wellness - The Fit Ethos

How to Quickly Fix For Your Knee Pain (And The Long Term Solution)

Bothersome knees are the worst. They affect almost every activity imaginable from running, going up stairs, and even sitting! For a joint that seemingly only does one thing (hinge back and forth), it seems like a lot can go wrong with it. Of course, there is a component of rotation, but that is beyond the scope of this article.

In my experience, most knee pain (barring any acute mechanism of injury) is relatively simple to address. Outside of acute injury, creaky and bothersome knees really come down to poor strength and mechanics of the hips (particularly the glutes), hamstrings, and quadriceps.

So the long term solution is exercise and strength training (big deal. That tends to be the solution to every problem). But what can we do to get some short term relief?

The Basics of Mindfulness Meditation to Reboot Your Brain

In my last post, I outlined seven benefits of meditation but I realize that I didn’t mention how to actually meditate.

I failed as a writer and educator… so I’m here to redeem myself and explain how to actually meditate.

7 Reasons You Should Meditate – Evidence-Based Brain Rewiring

Meditation and mindfulness is a practice that has been around for thousands of years, but it has recently seen a surge in popularity in the self-help, improvement, and mental health spaces, and for good reason. Meditation has extensive benefits and is one of the few “brain rewiring” practices that actually has evidence to back it up.

Here are seven benefits to meditation.

3 Ways to Achieve Progressive Overload Without Adding Weight

We have all heard the basic tenant of strength: progressive overload. But, when we talk about progressive overload, we only ever think of adding more weight to the bar (or dumbbells).

Even going through graduate school, this was the main form (and often the only one taught) of overloading and increasing the challenge for patients and clients. Somehow, adding weight was the real bee’s knees to being a great trainer or clinician.

It definitely made me question if I got my money’s worth from my doctorate.

Should You Even Bench Press? The Truth (and 5 alternatives)

There are two constant truths of life. The first is death.

The second is that all bros will bench press and curl on Mondays.

This act of suspending heavy weight over our supine body, lowering it and lifting (or bouncing) it back up seems to be a constant ritual in the iron world. Go to any gym, and the bench press (along with squat racks and deadlifting platforms) will be a revered piece of equipment that is analogous to an altar in a church.

5 Ways To Instantly Lift More Weight and Break Records

Anyone who knows me know that I love principles and philosophies, especially if they are somewhat rooted in science.

One thing I hate are hacks. You know. The little “tips and tricks” that Instagram gurus and ads will sell to you like, “This one breathing exercise made me lose 48 inches around my waist!” or, “This one food will detoxify your entire rectum!”

That shit always infuriates me for two reasons. For one, these people usually have such a mediocre understanding of fitness and training that they have yet to solve a single person’s health and fitness problems. Second, they prey on vulnerable people who don’t know any better.

So let me give one back to them. Here are 5 ways to actually lift more weight and get stronger today.

The 3 Elements Your Program Needs To Get Jacked – Part 1

Human beings are relatively predictable beings, so in general they will have a number of needs in order to achieve something. It is no different in strength training or getting jacked. There are general needs that everyone has, and if they are not addressing it, they are shortchanging their results. Give me any program and I can tell right away what it will do for most people.

There are many elements of training that need to be addressed. For the benefit of your jackedness, let’s go over the big three.

3 Exercises To Bulletproof Your Legs

Lower extremity injuries are all too common from the average person to the elite athlete. Often, these injuries are predictable and thus preventable through proper training and maintenance.

Before we run through the exercises, we need to establish a few principles to work with.

9/10/2020 Program Update

This program will be done for 3 weeks.

Strength is the priority. General physical preparedness, or overall fitness, is the foundation.

Sticking to New Habits: Decreasing the Resistance

Starting a new habit or breaking an old one is hard. It’s the reason why supplements and hacks have such a giant market.

An effective ways to overcome this challenge is by reducing the amount of resistance to these good habits, or increase the amount of resistance that it takes to engage in a bad habit. This is simply a matter of taking the steps to set yourself up for success.