When I first started personal training in 2012, breathing drills were all the rage in every avenue of fitness. You couldn’t read a training-related article without the opening line being some derivative of, “Did you know that we take over 20,000 breaths per day?” Belly breathing was the key to maximal strength, the diaphragm was …
Greg Nuckols of Stronger by Science once said, “If you need your warm-up routine to be more than 20 minutes, you need to be in physical therapy, not in the gym.” I’m paraphrasing, but people tend to get carried away with this whole warming up thing, especially if you’re healthy and injury-free. I’m speaking specifically …
The warm up is the salad of exercise. It’s not very exciting, but you know it’s good for you and you should probably have it before you get to the meat and potatoes. Luckily, with the increased popularity of functional training, a thorough dynamic warm up is commonplace in most gyms. But there’s a good chance you’re …
In part 1 of this multi-part series that answers the question, “How deep should you squat?” I discussed how your training goals will influence how deep you need to squat. This week’s Technique Tuesday dives further into the physical limitations that will determine how deep you can or should squat. Spoiler alert: good coaching is ALWAYS …
Technique Tuesday: How Deep Should You Squat? Part 2 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 …
Here’s the bad news: I had so many problems with my squat that I could break them into a 3-part article series (read part 1 and part 2 here). Here’s the good news: I fixed most of them and want to share the knowledge I gained along the way. After years of lifting and coaching, …
How I Cured My Squat Woes (so You Can Too) – Part 3 Read More »
We’re best known for training baseball players at Cressey Sports Performance, so not everyone knows that we also run a kickass bootcamp-style group exercise program called CSP Strength Camps. I credit much of my growth as a coach to shadowing Strength Camp coordinator George Kalantzis during bootcamp as an intern. He taught me that personal training is one …
ThePTDC – How to Design Better Warm Ups for Small Group Training Programs Read More »
Squat depth is a funny thing. When people start lifting, they usually squat high. They don’t know how low they’re supposed to go, or they’re scared if they go too low, they won’t be able to stand back up. Then, once they read or hear that you “must” squat ass-to-grass, squat depth is everything. Like, …
Stack.com – Improve Your Squat Depth with 5 Easy Warm-Up Exercises Read More »
The next installment of my Best of 2014 series is a collection of my top-viewed videos of the year. I’m certainly at no risk of going viral like Charlie the Unicorn but with my partnership with STACK Media, my videos have been able to reach more viewers than in years past. Check it out: FOAM …
When it comes to warming up, most people fall into one of two groups: the group that spends 45 minutes rolling and stretching everything, or the group that does a couple arm circles and says “let’s go!” Neither group is making the best use of their time. I used to belong to the first group, but …
Stack.com – Flexibility Fillers: 3 Exercises to Make the Most of Your Rest Periods Read More »
