The main priorities for football players are: strength, power, size, and speed 3-6 hours of strength training per week are required for a program to provide optimal gains in strength, power, and size. In this article I’ll provide you with key strength standards for high school football players some background, philosophy, and simple programming guidelines for high school football players…
As a trainer and a coach, it is my job to simplify the concepts in fitness and health and then relay that information to my clients and athletes. How often should I work out? How much time should I spend in the gym? How do I know what to do? How much exercise is too much? How much should an…
I teach a kid’s fitness and fun camp. When I tell parents about that class, one of the questions I often receive (spoken or unspoken) is: Can lifting weights stunt my child’s growth? Let me do my best to answer that question as clearly as I can. There is no evidence that lifting weights can stunt a child’s…
Who would win: A Silverback Gorilla vs a Grizzly Bear There are a lot of potentially awesome animal battles out there: Jaguar vs Anaconda; Man vs Wolf; Tiger vs Crocodile. One battle that keeps popping up is a Grizzly vs a Silverback Gorilla, who wins? This topic was even recently featured on Joe Rogan’s Podcast. I am always amazed…
Wouldn’t it be nice if there was a simple chart you could look at that would provide guidance as to how many reps you should train with and what kind of weight you should use for each competitive lift? You have probably seen Prilepin’s chart – which attempts to do that, but there are 4 big problems with Prilepin’s chart.…
I love powerlifting because of how objective it is. We don’t have any of the debates one might find in gymnastics or figure skating or bodybuilding – sports in which the end result appears to be much more subjective to the observer. In powerlifting you either lifted the weight to a certain standard or you did not. And while every…
The Arnold expo happened recently and scrolling through my social media feed I saw several incredible lifts including a few new all-time world records. In my book All About Powerlifting I listed the All-Time World Records for each lift but it has been a few years and some of them have changed. In addition I thought it would be cool…
I see this question posted all the time on message boards and lifting forums: ‘I am two weeks out from my meet, what should I do?’ To help answer that question, I have put together this article. First, let’s be clear on our definitions. A taper is a reduction in intensity and volume of physical activity, and the purpose…
First off, this blog will have nothing to do with lifting weights, instead we will talk about another topic near and dear to my heart – Star Wars. I know you might not expect to find a Star Wars article on a powerlifting website but the movie just came out and hey – it is my blog – I…
What is the best head position to have during a deadlift? Should your shins be vertical or not when you pull? Let’s find out. Recently Coach Mark Rippetoe put an article on the deadlift where he listed 7 crucial aspects on technique that he believed were important to follow (you can find the article here). I disagree with 2 of…