Just a few days back I was nominated and admitted to the become part of the USA Sports Medicine Network in the field of Strength and Conditioning. As the only Strength and Conditioning Coach in the city of Chicago who is part of the network I would like to invite all coaches and swimmers to [...]

The muscle spindle has a threshold in which it produces muscle tension. Application of an ice pack lowers the temperature of the skin which in turns raises the threshold at which the muscle spindle produces tension. By raising this threshold, the muscle spindle becomes less excitable and decreases muscle tension. This means that an ice [...]

The human body is hip dominant. The muscles around our hips allows us to stand straight and seat. They also allows us to walk, run, climb stairs, etc. When the hip complex is not well developed it puts our bodies out of balance. Our hip flexors and hamstrings get tight, our glutes don’t get activated [...]

The bodybuilding craze raised the popularity of weight lifting and helped paved the way to strength and conditioning methodologies. Research coming from all over the world and published in scientific journals such as the NSCA or ACSM are just an example of how much information is available to sport and fitness professionals. Having said all [...]

A few months back I meet with my ex-professor and National Fitness Hall of Fame inductee Dr. Sattler. I will put down the complete interview on this site soon but the most interesting thing he had to say was that in his field of specialty which is exercise for the elderly, physical activity was not [...]

When I was in college 10 years ago studying in the Kinesiology program one of the greatest concerns was the lack of importance schools were giving to Physical Education. The warning to future PE teachers was that there might not be a job waiting for them. All this because of the misconception that PE was [...]

Coach Knoedel has a very impressive resume, extensive experience and great passion towards athletics and coaching. I sat down with him to discuss his coaching techniques and experiences. If you are interested in finding out about track and field and the art of coaching go to the video page of this website. The interview [...]

Here is the second in the series of interviews with prominent figures in the Chicago athletic and fitness skyline. Mike Gilmartin is a great Athletic Athletic Trainer and I can testify that from personal experience. While I was swimming for UIC, I contracted a series of injuries such as an elbow bursitis,chronic rotator cuff pain [...]

Yesterday I went to Hoffman States to take part on the first ever certification seminar for the International Youth and Conditioning Association (IYCA). It was a great experience as Brian Grasso, the leading expert on youth fitness, Dr. Kwame Brown and trainer Briana Marcus took us through an extremely entertaining and informative session.
We learned about [...]

For a long time free weights have been considered not as safe as using machines and a better way to train beginners. Nevertheless, in the real world the human body moves freely utilizing many muscles at once in coordinated fashion. Machines have a unnatural fixed range of motion that limits the level of involvement of [...]