45-degree torso holds have become some of our favorite positional strength movements over the past few years. Rather than isolating the abdominals, these “core” movements challenge the hip flexors and test the athlete’s or lifter’s ability to respect the length-tension relationship of the abdominals. If you’re looking to build core strength, you’d be doing yourself …
Open-ended sets done for as many reps as possible (AMRAP) can be used strategically as a form of autoregulation – that is, a way to adjust your training difficulty on a given day based on how good (or bad) you’re feeling. When I’m programming for our lifters at The Strength House, I typically include AMRAP …
Nothing good comes easily. But not every good thing has to be incredibly hard either. When it comes to nutrition, most people don’t falter because they hate the taste of healthy food or they don’t know what they should eat. They struggle because they make eating healthy way too hard. I remember when I first …
When it Comes to Nutrition, Take the Easy Way Out Read More »
I recently recorded podcasts with Casey Lee’s 3 Things Podcast and Ian MacKenzie of Average Bros Fitness. I think you’ll enjoy them both. 3 Things Podcast: All Things Hypertrophy Casey recently finished The Strength House’s 12-week hypertrophy program, so it was only fitting that we discuss some of the things people forget to take care of …
Appearances on “3 Things” and “Average Bros Fitness” Podcasts Read More »
Four-letter words are usually the ones people don’t like to be called. But in the case of lifters of a certain age, the most dreaded word is three letters long. “Old” isn’t exactly a curse word, but when it comes to lifting heavy things, the window of opportunity to make progress closes sooner rather than …
When I first started getting into lifting, all I wanted to do was gain as much muscle as possible. On the surface, I was training to get better at baseball, but deep down, I needed the confidence that comes with getting physically bigger. So for the first 4ish years of my training career, hypertrophy was …
Like any sport, powerlifting lends itself to arguing about methods and principles. It’s a sport where many methods work, some work better than others, and coaches and lifters will fight to the death to defend their preferred methods. That said, block periodization, a specific style of strength training planning, has both its super fans and …
If there’s one thing we can learn from high-level bodybuilders, it’s that hitting a muscle from slightly different angles can help spark new muscle growth. Exercise novelty doesn’t equal guaranteed hypertrophy, but if subtle variety keeps you motivated and helps you discover exercises that get you a really strong contraction and quality soreness in the …
When you ask most coaches for advice, they tend to fall into two categories: The “This Worked for Me, So It’ll Work for Everybody” coach who only knows one way and proudly denounces all other methods as inferior The “It Depends” coach who refuses to provide any actionable advice, but rather goes on a useless …
Better sleep is at the top of the list of things that you don’t truly appreciate until it’s taken away from you. Parents and business owners – two clubs that I’ve joined since I wrote the article, 8 Tips for a Better Night’s Sleep – know better than anybody that many people take sleep for …
