How Strong Is Strong Enough? Training Considerations for Track and Field...
The following is an analysis of the strength requirements and the relative importance of maximal strength for different disciplines in track and field.
Moving Ahead
We are all in the same boat—looking for jobs, trying to make money, just finishing school, so what can and should be done to move ahead in this profession and land that dream job?
Advice for the Over-worked Strength Coach: An Outsider’s Perspective
Ensure these factors are achieved, and your athletes will have success under the bar.
A Weightlifter Consumes a Strength Coach
What is this sport I love so much? It’s a circle of obsession, frustration, success, and injury.
The Top Five Components of Building a National Title Contender in the Ph...
It seems that the craze of sport-specific training has created a backlash against heavy lifting with basketball athletes.
Q&A with Strength and Conditioning Coach Mike Golden
Probably about that same time, I remember reading an article in Muscle and Fitness that the Dallas Cowboys had a Strength Coach, and I go “Wow, you can really make (this) a living”.
The Strength Coach’s Guide to Movement Assessment: Part 2
In Part 1 of this series, we discussed the basics of the University of Missouri functional movement screen and how we used it to determine special needs for individual athletes at Mizzou, so in part 2…
Exclusive Interview with Martin Rooney (Part 2)
In the second segment of this interview, we talk about a coach’s mindset.
Three Lessons I’ve Learned as a Beginner Strength Coach/Trainer
Jay shares the top three things he has learned breaking into the strength and fitness world.
Interview with Collegiate Strength Coach Specialist Joe Kenn Part 2
When you get Joe Kenn and Jim Wendler in the same room, what do you get?
A Strength Coach’s Guide to Dealing with Pain, Part 3: Low Back
When training athletes, an all-inclusive approach works best.
Gots to Get Your Deload On
What is one of the biggest mistakes strength coaches, personal trainers, athletes and lifters make?
It Isn’t About the Weights
Strength and conditioning has a historical, hard nosed attitude toward training and change.
Interview with Collegiate Strength Coach Specialist Joe Kenn
When you get Joe Kenn and Jim Wendler in the same room, what do you get?
4 Tips for the Aspiring Strength Coach
Zach Even-Esh and Joe DeFranco didn’t become strength coaches overnight, they had to start somewhere.
In the Field: Working as a High School Strength Coach
The most glaring issue I’ve seen is the lack of athletic movement in all kids in all sports of all ages.
The Prowler: A Review
We are football and strength and conditioning coaches at a 4A high school in southwest Missouri. We are long time followers, readers, and users of EliteFTS and their products. When we had the opportunity to purchase three Prowlers from EliteFTS in May 2008, we jumped at the chance.
The Holy Wars; Why I Use Olympic Lifts…Sometimes
I’ve found that I have the best alone time when walking my dogs on a nice morning. A few days ago, it was unseasonable warm here in Pennsylvania, and I was spending some quality time with two of my dogs. I started thinking about training.
Econo Prowler Review
Team DOS just received the new Econo Prowler a couple months ago with the intent of using the hell out of it.
Want to Train at elitefts? Make a Plan or Suffer the Consequences
My first experience in the EFS gym…
Lessons Learned from Two Summers in Business
At my facility this past summer, I was lucky enough to have the privilege of coaching 40 different athletes four times a week. This was double the amount of kids that I was responsible for the previous summer, so it was really exciting to watch the business grow.
1100 Pound Abs
The other day in the gym, the topic of ab training for strength came up. I figured there was nobody better to ask than 1100 pound squatter Matt Wenning.
Teach Them to Land First
Plyometrics have been a part of most athletic development programs for many years.
Beginner Deadlift Considerations: Conventional or Sumo?
The deadlift is the lift that a new powerlifter initially moves the biggest weights with and makes the most immediate progress.
Of Politics & Idiocy, Part 2 Strength & Conditioning at the Coll...
This is part two of a two-part series.
EliteFTS Spotlight: Justin Cecil
Justin Cecil is a full time staff member at St. Vincent Sports Performance in Indiana, and serves as the head strength and conditioning coach at Lawrence Central High School.
How to Open a Warehouse Gym, Part 2
In part one of “How to Open a Warehouse Gym,” you learned of my struggles as a student of fitness, a personal trainer, and an employee of a mega-sized “health club,” where most worthy trainers are treated like cogs in the big malfunctioning machine of the fake fitness facade.
EliteFTS Spotlight: Josh Bryant
Josh Bryant is a speed, strength, and conditioning coach. He is also a personal trainer who has works with many clients in person at Metroflex Gym in Arlington, Texas and via the internet.
Bench Training for Gear and Raw
Here at Lexen, we train raw for much of our upper body development, but by using both environments (the shirt and raw training), you can actually make personal records in each.
Underground Strength Session 2009 Review
It was Friday night. I set my alarm for 5:00 a.m. This was nothing new, but when I woke up in five hours, I would be starting my trek to one of the strongest gyms in the Midwest—the EliteFTS compound.
My First Three Weeks as a Strength Coach
Since I enlisted in the U.S. Army, I’ve wanted to be a coach. My drive is directly related to my high school experiences as a student athlete and the positive impact one person can have on another individual.
Things I’ve Learned
As I sat here reading the new articles on EliteFTS.com, I wondered why many of the authors weren’t female
Five Huge Training Business Mistakes
Running a personal training facility isn’t easy, but it’s not rocket science either. Since starting Synergy Athletics, I’ve learned a lot through trial and error (emphasis on a lot of error).
My Experience at the 2004 WPO Bench Bash for Cash by Ed Rectenwald (as t...
Let me first tell you briefly about myself for those who do not know me.
Problems of Progression
During my humble personal training career, I’ve witnessed some interesting training philosophies that personal trainers have in relation to training their clients and themselves.
Under The Bar: The S-4 Weekender Program
I’m still not quit sure how it happened, but over the course of the past twelve months, we have attracted a group of competitive powerlifters into our gym. It was not that long ago that I retired from the sport and spent my weekends training with one or two other guys, and that was it.
EliteFTS Spotlight: Al Caslow
This week’s EliteFTS Spotlight focuses on powerlifter Al Caslow, the newest EliteFTS sponsored athlete and member of the Q&A staff. Al is currently ranked #1 in the world in the 165 pound class.
The Perfect Program: For Lifters and Coaches Alike
Here’s the deal. All sound programs work and they work well. The best one is your preference. However, there’s a catch to everything and this has more than one.
Under The Bar: WTF
Have you ever been asked a question or heard a statement that made you think or say, “WTF?!?”
Making the Most Out of Your Internship
An aspiring strength and conditioning coach’s first taste of training athletes usually begins with an internship. While interning, there are many things you can do right and a million things you can do wrong.
GPP Considerations for a Six-Week Collegiate Post-Competitive Block
At Northwestern State, we inform our teams that their off-season begins once their season completes but not as a means of max effort or dynamic effort. This block solely works to reestablish their initial general physical preparedness (GPP).
The Origin of 5/3/1
In the summer of 2005, I was burned out from competitive powerlifting. I was tired of bench shirts, box squats, bands and being fat.
Matt Holmes’ Journey of a Warehouse Gym
ZE: Matty, tell the readers of EliteFTS about yourself, how you started in the fitness industry, and what you have going on right now.
Advice to the Beginner and Elite
When we begin to train, usually the goal of most lifters is to get big and strong. On this path, our goals stay in that realm, but how we reach them becomes ever changing and more difficult as we push our genetic and mental limits.
Interview with Jeremy Frey
I first started lifting when I was about 11-years-old. I started doing little things before this time, but I entered a weight room when I was about 11-years-old.
Sporting Parents from a Coach’s Perspective
I know that the EliteFTS.com website and article listings that I look forward to each and every Friday are usually reserved for strength and lifting as well as articles of an informative nature. However, I’m writing one myself from a different perspective.
An Introduction to the Sport of Kettlebell Lifting
By now, you should know what a kettlebell is, or at the very least, you should have heard of kettlebells. They are popping up everywhere, and you can even purchase them from your local sporting goods retailer. There are kettlebell fitness trainers, kettlebell boot camps, kettlebell gyms, and even kettlebell infomercials. Kettlebells certainly have broken into the mainstream. Some might
5/3/1 In A Commercial Gym: Observations
Because of a major career change, I’ve recently relocated to a new city. With this move, and all the bullshit that goes along with moving, I’ve been forced to endure the misfortune of trying to find a new gym
EliteFTS Spotlight: Joel Jamieson
My career as a strength and conditioning coach essentially began at the University of Washington when I interned under a great coach named Bill Gillespie back in the late 1990s.
My Journey into Bodybuilding (Part 3)
My journey to bodybuilding hasn’t been an easy one. The diet, the cardio, the training—it’s all become old pretty quickly. I’ve found that the most difficult thing about this “sport” is the time you need to invest in it to make it work.
The Return of Hardcore
That’s it. I can’t take it anymore. These sissified commercial gyms and their clipboard holding trainers have just about ruined the weightlifting world.
Lessons Learned from Training Young Kids
I have spent this past winter training young hockey players, often as young as 11-years-old and often by myself in groups of 12–15 kids at one time.
EliteFTS Spotlight: Matt Wenning
The subject of this week’s EliteFTS Spotlight is Q&A staff member Matt Wenning. Matt is one of only a handful of people to total over 2600 pounds in professional competition.
Too Fat to Get Fit?: Addressing the Physical Development Needs of Today...
It isn’t pretty, but it’s a reality. Our youth are getting fatter and unhealthier by the day. Physical education classes are either gone or absolutely minimized in our educational curriculum. The classes that are still intact are ill-suited for the new generation.
