WATCH: Mark Uyeyama SPS Presentation — The Progression of Strength and C...
Becoming more knowledgable as a coach means learning the right things and not wasting your time on the wrong ones. The challenge in today’s industry is knowing how to tell the difference.
WATCH: The Strength Coach Development Center — Deadlift Progression
One of the best movements to build strength but also one of the hardest to teach for many coaches is the deadlift. It’s worth your time to learn correctly.
Accessory and Supplemental Does Not Equal Unimportant
I see many lifters lack the mind-body connection needed for getting the most out of accessory or supplemental work. Without it, you’re just going through the motions and wasting your time.
Who Are You — From Assistant to Head Coach
In the realm of strength and conditioning, you are always selling yourself to administrators, athletic directors, sport coaches, your boss, athletes, recruits, and everyone else around you. Will they like what they see?
The Squat and Athletic Development: How We Have All Been F*cking It Up —...
This subject has caused heated debates among close friends, but in the end, the undeniable logic of the facts wins out. It’s time to redefine squatting by looking at ankle flexion, stance, and knee flexion.
Customize the Perfect Intra-Workout Shake
The intra-workout shake exists as a valuable a tool that you can use to your benefit when you have all your other ducks in a row. Design it to specifically fit your needs and you’ll see even greater benefits.
Utility of the Overhead Press
Looking at lats, thoracic mobility, and the ribcage during an overhead exercise can tell you a lot about a person’s pattern, position, and movement quality.
Q&A: Boost Testosterone Levels Naturally with the Correct Nutrition ...
The sample nutrition plan and strategies included in this article can be used by any average lifter to naturally optimize testosterone levels.
Conjugate Programming for the General Population
I have developed a conjugate program template that efficiently covers the most important bases for training the general box programming population.
Competitors: Not the Wrong Advice
Didn’t place? Only made last call-out? No problem — just blame your prep coach.
WATCH: Table Talk with Swede Burns and JP Carroll — Trusting the Process
A lot of lifters think you have to train over 90% week after week to get stronger. Adjusting to a program like 5thSet may challenge you mentally to trust the process, but it won’t be long before you experience the benefits.
Muffled Pain — Athletes, The Opioid Epidemic, and Painkiller Paranoia
My purpose with this article is to use my involuntary position as a character in the story to explore the meaning of the opioid epidemic and its wider implications.
WATCH: Mark Uyeyama SPS Presentation — Where I've Been
The journey to Head Strength and Conditioning Coach of the San Francisco 49ers has been long and rewarding, with a lot of lessons learned along the way.
Skip the Gym — Create Training Space Indoors and Outdoors
Listening to a group of college students with high-functioning autism, I learned there was a consensus among many of how they felt in a typical college gym setting — something they didn’t want to feel again.
Lean Gaining 101
Lean gaining is the holy grail of bodybuilding. This article will teach you how to do it in three easy steps.
Dallas Europa Strongman Challenge: I Won My Pro Card
I’m so proud to finally have achieved my original goal in strongman and to continue showing my kids that hard work and time in the saddle pays off.
Meet Report: RPS Connecticut States — From SHW to 198
It’s been more than a year since I last competed (not counting the unsanctioned and unseasonable non-invitational last December) and announced that I would be taking a step back from chasing the biggest bench possible.
Planning the Week, Month, and Year
I have attempted to be as detailed as possible in presenting to you a comprehensive program based around the variability that makes up a complete year of rugby.
Another Victory at the 2017 IFBB Arctic Pro
I was able to synch my first win of 2017 and an Olympia qualification with straight first place scores from both prejudging and finals. Here’s what I did differently in this season’s competition prep.
Finding Strength: Tyson's Playground
Ken Stewart’s facility is loaded with almost an entire football field of turf, a room dedicated to weightlifting, strongman implements, and tons of other equipment needed to make the best possible athlete.
Periodize Your Training
Improving in the sport of powerlifting is simple if you know how to approach it. I prefer using a series of three macrocyles: hypertrophy and volume, general strength, and competition preparation and peaking.
Building the Perfect Pressing Platform — From Feet to Shoulders
I want to take a look at the press from an osteokinematic, biomechanical, and maximal performance viewpoint, in an effort to marry the three into the safest and strongest pressing position possible.
Practical and Scientific Applications for Creating a Calf Workout
Why is it that calves are one of the hardest muscle groups to grow? Here are three points to consider to develop heart-shaped calves like a sprinter or running back.
What Powerlifters Can Learn From Corporate America
Companies are collecting data on everything: your recent purchases, internet searches, prescriptions, travel habits, and even the TV shows you are watching. So what does this have to do with powerlifting?
WATCH: Table Talk with Swede Burns and JP Carroll — The Growth of 5thSet...
What has changed about 5thSet over the course of its rise to popularity? And what is it like being an elite lifter that hands his training over to someone else?
How Powerlifting Makes Me A Better Weightlifting Coach
I truly believe that if not for the lessons I learned in powerlifting all those years ago, I would not be as effective a coach as I am today.
WATCH: Dr. Ken Kinakin SPS Presentation — Pain when Overhead Pressing
If shoulder pain is holding you back when pressing overhead, the infraspinatus and AC joint are two likely culprits you should examine.
Unconventional Uses of The Strongman Yoke
The yoke is most commonly used for the traditional carry and the Zercher carry. Using it to build the bench and shoulder press is not a common practice — but it’s effective.
The Aerobic System for Every Athlete
Every athlete needs to develop an aerobic base somewhere within their training program in order to be in control of their nervous system and to promote better recovery. Here are the benefits of doing so.
Dave Tate: Looking Back On Nearly 20 Years, Some Things Never Change
With the exponential growth of the fitness industry over the past 20 years, the roots of elitefts still hold strong: a foundational trunk of knowledge sprouting enough branches to accommodate nearly every training discipline imaginable.
The Real State of The Industry — 3 Imperfections of S&C
We are the most egotistical profession in the nation, right next to actors and those people who work at Baywatch (a documentary I’m definitely about to see). Let me break it down for you.
Adversity Is A Blessing
We need to understand and accept the pain that life brings. If you try to pretend that the pain caused by adversity isn’t real, you may become a weak, entitled pussy.
Coaches of Tomorrow — Building A Better Internship Program
Your internship or coaching development program should be a professional development program, not the result of saying, “I need somebody to do the busy work in the weight room.”
Social Media in Strength and Conditioning
Life was meant to be lived, not read. Cars were meant to be driven, not parked. The harbor is safe, but a ship was meant to sail. Don’t let articles and books convince you that you understand it all.
How I Lost 30 Pounds in One Day: Secrets to Water Cuts for Strength Athl...
There are a lot of ways that you can make a cut easier for yourself, keep your strength, and finish the meet with a high Wilks. Maximize Your Wilks and weight loss without losing strength.
Metal Cylinders — Two Devices Helping My Training
I’ve used these items before training as a way to warm up and loosen muscle fiber, and I’ve used them after training as a form of relaxation and recovery. In every case, they’re improving the way I feel and lift.
The Competitor's Pump-Up Guide — Either Do It Right or Don’t Do It ...
You can spend months dieting and training in preparation to show your best on stage, but if you screw up in the final 30 minutes, what you’re left with is a sub-optimal package and poor placement.
WATCH: Westside Misconceptions — High Standards
To be on the board at Westside, at the time, meant you had to break the all-time world record, because that was pretty much everybody that was on the board.
WATCH: Sharing Love and Leaving Scars
In this piece I reflect on my stepfather and his impact on me, trying to understand how a person who loved his children so much could also inadvertently created a great deal of difficulty and strife in their lives.
WATCH: Dr. Ken Kinakin SPS Presentation — Treatment and Rehabilitation o...
If you've pushed your exercise intensity too far and crossed through the "training redline" into the zones of injury severity, it's going to take some time to heal. These are several techniques to help you understand the extent of your injury and rehabilitation process.
The Hybrid Deadlift Stance
In deadlifting, the Goldilocks Zone might not be pulling conventional, nor sumo, nor even Old English Style. For those lifters, what I call the hybrid sumo stance could perhaps be best.
Why I Need to Make a Change — The Mental Challenge
The first month of this process has passed and I've made a lot of progress, but I've also discovered a few mental challenges I didn't recognize at first.
10 Changes That Made Me Strong(er) This Year
Like anyone, I’m far from perfect and am constantly in the process of growing. But this year I’ve seen a lot of positive fruit come from changes I’ve made in my life.
How to Leave the Life of Delusion and Personal Hype
I was once told by a trusted friend that the most important thing in life is your perception and your own personal judgment. At the time this seemed to make sense, and then I realized just how dangerous that mindset is.
Training Advice Worth Repeating
If I could go back in time to when I first started in this industry, I'd force myself to follow these five rules of training. Those of you starting now should listen.
Priorities for the Powerlifter and Bodybuilder — Lower Body Mobility and...
What mobility or stability drills should I do? How much should I do of them? Which days do I do them on? Here’s what to do, when to do them, how to do them, and how long you should do them.
3 Keys to Building Lightning Fast Speed
Want to get faster? Spending time on the field or track is important, but at some point you're going to hit a speed barrier. That's when you need to focus on building these three areas.
Programming Economy — 5 Exercise Categories
Let’s start with a couple of definitions to standardize our understanding of this concept of training economy. We will look at GPE, SPE, SE, SDE, and SFE.
A Love Affair with the Smith Machine
You should integrate the Smith machine into your sessions with the intention of creating a new stimulus, taking advantage of its ability to let you push past a normal threshold of muscular failure. Here are my favorite ways to do so.
Information to Insight
Science, intelligence reports, and training programs all require a thesis whereby assumptions are made on the path to turning raw information into good insight.
WATCH: Westside Misconceptions — Athlete Recruitment Process
You've probably heard it said that Westside became the strongest gym in the world by bringing in the best lifters from outside. This is a lie. What made Westside great wasn't recruiting.
10x Lessons for Lifters
Often times, the truth hurts. In his book, The 10x Rule, Grant Cardone provides some points that we all need to hear.
WATCH: Dr. Ken Kinakin SPS Presentation — Subscapularis Strain and Testing
There are four common muscle injury patterns from the barbell bench press or "pushing forward." The subscapularis strain is the most common, but there are ways to test for it and treat it.
WATCH: The Strength Coach Development Center — Overhead Press Progression
A lot of coaches shy away from the overhead press because it’s “dangerous.” But my question to the coaches that say that: “Aren’t most exercises potentially dangerous?”
X Marks the Spot: 3 Ways to Make It to Your Next Big Coaching Job
Everyone wants to be the head strength coach at a school that has a realistic opportunity to compete for a national championship, but I don’t think enough people put the right kind of plan in place to get there.
So You Want to Be an Online Trainer — Growing Your Business
There are so many pieces to a successful online training business, and I honestly feel like I haven’t even scratched the surface yet. In part two I discuss what to do once you've started the business and are looking for growth.
The Need for Flexibility in Exercise Selection and Progression
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.
Stop Training a Bundle of Muscles and Start Training an Athlete
I spent a year of my master's in Michigan Technological University’s “Rhetoric Theory and Culture” program. The time spent in this field has made me a better coach with lessons all coaches can benefit from.
