training

3 Strategies to Train Through Shoulder Pain Live with an icepack on your shoulder? These tactics for training through and around injuries (while also rehabbing) are mandatory. Shoulder injuries are common, but there's no need to miss workouts or forge ahead despite the pain. Here are three...

The Workout Stress Test Burnout is real and it's holding you back. Here's how to identify it, prevent it, and cure it. A must-read for hardcore lifters and athletes. We’ve all been there at least once. Training is going well. You’re making gains and can’t wait to get more. You’re on a roll. Then...

Effort vs. Volume vs. Load: What's the best way to build muscle? Effort, load, or volume-based training? Here's what you need to know. Note: I examined effort-based hypertrophy training 610 in Part 1 of this series. In the next installment, we’ll look at load-based training. But first, let’s dig...

Bodybuilding, powerlifting, CrossFit, running: Which one will mess you up the most and how can you prevent it? Which type of training causes the most physical damage? It's one of the most passionately battled debates in sports medicine. With the recent popularization of CrossFit, the fiery...

You may think you're training hard, but are you really selecting the right weight for the rep range you're working in? This study highlights the important differences in weight selection in people who train by themselves versus those who train under the supervision of a coach or personal...

Hitting plateaus is part of strength training. It doesn't happen with newbies, but once you're more experienced you will hit sticking points. The need for variance must increase as your training age does. Below is a list of methods to help overcome these barriers, many right out of Siff and...

Make Better Gains with 30 Minute Workouts TAGS BODYBUILDING, TRAINING HERE'S WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW... With a smart training plan, you can cut your gym time in half and increase your gains at the same time. Intense workouts done for three days a week with greater discipline, focus, and...

HERE'S WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW... Training for an extreme endurance event requires you to throw away all hopes of orthopedic health. Nearly 90% of triathletes are "broken" in one way or another. But some weight training could fix that. Triathletes must master a few key movements to stay healthy...

HERE'S WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW... High frequency training (HFT) can consist of utilizing the same exercise(s) anywhere from 3-5 sessions per week to 15-20 sessions per week. Pretty much anything and everything works for beginners, but HFT works for everybody from beginners to very advanced...

Nothin' but the Truth! During your time in the gym, you've probably noticed that the same training questions are discussed amongst athletes and fitness buffs day in and day out. You know the questions I'm talking about: "What exercises will shape and tone my muscles because I don't want to get...

6 X 6 USING 70% OF 1RM WITH SHORT REST This is one of the best set/rep schemes for size gains. In fact, it's one of the first. Legendary bodybuilding coach Vince Gironda called this loading scheme "the Mr. Olympia routine" because it was one he relied on when training Larry Scott, the very first...

There are volume proponents and intensity proponents in the strength world. The Volume proponents argue that doing multiple sets is the optimal way to train, while the intensity guys insist that one set taken to the limit is more than enough. The fact is, both philosophies will build muscle and...

To continually make progress, you must develop a set of training principles that keep you moving forward. The number of principles that make up a sound training program are few. Here's what they are and how to apply them to your own goals in the gym. 1 Set the right goal to begin with. It needs...

You often hear that you have to balance the ratio of pushing to pulling and upper body to lower body to achieve a balanced physique. I disagree. This advice is good for a beginner, but not for intermediate/advanced lifters. Training in an unbalanced or non-symmetrical fashion works great for me...

You hear a lot of "rules" about exercise programming. Problem is, many of them aren't rules at all; they're just myths and misconceptions. Here are the top five: 1. A Good Program is a Balanced Program It's sounds sensible, but it's actually not true. A good workout plan isn't about balance...

HERE'S WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW... Some people spend so much time doing fancy warm-ups they forget to lift something heavy and break a sweat. Start a program and finish it. Stop program hopping. The basics are going to get you there the fastest. Squat deep, bench without the butt leaving the...

SHOULD YOUR ARM WORKOUT CONTAIN PARTIAL REPS? A cool study from 2019 should have changed the way all of us train arms (at least triceps), but for some reason didn't. It compared partial reps to full-range reps and found that the former seemed to duplicate the effects of occlusion training (blood...

HERE'S WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW... Despite what many coaches say, you don't get much core work from squats and deadlifts. The better you get at stabilizing the spine, the better you'll be at moving your limbs faster and more forcefully. Any athlete that needs strength or speed will benefit from...

Here are twelve things about building a great physique: 1. BIG WEIGHTS DON'T NECESSARILY EQUAL BIG MUSCLES One of the fundamental principles of resistance training is Gradual Progressive Overload (GPO), which means that for a muscle to get bigger and stronger it must be subjected, gradually, to...

What's the first thing that comes to your mind when you see a tall guy in the gym? Besides saying, "Damn, he's tall," you're probably thinking the guy either plays basketball or paints ceilings for a living. Or even worse, you say to yourself, "Man, he's skinny." For the most part, "skinny" is...