The choice between indoor cycling classes and riding outdoors, on the road or weaving up and down rocky terrain, continues to strike a chord among fitness enthusiasts. While personal preference largely dictates one’s decision to either remain in the gym or experience...
Cathleen Kronemer
Cathleen Kronemer is an NFPT CEC writer and a member of the NFPT Certification Council Board. Cathleen is an AFAA-Certified Group Exercise Instructor, NSCA-Certified Personal Trainer, ACE-Certified Health Coach, former competitive bodybuilder and freelance writer. She is employed at the Jewish Community Center in St. Louis, MO. Cathleen has been involved in the fitness industry for over three decades. Feel free to contact her at trainhard@kronemer.com. She welcomes your feedback and your comments!
How Consumption Below BMR Can Undercut Fat Loss and Mass Gains
Restricting calories below metabolic needs might initially sound like a surefire path to fat loss for our personal training clients who want to be leaner. However, this process often backfires when the body’s protective mechanism of entering “starvation mode” kicks...
Metabolism and Muscles: Is The Effect As Dramatic As We’d Like To Believe?
Chasing the ultimate caloric burn remains a top priority for many avid gym-goers. Personal trainers have long promoted muscle mass and definition as powerful tools in attaining this goal. Could we have been misleading our clients…and ourselves...about how much muscle...
Sneezin’ Season: Should You Exercise When Sick?
Have you been suffering too many colds this season? Is your “healthy” exercise program compromising your immune system? Or is exercising while you are under the weather sabotaging your workouts? Let’s face it: the gym can sometimes be a double-edged sword. For the...
Liver Health Awareness: The Risks of Supplement Toxicity
For many years, research has suggested that many commonly used bodybuilding supplements pose a significant threat to the liver, including non-steroid products sold online or over the counter in sports-related and health food stores. What should we advise our clients...
Fitness Fanatic Or Exercise-Addicted? Understanding Client Motivations
Every trainer has at least one client that they might describe as a fitness fanatic. And it's no surprise. Today’s outlook on health and fitness can often be summed up in a single word: “more”. Many committed gym-goers believe if a little exercise is good, then...
Re-Injury Prevention: A Fresh Perspective on a Prevalent Problem
Incomplete rehabilitation in athletes, as well as the general fitness population, has led to an unfortunate re-injury epidemic. Should our goal as trainers be to get clients back to training/exercising as quickly as possible, or to help them prevent re-injury? “Injury...
Success in Cerebral Palsy Strength Training: CP Means “Continual Progress”
For many able-bodied clients, the goal of strength training is simply to improve appearance and increase strength. Such has not always been the case for children, adolescents, and adults living with cerebral palsy (CP). Today, we have the ability to change not only...
Isometrics: Immovable Forces Toward Strength and Growth
Personal training is not always about how much weight a client can lift. Sometimes lifting no weight at all can challenge a client in new and different ways. This is the beauty of isometrics. Isometrics refer to exercises wherein the muscles are producing force in the...
What Are The Ideal Rest Intervals For Specific Training Goals?
Ideal rest is a vital component of exercise, not only between training sessions but also between sets during a workout. Following the completion of a set of exercises, the body must “clear out” the metabolic by-products incurred from the trauma of the lift; we refer...
Is Your EPOC Epic? Understanding the Body’s Oxygen Debt
The concept of excess post-exercise oxygen consumption (EPOC) has been described as a benefit of high-intensity exercise and a major player in weight management and weight loss. But what exactly is going on and how important is it to weight management? Why is...
EPOC: Maximizing the Body’s Oxygen Debt for Greater Weight Loss Results
While exercise recovery needn’t take an epoch, it does involve EPOC (Excess Post Exercise Oxygen Consumption).
The NEAT Way to Burn Calories
Are your clients getting bored with endless treadmill sessions, stationary cycles, or counting Stairmaster steps? Or maybe they are so fixated on how many calories they burn during their 30 minute cardio sessions they neglect the remaining 23.5 hours of their waking...
Brown Fat Cells and Thermogenesis
“Fat” can be a “4-letter word” in terms of the negative connotation that leaps into our minds at the mere mention of adipose tissue. However, as with most generalities in life, fat cells are not always the enemy. It is time to meet brown fat, a substance in the human...
Fasting and Exercise
There are a number of dedicated gym-goers who prefer to work out on an empty stomach, perhaps because they like working out early but don't like breakfast, or they believe working out fasted will burn more fat instead of food energy. While I am not a proponent, my...
Fueling For Success: Pre and Post Workout Meals
In an effort to maximize energy stores during a workout, and ensure adequate recovery post-workout, proper nutritional fueling provides the key to success. Knowledge in the kitchen can rival gym savviness in terms of utmost importance when sculpting a physique and...
Heavy Metals In Protein Powders: Are They Safe to Consume Regularly?
Clients often seek out their personal trainers’ opinions on the best protein powder to consume following tough workouts. This seems like such a harmless and expected inquiry since so many trainers work out arduously themselves and are happy to endorse their favorite...
Soleus Strains: How To Recognize, Prevent and Treat
The soleus is one of the three powerful muscles of the calf that lies behind the gastrocnemius, and runs from the Achilles tendon to behind, and just below, the knee. “The soleus is responsible for plantar flexion, which is when your toes point downward,” explains Tom...