Book Review:
The Couch Potato Workout: 101 Exercises You Can Do At Home!
(Publisher: North American Spine Society - Jan 2006)Quite simply, this is the worst book about exercise I never read.
Fitness professionals everywhere should be offended - yes, even Gunnar “lift your soup cans” Peterson should even feel insulted.
Here we have an entire industry committed to [...]
Archive for May, 2007
Food For Thought?
Posted in Books, Reviews on May 31, 2007 | No Comments »
This Girl Is A Woman Now
Posted in Serious-talk on May 30, 2007 | No Comments »
The crown jewel in Donald Trump’s festival of beautiful woman now complete for 2007, a new Miss Universe has been crowned. Now in the post-season, next year’s pageant hopefuls are already gearing up for the 2008 season of local and state competitions.
Having successfully coached competitors (and even judged a couple pageants) in the past, I [...]
Throwing In The Towel
Posted in Humor, Serious-talk on May 29, 2007 | No Comments »
You have questions? I have answers…
…about a week back
Q: Joe, I recently saw an article that showed a pullup variation in which you hold on each end of a towel thrown over a bar. I can’t do any pullups right now, but what would make this exercise better than a regular pullup.
A: While I’m slightly [...]
Like Fingernails On A Chalkboard
Posted in Serious-talk on May 23, 2007 | No Comments »
My natural instinct is to cringe whenever I hear the word stretch. It seems the majority of people I talk to have the preconceived notion that static stretching - where you hold a muscle under light to moderate tension for 10-60seconds - is the best (or only) way to achieve soft tissue extensibility.
Nothing Could Be [...]
I Am Very Much Alive
Posted in Humor, News on May 22, 2007 | No Comments »
Just to clear up any confusion…
1) Yes, my name is Joe Stankowski
2) No, I did not die in WWII
I only bring this up because according to an article in Monday’s (Pittsburgh)Post Gazette:
“When the Germans counterattacked with tanks, Mr. [Joe] Stankowski’s position was overrun, and he was killed…”
I Blog, Therefore I Am?
Notwithstanding the fact that I [...]
Warm-ups Made Simple
Posted in Serious-talk on May 21, 2007 | No Comments »
In fitness circles, there’s always discussion about the best way to warm-up before exercise and everyone has their preferred method.
To keep things simple, there are 3 types of warm-ups I use with my clients.
General – Characterised by low to moderate intensity activity. Generally requiring low skill. Often done as steady-state activity (treadmill, bike). Tends to [...]
Epidemic, shmep-i-demic!
Posted in Serious-talk on May 16, 2007 | 1 Comment »
Is obesity really the big problem the media makes it out to be?
Personally, I don’t believe overweight and obesity is really the problem at all. Instead, what if we turn the tables and view it as a SYMPTOM?
Obesity is a result of:
1) Questionable nutritional choices and 2) Less-than-adequate physical activity
By removing our hamburger colored glasses [...]
See Me Squirm - Watch Me Grow
Posted in Joe on May 14, 2007 | 1 Comment »
One of the keys to exercise success is the application of a challenging stimulus and adequate time for recovery and adaptation.
The same holds true for many things in life - including business and personal success. By challenging yourself to accomplish something you presently consider to be uncomfortable, you gain the ability to handle similar stressors [...]
What Happens In Vegas…?
Posted in Ha-ha, Humor, Tasteless on May 11, 2007 | No Comments »
As I’ve said many times before, ALL forms of exercise have some level of value (as well as inherent limitations). With this in mind, while I’d be happy to sit in the audience observing their movement - from a purely bio-mechanical perspective, of course - don’t expect to see me teaching Las Vegas’ fitness [...]
Beauty Is Skin Deep
Posted in Serious-talk on May 9, 2007 | 1 Comment »
A long time ago at a gym far, far away…
Not long before I made the full leap into the fitness biz, I knew a guy - I’ll call him Trainer X.
Trainer X was representative of the fitness industry at the time in many ways. He was a former competitive bodybuilder. His personal training clients were [...]

