In the 20 plus years I’ve been an Austin personal trainer, I have seen many people come through my door with all kinds of postural distortions. Some are genetic traits, such as ankylosing spondylitis, while others are man made, so to speak. In our daily routines, we tend to do things that can lend themselves
Are You wondering When is the Best Time to Workout? One great question that generates a lot of opposing answers is the classic, when is the best time to workout question. I’ve seen plenty of people chime in their opinions all over the internet, naturally. I’ve seen so called fitness experts, who work at Target
Asking Yourself Should I Get A Personal Trainer? Should I get a personal trainer is something a lot of people ask themselves, especially around the time of New Years. One would think that I would be a tad biased on the subject as I’ve been an Austin personal trainer for over 20 years, but honestly,
Wondering What The Best Shoulder Pain Exercises Are? As a longtime Austin personal trainer, one of the more common questions I tend to get is about shoulder pain. It’s a very common affliction in the health and fitness world, as well as in greater society as well. It doesn’t take much to injure the shoulder
Are You Asking Yourself How Often Should I Change Up My Workouts? One of the better questions that I have gotten in a long time came this morning for a middle aged man who has been working out at my gym for a few months now. He asked me how often should I change up
Wondering How Important Is Nutrition? Being a personal trainer in Austin Texas is a great job. Austin is a very active and fitness oriented City. We have many miles of hike and bike trails, many fitness centers, many lakes, and many businesses that revolve around health and fitness incorporating our beautiful climate. Austin is a
I’ve spent a lot of hours writing on this site, per request, answering to the best of my professional abilities about what the best whatever it was I was asked about. People are always wanting to know what the best form of cardio is, whether they have any real intentions of doing it, or not.
Are You Warming Up Before Working Out? Before you do any kind of physical exercise, be it cardiovascular, or the anaerobic variety, it is very important to warm up. Warming up is essential if you want to maximize the benefits of your workouts, as you’ll be loosened up, and ready to go, both physically, as
Is It Safe? Should Children Lift Weights? A lot of people get the idea that they want to join a gym and get in better shape. Sometimes, you see people deciding other people, usually a spouse should go to the gym and or work with a trainer, though that never pans out. If that person
Which Activity Is The Best Cardio Workout? We’ve been trying to unearth the best of the best in some of the previous few blog entries. I have answered questions about the best leg exercises, best stretches, and so on. This time, I’ll attempt to answer the question of what is the best cardio workout. When
Do You Want To Know How To Get Rid Of Flabby Arms? As we get older, our body changes. Some things we don’t notice so much, such as higher blood sugar levels,for example, but other things we certainly do take notice of. They could be the graying of the hair, the formation of age spots
Searching For The Best Leg Exercises? What’s the best leg exercise I was asked the other day by a middle aged gentleman who was looking to pack a little more size onto his lower body. I could only reply, since we had just met, that the best leg exercises are the ones that are going
Body Shaming I’ve been an Austin personal trainer for over 20 years now, and in that time, I have been to, and worked at, many a gym, including owning my own for close to 9 years now, the Austin Fitness Center. People have asked me over the years, is it difficult to own a gym,
Are You Asking What Is The Best Exercise To Lose Weight? What is the best exercise to lose weight a young lady with PCOS (Polycystic Ovary Syndrome) asked me this afternoon at my gym. She, like others with illness and/or hormonal issues, are in a different boat entirely from those without such afflictions, but the
Wondering How To Get Bigger Arms? As I’ve written many times before, most everything in the health and fitness world is individual. Very few puzzles are going to be solved, or theories held true with generalizations and sweeping statements. There is a conspicuous exception to this, however. I’ve been a personal trainer in Austin for
Setting Fitness Goals Common sense dictates that it’s far easier to establish a personal goal than to achieve one, unless of course, your goal is simply to set a goal. The realization and acceptance of the fact that you need to make a change, is perhaps the most vital and courageous step of the transformation
What Are The Benefits Of Lifting Weights? People always are asking if this is better than that. We always are making comparisons and trying to find out the best way to go about something. That’s just human nature. Whether we actually do something with our information, however, is hit or miss, but that’s human nature
What Is The Difference Between Abs And Core Muscles? As I have mentioned several times in my blogs, over the course of 22 years as a personal trainer in Austin, I get asked a lot of questions related to fitness and health. Some of it is trivial stuff, some of it is simply asking how
Obesity Is A Killer It’s long been known that there is a definitive connection between having too much body fat, and the subsequently heightened possibilities of getting cancer. Obesity, in fact, has become a very widespread public health concern across the world as it not only has been definitively linked to certain cancers, but to
What Are The Best Hip Stretches? What are the best hip stretches? It depends whom you ask. It also depends even more who is asking me that question. The best anything isn’t a popularity contest, but it should be what is the best for you and your situation. It’s like asking me what is the
What Are The Best Ab Exercises? Everybody is always asking what are the best exercises for this muscle, and what are the best ones for that muscle? I’ve been an Austin personal trainer for over 22 years now, and if someone posed the question of what are the best chest exercises, I could easily pull
Should You Be Gluten Free? There’s a joke going around that says if you’re gluten free, a born again Christian, and you do CrossFit, which do you talk about first? I have addressed CrossFit in a previous writing on this website, have no interest in addressing religion on this site, nor anywhere else, as that’s
Wondering How To Get A Tight Butt? When you’ve been a personal trainer in Austin, or virtually anywhere, as long as I have, you tend to get a lot of questions from gym goers, clients, and just people you meet. They usually want your advice on how they can improve one or more aspects of
Alleviating Shoulder Pain Alleviating shoulder pain is a potentially very simple process, or the reality may be in your particular case, a very complex ordeal. Like everything else, it’s not just a matter of what is ailing you, but also factors such as your physical condition and medical history come into play as well. The
Are you Asking Yourself How Many Calories Should I Eat To Lose Weight? Are you asking yourself how many calories should I eat to lose weight? A lot of people are, and unfortunately, they’re getting the wrong answers. In my essays and blogs, as well as in person with my clients over my 22 years
Answering the How Much Water Should I Drink Question A question I am frequently asked at my gym, as well as by new clients is how much water should I drink? Like everything else in fitness, as well as in health, the answer is very subjective. There are many variables when answering this kind of
How To Chose The Best Core Exercises In my previous blog entry, I made mention of how a lot of people ask me what the best exercises for this and that are and so last week I answered the question of what are the best chest exercises. This week, I want to make it a
The Best Chest Exercises Whenever we begin an undertaking, such as fitness for example, we categorically want to know what the best exercises are. What are the best exercises for a toned butt is one I hear a lot from the ladies. The men seem to be much more interested in arms and chest development,
CrossFit: Is It A Great Workout Or Potentially Dangerous? Curiously to some, I’ve never until now written an essay, or even a blog post about CrossFit. There really was no specific reason for that, other than as an Austin personal trainer for 22 years, as well as a being a gym owner for a long
Do Crunches Produce Flat Abs? To say that there are a plethora of myths and falsities strewn across the fitness landscape would certainly be an understatement. On this website, particularly in some of the blog entries, I’ve debunked several such myths. I always enjoy hearing them, as some are quite amusing, but simultaneously, I feel
Adapting and Improvising Your Workouts The ability to improvise and adapt is one of the strongest traits associated with humans. It doesn’t come intuitively to all, but generally speaking, we as humans, seem to have this ability down to a science, so to speak. Improvising your workouts can be a way to get a breath
What Are The Best Arm Exercises? When you’ve been a personal trainer in Austin for more than 20 years, and a gym owner for nearly a decade, you get a lot of questions. I always welcome them as I enjoy helping people get healthier and stronger. That’s why I chose this profession and enjoy it
Asking Can I Lose Weight Without Dieting? Every day, people decide they want to get in better shape. Maybe they have an aesthetic goal. Perhaps it’s just a matter of dropping a set number of pounds they are interested in doing. Other times in rehabilitative. There’s plenty of reasons and motivations, and as an Austin
Wondering What Are The Best Ab Exercises? It usually goes a little something like this. “Hey Andy, what is the fastest way for me to put on some muscle”? “Hey Andy, what are the best ab exercises”? The swiftly running stream of what are the best…insert your fitness goal here, never runs dry. One of
Another 10 Fitness Questions Answered! Every so often, I like to post a different type of blog here. One with 10 fitness questions answered, as opposed to a longer blog, or essay, which focuses solely on one topic. Fitness questions abound, as does bad information. Hopefully this can clarify some of the common, as well
Do Toning Shoes Work? Can a pair of shoes do away with your big thighs, cellulite, weak legs, let you burn more calories, build more muscle, and get in shape faster at the gym? According to the manufacturers, yes they can. There’s a type of shoe available these days called toning shoes. Reebok and Sketchers
What Are Functional Training Exercises? What are the best functional training exercises? It depends upon what your specific needs are. It also depends upon your physical condition, your medical history, how much time and/or money for a personal trainer, if applicable, you are willing to spend. Functional training could be anything from an NFL linebacker
Wondering What Is The Best Diet? There’s a sweeping statement in the fitness community that 80% of your results will come from nutrition. Not 79%, and not 81%. Just 80%, and that applies to everyone. As a longtime Austin personal trainer I can tell you with certainty, that is silly. It’s obviously going to depend
Alleviating Knee Pain For A Better Quality Of Life One question I get on a fairly regular basis as a longtime Austin personal trainer and gym owner is how to go about alleviating knee pain. The truth is that it can be something as simple as performing a basic quadricep stretch, or it can be
Asking How Can I Lose Weight? Sometimes the questions I get from people at my gym, or via e mail, are very simple sounding and straight forward, but if you scratch the surface a little, you realize that there’s much more going on than one would initially summarize. Since I became a personal trainer in
Interested In Some Circuit Training Exercises? There are many ways one can approach a weight training regimen. You can work towards getting stronger, and bigger, or you can work towards getting leaner. You can work to become more stable, you can work to become more explosive, and so on. Within all of the possibilities also
Wondering Where To Find Workout Routines? A couple of weeks ago, I wrote an essay about workout routines here on my website. I explained how I don’t write them for people. Even those who have trained with me for years will not get a prescribed workout routine from me. Why? Because they are useless except
What Are The Best Glute Exercises? One question I asked all the time as a longtime gym owner and Austin personal trainer, is what are some of the best exercises a person can do. Guys usually want to know what the best arm or chest exercises are, and women tend to want to firm up
Want to Know How to Gain Weight? When you’ve been an Austin personal trainer for over 20 years and a gym owner for nearly a decade, you tend to get a lot of fitness questions thrown your way. The most common is how to lose weight. People see all of the fad diets and approaches.
Want to Know How to Build Muscle Fast? How to build muscle fast is a question I’ve heard from many men, and a handful of women, during my 20 plus years as an Austin personal trainer, and gym owner. There’s ways you can expedite the process, just like any process, but nothing comes overnight. Even
Are You Wondering How To Build Bigger Calves? One of the age old dilemmas of some people working out in the gyms across the world is how to build bigger calves. There are many machines from the donkey press, to both seated, and standing calf raise machines, all the way down to body weight exercises
Wondering How Much Protein Is Too Much? In the health and fitness world there is a seemingly endless amount of theories regarding which exercises are superior to others. There are endless published and vocalized opinions concerning how many reps and sets need to be performed in order to accomplish a specific goal be it weight
Is spot reduction possible? In any given field, there will be facts, theories, misconceptions, as well as some long standing mythology. The health and fitness world is no exception to this. There are a plethora of fitness myths that are very commonly believed to be true. Some, naturally, are more pervasive than others. There is
Are You Wondering What is the Best Way to Lose Weight? When you’ve been a personal trainer in Austin for over 20 years, it goes without saying that you get asked a lot of health and fitness questions. People want to know what the quickest way to accomplish their health and fitness goals are. They
Want to Know How to Lose Weight Fast? Everywhere you look, people want instant gratification. Not that it’s a bad thing necessarily, but our society has made a premium of focusing on how fast things are achieved, how quickly websites load, how fast our cars and motorcycles go, how fast our smartphones are, and so
Don’t be that Stereotypical Personal Trainer. This is How to Become a REAL Personal Trainer As promised last week, this week’s blog is about how to become a personal trainer. One of the best things about my job as a personal trainer in Austin, is when I work with truly motivated people. These are the
Do You Know What to Look for in a Personal Trainer? When you have decided it is time to get in better shape, work past an old injury or imbalance, or train for a specific sporting event, you might consider hiring a qualified personal trainer. Gyms all over the world are filled with personal trainers,
What is Frozen Shoulder Syndrome? As an Austin personal trainer for over 20 years, I’ve worked with many conditions ranging from simple orthopedics, to gastrointestinal issues such as IBS, Crohns, and so on. I also have worked extensively with lesser prevalent conditions such as Ankylosing Spondylitis, which most people outside of the field have never
Is Obesity Really Genetic? Is obesity the result of a lack of will power? Most people in America seem to think so despite the studies showing genetic predispositions may play a bigger role than one’s choices. Obesity and genetics is something that has a multidimensional effect on not just those who suffer from it, but
Suffering From Postural Imbalances? Whenever I have a potential client contact me about personal training, we will always meet for a consultation first. As long as I’ve been an Austin personal trainer, this has been my protocol, and that’s been for over 20 years now. The reason for the consultation is multi fold. It allows
Question of the Week: Rich Piana: What is my Opinion of him? As a personal trainer in Austin for over 21 years, I have had a lot of people ask me over the years if I know certain people. Sometimes they are inquiring if I work with a celebrity they are especially fond of. Other
When Losing Fat, Where Does it Go? I’ve always not only welcomed questions on this blog, but encouraged them as well. As long as I’ve been a personal trainer in Austin, I’ve been asked an incredible variety of fitness questions over the years, but the one I got yesterday from my 7 year old daughter
How to go About Finding a Gym Recently, a long standing Austin personal training client of mine, whom I also call a good friend, moved out of town to Arizona so he and his wife could be closer to their kids. Good for them, bad for me, as I truly enjoyed his company both professionally,
How Important is it to Warm Up? There are a lot of known quantities when it comes to health and fitness. For example, we know with full certainty that if you want to get healthier, you’ll have to eat. That’s pretty basic stuff that doesn’t require you to be an Austin personal trainer for over
Does Weight Lifting Produce Bulky Women? One of the main objectives of this blog, has been to educate people about health and fitness by drawing upon my experience of 21 years as a personal trainer in Austin, as well as a gym owner here for nearly a decade. I have written many posts and essays
