The Games of the XXXI Olympiad are now over. The athletes have all gone home, and many are enjoying the transition period of their periodization cycles. A significant number of others who retired after the ... Continue Reading
Why Commitment Is More Important Than Motivation
I’m with Bob Geldof and The Boomtown Rats: I don’t like Mondays either. It’s not because I hate my job. I consider myself fortunate enough to love what I do. It’s because I know my social media timeline ... Continue Reading
The Old School Patron Saints of Iron: Part 2
What follows is a fictionalized “docu-drama,” a mostly fact, partly fiction recollection of a day in the life of two immortal iron athletes: Reg Park and Marvin Eder. The rationale behind this is to show ... Continue Reading
Inside-Out-Health Before Fitness
Like most trainers, I sit down with people to discuss their goals and their motivation to “change” before I take them on as a client. I also ask them to complete an exercise history and health ... Continue Reading
Two Kettlebell Exercises to Crack the Strength Code
I was 12 years old when I first stepped into a weight room. From that day forward, I wanted to get big, strong, and build bulky muscles. A big chest, big arms, and 6-pack abs - if you had those qualities, ... Continue Reading
The Fall Training Guide for Every Athlete
Summer is a time for going to the beach, taking vacations, drinking beer, having cookouts, and shorter work weeks… And let's face it, maybe even shortened or skipped workout sessions. Some of us ... Continue Reading
Sandbag Training for Women
Considering we as women reach our maximum bone density at age 30 and begin to decline afterwards, you would think that strength training would be more of a central focus for us, especially because we are ... Continue Reading
A Few Thoughts at Olympic Halftime
Well, even halfway through the Rio de Janeiro Olympic Games, there was plenty to catch up on. In my last entry on these pages, I mentioned the athletes that Canada, the USA, and Great Britain would be ... Continue Reading
The Right Way to Add Rowing to Your Training Regime
Everyone should row. And everyone can row. This is a fact my boat club's champions beautifully demonstrate. The members of Molesey Boat Club stretch from 14 to 84, and their fastest rowers stand top of ... Continue Reading
The Epidemic of Fairness
Youth sports and academics across the country are experiencing an epidemic that is systematically lowering the bar of expected performance. Parents, teachers, and coaches have always been berated with ... Continue Reading
The Old School Patron Saints of Iron: Part 1
In the golden pre steroid era, men made spectacular gains using primitive equipment, primitive methods, and regular food. Nowadays we are plagued with the curse of too many choices. We suffer from ... Continue Reading
Simple Does Not Mean Ineffective
If you are a powerlifter, a competitive Olympic lifter or a CrossFit Games competitor, you have my permission to stop reading. But, if you are like all the rest us- you know, folks who want to be strong, ... Continue Reading
The 5 Pillars of Athletic Training
The world of strength and conditioning advice is full of impossible promises and complicated programs and methods. Every athlete presents a unique challenge and every coach will create their program with a ... Continue Reading
A Practical Guide to Training Intensity
This article was co-authored by Dominic dos Remedios. If you’re hardcore about your training, you’ll be familiar with the concept of pushing yourself relentlessly and having feelings of guilt if you ... Continue Reading
How Breast Augmentation Nearly Left Me Crippled
When I was in my mid-twenties, I had a breast augmentation. Several years later, my breast augmentation left me literally crippled in a wheelchair. My body has healed since having the implants removed. I ... Continue Reading
The Kettlebell Snatch: A Simple Tool for Complex Benefits
It's been thirteen years since I did my first RKC (Russian Kettlebell Certification). I wasn’t completely sold on the idea of kettlebells at first, mostly because I was looking at the individual exercises ... Continue Reading
Fat Loss Considerations for Females
For all the women reading this, you might have noticed over the years both you and fellow members of the fairer sex find it more difficult to lose fat over a sustained period of time than your male ... Continue Reading
The Case for Competition in Youth Sports
By far the most popular spectator sport in America is football. No other sport even comes close. The juggernaut of football is an impenetrable fortress that will forever represent itself as America’s ... Continue Reading
The Truth About Women’s Training, Part 2
Make sure to read part one The Truth About Women's Training first. One of the things I see in training nowadays is more women getting out there. And by out there I mean outdoors. I think it’s great when ... Continue Reading
Why Better Than Average Isn’t Good Enough for Me
People can be remarkably bold when they begin to notice you are changing your life. And by bold, I mean downright rude. Some people seem to have lost the ability to give an honest compliment, without ... Continue Reading
Prep Your Joints for Muscle Ups
Let’s face it: the muscle up is one hell of a cool skill. And beyond the cool factor you can use it to develop a powerful base of upper-body strength. But too many people rush headlong in pursuit of ... Continue Reading
Beauty in Strength: The Rise of the Strongwoman Athlete
“Strongman? But you’re not a MAN!” This is a common response I receive when explaining that I am a strongman athlete. While fighting off the urge to roll my eyes, I smile and explain that despite ... Continue Reading
The Ultimate Workout Playlist
Music is like a legal drug for athletes. Music is like a legal drug for athletes. Those are the words of Costas Karageorghis, Ph.D., from London’s Brunel University School of Sport and ... Continue Reading
Why Most Speed and Agility Training Protocols Suck
Social media seems to be awash with thirty second video clips of athletes (I use the term loosely; normally the guy behind the video camera’s pal) and their coaches (again, I use the term loosely; ... Continue Reading
