I love learning about and working with my body in magical, mysterious ways. Ways that I cannot logically explain. Sometimes I stumble to explain what I connect with and feel. Sometimes messages come across ... Continue Reading
How to Care for Your Hair While Training Brazilian Jiu Jitsu
When I was growing up, I was obsessed with my hair. I didn’t know how to style it properly, but I was convinced that when I learned the latest trick or had the latest styling tool or product, I would be ... Continue Reading
Dear Video Judges: This Is Why We Can’t Have Nice Things
This is in no way meant to criticize a young lady by the name of Denisse Tame from CrossFit Alpha in the Latin American Region. She’s a fine athlete I am sure, and a nice person. But Denise had the ... Continue Reading
Go Big or Don’t Bother: 3 Steps to Fulfilling Lifelong Dreams
Back when I was finishing high school there was a Saturday afternoon sports show called Wide World of Sports. As an Australian show, it was filled for the most part with stuff I had no interest in like ... Continue Reading
How to Learn From Both Success and Failure
“We learn from failure, not from success!” Although these words presented in Bram Stoker’s classic novel Dracula seem to be common knowledge, success and failure may be more closely linked. Thus, can we ... Continue Reading
Breaking Down the Headstand or Handstand Push Up, Part 1: The Handstand
Many are curious as to where to start on handstand push up, which is more accurately called a headstand push up in gymnastics, by the way. I mean, you are pushing up in order to lift off your head, right? ... Continue Reading
Why Does the Front of My Shoulder Hurt?
The shoulder is a complicated joint. Where most other joints are basically a single bone fitting into another bone, the shoulder is a complex interplay between your humerus, clavicle, and scapula. Your ... Continue Reading
The Science of BJJ: How Grappling Makes Its Own Natural Laws
Non-grapplers tend to argue that Brazilian jiu jitsu players live in their own world, and if you think about it a bit creatively, you can see how true this is, even from the perspective of scientific, ... Continue Reading
Coaching Education Approaches: Some Thoughts on the Instruction of Weightlifting
Having been a lifelong follower of American weightlifting, I think I can safely say that interest in the sport is currently at an all-time high. Due to the years of efforts by factions within the NSCA and ... Continue Reading
Why Stretching and Warming Up Are Not the Same
Stretching and warming up are not the same thing. People thinking that stretching is a warm up is a common mistake. But this is not the reality, and in fact, stretching before an activity is not doing much ... Continue Reading
The Origins and Application of the Max Effort Black Box Concept
Back in 2002 I was one year into altering my professional path. I had struggled in a 100% one-on-one private training model and decided to move some of my focus to group training. One day while surfing ... Continue Reading
Just Call Me Hofer McTwisty (Journal Entry 4)
Athlete Journal, Entry 4 - 3/23/2014 March 6th: Swings x100 - 40kg Turkish Get Up x5 - 40kg March 7th: 100 Pull Ups for time - 18:37 20 sets of 5 reps Front Squats ... Continue Reading
Tournament Season Begins (Athlete Journal Entry 25)
The Goodfight didn’t go as well as I had hoped. I was confident leading up to the tournament, but it didn’t turn out in my favor. It didn’t ruin my day, though. I had a lot of fun running around coaching ... Continue Reading
Training Activities for Athletes: Skill Training Research and How to Apply It, Part 3
In the previous installment in my series on the logical steps to determining the value of a physical training program, I addressed the basic fundamentals on what qualifies an activity as strength training, ... Continue Reading
9 Sets of Strength Training Mistakes and How to Avoid Them
Mistakes are an inevitable fact of life and strength training. But what if you could just learn from those who have been there, done that, and clawed their way out? Here are nine articles to pass you the ... Continue Reading
Weekly Volume: 70,515 lbs (Athlete Journal Entry 82)
Athlete Journal Entry 82: Weekly Volume And Noteworthy Lifts: Volume: 70,515 lbs (Last Week: 52,966 lbs) Deadlift 315 (20x1) in 8 minutes Bench Press 225x3 Back Extension ... Continue Reading
Core Training, Chicken Legs, and Cannons: 12 Articles by Tom Kelso
The Core During the Overhead Press (And Other Core-Related Shenanigans) An examination of core muscles and their activation during the overhead press. Plus some analysis of the general shenanigans ... Continue Reading
3 Unhealthy Habits of Police and Fire Shift Work (and How to Break Them)
“I don’t have any time.” “I’m too tired after work to workout.” “I can never get on a consistent schedule.” We’ve all heard these excuses for not going to the gym. At some point, as members of ... Continue Reading
How to Calculate Your Training and Recovery Balance Sheet
One of the main problems with running injuries is that they rarely are a result of a catastrophic event. They usually result from running out of the capacity to withstand injury. I first learned of this ... Continue Reading
The Athlete’s Altered State (Athlete Journal Entry 15)
“Exceptional athletes are people that get off on that altered state. They love to be in that position where everything works really well. And that’s why you have people who will beat themselves to death ... Continue Reading
Weekly Work-In: Week 4 – How to Support the Energetic Body
Last week, we focused on reviewing the five-body approach to personal well-being. Hopefully, you discovered where you are already dedicating energy and where you need to spend more time, energy, and effort ... Continue Reading
Got Vertical? How to Measure for Explosive Strength
Veteran weightlifters have spent much of their lives listening to the old stories about how the weights supposedly make athletes slow and uncoordinated. Well, this has been refuted many times in the public ... Continue Reading
Xenon Wins Gold Medals – Is It The New Blood-Doping?
In the aftermath of the Sochi Winter Olympics, there was a stir across the news networks. It surrounded the use of the noble gas xenon as a potential performance-boosting agent in Russian cross-country ... Continue Reading
Tips For Cultivating a Positive Body Image for Your Female Clients
The topic of body image and embracement is incredibly difficult for many women. Much of these body image issues stem from traditional mass media (i.e. television, movies, and magazines) and advertising ... Continue Reading
