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Will Creatine Help You?

Creatine is, without a doubt, one of the most popular supplements touted by bros on the market today (at least that one can legally use). Bodybuilders and other athletes use it to improve work capacity and increase size. In fact, Froiland et. al. found that about 37% of NCAA athletes take…

Contrast Training: How it Works, and How to Use It for Impressive Gains

I'm gonna let you in on a little training secret: it's called contrast training. It's used by elite athletes to improve power output, and the results are pretty impressive. Contrast training, also known as PAP (post activation potentiation), is the pairing of heavy strength ex…

Changing up Your Rep Scheme

If you seek out nearly any fitness-related website for information regarding rep schemes, you'll see something like this: For size, do 3-4 sets of 8-12 repetitions For strength, do multiple sets of 5 of fewer repetitions at a heavy weight For muscular endurance, do sets of 20 or more …

Channeling the Mindset of a Champion

You can tell he's a beast, because his shirt says so. This week, a friend of mine Russell is doing a guest post. Russell has been a strength & conditioning coach and personal trainer for the past 6 years, specializing in Olympic weightlifting for 3 of those years. Starting at a mo…

3 Reasons Why Your Poor Mobility is Holding You Back

So many lifters are willing to complain ad nauseam about their lack of mobility, but very few of those people are willing to get up and fix it. Most individuals would prefer to deadlift heavy and get their heart rates up than spend about 10-15 minutes addressing their muscular imbalances …

Your Grip Strength is Limiting Your Other Lifts

Have you ever played that game at an arcade where you squeeze these metal handles as hard as you can and it determines how strong your grip is? One of the most understated elements of training is, in my opinion, grip strength. Whether you're gripping a baseball bat, holding onto the p…

Why Comparing Yourself to Others Can Hinder Your Progress

Competition is an important part of any sport. If you want to be the best, you have to see what those around you are doing and strive to work even harder than them. When done in excess, however, comparing yourself to other individuals may be counterproductive. Social media has made it eas…

The Ab Exercise You're Doing Incorrectly

You work these muscles 23,000 times a day, on average, but chances are, you're using them incorrectly. In our sleep-deprived, high stress lifestyles, many of us are breathing incorrectly several thousand times a day, everyday over the course of our lives. The core musculature like the…

Training Simple for Maximum Results

There is a seemingly infinite list of exercises to work any given muscle group. With websites like YouTube, it's pretty easy to find new exercises on the internet and feel inclined to add them into your routine. The question, however, is are these circus tricks necessary to take your …

The Biggest Mistake You're Making in the Gym

When you walk into any fitness center, where do you see the most people? Most likely they're all crowded around the treadmills, stationary bikes and ellipticals. The common misconception is that you can achieve the body that you want and get in great shape by spending half an hour to …

Why You Need to Have a Big Butt

Having a big butt is certainly preferable for models twerking in rap videos, but it's also extremely important in athletic performance. Weather you're a soccer player, a running back or just simply working out to maintain a healthy lifestyle, you need to make sure you're givin…

Perfecting Your Push-up

On paper, the push-up seems like a very simple exercise. Surely we've perfected it after all of those years of high school gym class, right? Truth be told, I see a lot of people who execute this exercise incorrectly and inefficiently. While it may seem self-explanatory, there are actu…

Step Away From the Bar...Try a Sandbag

Conventional gyms are fully stocked with machines from wall-to-wall, racks of dumbbells and bars with an array of plates to load them. What many globo gyms lack, however, are the more non-traditional items. Toys like tires, sleds, and sandbags provide a whole new stimulus for your brain a…

Plyometrics and Power

Looking to get stronger, fitter, faster, and more powerful? Plyometrics, or fast, explosive movements, are a great way to improve your overall fitness levels and get your heart rate up. Box jumps, jumping lunges, brad jumps and clapping push-ups are just a few examples of plyometric movem…

Squats: the King of All Exercises

The most aggravating fallacy I hear is "squats are bad for your knees." No, you know what's bad for your knees? Squatting improperly . Sitting is also really bad for your knees, but that's another discussion entirely. CrossFitter Miranda Oldroyd doing a heavy back squat.…

Work Your Weaknesses

Weaknesses--we all have them.  Unfortunately, no one can be an athletic superhero who excels at everything. Everyone has one thing (or multiple things) that gives them knots in their stomachs just thinking about it. For me, it's rowing or running. Whatever that "thing" may b…

What is CrossFit?

Within the last year or two, CrossFit gyms have been popping up everywhere. But what is this fitness craze that is rapidly gaining popularity? CrossFit defines itself as being "constantly varied, high-intensity, functional movement,” and their specialty is "not specializing.&quo…

Training for Strength vs. Training for Size

The process of muscle growth is called hypertrophy . However, based on your training, your muscles will adapt accordingly. There are two types of hypertrophy of skeletal muscle: sarcoplasmic hypertrophy and myofibrillar hypertrophy : Bodybuilder Ronnie Coleman Sarcoplasmic hypertrophy  is…

Isolation vs. Compound Exercises

There are two different types of strength-based exercises: isolation exercises and compound movements.  Isolation exercises  focus on one specific muscle; this can be useful for a few different purposes. Rehabilitation of a muscle can be facilitated with isolation exercises. If you have m…