“I made brownies! Here have one.” “Oh, they smell so good! Thank you, but I had a big breakfast and I’m still full.” (A white lie.) “Come on. It’s just a little brownie.” “Really, I appreciate ... Continue Reading
A Vacation’s Worth of Simple, Effective Workouts
So, you’re going on vacation and are stoked about the mental and physical break from the gym. But you also know an entire week of drinking and a lax diet, all the while not getting your heart rate ... Continue Reading
5 Exercises to Improve Your Deadlift
Every gym has at least one of them (OK, more like 10 of them)—the people who want to improve a specific skill or movements so their answer is to practice that skill every single day. I have a ... Continue Reading
Focus on the Principles of Physical Movement
Coaching cues have been a way to treat living, breathing people as machines. To cause someone to move a particular way, we’re taught to give them a specific set of commands to get a reliable outcome. But ... Continue Reading
How to Create a Gym on a Bare-Bones Budget
Let me tell you about a character. A character you’ll find many times over in different independent gyms. This person is passionate, not only about their training but the idea of it. The type of training ... Continue Reading
Whys Are For Beginners
What is your “why?” No other question pops up in the self-improvement world quite so frequently. As all clichés that get beaten to death, there is actually a lot of value in exploring this question. ... Continue Reading
Bulletproof Your Ankles
Just like your poor little forgotten wrists, you probably also pay very little attention to your ankles and feet, unless you have experienced a major foot injury. Yet, ankle mobility could be the number ... Continue Reading
Training Is Data Driven, But Not How You Think
A real training program has to have a few attributes that make it a training program and not an exercise program. The difference is not subtle. Training should be progressive. Training should be ... Continue Reading
Cut Body Fat Using Methodized Strength Training
Occasionally, I pop my head out of my cave to examine where the average level of insight among the general public is in regards to strength and conditioning. I’m not as pessimistic as many of my ... Continue Reading
5 Exercises to a Bulletproof Neck
Whether your neck pain stems from a car accident or other acute injury, a lifetime of bad posture, sleeping on your stomach with a giant pillow, or sitting at a computer with your head tilted forward for ... Continue Reading
Too Damn Hard
I’m suffocating. Somehow air will not fill my lungs. With each gasping attempt at swallowing oxygen it seems less enters. I have this strap wrapped around, no rather a boulder with its enormous size slowly ... Continue Reading
Become a Titan: An Intro to Football Programming
Can you feel it? I do. It’s the sound of giants thundering down the hallway, a team that has slaved together on the field and in the training hall. They are titans. Football is America’s favorite pastime ... Continue Reading
It All Depends on Your Goal
As a personal trainer, I often get asked questions regarding all aspects of fitness. Should I do cardio or lift weights first? How long should I do cardio for? Should I increase the weight or do more reps? ... Continue Reading
Be a Human, Carry a Human
It’s summer—that magical annual cycle that reminds us that there is more to life than punching data into spreadsheets. Engulfed in nostalgia, you leave work early, take long weekends at the lake, and even ... Continue Reading
The Skinny Advantage in Muscle Building
Brad Borland has an impressive resume: a University Lecturer with a Master’s degree in Kinesiology and a Certified Strength and Conditioning Specialist (CSCS) with the National Strength and Conditioning ... Continue Reading
Improve Your Front Rack Position
Does being in the front rack position cause you to make an ugly pain face? Does it feel like one person is breaking your wrists, while another is aggressively pinching your shoulders when you're in ... Continue Reading
The Relationship Between Scars and Mobility
Chances are you probably have a scar somewhere on your body. Anyone can get a scar from just about anything. Perhaps you were goofing around as a child and fell off your bike or maybe you recently took a ... Continue Reading
An Exercise In Stress Management
Training comes down to stress management: it’s my job to determine how much and what kind of stress to apply, and it’s your job to get yourself ready to handle as much stress as possible. ... Continue Reading
Bodybuilding and Olympic Weightlifting Aren’t Mutually Exclusive
"I’m chasing performance, not looks," seemed to be the narrative from the Olympic weightlifting community for a while. There appeared to be no room for time spent on focused, strategic muscle building. I ... Continue Reading
Should You Be Lifting Overhead?
In theory, we all generally embrace the idea of a safety-first motto. But, when it comes to the reality of the gym, so many of us are tempted to say, "Eff you, safety! I want to press overhead. I want ... Continue Reading
Don’t Want to Workout? We’ve Got Just the Plan!
What the fitness industry often forgets is that a lot of people just don’t want to workout. This is hard to swallow for a bunch of former athletes and type A’s who got into physical training because they ... Continue Reading
Loaded Carries Boring? Nah! They’re Essential
We often talk about the importance of four movements: pushing, pulling, squatting, and hinging. All the while forgetting about one very important, albeit less sexy, way we move: Carrying! Oddly, ... Continue Reading
Dieting Versus Lifestyle: Change Ain’t Easy
"I want to lose weight." That’s probably the most common reason people hire me as a fitness coach. Many of them—arguably most of them—have tried every short-term diet in the book: The Whole30, ... Continue Reading
You are the Problem, Not the Fitness Industry
There is a popular, “woke” narrative that the reason more people than ever are obese and in chronically poor health is a failing fitness industry—the fitness industry has failed to save us from ourselves. ... Continue Reading
