Should you focus on strength or building muscle? It’s a predicament lifters — especially gym veterans who are lightyears past the newbie gains phase — find ourselves in at the start of a fresh programming ... Continue Reading
How to Calculate Your Maximum Heart Rate (+ Insights From a Physiotherapist)
As a strength athlete, you likely have a working estimate of your one-rep max in different lifts at any given time. It informs your training day to day and week to week. But when it comes to hopping on the ... Continue Reading
How to Adjust a Treadmill Belt: An Easy-to-Follow Guide for Belt Adjustment
The history of treadmills is quite intriguing — it’s wild to think that the best treadmills currently on the market evolved from a method of torture during the Industrial Age. (1) And they're only becoming ... Continue Reading
How Many Calories Are Burned Running a Mile? Here’s What the Research Says
There are many reasons to go for a run. If you’re like any of my clients, you might focus on improving your heart rate, aiming for a specific mileage, or maybe even relaxation after a long day at the ... Continue Reading
Want to Learn How to Run a Mile Without Stopping? 8 Tips From an Elite Coach
Contrary to what your high school gym teacher might have thought, it’s certainly not easy to simply lace up your running shoes, toe the starting line, and run an entire mile. That’s over 1,600 meters or ... Continue Reading
Home Treadmill Dangers and How To Prevent Them
At-home treadmills provide users with a wealth of benefits, from weight loss and cardiovascular health to bone density and muscle building. (1) They also offer greater convenience than going to the gym, ... Continue Reading
Why Do My Knees Hurt When I Run? A Physical Therapist Explains
If you’re a treadmill or track aficionado, you may stumble into some aches and pains at a certain point. While running injuries aren't a guarantee, overuse or underuse of certain muscles might eventually ... Continue Reading
The 5 Best Running Workouts to Level Up Your Conditioning
Running and strength training are different beasts, to be sure. For one thing, running is about variety. Yes, there’s some variety in lifting weights, too. But for the most part, your resistance training ... Continue Reading
The 15 Best Bodyweight Exercises, + Workouts and Tips From a CPT
Don’t worry, we get it — you love lifting weights, and the idea of parting with your favorite barbell or dumbbell exercises might make your skin crawl. But a good bodyweight workout can come in handy in ... Continue Reading
Treadmill Motors: What You Need to Know
If you’re the average gymgoer, you probably haven’t spent too much time thinking about how a treadmill operates from the inside. But if you’re in the market for a big-ticket item like fitness equipment, ... Continue Reading
Opinion: Bodybuilder Samson Dauda Told Sam Sulek He Lifts Too Heavy. Dauda Is Wrong.
Ever since Sam Sulek started yapping into his webcam on his gym commute in 2023, he’s rapidly become the Internet’s favorite soundboard. Everybody has their take: Sulek is this, Sulek is that. He’s a good ... Continue Reading
Walking Backward on a Treadmill — An Unhelpful Trend or Worth Your Time?
Backward walking is undoubtedly something you’ve seen take hold in the gym lately. A lot of this popularity may come from your fave fitness influencers on TikTok. And while not everything we see on social ... Continue Reading
Dumbbell Side Bend: How To + Core Workout Training Tips
We’ll spill the beans — at BarBend, we love dumbbell exercises. And core workouts. Put them together and we’re over the moon. If you feel the same, or you’re on the hunt for a new dumbbell ab workout ... Continue Reading
The 9 Biggest Benefits of Pilates, Explained By a Pilates Instructor
After this year’s Grammy Awards, Miley Cyrus’s lean, muscular physique took the country by storm. Everyone wanted to know what the secret was to getting her rockstar arms. The answer: Pilates. To ... Continue Reading
The Best HIIT Cardio Workout for Beginners (+ Customizations for Every Fitness Level)
Does the term “HIIT” call to mind boot-camp-esque group fitness classes with zealous instructors? HIIT (high-intensity interval training) is a type of cardio workout where you work hard and rest for short ... Continue Reading
Is This TikTok Trend Diet Worth Trying? A Registered Dietitian Cracks Open the Egg Diet
If you’re trying to lose weight, it’s not uncommon to turn to diets that promise a lot of weight loss in very little time. The egg diet is one such diet and — as you can probably guess from its name — it ... Continue Reading
Should You Be Running Every Day? A Certified Personal Trainer Gives You the Scoop
There’s nothing like a runner’s high — that mood-boosting feeling of accomplishment after a great run. As a newbie, you may want to chase that feeling by running every day. However, even elite athletes ... Continue Reading
How Long Does it Take to Walk a 5K? (+ Tips to Walk Faster From a Walking Coach)
With all of the muscle-pumping energy you pour into your strength training, you can’t be blamed for casting high-intensity cardio to the side. But then again, you don’t want to shirk your heart health ... Continue Reading
Need to Run a Faster 10K in Four Weeks? Here’s Your 10K Training Plan From a Running Expert
Many athletes view the 10K run as the happy medium between a 5K and a half marathon. If you’re like many new runners, you might think that you can run it at your 5K pace — but that’s a quick way to wipe ... Continue Reading
The Best Stationary Bike Workout for Your Experience Level, According to a Personal Trainer
You wake up on cardio day — it’s raining outside, your favorite indoor cycling class is full, and you want to hop on an exercise bike and do your own thing. Whether you’re a cyclist training for an event ... Continue Reading
Opinion: Can We Stop Mixing Up the Romanian Deadlift and Stiff-Leg Deadlift?
This is something I see all the time on social media: A well-intentioned but under-informed fitness content creator on TikTok or Instagram or YouTube Shorts demonstrating a Romanian deadlift (RDL) and ... Continue Reading
How Many Calories Are Burned Walking? Certified Nutrition and Fitness Experts Explain
Walking is a great way to improve your cardiovascular fitness and your overall health. If you’re also trying to lose weight, you may wonder how many calories you can realistically burn during a walk, ... Continue Reading
Learn How to Run Faster (At Any Skill Level) From a Triathlete Coach
As a strength athlete, you know what to do to get stronger — you eat, sleep, breathe, and train progressive overload. It’s a grind sometimes, but you ultimately know how to get more weight on that bar. But ... Continue Reading
The Best Running Warm-Up for Your Next Cardio Session
Chances are, when you think “cardio,” you think “run.” When my clients want to start incorporating some form of cardio, their natural inclination is usually to hop onto a treadmill. Although the barrier to ... Continue Reading