Some Like It Hot — A Guide to Choosing your Liniment
One, two, three, or even four Screamin’ Daves. If you aren’t sure which liniment is for you, use this guide to direct you to the perfect product.
WATCH: Table Talk with Dan Green — How to Choose Secondary and Accessory...
A good training program has three main parts: the main lifts for technique, the secondary movements for strength, and the accessory exercises for muscle-specific work.
WATCH: Buddy Morris SPS Presentation — The Mission and Purpose of an S&a...
We all know that your role as a strength and conditioning coach is to produce higher-performing, more injury-resistant athletes. But what does that actually mean for your program? How do you achieve it?
Building the Yoke
A big yoke equals instant respect. No one wants to screw with a guy that has a big neck and a thick yoke.
Meet Report: RPS King and Queen of Spring
I went into this meet to total 1800 at 180 pounds bodyweight, but learned an important lesson about having backup plans.
What Are You Trying to Build?
When you say “culture”, are you sure you know what you’re referring to? Here’s what this word means to our program.
Raspberry Ketone Supplementation: A Woman’s Perspective
This compound became popular a few years back, especially after it received attention on national television. But does it work?
How to Optimize Your Biggest Recovery Asset
The benefits of improved sleep are just as real as the consequences of deprivation. Follow these simple rules for sleep and watch your recovery—and your progress—skyrocket.
What's Your Game Plan?
You’re never going to build a big total by going into the gym and lifting as much as possible every session, week after week, year after year.
The Plant-Based Strength Experiment
Is it possible to remove meat from your diet and still train and compete at the highest level of powerlifting? I’m going to find out.
14 Things About Bodybuilding and Building Muscle That I Know to Be True
These underlying training principles contribute to keeping your body healthy, growing, recovering, and building muscle over the long-term. You simply need to follow them.
How I'm Training for the 2017 US Open Powerlifting Championships
I’m going to share my strategy and reasoning behind it here, so hopefully, you can get some inspiration for whatever meet you’ve got coming up.
Body Mechanics 101: Three Things to Help Eliminate Pelvic Tilt
After being plagued with injuries for six years, these three things got me back to pushing legs 100% without risk of injury.
WATCH: Table Talk with Dan Green — Powerlifting Longevity and Meet Strategy
A lot of strong lifters have come and gone through this sport, posting two or three big totals to then never to be heard from again. The best lifters are there, year after year, finding new ways to stay healthy enough and hit PRs. How?
All Together Now — The Coach, This Polyglot
Not many institutional environments promote interdisciplinary collaboration in exercise and sports performance. Starting from the ground up, how can we change this?
WATCH: Buddy Morris SPS Presentation — The Brain Controls Everything
The interworking systems of the human body cannot be separated, and it all begins in the brain. Every moment of stress is trauma to the brain, and a good coach knows how to deal with this.
Shooting Knowledge Applied to Training
I recently made a transition from someone who had a decent amount of experience and was relatively advanced in one sport, to someone who is a true beginner in another sport. It’s taught me a lot about training and shooting.
Start from the Ground Up: Building High School Athletes Instead of Destr...
Do you want bulletproof athletes who stay in the game instead of in the rehab room? Here are six issues to address to build stronger, more durable athletes.
Belly of the Beast: The Hardships of Strength and Conditioning
Things aren’t all sunshine and rainbows in this field, and even when you’re winning, sometimes it doesn’t feel like you’re winning. Can you handle it?
What Drives Performance: Processes Not Outcomes
How we are judged is out of our hands in a lot of ways, but if I adhere to my processes and don’t compromise my principles, morals, or values, then I can honestly say that I have been successful in my role as a strength and conditioning coach.
Team or Dysfunctional Family? Stories of an Elite Lifting Group
We might look dysfunctional, but this lifting family is like a Swiss clock put together with a hodgepodge of parts that somehow still always has the right time.
Identifying Hip Impingement Causes and Solutions
If you Google “hip pain at the bottom of the squat,” you’re going to be left more than a little confused about what the cause might be and what you should do. Let’s sort through all of the information and advice.
The Common Misconception of Dietary Fat and Carbohydrates
What have been the results of the prescribed increase in consumption of grains, breads, and pastas? Skyrocketing diabetes, even in children. There’s a better approach.
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.
RANT: The Truth About Internet Idiots and a World Record Squat Attempt
A few weekends ago, a world record squat was attempted. The lift passed, but the video got torn apart on Facebook. Want to know my thoughts on it? No? Well, I’m going to tell you anyway.
WATCH: Table Talk with Dan Green — Adrenaline Levels in Training
How do you get your mind in the right place for a big lift in training? Should you treat it like meet day?
Excuses Don't Count Towards Your Total
At least, not at this point. As it stands, we are left with adding up our heaviest successful attempt for each of the three lifts and the sum of those is how a powerlifting total is born.
WATCH: Buddy Morris SPS Presentation — Gurus, Gimmicks, and Adjusting Yo...
Expert or guru? Innovative training method or gimmick? In the second part of his presentation, Buddy tells you how to spot the difference.
7 Habits of Highly Effective Lifters
When you look at the best lifters, you find that they have several things in common. Make these behaviors a regular part of your life and you’ll continually see progress, too.
WATCH: Sumo Deadlift Technique for CrossFit Competitors and Weightlifters
Clint walks through simple adjustments to help an experienced weightlifter and current CrossFit competitor overhaul his deadlift.
Social Skill Integration Through Movement and Strength: Program the Cadence
You’ll meet Sean, Wesley, and Blaine (three boys on the spectrum) and consider their needs, find a starting place, and create a program schedule using a singular, linear, or overlapping approach.
Why We Powerlift — Getting Inside the Minds of New Lifters
I know why I lift and compete, and you probably do too. But our reasons aren’t the same as new lifters who enter the sport of powerlifting. If we want powerlifting to grow for the better, we need to listen.
Creatine Supplementation: A Woman’s Perspective
What is creatine? What does it do? Is it safe? And most importantly, why is it left out of women’s supplements?
LISTEN: LEO Training Podcast — Bryan Mann on Stress and Social Support f...
Written training programs can account for physical stress, but it is the strength and conditioning coach’s responsibility to adjust for academic stress. This podcast includes the details of Dr. Mann’s research on the subject.
Daily Undulating Periodization: Conjugate Adapted for Raw Lifters
While raw powerlifting circles have been discrediting the merits of a concurrent approach to training, many have been using a program that is congruent with the very principles that conjugate is based on.
The Continental Clean — Maximizing Your Axle Clean and Press
Watching lifters attempt the continental clean has given me a case of the heebie-jeebies dozens of times. I’m here to give some pointers on making the movement stronger, safer, and more efficient.
Is Powerlifting Gear Right for You?
Single-ply, multi-ply, 20 different kinds of raw — what is the right way for you to compete?
The Gift of Perspective: Five More Things to Know as a New Powerlifter
Continuing the perspective series, I look more closely at training, meet day, and who to look to for advice.
The Psychology of Aging
I had another birthday, which meant the return of my annual day spent obsessing over my age. This time I realized something new: I know how I want to die.
Strength Chat Podcast: Bryan Mann on VBT and Developing Explosive Athletes
Dr. Mann joins the crew to talk about the benefits, challenges, implications, and new research in the field of velocity-based training.
WATCH: Table Talk with Dan Green — Keeping the Endgame in Mind During th...
If you're forced to take time away from the gym, where should your focus be? Maintaining strength? Maintaining size? Getting healthy?
WATCH: Buddy Morris SPS Presentation — Genetics, Environments, and Learning
In this first part of Coach X's presentation, he discusses two factors that will influence everything you do in life: genetics and environment.
Preaching to the Choir: Seniors and Strength Training
Muscle loss? Reduced bone density? They may come naturally with age — but there's a way to fight back.
Health Risk or Wonder Drug: The Lowdown on Kratom
Planning to try this new substance? Consider this research, as well as my personal experience using it, before you do.
WATCH: Cambered Bar Band Setup with Tension at the Bottom
Much like setting up your squat, get your bands set up correctly from the bottom up and the rest will fall into place.
From the Weight Room to the Boardroom
At times, we can be paralyzed by the complexity of our professional lives and it can be very valuable to find simple, yet proven philosophies that help us find our way.
The Who, What, Where, When and Why of Training Collegiate Football
Knowing that these 253 people are responsible for football programming, my next question is, how many people are “experts” in what we should be doing?
The Role of Federations in Powerlifting
Powerlifting is a sport of continual evolution. In understanding federations today, it is important to note not only the evolution of powerlifting athlete, but also the history of why most powerlifting federations came into existence.
Three Tips for Coaching the Novice Athlete
Regardless of your coaching style or philosophy, here are three techniques that will help your novice athletes improve quickly.
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?
Nine Weeks of Linear Progress To A Bigger Bench
Using these two cycles together is a great template that I guarantee will make you a stronger bencher.
What I Learned from Buddy Morris at the 2017 Sports Performance Summit
Buddy was one of the first people I ever looked up to, both as a person and as a strength and conditioning coach. Here are some of his best one-liners from the weekend.
How (and When) To Fire A Client
For over a year, I thought it was my job to accommodate her. She was my client; I was being paid to "treat" her condition. Right?
WATCH: Table Talk with Dan Green — Limiting Factors for Beginner, Interm...
What holds you back as a beginner is not going to be the same as what holds you back once you reach the intermediate or advanced stages.
How I Dropped 17 Pounds Over 9 Days and Gained It Back in 12 Hours
I don't recommend this big of a cut for anyone. It is detrimental to many bodily processes and overall health. To be clear, this is not a how-to guide; it is a documentation of my process.
2017 Sports Performance Summit — Dave Tate Speaks
You may have heard or read a few things about Dave's second hip replacement and the PRs that led to his surgery, but no one has heard the full story. Until now.
My First Time Competing on the XPC's Big Stage
I left the biggest meet of my powerlifting career so far with a PR total, but more importantly, I learned eight valuable lessons for the future.
Stop Making It Okay to Just Give Up
If you're still looking for the most important thing to becoming a top athlete, here it is: not letting anyone or anything tell you what was meant to be or what your destiny is.