What happens when we're matched with a time frame where equipment might be slightly limited and we have a need for a routinely high training stimulus? We find ourselves trying to as creative as ... Continue Reading
Is This Common Ab Training Mistake Limiting Your Progress? How to Fix It
The biggest mistake I see beginners make with ab training is not doing too many isolation movements: it’s the failure to isolate the targeted muscle. Now, in most situations, this isn’t all that ... Continue Reading
Elite Gymnast Shares Core Training Progressions and Tips
There are a lot of ways to train your core with a lot of the industry's top coaches giving their input. The type of core training any given athlete decides to incorporate into their training can ... Continue Reading
Want to Build a Resilient and Strong Body? Try Using Bulletproof Trisets
If you are a strength training junkie, then you eat, sleep, and live for a heavy barbell in your hands. There is no doubt about it, locking out a heavy deadlift makes you feel like the strongest person on ... Continue Reading
After MS Diagnosis, Alex Ortiz Turned His Life Around Through Fitness
One morning in March 2018, Alex Ortiz woke up and couldn’t move his body. “I was completely paralyzed on the left side of my body,” said Ortiz, now 37. Stubborn, he didn’t go to the doctor for five ... Continue Reading
5 Best Prehab Exercises for Strength Athletes (with Joe Yoon)
Looking to improve your mobility for better weightlifting, powerlifting, and more? Joe Yoon (better known as @JoeTherapy) joined us to demonstrate his 5 favorite prehab mobility exercises for strength ... Continue Reading
Missing Equipment? The CrossFitter’s Guide to Movement Substitutions
So you finally bit the bullet and hired a coach who wrote you an individualized training program. Or maybe you bought a more generic program online. And now you have a dilemma: Either your home gym, or ... Continue Reading
Elite Gymnast Jaime Da Silva Teaches 4 Move Pull-Up Progression
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
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
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
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 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
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
Do You Really Need a 30-Minute Warm-Up?
We have been told there’s no such thing as too much warm-up. That your warm-up should even be longer than your actual workout. Case in point: I remember having a conversation with the world famous ... Continue Reading
5 Great Ways to Use a Wall (Yes, a Wall) for a Better Workout
When you’re in the gym, you’re surrounded by machines, bands, barbells, squat racks, kettlebells and various other tools that help make you stronger. But there’s one tool, one that you’re overlooking, ... Continue Reading
Three Alternative Methods to Build Strength and Size When Progress Stalls
For many strength athletes, progression is a straightforward concept and looks like the following: Start with linear progression (e.g., StrongLifts) Implement periodization (like in my 12-week ... Continue Reading
Arms Growing Stubbornly Slow? Try Using Biceps and Triceps Eccentric Training
The biceps and triceps are some of the most popular muscle groups to train, and that comes to no surprise. After all, if you ask most regular gym goers about their goals and intentions for training, then ... Continue Reading
The History of Circuit Training Goes Back Way Before Your Favorite Bootcamp
It is a form of training we have all dabbled with at some point in our gym going lives. When I began working out as a teenager, the only training offered for younger trainees was circuit training. Now, ... Continue Reading
Touch and Don’t Go? An Easy Answer for Your Deadlift Problem
I get a lot of deadlift-specific questions, and I understand why: it can be a really frustrating lift! That’s especially true when you suffer from a stubborn sticking point. If you’re not already familiar ... Continue Reading
How to Use “Muscle Irradiation” to Create Tension for Stronger Lifts
What if I told you there’s a method that makes you stronger while also improving your technique and preventing injury. Would you believe me? Let me introduce you to the concept of muscle ... Continue Reading
We Tried the Primal Swoledier’s Kettlebell Flows!
What happens when two moderately fit guys try some of the hottest workouts on social media? Eric Leija, better known on Instagram as "Primal Swoledier," has become famous for programming workouts that ... Continue Reading