While BarBend was down in Lima reporting on the IWF Grand Prix, we managed to find some time with six athletes and Team USA's Technical Director, Mr. Pyrros Dimas, to ask them one of the most common ... Continue Reading
4 Bench Press Variations When You Have Shoulder Discomfort
The bench press is a rite of passage for most gym goers. Even the newbies who know next to nothing about lifting always seem to know two exercises: the bench press and biceps curls. And ... Continue Reading
3 Mind Blowing 800+ Pound Jefferson Deadlifts, the Heaviest Performed to Date!
If you're heavily invested in the strength sports community on Instagram, then you may have noticed that an "unconventional" deadlift style is making a comeback in popularity...no pun ... Continue Reading
Fix Your Kettlebell Swing With the Water Bucket Trick!
This is one of my FAVORITE #kettlebelltraining tips. Is it EXACTLY mimicking a proper swing? No, of course not! (For one thing, you'd be using a LOT more "pop" and explosion from the hips if you were ... Continue Reading
10 Signs Coachability Is Harming Your Gym Progress
We have probably all heard of the term coachable before. And likely, we assume we’re coachable, because, well, who wants to be labeled uncoachable? But are we really coachable? Here are 10 ... Continue Reading
4 Great IT Band Exercises for Improving Hip Stability (Ft Jordan Shallow)
The iliotibial band, also known as the IT Band, plays a vital role in performance in and out of the gym.. We recently had Dr. Jordan Shallow in the office to walk us through his favorite IT band ... Continue Reading
Beyond the Lat Pulldown: How to Fix Your Upper Back Deficiency
After a high-volume pull-up training session—be it kipping or strict pull-ups—where does the soreness hit you the next day? If your answer is The bottom of my biceps, then there’s a good chance your ... Continue Reading
The Importance of Variation and Four Benefits of the Safety Squat Bar
If you’ve been following me on Instagram, you know that I’ve been using the safety squat bar (actually, the Elitefts Yoke Bar) as my main squatting movement in all of my training. There’s a pretty good ... Continue Reading
We Tried Terry Crews’ 5,000+ Calorie Cheat Day
Terry Crews is one of the most jacked, most lean guys in Hollywood, and he's in his fifties.We have trouble thinking of any actors in better shape in their twenties, but Crews, who spent several ... Continue Reading
6 Foolproof Ways to Improve Your Grip Strength Today
Grip is something in strength training called a limiting factor. For example, you can have the back strength to deadlift 600 lbs, but if your grip can't hold the weight, then you're limited to what those ... Continue Reading
6 Serious Battle Rope Circuits to Build Your Core and Shoulders
Ah, battle ropes. The simultaneous dread and delight of all my personal training clients — and me! While they may look all innocent, laying there on the ground waiting for a badass like you to pick them ... Continue Reading
5 Kettlebell Circuits That Will Maximize Your Endurance
So you’re a lifter who needs to boost your endurance because you’ve realized that when you’re grinding out that last rep, it helps to have a killer cardio system backing you up. Or you’re an endurance ... Continue Reading
6 Steps for Walking Out Perfect Squats From a Professional Powerlifter
When it comes to squatting technique, you can find a ton of information about everything from foot placement to the head positioning and all the stuff in between. But one of the more overlooked ... Continue Reading
Improve Muscle Mass, Technique, and Mental Toughness With 1 1/2 Reps
If you're on the never-ending quest of improving your training cycles, then you may want to look into adding 1 1/2 reps to your training toolbox. In my opinion, the best training tools are the ones that ... Continue Reading
4 Exercises Everyone Can Use to Improve Mobility, Durability, and Recovery
From the top level professional athletes to young children in P.E., for one reason or another most of us enjoy the adrenaline rush and positive feedback associated with training hard and ramping up the ... Continue Reading
How Tempo Work Helped Me Push Through a Plateau
Retiring from being a competitive CrossFit athlete is different than moving on from any other sport. When I quit gymnastics, I stopped practicing beam routines. Cold turkey. When I retired from ... Continue Reading
Muscle Fiber Found In Elite Powerlifter Is 22% Larger Than a Rhino’s
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
The Ultimate Beginner Pull-Up Guide (4-Weeks to Your First Rep!)
The pull-up could be referred to as a milestone exercise. The ability to successfully lift one's chin over a pull-up bar from a dead hang position is incredibly self-empowering. For true ... Continue Reading
The Best Powerbuilding Guide and Program (Brought to You by Gravitus)
Powerbuilding, a relatively new and trendy buzzword in strength training, is continuing to grow in popularity due to the principles that most powerbuilding programs aim to accomplish: (1) get stronger, ... Continue Reading
World Record Holder Blaine Sumner Explains His Chicken Shake Diet
Chicken, rice, egg whites, spinach, olive oil, water. No salt, no spices. This is the 1,000-calorie shake that Blaine Sumner drinks eight times a day. And look, the man has the International ... 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
7 Steps for Nailing the Perfect Squat (Feat 2-Time IPF World Champion Taylor Atwood)
There's a lot that goes into a great squat. The un-rack, walkout, descent, and ascent all need to be perfectly aligned to move efficiently under a loaded bar. An important lesson to learn under ... 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