There are few things in this world I fear more than bats.  You can blame my irrational fear on their connection to rabies, their nocturnal nature, or the fact that they are essentially glorified mice with wings.  But, if I have ever to build an arc, you can take a pretty good guess at which animal I'd be leaving behind.

That said, there is one exercise that has a loose connection with bats that I just can't get enough of called, you guessed it, "batwings."  What's with the name?  Well, it's because when you're doing them correctly, you look like (*gulp*) a bat. 

In my elementary school, secrets were against the law.  Well, maybe not of the misdemeanor kind, but more of the "sit in the hallway until the teacher forgets about you, while you try to see how many times your can tie your shoelaces in a minute" variety.  (Not that I would know....after all, I like to believe I was an angel.)

Fast forward to real life, and secrets STILL are for losers.  As such, I wanted to share the secret so many people ignore that could instantly improve their overall health: learning how to cook.

I'm going to let you in on a secret: I hate squatting. 

Yes, you read that correctly.  

Blame it on the fact that I'm on the taller side (long levers and squatting don't always get along), but the "king of lower body lifts" just doesn't have a special place in my heart anymore.

However, I realize that squatting still has an important place in any program as it's a fundamental human movement.  And even though I may not love to squat, you need to train your weaknesses, along with your strengths.

Well, happy belated National Doughnut day to you all!  I suppose that, being a personal trainer and all, I may lose some credibility by admitting that I've been known to enjoy the occassional donut....or 3.  What can I say?  I, like most New Englanders, love my Dunkin'.  

However, there's been one recent development from  Dunkin' Donuts that got me a bit fired up.  Behold, the doughnut sandwhich. 

If this sandwich isn't familiar to you (after all, it was unveiled nationally yesterday), here's a link I found from the Boston Globe:

Every now and then one of my clients will say some derivative of the following: "it hurts when I do X....is that OK?"  

My answer?  Well, let's not do that anymore.

When the individual picks themselves off the ground after getting bowled over by my deep wisdom (or, lack thereof), they usually go on to ask if not doing X is going to hurt their progress.  The answer? Absolutely not! "No pain, no gain" is not just silly, it's moronic.