Strongman Programming for Max Reps Events
Strongman Programming for Max Reps Events
I’m going to outline a 12-week program for an event that is max reps — a weight that is currently out of your reach.
Weapons of Metabolic Disruption
Weapons of Metabolic Disruption
This compilation of training sessions is drawn from the minds of many great coaches, and includes initial and periodic testing to ensure intensity and distance per session challenge the metabolic systems of the athletes.
The Max Effort Method vs. Dynamic Effort Method in Group Training
The Max Effort Method vs. Dynamic Effort Method in Group Training
Trying to build superior performance without diversity in your training is like trying to build a house with nothing but a hammer and a box of nails: the final product isn’t going to impress anyone.
WATCH: Table Talk — Tapering for a Meet Using Conjugate
WATCH: Table Talk — Tapering for a Meet Using Conjugate
The appeal of conjugate is the ability to build multiple performance traits at once, but this confuses a lot of lifters as they get closer to a meet. It doesn’t have to be so complicated.
The Swing Block Method for High School Coaches
The Swing Block Method for High School Coaches
After publication of the Swing Block Method, emails came non-stop from coaches asking how to implement the program in their schools. Here is the answer. The program within will give your team the greatest strength results it has ever seen.
Training the Attacker
Training the Attacker
My thirteen-year-old daughter recently started a single weekly session, supplemented with interval running and sports specific training exercises. This is how she’s training for lacrosse.
Programs to Stimulate Size and Strength Gains
Programs to Stimulate Size and Strength Gains
I have collated a few of my most result-producing programs for you to try, from both a sports performance perspective and also general training for size and strength for the non-sports person.
Olympic Weightlifting for Strongman Athletes
Olympic Weightlifting for Strongman Athletes
You can’t be a good strongman without being a good athlete, and that means building power, mobility, and technique. These movements can help build all three.
The Benefits of Concurrent Training
The Benefits of Concurrent Training
It must be noted that this article is specifically looking at intracellular signaling pathways leading to increased muscle size.
Conjugate Bodybuilding
Conjugate Bodybuilding
How does this system translate to someone that just wants a bigger set of guns? Incredibly well, actually, due to the fact you will spend the bulk of your training sessions performing hypertrophy work to bring up primary movers.
Alternatives to Squat Training After Overuse Injuries
Alternatives to Squat Training After Overuse Injuries
When looking at how to continue to train through overuse injuries, there are five main regressions and changes I have found able to lead to pain-free movement in the squat.
WATCH: Table Talk — Personality Differences in Powerlifting
WATCH: Table Talk — Personality Differences in Powerlifting
Should a training program be altered based on a lifter’s personality?
The Swing Block Method
The Swing Block Method
This program moves in a linear progression by alternating rep ranges with normal deload and sarcoplasmic hypertrophy phases to allow for supercompensation to take place.
Program Determination Using the Quadrant Approach: Individualization in a Team Sport Environment
Program Determination Using the Quadrant Approach: Individualization in ...
Many programs say they individualize, but in reality very few do it well. This is why I borrowed the Quadrant Management System from business and redeveloped it to meet my requirements for programming in team sports.
High-Density Training for Fat Loss and Conditioning
High-Density Training for Fat Loss and Conditioning
These high-density training protocols are the holy grails of body composition training. Here are the best ones to get you started.
How to Hit Your Biggest Bench at Your Next Meet
How to Hit Your Biggest Bench at Your Next Meet
If you use this peaking plan and follow these tips, it’s not a question of whether or not you’ll PR at your next meet — it’s just a matter of by how much.
Avoid These Group Programming Mistakes
Avoid These Group Programming Mistakes
Simply winging it won’t cut it. It’s incredibly important for your clients’ health and success that you stop making these errors.
 Bare Bones Conjugate: A Bar, Rack, and Bench Weeks 9-13
Bare Bones Conjugate: A Bar, Rack, and Bench Weeks 9-13
This final wave includes a small taper at the end for peaking purposes. There are both banded and band-free options.
A Full Year's Weight Room Programming in Professional Rugby
A Full Year's Weight Room Programming in Professional Rugby
This is the exact weight training program that I applied to the Panasonic Rugby team for the 2014-15 season.
How I Trained MLB Draft Picks Tanner Houck and Chad Spanburger
How I Trained MLB Draft Picks Tanner Houck and Chad Spanburger
Using my “steak and potatoes” model and the Athletic Improvement template, Tanner Houck and Chad Spanburger worked their asses off, earning the 24th overall pick and the 176th overall pick in the MLB draft.
2017 IPA Battle of the Beast 2 with Tank's Training Facility Powerlifting Squad
2017 IPA Battle of the Beast 2 with Tank's Training Facility Powerl...
Our powerlifting squad had six lifters compete in a meet that posed some specific challenges. Here’s how they did and a sample of the training that led to the meet.
Four-Week Block of Baseball Fall Training from Conjugate U for Position Guys and Pitchers
Four-Week Block of Baseball Fall Training from Conjugate U for Position ...
Power is power and strength is strength. No matter what position you play, we have to develop both to the greatest potential. Here are the first two phases and the differences between positions.
Conjugate Programming for the General Population
Conjugate Programming for the General Population
I have developed a conjugate program template that efficiently covers the most important bases for training the general box programming population.
Planning the Week, Month, and Year
Planning the Week, Month, and Year
I have attempted to be as detailed as possible in presenting to you a comprehensive program based around the variability that makes up a complete year of rugby.
Periodize Your Training
Periodize Your Training
Improving in the sport of powerlifting is simple if you know how to approach it. I prefer using a series of three macrocyles: hypertrophy and volume, general strength, and competition preparation and peaking.
Practical and Scientific Applications for Creating a Calf Workout
Practical and Scientific Applications for Creating a Calf Workout
Why is it that calves are one of the hardest muscle groups to grow? Here are three points to consider to develop heart-shaped calves like a sprinter or running back.
Training Advice Worth Repeating
Training Advice Worth Repeating
If I could go back in time to when I first started in this industry, I’d force myself to follow these five rules of training. Those of you starting now should listen.
3 Keys to Building Lightning Fast Speed
3 Keys to Building Lightning Fast Speed
Want to get faster? Spending time on the field or track is important, but at some point you’re going to hit a speed barrier. That’s when you need to focus on building these three areas.
Programming Economy — 5 Exercise Categories
Programming Economy — 5 Exercise Categories
Let’s start with a couple of definitions to standardize our understanding of this concept of training economy. We will look at GPE, SPE, SE, SDE, and SFE.
The Need for Flexibility in Exercise Selection and Progression
The Need for Flexibility in Exercise Selection and Progression
It’s interesting — as strength coaches, we constantly talk about the need for good programming and consistency, but having flexibility is undoubtedly a key component.
Regular Testing for Physical Improvement in Rugby
Regular Testing for Physical Improvement in Rugby
Rugby is a high intensity intermittent collision sport, which requires a multi-factorial physical training approach to optimize performance.
Circa Max Phase for Throwers
Circa Max Phase for Throwers
Each time I use this method myself I feel like I could run through a wall come meet day. Now after six years of using this cycle, we have proof that it works for our athletes.
Strongman Conditioning for Powerlifters
Strongman Conditioning for Powerlifters
Let’s get into which strongman events will help improve the big three and how to program them.
Fun Is for Children
Fun Is for Children
I have some grown up advice for your training: start training like an adult and quit worrying about whether or not it’s fun. This program actually produces results, and in my book, results are a hell of a lot more fun than feel-good training.
Bare Bones Conjugate: A Bar, Rack, and Bench Weeks 5-8
Bare Bones Conjugate: A Bar, Rack, and Bench Weeks 5-8
The conjugate system is about max effort, dynamic effort, and the repetition method. You can do everything with just a rack, bar, bench, and some weights. Here are the next four weeks of the program.
Q&A with James Smith: Upper Body Training for Volleyball Players
Q&A with James Smith: Upper Body Training for Volleyball Players
It is time for you to blur the lines between volleyball practice and physical preparation and fuse them into one holistic entity of movement.
WATCH: Table Talk with Nate Harvey — Do You Need A Planned Deload?
WATCH: Table Talk with Nate Harvey — Do You Need A Planned Deload?
Is deloading a necessary part of improving as a lifter or is it just a weak excuse to be lazy one week out of every month?
Engineering Physical Performance — Reassess Utilization of INOL Model
Engineering Physical Performance — Reassess Utilization of INOL Model
I have been a huge believer in Intensity Number of Lifts (INOL) to develop programs that are achievable and that follow a sensible loading pattern over time, but I’ve recently made some important changes.
Off-Season Conjugate for Intermediate Strongmen
Off-Season Conjugate for Intermediate Strongmen
Strongman requires speed, endurance, strength, and explosiveness. What if you could build all of these qualities at the same time?
How I'm Training for the 2017 US Open Powerlifting Championships
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.
Daily Undulating Periodization: Conjugate Adapted for Raw Lifters
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.
Nine Weeks of Linear Progress To A Bigger Bench
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.
My First Time Competing on the XPC's Big Stage
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.
Three Hypertrophy Waves to Use If You're Stuck on Progressive Overload
Three Hypertrophy Waves to Use If You're Stuck on Progressive Overload
If you feel like you’re spinning your wheels, give one of these a try: Intensity-Based Hypertrophy Wave, Working Set Volume-Based Hypertrophy Wave, or Exercise Volume-Based Hypertrophy Wave.
Relentless Hypertrophy Revisited
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.
16 Week 5thSet/Conjugate Mash Up
16 Week 5thSet/Conjugate Mash Up
Rather than explain, in great detail, when and how I think it would make sense for you to do this, I’m simply going to recount how I did it while coming back from a pec injury.
Bare Bones Conjugate: A Bar, Rack, and Bench Weeks 1-4
Bare Bones Conjugate: A Bar, Rack, and Bench Weeks 1-4
When thinking about conjugate training, we often look at all the specialty bars, bands, chains and other goodies that we use in training. But when you boil it down, conjugate training doesn’t need those things.
Back to the Basics, Back to Functional Training
Back to the Basics, Back to Functional Training
Let me introduce you to the Core 4: push, pull, press, and carry.
24-Hour Shift Programming for Those Who Protect and Serve
24-Hour Shift Programming for Those Who Protect and Serve
This training design has taken into account 24-hour shifts over a four-week schedule. As you can see, each week has varying work demands, so the training program must reflect this.
Programming for Speed and Power
Programming for Speed and Power
This 12-week program can be utilized by any individual wishing to prioritize the physical elements of speed and power.
The elitefts Definitive Guide to Board Pressing
The elitefts Definitive Guide to Board Pressing
Dave believes the most important and widely used purpose for boards is to increase/correct the mini-max or sticking point.
The Yearly Training Plan of the Strength Athlete: Transitioning From Competitive Training Into Off-Season Training Modules
The Yearly Training Plan of the Strength Athlete: Transitioning From Com...
Once the competitive season commences, the athlete will need to be transitioned into a contrasting training paradox, otherwise known as the off-season.
Kickbacks, Curls, and Training Girls
Kickbacks, Curls, and Training Girls
How do you train a woman in her 30s or 40s with zero background in lifting? Isolate, then integrate.
The Six-Day Triphasic Microcycle
The Six-Day Triphasic Microcycle
We ran the first variation of this setup in preparation for our last powerlifting meet and it resulted in around 1,400 pounds of total PRs spread amongst nine different lifters.
Circuit Training for Metabolic Gains
Circuit Training for Metabolic Gains
The idea may seem simple and basic in theory, but these circuits are brutally effective at elevating heart rate for extended periods of time.
Bodyweight Training for Athletes
Bodyweight Training for Athletes
This is a vital component that builds stability, mobility, strength, muscle, body control, and even power. Don’t neglect it!
What Do I Have to Work With?
What Do I Have to Work With?
This is the first question you should ask yourself when training a team. To get this point across, I’ve attached my entire fall football training program.
Contest Prep Aftermath: Reverse Diet and Training Gone Right
Contest Prep Aftermath: Reverse Diet and Training Gone Right
For reverse dieting and training there are several components that play the biggest role in an athlete’s success.
Improved Back Recruitment for a Bigger V-Taper
Improved Back Recruitment for a Bigger V-Taper
My program design was technically sound and my lifting technique was good, but my back still wasn’t improving. This is when I turned to the study of anatomy and biomechanics.

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