Extreme Hamstrings: High-Tension Hamstring Training
Hamstring injuries are common among sprinters. One of the biggest challenges that I face as a strength coach is helping an athlete overcome a hamstring injury and at the same time improving performance.
Extreme Hamstrings: High-Tension Hamstring Training
Hamstring injuries are common among sprinters. One of the biggest challenges that I face as a strength coach is helping an athlete overcome a hamstring injury and at the same time improving performance.
elitefts/Troponin Nutrition Seminar
I can confidently say, “If you’ve attended one elitefts seminar…well, you’ve really only attended one elitefts seminar. And you have no idea what you’re missing if you don’t attend more.”
EliteFTS Spotlight: Matt Wenning
The subject of this week’s EliteFTS Spotlight is Q&A staff member Matt Wenning. Matt is one of only a handful of people to total over 2600 pounds in professional competition.
Are you playing with a full deck?
Here is a question I was just asked on the Q and A. I do not watch or read the news in regards to political issues so my answer is based solely on the issues I deal with on a day to day basis with no BS or political agenda. It is what it is...
How to Run a Successful Gym During the Recession, Part I
The goal of this series is to give aspiring strength coaches and fitness professionals the optimism and tools required to get things rolling quickly, easily, and without a loan or business partners.
How to Receive Automatic Referrals from Your Personal Training Clients
If you don’t have a referral system in place, you’re losing dozens of potential new clients. Check out this system and learn the right way to ask for referrals. (If you do this wrong, you will lose clients!)
Active Release Techniques for Strength Athletes
At some point or another, just about every bodybuilder and athlete on the planet is bound to get injured. Luckily, for most of us, these injuries are usually minor and don’t result in anything more than a slight inconvenience for a few days.
A Strength Coach’s Guide to Dealing with Pain: Part 2, Knee Pain
In part 1 of this series, I introduced some ways in which a strength and conditioning coach can deal with an athlete’s shoulder pain.
How to Get the Most Traffic (and Money) From Your YouTube Videos
In 2006, Google spent a lot of money ($1.4 billion) to buy YouTube. Fortunately for you, Google is a smart company and isn’t going to waste that investment.
Passion into Profit EliteFTS Small Business Conference Feb. 2009
This was certainly different. I mean, it’s not every day that I get an email from Dave Tate, and I have never, and I mean never, ever been invited to train with him. If I was excited to attend this seminar before, well, that had just been ratcheted up by a factor of eleven!
Top 11 Exercises for Athletes
Here are the top 11 movements for athletes. Add them to your rotation and work them hard.
Eight Marketing Mistakes That Fitness Pros Make
We all make mistakes. And when it comes to marketing, most of us make some really silly ones. Unfortunately, we seem to keep making those same mistakes over and over again.
Carnitine L-Tartrate Supplementation for Powerlifters
When I read that l-carnitine l-tartrate (LCLT) could help me burn fat, recover from exercise, favorably affect my hormone levels, and deliver more oxygen to my muscles, I was intrigued.
Defending the Bench Press
The bench press is a great lift. Whether your goal is to develop a powerful overall physique or a barrel chest or just get brutally strong, the bench press can help you get there.
EliteFTS Spotlight: Shannon Turley
EliteFTS Spotlight is a new weekly feature here on EliteFTS.com where Q&A member The Angry Coach interviews athletes and strength and sport coaches from various disciplines in order to find out more about what they do, how they train and how they do business.
EliteFTS Spotlight: Julia Ladewski
EliteFTS Spotlight is a weekly feature here on EliteFTS.com where Q&A member The Angry Coach interviews athletes and strength and sport coaches from various disciplines in order to find out more about what they do, how they train and how they do business.
Five “Web 2.0” Marketing Tips for Personal Trainers
The internet changes fast and personal trainers interested in harnessing its power for marketing purposes need to keep up. The landscape has changed. Simple websites that act as a static business card are no longer enough
Sick of Your Gym, Part 6; Metro-Sexuals Be Damned!
As I sit here at my computer, I am battling a certain EliteFTS employee on his desire to become a Metro-sexual. Yes, the current trend of being an androgynous male has invaded the holy ground of the Compound and it is my job, nay my civic and Holy duty, to prevent this at all costs.
Going Deeper into the Deadlift with Mark Rippetoe, Part 2
What you’ll see is that he takes about two or three pulses of pull in order to get his weight from his toes back onto the middle of his foot before the bar leaves the ground. In other words, he’s using those little tugs to pull the slack out of his hamstrings after he sets his lumbar spine.
The Top Six Ways to Quickly and Easily Increase Your Revenue per Client
You’ve got your marketing in order and have a steady flow of prospects coming in, and you’re converting those prospects to clients at a high rate. Now, you need to get them to spend more money when they do spend.
Monolifting Made Easy: Part 1
This article applies to three different types of lifters. If you’ve never squatted in a monolift, don’t train consistently in a monolift, or do squat in a monolift but don’t feel solid taking weights out of the monolift, keep reading.
An Interview with Pat Ivey, Assistant Athletics Director, Athletic Perfo...
It might seem like I’ve been doing many interviews lately. There’s good reason for this. A few weeks ago, I did an interview for EliteFTS, and I was asked the question, “Who do you feel is getting it done in strength and conditioning?”
The Truth about Impingement: Part 2
In Part 1 of this series, I went into some detail on why I really didn’t like the catch all term “impingement.” In Part 2, I’m going to talk about the different kinds of impingement—external and internal.
The Truth about Impingement, Part 1
Roughly 10–15 times per week, I get emails from folks who claim that they have shoulder “impingement.” Honestly, I roll my eyes the second that I read these emails.
Hardcore Extreme Jan. 09
I’ve been fighting it for a few weeks, but I’m definitely overtraining again. I don’t do shit anymore, but I keep overtraining. One of my training partners asks me what I expect, because don’t sleep. That’s easy. I’m Chad Aichs, and I expect to train hard every day while still getting stronger.
The Steel Yard (Jan 09)
Same old, same old. Just training. I just did a meet about eight weeks ago, and I’m still feeling like hell.
Training with Spud
I moved from Greenville, South Carolina, to Columbia, South Carolina, to go to school at the University of South Carolina almost three years ago. I considered myself a hardcore powerlifter, and at the seasoned age of 19-years-old, I thought I knew what I was doing.
The Dungeon
Wabush, Labrador, Canada. A small mining town nestled in the cold and desolate woodland of northern Canada. Seven months of the year this isolated town in the middle of nowhere is covered in a deep and cold blanket of snow.
The Reintroduction of J.L. Holdsworth, and the Introduction of the FIVE ...
Hello Everyone! My name is J.L. Holdsworth and I’m an asshole.
Going Deeper into the Deadlift with Mark Rippetoe, Part 1
In the November 2006 issue of CrossFit Journal, Mark Rippetoe published, “A New, Rather Long Analysis of the Deadlift.” He concluded this breakthrough article by identifying three criteria for a correct deadlift starting position:
Your First Meet Part II: Getting Diesel
Everyone starts from different points, everyone has different training backgrounds, and everyone is a little bit different from top to bottom.
Squatting with Bands
I will focus on how to set up bands at home. It took a bit of trial and error until I found a set up that worked well for me.
So You Wanna Be a Fighter?: Part One
It’s been a while since I’ve contributed an article to this site and so much has changed.
Does Your Serratus Feel Neglected?
The serratus (anterior and posterior) is one of the most overlooked and undertrained areas of an athlete’s body, especially in powerlifters. These muscles aid in the lockout of the bench press and stabilize the shoulder blade and shoulder girdle. By neglecting this area, you can suffer during the last half to one inch of your bench lockout.
How I Tore My Pec
The following is a recollection of an incident that I suffered close to 12 years ago. It changed my approach to personal exercise and ultimately helped me carve my career in the fitness field.
elitefts Roundtable: Office Space
Let’s face it – for most of the members of the EliteFTS Q&A staff, the internet has been both a blessing and a curse
Brian Schwab's Orlando Strength Dec 08
I have to thank Dave Tate and Justin Harris for helping me keep my weight on better this time. I ended up incorporating more sodium into my diet, and even loading with sodium tabs, which did wonders in preventing me from losing my fluids.
What I Learned from Donovan McNabb
I’ll have to start this story with an admission—I didn’t play for the Philadelphia Eagles, but I did play a Philadelphia Eagle. Long story short, I played semi-professional football for a few seasons and made the All Star team. Campbell’s Soup took photos of all of the All Stars and selected the ones who looked most like NFL players to play as Eagles for their 2004–2006 Campbell’s Soup campaign with the NFL players and their mothers.
An Interview With The Angry Coach
The Angry Coach is the newest member of the Elite Fitness Systems Q&A Staff. I first met this guy at a seminar back in 2005, and I was immediately impressed with his life experience, his training knowledge and his ability to communicate the things he felt were right and wrong with both athletics coaching and the fitness industry.
Five Questions for The Thinker
1. It must be very exciting to be involved with a winning program at this point in the season. How has this football season been progressing for you, personally?
A Strength Coaches Guide to Dealing with Pain, Part 1: Shoulder Pain
As a strength coach, I work with many athletes who suffer from chronic joint pain. When I hear them complain about shoulder and knee pain, my first reaction is to blow them off and tell them to go stretch. However, after suffering from the same types of nagging pains myself, I know that their pain is very real.
The Entity of Respect
Following my article, “The Age of the Perpetually Entitled,” there was a common theme to the emails that I received. The point made in these emails was that most, if not all, of the “entitled” lack respect yet expect to be respected by their peers. This is a common and recurring issue in athletics and in the workplace.
2008 NASA Unequipped Nationals
This was my second raw training cycle this year. I did the USAPL State meet to qualify for the Raw Nationals and didn't get to train for it. I had eight weeks to train for this meet, and the maxes that I based my training on were very conservative.
No Secret to Balanced Training
Anatomy can be pretty intense and sometimes more complex than necessary. Balanced training is an old idea, so why beat a dead horse? Because bodybuilding dogma continues to prevail and everyone seems to define balanced training differently. So really…what the hell is balanced training?
An Interview with Cal Dietz
I’m the head Olympic strength and conditioning coach at the University of Minnesota and am currently working with eight sports. These include men’s and women’s hockey, men’s basketball, men’s track and field, men’s swimming, baseball, and men’s and women’s golf.
Interview with Strength Coach Todd Hamer
Todd Hamer is the head strength and conditioning coach at Robert Morris University.
Elitefts Spotlight: Landon Evans
As many times I’ve been made fun of because of my past, I think it’s imperative to outline so some people can see why I am the way I am.
Elitefts Spotlight: Yosef Johnson
Yosef Johnson is the owner and president of Ultimate Athlete Concepts, a company he founded in Muskegon, Michigan in 2001 with the goal of bringing together the best scientists from a variety of fields and incorporating their knowledge into a comprehensive line of products which were previously unavailable to North American athletics coaches.
Oblique Strains and Rotational Power
Earlier this season, Josh Hamilton put on an amazing show with 28 homeruns in the first round of the major league baseball (MLB) Homerun Derby.
Are Your Lateral Rotators Strong?
The rotator cuff muscles of the shoulder play a very important role in the prevention of shoulder injury and in the execution of overhead throwing and hitting actions.
My Five “Ah-ha” Moments of Becoming a Strength Coach
Lately, a few of the leaders in our business (Cosgrove, Cressey, and Robertson to name a few) have published articles with this catchy “ah-ha” title. I’m sure they’ve made each one of us sit in front of our computers and say, “Dang, he’s right.”
The Making of Elite Sports Performance
There are many great gyms in the United States. Ohio has the great Westside Barbell, California has Diablo Barbell, New York has Adirondack Barbell—home of the Metal Militia, and Nebraska has Big Iron.
Making It Work
As a powerlifter, grad student, father, and husband, I hear piles of insane BS from the general populace. “Wow, I could never do that.” “You can lift how much?” “You must be on steroids.” “I used to do that and then I broke ____.”
