Three Powerlifting Fads That Are Hurting Your Total
Training isn't meant to be flashy — it's meant to be effective. Resist the temptation of these "hip" techniques and stay on track to bigger PRs on meet day.
Your First Summer of Planning — Schedule and Program Setup as a New Coach
Young coaches often find a spot late in the summer leaving little time to prepare for the year ahead. Here are the planning and scheduling factors to consider as you construct your program.
Football Testing Season — Five Weeks to Gain Strength
Entering the time period away from pre-season or in-season training, our head coach made his expectations clear: “I want to see bench presses go up by 20 pounds and squats by 40 pounds in the next five to six weeks." Easy, right?
Arch Your Way to a Bigger Bench
A shorter range of motion means a bigger bench. Here’s how to get your chest closer to the bar without taking your ass off the bench.
How Do We Get to the Steak, Not the Sizzle?
There’s nothing wrong with trying the newest, flashy technique, but if you don’t know how it will help your team, stick to the basics.
Sleep More, Lift More
The most basic source of recovery is free and easy, powerful enough to improve your strength and conditioning without resorting to any prescribed medication. Are you taking full advantage of it?
Common Mistakes to Avoid in High School and College Weight Rooms
These six missteps of sports training could keep your athletes small and weak — or worse, injured on the sideline.
Training and the Dead Cat Bounce
In a downward slump, my training has started to look up. I attribute this to one simple programming tactic.
To Split or Not to Split: The Athlete-Training Question
Bodybuilders are known for splitting weekly training into specific body parts per day. Will the same approach work for athletes?
Ignorance Can Be Bliss
An overload of information may tempt you to abandon your plan when something new comes along. Pick a program, one program, and stay committed.
How to Fix Your Bench Press: The Setup
The first installment of a three-part series, this article discusses the first step of mastering the bench press: learning optimal setup.
Culture of the Team: The Hardest Part of Coaching
This problem started to creep up on us several years ago and I only see it getting worse.
LISTEN: Ashley Jones — Incorporating Games in a Pre-Season Program
With proper consideration of neural, mechanical, and metabolic elements, this podcast covers the methods used for developing a proper pre-season plan.
WATCH: Table Talk — Training Tips to Break a Bench Press Plateau
Stop beating yourself up after hitting a sticking point in your training. Figure out what the problem is and fix it. These tips will help the troubleshooting process.
What Is Your Programming Signature?
The style of your coaching and the content of your program say a lot about you as a coach. If someone questions your approach, do you have an answer?
Being God Awful Precedes Being Good
Personal training is like any other craft, it takes time and perseverance through many mistakes to master. I recently reflected on my climb as a professional.
5 Strategic Questions Everyone Should Ask About Their Training
When moments of failure start to cloud your perspective of training, you need to return to your core philosophy. Asking these questions will force you to refocus on the big picture.
Big Is a Byproduct of Strong
A proper weight room strategy provides adequate attention to the development of strength and size — two qualities necessary for your team’s improvement.
Training Women: There Is A Difference
Men and women have different needs. Pay attention to these eleven factors when programming for your female clients.
The Four Steps of Establishing Your Program
The success of your program depends on your ability to balance what your head coach wants to do, what you want to do, and what your team really needs.
Improve Performance on the Field: Individualize, Prioritize, Optimize
Communicating with your athletes and ensuring you have a mutual understanding of goals and systems is vital to improving the physical capabilities of your players.
WATCH: Table Talk — Do Your Genetics Suck?
There’s a way to know if your genetics suck — but not until you’ve given 100%. If you don’t spend enough time trying, you’ll never know.
WATCH: Table Talk — Can You Build the Deadlift Without Deadlifting?
A lot of people disagree about how often you should deadlift in the gym, if at all. For 13 years of competing, this is how I trained my deadlift.
Strong(her) Bench Press Progressions for the Novice Female Lifter
Now that we’ve tackled the squat, let’s break down the bench set up and introduce a cue system to use during every set.
An Alternative Look at Concentrated Loading in the Sport of Powerlifting
This revision and reconsideration of the ‘block’ misnomer helped me better understand concentrated loading and produced a new way to program each lift.
The Assessment Paradox
When you test your clients, are you using the assessment to improve a fitness quality or simply to make yourself appear knowledgeable?
WATCH: Unilateral Lower Body Training for Sport Performance
These warm-up movements will build strength and power while keeping your body unilaterally symmetrical.
'It Looked Good in Theory'
Trends dominate the personal training industry. Rely on self-education to determine the difference between what sounds good and what IS good.
WATCH: Annual Programming for Powerlifting— Daily Layout of Squat and De...
Your yearly setup is complete. Now let’s look at individual days and how to program main, supplemental, and accessory exercises.
Strong(her) Squat Progressions for the Novice Female Lifter
Use these cues and coaching methods to teach an inexperienced lifter how to squat safely and build a foundation for future strength.
Keep It Simple, Stupid: Programming Collegiate Athletes
When it comes to training athletes in the weight room, remember that just because you love science doesn’t mean your athletes do. Learn to speak their language.
Build a Bigger Bench: The Female Edition
The bench press is typically the weakest lift for women. It’s no mystery why—they require a targeted approach.
0-1200 in 5 Sets
Using sustainable methods, Tarra has been able to grow from wobbly softball player to unstoppable powerlifter. This is her story.
Just Load the Bar
Don’t build a false sense of security by relying on bands and chains. Remember this fact: straight weight trumps all.
Starting Your Career as a Collegiate Strength Coach
Breaking into this profession is difficult and requires determination and sacrifice but if you’re in it for the right reasons, that won’t be a problem.
Four Ways to Become a Strong(her) Boss
If you’re a woman who holds a supervisory role in a male-dominated field, you’re going to encounter unique challenges. These four principles have helped me improve management processes.
WATCH: Annual Programming for Powerlifting — Off-Season Between Meets We...
With your qualifying meet out of the way, you now have an opportunity to return to building mode before starting a peaking cycle for your next meet.
Programming for Rugby Inside Backs
These strength and performance methods for positions 9, 10, and 12 maximize individual player abilities on the field and produce more capable athletes.
WATCH: Casey Williams' Bench Methods and 12-Week Raw Program
These 6-week max effort and 4-week dynamic effort waves have taken Casey’s raw bench to 540 pounds. Watch as he explains his approach to chasing 600 and how you can use his methods yourself.
The Right Tool for the Job
Strength is a journey, not a quick fix. Take the time to choose your tools correctly and create something indestructible.
Crazy Mistakes Strength Coaches Make
These 10 coaching mistakes can hurt you, your team, and your entire program. Are you making any of them?
WATCH: CNS Burnout in the Gym
With all the energy Clint spends on being a chaotic animal in the weightroom, is he vulnerable to central nervous shutdown?
It's All About Heart and Will
There are a lot of factors involved in being a good strength athlete. From most to least important, here is my list of what you need to excel in this industry. Do you have them all?
WATCH: Annual Program for Powerlifting — Preparing for a Qualifying Meet...
With the first two phases behind you, it’s time to move into higher gear for the first meet of the year. Are you ready to apply what you learned in weeks 1-13?
The Murkiness of High School Prep: Are Collegiate Athletes Prepared?
How prepared are freshmen athletes for the rigors of strength and conditioning at the collegiate level? A recent survey asked this question and the results are in contention.
Stay the Course
I have made the mistake of letting other programs distract me from my own. It is a waste of time and effort and I vow to never do it again.
Strength Progressions for Beginner and Intermediate Lifters
The path of continual progress includes some these important programming specialties: don’t add techniques you are ready for and don’t become stale.
Assessment Methods to Determine Ideal Speed Development Protocols
These three velocity-based sessions build the trainable aspects of athletic speed development.
WATCH: Annual Programming for Powerlifting — Reintroducing Moderate Barb...
Following an early GPP phase, the yearly program moves toward variations of competition movements and learning which exercises you’ll need later on.
Life, Lifting, and Facial Disfigurement with Power Tools
I was stupid, and lazy, and it led to a freak accident. Remember this when you’re training: as soon as confidence becomes arrogance, you’re in trouble.
Recovering from the Stressors of Contest Prep — Hormone Replacement Therapy
I feared a life without training. When I saw that fear become a reality, I knew it was time to seek professional help.
The Most Important Thing You Can Do As A Strength Coach
It isn’t the squats. It isn’t the cleans, nor the reverse hypers or pull-ups.
A Powerlifter's Guide to Wimpy Exercises
As you focus on moving maximum weight on squats, benches and deadlifts, wimpy isolation movements just don’t have a place. Or do they?
Greasing the Groove by Training the Coach
The emphasis is always on the athletes, but keep in mind, in order to be a productive leader, you must go through what you’re asking others to do.
WATCH: Rapid Fire Table Talk— MRV, Staying Competitive, and Coffin Dragger
Dave answers your questions from Instagram in 15 seconds or less.
Chad Aichs's Guaranteed-to-Work Miracle Program
Are you still searching for the holy grail of programs? Here it is, in all its perfection.
3 Reasons You Should Be Using Triphasic Training for Powerlifting
Is your program letting you down? These three aspects of Triphasic Training will repair the damage of repetitive incompetency.
The Rationale Behind Specialty Bars, Grips, and Angles
With a variety of unique, specialized equipment, you can program to address a multitude of player strengths and weaknesses.