Squat with a barbell on your back? Or position it on the front of your shoulders? Which method should you use for the best results? Well, it depends on your training goal, overall joint ... Continue Reading
A Letter to My Son, the Aspiring Athlete
You love it. All of it. Baseball, football and your truest love, basketball. You are a natural at everything you have done, and even at this young age, you dream of getting a scholarship and playing in ... Continue Reading
From a Hospital Bed to Elite Strength Coach
What are they going to say about you at your funeral? It may seem like an abstract question, but for Brett Bartholomew, it’s one he tries to answer with his actions every single day. Brett has coached ... Continue Reading
Learning from Stress
For many of us, our relationship with stress is a lot like this classic example of something known as the "ironic thought process"—the very act of trying to avoid something seems to manifest it, and the ... Continue Reading
Connecting Diet Soda, Pregnancy, and Obesity in Kids
It's amazing how many studies have discovered the dangers of the chemicals used in diet beverages. From an increase in diabetes to more body fat storage to a higher risk of stroke and dementia, diet ... Continue Reading
How To Hang Clean: The Only 3 Things You Need To Know
Photo by Bev Childress There's propaganda floating around that the hang clean is so crazy-complicated that you probably shouldn't bother with it at all. Many coaches will avoid teaching it, for this ... Continue Reading
Why It’s Important to Define Your Strength Goals
How strong is strong enough? The beauty of this question is that there is no universally correct answer. Your answer is entirely up to you. Obviously, the answer is “as strong as humanly possible” for ... Continue Reading
A New Test for Testicular Cancer?
Testicular cancer is one of the less prevalent forms of cancer among men. Though prostate cancer is #1 on the list, testicular cancer is still a concern—with roughly 5.7 new cases per 100,000 men every ... Continue Reading
The Superfood That is Tea
Tea is one of the superfoods we could all stand to have a bit more often. Green tea, black tea, white tea, and oolong tea all come from the same plant: camellia sinensis. The various methods of harvesting ... Continue Reading
HIIT and Reversing the Damage of Diabetes
Cardiovascular disease is the number one cause of death not just in the U.S., but the world. According to the CDC, roughly 610,000 people die of heart disease every year. That's around 25% of the deaths in ... Continue Reading
Wake Up and Move
What do you do after you first wake up? If you’re like most busy people, you grab your phone and check your email, your calendars, and anything else that will thrust you back into the rat race. If you’re ... Continue Reading
No Such Thing as Extra Time
Justin Lind sits down with Chris White, assistant strength and conditioning coach at Louisiana State University. They delve into his personal coaching philosophy and his passion for learning new techniques ... Continue Reading
Use Mindfulness to Enhance Your Yoga Experience
Yoga can be a beautiful experience that can significantly enrich the life of the participant within the first asana they perform. The peace of mind and serenity that yoga can bring allows the user to ... Continue Reading
Stretching Doesn’t Work (the Way You Think It Does)
Does stretching make you more flexible? I know the obvious answer to this question, based on what we’ve all been told about the merits of stretching, is, “Duh! Yes!” But it turns out that might not be the ... Continue Reading
When Too Much Choice Is Bad for Your Training
Photos courtesy of Bev Childress At Breaking Muscle, we have some great authors discussing many programming ideas and fundamentals of training. For the beginner to the seasoned athlete, all of these ... Continue Reading
Twisted Carrots and Dynamite Beets: How Words Change Perceptions
What sounds better: a baked potato or a loaded potato feast? If you're anything like me, you're definitely more prone to picking that last option. Something about the more dynamic, descriptive wording ... Continue Reading
The RAIL System: Shoulder Mobility for the Bench Press
Bench pressing is not a just chest exercise. There is no break in living matter. There are no empty spaces between tissue layers and body parts. When you lie down on the bench to move that weight, the ... Continue Reading
The Fittest Mom on Earth
Val Voboril is a perennial fan favorite at the CrossFit Games, and it’s not hard to see why. Her trademark perpetual smile and indomitable attitude seem to defy even the most grueling workouts. In a sport ... Continue Reading
How a Torn ACL Changed My Life
Picture this: It’s December, 2013. It’s the first real snow of the season; dust on crust really, less than an inch. I’m out for the first time on my brand-new twin tips. The first couple of turns I make ... Continue Reading
Finding the Synergistic Combination of Exercise and Nutritional Intervention Isn’t Easy
We've all heard it said that abs are made in the kitchen. This is intended to mean that a balanced, calorie-moderated diet has a greater effect on weight loss and fat burning than the exercise you do. But ... Continue Reading
How Do You Measure Success?
(Source: Bev Childress) Setting goals and assessing your performance against them are common practices in both the physical training and personal development communities. Both are worth exploring for ... Continue Reading
Chest Strap vs Wristband Heart Rate Monitors
Fitness trackers are all the rage these days. Everyone seems to be wearing one—from an Apple watch, to a FitBit, to a Polar GPS watch, or simply an app on a smartphone. You can't walk into a gym, yoga ... Continue Reading
The Forgotten Joint: Wrist Mobility and Strength
The wrist, like any joint, requires a certain amount of motion in order to properly function. A lack of mobility and strength in it can increase your risk for injury. Let’s be real though, the wrist is ... Continue Reading
The Tao of Bodyweight: Seeking Perspective and Mindful Movement
Even with the resurgence of functional fitness over the past decade, there seems to be an arms race when it comes to equipment. Where many CrossFit boxes ten years ago were aggressively minimalist, today ... Continue Reading
