Thirty Days Without Weights: Part III
Many bodybuilders and physique specialists have wanted to know more about how to gain muscle mass using basic, body weight exercises.
5/3/1 In A Commercial Gym: Observations
Because of a major career change, I've recently relocated to a new city. With this move, and all the bullshit that goes along with moving, I've been forced to endure the misfortune of trying to find a new gym
Pull-up Progression (Part 2: SHWt Edition)
You’ve probably read the first part of “Pull-ups” according to “H” and say to yourself, “Sure, that’s fine, but I can’t even do a single rep.” That’s ok. In this part, we’ll address your need(s) in being able to perform that repetition.
Under The Bar: The 2009 Underground Strength Session
Before I get to the Underground Strength Session (UGSS) I need to take care of a little business first and bring everyone up to speed with what’s been going on around here. Don’t worry – I’ll be quick and even use bullet points.
Developing an Effective Strength Training Program
The key for athletic success begins in the weight room. Studies have shown that athletes who participate in a strength training program are faster, quicker, and more explosive, and they have fewer injuries.
Five Pounds Is Gold
With astounding strength, brilliant technique, and a champion’s will, Andy Bolton returned to the platform and showed us who he always was. And looking at the speed of the 1008-lb deadlift, he’s not finished.
EliteFTS Spotlight: Joel Jamieson
My career as a strength and conditioning coach essentially began at the University of Washington when I interned under a great coach named Bill Gillespie back in the late 1990s.
My Journey into Bodybuilding (Part 3)
My journey to bodybuilding hasn’t been an easy one. The diet, the cardio, the training—it’s all become old pretty quickly. I’ve found that the most difficult thing about this “sport” is the time you need to invest in it to make it work.
What’s Best for Increasing Muscle Mass and Strength—Linear or Reverse L...
“Training is an exact science.” —Mike Mentzer
Raising the Bar Introduction: Blast and Dust
Were you fed through a bottle, or were you fed naturally? Did you eat from plastic plates? Stand too close to the microwave? Did you grow up in the ghetto? Are you a recovering drug addict? Is your life a living hell? Are there things about yourself that you don't like? Do you procrastinate?
Reevaluation
Recently, I’ve been on a 10-week decline in the gym. It began with a powerlifting meet that I entered back in November.
Five Random Things I’ve Learned at Westside
You see, unless you train at Westside, you don’t know Westside
The Return of Hardcore
That’s it. I can’t take it anymore. These sissified commercial gyms and their clipboard holding trainers have just about ruined the weightlifting world.
Analogies for Understanding: Origins of Strength
Motor units, rate coding, fast-twitch muscle fibers, recruitment capacity—do you have this all down?
Periodization, Part II: The Science of Peaking
As opposed to the first part of this series, which could benefit anyone who trains seriously, this part is more targeted to an elite audience. Peaking isn’t of much interest to someone who doesn’t compete. Although deloading can be beneficial for any athlete, peaking goes way beyond deloading, and its temporary nature makes it irrelevant for non-competing athletes.
The “Devil” Bench Workout
Why is it that whenever I’m in a gym I see people benching the same weight at each workout? It usually goes like this—a person performs a few reps at 185 lbs, then at 205 lbs, and maybe at 225 lbs.
The Power of the Pack: Your Guide to Survival
When I first started seriously strength training as a sophomore in college, I did so because everyone else on my dorm floor went down together to the weight room at 4:00 pm.
Making the Most of College Lifting
College is a wonderful place. It’s the transitional phase between being nestled securely at home close to your mother’s teat and being thrust out into the real world, which I can assure you, is an awful place once you truly appreciate your time in college.
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.
My Journey into Bodybuilding
Well, the diet has started! I decided to cut my off-season down by a few weeks and start dieting. I felt like I was getting to a point where adding more weight would make getting into shape too difficult to accomplish, so I started dieting January 1.
BCAA Supplementation Roundtable
Do we need BCAA supplementation? The debate rages on. The following is an excerpt from Knowledge and Nonsense: The science of nutrition and exercise by Jamie Hale.
Chain Training
Initially used for accommodating resistance, chains help take into account the body’s natural strength curve. Many people have become familiar with this concept over the last few years as chains have become increasingly popular.
Top 11 Exercises for Athletes
Here are the top 11 movements for athletes. Add them to your rotation and work them hard.
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.
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.
Work Capacity: Do It Stronger, Faster, Harder, and Longer
There are many elements to strength and conditioning (S&C) training as it relates to mixed martial arts (MMA). Most folks think that it’s all about “strength” or “cardio.”
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?”
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.
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 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:
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.
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
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?
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?
Get Your Back into Your Lifting
I’m becoming a deadlift supremacist more and more. Louie Simmons recently wrote in Powerlifting USA, “A weak man has a weak back, and a strong man has a strong back. It’s that simple.”
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.
My Journey into Bodybuilding (Part 2)
Dave Tate and I recently exchanged e-mails. I proposed to him an idea about a series in which I share an entire year’s worth of training, dieting, and other information needed to prepare for a bodybuilding show. The series will end with me actually competing in a show.
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 ____.”
Life of a Cyclone Wrestler
I wake up at the crack of dawn, put on my sweats, suck down a shake, and I’m out the door. Time to hit the road. It’s early. It’s dark. It’s cold. But I can feel only one thing—my adrenaline pumping as “Eye of the Tiger” pumps through my headphones.
Dads and Sons
As I look back, I realize that the time spent between a father and a son is by far the most precious thing that we, as men, can give to our sons. The time spent with dad is the most important time a boy can have in his entire life.
The Relationship Between Size and Strength, Part 1
It always bugs me when someone says that there is no relationship between size and strength.
Beginner Follow-Up Program
Here’s the exemplary monthly plan with two trainings of the beginning lift operators:
Are Plank Exercises for You?
One of the latest rages in the fitness industry is the plank exercise. In essence, plank refers to maintaining your body in a straight line from head to toe, as for example, in the up position of a push-up.
Why Bodybuilding Is NOT for Athletes
The biggest problem I come across with athletes is their current training regime. Everyone wants to train like a bodybuilder. I don’t know if it’s the current trend in muscle magazines or misinformation, or maybe the athletes simply don’t have the proper goals in mind. Nevertheless, changes need to be made.