A while back I stopped looking at what body parts were used during specific exercises. I got away from thinking that pressing was for shoulders and squats were for quads. Instead, I started looking ... Continue Reading
Find Your Movement Medicine With Dr. Perry Nickelston, Ep 17
If your movement and performance have gone off the rails, then it might be time to listen to Dr. Perry Nickelston, creator of the RAIL system. RAIL stands for release, activate, integrate, and load and is ... Continue Reading
Rotational Exercise: The Controversy of Functional Training
Functional training is a philosophy that both connects and divides much of the fitness industry. The largest issue I’ve seen with “functional training” is that it is actually more of a philosophically ... Continue Reading
5 Advanced Bodyweight Exercises to Build Whole Body Strength
The workout split has become extremely popular and the go-to plan of choice for many exercise enthusiasts. It makes sense to divide your body into parts because this is how many gyms are laid out. The ... Continue Reading
Arousal 101: What “Mind Over Matter” Really Means
Before embarking on any form of training whether it be as a tactical athlete or complete beginner to exercise, it is important for us to have our mind in the right place. Getting up at 0500 in the snow to ... Continue Reading
What’s Daoism Got to Do With It? The Yin and Yang of Training
We are all chasing performance and strength gains at nearly any price. Some of us have gone to the extremes to guarantee continued improvement in our bodies. What I am going to present to you is an answer ... Continue Reading
Kick Pain in the Face With Natural Movement
I’m going to go out on a limb and guess you’ve dealt with pain. Possibly, you’re stuck with it even now. Pain has a way of hindering our athletic progress and quality of life. Luckily, your body houses its ... Continue Reading
7 Ways for Experienced Lifters to Stimulate Muscle Growth
For most beginners, training is a glorious time where personal records are seen monthly, new striations pop up every day, and you feel invincible. But for those of us who have been around the iron block ... Continue Reading
12 Reps – The Breaking Muscle Digest – Vol. 1, Issue 20
This week, Breaking Muscle celebrates publishing our very first ebook for sale, The Max Effort Black Box System by Michael "Coach Rut" Rutherford. You can't get it anywhere else but Breaking Muscle. If ... Continue Reading
Can Low-Carb Hurt Your Athletic Performance?
Conventional thinking says carbohydrates are the preferred energy source for athletes. In a general sense, that is true. Most sports involve a series of quick-burst, high-intensity actions, some over an ... Continue Reading
Off to a Running Start: 6 Tips to Get You Ready to Run
Like many people, I have a love-hate relationship with running. There are days I come home from a run feeling exhilarated and on top of the world. Then there are days I come home wallowing in self-pity and ... Continue Reading
How to Adjust Your Training Variables to Reach Your BJJ Goals
There are two questions I frequently receive from Brazilian jiu jitsu practitioners. “What is the best strength and conditioning program for Brazilian jiu jitsu?” “How should I cut weight for a ... Continue Reading
Timing Is Everything – In CrossFit and Life
I go to CrossFit five or six days a week. You wouldn’t know this to look at me. In fact, one of the trainers sort of suggested maybe I should stop telling people about CrossFit all the time. I’m not ... Continue Reading
How to Achieve Your First One-Arm Push Up
The one-arm push up is a great expression of strength, tension, and balance. Many strong athletes are not able to do it. But this article will share tips that can help you join the one-arm push-up ... Continue Reading
4 Safe and Effective Ways to Work Out With a Cranky Knee
If you’ve been training for an appreciable amount of time, you’ve probably acquired a tweak here or a twinge there that you now have to train around. Whether it’s an old sports injury or a ... Continue Reading
Training to Failure: Smart Strength With Charles Staley
Note: Charles is here on a weekly basis to help you cut through the B.S. and get to the bottom of the biggest questions in health and training. Post your questions directly to Charles in the comments below ... Continue Reading
Mobility for Masters: Warm Up Without Breaking Down
I am always somewhat envious of my friend George, a weightlifter at my gym, Cincinnati Strength and Conditioning. George is 25 years old and he waltzes into the box, changes his clothes, and before I can ... Continue Reading
GPP in the Modern World: How to Become an All-Around Athlete
Language is a useful tool. Ask any monkey. They’ve got the same number of opposable thumbs as we do and 95% of the same DNA, but without the ability to speak they never really made it out of the ... Continue Reading
The BM Podcast Un-cut: What’s Your Favorite Cheat Meal?
Food. Wonderful, glorious, food. A life of structured eating and training should always include a little wiggle room for occasional indulgences. Behind the scenes at the Breaking Muscle podcast, ... Continue Reading
An Easy, Effective Hip Flexor Stretch You Can Do Anywhere
As a physical therapist I see lots of pains, aches, injuries, and muscle imbalances each and every day. One of the top five most common things I see is tight hip flexors. I see this in desk jockeys ... Continue Reading
Build Functional Strength With the Shovel Lift
Barbells were designed to make lifting weights easy. Almost every exercise done with them is with a balanced grip and two hands. But if we take a different approach, the length of the barbell can be used ... Continue Reading
Coach, How Do I Know if My Program Is Effective?
My favorite times of my college football career were the off-season conditioning. I was an average football player, but I excelled at preparation. I worked as hard as anyone on my team at improving my ... Continue Reading
Cardio Doesn’t Kill Gains (and You Should Be Doing It)
We've all seen the people who go to the gym, hop on the elliptical for 45 minutes, never change their routine, and never change their appearance. These average gym-goers are an example of steady-state ... Continue Reading
12 Reps – The Breaking Muscle Digest – Vol. 1, Issue 19
Crawling is all the rage in fitness these days. We're back with another batch of awesome for you to enjoy. We've loaded it up heavily with training programs this week, from gymnastics to special ... Continue Reading
