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One of the most impressive events taking place this weekend at the Olympia World Fitness Expo in Orlando is the America’s Strongest series—America’s Strongest Man and America’s Strongest Woman, presented by the Strongman Corporation. The competitions cover six different events with two weight...

The Problem You’re captured by hostile terrorists and held captive in a large jail cell with just a bunk bed in the corner, a barbell, and plenty of plates. The commander informs you that you’re free to lift weights during your captivity, but you can only perform ten barbell exercises. If...

Silly weekend warriors. Everybody knows that squats are superior to leg presses right? They're harder to do, require more coordination, and just rate higher on the exercise badass scale than something that resembles a plate-loaded La-Z-Boy recliner. Don't these douchebags read Testosterone ...

Bret_ContrerasElite Coach First, I apologize if I left out one of your favorite exercises. Don’t take it personally. I performed these experiments in my garage, and while I have one of the baddest garage gyms in Arizona, I don’t have a lot of machines. So you pec-deck folks can drop me some...

Every guy has his own theory about which exercises are the best and which exercises suck. Whether we’re analyzing the biomechanics of an exercise (not very likely), “feeling the burn” (more likely), or simply doing a ton of sets and seeing how sore we get over the next few days (ding, ding...

It doesn’t matter who you are, or what your goals are, there are going to be times when your strength training has to take a back seat. It could be for a week, a month, or perhaps even a year or more. There are going to be seasons in life when you simply have less time and attention to devote to...

Now and again, when scrolling through your social media feed, you see an exercise that makes you stand up and take notice. The Swole Press is one of those exercises. How can you not with a movement called the Swole Press? This exercise is a hybrid clean and press performed with a dumbbell and...

The leg press gets a lot of love and hate. On the advantage side is the fixed range of motion, and your stable trunk takes core stability out of the equation. These two factors allow lifters to move massive weights. The fixed ROM and increased stability are a godsend for lifters who suffer from...

Chest: Barbell Bench Press Ok, I predict one of two scenarios happening after reading the bench press listed as my favorite chest exercise. Be honest…it either completely pissed you off or you are saying to yourself “of course the bench press is the best chest builder”. In my opinion...

It would be almost impossible to boil strength down to a single measurable in order to even suggest being “stronger” then an NFL athlete. Strength is a vague term that is often hard to define. However, in the gym we look at strength in numerical terms, most commonly weight and reps. If you...

A detailed look at the most potent muscle building exercises, as well as a bodypart by bodypart breakdown. Stop wasting time in the gym and start getting results! A workout is made up of only so many sets and exercises. Constructing a workout without a purpose, and without the use of the best...

When an athlete is looking for gains in explosiveness, it generally comes down to two things: Choose better parents or get stronger first. Too bad the first option is out. This leaves us with the second. If you want to get faster, jump higher, and be more powerful, get stronger first. But after...

WHY THE LEG PRESS? Before you start droning on about how the leg press doesn't transfer to sports performance and how it doesn't build strength, let's draw some distinctions here. There's a difference between strength and hypertrophy. There are plenty of guys who look perfectly average who can...

THE SCRAPE THE RACK BENCH PRESS This exercise helps emphasize the contraction of the pecs (you get a much better squeeze when you both push up and against the pins) while reducing the involvement of the shoulders. The triceps are also more easily activated. But even more interesting is that by...

When it comes to pain-free shoulder stability when bench pressing, sometimes locking into a range of motion and position can be challenging. But using the right tools can fix this problem. There's a reason many smart sports rehab pros are gravitating toward kettlebells for movement remediation...

Follow these rules and you just can't fail at adding muscle and strength. So why don't we see more people using this approach? Because people love shiny new things and have the attention spans of wasps. At some point, you must make a decision. What matters most to you when it comes to training...

This table lists the most probable issue causing each sticking point on the bench press. Now, there could be something more complex going on, or a technical issue that's more unique to you. But most of the time, I've found that strengthening the sticking point area will solve the problem. So...

The dumbbell squeeze press goes by a few names, like the hex or champagne press, but they all mean the same thing—more gains for your chest. Part dumbbell chest press and the part dumbbell flye, the squeeze press creates muscular tension from the get-go for juicy muscle-building gains. Lifting...

Most guys do some form of paused bench press... if they aren't ego lifters. Bring the bar down, pause at the chest, do some repping. Sweet. It's great in theory, but the application is sometimes lacking. Where? The pause itself. The whole point of the pause is to reduce the rebound from the...

There is a lot of love and hate that surrounds the leg press. Some think it’s not very functional because you’re sitting on your butt and pressing, which resembles nothing done outside the gym. Other lifters swear by it as it allows them to lift heavy weights and build muscle without the...