How do you approach your workouts? While it may seem like there are an infinite number of factors at play — how often you go to the gym, what exercises you do, the equipment you work with — one of the most ... Continue Reading
8 Benefits of the Bird Dog to Make Your Core Strength Take Flight
Let’s start with a quiz. What’s one exercise that’s often performed poorly, rushed through, or skipped entirely, even though it can help keep your lower back from a world of hurt? If you guessed the bird ... Continue Reading
9 Fun Facts About the 2022 USA Weightlifting Nationals and Its Predecessors
Weightlifting is historic. Although the sport has always enjoyed significant limelight and prestige internationally, American weightlifting is having something of a moment in the States in recent ... Continue Reading
FST-7 Training Explained — Can You “Shock and Awe” Your Muscles Into New Growth?
Every bodybuilder has their own claim to muscle fame. From Arnold Schwarzenegger's famous addiction to the pump, to Dorian Yates's high-intensity, one-set-to-failure approach, it has been proven time and ... Continue Reading
How to Return to Strength Training After an Extended Break
For a weathered gym rat, almost nothing is worse than being unable to access your barbells and weight plates. Not that you need a fully-equipped gym to work out — but sometimes, life just doesn’t ... Continue Reading
Barefoot Strength Training — Can Lifting Without Shoes Help You Make More Gains?
You've probably seen it in your gym at least once — someone training in a pair of socks or, more shockingly still, entirely barefoot, flesh-to-floor style. It certainly looks odd at a glance, but it does ... Continue Reading
Want to Move Better? Try These 5 Mobility Drills for Weightlifting
Weightlifting is about how you move. The better your movement, the more you can lift. The two main lifts (the snatch and the clean & jerk) are not just your average gym exercises. You have to use your ... Continue Reading
How to (Safely) Train Legs if You Have a Back Injury
You walk into the gym pain-free. After going through your trusty squat warm-up, you apprehensively unrack the bar for the first time, anxiously waiting for a spasm or shockwave to radiate across your body ... Continue Reading
What’s the Deal With the Mind-Muscle Connection?
You go to the gym to work out your muscles. Perhaps part of the allure of the four walls of your iron paradise is turning off your mind and just feeling the burn. But if you want the best muscle-building ... Continue Reading
Your 4-Step Cheat Sheet to Start Lifting Weights at 40
You might falsely think that resistance training is a young man's (or woman's) game — this could not be further from the truth. Being “over the hill” may seem like a deterrent, but there is absolutely ... Continue Reading
The BarBend Guide on How to Start CrossFit
The growing world of CrossFit is only getting bigger as endurance athletes, lifters, and all-around beginners continue turning toward community-based intense workouts to achieve their fitness goals. But ... Continue Reading
What Is the X-Frame In Bodybuilding and How to Get One
Hang around in bodybuilding circles long enough and you’ll more than likely have heard someone make a comment or two about the elusive “X-frame.” You might have smiled and nodded along even though you ... Continue Reading
How to Exercise Once Per Week and Make it Count
If you had it your way, you’d work out every day of the week. A good training split will often have you training anywhere from three to five days per week, sometimes more. On a push-pull-leg routine, you ... Continue Reading
How to Activate Your Central Nervous System to Become Freakishly Fast
Speed doesn’t kill, but slowness might. Whether you’re an Olympic lifter attempting a new personal record in the snatch or a martial artist in the fight of your life, how explosive you are (or aren’t) ... Continue Reading
Supercharge Your Workout With This 3-Step Mental Preparation Protocol
People spend tons of time and money on supplements, workout programs, and so-called fitness gurus, but most miss out on huge opportunities for natural performance increases that already exist in their ... Continue Reading
The Best Conditioning Workouts for Weightlifters to Help You Get Strong, Lean, and Limber
All weightlifters share a common goal of reaching their strength potential. Plenty of time is spent working on adding weight to the bar, but there’s more to the story than just repeatedly going heavy day ... Continue Reading
How to Choose the Right Powerbuilding Exercises for Your Goals
Maybe you’re a powerlifter who wants your strength to be reflected in your musculature. Or you might be a bodybuilder who wants to be as strong as you look. Even if you have no aspirations to compete — or ... Continue Reading
What Is EMOM Training? How To Do It and Why You Should
When you think of building endurance as a strength athlete, you might well be filled with dread. That’s understandable if you’re the kind of person who loves barbells but loathes endless hours of ... Continue Reading
Mobility vs. Flexibility — Why It Matters and What It Means for You
You train for better strength, endurance, and cardio, but when was the last time you took the time to help your body move better? Mobility and flexibility can often be overlooked as they may not be as fun ... Continue Reading
How to Use Weightlifting Straps to Gain Strength and Make Progress
When practicing weightlifting, things can get a bit heavy-handed. Moving a barbell necessitates tons of pulling, which means having a respectable level of grip strength. Your hands have a lot of ... Continue Reading
Get Stronger and More Powerful With Post-Activation Potentiation
In the world of fitness, the next big thing is always on the horizon, just waiting to unlock your hidden potential. Those trendy “one cool trick” tactics usually don’t pan out to any real gains, though. ... Continue Reading
How to (Safely) Train to Failure to Boost Your Intensity and Muscle Mass
When you’re new to the gym, it seems like all you have to do to gain muscle and get stronger is look at a dumbbell. But the more experience you get under your weightlifting belt, the harder it can be to ... Continue Reading
The CrossFitters’ Guide to Surviving Murph
When most people think about the end of May, they think about barbecues, pool noodles, and the sun setting nice and late. And if you're a CrossFitter, May is also likely to make you think "Murph." If ... Continue Reading
The Birth and Growth of the Arnold Sports Festival
What began as a joint bodybuilding venture between Arnold Schwarzenegger and Jim Lorimer in 1989 has evolved into an elite multi-sport competition space and expo. The Arnold Sports Festival (ASF) is ... Continue Reading