Do you know about M&Ms? No, I’m not talking about the yummy chocolate candy with the hard outer shell. Instead, I mean the ever-important Mind-Muscle connection. You don’t want your workout routines to consist of doing three sets of 10 of these and four sets of 12 of those. Your muscles truly don’t care how well you can count. To maximize the benefit that awaits them from a workout, slow down your movement and really put your thoughts into the exercising muscle—contracting, lengthening, strengthening and changing its shape before you ever move a single inch. For example, when doing an arm …

Holding a plank for minutes at a time? No plank you, says trainer Frank LaCoco of Five Seasons Family Sports Club.  Planks are great exercises for your abs and lower back, but holding a plank for longer than 90 seconds is unnecessary—the "Groundhog Day" of ab exercises. Instead of holding the plank for minutes at a time, challenge yourself by changing your position. Try extending an arm forward while keeping your chest and hips parallel to the floor, or lifting a leg hip height off the ground. These small modifications increase the intensity of the plank and put those abs and low back muscles…

Today's tip from trainer Frank LaCoco of Five Seasons Family Sports Club deals with something we often don't think about when we exercise. Each exercise repetition has two parts - call it a positive and a negative, an in and an out, an up and a down, a lift and a lower. It's crucial to exhale on the harder part of the exercise. What happens too often is when the hard part hits we find ourselves holding our breath, jaws clenching and face turning red. Instead, imagine yourself actually blowing the resistance away from your body. Breathe out during the up phase of a push up, breathe out when …

Question: I really want to get those nice pecs. What's the key to getting the most out of my chest workout? Answer from Frank LaCoco, personal trainer at Five Seasons Family Sports Club in Burr Ridge: Most chest exercises involve pressing resistance away from your body—think push-ups and bench presses. The key to keeping all that muscle work focused in your chest is holding your shoulder blades, or scapula, flat when your arms are fully extended at the elbows and shoulders. How do you know if you're keeping your scapula flat? Try standing with your back flat against a wall and raise your arms…

Question: How can I get a great workout on my treadmill without running? Answer from Frank LaCoco, personal trainer at Five Seasons Family Sports Club in Burr Ridge: Running can be rough on the ankles, knees, hips, and back. After you warm-up on the treadmill, switch to a very fast walk at a 4 percent incline. After a minute, bump the incline up to 8 percent and maintain your pace. After another minute, lower the incline to 4 percent and recover. Alternate a minute of recovery at a 4 percent incline with a minute of work at an 8 percent (or higher) incline. After 10 cycles, cool down by …