Here’s some background.  I write programs for online clients.  And then these ladies go to the gym and do their program religiously.  We then touch base once a week via skype, where I correct their form or we speak about other things.

I am training a new lady at the moment that lives down on the central coast NSW.  I put bridges in her program.  For me, bridges start the hip-dominant movement.  At the end of the movement is a body-weigth ...

As a fitness coach, both online and in the studio, I get to understand a lot of women and their exercise problems. One of the most inherent issues is that a lot of us forget on how to squat.

The squat is not only a birth right but a very important weight lifting movement in any type of strength workout routine.

Carolyn and I have been missing each other for some weeks, but last night we finally made it ...

During an Olympic year plenty of us ladies can’t help but think of our own exercise levels. As our body grows older it is truly important to sustain ample activity levels and this can be achieved via a well developed workout plan which includes the following physical activities:

a) high energy exercises for one’s own heart and bones;
b) this should be coupled with standard aerobic fitness;
c) strength training when it comes to muscle and bone mass;
d) and stretching to maintain flexibility; and
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I’m going to keep a journal of my journey in this years QWA League Round.  There are 4 rounds.  The first round was held at Cougars Weightlifting Club here at Chandler, Brisbane (under the old velodrome).  It is the biggest weightlifting Club in Queensland, and a very strong Club with Olympic and Commonwealth Gold Medallists currently training there and best of all, the coaches are either coaching Gold ...

Many female body-builders and their Personal Trainers dismiss the term “strength and power” as something unpleasant and unnecessary; something with which they do not wish to be associated to. They do not wish to be seen as participants in strength routines, but more hypertrophy / superficial routines to elaborate and glorify the female body – sorry, “the diminishing female body”.  And really in all honesty they do it to uphold and honour their sponsor’s contracts. These women are the most ...

Two weeks ago I published Part One of this interview. We discussed basic strength exercises.  In this part we discuss the athlete profile and some power movements.

For power type movements what exercises are performed?

Wow – I could go on forever with this response!

I am a firm believer of maintaining some form of explosive / power work throughout the whole year. Sport is a dynamic, explosive beast ...

Back to our 55k model holding a 1k dumb-bell.  This is a continual reminder when the Public Press traditionally characterise women’s exercise by viewing the passive and the submissive poses in a male-dominated culture. Case in point, is there ever an image without the ridiculous stability ball in the foreground or background when a woman is actually trying to do something difficult? I mean do women who are holding decent weight in their hands need to be softened so women ...

One of the most painful realisations of recent advances in exercise physiology and research is that each advance forward makes me know less than I thought I did.

When I was young (about 20 years ago) and I was representing my State across various sports, I knew, or we thought we all knew that cardio involved running around an oval until we puked and that strength training was doing simple weights such as the back-squat, a press, some push-ups and pull-ups.  ...

Part Two

What should we honour?

Where is the honour amongst us when we train, or what constitutes our code, or better still what principles should we be practicing and undertaking when we exercise.  Why is that you turn to strength training or exercise?  Did you just have a baby?  Do you want to increase movement and flexibility?  Reversing or prevent osteoporosis?  Maintain everyday living?  Training for that one day you hope never comes.

I’m sorry to tell you ladies, but exercise is ...

This is part three and the last part of this series.  You can find part 1 here and part 2 here.

Do you have benchmark core tests – such as the Bunkie test? Or does the AIS have their own functional core tests?

I don’t have a benchmark core test as such. Each of the athletes ...