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Happy New Year! In this article, I'm going to predict your future and forecast exactly what kind of results you're going to get in the next 12 months. Sylvia Browne, step aside... I'm pretty good at this. Several years ago, a public relations firm in New York City asked me to write an article for one of their publications about fitness trends and predictions for the coming year. It turned out that my "crystal ball" was pretty darn accurate. I nailed most of the predictions I made about aerobics classes, yoga, core training, "holistic" approaches, online personal training technology, the baby boomer market, increasing obesity and many other subjects. I do confess, it wasn't that difficult, because instead of just guessing, I actually did some research on industry statistics and I also had some "inside insights" because I'd been a health club manager for so many years and was privy to fitness business trends. This year, in...

For most winters in New Jersey, it doesn't matter whether Punxsatawney Phil sees his shadow or not… After being dumped on with snow and braving bitter cold temperatures, and the ever-so-despised ice storms, with sidewalks of slush and streets as slick as skating rinks, it usually seems like winter will never end! And they call this place the Garden State? Anyway, I remember reading a news story about the Famous Pennsylvania groundhog, and that got me thinking… For most people, weight loss is a lot like groundhog day… Why Weight Loss Is a Lot Like Groundhog Day Before I became a full time author/writer and online publisher, I used to work in health clubs. For 14 years, I was a trainer and gym manager, and every January, there was a huge influx of new members. Unfortunately, most of them were GONE by February! I swear this is not "urban legend," it's absolutely true – I used to print out the attendance records to prove it! The attendance spike in Janua...

Do calories matter or do you simply need to eat certain foods and that will guarantee you'll lose weight? Should you count calories or can you just count "portions?" Is it necessary to keep a food diary? Is it unrealistic to count calories for the rest of your life or is that just part of the price you pay for a better body? You're about to learn the answers to these questions and discover a simple solution for keeping track of your food intake without having to crunch numbers every day or become a fanatic about it. In many popular diet books, "Calories don't count" is a frequently repeated theme. Other popular programs, such as Bill Phillip's "Body For Life," stress the importance of energy intake versus energy output, but recommend that you count "portions" rather than calories… Phillips wrote, "There aren't many people who can keep track of their calorie intake for an extended period of time. As an alter...

"Common workout mistakes" has always been a very popular topic in fitness publications. But no matter how many times this subject is re-hashed, you almost always hear about the same half a dozen or so mistakes, including poor form, overtraining, going too heavy, not stretching, not warming up, yadda, yadda yadda. Ironically, you seldom hear about the biggest mistakes of all. I call these humongous bloopers "bonehead mistakes" because once you start to analyze and think about them, they're really just common sense and they all seem so obvious… except of course to the person doing it… who is often quite oblivious until someone else points it out to them... then the light goes on and it's like... "Doh!" Before I begin the countdown, (in no particular order), there's one more gripe I have about the treatment this subject has been given in the past: Most of the attention has been put on the mistakes, but very little on the solutions. ...

Every year as Thanksgiving gets closer, you've probably seen the depressing reports: "Most people gain between 5 and 10 pounds of body fat in the six weeks between Thanksgiving and Christmas." I'm not sure if this worries you or not, but a lot of people are terrified about getting fatter in the next two months. They anticipate the workouts falling by the wayside and the holiday food calling out to them irresistibly, defeating even the strongest willpower. There's good news and bad news about this. Good news: According to the New England Journal of Medicine, the average amount gained is much more modest - just over a pound. Bad news: A study by the National Institutes of Health found that this seasonal weight gain - even just a pound - is the kind of weight gain that most people don't lose when the holidays are over; it simply adds to the "weight creep" that "sneaks up" on you as you get older. People o...

In a surprising comment made during a popular UK radio show, the founder of one of the largest Pizza chains in the United States and United Kingdom told listeners not to eat too much pizza! In an interview with host Adam Shaw on BBC's Radio Four program, John Schnatter, the founder of Papa John's pizza, was asked whether he was concerned about the British government's recent actions in the fast food restaurant business to help put the brakes on obesity. Schnatter said, "Pizza is actually healthy for you if you don't eat too much of it. You can't eat five or six slices but if you eat one or two slices it's very nutritious." Laughing, Shaw replied, "I'm not sure your investors would want to hear you tell people, 'don't eat too much of our pizzas!"' Across the web, bloggers and tweeters have been putting in their two cents. Some say he was a little TOO honest. Others say this was either the worst PR screw up ever…...

How would you like to learn how to gain weight fast?  If the title of this article caught your attention, there is a good chance you are sick and tired of not seeing the weight on the scale budge.   Most likely you just got home from the Mandarin buffet and still can't budge the scale.  You could live on McDonald's and Pizza Delight and your Ferrari style metabolism would simply burn it off.  In a world that is obsessed with losing weight – you are interested in gaining weight!  Are You Sick and Tired Of People Telling You How To Gain Weight? It probably sounds like this: "All you have to do is eat, eat, and eat some more to gain weight..." "Weight gain is just a matter of eating..." "You just gotta overload your metabolism to gain weight fast..." "You can't build a house without the bricks and mortar for gaining weight..." Don't throw me to the wolves quite yet. There is certainly truth t...

Legendary bodybuilding trainer Vince, "The Iron Guru" Gironda was famous for saying, "Bodybuilding is 80% nutrition!" But is this really true or is it just another fitness and bodybuilding myth passed down like gospel without ever being questioned? Which is really more important, nutrition or training? This IS an interesting question and I believe there is a definite answer: The first thing I would say is that you cannot separate nutrition and training. The two work together synergistically. Regardless of your goals - gaining muscle, losing fat, athletic conditioning, whatever -you will get less than-optimal or even non-existent results without paying attention paid to both. In fact, I like to look at gaining muscle or losing fat in three parts - weight training, cardio training and nutrition - with each part like a leg of a three legged stool. pull ANY one of the legs off the stool, and guess what happens? In reality, it's impossible to put a spe...

No Pain, No Gain. Is this aphorism just a fitness myth and downright bad advice? A lot of people seem to think so. As a bodybuilder with 25 years of training experience and more than two dozen trophies on my shelf, I have another perspective to offer you. Success with your body and in every area of your life is all about stepping outside of your comfort zone and that means embracing pain. To reach high levels of physical and personal success you must approach your training, and your entire life, as an endeavor in constant growth. The ultimate truth is, you are either moving forward or moving backward; growing or dying. There's no such thing as comfortably maintaining. To grow, you must step above past achievements; beyond your perceived boundaries and limits. That means stepping out of the known, into the unknown; out of the familiar and into the unfamiliar; out of the comfortable into the uncomfortable. You must get out of your comfort zone. The Late Cavett Ro...

Understanding the mind's role in motivation and behavior is one of the most critical elements in fitness success. If you struggle with changing habits and behaviors or if you can't get motivated, then even the best training and nutrition program is not much help. A fascinating fact about your subconscious mind is that it's completely deductive in nature. In other words, it's fully capable of working backwards from the end to the means. You don't need to know how to reach a goal at the time you set the goal. If you "program" only the desired outcome successfully into your "mental computer," then your subconscious will take over and help you find the information and means and carry out the actions necessary to reach it. Many people are familiar with affirmations and goal-setting as ways to give instructions to your subconscious mind. But perhaps the ultimate mental training" technique is visualization. In one respect, affirmatio...

How they lost 100 lbs or more is a topic that always gets a lot of attention and is very popular in the media. Whenever someone loses a lot of weight, there is always buzz from those who were inspired by hearing about these huge body fat losses and before/after transformations. I was inspired, too. But sometimes I think we focus too much on the almighty scale and body fat percentage and forget about something even more important… Your Health. Health is what psychologist Abraham Maslow called a deficiency need, which means that when you've lost it, getting it back is the only thing in the world that matters. Unfortunately, two corollaries to this theory of human motivation are: 1. Most people won't lift a finger to improve their health until something bad happens (they have to hit "rock bottom" to change), and 2. When you've got your health, you tend to take it for granted. That's why we need constant reminders to keep our focus on health and ...

The word "visualization" sometimes conjures up images of new age gurus teaching esoteric techniques for personal enlightenment and "attracting" what you want into your life. This causes many evidence-based types to scoff. However, piles of research has shown that mental imagery (aka "visualization") can improve performance. The latest study suggests that a certain type of mental imagery can also increase your strength Olympic champions and professional athletes have used visualization and mental rehearsal techniques for decades. Not only is visualization one of the most widely accepted techniques in sports psychology, it's supported by scientific research. Nevertheless, many people remain skeptical. Some people agree that mental rehearsal might enhance specific skills, like a golf swing or a basketball throw, but they question whether it could make you stronger, increase muscle growth or help you lose weight. A new study published in...