Consider the egg—a raw one may have a hard exterior but we all know what happens when the outer shell is compromised. Unless we reinforce the inside first, by cooking it, an egg might look hard and solid ... Continue Reading
Supplements to Make You Stronger
When I was in a band I saw a lot of pills. Not the kind that is going to make you stronger, but some of the people I encountered were very happy to pop at least a handful of them before lunchtime. I had ... Continue Reading
The Soul of an Ultramarathoner
When I first visited Shannon Farar-Griefer's website, I thought it was a typo. Did she really do a 292-mile ultramarathon? Did she run Badwater, one of the toughest foot races in the world, in the middle ... Continue Reading
3 Summer Challenges That Will Shift Your Fitness Approach
Most people’s conceptions of exercise fit in nice tidy boxes—cardio, yoga, strength training, upper body, or lower body, and so on. Categorization is very useful for creating a sense of fitness in a world ... Continue Reading
How to Look After Yourself During Pregnancy
When you are used to training hard it's hard to change your ways when you are pregnant. And do you need to change? Yes, I believe so. The simple fact is that you have a different body when you are ... Continue Reading
The Golden Triangle: The Secret to Human Performance
Okay, it’s truthfully not a secet. It’s something that all of us strength and conditioning coaches have known about for the entirety of our careers. What do I need to do to prepare my athletes for ... Continue Reading
Cyclists Know How to Nail Training and Nutrition Together
I’m Abigail Mickey and I’m a professional cyclist who races around the world for the UnitedHealthcare Professional team. "Exercise gives you endorphins. Endorphins make you happy. Happy people just ... Continue Reading
The Jerk and Aging Elbows: How to Fix Your Lockout
In the sport of weightlifting, the key requirement of a successful lift in competition is to lift the barbell to the full extent of the arms, while under control. As such, the elbows and their associated ... Continue Reading
5 Rules to Deadlift By
The deadlift is a lift that divides a lot of opinions and makes a lot of people nervous. In my article on which deadlift is right for you, I talked about how to pick a deadlift variation that would be best ... Continue Reading
The Relationship Between Powerful Grips and Screen Time Diseases
Researchers at Glasgow University, UK, found that the amount of leisure time spent watching a television or computer screen had almost double the impact on the risk of mortality, cardiovascular disease, ... Continue Reading
Stay Fit and Heart Healthy to Power Your Brain
Researchers from Swinburne's Centre for Human Psychopharmacology write in the Journal of Alzheimer's Disease about the mechanisms underlying cognitive performance in older people living independently and ... Continue Reading
Have a Strength Strategy for Aging Muscles
As you age, you’ll experience changes in your body from slow movement to slow memory retrieval. One of those changes will also include the deterioration of your muscles. You can experience muscle pain and ... Continue Reading
Science Discovers the Beauty of the French Fry
A study in Cell Metabolism supports the idea that foods like french fries hijack our body's inborn signals governing food consumption which could help explain brain-body mechanisms underlying the genetic ... Continue Reading
Embrace Individuality: Find Your Best Lifting Technique
Examine your setup and consider the proportions of your body to find the best technique for you. Examine your setup and consider the proportions of your body to find the best technique for ... Continue Reading
Bathroom Scales, Who’s the Fittest of Them All?
During a recent session, the lovely Jen (let's call her Jen) told me she was almost at her target weight. As we'd been working together for months and I didn't even know she had such a goal, her session ... Continue Reading
Why We Are Drowning In the Western Diet
When I think back to elementary school, few experiences return as vividly as DARE (Drug Abuse Resistance Education), the program of choice for keeping a new generation drug and alcohol-free. As a ... Continue Reading
4 Core Strengthening Exercises You Can Do Anywhere
A strong core will help you look better and improve your performance in fitness, sports and life. A good abdominal or core program is a lot more than crunches. A great deal of your core work should be ... Continue Reading
Time Management 101 is Time Well Spent
Time management is a commonly avoided topic in fitness. For those of us that have school work, a job to hold down to pay for school, and still needing to make sure we stay fit and healthy, it’s not ... Continue Reading
The 3 Key Training Variables to Manipulate for Size
Training for size isn’t as simple as hitting the gym and blasting a muscle group. You need to provide an appropriate signal to the body to force it to adapt. The signal should be of an appropriate ... Continue Reading
3 Ways to Snap Out of Your Mental Prison
Athletes in general are tough. We don’t like to show weakness. Our non-athlete social circles think we are crazy and awe-inspiring. But it’s okay to break, and it’s okay to ask for help. I recently found ... Continue Reading
Banded Nordic Hamstring Exercise: Let’s Build Those Hammies!
I often get asked about my lower body workout programs, because I tend to load the bar and rep out on Romanian deadlifts, a staple of mine, or do crazy Kang squat mix-ups or a reverse pull-through. It all ... Continue Reading
Exercise Can’t Cure Everything
When you think of a personal trainer, what personality traits tend to come to mind? Cheerful, energetic, enthusiastic, right? For some people, the bubbly exterior comes naturally, and they barely have to ... Continue Reading
Running Drills to Cure Heel Striking and Shin Splints
Having poor running technique can be painful and costly. The gadgets and gear to help correct you can be overwhelming, the costs of therapy for issues related to improper running form can be astronomical, ... Continue Reading
Optimal Frequency Training for Hypertrophy
Training frequency is one of the most important variables to consider for hypertrophy. In this instance training frequency relates to how often a given muscle is trained rather than how often you train in ... Continue Reading
