It’s that time of year again at Bonvec Strength. The time of year where work is at its busiest, we’re traveling for the holidays, and I haven’t written a substantial blog in weeks.
As my way of saying “thank you” and “sorry” at the same time, I’ll be recapping the year with a handful of Best of 2015 posts over the next week. Here are the five most-viewed articles of 2015, according to number of page views.
In a world filled with athletes and lifters who deal with extension-based movement issues, the lats are a muscle group that can pose serious problems. But we also live in a world full of weak, unaccomplished lifters who have no idea how to use their upper back effectively while performing the big barbell lifts.
This post explains why we can’t simply label an entire muscle group as “bad” and why the lats MUST be used properly if you want to be a good lifter.
2. 4 RULES FOR CHOOSING ACCESSORY EXERCISES
If you’re a true beginner, you can simply squat, bench and deadlift all the time and continue to get stronger. But the stronger you get, the more you’ll need to rely on accessory exercises to help drive up your main lifts.
This article explains the how and the why behind choosing accessory exercises to keep getting stronger.
3. THE TREND IS DEAD: 8 FITNESS TRENDS THAT DIDN’T PAN OUT, PART 1
Sometimes it’s fun to reflect and see how far we’ve come. I’ve heard many successful people say that if you don’t look back at what you were doing 5 to 10 years ago and smack your forehead, then you’re not making any progress.
In this 2-part series, I take a critical look at some of the most egregious fitness trends that, fortunately, didn’t work out in the end.
4. 20 FRUSTRATED FITNESS THOUGHTS
For better or worse, the internet is often a diary for people’s random thoughts. This virtual sounding board makes for a lot of great introspection as well as a lot of useless crap. That said, I was hesitant to write this post at first, but it actually turned out pretty good and seemed to connect with a lot of readers.
I see a lot of things that frustrate me every single day. This off-the-cuff post helped me get my thoughts out and probably prevented me from handing out a few Stone Cold stunners that day.
5. 3 CRUCIAL LESSONS FROM LIFTING WITHOUT A BELT
Perhaps the most important training revelation I had in 2015 was the importance of spending a huge chunk of my training NOT wearing a belt. It paid off big time at my latest powerlifting meet, so I think we’re on to something.
This experience led to three crucial lessons, all of which I’ve been able to pass on to other lifters and clients.
UP NEXT: BOOKS
In the next Best of 2015 installment, I’ll break down the best books I’ve read this year and the big takeaways from each one.