Here’s the scene. I’m on a FaceTime call with a long-term client. We’re supposed to be reviewing his progress -- how training is going, can he squat a Brooklyn-bound L train yet, has he been able to establish a diet rhythm, etc. Instead we’re picking my program apart. His elbow is a mess. All pull-up variations are out except for using a close, neutral grip. His left knee pops whenever he steps...

Few things are as divorced from reality as your typical “over 40” fitness article. It shouldn’t come as a surprise, as their respective authors are typically 25 year-olds with social media profiles filled with self-serving selfies yet very few actual mid-life clients. What really irks me though is the whole “one size fits all” approach. Certainly there are a few universal truths that apply to...

A popular analogy is to see your body's ability to recover as a bank account. In other words, recovery is finite, so every stressor you're subjected to (both exercise and lifestyle) is like writing a check -- you only have so much cash before you're overdrawn and go bankrupt (or forced to borrow heavily from a shady Russian oligarch named Testosteronovich). But you have another valuable currency...

Wanna know the secret to effective program design? It’s always fitting the program to the person, not the other way around. Sure there are best practices (and best arm training programs; disagree with that and I’ll fight you after school) but for the most part, a really good program is like a suit that’s been expertly tailored to your dimensions by someone named Rocco. It just feels and performs...

I’ve worn my share of hats in the fitness industry. But if I had to distill what I do down to a clean & succinct elevator pitch it would be "I help people reach their physique goals." Yet that’s not entirely accurate. What I really do is help solve physique problems; at least the “solvable”ones, which isn’t always the case. Chronological age might be just a number but your body still has an...

Nobody wants to maintain. Everyone has a goal, and it's always to "get somewhere" -- get leaner, get bigger, drop a dress size, hit a new PR. If anything, periods of maintaining are seen as down time, even negative time, the empty gap between periods where you make leaps in progress. To some, maintenance offers no plus side beyond the obvious rest and recovery. It's because the constant pressure...

Learning the calorie counts of your favorite foods and tracking them is a highly effective fat loss tool. However, for sustainable, life-long success you need to learn to differentiate between what's true hunger and what's merely cravings, boredom, habit, etc. Catch is, you can't master the latter unless you temporarily step away from the former. But most people are unsuccessful at making the...