In your gym life, you might do everything you possibly can to avoid them. “I did leg presses after squatting today,” you might try to bargain with your program. “I’ll do walking lunges next week (read: ... Continue Reading
How to Properly Warm Up for Weightlifting Workouts
Weightlifting is an intense sport. It’s centered around the snatch and the clean & jerk, but also includes many different other exercises that challenge your body in their own unique ways. No matter ... Continue Reading
15 Isometric Exercises for More Core Strength and Full-Body Stability
Anytime you hit a lift, you’re thinking about lifting it and then lowering it. Those up and down movements are known as concentric (up) and eccentric (down) phases. But there’s a third phase that ... Continue Reading
Here’s How to Do a Dynamic Squat Warm Up for Bigger Lifts
It's a heavy squat day. You know your game plan and you’ve strapped into your lifting shoes. You have your belt and chalk all ready to go, and your pump up playlist is all queued up. But is your body ready ... Continue Reading
Try These 8 Intensity Techniques to Turn Your Bodybuilding Workouts Up a Notch
Strength training is a science. Whether you’re a powerlifter, weightlifter, or just want to get generally strong, you likely follow a program that is neatly and coherently designed to produce predictable ... Continue Reading
15 Plank Variations to Strengthen Your Core and Help You Support Your Big Lifts
Too many people go about building core strength the wrong way. They sit all day working with a rounded back and then head to the gym to put themselves in more flexion through countless sit-ups and ... Continue Reading
3 Types of Training Periodization and How to Use Them to Make Gains
Walking onto the gym floor with only a loose plan and a few fun lifts in mind for your workout really can work for a while. You are primed to make progress in your early lifting years — your body is a ... Continue Reading
Learn How to Do Picture Perfect Kettlebell Swings
Whether you want to get stronger, grow more muscle, or just generally get more fit, there's a kettlebell exercise out there for you. Kettlebells are a dynamic piece of fitness equipment that are ... Continue Reading
What is Functional Fitness Training? And Why Should You Do It?
You can squat more than twice your bodyweight, but can you climb the stairs to your apartment without getting overly winded? If you just hit a new bench press personal record but your shoulders aren’t ... Continue Reading
The Best EMOM Workouts for Strength, Endurance, and Mass
If you could, you’d spend hour after hour in the gym each day. But between family, work, friends, and sleeping every once in a while, you may just not be able to dedicate all that time to iron. If you’re ... Continue Reading
How to Do the Arnold Press: Proper Form & Variations
The Arnold press is a classic shoulder-building exercise made famous by none other than its namesake, seven-time Mr. Olympia winner Arnold Schwarzenegger. The seated Arnold press is a variation of the ... Continue Reading
Learn the Cable Crunch to Build Yourself a Strong, Supportive Core
When you want to pull a heavier deadlift or squat three plates, you need a strong core to support all that stress on your torso. And if one of your goals has always been developing a midsection that pops, ... Continue Reading
How Former 212 Mr. O Kamal Elgargni is Training for His Olympia Return
Bodybuilding is a sport of patience and perseverance. Professional bodybuilders train for upwards of a full year for a few moments under the bright lights when they face the judges. Whether it’s the ... Continue Reading
Your Complete Guide to Mastering the Snatch
What's the most impressive thing you can do with a barbell? A bodybuilder might remark that they can use it to build mountainous biceps or a beefy back. A career powerlifter would wax poetic about the ... Continue Reading
Learn Rack Pulls for More Pulling Strength and a Bigger Back
There are plenty of ways to deadlift — conventionally, with a sumo stance, using a trap bar, with a snatch grip, standing on a weight plate, or even using a thick bar. Depending on your goals, some or all ... Continue Reading
The 15 Best Dynamic Warm-Up Exercises You Need Before Your Next Workout
You probably know that person at the gym who walks in off the street, slaps a few plates on the bar and calls one light set their warm-up. You shouldn't be that person. It might save time, and skipping ... Continue Reading
Master the Pull-Up for Back Muscle, Strength, and Full-Body Control
The pull-up is a foundational upper body exercise that carries many benefits — namely more back and arm muscle, pulling strength, and full-body control. It’s also ... Continue Reading
No Barbell, No Problem: Here’s What You Need to Know About Manual Resistance Training
Resistance training has seen some pretty huge advancements in equipment, technology, techniques, and even exercise innovation over the years. From bands and chains, to post-activation potentiation, or the ... Continue Reading
How to Do a Dumbbell Bench Press, With Expert Tips & Video Guide
We know, we know — everyone loves the barbell bench press. That's why it's so hard to find an available bench press station most of the time (nevermind on Mondays, or as gym bros all over the world call ... Continue Reading
8 of the Best Weightlifting Exercises to Improve Your Overhead Performance
A typical weightlifting diet involves taking the barbell overhead frequently. The classic lifts, known as the snatch and the clean & jerk, both share the functional purpose of lifting the barbell to ... Continue Reading
Dr. Jim Stoppani on the Differences Between Full-Body and Full-Split Training
The final episode of the interview with exercise physiologist Jim Stoppani by Generation Iron and BarBend aired on May 2, 2022. In it, the 11th episode of the series, Stoppani ... Continue Reading
Be a Hero in the Weight Room — Here’s How to Properly Spot Someone in the Gym
Picture this. You’re on week three or four of your new gym routine, humbly grinding through one of your workouts in the weight room when one of the locals approaches you out of the blue with a ... Continue Reading
Front Squat Variations for Lifters at Every Experience Level
If barbell back squats are the king of all leg exercises, then barbell front squats are next in line to the throne. With the barbell front squat, you’ll hold the barbell either at your fingertips or ... Continue Reading
What is a Workout Complex? Your Guide to Building Strength While Saving Time
One piece of equipment, one weight, one area — and go. That’s what you’ll be doing when you start a workout complex. Whether you use a barbell, dumbbell, kettlebell, or even battle ropes, a workout complex ... Continue Reading