Andy Baker

Three terms are often used to describe what may or may not happen in the gym.  The title of the article may have given you a hint as to what these oft confused terms are. Physical activity is what the American Heart Association wants you to get some of each week.  From the AHA website:  “physical activity is anything that makes you move your body and burn calories.”  So Continue Reading about Activity vs Exercise vs Training

Have you ever known someone who was seemingly very fit, had excellent health, looked fantastic, but was seemingly always unhappy about their physical status?  The thin lady who thinks she’s overweight?  The well-built male who is never happy with his physique?  Perhaps you fit that description? If not an actual clinical condition (at the extreme end of this spectrum lie several Continue Reading about Avoiding the Fitness “Gap”

Walking into any commercial fitness facility can be an overwhelming experience for the person just beginning their fitness plan.  Even just a cursory glance around the main gym floor reveals dozens and dozens of complex looking machines and equipment pieces to choose from. But which exercises are best? The reality is that very few weight training machines are useful.  Certainly not Continue Reading about Proper Exercise Selection 101

As it relates to starting a fitness plan, good intentions are not uncommon – but follow through and results are. For most people that have a track record of starting and stopping fitness plans with frustrating regularity, the problem is not laziness.  It’s a lack of good information, and an overload of bad or misleading information. People simply don’t know what to do.  Hopefully this Continue Reading about Starting a Fitness Routine – Where to Begin??

I’ll admit it….sometimes I don’t like telling people that I’m a personal trainer. Why? It has nothing at all to do with being ashamed of what I do on a daily basis.  In fact, I’m quite proud of the work I do on a daily basis with my clients.  It has everything to do with what my industry does on a daily basis. What I’m referencing is the steady stream of fads, gimmicks, Continue Reading about Stop Falling For Gimmicks & Fads

The vast majority of the potential clients that contact me are interested in losing some body fat as either a primary or at least secondary goal of their training plan.  And a majority of those people have been trying to do so for a very long time on their own – with mixed results. Ok, the results aren’t actually that mixed.  Most people haven’t made much progress in the body fat Continue Reading about The Long Term Body Fat Solution

A funny thing will occur in gyms all across the country in the early part of 2018.  It is something that happened in the early part of nearly every year since the modern health club was established decades ago.  Scores of enthusiastic patrons will sign up for a new membership and make the same New Year’s Resolution that they made last year – “This is the year I finally get into shape, lose the Continue Reading about Plan the Work, Work the Plan

We’ve all heard the saying a million times “An apple a day keeps the doctor away.” And we know with some degree of medical certainty that eating an apple every day does not, in fact, prevent illness. But the saying is simply a metaphor, not to be taken too literally.  The “apple” is a metaphor for any healthy habit that promotes better health or fitness.  And “the doctor” is simply a Continue Reading about Why You Don’t Eat the Apple?