Everyone, it seems, wants six-pack abs, but the most common exercise most people use to get them may be more effective at increasing back pain than building rock-hard abs. ACE Exercise Physiologist Pete McCall explains why crunches can be a pain in the back and offers 5 great alternatives that not only sculpt the abs, but strengthen the entire core as well.

It’s that time of year when thoughts turn to vacations and days at the beach. This year, wouldn’t it be great to feel more confident in that cute bathing suit you bought, but never had the nerve to wear? Well, get started now with this awesome workout that will help you finally get the beach-ready body you’ve always wanted.

Many exercisers shy away from trying high-intensity interval training (HIIT) because they fear it will be too hard or might lead to injury. According to several studies, those fears may largely be unfounded. Not only is HIIT extremely effective for improving health and reducing the risk factors for metabolic syndrome, many exercisers appear to enjoy it much more than traditional continuous exercise. Need more convincing? Read on…

ACE Exercise Physiologist Pete McCall recently sat down with BOSU Balance Trainer creator David Weck to discuss his exciting new WeckMethod training program. CoreFIST, which is just one component of this new program, focuses on the importance of optimal bone alignment. Here, Weck explains the principles behind this cutting-edge programming.

Are you content to be just another trainer, or do you aspire to something greater? Jonathan Ross shares his personal tips for success that he guarantees will not only help your clients find success and stay on track, but also elevate your status as a trusted and effective fitness professional.

In response to the growing urgency to reverse the childhood obesity epidemic and improve the physical-activity behaviors of America’s youth, the American Council on Exercise (ACE) has issued a statement on physical activity in school.

Are those New Year’s fitness resolutions already a distant memory? Did you get tired of slogging through the cold and ice only to wait in line for a piece of equipment or fight your way into an exercise class? Don’t worry—there is still time to get cranking with a workout program that will banish winter blahs and have you ready to bare those arms once the first flowers start poking their way up from the soil.

When it comes to making a workout more enjoyable, nothing quite matches the power of music. And the science proves it—from increasing intensity and reducing how difficult exercise feels, to enhancing explosiveness and lactate clearance during recovery, music improves nearly every aspect of working out.

When it comes to fitness, doing the same workout over and over again is not only boring, it may even lead to burnout. The beginning of the year is the perfect time to avoid this common trap by setting new goals and challenging yourself to new things. Here’s some great inspiration from top trainers on how you can switch things up in your fitness routine in 2013.

When it comes to creating a flat stomach while also reducing low-back pain, few exercises are more effective than the plank. Here are 5 great variations on the plank, which not only use the deep abdominal muscles (which helps flatten the stomach), but also recruit the hip, shoulder and upper-back muscles as well.

Looking for ways to maximize your workouts and shake things up a bit in 2013? Here are 5 great tips for rejuvenating your exercise routine, increasing your motivation and getting off those dreaded plateaus.

The BOSU® Balance Trainer is an ideal tool for helping your clients develop ideal dynamic balance. Here are five innovative exercises that require the body to work in a coordinated fashion for efficient and effective movement.

The New Year’s rush is almost here—that time of year when healthy resolutions send droves of people to the gym. But by mid-February or so, many of them have already abandoned their efforts. ACE Exercise Physiologist Pete McCall offers some great tips for how you can maximize the New Year’s resolution rush and develop clients who will stay with you for the long haul.

Corrective exercise is not only growing in popularity, its potentially very profitable as well. Corrective exercise expert Justin Price explains how you can gain access to this lucrative field and help your clients minimize aches and pains and get back to the activities they love.

Trust. Honesty. Values. These are the building blocks for building a strong and effective relationship between trainers and clients, particularly those who are struggling with the complex issues related to being overweight or obese.

Are women really at a disadvantage when it comes to muscle development and fat reduction? ACE Exercise Physiologist Pete McCall weighs in on a research study that looked at women’s ability to do pull-ups after following an upper-body strength training program.

Metabolic conditioning has become a popular buzzword in the industry, but is this type of training really only about gut-busting workouts and pushing your clients to their absolute limits? Not necessarily, according to ACE Exercise Physiologist Pete McCall, who explains how to effectively—and safely—progress you clients’ programs to maximize the benefits they can achieve from metabolic-conditioning workouts.

Scientists have developed a test to determine how individuals are genetically programmed to respond to exercise, but knowing the answer could be a two-edged sword. Learn why this DNA test may be useful or harmful, depending on the expectations of the individual, and how fitness professionals can help clients use this information to their best advantage.

ACE Exercise Physiologist Mark Kelly responds to feedback about a new ACE-sponsored chest exercise study by discussing the reasoning behind the exercise choices used in the study as well as the inclination for individuals to put exercises into a given classification.

We often hear about the importance of strengthening your core, not only for aesthetic purposes, but for injury prevention. ACE Fitness Expert Chris McGrath discusses how core training helps prevent back injuries and, conversely, why a having a weak core may lead to injuries.

In part 1 of this series, Jonathan Ross discussed the tendency for fitness professionals to "ride the pendelum" from one extreme to the other in regards to abdominal and cardiorespiratory exercises. In Part 2, he will share more examples of this extreme thinking and consider some effective solutions for avoiding this behavior.

The human tendency to think and act in extremes is particularly common in the fitness industry. ACE Fitness Expert Jonathan Ross discusses the tendency for fitness professionals to “ride the pendulum” from one extreme to the other in regards to abdominal and cardiorespiratory exercises, and shares tips on how to avoid this behavior.

Understanding a client’s unique personality is essential for establishing rapport, and to help our trainers, ACE has created a Fitness Personality Quiz that determines and assess clients’ predominant personality styles. Check out what ACE Senior Fitness Consultant Dr. Michael Mantell has to say about his personal experience while taking the quiz, and how it can serve as a useful tool during your ACE-based assessment.

Most of us know there’s no absolute to follow in creating individualized exercise programs for our clients. The recipe differs every time due to their abilities, time constraints, attitude and a host of other factors. Despite the constant variables, there is a recipe to follow. Check out some tips from ACE Fitness Expert Chris McGrath on how you can create custom exercise programs for each client.

While incorporating yoga into personal training sessions may be daunting for those who do not have formal yoga education, blending these practices benefits the client, but also you, the trainer. ACE Pro Elizabeth Kovar discusses yoga basics, breathing techniques, education for trainers, and how to successfully incorporate it into your personal training sessions.

If you grew up in the 80s, then chances are you probably spent most of your teen or early college years trying to look like an old-school action hero. Who didn’t want arms like the Arnold back then? Check out a first-hand perspective from ACE Exercise Physiologist Pete McCall, whose philosophy about attaining all-around fitness has evolved significantly.

Millions of Americans struggle with their weight every day, and the old adage of “eat less, move more” isn’t solving anything. Find out what ACE Senior Consultant Natalie Digate Muth, MD, MPH, RD, has to say about how fitness professionals can help and the role they should serve in our battle to eliminate the obesity epidemic.

Body-monitoring devices are rising in popularity among clients in recent years, especially those who need a bit more help deciphering their daily activities. Check out how you can capitalize on that interest by using it to increase their accountability and boost your business in other areas.

If you’re looking for an opportunity to appeal to your more adventurous clients, try developing a one-on-one or small-group training plan specific to “mud runs.” Growing in popularity across the country, these grimy obstacle courses attract athletes at all levels – and just the occasional guy (or girl) that likes to get dirty.

The weather is getting warmer, the sun is staying out later, and it’s more pleasant to spend time outdoors enjoying various recreational activities. If you’re like me you may cringe a little bit during this time of year because in my experience when clients start picking up their favorite outdoor activities after a long winter indoors, more often than not they jump right back into their recreational pastime at the same intensity as when they left off in the fall.

Although the current trend in fitness is to “train your grandmothers like your athletes,” if that idea isn’t approached thoughtfully and carefully, it can potentially be a terrible mistake. Training older adults like you train more competitive athletes is a great concept that I fully support, as long as trainers use proper movement and exercise progressions. The huge problem with putting it into practice is that proper exercise progressions are often thrown out in favor of tire flips.

Due to their versatility and effectiveness, kettlebells are becoming more of a staple for trainers working with clients of all abilities. While they’re a great way to incorporate whole-body movement, trainers who’ve never used them before should make sure they know what they’re doing before they whip them into client programs. Here are a few things to keep in mind before you begin incorporating kettlebells into your workouts.

The previous two posts addressed how understanding the Functional Movement and Resistance Training components of the ACE Integrated Fitness Training® (ACE IFT®) model can help you market your services when you’re asked about many popular exercise trends. This post will address how to use the cardiorespiratory training progressions of the ACE IFT® to appeal to potential clients when they ask you about popular exercise programs such as Zumba®, indoor cycling or Insanity®.

Mom may not have always been right, but she had one thing down. Keeping your head up and your back straight is sound advice for you and your clients. Unfortunately, it’s not as easy as it sounds, especially when most of your clients spend 8 hours a day at a desk staring at a computer.

How many times have you been asked the best way to develop a six-pack? If you’re like me I always chuckle a little and inform the inquisitor that he or she already has a six-pack – the problem is that it’s usually being stored in a cooler. I go on to inform him or her that core training requires a lot more work than one or two exercises and that I can help them move toward their goals, but it will require some commitment on their part.

The weather's warming up, so you and your clients may be wondering how to get chiseled abs. Author of "Abs Revealed" and ACE Senior Consultant Personal Training, Jonathan Ross, knows exactly how to work all your abs — not just the main ones. In this video series, Ross shares six innovative ab exercises, including two never-before seen ones shared exclusively for ACE's readers.

In my career, I have definitely had bouts of staleness and burnout. What I learned is that once I started feeling that way, then it was time to look for a continuing education workshop to stimulate my gray matter and break me out of the rut. Taking the time to learn anatomy and movement mechanics will help you to add variety and excitement to your exercise programs, creating more enjoyment for both you and your clients.

Many people falsely assume that anyone can teach an indoor cycling class as long as they are in shape, have a great personality and spend a ton of time on their tunes. Plenty of fitness enthusiasts are diving in because, let’s face it, from the outside it looks like all you have to do is pedal, push and repeat! How hard can it be? Well, that’s just the thing. It’s not hard to teach a cycling class but if you truly want to provide the best experience, there's more than meets the eye.

Most lifting programs are incomplete. And it’s because they are just that — lifting programs. Most weightlifting exercises involve lifting, directly opposing gravity. But in life, we lift, shift, and twist things we hold, even if it’s just ourselves. We move through gravity and so, have to deal with momentum. If you add some shifting and twisting, your “lifting” program can now provide a more complete movement experience. See some examples.

In part 1, I discussed how the first two faces of the ACE IFT™ model — Stability and Mobility, and Movement — related to yoga. This time, we’ll take a look at P90X and Crossfit, and how the Load and Performance phases of the ACE IFT Model are related to the popular workout trends.

Small group training has been gaining popularity because it’s an affordable, fun way for clients to take advantage of a trainer’s expertise at a lower financial investment — all while keeping the fun and competitiveness of a group dynamic. How does it differ from one-on-one personal training, and how can you effectively design programs? Find out.

Increase the intensity of your workouts by training like a mixed martial arts (MMA) fighter. Doug Balzarini shows you his top five favorite exercises that he uses when training elite athletes. With upper-body pushing and pulling, lower-body and rotational core movements, these exercises will make you sweat.

As fitness professionals, it’s inevitable that people ask for our opinions about popular exercise programs — ranging from programs featured in the most recent late-night infomercials to the centuries-old practice of yoga. Answering these questions by applying the ACE IFT Model to these trends will help market your skills as a personal trainer.

The recent article about the fittest athletes has prompted some interesting discussions between some colleagues and me. The discussions have centered on the fact that the article addresses many components of fitness such as cardiorespiratory endurance, strength, power and agility but leaves out an important component critical for athletic success — reactivity.

Core training is one of the most popular and often misused phrases in the fitness world today. For some people, core training means doing crunches until their abs cramp. For others, core training means doing all sorts of complicated moves on various pieces of equipment that look better suited for a circus than a gym. The big question is “which way is the right way to do effective core training?”

Dating back to the early 1980s, the practice of static stretching before exercise was widely believed to prevent or reduce the risk of injury, and to promote performance. Thirty years later and after volumes of research, confusion still exists whether it offers potential benefits before exercise. From a logical perspective, tissue stiffness and a lack in range of motion (ROM) both contribute to injury, and static stretching is correlated with both a reduction in tissue stiffness and an improved

Aerobic Interval (AI) training has emerged as a viable alternative to traditional steady-state aerobic (SS) exercise, a long-standing staple for improving cardiovascular fitness. What AI offers over SS is the ability to introduce frequent changes in exercise intensity to increase the overall volume of overload before inducing fatigue (i.e., by allowing appropriate recoveries between work intervals). While Tabata and colleagues (1996) demonstrated that high-intensity interval training (HIIT) tra

Aerobic Interval (AI) training has emerged as a viable alternative to traditional steady-state aerobic (SS) exercise, a long-standing staple for improving cardiovascular fitness. What AI offers over SS is the ability to introduce frequent changes in exercise intensity to increase the overall volume of overload before inducing fatigue (i.e., by allowing appropriate recoveries between work intervals). While Tabata and colleagues (1996) demonstrated that high-intensity interval training (HIIT) tra