10 Exercises to Strengthen Your Spinal Erectors
The spinal erectors are often overlooked when it comes to building the physique AND deadlift. Try these 10 to add slabs of meat back there.
The 12 Best Exercises for Rear Delts and How to Combine Them
John Meadows’ expertise on shoulder training filled a void in the atmosphere of bodybuilding information. I’ve incorporated rear delt work with all of my clients, and I’ve learned a few things along the way.
How Do You Periodize Intensity Techniques?
Intensity is much talked about in bodybuilding, but what is it? Is it taking sets to failure? Lots of volume? Dropsets? Supersetting?
Relentless Hypertrophy Revisited
This strategy is a synthesis of various methods and tactics I’ve learned over the years from John Meadows, Swede Burns, Charles Staley, and a few others.
Apply the 80/20 Principle to Powerlifting
Use this principle to analyze your training program, your technique, your diet, your recovery, and your time.
Vince Gironda — The World's First Personal Trainer
I’ve studied and experimented with Vince Gironda’s methods my entire training career. He has had a major impact on me as a trainer and lifter.
Experiments with 5x5 Training
You can use five sets for strength building, you can use it for hypertrophy, you can use it for power, and you can change it to suit whatever particular goal you have.
Kickbacks, Curls, and Training Girls
How do you train a woman in her 30s or 40s with zero background in lifting? Isolate, then integrate.
Ivan the Terrible
The customer is the ultimate determinant of your product and what it’s about. It doesn’t matter how you perceive your product — it matters how they do.
What I Think I Know About Muscle Growth
I am not an in-the-lab scientist; per my own training practice, I care about what I can apply, not what I can argue about.
5 Leadership Mistakes in Personal Training
Having recently read Michael Speidel’s “5 Lessons from 13 Years in Leadership”, I reframed it to personal training.
15 Tips for Getting JACKED...Over A Long Period of Time
Some lessons are learned only through experience and accepting reality. If I could tell my 15-year-old self anything about training, it would be this.
The 10 Principles of Being Personal with Personal Training
Personal training is a field that allows for creativity in how you do things with exercise, but at its core, it is still working with people. You need them to like you.
7 Daily Rituals for Success
Three years ago I wrote about habits of trying to be successful. Since then, these practices have evolved into something better: rituals.
Mobility Versus Flexibility
Is mobility even a real thing, or a substitution for people that don’t actually train, compete, or play in an actual defined activity?
Build the Back, Spare the Spine
The healthier you can keep your spine, the longer you can train heavy and grow muscle. Here are my top-10, spine-friendly exercises.
Relentless Hypertrophy Protocol: How Sequencing and Repetition Stimulate...
The goal was to create a training model that would maximize hypertrophy in minimal time and that would be “low tech, high effect” in its design.
Perspectives on Hypertrophy
My viewpoint runs counter to much of the current climate, which is dominated by the short-term perspective of a “hypertrophy phase.”
Hypertrophy Is The Holy Grail
After so many years and so many clients, I’ve begun to realize that everyone’s training needs are the same.
Don't Romanticize Self-Destruction
What must competitors put themselves through to attain championship notoriety? Being confined to a wheelchair? Torn relationships? Shortened lifespan?
Ignorance Can Be Bliss
An overload of information may tempt you to abandon your plan when something new comes along. Pick a program, one program, and stay committed.
The Work Comes First
You will find no forward momentum by doing nothing. Without work, passion and purpose won’t take you anywhere.
Being God Awful Precedes Being Good
Personal training is like any other craft, it takes time and perseverance through many mistakes to master. I recently reflected on my climb as a professional.
Everything Starts at Zero
For most things in life, you start with nothing. Get comfortable with this.
Training Women: Deadlift Considerations
Before making the assumption that all women have wide hips and should therefore squat wide and deadlift sumo, consider these other factors that will inform good technique.
Training Women: There Is A Difference
Men and women have different needs. Pay attention to these eleven factors when programming for your female clients.
Personal Training Is NOT Easy
To be a successful trainer, it takes more than showing up and looking the part. It takes more than you think.
The Assessment Paradox
When you test your clients, are you using the assessment to improve a fitness quality or simply to make yourself appear knowledgeable?
'It Looked Good in Theory'
Trends dominate the personal training industry. Rely on self-education to determine the difference between what sounds good and what IS good.
Build a Bigger Bench: The Female Edition
The bench press is typically the weakest lift for women. It’s no mystery why—they require a targeted approach.
Mountain Dog Diet: Interview with Swede Burns
Get to know Swede Burns, as the teenager, bodybuilder, powerlifter, coach, author, and more...
Your Actions Are Your Lifeline
Perfect circumstances are created, not found. How are you living out your words?
Why Context Matters
If you don’t know your audience, you can’t communicate your message. If your audience doesn’t have your knowledge, you can’t assume they’ll understand.
Dirty Bulking: The XXX Edition
Take your eating seriously by following these ten tactics to pack on pounds in a short time.
The ONE THING You Need to be Doing
You’ve been searching for it. A lot of people promise it. Here’s the real deal.
Your Ego Is Your Biggest Obstacle
When you’re occupied with trying to show how good you think you are, how will you have time to develop your skills?
On Necessity Versus Possibility
There is a great difference between doing everything "necessary" to achieve an outcome, versus doing everything possible to achieve that outcome. Necessity is the bare minimum. It's the first tier of what absolutely MUST happen for anything to move forward. It's the basics and its mandated that the basics be done before anything else. That in […]
Competence is Confidence
Belief in yourself is only useful if you take the time to build your abilities. Here’s the formula to turn bravado into skilled-mastery.
The Hypocrisy of Intent Without Action
Are you using your busy schedule as an excuse for your wasted potential?
Building the Yoke: Utilize the Function of the Upper Traps
Stop thinking of your traps and start thinking of your clavicles.
Over-Analysis and Training Effort
There's an overestimation that a wildly "smart" program will deliver some unprecedented form of results.
Value, Trust, and Gratitude
Your treatment of others is the foundation of every relationship in your life. Are you building yours up or breaking them down?
Haters Gaineth Nothing
Would you rather engage in gratitude and abundance, or anger and vileness towards people you’ll never actually meet? Which is more meaningful?
The Search for Meaning
How you spend your time on this earth determines what you define as meaningful. Does your lifestyle reflect your vision?
The Fit Chick Reality
Underneath every hot body is a person’s reality—what are you willing to give up for that appearance? Is it worth it?
What Lifters Can Learn from Cyclists
One percent can make all the difference in achieving your goals.
Cheat Meals, Refeeds, and Triple-X Eating
Could abandoning your diet be the secret to a leaner physique?
Seeing the Big Picture with your Training and Nutrition
How to understand and breakdown the complexities of your food intake for better weight management.
Training the Mind-Muscle Connection
Get those stubborn muscles flexing with this neuromuscular innervation protocol.
Every Industry is "corrupt", not just Fitness
The common thread through all of this? Everyone is always in the “right”, the other party or persons is always in the “wrong”.
Every Industry is Corrupt
The common thread through all of this? Everyone is always in the "right", the other party or persons is always in the "wrong".