Applied Fitness Solutions-Ann Arbor

09/09/2026

The muscles that hold you upright are detraining while you sit. Eight or nine hours a day of asking almost nothing of your mid back, your deep core and your glutes, and then wondering why your neck aches by 4pm.

Michael Stack wrote up the five exercises that put that work back into the day. Squat, plank, side plank, shoulder blade squeeze, Superman.

Start with the shoulder blade squeeze. It takes a minute and you can do it in your chair.

09/04/2026

The worst of this week's weather is behind us (🤞) and a long weekend is ahead. Pull up Camille's Summer Grilling Guide and send Summer 2026 out in style. The grill is still one of the best tools you have for eating well.

A Registered Dietitian's healthy summer grilling guide: lean proteins, smart marinades, and balanced plates from Memorial Day on.

09/02/2026

AFS opens at our usual time on Labor Day but closes early at 1:00pm. We will resume regular hours on Tuesday, September 8th.

Please plan accordingly and let us know if there's anything we can help with.

09/01/2026

Map your whole health in two minutes

There are eight areas that make up your health, and only one of them is the gym. Sleep is one. So is who you eat dinner with, whether your job leaves you with any energy by 7:00pm, and whether you have been outside this week for a reason other than walking to your car.

But trying to optimize for all eight at once is how you end up with burned out. One or two is the real number. Pick the one or two that matter most for what you are chasing right now, give them ninety days, and let the other six sit where they are.

We built a tool to help you pick 'em. Eight sliders, about two minutes, and you get your whole health in one picture instead of a guess. Our Health Coaches do this with members every week, so if you would rather talk it through with a person, that is what they are here for.

08/28/2026

In our 19 years of helping Ann Arbor get and stay healthy, our member stories keep us going.

Results come from movement, nutrition, and health behaviors, coached by a care team that knows your name and your goals. But it's the little wins that can't be quantified that matter most to us: regaining confidence, owning your health, and participating fully in life with purpose and action.

Here are some of the stories that motivate us for the years to come.

Watching our members succeed in reaching their fitness goals is the best reward. View our client success stories.

08/25/2026

Join AFS CEO Mike Stack and AFS Registered Dietitian Camille Pearce for a practical, myth-busting conversation. Mike brings the regulatory and industry lens. Camille brings what she sees with members every week.

Together they'll cover:

- What the evidence supports: protein, creatine, vitamin D, fiber, omega-3s, caffeine
- What's mostly hype: fat burners, detoxes, testosterone boosters, greens powders, influencer brands
- How supplement regulation works, and what that fine print on every label really means
- How to read a label, spot a proprietary blend, and find third-party certification
- Where supplements fit alongside the habits that drive most of the result

Bring your questions. Mike will run a live Q&A at the end.

08/24/2026

Muscle keeps you on your feet after a wobble, gets you off the floor when play time is over, and allows you to carry one extra grocery bag through the door.

But after 30, muscle tends to deteriorate. That means by 50 wobbles turn into falls, play time is canceled, and we have to take extra trips from the car to the house when unloading groceries.

The good news is that keeping your muscle doesn't mean we have to turn your garage into a sweaty gym.

Just two strength sessions a week is how women over 50 stay on their feet, play like there's no tomorrow, and make one trip from the car to the house.

Michael Stack wrote about the 5 benefits of strength training that will carry you well into your 80s and beyond.

Only one in five women strength train weekly. What twice a week in a class does for independence, disease risk, menopause, injury, and social ties.

08/20/2026

Somebody will tell you that taking a GLP-1 drug is the easy way out. Michael Stack has heard it from both sides of this: as an exercise physiologist with 20 years in the field, and as the kid whose high school nickname was Fat Stack.

Nobody calls a statin cheating. Nobody calls a cholesterol of 300 a moral failing. But a BMI of 35 still gets read as a character flaw, and that says more about the stigma than it does about the science.

Obesity is a medical condition. Treating it is healthcare.

Losing weight and keeping it off takes more than willpower. AFS founder Mike Stack on the biology, the food environment, and why GLP-1 drugs are healthcare.

08/19/2026

Reminder: The AFS facility will be closed this Friday and Saturday (the 21st and 22nd) for phase one of our remodel. We will reopen with a new look on Monday the 24th.

For more details on the remodel and what to expect on Monday, please review Mike's letter

AFS is shutting down Friday and Saturday, August 21st and 22nd, and re-opening on Monday August the 24th.

08/17/2026

You use muscular power every time you stand up out of a chair. It fades before strength does, starting around age 30, and almost nobody trains for it.

Grab a chair and a timer. The 30-second test in our new article shows you where your leg power stands against the CDC benchmark for your age.

Muscular power is force times speed, and it declines first, starting around age 30. Learn what it is, test yours with the chair stand test, and train it.