The off-season should be a time of less intensity, but for many triathletes it becomes another layer of stress. It can be hard after a year of intense training to adjust to the off-season mindset. ... Continue Reading
5 Simple Solutions to Shoulder Pain
Shoulder pain sucks. If you’ve been lifting for any significant amount of time, then you’ve likely felt it. Maybe it was just a little pinch in the front of your shoulder. Or maybe it felt like someone was ... Continue Reading
The Benefits of Deloading (Athlete Journal 5)
Deload. Taper. Unload. Backoff. Rest. Whatever you want to call it, it’s never a fun week. As athletes we don’t only grow and get stronger in the gym. We also progress when we recover. A deload is a ... Continue Reading
How to Get and Stay Ahead During the Holidays
My first boss used to say to me, “Know your plan. Act your plan.” Wise words, which I don’t always follow. The truth is many of us don’t always know the plan or stick to it. As we wind down each ... Continue Reading
Why You Shouldn’t Cut Weight for BJJ
What weight class should I compete in? This is the hardest question to answer for many Brazilian jiu jitsu competitors. If you walk around a BJJ tournament, you will overhear competitors talking ... Continue Reading
Rehabilitation for Lumbar Spine Recovery: The Science and the Truth
So, Grasshopper, why are you sitting there contemplating your navel? Oh, right, because you hurt your back and the authorities told you to “pull your belly button in” and that until you could isolate your ... Continue Reading
Dynamic Flexibility Training a Bit of a Stretch, Says New Study
Many athletic programs employ dynamic stretching in order to avoid the negative effects of static stretching. However, a recent study in the Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research suggests dynamic ... Continue Reading
Simple Rep Range Rules for More Productive Strength Training
A large percentage of you are using resistance training and trying to get stronger. You're lifting "X" amount of resistance for "Y" number of repetitions and over "Z" number of sets. Good for you - if this ... Continue Reading
A Simple Protocol for Testing Your Work Capacity
A few years ago, I had an opportunity to develop a training program for a large joint-military unit (Army, Navy, Marines, and Air Force). Fortunately, the only requirement of the commanding officer was ... Continue Reading
Promoted to Purple Belt! (Athlete Journal 55)
Big news! I received my purple belt from Phil and Ricky Migliarese on October 11th! A few weeks ago, I found out that I was on the Balance promotion list for my purple belt. I was pretty excited ... Continue Reading
3 Quick and Simple Ways to Relieve Neck Pain or Stiffness
Are you dealing with chronic neck pain or soreness? Do you feel tension in your neck after sitting at your desk? Or even sometimes while you're exercising? If this sounds like you, then we have a ... Continue Reading
Big Power Does Not Require Big Gears
At a recent velodrome session a number of athletes appeared to be grinding or pushing big gears. When asked why, they said that bigger gears allowed them to generate higher watts. As a simple test I asked ... Continue Reading
Science Says You Really Need a Post-Workout Massage
Massage has long been used to recover from intense exercise. A recent study in the Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research examined whether or not massage can increase post-workout strength and ... Continue Reading
Real Functional Training Is Simple: Montessori Realism in the Gym
For good or for ill, functional training is a trend in sports training. Although the term was originally used to distinguish functional training methods from bodybuilding styles, some of its applications ... Continue Reading
The Dip Error You Don’t Even Know You’re Making
I have noticed a basic error that many newcomers to weightlifting, both young and old, are now making. The problem occurs during the dip portion of the jerk, in the clean and jerk event. Ideally the ... Continue Reading
The Unhealthy Competition Bug: Is Your Gym Infected?
Pop Quiz: If you are a competition athlete at a box that offers a competition track, do you know the people who attend group classes? A Unified Community of Believers When CrossFit first began, ... Continue Reading
The Two Best Exercises for Increasing Your Vertical Jump
Ever since I can remember, I’ve wanted a higher vertical jump. Whether that was due to ad campaigns such as the “Like Mike” commercials or the luster of seeing an elite athlete throw down a monster dunk, ... Continue Reading
Periodization, Rest, and Injury Prevention (Athlete Journal 40)
For the last seven months or so, I’ve been relatively injury-free. This is one of the biggest, if not the biggest, factor that has contributed to my competition success in 2014. It makes perfect sense, ... Continue Reading
The Muscle Clean: The Best Way to Teach the Clean to CrossFitters
The sumo deadlift high pull is the Rodney Dangerfield of CrossFit movements - it gets no respect. Far be it from me to tell you anything different. Eff the SDHP. The Muscle Clean: A Better Option Than ... Continue Reading
Circuit Training Doesn’t Get You Fitter
Humans love black and white. We love definitive. We want everything to fit in a box, be on a list, or abide by rules. The problem with all that is the world and our lives are chaotic and ... Continue Reading
Science Finds the Best Way to Calculate Resting Energy Expenditure
Many athletes and coaches estimate their resting energy expenditure so they can better evaluate how many calories they should be consuming daily in order to gain, lose, or maintain weight based on the ... Continue Reading
Rediscover the Lost Art of Breathing for Health and Well-Being
“You can lead a person to a yoga mat, but you cannot make them breathe.” This saying, based on the proverb about horses and water, was written by me and evolved out of one thing I never anticipated I would ... Continue Reading
Sandbag Misconceptions: The Truth About Effective Sandbag Training
Whenever I start speaking about sandbag training, I hear the famous basketball player Allen Iverson’s voice in my head. Why in the world would I hear such a thing? Iverson is famous for answering a ... Continue Reading
You Are Going to Die, So Stop Wasting Time on Facebook
Last month, the fitness world waged an Internet war on itself over the cover of a magazine that featured (I will use a pseudonym here) “The Produce Princess.” I couldn’t believe it. Even some of my ... Continue Reading
