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Coaching
Loosen Up Stiff Shoulders with the Kettlebell Arm Bar
As I discussed a few weeks back in my face pull video, a lot of clients and athletes struggle with shoulder mobility issues. As such, we need to constantly be widening our training toolbox if we want to help those people move and feel better! The kettlebell arm bar is yet another exercise that you […]
Continue ReadingBuild Total Body Power with the Kettlebell Swing
Many people would assume that if you’re dealing with a lower body injury, that you can’t train lower body power. And that’s simply not the case! If we go way back to 2012, my good friend BJ Gaddour was talking about how he loved the kettlebell swing for developing lower body strength and power. BJ […]
Continue ReadingFace Pulls for Healthy Shoulders
When it comes to training, nothing can slow your roll faster than a set of beat up shoulders. And while your standard pressing and pulling exercises might be able to help, one of my favorite shoulder friendly exercises is the face pull. In this short video I’ll explain not only why I like the face […]
Continue ReadingBulletproof Your Hammies with the Nordic Hamstring Curl
One of the worst injuries in sports (or LIFE!) is pulling a hammy. So we all know we should do SOMETHING to prevent them. But what? The Nordic Hamstring is an awesome exercise for bulletproofing your hammies, but too often, I see it coached and performed incorrectly. Here’s how we do it at IFAST – […]
Continue ReadingBuild Those Glutes with the Offset Split-Squat
Back in the day, I was a little too linear in my thinking. As a powerlifter, I thought if you wanted to get strong or build a muscle, you needed to do it in the sagittal plane. So if someone wanted to build their glutes they should do it with glute bridges, pull throughs and […]
Continue ReadingBuild Stability, Mobility and Strength with the Half-Kneeling Shoulder Press
A while back, I was really struggling with my home workouts. I love trying to sneak stuff in on my off-days, but the days of the home gym are long gone. Unfortunately, all my equipment has ended up at the various training spaces we work out of, so now I’m down to two kettlebells and […]
Continue ReadingA Challenging Variation of the Front Squat
If you know anything about me, you know I’m a huge fan of the front squat. Whether it’s shifting the center of gravity back, unlocking the body’s mobility, or just providing a great workout to the core and quads, pretty much every client and athlete I train is going to front squat. But here’s the […]
Continue ReadingTraining Trunk Rotation in the Push-up
A long time ago, I thought that if you weren’t bench pressing, you were wasting your time with regards to your upper body training. Luckily with age (and a little bit of experience), I realized that there was actually a lot more to upper body development than just bench pressing three times per week! Nowadays, […]
Continue ReadingCRUSH Your Core with the Side Bear
When I first started coaching, I really thought I knew everything about training the core. As someone with a Masters Degree in biomechanics, it only made sense that if you CAN train and move your core in every plane of movement, that you SHOULD do it. Right? Not so fast friend. Just a year or […]
Continue ReadingHow to Trap Bar Deadlift
You asked, so I’ve delivered! These days, the trap bar deadlift (TBDL) is my go-to deadlifting progression for both gen pop clients and athletes alike – and for good reason. The trap bar is awesome for a few reasons: The high handles reduce mobility needs, and makes setting-up easier. This combo helps you spare the […]
Continue ReadingLearn to Control Anterior Pelvic Tilt with THIS Exercise
Many clients and athletes have some degree of anterior pelvic tilt (APT). And while APT isn’t the awful disease or malady we once thought, the fact of the matter is if it goes unchecked, bad things tend to happen. As such, as a trainer, coach or athlete, you need tools in the toolbox to help […]
Continue ReadingCoaching and Cuing the Glute Bridge
One of my favorite books as a young coach was Muscles: Testing and Function by Florence Kendall. It’s the book that really got me thinking about posture, alignment, and movement quality – not just moving maximal weights. When assessing the glutes, one of the tests I used for years was a prone hip extension […]
Continue ReadingHow to Kickstand RDL
I’m going to start today’s post by dropping a serious bit of truth on you: Single-leg RDL’s are an awesome exercise – but they aren’t an easy exercise, and they’re definitely not suitable for beginners. Much like the the forward lunge, you clients and athletes should have to earn the right to do this exercise. […]
Continue ReadingHow to Lunge Without Crushing Your Knees
Lunges are one of my all-time favorite leg exercises. Once I got through over the “my legs are already big enough phase” and started training seriously, squats, deadlifts and lunge variations were always staples in my training routines. Now for some reason, many people assume that just because lunges are a common exercise that they’re […]
Continue Reading5 Simple Hacks You Can Use in the Gym TODAY
One of the biggest issues I see when people train is missing (or poorly executing) lifts due to a poor set-up. Now this is might be obvious when it comes to big-bang lifts like squats and deadlifts. Let’s take the squat for example: If you’re doing a back squat and your weight is pushed forward […]
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