Are You Overtrained? Should You Deload?
Two catchwords that continue to make me shake my head are overtraining and deload. The end goal is a balance between training and recovery.
What To Do When You Don't Enjoy Training Anymore
Remember, you’re human. It’s OK to feel this way about training and one day you inevitably will. With these six suggestions, plan and prepare for this ugly feeling and destroy ASAP to enjoy training again.
How Many Times A Day Do You Train?
One of the hardest things I’ve ever done was train less. But thanks to a little advice from Dave Tate, I started looking at training in a whole new light. Strength comes from so much more than lifting heavy weights in the gym.
Use a Hand Dynamometer to Measure Your Recovery
If you aren’t sure if you’re overtraining, you could measure your jump height each day. But there’s an easier way to pinpoint if your nervous system is overloaded: the hand dynamometer. Give it a squeeze once a day — that’s all it takes!
Supplemental Training Mistakes and Essentials
I learned a large portion of my knowledge of supplemental training from many mistakes I made in the gym. I am hoping to help all of you readers avoid at least a few of the mistakes I made and get more out of your supplemental training.
Begin Your Journey to Become a BAMF Wrestler
I am excited to share highlights of early discussions that Steve Konopka and I have had as we work to turn our shared vision into a reality, helping athletes along in their journeys to become BAMF wrestlers.
It's Time to Recover
Time is the multiplier that turns a tiny crack on a newly paved road into a pothole or a single tree into a forest. Here are a few tips to reduce stress on the body and to better prepare yourself to have more in the tank for your training.
Is Your Competition Outworking You?
I love the ideals of hard work, being hardcore, and oozing intensity, but over the years I have learned there are many ways to perceive these things.
Where Most Box Athletes Miss the Mark
Many coaches still believe it is heresy to say that athletes can build absolute strength and endurance simultaneously, but athletes all over the world are doing so and making great progress. Here are a few ways to do so even more successfully.
How Student-Athletes Can Support Teammate Mental Health
More student-athletes are beginning to recognize mental health as simply another part of the training and self-care process, and not a sign of weakness or lack of mental toughness. Here are three ways to help.
The Coach's Guide to Programming and Periodization: Basic Principle...
We can’t simply throw random exercises and set and rep schemes on a piece of paper haphazardly and then hope for the best. In this series I will teach you how to write programs, including a coach’s assignment for each article.
The General Adaptation Syndrome and Its Applications for Training
As a scientist who studies the fundamental basis of how muscles get bigger and repair in response to stress, and as a lifter who has always cared a bunch about programming, I find the debate surrounding GAS very interesting.
Educate Your Clients for Better Buy-In
It’s easy to tell your clients why you’re doing what you’re doing, but it’s much harder to prove to them they’ll be rewarded for their efforts. Here are six steps to helping them believe in your methods and the work they’re putting in.
WATCH: Table Talk — Feeder and Recovery Workouts
You can’t just throw in extra workouts or recovery protocols and expect to get the most out of them. Like everything else in training, they need to be programmed strategically and used at the right times.
Q&A: Boost Testosterone Levels Naturally with the Correct Nutrition ...
The sample nutrition plan and strategies included in this article can be used by any average lifter to naturally optimize testosterone levels.
Overtraining: A Molecular Perspective
Overtraining can be due to both hormonal fluctuation and dysfunctional mechano-transducing properties at the cellular level. These will be the two areas focused upon in this article.
You're Probably Not Overtraining
Thinking that overtraining cannot happen is wrong. Immediately jumping to the conclusion that you need to back off or deload is also wrong.
WATCH: 2016 Training Camp — All Footage with JL, Swede, and Casey
Following this exclusive elitefts event, we have shared coaching videos and lessons from the weekend. Here’s everything in one place.
WATCH: Training Camp Q&A — Overtraining, Openers, and Body Composition
JL, Swede, and Casey answer multiple questions in this video, ranging from how to control training intensity to picking openers to nutrition for powerlifters.
Jeff Magruder: Powerlifter and Bench Press Champion
A multi-world record holder in the bench press, a successful gym owner, and a successful all-around lifter, Magruder has certainly made his mark.
An Experiment in Overreaching
In the weeks leading up to my vacation, I intentionally out-trained by ability to recover in attempts to spur super compensation. Here’s what I learned.
Not Feeling The Gym Today?
If you are not feeling up to the task of a workout, should you toughen up and push through it or take it easy?
Loyalty Issues and Disappointing Clients
When a client doesn’t want to take your advice, what do you do? How do you handle someone who won’t trust your methods but still wants your results?
Compatible Coaching in a Non-Compatible Setting
How to alter programming to fit the needs of your athletes.
Not all Fatigue is Created Equal
Not all fatigue is the same. Understanding the mechanism behind adaptation is crucial to progress.
Powerlifting Is HARD
If you are limited by the work and sacrifice that are required to be a champion, then embrace your mediocrity!
Training Frequency for Fighters
Lawrence outlines a schedule that allows a boxer to maximize sports performance and fitness while preventing the risk of overtraining.
Maximizing Supercompensation for Maximal Hypertrophy
Get a grip on your addiction. You’ll love the result.
Training with Purpose: Limiting Stress
Take a look at how to use overreaching as a tool to either break plateaus or use before a planned layoff from training.
Turn Up the Volume: The Issue of Sustainable, High Volume, Powerlifting ...
Think you ready for high volume training? Here are a few things you should consider.
The Difference Between Chronically Overloaded Muscles and Overtraining, ...
As part of your training, you should include some tools and measures to make sure that you’re on the right track.
The Difference Between Overloaded Muscles and Overtraining, Part II
The first and most important part in the treatment is to remove the stress that creates the vicious circle of overloading the muscles.
The Difference Between Overloaded Muscles and Overtraining, Part I
Everything was fine for a while, but after three months, my scores suddenly dropped significantly.
Periodization, Part II
Complete recovery after a hard day of training may last more than 48 hours, and training every other day isn’t really an option for elite performance (there are exceptions to this rule).
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.
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.
