I recall heading into this year like a proverbial bull in a china shop. I was prepared for a fantastic and productive 2020. It was a sound plan until it was not. So, now what?
Is the bar even with your shoulders to optimize the pulling distance? Or is the bar pulling you forward? Are you keeping your head up? Are you holding your air while pressing your belly into the belt?
Based on my brief observations of the garage training crew (and conversations with my son), these are a few of their Keys to Progress. These macro components (“the Keys”) have contributed to their above-average gains in size and strength.
“Well, Lifetime Fitness is closed for now. They are freezing memberships – I am getting bloated as hell. I was wondering if you wanted some company in the garage gym and (long pause) maybe I could come and train with you a couple times?”
Ricardo Garcia had a problem. He had agreed to kill someone. Garcia accepted the money. He promised to do the job and took the money – an advance payment, from Jimmy Luciano of all people, “Chainsaw” Jimmy Luciano.
I quizzed Mitch to uncover some of the keys to his transition from a resistance training focus to a largely conditioning focus – from a max bodyweight of 235 to a lean bodyweight of 165.
For those of you required to travel by air frequently, if you have had difficulties with the Transportation Security Administration, you might enjoy this read. Just remember this: lacrosse sticks are NOT allowed in carry-on bags when flying.
Your 2020 goals won’t be achieved in a day. It takes time to build new habits and make lasting changes. See how 75HARD made a difference in Erik Eggers’ goal execution.
Habits can be a double-edged sword that work against you, particularly in training. Attending elitefts’ LTT3 Seminar catalyzed the habits I needed to break to push past my training plateaus.
If you’re a heavier trainee, chin-ups are difficult… but not impossible. Case in point: I’m nearly 50 years old and weigh 245 pounds, but I do chin-ups for volume rather than output. Here lies the secret to my chin-up success.
I introduced my daughter to resistance training a couple of years ago. This August, we ramped up the training with two weekly sessions and speed training. This article details some excerpts from the resistance training portion of our program.
I wrote an article about planning to achieve athletic success, and the classroom path is no difference. By following the same (or similar) principles, students can achieve academic success as well. If you want to avoid a terrible GPA, please read onward.
“Buy nice; don’t buy twice.” That saying might apply to elitefts equipment, but it might also apply to running shoes when it comes to doing cardio… Any suggestions for replacing a 27-year-old pair of sneakers?
One elitefts article is changing my life, and it was a completely unexpected article! Thanks to Matt Ladewski’s “4 Non-Training Podcasts you Should Listen To,” I’m a third of the way done with a 75-day challenge. It’s taught me a lot about myself and my habits, both good and bad.
My son sent a text last week — just a video of him deadlifting in our garage gyms. We discussed one of the mistakes we discovered he was making at the start of the pull. It was our discussion that influenced this article.
I recently reconnected with an old client: Don Cherry, whom I first met as a 16-year-old football player. Over the last several years, I’ve been lucky to watch that kid I trained in the belly of the Beast become a college and NFL football player and most recently, one of the voices behind a great podcast.
I had the pleasure of hearing Earvin “Magic” Johnson speak at a leadership conference I attended. Magic discussed his experiences in business and basketball and his pervasive passion for winning, regardless of the endeavor, much like elitefts’ approach.
As we rapidly move into mid-January, here are My 5 for 2019—not resolutions necessarily, but aspects of life to consider.
She was my aunt, and I accepted her explanation as fact. I can’t say for sure that I didn’t cry myself to sleep the next time those pains struck, but I know there was at least a part of me that experienced a sense of pride.
Listen to Survivor’s Eye of the Tiger (or if you are under 30, Hearts on Fire by John Cafferty & the Beaver Brown Band) while reading.
In response to some unusual elbow tenderness, I recently gravitated back to the incline dumbbell press — an exercise with tremendous benefits that I had not performed in a long time.
The garage gym is getting a lot of use as of late, I am happy to say. It is frequently rumbling with young athletes who remind me of an important fact of the early training years.
Because an athlete’s focus is sports performance, they may be less concerned with consistency in strength training, or they may harbor a false belief that having great technique during weight training is relatively unimportant. Change this.
Never underestimate the ability of healthy competition to fan the flames of the training spirit — even for something as small as forearm size.
Content is king for big media. BIGHORN was a fun trip down memory lane, but now I have another foray into fictional content in mind.
This is the washed-up meathead’s guide to the digital currency taking the financial markets by storm, with a little bit of added wisdom on training.
Thinking back to these two activities and my time in college, I find myself wondering if the concept of working in with strangers is a concept lost on today’s youth.
For both trainer and trainee, the service is most valuable when the terms are mutually beneficial and serve the aims of both parties. There’s only one circumstance for me that I’ve found no compensation is sustainable.
Here are several reasons free weight training coupled with a real gym can be a superior alternative for a female trainee.
My thirteen-year-old daughter recently started a single weekly session, supplemented with interval running and sports specific training exercises. This is how she’s training for lacrosse.
During the second double of a floor press training session, his pec tears. The bar crashes to the safety pins, inches above his face. For at least the twentieth time, the Collegiate Power Rack saves his ass.
It’s interesting — as strength coaches, we constantly talk about the need for good programming and consistency, but having flexibility is undoubtedly a key component.
What can I say? Learn from my hard lessons. Make sure your spotters are aware of the intent BEFORE the set.
I’ve seen some folks with clients that can’t execute a proper pull start adding these additional implements, and it’s insanity.
This article is for the grizzled veterans who are now getting up in years. If you’ve fallen off the exercise wagon here are seven easy tips to get your training back on course.
We’ve lost a couple of good ones along this journey. We may lose a few more too.
Alex adjusted the military-grade Golight, which nested on a short pedestal atop the vehicle. It cut through the darkness with razor precision illuminating the monsters.
I wasn’t sure what to do. I couldn’t hit the Bighorn with the sledgehammer without tearing Jon’s ribs apart.
Watching the hydraulic door slowly lower itself closed had felt like an eternity. We wouldn’t last long if a couple of those things followed us inside.
It was hard to expunge Jeff’s screams from my mind—and the blood; so much blood sprayed over the Prowler he’d been pushing…
When the tall, piper-cleaner thin baseball player showed up, I didn’t think he’d last long. I was wrong.
This article is not about atlas stones. It’s about work and the ingenuity to use all your resources to get the job done.
As a father raising a young girl, I have seen the importance of empowering the next generation of women. Here are my recommendations.
Although the singles dating scene seems exciting, especially to a married old codger like me, my experiment with singles is of a completely different variety.
In a downward slump, my training has started to look up. I attribute this to one simple programming tactic.
Learning to connect with and effectively motivate your athletes can go a long way. Choose your words wisely.
In honor of Tarantino’s most recent big-screen release, I’ve decided to release my own Hateful Eight: the eight exercises and training modalities that make me shudder with anxiety, angst, and downright hatred.
Pull back, be patient, and wait for the right time. There are many times I should have taken this advice.
Young athletes and parents of young athletes, listen up. There’s no powder or program to take you from Pee-wee Herman to Phil Heath overnight.
Has an injury or your busy life schedule kept you away from the gym? Proceed with caution.
My son baseball’s schedule has kept me away from the gym and forced me to come up with creative ways to keep training.
With young athletes, the key to using a group training protocol to fuel PRs is understanding the psychology of friendly competition.
How can one adequately explain the significance of the Renaissance Man that is Joe Rogan and his dynamic podcast?
Mike Tyson, Ronda Rousey, and the 1990 UNLV Rebels—what did they have in common? They knew how to win before the match even started.
Worked well for Cain, not so well for Abel.