Vegan Pumpkin Cream Cheese Muffins Recipe

Vegan Pumpkin Cream Cheese Muffins Recipe

Providing vegan alternatives to the sorts of delicious comfort foods that everyone craves, The Dirty Vegan Cookbook, Revised Edition by Catherine Gill makes it easier than ever to live the vegan lifestyle. Self-styled as “vegan junk food”–healthy vegan food that doesn’t skimp on taste–The Dirty Vegan Cookbook is a celebration of all the amazing tastes and dishes available to those on vegan diets. Enjoy a recipe featured in the book below!

This recipe was inspired by a muffin I saw in the bakery case at a coffee shop, which a friend of mine would often get with her coffee. I veganized the muffin based on the flavors that she described; having been a former pastry chef and owning my own vegan bakery really comes in handy! When I asked my friend to try my vegan version, she could not believe how much my recipe tasted like the one she would buy at the coffeehouse. Continue reading →

How to Exercise with a Face Mask

How to Exercise with a Face Mask

Burning fitness question of the moment: If you have to wear a mask to work out, what’s the right way to do it? And how to do it with an activity like rowing that’s often high-intensity? Is it even a good idea?

 

Many of us don’t have a choice in the matter. Our gyms have decided that the only way we’re getting back in is if we wear a mask, even while working out. Other gyms and states have decided that wearing a mask while doing the actual workout is optional, although you have to wear one any time you’re not working out.

If you’re a fitness professional, though, it may come down to a choice between putting that mask on and working. The good news is, you don’t have to choose. It IS possible to wear a mask while working out or teaching. We dive in. Continue reading →

Best Way to Warm-Up Before Exercise

Best Way to Warm-Up Before Exercise

Over the past 20-30 years, fitness and sports training programs have evolved in a way that yield exceptional human performance results. You may remember in the 70-80’s, a 4.5 second 40m sprint was unheard of. 300lb football players were non-existent. Now, there are 300lb football players who can run the 40m sprint in 4.6 seconds. The average weight of big players in football is 300+ lbs.

You cannot argue with results! Sports science and training is producing some of the biggest, fastest, and strongest people in human history. Continue reading →

5 Tips for Balancing Remote Work and Full-Time Parenting

5 Tips for Balancing Remote Work and Full-Time Parenting

Many parents are currently navigating an entirely new normal: Working from home while taking care of their kids full-time. As school picks back up and many kids remain at home for remote learning, figuring out how to balance their schedule and a full-time job sometimes feels totally unmanageable.

Most parents have had experience working remotely in one-off, unplanned situations. However, working at home day in and day out for the foreseeable future while also caring for (and in some cases, teaching) kids at home proves to be a major struggle without careful planning where needed and flexibility when possible. Continue reading →

3 Tips for Better Rowing Technique

3 Tips for Better Rowing Technique

There’s nothing we love more than getting a juicy question in our social media DMs or blog comments. Like this one: “I’ve been rowing for a while and I know I’ve developed some bad habits that I need to shake. Help!”

Does that one resonate with you? If it does and you’re feeling a little “meh” about your rowing stroke, know that you’re in good company!

We all feel this way sometimes, or even a lot of the time. Congratulations, you’re a rower!

Just like in golf, get a bunch of rowers around a table and the conversation will make its way to technique.

From novice to Olympian, it’s “I’m not getting my hands away fast enough at the finish,” “I want to connect better at the catch,” etc. etc. [Actual statements heard from the mouths of super-seasoned veterans.]

That’s awesome, you may be saying, but what do I actually DO?? Continue reading →

Enhance Your Workouts with Pyramid Training

Enhance Your Workouts with Pyramid Training

I didn’t create the Pyramid workout method. I learned it in the ’80s at the Naval Academy when working to improve my own PT scores and have been using it, altering it and developing new routines ever since.

Below is a recent question I received…

Stew, I like your pyramid workout and have used it to help me with my Army fitness tests in the past. What other uses do you have for them? Have you ever considered mixing them with other exercises, military-style events, new combat fitness test events, and cardio workouts? Just wondering what you think and how you would break up each set? Continue reading →

Zucchini Fritters Recipe

Zucchini Fritters Recipe

This dish is a great way to utilize the surplus of zucchini that always seems to come about in mid-summer. At my house, we typically serve these as appetizers to a summer meal out on the patio or as a side to grilled marinated venison steaks, but feel free to pair them with any dish that needs a savory side.

For similar recipes highlighting farm-fresh produce, check out The Catskills Farm to Table Cookbook by Courtney Wade. Continue reading →

Cucumber Salad Recipe

Cucumber Salad Recipe

It seems like everyone has their own special recipe for cucumber salad, and after a summer of cookouts and barbeques, all those mayo-based salads can start to feel a bit redundant and heavy. That’s where this dish shines: the combination of rice wine vinegar and fresh fill gives it a very refreshing quality that makes for a perfect summer side that goes with practically anything.

For similar recipes highlighting farm-fresh produce, check out The Catskills Farm to Table Cookbook by Courtney Wade. Continue reading →

Indoor Rowing Workouts to Get You Back on Track

Indoor Rowing Workouts to Get You Back on Track

We’ve all been there… You’re going along fine with your rowing machine workouts. Showing up for them according to your plan, feeling like you could conquer the world when you’re done. Nothing’s going to stop you now!

And then life gets in the way.

You get sick, you go on vacation, you get an injury that requires you to lay off for a while. One day you wake up and you realize, “I’ve gotten way off track.” Days or weeks have gone by without a real workout happening.

Now what?

First off, stop and take a deep breath. Getting off track with your workouts is totally normal. It doesn’t make you bad, wrong, or any kind of a failure. It makes you human. Continue reading →