We’ve all done it. Every last one of us. Been in a tight spot and the first thing we think is who can we blame?
I have had some interesting conversations with Jim Wendler. One in particular struck a chord with me quite heavily. In fact, it has helped mold a process I use at my gym when training new athletes.
As an athlete, eventually you hit a point where performance stagnates, whether it’s from asymmetries, lack of mobility in certain joints, injuries, or false plateaus. Whatever the specific reason, we have all felt a loss of performance. It’s at this point that you need to go back and check your training, nutrition, and recovery journal. You should be looking to see if there are repeated setbacks.
A noted sports columnist in the San Diego area lamented the fact that one of the state universities was unable to field a championship women’s volleyball team (they already dropped the men’s program even though it was the only program to bring in an NCAA championship).
Did you ever take a good look at the shape of the Prowler? How about someone giving you the finger?
In the recent issue of the most popular powerlifting magazine on the market, one of the featured writers, who I will refer to as Mr. X, wrote an article decrying the “no snitching mentality” that is sweeping the country.
How I understand, practice, and implement strength and conditioning programs for myself and my clients has drastically changed over the past four years.
Previously I discussed how adding in various training tools can “fill in the holes” of standard barbell lifting. Kettlebells have gained a stronger and stronger following in the strength training community, but sleds and sandbags are two tools that have yet to gain their recognition.
In the March 7, 2008, edition of South Carolina Barbell’s email newsletter, I cited a short article on “muffin top” and how it can be battled with weight training. I had never heard the term “muffin top” and was somewhat amused at its meaning.
Although there are more than 600 muscles in your body making up almost 40 percent of your total body weight, there is one muscle that stands out as more important than all the rest.
Football season has just ended and you’ve quickly realized that you’re only half the man you were in August. Losing 10–20 lbs during the football season is typical for most high school and small college athletes. But you’re not typical.
As a strength coach, a good athlete—let’s call him Johnny—lands in your lap. Do you wonder what brilliant programs you can create to make Johnny bigger, stronger, and faster?
A slow athlete needs to develop speed-strength. Here is how.
I consider a strength sport to be any sport where strength plays a major role. This includes sports like powerlifting, weightlifting, highland games, Strongman, shot put, discus, hammer, javelin, and stone lifting. All of the athletes in these sports are very strong, but how much of a role does strength actually play in becoming the best?
We all know that you can spend all day lifting, conditioning, and running agility drills. There just isn’t enough time in the day whether we’re talking about a student athlete who has NCAA regulations on time spent strength training and conditioning or maybe even a professional athlete who has a hectic travel schedule mixed in with a personal life and family.
When talking about champions, everyone has an opinion just like the BCS College Football Standings. Are champions built or are they born? Are they a product of their environment or are they loners hungry for a piece of the pie?
With the beginning of football season, the long anticipated excitement for the early powerhouse match ups has finally arrived.
I guess that I should explain why the subject of hardcore means so much to me. This is a very strong word in the world of powerlifting. Most lifters want to be considered hardcore to the point that they will train like maniacs so that people think they are hardcore.
I believe that goal setting and mental attitude or sport psychology are often the most overlooked elements of any athlete’s preparation. Without a proper plan, what can really be accomplished? Without the right attitude, what can get done? The answer to both questions is not much.
After college, I strength trained at a chiropractic rehabilitation facility for a few years. While there, I picked up a few helpful tips that I still use today when initiating static postural assessments for my athletes.
Mike Stuchiner is a paragon of tenacity. In 1991, the native of Long Island, New York entered his first powerlifting meet. On August 18, 2007, he earned his first elite total at the Cincinnati Pro Am with a 775-lb squat, a 555-lb bench press, and a 620-lb deadlift in the 275-lb weight class.
Times have changed a great deal since I last put on pads and a helmet back in 1990. I guess I’m becoming an old man because now I look at these lazy kids and think, “back in my day…”
Rites of passage that involve impressive feats of strength have been around for thousands of years. They exist in many different forms and many of them originated in Northern Europe and Scandinavia. Tests like the Husafell stone carry, which originated in Iceland, have now become objects of desire for many would-be Strongmen throughout the world.
Question 1: I’d like to thank you for all of the helpful tips, but this is where we’re going to crash. As an athlete, I’ve been performing the Olympic lifts since middle school. I use them with the athletes I train from day one and haven’t had any problems.
If strength and powerlifting are the topics, then I want to hear from those who are in the trenches day in and day out
I had finally done it! After countless hours of talking about it and planning just how I was going to do it, I opened my own performance enhancement training business. Well sort of…
Every day someone asks me a question about training speed. So here are those questions heard most frequently as well as the answers to them.
This is a guide for those who are just getting started and need a push in the right direction as far as workout program design.
With James Smith, Mark McLaughlin, Tom Deebel, Jim Wendler, Travis Mash, Julia Ladewski, C. J. Murphy, Matt Brand, Nick Zostautas, Kevin Deweese, and Tim Kontos
I’m always amazed and amused at how many guys are in and then suddenly out of competitive powerlifting and bodybuilding. Many of these guys have almost unlimited God-given potential to become national or even world champions.
It’s extremely important that athletes perform Olympic lifts correctly. This means teaching lifts through a progression designed to implement proper form. Doing the lifts incorrectly, which is the case with the vast majority of young athletes, reduces the effect of the lift and creates a much higher likelihood of injury.
One of the biggest problems that we face in training today’s athletes is that they’re out of shape! Whether professional or amateur, many of these athletes come to their teams severely unconditioned. With physical education programs being cut from school curriculums and child obesity rising every year, we need to take a long hard look at the values that physical conditioning provides.
Let me cut right to the chase here—I’m asking for your help. And it has to do with cancer.
In any sport, athletes need to be able to accelerate as quickly as possible to get to the ball or opponent first. As a coach, you must put your athletes in the best possible position to succeed.
If you’re reading this, you probably have a good understanding of why strength and conditioning is important. However, I’d like to reach the coaches, athletic directors, and lazy athletes who will never reach their potential because of a lack of education.
