I remember when I was a little kid I spent a lot of time putting together jigsaw puzzles with my family. On one particular occasion I remember we were right near the end of a five thousand piece puzzle and ... Continue Reading
Are You Doing the Outside Work to Get the Inside Body You Want?
Think about this concept: The “inside" of your body - your muscle and adipose (fat) tissues, your lungs and the cardiovascular system, and your joint-stabilizing ligaments and muscle-attaching tendons - is ... Continue Reading
Stop Sucking and Train More
You know what makes the best so damn good? It’s the hours and hours of endless practice they put into their respective sports. Whether it’s Olympic lifting, running, swimming, or archery, the telling ... Continue Reading
The Training Reality Check: The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly
Clint Eastwood rocked it in the 1966 film The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly. That flick was entertaining and worthy of viewing again. But we are talking about physical training here, not cinema gems of the ... Continue Reading
Science Says You Get Better Results With a Coach
Do you have a coach who supervises your training? If not, then you should get one, because research shows that athletes make significantly greater gains with a coached training program versus going it ... Continue Reading
Why You Should Stop and Go Home After Hitting a PR
The fitness world is an odd place to spend any length of time. Back in the 1990s you were an odd ball if you didn’t want to look like a competitive bodybuilder. These days if you’re not training to be an ... Continue Reading
Taking a New Perspective On Your Training
I’ve had many epiphanies over the years. Not to use a possibly tired term haphazardly, but a few of these epiphanies have even led to paradigm shifts for me. As a coach, this has happened to me as well. In ... Continue Reading
Your Workouts: Balancing Your Plan vs. How You Feel
About a month ago, I was nearing the end of a planned training cycle. I was training very hard for a judo tournament, and after eight weeks, my metal game was shot. Between the stress of my job, family ... Continue Reading
6 Tips for Getting the Most Out of Your Private Lesson
In grappling, weightlifting, and many other athletic endeavors, you can derive great benefit from a group class. Feedback, support, slightly different approaches to a given movement or technique, and, in ... Continue Reading
Cross Training Doesn’t Work
I hate to break it to you but cross training doesn’t work. It’s painful to admit to yourself but it’s true. First, some history. Back in the early days of sport science coaches noticed that athletes ... Continue Reading
Use the Hammer for the Nails: How to Choose Your Training Tools
Every now and then something so blindingly obvious leaps into my head and is so startlingly clear that I am amazed I never thought of it before: If you were building a house you’d use a hammer for ... Continue Reading
Patience Is a (Training) Virtue
One of the best training analogies I’ve ever read is by Mike Boyle. He said training is like farming. You do all these things today that you can’t see producing a result in the hope of a future payoff. You ... Continue Reading
Consistent Goals, Evolving Headspace: Interview with Wellness Expert Krista Scott-Dixon, Part 2
In part one of my interview with Krista Scott-Dixon, Krista discussed her definitions of health and fitness. In part two, she discusses the development over time of some of her beliefs and projects, and ... Continue Reading
Filtering Fitness: How to Find the Truth When Reading About Training
I remember when I first became interested in weight training. I was thirteen and I had just watched Conan the Barbarian. This was the mid-80s and all of a sudden muscled-up action stars were everywhere – ... Continue Reading
Linear vs. Nonlinear Periodization: Which Is Better for Strength and Hypertrophy?
There are many styles of resistance training that are utilized today, and periodization has been a popular method applied to resistance training since the 1950s. Periodization is an organization of ... Continue Reading
The Hidden Costs of Pursuing a Passion
I make a lot of jokes. Most of them bad. Many of them repeated ad nauseam, if you have known me for any length of time. One of them is that Brazilian jiu jitsu is a demanding mistress, that it requires ... Continue Reading
Train Hard and Go Easy – Balancing Work, Rest and Play
Until fairly recently, "More is better" was my training mantra. But low-grade injuries and a thyroid-adrenal meltdown forced me to reconsider. I wasn’t always a training go-getter. I started out as ... Continue Reading
Gymhacker: 5 Steps to Learn a New Exercise Faster Than Anyone Else
Great - you read fitness blogs. It’s unfortunate, but you’re already more knowledgeable than most people in your gym. Give yourself a pat on the back, but know that simply reading the blog isn’t going to ... Continue Reading
Eating Placenta And Other Healthy Habits You Should Avoid
Life is clearly a joke. As evidence, a new study from the University of Buffalo adds credence to the idea eating placenta could be good for you. Yes. You read that correctly. But don't worry, I'm ... Continue Reading
When You Hurt a Training Partner
Brazilian jiu-jitsu is a martial art; it contains elements of combat and self defense. Most people practice it in a sport context, but at its heart, it is about protecting yourself and, if necessary, doing ... Continue Reading
Athlete Journal: Valerie Worthington, Entry 1 – Off to an Inauspicious Start
EDITOR'S NOTE: Welcome to the Athlete Journal of world-class grappler Valerie Worthington. Follow Valerie as she trains and competes in various events over the Brazilian Jiu Jitsu competition season. ... Continue Reading
3 Functional Reasons to Do Isolation Movements
Ian King once said to me, “When a new training paradigm comes along people will overreact in the short term and underreact in the long term.” I’ve been around the fitness industry for long enough to ... Continue Reading
3 Strength & Conditioning Workouts for Kettlebells
Designing your own workouts can be quite a challenge. Even the most experienced exerciser who has a clear understanding of how to properly execute a variety of exercises can struggle with laying out a ... Continue Reading
How to Switch BJJ Schools and Not Be a Creonte
Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu is unlike other forms of exercise in multiple ways. One of the most significant is in the bonds practitioners create with each other through their training. Grapplers become part of a ... Continue Reading
