Some Discussions I Had with Clients Over the Past Week.

• Muscle soreness is not a good indicator of the effectiveness of a training session. It indicates that the muscle has been used to a greater extent (duaration or intensity) than it is used to working. You can do anything long enough or hard enough to get sore (move furniture for the afternoon), but in the long run, you may not see optimal improvements in your strength or fitness. Instead, think of the training as a stimulus to which the body responds; not enough and the body doesn't improve, too much and the body doesn't recover.

• Olympic athletes are in great shape because of the training they undergo to improve their performance. Their training goal is not to make their body look better. Their performance is also what motivates them. I think this can be very helpful for you, too. Train to improve your performance and the improvements in your body will follow.

• The easiest way to cut out excessive calories is to remove some refined carbohydrates from your diet (i.e. snack packs, granola bars). These provide little nutrition and worse of all do not curb your appetite (also true of diet drinks, too). Protein and fats do curb your appetite.

• It take adequate energy to improve your body composition and build muscle. Simply starving yourself will actually worsen your body composition.