If you know me, you know I love theoretical animal fights. Who wins: A chimp vs a pit bull? An anaconda vs a wolf? The World’s Strongest Man vs a Leopard? In fact, the most popular article I have on this site about powerlifting is Who Wins: A Gorilla vs A Grizzly (Given all of the good quality fitness info I…
Everyone is stuck performing home workouts right now because of the COVID Pandemic. I have had to redesign countless workout programs for my clients and my athletes who can no longer train in a gym and may not be able to for an extended period of time. Initially, I was getting frustrated trying to balance out who could do what…
As I write this article the Coronavirus is high on everyone’s mind, and many gyms and fitness centers are set to close down for 2-4 weeks, perhaps even longer. Many serious lifters are wondering – what should I do? How can I train to at least maintain if not increase my strength? What if I have a competition in a…
It is pretty natural for those who enjoy throwing around the weights to wonder how strong they are compared to others out there. It is easy to look around your gym and see what others are lifting, and if you are reading this blog and you own a copy of All About Powerlifting it is likely you are one of…
The goal of this article is to explore the idea of transgender women competing with cisgender women in sports. This is a topic that tends to ignite passion on both sides of the aisle. My hope is to be able to write about this in a scientific and non-polarizing way. Some of the terms involved in this discussion change over…
Accomplished strongman Robert Oberst made the comment on Joe Rogan’s podcast (one of the most popular podcasts in the world) that deadlifts that are not worth the risk. Here is his exact quote: “If you are deadlifting to be a better deadlifter, fine. If you are not doing that for deadlift’s sake, then don’t f*cking do it. The risk to…
Have you ever had detailed questions about a lift and you just couldn’t seem to find the exact answer online? Have you watched an instructional video and then wanted to ask follow-up questions about that technique but were unable to do so? Would you like to be able to ask program design questions to an experienced coach and then have…
Most ‘regular’ people don’t really understand what powerlifting is like. They don’t understand how powerlifting changes the way you view things, how it seeps into every aspect of your life, and how bad ass it is to throw around some heavy weight. I want to help those that don’t lift weights understand what powerlifting is all about. That is the…
Most lifters have heard of a 5×5 workout arrangement. Two legendary strength coaches, Bill Starr and Mark Rippetoe, popularized this training method. It is simple, easy, and often quite effective. 5×5 involves performing 5 sets of 5 reps on a given exercise (squats, bench, etc) as your main working sets for the day. 5 reps seems to be an ideal…
Workout programs can be confusing. How often do I train each lift? How intense should I go? What percent of my 1RM do I use? Should I do 5/3/1 or The Cube or The Shut-Up plan? How many exercises do I need for each body part? How does training change when your goals change? What does the latest exercise science…