Pace Health & Fitness

Aerobic capacity is simply your body’s ability to take in oxygen and use it efficiently during physical activity. The stronger that system, the better everything else works.

Here’s why it matters for your everyday life:

More energy. A stronger cardiovascular system means your heart and lungs don’t have to work as hard to get through the day — whether that’s climbing stairs, keeping up with your kids, or powering through a long afternoon at work.

A longer, healthier life. Research consistently links higher aerobic fitness to lower risks of heart disease, diabetes, and stroke. It’s one of the single strongest predictors of how well you’ll age.

Better mental health. Regular aerobic exercise reduces stress, improves sleep, and has been shown to ease symptoms of anxiety and depression.

Stronger recovery. The fitter your cardiovascular system, the faster your body bounces back — from workouts, illness, and the general wear and tear of life.

The good news? You don’t need to run marathons to build it. Any activity that gets your heart rate up will move the needle over time. Start where you are and build gradually.

At Pace Health we can help you understand where your cardiovascular health stands today and build a plan that works for your life. Call us to schedule your appointment. 916.224.4362

It’s National Call Your Doctor Day!

Today is your reminder to do the one thing you’ve been putting off — make that appointment.

So many of us push routine care to the back burner, placing work, family, and other obligations ahead of our own health. But that one phone call could be the most important one you make all year.

All it takes is five minutes. Schedule your wellness exam today — your future self will thank you.

Ready to take that step? Choose Josh as your provider at Pace Health and get the care you deserve. Call us today to schedule your appointment!

916-224-4362

It doesn’t get better than this.

A dad and his kids, in the gym, together. No screens. No distractions. Just presence.

Kids learn by watching the people they love most. When a father shows up and moves, lifts, and works hard, his kids are taking notes. That is how a love of fitness gets passed down — not through lectures, but through living it side by side.

The gym is one of the best places a family can spend time together. Build strong bodies, build stronger bonds.

Weightlifting is one of the most powerful things you can do for your long term health — and the science is clear on this. Here is why it belongs in everyone’s life, not just athletes.

It builds the foundation your body needs to function. Strength training develops the muscles, bones, and connective tissue that hold everything together. As we age, we naturally lose muscle mass. Lifting weights is how we fight back.

It protects your bones. Resistance training increases bone density, reducing the risk of osteoporosis and fractures later in life. Every rep is an investment in your future.

It improves how your body uses fuel. Muscle is metabolically active tissue. The more of it you carry, the more efficiently your body processes food, manages blood sugar, and maintains a healthy weight.

It makes everything else in life easier. Carrying groceries. Playing with your kids. Getting up off the floor. Climbing stairs at 80. Strength built in the gym transfers directly to the quality of your daily life.

It builds mental toughness. There is something that happens when you step up to a heavy bar and decide to pick it up anyway. That moment builds a kind of confidence that nothing else can replicate.

You do not need to be a certain size, age, or fitness level to start. You just need to show up.

At Pace we believe the barbell belongs to everyone. Come find yours.

To the person behind me: you are strong, resilient, powerful, and enough. Remember that.

That message belongs in every gym. Weights have a way of teaching people things that can’t be learned anywhere else. That you can do hard things. That you can fail, adjust, and try again. That your body is capable of more than you thought.

Strength is built one rep at a time. So is confidence.

Teens lifting weights isn’t dangerous — it’s one of the smartest things they can do.

A safe resistance training program builds muscle strength, bone density, cardiovascular health, injury resistance, and psychosocial well-being. The American Academy of Pediatrics, the National Strength and Conditioning Association, and multiple international sports science organizations all agree.

The key is mechanics first, load second. Quality of movement always supersedes weight on the bar. When done right, weightlifting injury rates in youth are a fraction of what’s seen in soccer or basketball.

The teen years are a critical window — bone density peaks around ages 12–14, making this the perfect time to build a foundation that lasts a lifetime. Start them strong.

The squat. Master it. Your life depends on it more than you know.

Squatting is standing from a seated position. That is it. You do it every single day without thinking about it — getting out of a chair, getting off the floor, picking something up. It is not a gym movement. It is a life movement.

Squatting is essential to maintaining functional independence and improving fitness. And here is the part that most people miss — your needs and an Olympic athlete’s needs differ by degree, not kind. The grandmother and the elite skier both need to squat. The weight on the bar is different. The need is exactly the same.

The leg extension machine has no equivalent in nature. The squat does. That is why we have replaced the leg extension with the squat. Functional movements are radically more effective at eliciting nearly any fitness result you are after.

Squatting is just one example of a movement that is universally valuable and essential yet rarely taught to anyone but the most advanced athletes. That is a tragedy. Because done correctly, with proper coaching and progression, almost anyone can squat safely and powerfully.

This is not an advanced movement reserved for competitors. It is a fundamental human pattern that belongs to everyone.

Learn to squat. Keep squatting. Your body will thank you for decades to come.

The bar they are gathering at has weights on it.

There is something that happens when men show up to the same place, at the same time, day after day and do hard things together. They start talking. They start pushing each other. They start showing up for each other in ways that are quiet but real.

Nobody really talks about how lonely it can be to be a man. How the older you get the harder it becomes to find your people. How most of the places men have traditionally gathered — the bar, the tailgate, the couch — involve sitting still and consuming something that slowly takes from your health rather than adding to it.

The gym flips that.

Here the price of admission is effort. The thing you have in common is that you all showed up and chose to do something hard. And something about suffering through the same workout, pushing the same weight, chasing the same goals, builds a bond that is harder to find than most men want to admit they are looking for.

Men need each other. Not just to watch the game. Not just to have someone to grab a drink with. But to be known. To be challenged. To have someone look at them and say I see what you are building and I respect it.

The gym gives men a place to be together while becoming better. A place where the social currency is not how much you can drink but how hard you can work. Where the conversation flows between sets and the loyalty builds over months and years of shared effort.

That is rare. That is worth protecting.

Find your people. Find them under a bar.

NO DRESS CODE

The gym doesn’t have to be boring. It doesn’t have to be black leggings, plain tank, head down with no personality.

We are here to tell you that you can just show up as your full self no questions asked other than maybe “girl! where’d you get those totally awesome shoes?!”

This is a shout out to this chick! There is something powerful about a woman who walks into a space that can feel intimidating and makes it completely her own. Not by toning herself down. Not by blending in. But by showing up with her whole personality intact and then moving a barbell!

Train how you want. Dress how you want. Show up exactly as you are.

The bar doesn’t care what you are wearing. It only cares if you show up.

The pull-up is not just an upper body movement. It is a full-body exercise that requires coordination throughout the entire body to transfer power effectively. Your lats, your core, your hips, your grip — everything has to work together. When you earn your pull-ups, you are not just building a stronger back. You are building a body that knows how to function as one unit.

Strict pull-ups are the prerequisite — the foundation that must be built before progressing to more dynamic variations. There are no shortcuts past that standard. You either have it or you are working toward it.

And working toward it is perfectly fine.

The functionality of the pull-up in everyday life is significant enough that even if someone cannot do one without assistance, the movement is adapted and preserved for any level athlete — often using bands or a box. The standard does not change. Only the path to get there does.

That is the beauty of it. The bar does not care about your excuses. It does not negotiate. It just asks — can you get your chin over it? And every day you show up and try, you are building something that goes beyond fitness.

You are building the kind of person who does not quit when things are hard.

Get on the bar.