Optimal Arousal in Powerlifting
Optimal Arousal in Powerlifting

Ever step onto the platform with raging, psyched up adrenaline coursing through your veins…but you end up missing the lift?

Be Willing to Feel Pain
Be Willing to Feel Pain

This is certainly anti-quit training. Learning to be uncomfortable and not stop or run away is priceless in hard training.

10 Ways to Develop Mental Toughness in Young Athletes
10 Ways to Develop Mental Toughness in Young Athletes

This article is not a guide to running your kids into the ground because, you know, “mental toughness.” If that’s what you’re looking for, I suggest you find a different career field.

The Role of Mental Toughness in Sport Performance
The Role of Mental Toughness in Sport Performance

I decided to finish the series with what I consider to be the remaining badly misused concepts. The previous one was discipline, and now, the worst of all: mental toughness.

Mental Considerations for Bodybuilding
Mental Considerations for Bodybuilding

Hear me on this one. If you’re running from your past or managing it in secrecy, bodybuilding isn’t the answer.

The Bench Press Comeback
The Bench Press Comeback

Tear after tear, I was seriously never benching again—it’s just not for me, blah blah blah, excuses, excuses. I had injured myself so many times, but I couldn’t let that stop me.

Who Defines You?
Who Defines You?

In this interview with Mark Dugdale, we discuss the mental side of training and competing, along with the various challenges that we meet when life, training, family, work, and all of the other areas of our lives intersect.

What Is Strength?
What Is Strength?

Mental strength and physical strength are two necessary components for a healthy, happy life of abundance, but you have to get uncomfortable to start building them.

S&C Programming Considerations for College Football Freshmen
S&C Programming Considerations for College Football Freshmen

What we all want is to set our freshmen up for success for the future. How we go about it isn’t about ego and “our system” or anything like that; it’s about taking the time to put thought into what you’re doing and what will be the best for them.

What Is Focus?
What Is Focus?

If you don’t know what it is, you can’t focus.

Weight Room Lessons from Former Athletes
Weight Room Lessons from Former Athletes

After writing about the importance of getting to know your athletes, I decided to take a real look at whether or not I’ve had an impact. I contacted two of my former athletes and asked them to tell me what they learned in the weight room.

Programming for Athletes — The Youth Athlete: Grades 1-3, Ages 6-9
Programming for Athletes — The Youth Athlete: Grades 1-3, Ages 6-9

Programming for this age must be based on the understanding that most speed and strength gains in young athletes are due to motor learning, improved motor coordination, and nervous system development/adaptation.

Killer Mentality
Killer Mentality

Killer mentality means doing whatever it takes to be your very best and being willing to put it all on the line when the time comes. You have to be able to block out all negativity and draw in all positivity.

All Together Now — The Psychologist
All Together Now — The Psychologist

Today we will look into sports psychology. While the coach and the nutritionist are pushed into multi and interdisciplinarity even when there is not a proper structure for it, the same doesn’t happen with the sports psychologist.

WATCH: Table Talk with Nate Harvey — Why Do Football Players Run Long Sprints in Practice?
WATCH: Table Talk with Nate Harvey — Why Do Football Players Run Long Sp...

The easy answer is that it builds mental toughness. The strength and conditioning answer, however, involves understanding the differences between lactic acid, glycolytic, and oxidative work.

Confidence — What Separates the Elite from the Novice
Confidence — What Separates the Elite from the Novice

Where is your confidence and what are you willing to do to strengthen it?

Depression Answers for Athletes
Depression Answers for Athletes

I can only imagine from my personal experience with depression how athletes like Dave Mirra reach the point of tragedy.

Recognize Your Weaknesses and Limitations
Recognize Your Weaknesses and Limitations

This could be the simple rule to great strength — are you following it?

Conditioning for the Gridiron Warrior
Conditioning for the Gridiron Warrior

What good is that 500-pound squat if you’re taking a knee in the fourth quarter desperately gasping for air?

Third Time’s a Charm or Three Strikes You're Out?
Third Time’s a Charm or Three Strikes You're Out?

After two heart surgeries, I was starting to recover. I was making progress. That’s when my cardiologist called with more bad news.

The 3 Steps of Practicing Visualization
The 3 Steps of Practicing Visualization

Surpass your mental blocks and improve your technique by putting your mind in a better place with Cook’s Model of Concentration.

The Mental Games: Are You Winning or Losing?
The Mental Games: Are You Winning or Losing?

I’ve lost, I’ve won, and now I’m tied with adversity. I refuse to the lose the next round.

Managing the Social Aspect of Change
Managing the Social Aspect of Change

Your health and fitness goals will require many sacrifices. Here’s how to ensure you don’t lose the things that truly matter.

Your Actions Are Your Lifeline
Your Actions Are Your Lifeline

Perfect circumstances are created, not found. How are you living out your words?

Distraction Control As A Performance Enhancer
Distraction Control As A Performance Enhancer

Master this skill to ensure you don’t let a lack of mental presence hinder your competitive performance.

4 Essential Qualities of A Badass Wrestler
4 Essential Qualities of A Badass Wrestler

If you want to be elite in this sport, there are distinct qualities you must possess. This is my guide to identifying and training those traits.

Are You Emotionally Strong?
Are You Emotionally Strong?
15 Things That Emotionally Strong People Don’t Do
Brian Cain's 5 Ps of Peak Performance and Mental Toughness
Brian Cain's 5 Ps of Peak Performance and Mental Toughness
Five things every coach or athlete can use to increase performance and enhance mental toughness
5 Mental Strategies To PR at Your Next Competition
5 Mental Strategies To PR at Your Next Competition

You’ve spent weeks preparing your body for the meet, don’t let your mind hold you back.

The Courage of Introspection
The Courage of Introspection

Why do we act like the depth of our squat is more important than the depth of our character?

Five Ways to Build Mental Toughness
Five Ways to Build Mental Toughness

Bulletproof your mind. Bulletproof your back. Hell, bulletproof everything.

You're Injured—Now What?
You're Injured—Now What?

Get back in the gym with these simple fixes.

Cerebral Smackdown
Cerebral Smackdown

Hardwire your brain for success with these three no-bullshit techniques.

The Turn-Around
The Turn-Around

Struggling in life? Let the iron wake you up.

Redemption
Redemption

Chose your pain, discipline, or regret. Suffer moving forward, suffer looking backward.

Being Strong
Being Strong

The truly strong man knows when he just isn’t strong enough anymore.

Tuggin’ Tips: Advice on Deadlifts that Changed My Life
Tuggin’ Tips: Advice on Deadlifts that Changed My Life

Few things in life mimic the feeling of a new deadlift PR.

Mental Imagery for Training
Mental Imagery for Training

To be successful, you must be determined. You must imagine yourself succeeding.

On Failure
On Failure

Your attitude and approach to life will determine your successes and failures… and what you learn from them.

The Blue-Collar Lifter
The Blue-Collar Lifter

Working long hours, taking care of the kids, and training at a commercial gym whenever you can squeeze it in? Yeah, you might be a blue-collar lifter. But busy or not, nothing keeps you from the iron.

Six New Uses for the Prowler®
Six New Uses for the Prowler®

If you are like most, you have a Love-Hate relationship with the Prowler®. However, if you are only using it to work up a case of the Prowler® flu, you are missing out on these other great uses. (Plus, you may even get to keep your breakfast).

Mental Aspect of Olympic Weightlifting
Mental Aspect of Olympic Weightlifting

I was known around my gym and by other area lifters as the guy who hit himself, headbutted objects, and always had plenty of ammonia on hand.

Visualizing a Lift: Part 2, Ritual Reinforcement
Visualizing a Lift: Part 2, Ritual Reinforcement

This is your only chance; how do you want this set to go down?

A Case for Bullying
A Case for Bullying

On behalf of the victims of bullying, I’d like to present my story.

The Manifesto of Supervillainy
The Manifesto of Supervillainy

Whenever people question me about my religion, political policies, moral code, business ethics, training program, or any other topic that seeks to classify me in some way, I always reply, “supervillainy.”

The Other Side of Things
The Other Side of Things

That night, the doctors in the emergency room told me that I was looking at six months, if I was lucky, to be ‘functional’ again.

The Wannabe, Part Two
The Wannabe, Part Two

How you use your “down time” in 2012 will determine if you stay a wannabe or if you become the success you want to be.

The Newbie: Let There Be Pain
The Newbie: Let There Be Pain

My hands remind me of the steel, the calluses half torn from last night’s deadlift and a sore upper back telling me that those reps were just right.

Combinatory Training
Combinatory Training

I find that one of the most overlooked factors by strength coaches is the mental engagement of the trainee.

Improving Your Self-Discipline with Your Training
Improving Your Self-Discipline with Your Training

The most important factor for success isn’t strength, motivation, or hard work—it’s discipline.

The Psychology of Strength: Incorporating Mental Toughness Training
The Psychology of Strength: Incorporating Mental Toughness Training

I finally knew what was missing in my twenty years of training—the mental aspect.

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