You’ve likely heard some version of this time and time again from fitness instructors: Your brain wants to give up long before your body actually needs to. But should you actually stop to take notice of what your mind is screaming, or ignore it and push through the struggle? The answer isn’t straightforward, but it […]
I can deadlift 120 pounds, but I can really only do sets of bicep curls with eight-pound weights. In other words, the tools I need to challenge my muscles vary wildly from body part to body part. So how is it possible that I could get a full-body workout using just one piece of equipment? […]
If you’ve ever been in the middle of a workout and noticed that your hips are popping, chances are you’ve been hesitant to power through. Whether you’ve attempted to adjust your movement or skip the offending exercise entirely (leg raises, leg circles, bicycle crunches, and side plank crunches are all common culprits), it doesn’t solve […]
Over the past 30 years, Liz Fichtner has been a Tae Kwon Do competitor, a bikini-wearing competitive bodybuilder, and a fitness instructor. Now 64, exercise remains a huge part of the Crunch group fitness teacher’s life. But her relationship with movement has changed. “You don’t have to prove anything to anybody anymore,” Fichtner says of […]

We’ve all been at the gym and seen Billy. Billy is doing the most. He is jumping rope at a pace that opens the space-time continuum. He is doing every push-up that needs to be done. He is s-p-r-i-n-t-i-n-g on that treadmill. And when you get to the gym tomorrow, Billy will be there—doing the […]