I’ll be the first to admit it: I hate single leg exercises. Lunges, split squats, step-ups, they’re all torture as far as I’m concerned. But I hate them a lot less – and value them a lot more – after a year-plus of working at Cressey Sports Performance and understanding their importance in any training …
Right Link/Wrong Link: Tweaking Single Leg Exercises for Hypertrophy Read More »
A strong upper back is arguably THE most important physical attribute for any strength endeavor. You can have monstrously strong legs, but without a strong back, you’ll never squat or deadlift impressive weight. And no matter how big your arms are chest are, you’ll still look like a weenie in a t-shirt if your lats and …
4 Ways to Sneak More Upper Back Volume into Your Workouts Read More »
I had a good talk with a friend of mine the other day on my drive home. My former training partner and roommate during grad school, we were both pretty darn strong, but couldn’t be more different. He was simple, I was complex. He liked repetition, I liked variety. He asked me straight up, “Do you …
Since I started working at Cressey Sports Performance about a year ago, I’ve learned more than I ever could have imagined about the human shoulder, and there’s a lot more to learn. The knowledge I’ve gained has helped me better assess clients for shoulder dysfunction and write better exercise programs to improve and sustain shoulder …
MyFitnessPal: 5 Moves for Strong and Healthy Shoulders Read More »
Powerlifting is a tough sport that will beat you into the ground if you let it. Squatting, bench pressing and deadlifting maximal weights isn’t exactly comfortable. Like Greg Robins says, powerlifting is an extreme sport and you have to be a bit crazy to compete at a high level. But what’s great about powerlifting is …
On a daily basis, I’m asked by at least one skinny high school athlete, “How do I gain weight?” Miguel Aragoncillo and I have often joked that we just need to lock these guys in Chipotle and not let them leave til they’ve gained 20 pounds each, but then we’d have to wait in line …
4 Mistakes Skinny Guys Make when Trying to Gain Weight Read More »
Lower-back pain is a problem for thousands of people, athletes and average Joe’s alike. That said, building a stronger lower back can be problematic, especially if you’re hurting. But to lift big weights, you need a strong lower back, right? Well, yes and no. There’s a bit of an art and a science to lower …
If you’ve exercised at any point in your life, chances are you’ve been duped by at least one phony fitness trend. In part 1 of this post, I covered four fitness trends that tricked me at one point or another. Here are four more: 1. NEGLECTING YOUR QUADS Somewhere along the line, it became cool to …
The Trend is Dead: 8 Fitness Trends that Didn’t Pan Out, Part 2 Read More »
I hate math. The first “C” I ever got in school was in calculus my sophomore year of high school. I’ve always enjoyed writing, but math was just never my thing. I still hate math, but I’ve learned to add in 45-pound increments pretty well. And despite my constant need for a calculator to do …
3 Reasons to Use Percentage-Based Training Programs Read More »
Have you ever been so in the zone that you felt unstoppable? Or so flustered that you couldn’t perform the simplest of tasks, no matter how hard you tried? We’ve all been on either end of this performance spectrum. We relish the former and cringe at the latter. It often feels like we have no …
