Where do the upper limits for strength and size exist? We're in an interesting time in the world of fitness and strength sports. The popularity of lifting and competing in strength sports continues to ... Continue Reading
How Should the Shins Be Positioned In the Deadlift?
Shin angle in the deadlift often gets overlooked, but it's incredibly important for success. The deadlift, like every other compound lift, is the culmination of multiple joint angles working with ... Continue Reading
3 Reasons Why Bicep Curls Are Good for Your Shoulders
It’s the one exercise everybody knows about when they’re a gym newbie: the biceps curl and all its variations. This exercise is in our DNA. Nobody taught you how to do them. But when you enter the gym, ... Continue Reading
Do You Really Need to Squat for Big Legs?
Yep, it’s an age-old question – but one that we can learn a lot from. If you listen to the bros (whether in the gym or online), you’ll probably think that you have to squat if you want big legs, or if ... Continue Reading
The History of Bodybuilding’s Messy Journey to the Olympics
Bodybuilding truly deserves a place in the pantheon of Olympic sports. It dates to the original Olympic Games of the ancient Greeks, which inspired the modern Olympics. Between competitive events, the ... Continue Reading
Weight Over Bar Guide: How-To, Benefits, and Programming Tips
Weight over bar is a classic strongman event. This event is contested in a couple different ways in strongman and Highland Games competitions. In the weight over bar event, athletes will throw an object ... Continue Reading
Why Powerlifters Should Be Accessory Lifting With A Swiss Bar
Maybe you’ve seen the bulky, kind of odd-looking bar in your gym, or maybe you’re contemplating buying yourself a new toy for your garage gym. Or maybe you’ve just finished a meet or hit a lifting plateau, ... Continue Reading
Machines Vs Free Weights: Pros, Cons, and Which Is Best for Strength and Mass
Man, talk about a topic that’s been beaten to death. The “free weight versus machines” debate has raged as long as I’ve been a lifter – and probably much longer, though that’s not a topic on which ... Continue Reading
4 Awesome Cardio Finishers for Your Next Strength Workout
There’s nothing really wrong with traditional cardio machines. You jump on, set the time and intensity, and off you go. It’s easy. But personally, I find that mind numbingly boring. Plus, I don't ... Continue Reading
3 Rules to Follow for Crushing Your Off-Season Training
I’ve written before about how the off-season can be a challenging tie for a lot of lifters: You feel like you have all the time in the world to get stronger, but — with no immediate goal or reward in sight ... Continue Reading
How to Grow Stubborn Calves and Forearms
Most lifters, unless they’re genetically gifted, have a stubborn muscle group that refuses to grow. No matter what you do and what you throw at it, it still looks the same. It’s almost enough to make ... Continue Reading
The Definitive Guide to Picking a Powerlifting Coach
A powerlifting coach can help improve technique; develop long-term, individualized programming, provide mental skills and strategies, and assist with competition preparation. The purpose of getting a ... Continue Reading
The Untold History of Functional Fitness
This article will understand functional training in its simplest sense, that is, the ability to perform tasks in everyday life. This distinguishes functional training from powerlifting or bodybuilding, ... Continue Reading
Pulling the Slack Out of the Bar Is Key for Strong Deadlifts
A strong deadlift is the culmination of strength, power, coordination, and technique. An athlete needs to possess a baseline level of all of these variables to efficiently perform strong deadlift singles ... Continue Reading
5 Drills Every Athlete Should Do Every Day
Exercise doesn’t stop because your workout is over. And movement doesn’t stop because you've left the gym. The human body is made to move, and the benefits of daily movement are innumerable. To keep the ... Continue Reading
How Often Should You Train Shoulders to Build Muscle?
Training frequency is dependent on many variables, such as training age, ability to recovery, sets and reps per session, total training volume per week, and overall goals. For individuals looking to ... Continue Reading
How Many Times a Week Should You Train the Olympic Lifts?
The Olympic lifts are highly technical movements that require countless hours of technique training and analysis. Like most skills, the more you do them, the better you will become; assuming you are ... Continue Reading
The New Way to Train Post-Activation Potentiation (PAP)
Post-Activation Potentiation (PAP) is a training concept used by strength and conditioning coaches when the goal is increasing force output and rate of force development. Generally, the methodology ... Continue Reading
How the Ancient World Lifted Weights
“No citizen has a right to be an amateur in the matter of physical training. (…) What a disgrace it is for a man to grow old without ever seeing the beauty and strength of which his body is capable.” - ... Continue Reading
The 6 Best Deadlift Accessories for Smashing Your Sticking Points
When you want to get better at deadlifting, you need to deadlift more. Seems like a no brainer, but sometimes you miss the obvious. However, when working with weights over 90 percent of your 1-rep max, ... Continue Reading
EMOM vs Timed Circuits: The Best Ways for Athletes to Burn Fat
When you’re trying to lean out or just looking to drop a few pounds, a lot of people head for the cardio machines and not the weights. However, with a few slight programming tweaks — like shortening ... Continue Reading
Why Tennis Players Should Lift Weights (Plus Two Free Workouts)
Long ago strength training for tennis wasn’t in vogue, even among the professional players. Even the great John McEnroe (winner of the US Open in 1979, 80, 81, and 84), famously avoided strength ... Continue Reading
5 Ways to Improve HRV (Heart Rate Variability) (Brought to You by WHOOP)
Heart rate variability (HRV) is a fantastic tool for athletes to use to assess readiness and recovery. Everyone has a baseline HRV number, which serves as a suggestion for how physically ready one is to ... Continue Reading
What Is Heart Rate Variability? How to Use and Monitor HRV (Brought to You by WHOOP)
Over the last five years, heart rate variability (HRV) has grown in popularity as a useful tool for assessing recovery and training readiness. If you’re new to the concept of HRV and how it can translate ... Continue Reading