Sliding Filament Theory of Muscle Contraction, Fiber Types, and Training...
It has been over fifty years since the sliding filament theory of muscle contraction was first proposed.
The Secret Behind Their Success
While at the Syracuse seminar, several of us chatted about the gyms and teams that were always kicking major ass. They all had the same thing in common—attitude. This attitude spread like wildfire throughout the gym and equated to success, BIG success.
Workout Templates for Various Athletes
The body doesn’t know whether you’re doing higher-faster-sports, Westside, HIT, swiss ball, kettlebell, or any other system. It only knows stimulation and recovery.
Pistol Power: Mastering the One-Legged Squat
What if I told you that by adding just one exercise to your training repertoire, you would be stronger, more flexible, and more coordinated, and also be able to run faster, jump higher, and have overall better health? Would it be worth investing the time to learn and practice?
Get Out of The Gym!
After you spend an appreciable number of years in the weight room and only the weight room, you start to really look for ways to spice up your training program and get some results.
Unconventional Exercises Using Conventional Equipment
We don’t know the guys who run EliteFTS.com. What we do know from reading the articles and asking questions is that they have helped us become better strength students.
Tire Flipping: Tips and Techniques
Aside from the Atlas Stones, the tire flip could be one of the most recognizable strongman events in the sport. However, it is probably the one event most incorrectly performed by athletes and most improperly used by strength coaches.
Mechanic or Race Car Driver?
The way that athletes are taught in our sport expert education system is a problem for me. I feel this isn’t just a problem of the sport expert education system but is also common to other educational systems as well.
Forcing Our Minors to Major: Youth Athletic Specialization
For children living in the United States, sports are as common as television and snack time.
The High School Odyssey
About 12 weeks ago, I started training with a local football player, Caleb Sexton.
Blue Collar Strongman Training
What would be more effective is to change the dynamics of the lift slightly to stimulate new recruitment patterns and increase the use of often neglected muscles.
Fun in the Weight Room
Keeping your athletes motivated is one of the hardest things to do as a strength coach.
The Odyssey of a Collegiate Strength & Conditioning Coach
This article is designed to give future strength & conditioning coaches a better insight as to what it takes to get your “foot in the door”.
The Simple Guide to Speed Training
Spend a few minutes listening to people and gurus talk about speed training nowadays and it shouldn’t be too hard to understand why the average person can leave a speed training conversation with a billion more questions then they had when they started.
The Magic of the Pin Pull
Recently I have been flooded with e-mails and questions on the EFS Q/A, and rather than answering them one by one, I decided to put them into an article form so that everyone has access to them. There is a lot of great information in these answers.
Maximum Effort Training for Strongman
As covered in my last article, the dynamic effort (DE) session is dedicated to speed. Max effort (ME) is dedicated to huge weights and re-writing the record books every session you train. My approach is a bit different from the traditional Westside approach.
Deadlifting with Chains
Almost a year ago, Matt Bash and I put our collective heads together and were thinking of different ways to approach our weak point in the deadlift; the lockout.
The Right Piece for the Right Puzzle: Training High School Athletes with...
“There are a hundred ways to skin a cat, I am only good at one of them”, is something my grandfather used to say to me all the time.
Bringing the Pendulum Back to Center (Part 2)
It is often said by futurists that there is an over-reaction to most new concepts in the short term, yet an under-reaction in the long term. We can all come up with countless examples of it – the high carb trend of a few years ago – which has become the zero carb trend recently.
What Makes Functional Training Functional?
One of my favorite things to do is to sit back and observe people. Sometimes I feel like I am a scientist looking at some weird experiment gone wrong.
Deload to Reload
I’ve wanted to write this article for awhile and there have been several questions on the Q/A that touched on this subject. For those not familiar with the term “deload” by basic definition of it is this: to take a break from extreme training.
I Thought It Was Pretty Simple
The handoff for the bench is very important but an often-overlooked skill. There are two major mistakes that are often made.
Transformation of a Young Athlete
Dan White had a lot of trouble gaining weight through his years of wrestling. As a freshman in high school he barely weighed 90 lbs and wrestled in the 103 lb weight class. As a sophomore he finally gained enough muscle and was able to wrestle at 103 lbs with no problems making weight.
The Kids are Alright
Last night I closed the doors to my strength and conditioning facility for the last time. After over ten years in the same town and the same building, it was time for me to move on to new challenges.
How to Strengthen Rosie and Her Five Friends
One of the biggest things that I struggled with during my deadlift training was my grip. This was never a big deal when I was lighter (under 250lbs), but as I became bigger my grip began to suffer.
Bench Training with Ed Rectenwald
Coming up with new articles each month can be a challenging task and coming up with quality information can be even harder. After a couple hundred articles I find myself repeating myself time and time again.
Push/Pull
This article was inspired by Alwyn Cosgrove and something that he mentioned to me in passing.
3 Training Reasons Behind Baseball’s Steroid Problem
If those guys want to cheat the game and the fans while they destroy their health, then they can suffer the consequences.
Torso Training – Part 3: Advanced Training Exercises
In the past two articles, we have given you ideas and progressions for strengthening your torso. As you know by now, strong abs isn’t all that is needed.
The Individualization of Team Training
In many instances team weight training consists of athletes of varying levels of strength preparedness- all performing the same training parameters.
Field Day
Field day at elementary school means dunk tanks, water balloons, Italian ice, hanging with your friends, cool games and a bunch of other cool stuff.
Time Under Tension for Grapplers & MMA Fighters Part II
I still get goose bumps when I think of how John Smith, two time Olympic Gold Medalist was training when I attended his intensive wrestling camps.
Torso Training – Part 2: Basic Rotational Exercises
In this article, the second in our Torso Training series, we will cover rotational exercises that don’t specifically target the rectus ab.
Time Under Tension for MMA Fighters & Grapplers
There is a lot of confusion on how a fighter or grappler should train. Managing their time between training in the ring / mat and in the gym (or out of the gym) becomes important.
Torso Training for Athletes, Part 1: The Basics
What is torso training? Torso training is strengthening your body from just above the hips to just below the chest. Training your torso involves many movements, but can be done effectively in just a few minutes, 3-4 times per week.
No Rules Training: Part II
I’ve got another story for you, and it always brings back some of my favorite times in the gym. Actually, I have countless “favorite times” in the gym but this one is special to me, but honestly, all these memories are special to me.
Having a Blackberry Doesn’t Mean You're Mobile
This plan is not only mobility work but also includes some very basic pre-habitation work for many of the most common strength training injuries (pec tears, sore elbows, knees, lower back and shoulders).
Keepers and Throwbacks, Part II
[Editor’s Note: A lot of things that Glenn mentions in this article are his opinion and will not sit well with purists. Please note that this article is his opinion. For example, Travis Mash and Joe Bayles have both had success with the Zercher Squat. Also, weight releasers are extremely useful. But Glenn also makes some valid points, too. So
Top Ten Training Tips for Athletic Conditioning Success
The IRON-ic rule of strength training for sport: The objective is not to get stronger per se but to improve athletic performance to build better athletes. I It’s important for the coach and the trainee to focus on improving sports performance.
Medleys for Conditioning
I’m known as the Strongman guy around here because I own a Strongman/Powerlifting gym, and Dave and Jim like to make fun of me for it. It makes them feel good to laugh at me. Anyway, strongman training can be adapted to athletic training in many ways. In this article, we’ll look at how to improve our athletes’ level of
Keepers and Throwbacks
I just have seen too many people I know become unhappy because their possessions own them, not vice versa
How Combat Athletes Can Effectively Use Kettlebells and the Grappler
There have been many questions with regards to the use of The Grappler & Russian Kettlebells. I am going to discuss exactly how I train my athletes (mainly grapplers & football players) with these two tools.
Accessory vs. Supplemental
We get asked all the time what the difference between an accessory lift and a supplemental lift. After doing some research, I came up with the following ideas. I got these from “A System of Multi-Year Training in Weightlifting” by A.S. Medvedyev. To make things easier here are some basic definitions;
Davidson College Football Program
Evan Simon recently became the head strength and conditioning coach for Davidson College in Davidson, North Carolina.
Tales From the Dark Side: 13 Stories of Woe
Here are some actual stories from actual strength coaches. All these stories have been substantiated by coaches that I know very well and trust.
Strongman and Westside Training
I get calls just about every day asking for help integrating strongman training and Westside style training and I see a lot of confusion with this.
The Unmaking Of An Athlete, Part Two- The Beginning
Unfortunately the unmaking of an athlete begins long before college.
Your Program Sucks!
We have happened upon a new age of strength and conditioning. I have seen this coming for sometime now but tried to dismiss it as a fad.
The Significance of Specific Strength Development in MMA
As the sport of MMA progresses so must the specific means and methods of fighter training.
Strength Considerations for Throwers in Track and Field
Most periodized training programs for athletes follow a Western or linear model.
The Unmaking of an Athlete
I sometimes wonder if there are any prerequisites at all to getting a job as college strength and conditioning coach.
Strength and No Holds Barred Fighting
“Strength is an essential component of all human performance and its formal development can no longer be neglected in the preparation of any athlete”
Throw Away the Key
The verdict was read without remorse or empathy. I was given the
death penalty. In the medical field there is no due process or equal protection clause.
The Socratic Method
One of the first pressing, inquisitive minds who stepped on the face of this earth was Socrates.
Auto Regulatory Training Part 1
The individual control and systematic manipulation of volumetric management is largely dependant upon the proper integration of critical training variables.
Super Compensation
The reason to couple super compensation work with training work is simple, gain a reciprocative function of the fatigue-frequency relationship more often in a training stage.
Workout Wisdom
When planning a training protocol, one must take into account the value of work administered in terms of function and time.