating and exercise habits.

The reality of it is though, I struggle at times just like everyone else does. There was a particular time I remember several years back now when the stress of trying to run three personal training studios in three different cities started taking a significant toll on my mental, emotional, and physical health.

I was putting in over 60 hours a week running back and forth between Mt. Pleasant, Bluffton and Myrtle Beach on a regular basis. When you're stressed out and not setting priority-based boundaries on your time it's easy to get out of balance...and that's exactly what happened to me!

It was like a domino effect. First, I started losing sleep from the stress which just made me sluggish all day. Next, since I was tired most the time, I didn't have energy to workout. And since I wasn't working out, I was feeling lousy, to put it...

Are you frustrated with not seeing the scale go down even after changing up your diet and eating healthy foods? If so you’re not alone. Over the years as a personal trainer, I’ve found this idea of eating “healthy” to be misleading for a lot of my clients. There’s often an automatic expectation that if you eat healthy you should start to lose weight. While it’s true that eating healthy foods is a cornerstone for a successful fat loss program in the long-term, we shouldn’t expect the pounds to just start melting off because we’re making better food choices. Fat loss is a more complex matter than simply the quality of calories consumed. Remember, we still need to factor in the quantity of calories as well.

Instead of trying to put foods into one of two categories (good or bad), I’ve found it works better to help educate my clients on how the body burns fat. In other words, we work together to find the best way for them to eat that...

Let me paint you a picture of a scenario I’ve seen countless times over the past twenty years as a personal trainer. A new client comes into the gym ready to take action with losing weight and living a healthier lifestyle. They’re highly motivated and eager to start their diet plan and workouts. During the first few weeks the excitement only builds as they begin to feel better and have more energy.

But then out of the blue, completely without any real warning signs, they fall off the wagon and backslide into old habits! If you’ve ever started a diet or workout program and experienced this happening to you, I can assure you that you’re certainly not alone.

Self-sabotage is more common than you may think when going about making significant lifestyle changes. The important thing to understand is that its “change” and change can make people do some funny things. Often times, it’s things they don’t really want to do and don’t...

I recently had a talk with a client that I thought would be a good subject to expand on as a coaching tip for the blog. Basically, this client has a good understanding of what to eat and what not to eat and is staying pretty much "inside the white lines" when it comes to healthy food choices. The problem is she’s not losing weight despite being on a healthy diet. Needless to say, she’s a bit frustrated with cleaning up her diet so much but not seeing the scale move.

With a little questioning it quickly became clear there were issues with overeating and portion control. I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again….getting on a diet of “healthy” foods and cutting out the processed garbage is NOT a guarantee for fat loss. While this is certainly part of the equation, and needed mind you, but without a caloric deficit at some point, there’s not much need for the body to tap into energy reserves (fat).

For some individuals switching from...

I’ve often been asked about what makes the body use carbs or fats for fuel both during and after exercise, so today I’ll try to answer this question without hopefully getting overly technical. Bear with me on some of the details, but hopefully by the end of the article I’ll have provided clarity. We’ll get into how your body uses both carbs and fat in energy production along with how this pertains to exercise and weight loss. Understanding the differences will help you make more informed decisions with your pre and post workout nutrition if your goals include changing your body composition.

Alright, let’s start with discussing whether there’s a difference between how the body burns carbs or fats for energy. It’s important to first understand the body really cannot use either carbohydrates or fat directly (in their original form) for energy production. They both must be broken down into smaller units which the cells can then use for energy....