4 Things to Focus on Besides Weight Loss

The New Year brings the resolutions that we know we are just going to break. The most common one is lose weight. An admirable goal considering 60% of Americans are overweight and over 40% are obese (HHS, 2017). However, your weight is not an indicator of good health. These behaviors will yield a far better return on investment! Movement. Most Americans spend 6-8 hours per day sitting (Yang et al., 2019). When we include sleep, this means most people spend about 50 years not moving! The weekly recommendation for physical activity is 150 minutes of movement. Do you watch 1-2 […]

From the Depths

In this edition of “Fit for Life,” Joshua H. Buchbinder turns over the podium to a woman who wishes to remain anonymous Most 16-year-old kids look forward to their driver’s license, first job, and becoming an upperclassman. I was faced with the destruction and agony of being a heavy drinker and drug user. Hopeless, defeated, and shattered I disappointed my family and teachers. My parents were divorced but co-existed amicably, and I had grown up in a faith-based, alcohol-free home. At 15, the few months of summer freedom exposed me to “typical teenager experimenting” – cigarettes, weed, alcohol, and sex. […]

Learning to Recover

As a fitness professional I’ve had the privilege of helping many people change their lives for the better. For many changing their body isn’t the biggest hurdle, changing their life is literally life and death. Our company is privileged to work with an amazing organization that is trying to change the lives of young people and to help them stay clean, sober, and alive. The Phoenix Foundation of Maryland is a non-profit organization striving to open a recovery based high school in 2020. Recovery high schools are secondary schools designed specifically for students in recovery from substance use disorder or […]

I Already Know What to Do!

I’ve literally sat down in front of hundreds, maybe thousands of prospective clients and gym-goers. I’ve gotten a lot of people started on fitness programs, some fee-based and some free. I’ve also gotten a lot of excuses over the years … excuses and rationalizations are my favorite! Someone who is ready to start is exciting but, showing someone who isn’t convinced the true value of fitness – now that’s awesome. It’s like showing someone who’s never heard of electricity a light switch… they don’t believe you until they flip it on and boom! My favorite excuse for not getting started […]

Depression and Exercise

  Winter can be a hard time – lack of sunlight, cold weather, holidays, lack of physical activity. These coupled with mental illness can be a nightmare. This nightmare impacts those with depression and those who love them. But what can we do? There are traditional medical remedies (which I fully endorse) of therapy and medication. But this isn’t enough for many. We all know regular exercise and proper nutrition help our bodies function better. We often forget the mind is part of the body and our mood is a result of a chemical process. These chemicals, when improperly balanced, […]

The Failure of Fitness

  The fitness world has failed you. Those of us in the gym world have taken sides and, as a result, our clients and their results have suffered. Trainers and coaches have created a world of division rather than unity. We make ourselves “experts” in a specific area and leave other aspects out or dismiss them all together. Ask a personal trainer their opinion of crossfit, group exercise, yoga, pilates, power lifting, bodybuilding, etc. You’ll find a series of opinions not facts. The industry demands specialization. In doing so we create vision – everything can be solved with hot yoga […]