There is no debate that the pull-up is one of the greatest upper body building exercises. Pull-ups should be incorporated into your training because, among many benefits, they can help ... Continue Reading
The Right Way to Prime Your Muscles for a Great Workout
When you’re painting furniture, cupboards, or the exterior of your house, you want it to look good. And for it to look good, you can't just slap a coat of paint on. You need to prepare the surface for the ... Continue Reading
Joey Szatmary: Building a Home for Strongmen and Powerlifters (Podcast)
Building ANY community is tough. So building a space and community for people obsessed with strength brings its own special challenges. And no one knows more about that than Joey Szatmary. Joey is a ... Continue Reading
Eddie Halls Performs “Isabel” and Claims New World Record (Update)
2017 World’s Strongest Man Eddie Hall was at the European Championships (CrossFit) in Colchester, England on February 23 to take part in a personal challenge. It may be strange to some that a strongman ... Continue Reading
5 Functional Exercises to Improve Warmups, Movement, and Overall Fitness
Functional training became a hot topic in 2019 and keeps gaining momentum in mainstream fitness. But what is functional training really? Functional movement or training, has it all in the ... Continue Reading
7 Kettlebell Accessories to Integrate into Your Powerlifting Off Season
One of my favorite things to do after a powerlifting meet is dive back into the wide world of kettlebells. The kinds of power-based, heavy ballistic moves that I love to do with kettlebells don’t often ... Continue Reading
Pro Gymnast vs. Journalists: Max Pull-Up Challenge
How many strict pull-ups can you do in one set? Five? Ten? Maybe fifteen? We here in the BarBend office do, contrary to some YouTube comments, lift, and we were fairly confident that in a test of pull-up ... Continue Reading
5 Fitness Trends That Need to Go Away…FOREVER
The world of fitness continues to evolve, adapt, and change as more and more professionals share their thoughts and knowledge on particular topics. Studies continue to improve and be more specific, ... Continue Reading
Chris Duffin: Squatting 1,000 Pounds and More Impossible Feats
Chris Duffin is an inventor, record-setting powerlifter, author, and founder of Kabuki Strength Labs. He's also one of the strongest humans on the planet, becoming the first person to deadlift 1,000 pounds ... Continue Reading
The Definitive Guide to the Kettlebell Snatch: Form, Mistakes, and More
Whether you’re trying to improve your strength and power, or you’re an endurance athlete looking to build some serious muscular stamina, the kettlebell snatch is a brilliant move for you to learn. I’m not ... Continue Reading
Different Lower Body Training Volumes and Their Effects On Strength and Hypertrophy
In the world of research for strength & conditioning, we are off to an amazing start for 2020. Thus far, we've written on handfuls of studies published that have continued to push training guidelines, ... Continue Reading
Rowan Minnion: Dealing with Influencers PLUS How to Recover Better for Strength
Rowan Minnion is an athlete and researcher best known as the founder and force behind Blonyx. He's especially passionate about improving athletic recovery and explains actionable — and some honestly ... Continue Reading
2020 Arnold Classic Bodybuilding Competition Preview
The Arnold Sports Festival is one of the biggest weekends on the fitness calendar, and there is normally something new and exciting happening every year. Even though there are lot of events taking place in ... Continue Reading
Is Pre-Exhaust Training Right for You? What It Is and Tips From a Pro
The principle of pre-exhaustion is a fairly old one in strength training circles: it was a component of Arthur Jones’s famous high-intensity methods in the 1970s, and some evidence for its use predates ... Continue Reading
The Ultimate Guide to HYROX: What It Is, How It’s Different, and More
HYROX is a competitive athletic race for the everyman. While fit bodies are prominent in the brand's imagery and "The World Series of Fitness" is its tagline, the sport differs from Ironman and other ... Continue Reading
The Untold History of Vegan Athletes
I, like many others, was both impressed and confused with the release of Game Changers late last year. For those unaware, this James Cameron-produced, Arnold Schwarzenegger-starring documentary shook the ... Continue Reading
Ultimate Squat Warm Up | Seven Moves to Prep for Big Squats
Warm ups are interesting, especially for things like squats and deadlifts. In theory, warm ups are simple, right? Do whatever helps prep you for your workout best, but that statement right there — while ... Continue Reading
16 Year Old Mahailya Reeves Bench Presses a Jaw Dropping 375 lbs
Over the weekend, weight lifting phenom Mahailya Reeves made another splash across social media, and added another impressive accolade to her lifting resume. At the 2020 Girls Weightlifting ... Continue Reading
3 Back Squat Alternatives for Cranky Shoulders
It is difficult to understate the benefits of back squats for strength athletes. They help build up the glutes, quads, hips, and require a stable core. Squat strength is essential for Olympic lifting, ... Continue Reading
Ian Kaplan: Navigating the Complexity of Pain
Ian Kaplan is the current Chief Officer of Operations at Hybrid Performance Method. With a background in training and research, when it comes to synthesizing research and understanding how to apply ... Continue Reading
3 Sneaky Tough Exercise Variations to Help You Pack On Mass
One of the biggest pitfalls of hypertrophy training is a simple one: a lot of the time, it’s straight-up boring. While compound movements like squats and deadlifts will always be challenging enough to ... Continue Reading
The Right Way to Breathe When You’re Doing a Plank
When scrolling through the fitness universe on social media, you might see weird and wonderful core exercises, some good, some bad, some outright crazy. And most of these exercises are done for reps ... Continue Reading
Why Protein Isn’t Created Equal (And How to Find the Best Sources for Your Needs)
Eat your bodyweight in grams of protein per day. For athletes, that’s often the recommendation. So, if you’re 150 lb., you should eat 150 grams of protein each day. Turns out, it’s not quite that ... Continue Reading
The Beauty of Lunge Variations and How to Reap All of Their Benefits
No matter how you prefer to train or what strength sport you compete in, unilateral lower body training should be a staple in your workouts. Unilateral training can best be described as training that kills ... Continue Reading