High School Happenings
It has come to my attention that many high schools are underserved in the strength and conditioning department.
When Body Weight Is Just too Heavy
Barring the obvious exceptions of sumo wrestlers and single heavyweight lifters, nearly all athletes could benefit from more relative strength.
Deadlift Training Overview
After 25 years of competitive lifting, I’ve picked up a few things I’d like to pass on in the hopes that it can help you move this most difficult lift upward.
The Starting Gate
The biggest lesson I've learned this year is you have to always keep moving forward no matter how bad things get.
Novelty Is the Biggest Aphrodisiac
If you look at the title of this article, you may be asking yourself what the heck this has to do with getting bigger, faster, and stronger.
Bodybuilding Squat, Chest and Offseason
We started with some heavy standing calf work, then higher-rep seated calf work, then seated leg curls pyramiding up in weight.
The Side Press: A Guaranteed Improvement in Strength and Flexibility
Any coach out there has some finite goals they use to measure the levels of strength of an athlete.
Power to the Plank
After hundreds of hours working toward a better stomach, I’ve either prescribed or witnessed every crunch, leg lift, and torso twist variation known to man.
Get a Stronger Grip
If anyone uses this and successfully closes a goal gripper, please take a video of it and send it to me.
How to Be an Awesome Coach
What makes for an awesome coach? Here are the top eight things I came up with.
Equipping a High School Weight Room Without a Budget
The idea for this article came about from a conversation I had through the Q&A with the Angry Coach.
How to Increase Your Bench with These Seven Body Weight Movements
Most people I know who lift, especially athletes, want to have a strong bench press.
EMS – Electrical Muscle Stimulation: A tool to complement training
The brain sends electrical impulses through the nerves to obtain voluntary muscle contractions.
Strong Grip Strength
Grip strength seems to be a big part of strongman training, what are some good ways to train one's grip?
Get Metabolic
Again, you will complete all of the reps and move into the next exercise as quickly as possible
Creating the Explosive Baller
You can perform form running techniques and jumping techniques until the cows come home, but no matter how pretty the form looks, you won’t see many improvements if there isn’t a massive amount of force being applied to the ground.
2010 North American Strongman Nationals Write-Up
I am more excited than ever for the future of Strongwoman in America.
Tackling the Weighted Chin-up
This article is for those who have become proficient with chin-ups and pull-ups and want to progress into heavier weighted pulls.
From Fat Ass to Bad Ass
Let me preempt this before I get the hate mail – I do not consider myself a bad ass.
In-Season Football Training: “The Critical Window”
I’ve coached high school football for six years and have seen one critical factor that has caused our football players to lose strength and size.
Dose and Duration
There isn’t any reason to have your athletes or clients use the glamorous stuff or more advanced programs until what they’re currently using has stopped working.
S4: Weeks 9-12 of 12 Week Training Plan
The last four weeks were centered around peaking for the meet.
Five Great Exercises for Building a Dominant Defensive Lineman
When training, preparing, and coaching defensive linemen, it’s important to remember that the American football defensive lineman is one of the more unique athletes on the face of the earth.
Bench Press and Dieting for Bodybuilding
It all started two years ago—I was training in double ply meets mainly for the bench press
Programming
Although everyone is a unique snowflake and will adapt slightly differently, there are good ways to train and there are bad ways to train.
Second Hand Training - Two KILLER Workouts
It doesn't take long for this to get around when you post on an online training log.
A Word on Exercise Order
I realize that most powerlifters hit the big movements first in their workouts, but they usually don't do them for high reps to failure.
Box Squats
I drove all the way home and realized that I left my Holy Briefs hanging outside the gym door (to dry in the Sun) so I went back and got them.
Top Testosterone Boosting Tips, Part 1
Hard training athletes wanting to improve performance, recovery, and body composition and have a generally energetic attitude must be mindful of testosterone levels to maximize their progress.
Postural Analysis and Program Design
Within the world of performance training and strength and conditioning, there are several evaluation methods used to determine body function and positioning.
A Coaches Guide to Client/Athlete Persuasion
In a perfect world, everyone who we train would do exactly what we say with 100 percent effort every time we ask them.
Slosh Sled Dragging: Advanced Chaotic Sled Dragging
Don’t be fooled, this is highly metabolic and will jack up your heart rate very quickly.
Olympic Lifting Considerations
Why the hell does everyone who uses the Olympic lifts to build speed and explosiveness feel they need their athletes to work at 90 percent and up of their 1RM?
Daydreamers in the Weight Room
Aside from all the ridiculous things I’ve seen and heard, nothing compares to what happened to me earlier this week.
Five Fun Inverted Row Variations
Inverted rows are an exercise that I didn’t give much attention to until recently.
Mental Meet Preparation
I'm actually in the process of writing a manual explaining these techniques and many more that I have used successfully.
The Importance of Barefoot Training
Think about it - the only part of our anatomy to touch the ground when we run or jump - and most of us spend little to no time developing strength, mobility and proprioception in the feet.
Heart Rate Training: Time to Enter the Zone
I think a heart rate monitor should be part of any athlete’s training kit!
Six Things You Aren’t Doing
Let’s take a look at what you aren’t doing that’s holding you back from that 5.2 lbs of muscle your new protein powder said you would add.
My Advice to High School Athletes
After working with high school athletes on a daily basis for the past year, there are a few things I strongly suggest all high school athletes start doing immediately to improve in their sport.
TUFFEN Up Your Conditioning
Want to know how to get more out of your athletes in their conditioning sessions and maybe more time in the gym, too?
What It Takes to Be a Better Than Average Powerlifter
I have learned in powerlifting as with life that if you want to be successful you have to move past your comfort zone.
Three More Reasons Why Fitness Still Sucks
In my previous two articles, I’ve given you six reasons why I hate fitness; now I’m going to give you three more.
Training Alone, Part 3: Benching Alone
Every now and then, we all read a news report about someone who was accidentally killed by bench pressing alone, a terrible tragedy that can be averted by training sensibly and safely.
S4: Week 5-8 of 12 Week Training Plan
As of week five, weak points have been determined and modifications to the program have been made.
My 13 Personal Training Rules
While my programing is a bit of a mess right now, I do still follow most of the same rules I've used for the past few years.
Squat Training and Cycle
Hopefully this program can give you some ideas on how to get strong, do it smart and make progress.
Strength-Power Potentiating Complexes
I’ve found a great way to increase your athletes’ verticals and explosive power through strength-power potentiating complexes.
