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There are a number of moving parts in the spine. Some ab exercises cause the parts to move and some don’t. If you’re doing an ab exercise that causes back pain — because the exercise requires trunk extension or trunk flexion or lateral flexion — then the exercise is making some part of the spine…

Amy never asked to be among the fittest in Philadelphia. She runs a nationwide law practice and just wanted to improve her fitness and to keep her sanity. She didn’t know how far the improvement would go. She Didn’t Start with Us Amy did personal training up to four times per week at other gyms.…

It has long been understood that one should do a variety of exercises, beyond the bench press, if he wants to bench press heavier weights. A similar idea is understood for just about every sport. Which is why track racers lift weights, baseball pitchers run distance, and swimmers do dry land exercises. But which exercises…

You glance at the menu board to know the number of calories in your bacon cheeseburger value meal. Where do you find the number of calories that your workout will burn? Why not at your gym? That’s why we created The Training Station Weight Loss Calculator. If a member plans to do, for example, 20…

Every time the body is moved—every time you clean a weight from the floor, for example—that movement can be described. If you raise your arm in front of your torso until it’s parallel to the ground, you could describe that movement as a forward arm raise. But it could also be described as shoulder flexion.…

A difference in strength between limbs, or between anterior and posterior muscles on a bone, is commonly observed. Is that muscle imbalance problematic? If so, how should it be corrected? The people who are experts in what you do, meaning in your sport or activity, are also the people who should answer that question. For…

My use of the term ‘cardio’ should bring to mind the continuos-exercise machines like treadmills, ellipticals, rowers, ellipticals, stationary bikes, stair mills, and steppers. Here is what can be said about four different groups and whether they should do cardio everyday, or not: People who want excellent aerobic fitness should do cardio everyday. People who…

The most reliable way to calculate energy expenditure during exercise, outside of a human calorimeter, is to measure the oxygen consumed during the exercise. That requires special equipment and training. Plus, oxygen consumption has to be measured for each separate exercise. That’s exactly what exercise physiologists have been doing for years. They regularly publish their…

Sometimes people use a thing to lift a weight. That thing is a machine if it includes: a wedge, a lever, an inclined plane, a wheel & axle, a screw, a pulley, a gear, a hydrostatic component, a hydraulic component, springs, gear differentials, linkages, couplings, cams, clutches, or an engine. The strength area in a…