Skepticism in Training
One of my great passions in life is spending time in the gym lifting heavy weights.
Our Salute
“The Nation today needs men who think in terms of service to their country and not in terms of their country’s debt to them.”
–General Omar Bradley
The 10 Commandments of Conditioning
No matter what sport you compete in, you’ll probably agree that conditioning plays a huge factor in how an athlete performs. If athletes aren’t conditioned properly, they’ll never achieve peak performance in their sport.
The Angry Coach: Top Three General Mistakes
Just something to think about when you're in the middle of the learning process – like we all still are.
Lee Gerney on Building the Perfect Home Gym
One of the best parts of working for EliteFTS (besides the diet advice from Dave) is helping people create their own home gyms.
Biomechanical Analysis of the Deadlift
The deadlift can be considered as one of the best tests of overall body strength. It is a multi joint movement that in simple terms involves picking up a barbell from the floor and standing to the erect position.
Training Principles: The Science Behind Improving Athletic Performance
There are many different schools of thought, each with their own ideas on how to train athletes in order to increase athletic performance. So how does one know which particular program will work for any given athlete?
EFS Classic: The Big Rant
I am usually an upbeat person and I love fitness/strength/conditioning and recently got involved in powerlifting since attending an elitefts™ seminar.
Do the Pros Look to Little League for Advice on Pitching?
In the studies conducted on youth and adult pitchers, it was established that most injuries occur from overuse.
EFS Classic: My Epiphany of Strength
This article is a culmination of my 35 years of learning about strength, including the cliff notes to all my training logs and a brief look inside my mind.
EFS Classic: Top Five Lifts for Football
If you’re a football coach or a strength coach for football, check this out. It may give you some ideas.
Keck's Column: HIIT is the Best, or So They Say
Team elitefts™ Columnist Michael Keck takes on HIIT training,
Jeremy Frey at UGSS
Check it out as Jeremy Frey gets prepared for the 2012 XPC Pro/Elite Coalition meet
elitefts™ Classic: Athletic Preparation or Destruction
The Process of Attaining Sports Mastery (PASM) is a multi-year and tremendously complex endeavor. The PASM encompasses the training and development of every conceivable physical, psychological, technical, and tactical component of sport performance.
EFS Classic: Coaching Axioms
Recently, I was able to observe a high school football team lifting. While the coaches sat in the corner and talked, the athletes proceeded to do their version of a power clean.
The MBA Meathead: Make Yourself Valuable
Today, you compete not only against the peers you see every day, but against computers, freelancers and potential replacements on other continents.
Tales of a Fit Mom: Powerlifting, Parenthood and Staying the Course
The plan will keep you on the path until the indicators indicate taking a fork in the road.
Discipline and Regret
I was first introduced to powerlifting in 1983 by my sixth grade geography teacher, Mr. Spero Tshontikidis. In addition to teaching, Mr. Tshontikidis was a competitive powerlifter in the ADFPA.
How Lil Wayne Screwed Up Pulcinella's Weekend
If you have any similar type stories you can post so Steve won't feel like he is the only one.
Plyometric and Strength Program for Provincial Men’s Basketball Team
The following plyometric and strength training program is designed for use during the pre-competition phase
Strongman Training–The Iron Sport Method
A lot of internet trainers write a lot of articles about strength training, but really have no personal success in the strength world.
For the Coach From the Coach: Create a Winning Environment in Your Weigh...
To me, the training environment doesn’t change. All the expectations and styles are present and consistent with every team.
EFS Classic: You Can’t Handle the Truth
If you've been around this industry long enough, you surely heard more lies told and myths espoused than you could ever remember.
Want to Train Here? I Need to See Your Resume First
Recently, I had several inquiries about training and memberships at my gym.
Heavy Music for Heavy Lifting
I’ve been asked approximately a thousand times about what kind of music is good for training and what I would recommend.
Introducing the MBA Meathead
I am here to reinforce that powerlifters are much more than the stereotype presented by tootsie-rolling Planet Fatness marketers and their ilk.
Looking Back on What Worked This Summer
Looking back, I think it was a highly successful summer of training.
The Company You Keep
They say you can tell a lot about a person by the company he keeps. If you associate with positive, motivated, driven people it can only rub off on you and make you more successful in anything you do.
Under The Bar: It's NOT what you know
There are many lifters out there I like to refer to as “leapfrogs.”
Things I Would Do Differently
When I put a post about needing article ideas, I got some real good ideas from a bunch of guys. The one I kept getting the most was, "What would you do differently?" So, here is a list of things I would do differently if I could go back in time. Please keep in mind that this is just my
The Road to a National Championship from a Physical Preparation Perspective
The individual training sessions were designed with an overall emphasis on restoration between training, practice and games.
Under The Bar: Can Aggression Be Good?
Can aggression be good? Can this serve your training or business in any positive way? If so, how can and should it be used? How often and by whom?
Sledgehammer Conditioning for Athletes and Weekend Warriors
The tool of demolition workers and superheroes.
Finding Your Motivation: Strength Training for Survival
Every rep felt like I was defending myself all over again.
Tips and Tricks for Rehabbing and Preventing Common Sports Injuries
When your training is going well, your body is able to recover better.
VERY Brutal Leg Training
Have you have ever wondered what a Mountain Dog leg training session looks like?
Starting a Powerlifting Club
My father once told me that a good teammate is someone who can carry his own weight and some of yours too when you need him to.
3 Things You'd Better Know if You Want Strong(er) Triceps
Kicking back some thoughts on tricep training…
Saving Face: Effective Spotting of The Bench Press
At this point, I began asking myself WTF!? and wondering if this is a regular thing.
Then I woke up and realized that I come from a sport where knee wraps appear under bench shirts, then disappear, then reappear only to have never been there in the first place. The point here is that unless you were there, you have no
The Rocking Boat to Recovery
As a powerlifting coach and professional clinical social worker, I used to define “recovery” in two different ways depending on what hat I was wearing at the time.
The Most Important Supplement You Aren't Taking
Ask any real lifter and he will agree upon the importance of max effort work in the can.
Advanced Squat Cycle
I had the opportunity to sit down and talk to Paul Childress recently and talk about how he sets up his squat cycles before a meet.
Some Things Never Change
When you get rid of the smoke and mirrors, you always, always, always come back to the basics.
Youth Sport Training Considerations
Setting the stage for sport success when it counts- begins when it doesn’t.
Why Monster Trucks Shouldn't Be Driven in the Express Lane
An exercise or training program’s success or failure is rooted in the execution of its work.
Constructing a Strength and Conditioning Program for College Hockey
When developing the strength and explosiveness program for the University of Pittsburgh men’s hockey team, there were several factors I had to take into consideration as a coach. Hopefully my experience thus far will help you in similar situations.
RDLs Are For Everyone
Whether you are a strength athlete, powerlifter, Olympic lifter, or just into general fitness, the RDL is one of the best exercises around.
An Inside Look at VIP Training and Strength Sport
The faults and failures of commercial gyms were holding him back.
How I Train
Anyway, this is what’s been working like a charm for me. If anyone has any questions, I’d be happy to clarify whatever you need.
Club Sports Conundrum: Part II
The solutions to these problems are as multi-faceted as the nature of the problems themselves
Five Ways to Improve 'On the Field' Speed
Not only does speed kill, it wins games and wins championships.
Club Sports Condundrum
The current climate of club sport, in combination with school sport, in Southern California is one in which the majority of athletes are being placed under a degree of physical stress that their bodies are unsuited to handle.
The Greatest Program in the World
Choosing the “right” program can be an intimidating decision. The truth is, this might not be as critical a decision as you think.
The Ten Commandments of Athletic Development
Here are the ten commandments of athletic development as I see it, independent of which training system you’ve chosen to follow.
Under The Bar: Tips of the Week
You don’t have to negotiate anything you don’t want to and if it is going to kill your profit/productivity/culture then walk.