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Coaching

Why Your Ankle Mobility Drills Aren’t Working

I can’t tell you how may times I’ve had clients or athletes come to me and say they have “stiff ankles.” Many have been doing ankle mobility drills for months (if not YEARS) on end, and getting little to no results. So what gives? Here’s something to consider… …what if your “ankle mobility” problem isn’t […]

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Why You Should STOP Belly Breathing

I don’t know about you, but I’ve made a ton of mistakes over the years. One of the big mistakes when I first started coaching breathing exercises was cuing everyone to “take a big, deep breath into their belly.” While the intention is good, I think more times than not, you don’t get what you […]

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6 Random Thoughts on Programming For and Coaching Young Athletes

Over the past couple of years, it seems like our training is all over the place when it comes to training our young athletes. The spectrum ranges from training kids like elite athletes, to treating them like Bubble Boy, and everything in between. So whether you’re a parent, a coach, or maybe a little bit […]

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Chris Chase on The Trainable Exercise Menu

  Note from MR: When it comes to training, I love Chris Chase’s approach. Here’s a guy that’s coached at virtually every level, and who has a truly pragmatic approach to training. In this article, he talks about why we need to get away from the idea of “correcting” clients movement, and instead, to focus […]

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Step-by-Step Glute Training

Lots of people that I work with want a great set of glutes. Now I know what you’re thinking: “But Mike! You work with athletes! These people don’t care about training muscle groups…” First and foremost, I’m not talking about bodybuilding splits here. What I am talking about is building a set of glutes that […]

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3 Simple Ways to Classify Your Unilateral Exercises

As trainers and coaches, we love to classify our exercises. We have our quad dominant and hip dominant lifts. We have horizontal and vertical pressing and pulling. And of course, we’ve got elbow flexion and extension, because we have to find a way to make arm training sound sophisticated, right? But when it comes to […]

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4 Squat Variations You Should Try ASAP

A few weeks back, someone on Instagram asked me the following question: “Why would you want to load your quads on a squat?” Now I did my best to contain myself, but let me tell you – it wasn’t easy. If you want to know why squatting is a good thing, or why we should […]

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RTS Coaching: The Brettzel

“Mobility” is all the rage these days. And for good reason – in a day and age where we move less than ever before, all of us are looking for tools to keep us moving and feeling great. However, not all mobility drills are created equally. And in fact, many people don’t even need more […]

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RTS Coaching: Snatch Grip RDL

As I’ve mentioned numerous times in the past, I’m pretty vanilla as a coach. I want to teach my athletes to squat, hinge, push, and pull – but I want them to do so with impeccable technique. But just because I’m vanilla, doesn’t mean I’m unwilling to change. Case and point – I’m a huge […]

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Training the Overhead Athlete (and Meathead)

Note from MR: I’m slooooowwwwwwllllyyyyyyy recovering from the Physical Prep Summit this weekend, but I wanted to make sure I got some fresh content to you ASAP. Tony Gentilcore is a guy I’ve known for years, and it’s been cool to watch him grow and evolve. In today’s post, he’s going to give you the […]

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RTS Coaching: Simple Step-up Progression

Step-ups are an incredibly common exercise, regardless of your goal. Whether you want to build muscle, lose body fat, or improve your athleticism, a step-up variation can help you achieve any of those goals. Being such a common exercise, it’s also one that I get questions about all the time. Should I keep my foot […]

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RTS Coaching: Reaching vs. Rounding

In my opinion, reaching is one of the most important things we can incorporate into our programming. Whether it’s driving the rib cage back, opening up the back side of the body, or repositioning the abs and getting them into a more ideal position, every client I train is going to work on reaching. But […]

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RTS Coaching: Low Box Reverse Lunge

Split-squats and lunges are two one of my go-to moves when it comes to training my athletes. Don’t believe me? Just check out all of these articles I’ve written on the split-squat alone! But just because I love an exercise doesn’t mean I’m not willing to change things up – especially if it makes it […]

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5 Mistakes You Are Making with Olympic Lifts

Note from MR: So needless to say, I’ve got quite a few irons in the fire right now. Yesterday I had a 7-hour video shoot with STACK.com. This week is nutty as I’ve got approximately 1,087 things going on. And oh yeah – our Physical Preparation Summit is coming up fast. So when Wil Fleming […]

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RTS Coaching: Lazy Way to Rack 2-KB’s

I’m a huuuuuuggggeeee fan (in my best Donald Trump voice) of 2-KB work. Whether it’s squatting, lunging, stepping up or anything in between, it’s one of my favorite ways to load athletes. Not only do you get the benefit of loading the anterior core to a high degree, but I also think you can really […]

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