Somebody Once Told Me
During my sophomore year of college, I really started to get into strength training. You know... diving deep into Oxygen magazine and Muscle & Fitness, copying each model's exact diet, writing it out in a notebook and seeing how closely I could follow it. Insert Face Palm emoji. But let's be honest - most of […]
Nutrition 101
New Year... new anything? For most people who have been into lifting and training for sometime, the new year isn't anything special. Maybe we revisit the last year's lifts and see how to improve, but I think I can confidently say that most don't set big New Year's resolutions like the general public. And if […]
Stop Thinking With Julia Anto
So often we find ourselves overanalyzing our lifts and thinking about every little thing we are doing. There is a time and place for that in training but there is a time and a place to shut the brain off and just go. Julia Anto does a great job explaining how she has adopted this […]
Inverted Row Progressions
A great bodyweight exercise that people of all ages and ability can use and vary.
Fitness Badges Of Honor From A Strength Coach With 20 Years Experience -...
When you've been in an industry or profession for over 20 years, you see trends come and go. You see gimmicks and fads rise and crash. You also see a lot of, for lack of a better term, Badges of Honor. I'm sure it's in other professions as well, but fitness is an industry where […]
Calories or Macros...Which should I track?
What's the best thing to track if you're looking to make changes to your diet?
My training update: January
I've been trying to give my readers an update of my training at the end of each month. 15 years ago, when we kept our training logs initially on the old elitefts website, I had so many folks that followed along... rep for rep. Really awesome to hear after all those years of putting in […]
New Year, New Motivation?
How's your motivation? Is it always 10/10? Yeah, me either. And that's ok...
Sumo Critique with Trevor Jaffe (video)
Never too old to learn from others. See what Trevor had to say about my sumo technique!
Tutorial: Box Squats for New Lifters
How and why I use the box squat this particular way with my clients
Tutorial: Banded TKE Squats
Many of my clients are still training at home (whether by choice or not). Some have smaller gyms without much equipment. When I want to put in a leg press exercise for quad work, I usually have to come up with an alternative. Enter the Banded TKE Squat. You can do these unloaded or loaded […]
The Best Way to Coach and Get Results Is...
Macros? Meal plans? Hand-sized portions? Daily checkins? Weekly? What's the right way??
OCB Sky View Classic Results!
We made it! The show went on and all went well. I've never competed in the OCB before. It's a natural federation complete with polygraph and drug testing. Many people ask why I decided to compete in this federation, as opposed to the NPC where I usually compete. In my entire powerlifting career, I always […]
Show Prep Update: 1 week to go!
With 1 week to go, we've been pushing pretty hard. As I mentioned before, Anne Sheehan has been having me do a lot of slow concentric and slow eccentric movements. It has really done wonders for me!! At 3 weeks out, I was sitting at 200g protein, 150ish carbs and 40g fat. I was given […]
Should Desk Job Folks Have Increase Calorie Deficit?
If you sit all day, should you be eating less? It depends!
Order of Operations: Manipulating exercise order for growth
Have you always done Big to Small exercise? Try reversing those and see the growth!
A Peek into My Prep
I started off 2020 with big plans.... much like the rest of the world. As quarantine hit, my physique show stayed on schedule. I trucked along with HIIT and dieting and then 4 weeks out, they pushed it back one week. Fine. No big deal. Then 4 days later they canceled it altogether. Thankfully, there […]
Push-up Variations You Should Try
As I mentioned in my post about pull-ups, relative strength (how strong you are for your own body weight) is important for everyone. Even if you're not a competitive athlete, you move your body every day. Walking up stairs and getting off the couch are examples of how you move your own body in functional […]
Maximize Your Pull-ups!
Beware internal rotation of the shoulder in pull-ups. Maximize the lats and try this variation that's great for beginners!
Food Rules: Necessary or Restrictive
Restrictions, diets, good food, bad food... it's so overwhelming!
Tips to Get Through Each Day
Many of my remote clients have been really struggling with being at home. They feel stuck, lost, bored, anxious, and a ton of other emotions which often find them walking back and forth from the fridge 1800 times a day. (And no, I don't mean, "get through the day" in a bad way. I just […]
Can you prep for bodybuilding at home?
There are many stage athletes still getting it done! Try these workouts!
3 Workout Mainstays in Every Home Gym
It’s in these moments, we wish we would’ve put a little more energy and cash into our home gym. Here’s how to start small yet smart.
How To Make (home) Exercises Harder... without adding weight
Even with nothing, you can make bodyweight harder with these tips
How To Measure Your Food
I've been talking a lot about coaching lately. Specifically some tips about HOW to coach (knowing your client, knowing yourself and coaching appropriately). You see, there are a few different camps out there regarding how we should monitor food intake. All of them work some of the time. What I mean by that is, some […]
Suck It Up, Buttercup!
As a coach, we sometimes think about our ideal as one who just does what they're told, gets the work done, and doesn't say a peep. "Just tell me what to do, and I'll do it!" Sure, those clients are great. They generally just know they have to put in the work and the results […]
Top 3 Things You NEED as a Coach
A few strategies to improve on with your clients. Especially useful for in person clients where there is a back and forth conversation.
Bulgarian split squat: Optimizing foot position for bigger quads
WATCH! Glutes were so 2019... 2020 is the year of the quad!
Should your knees travel forward on squats and lunges?
This debate has been going on for some time. Or maybe it's not anymore and I'm just old. Here's my take on the debate, with what I was exposed to.... (Note: this is just perception with a little humor. Certainly many coaches around the country had different views) Many moons ago, strength coaches worked hard […]
Shoulders: Building Boulders with Caps as Big as your Head
Growing gorgeous shoulders is more than just 3x10 lateral raises