Triples in the shirt is hands down the best exercise to increase your bench. What sucks is that they are hard as shit to master. They need to be completed on one breath. I don't know how many times I have told lifters to do this exercise. But what I usually hear from the lifter is, "why?" Because I said so, that is why!
While at the Syracuse seminar, several of us chatted about the gyms and teams that were always kicking major ass. They all had the same thing in common—attitude. This attitude spread like wildfire throughout the gym and equated to success, BIG success.
The body doesn’t know whether you're doing higher-faster-sports, Westside, HIT, swiss ball, kettlebell, or any other system. It only knows stimulation and recovery.
After you spend an appreciable number of years in the weight room and only the weight room, you start to really look for ways to spice up your training program and get some results.
We don’t know the guys who run EliteFTS.com. What we do know from reading the articles and asking questions is that they have helped us become better strength students.
Aside from the Atlas Stones, the tire flip could be one of the most recognizable strongman events in the sport. However, it is probably the one event most incorrectly performed by athletes and most improperly used by strength coaches.
I’ve never met “Big Bad Dave Tate.” I have never even met Dave “Fuckin” Tate. Supposedly, he is some terrifying lunatic who would throw you through a wall for squatting less than 800 pounds in his presence or suck the brains from your skull if you looked at him wrong. At least that’s what I have read on the internet.
Drum roll please…..Ladies and gentlemen, get ready for the myth, the man, the legend – Dave Tate! I am going to give you readers an overview of the phenomenal presentation put on this past weekend by Dave at Total Performance Sports in Boston, MA.
Spend a few minutes listening to people and gurus talk about speed training nowadays and it shouldn't be too hard to understand why the average person can leave a speed training conversation with a billion more questions then they had when they started.
Getting ready for a big meet is stressful. There are a lot of things to consider, especially when using equipment. I am not going to write out all of my workouts, but I am going to give you a few points that I have learned over the last 20 years, and hopefully you can avoid some of my mistakes. Then again we are a bunch of hard headed powerlifters so who knows. This is based on a 16 week program.
As covered in my last article, the dynamic effort (DE) session is dedicated to speed. Max effort (ME) is dedicated to huge weights and re-writing the record books every session you train. My approach is a bit different from the traditional Westside approach.
Almost a year ago, Matt Bash and I put our collective heads together and were thinking of different ways to approach our weak point in the deadlift; the lockout.
As I traverse the bumpy road that leads to elite level lifting, I’ve pondered what things can hasten the journey. Most trainees can rapidly progress from being a beginner to an intermediate level lifter, but many often plateau and never move out of the intermediate phase. This article is designed for the intermediate level lifter, to help them kick-start their process and get back on the road to elite lifting!
We get a lot of questions regarding how to choose openers for powerlifting meets and there are a lot of ways to look at this.
Since most veteran powerlifters have their own way of doing things and will probably never read this article, we are not going to address them. What I am going to do is address the lifter that is entering the first powerlifting meet.
I started lifting weights at the age of 13. I recall the first day like it was yesterday! It was 2 weeks before 8th grade ended and I trekked down into my older brother’s room where he had a K-Mart bench, small straight bar and adjustable dumbbells. I carried Arnold’s Encyclopedia with me and followed the program of supersets. I supersetted everything! It was hilarious.
If you’ve been training long enough, chances are that just about everything you do is routine. Possibly the worst part of having a routine is monotony and boredom, especially when it comes to warming-up; you know it’s important, but damn if it isn’t downright boring!
I’ve wanted to write this article for awhile and there have been several questions on the Q/A that touched on this subject. For those not familiar with the term “deload” by basic definition of it is this: to take a break from extreme training.
A lot of my tips are just repeats from everyone else but I think they get overlooked while everyone is looking for the next gear craze or shortcut. Some are gear related and some are raw work.
Dan White had a lot of trouble gaining weight through his years of wrestling. As a freshman in high school he barely weighed 90 lbs and wrestled in the 103 lb weight class. As a sophomore he finally gained enough muscle and was able to wrestle at 103 lbs with no problems making weight.
The number 3 is held in reverence by many people. Of course, the title of this article is in reference to the Roman Empire and where would we be without them?
Last night I closed the doors to my strength and conditioning facility for the last time. After over ten years in the same town and the same building, it was time for me to move on to new challenges.
One of the biggest things that I struggled with during my deadlift training was my grip. This was never a big deal when I was lighter (under 250lbs), but as I became bigger my grip began to suffer.
Coming up with new articles each month can be a challenging task and coming up with quality information can be even harder. After a couple hundred articles I find myself repeating myself time and time again.
In the past two articles, we have given you ideas and progressions for strengthening your torso. As you know by now, strong abs isn’t all that is needed.
How things have changed. Five years ago, all you ever read were articles on how to use your gear, how to use your bench shirt, squat suit, knee wraps, etc. Now people want articles on how to train without gear. Very strange.
The past couple of months have been the busiest of my life. My business is growing at a rapid pace and there are many “growing pains” that go along with this growth.
There is a lot of confusion on how a fighter or grappler should train. Managing their time between training in the ring / mat and in the gym (or out of the gym) becomes important.
What is torso training? Torso training is strengthening your body from just above the hips to just below the chest. Training your torso involves many movements, but can be done effectively in just a few minutes, 3-4 times per week.
I’ve got another story for you, and it always brings back some of my favorite times in the gym. Actually, I have countless “favorite times” in the gym but this one is special to me, but honestly, all these memories are special to me.
This plan is not only mobility work but also includes some very basic pre-habitation work for many of the most common strength training injuries (pec tears, sore elbows, knees, lower back and shoulders).
[Editor’s Note: A lot of things that Glenn mentions in this article are his opinion and will not sit well with purists. Please note that this article is his opinion. For example, Travis Mash and Joe Bayles have both had success with the Zercher Squat. Also, weight releasers are extremely useful. But Glenn also makes some valid points, too. So take everything in stride. – Jim Wendler]