5 Exercise Tips If Your Back Tightens Up In The Car

One of the top physical complaints I hear from prospective clients is that their back tightens up when they drive for longer periods of time.  They often have to change from favoring one hip to another as they shift their body weight back and forth during their trips.  And when they finally arrive at their destination, there can be some difficulty getting out of the car right away because their back and hips feel tight.

14937237_1742931865967992_2251376527989311385_n

More times than not it has been recommended to them that they need to spend more time stretching their low back and hips so they don’t tighten up so easily.  While there may be some merit to this kind of suggestion, I offer up a different solution that they don’t often hear – they need to find the muscles that are too loose and tighten them up. (more…)

5 Ways To Change Up Your Workout So You Don’t Get Bored

Bored with exercise?  Finding that your current workout plan is a drag?  Interested in learning new ways to change up what you are doing?  Looking for some tips to amplify your results at the gym?

5-tip-2

Join us on Monday, November 7 for our final Exercise For Life Talk of the year!  At Muscle Activation Schaumburg, certified personal trainers, Julie Errington and Charlie Cates, will be discussing five simple ways to completely transform your current exercise routine.  In this live workshop, Julie and Charlie will be teaching you some of their biggest secrets that they use with their clients to provide a world class exercise experience and make exercising feel like it has never felt before. (more…)

Do You Know The Difference Between A Butcher And A Dietician?

I am a personal trainer in Schaumburg, Illinois.  My career is to help individuals make optimal decisions about their exercise life.  I have other interests, too, most being creative things like dancing, sewing, or re-decorating.  I am also interested in gaining a further understanding about finances, investing, and managing money.  By no means do I expect to become any kind of professional in the field, but my father somehow passed on the “interested-in-understanding-finances-and-numbers” gene. In Read more…

Your “Exercise GPS” in Schaumburg

What is the goal of your exercise?  Why do you choose to exercise as you do?  Are you trying to accomplish a goal in the next few weeks or few years?  What about the goal you are trying to accomplish with the very set you are doing right now? Exercise is a process.  A process of challenging your body with a specific stimulus in an attempt to create a specific adaptation.  The adaptation is what Read more…

The Best Pill You Aren’t Taking

“In the bottle before you is a pill, a marvel of modern medicine that will regulate gene transcription throughout your body, helping prevent heart disease, stroke, diabetes, obesity, and 12 kinds of cancer — plus gallstones and diverticulitis. Expect the pill to improve your strength and balance as well as your blood lipid profile. Your bones will become stronger. You’ll grow new capillaries in your heart, your skeletal muscles, and your brain, improving blood flow Read more…

Do You Really Want To Live A Little?

Have you ever heard of the saying “just live a little”? Usually, it goes a little something like this: “‘Just live a little’ and have one drink with us” …. When you are trying to not have alcohol. “‘Just live a little’ and take off work to go on vacation” …. When you are trying to make the next big leap with your business. “‘Just live a little’ and have this one piece of chocolate” Read more…

Client Testimonial: Kurt Wuckert

Kurt Wuckert, a Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu athlete and coach at Alliance Jiu-Jitsu and Evolution MMA in Schaumburg, IL, talks about his experience with Muscle Activation Techniques™ (MAT™) and the changes he has noticed after just a few sessions.  Kurt discusses some of the differences in his performance, recovery, and training that he has experienced while taking part in the MATRx™ process with Charlie Cates at Muscle Activation Schaumburg. Check out this fantastic testimonial from Kurt as Read more…

Exercise As A Lifestyle Stinks

Have you ever heard the saying “exercise is a lifestyle”?  I am pretty sure we all have heard it and we REALLY need to cut it out and stop saying it.  Let me tell you why.

14063717_1713789532215559_2280033650359850551_n

Why do some people say this?  Because the true and best changes from exercise are seen with consistency and long-term efforts.

But, what does it sound like is being said?  Exercise must dominate your life.

(more…)