You know what you’re doing. No “just get a pump” workouts for you. You’re too smart for that. Instead you’re following a popular “strength routine.” Your numbers are based off a “training max” and the weekly progression is conveniently plotted in an iPhone app. Like I said, smart. Now you just need to hit your numbers every workout and presto, it’s off to NYC to shoot for Men’s Health. Not so...

Hey, you – dude over 30. Your workout sucks. And not for some technical “sets & reps” type reason. Your big screw up occurred way before you even started. The good news is I can help you fix it. It begins with a very small yet crucial first step. I’m entering my third decade in this “industry.” For the record, I do not see this as a source of pride – quite the contrary. Among my former high...

I'm not dumb. At least not anymore. Most would say that I’m a smart lifter. Seriously. I’m cool with that. Except that sometimes, I miss my ignorant ways. The first day I walked into a gym I was dumb. Like, really dumb, even by 1980’s standards. I was 16 years-old. I wore a string tank top that desperately needed filling out, jean shorts, and boat shoes. In my gym bag were two cans of Coca-Cola,...

I’m dying. Okay, I’m not technically dying. I’m not typing this from a hospital bed and no one’s told me to get my affairs in order, unless being reminded to empty the dishwasher qualifies. Just physically, I’m degrading. Eroding. Getting smaller and weaker. Getting fatter. I’m becoming less the person I want to be -- the person I’ve worked so hard to become -- and more like what I don’t want......

Advice from the Muscle Goat One of my (many) character flaws is that I can get kinda cantankerous, especially if I haven’t eaten in a while (sorry, fasters) or have too much running around to do. Whenever I get particularly cranky, my wife will usually refer to me (affectionately) as a grumpy old goat. She even bought me a shirt with the word GOAT on it, just in case the subtlety of the insult...

Ebb and flow to decrease and then increase, as with tides; a decrease followed by an increase, as with tides. It’s shortly before noon on a sunny Wednesday afternoon. Late morning is prime training time for me as the gym is relatively quiet. The half-asleep Manhattan pre-work crowd has long since shuffled off and the lunch time heroes have yet to arrive, leaving just a handful of bored trainers...

Change is a big part of life. You aren’t the same person you were 10 years or 10 months ago, or even 10 minutes ago. Your body is constantly changing in response to stressors, both environmental and self-imposed. It seeks to make you the strongest, healthiest, highest functioning organism you can be. If it didn’t operate this way our species would’ve lasted just a few ticks on the evolutionary...