Core Concepts In Core Training [Part 1]
The need for core training has reached mythical proportions. Ask a personal trainer and they’ll tell you… The most in-demand objective is the banishment of weak core muscles. A plank …
Benefits of Foam Rolling According to NEW Research
If you’ve been here a while, you know I’ve railed against foam rolling. Not the tool or its uses but rather, over-reliance of it. Which is often the result of the benefits …
Psychological Stress and Injury Restriction
We’ve been yammering on about how to come back to the gym when the dust settles. But today I want to talk about the other side of that coin. Namely, …
Returning to Training After a Break
Time away from the gym can be a frustrating experience, especially when forced. And as difficult as it is, returning to training after a break needs to be met with …
Rise of the Machines vs Free Weights
Today we’ll dip our toes into the rushing torrent that is comparing free weights to machines. It’s a debate that’s stood the test of time, firmly dividing gyms into an …
NEW Science of How Sitting Maims Your Health
How does sitting affect health and how much exercise do we need to counteract the effects of inactivity? Are 10,000 steps a day really enough to preserve health and beat …
Shoulder Pain and a Cautionary Tale on the Use of MRI
Shoulder pain is extremely common and can occur for a variety of reasons. Yet many people are quick to believe that structural abnormalities are the primary cause of pain and …
Strike First and Strike Hard
Yesterday we talked about the conservation of variation concept. Continuing on, we’ll go over some quick and easy ways to avoid unnecessary variation that can stall training progress. Specifically, we’ll …
When Best To Fail
Here’s an interesting follow-up to last weeks post on training to failure. So far we’ve covered sets to fail versus proximity from failure and what that means for fatigue. What …
Training To Failure Is Training To Fail
Fresh out of the lab, we have a new study comparing the effects of strength training to failure or without failure on trained participants. The aim of this study was to …
Should We Train to Failure or a Relative Intensity?
Should we train to failure, or is it better to leave a couple of reps in the tank? We know we should be training hard, but what’s hard enough or too …
Resting Between Sets, What Do We Know?
I’m often asked how long we should rest between sets and as always, the answer isn’t exactly black and white. Fortunately, there is a lot of research in this area …
Shots Fired
I’m often asked about what can be done to speed up recovery. More often than not I find myself responding with… ”Recovery from what?” Because we also need to know what …