Sensory Awareness: Rotator Cuff Activation
Rotator cuff exercises are important, useful, and extremely beneficial when these four points are taken into account.
WATCH: Black On Black Signature Line Now Available
Your favorite elitefts logos presented in a new way.
Training Through Injury: The Edema Press
A broken back doesn’t mean you can’t build your bench. Try this movement to teach better stability through squeezing your glutes and bracing your abs.
Reaching the Outlier — Tips for Interacting with Difficult Athletes
In coaching, it’s easy to lose hope in the student athletes that don’t seem engaged or interested in your help. It’s your job to find a way.
Finding Strength: Team BSS Training and Fitness
Located in Boardman, Ohio, the Schumakers have created a competitive playing field for strongman competitors to learn and refine their craft.
7 Bodybuilding Lies That Are Keeping You Skinny and Weak
These fallacies are plastered in every shitty magazine and web blog — you may still be falling for them. I’m here to share the truth.
The Mythos of Training Female Athletes
When an argument comes up about training women and the differences, I have a perspective that many of my male colleagues do not: there is no difference.
3 Old-School Exercises You Need in Your Training Plan
Growing and progressing is the name of the game. You should do what works even if it isn’t new.
WATCH: Interview with Stan Efferding and Mike Dolce
Alongside the World’s Strongest Bodybuilder, Mike Dolce and Chris Duffin discuss a plethora of training topics: nutrition, lifestyle, recovery, proper movement principals, and advanced methodology.
WATCH: Table Talk — Muscular Balance in Training Programs
Should you do twice as much pulling volume as pressing volume? Some people think so, but it’s not that simple.
50 Things All Handlers Need to Know
This list and the included video give you what you need to know before, during, and after the meet to help your lifter reach their competitive goals.
WATCH: Training Camp Q&A — Recovery and Weight Class Transition
JL, Swede, and Casey continue their question-and-answer session by addressing how lifters can increase recoverability and maintain strength during weight loss.
3 Reasons You Can't Lock Out Your Deadlift
I’ve heard many times that there’s no technique to deadlifting, you just grab the bar and pull. I have to disagree.
WATCH: Do You NEED A Dynamic Effort Training Day?
Power output is what you’re looking for. Will a speed day produce it?
Close the Vents
Here are a couple of ideas that you could do today to improve your work or team culture — they all start with reducing negativity disguised as venting.
Communicating Your Vision
How can you sell your vision when it’s difficult to score your vision? Start with goals!
Bottoms-Up Training: Fix Your Shoulders and Pressing Technique Today
If you’re unfamiliar with this humbling training method, it works by creating significant instability and forcing the lifter to recruit additional muscle fibers and motor units.
Find Your Weak Points By Becoming Strong
Before getting hung up on specific weaknesses and special exercises, try this simple approach first.
Juarez Valley 8 Deadlift Workout
You’ve probably heard of ascending or descending pyramid methods. The Jaurez Valley 8 is different. It’s a valley that is as brutal as it is effective.
Powerful (Yet Healthy) Boulder Shoulder Training
Building rock solid shoulders with excellent functional strength requires the correct strategies and gritty effort. This guide will show you how to get the most out of your shoulder work.
WATCH: Reno Hardcore with Guest Chris Duffin
Kabuki, mental aspects of training, masculinity, geared vs. raw lifting, RPE — it’s all here in this video with two all-time great powerlifters.
Lifting on the Platform — In Honor of My Father
The journey was difficult but I walked away accomplishing something much more important at the Women’s Pro-Am than a big total.
Things I Have Learned From 15 Years of Conjugate Training
Through a lot of ups downs since 2002, I’ve learned things both the hard way and the easy way. In one quick read, here are 137 of the best things to remember about conjugate.
WATCH: Table Talk — How Should A Big Guy Lose Weight?
For someone over 350 pounds, the rules of dropping weight are a little different. There are a few things you need to remember.
Wish They Could All Be California Meets
The whole point of the US Open was to show Tarra and instill some confidence in what I already knew: that she would still be able to perform well at a lighter bodyweight.
WATCH: Training Camp Q&A — Overtraining, Openers, and Body Composition
JL, Swede, and Casey answer multiple questions in this video, ranging from how to control training intensity to picking openers to nutrition for powerlifters.
Are You Asking the Right Questions?
If you aren’t getting stronger or making gains, you’re doing something wrong. Your first job is figuring out what that is.
Top 10 Mistakes Men Make in the Gym
If you have the slightest inkling that this article may offend you, proceed to mistake number 5. You’re probably that guy.
Summer Programming — Eliminate the Two Steps Back
You took a step forward and now it’s summer. This time of year means nine weeks of strength and conditioning bliss and nine weeks of scheduling, programming and executing our own version of “the master plan.”
Old School PE — Valuable Today?
In today’s world of athletics, does the 1975 work of Dauer and Pangrazi hold up?
Finding Strength: North Carolina’s Strongest Man and Woman
At this event, the return for victory is high, which means the competition is harder and heavier than most contests out there.
Performance Enhancing Drugs: The Nature Of The Beast
Regardless of sport, every athlete is looking for an edge to be better than his opponent. When is supplemental help acceptable?
How You Do Anything Is How You'll Do Everything
I want to share some of the key principles to success that I have learned over the last few years. Start here and you’ll be well on your way to achieving your goals.
Why Comfort Can Kill Your Progress
Familiarity and comfort aren't always bad things — I drive the same route home every day. But in your diet and training? Be ready for change.
WATCH: Carlos Reyes — From Pro Strongman to Pro Powerlifter
In transition from strongman to powerlifting, and now from the XPCs to Boss of Bosses, Carlos shares his journey.
Why Do You Lift — Meaning, Identity, Hope and Passion
For the next three or four articles, this is our topic: motivation. This first part will explore the construction of meaning, identity, and the origins of motivation.
WATCH: Table Talk — The Best Accessory Exercises for the Squat, Bench, a...
If you want to build your total, you need to pick the right accessory movements for all three lifts. Here are my favorites.
Speed Work — Are You Doing It Correctly?
You know the simple rules of dynamic effort training but may be forgetting the small-but-crucial details that make it effective.
Strategies of Business and Training: Save, Spend, Invest
I am going to describe the similarities between three money management strategies and their application to your time in the iron game.
WATCH: Training Camp Q&A — What Do You Wish You Would've Done S...
JL Holdsworth, Swede Burns, and Casey Williams opened their training camp by answering this question.
A Simple Flow Chart for Athlete Programming
By assessing the strengths of each athlete, you can better determine their training needs and how to address them. This chart makes it easy to evaluate progress for each player.
Training Through Injury: How To Overcome Disc and Lumbar Issues
A disc injury is not a death sentence. You now need to develop into a smarter lifter who is not only focused on PR’s but also on long term health.
Motor Patterning and PRI — Finding Solutions to Hip Shift and Dysfunctio...
Using a number of methods, here’s a look at what I did to correct a host of problems hindering my performance and health.
Inside the Mind of Stuart McRobert — Training Advice You're Not Fol...
Get bigger and stronger with these four cornerstones of McRobert's training method.
Hypertrophy Is The Holy Grail
After so many years and so many clients, I've begun to realize that everyone's training needs are the same.
Building the Biggest Hood in the Hood — Spoto Press
Why the hell not just use a full range of motion? This is why.
Should Powerlifters Do Curls?
Your biceps aren't the prime movers for any of the three powerlifts. A lot of people think this means you shouldn't train them. Are they right?
Passion vs Zeal — Reconsidering What Matters Most
If passion most closely relates to desire, then zeal implies action. I often say I’m passionate about training, but in reality I possess more of a zeal for the iron.
Table Talk — Thin Crust or Hand-Tossed Pizza?
Somehow this all ties into real-world experience and the steps taken to reach success as a business owner. Trust us.
The Innovator, Imitator, and Integrator
There are three types of people in the world of strength and conditioning — which one are you?
Mental Characteristics of Successful Powerlifters
In my years of powerlifting, I have seen some really gifted people go nowhere, and some really poorly suited people do very well. Mindset is everything.
6 Don'ts for New Lifters Going Into a Meet
As a coach and competitor these are the recurring mistakes I witness many first-timers make.
Physical Preparation Guidelines Every Firefighter Should Follow
Your job is your playing field and you need to prepare your body for game situations through proper training, nutrition and hydration, along with preventative maintenance and recovery.
Do You Believe?
Was I able to do these things and reach the level that I did simply because I believed?
Social Skill Integration Through Movement and Strength — Off-Site Training
½ Gym, ½ Off-Site Training leads us here: a full session away from gym grounds. Fit your programming needs within these structures to differentiate skill, meet new people, and have fun.
WATCH: Periodization Differences Between Small and Large Groups
In a question-and-answer session, Dave Tate and Mark Watts talk training with a group of strength and conditioning students.
Logistics of Coaching — Working With What You Have
You can have an amazing battle plan but if you can't support it with beans and bullets, it's worthless.
Finding Strength: Cold Front CrossFit
Merging with Traverse City and Bulky Boys Barbell clubs, this Northern Michigan facility has welcomed strongman into their doors.