I’ve written about How to Get Strong before, but here’s a quick summary. 2 Main Factors in Getting Stronger: Hypertrophy – Add more muscle mass, lift more weight. Skill Mastery – Get better at a movement, lift more weight. Obviously, if you add muscle mass you’ll probably get stronger. That shouldn’t be a surprise to …
Let’s talk about stress. Or more importantly, your body’s stress hormone: Cortisol Cortisol is basically a hormone that signals a number of processes in your body to include: * How your body mobilizes energy (Protein, Fats, Carbohydrates) * Regulating Inflammation * Regulating blood pressure * Increasing blood sugar (See bullet number 1) * Regulating your …
Question: How important is mental training to my success? Key Takeaways Mental training (Self-talk, visualization, etc) can improve your performance & help you get stronger. Mental training can also improve your overall health and has been shown to decrease stress, blood pressure, and resting heart rate. Visualizing your self performing a movement (i.e. a perfect …
I get asked about how I came to be doing the things I am doing now in the strength & conditioning and CrossFit world and it usually ends up with me rambling on about how I was preparing to head off to OCS and found out about this thing called a kettlebell and decided I …
Instantly Improve Your Pull Ups (or just about anything else)! Read More »
Almost 5 years ago I participated in my first GORUCK Challenge. For those of you who still don’t know what GORUCK is you should check out the videos on their website and you’ll get a decent idea. But basically… The GORUCK Challenge is a team event, never a race. Think of it as a slice …
The Pareto Principle, also known as the 80/20 rule, states that for many events roughly 80% of effects come from 20% of the causes. More specifically, 80% of your results come from 20% of your efforts. While I haven’t talked about this subject specifically it is something that has definitely been alluded to in numerous …
Some days just suck. You’re sore. You’re tired. You’re unmotivated. You just don’t feel like doing anything. Sometimes, this is a sign that you need a break, a much-deserved rest day after a long, hard, week of training, working and living your life to the fullest. However, if you feel this way on a Tuesday …
Over the past 3-4 years, I’ve spent a lot of time programming Conjugate Method style strength type work for the CrossFit Endurance website and a number of my clients. I’ve preached the benefit of this style of training for some time now as I’ve seen that a mix of maximal strength work (a.k.a .Max Effort) …
Let’s talk about progression and the purpose of properly progressing yourself into heavier weights and faster & more complicated movements. No matter what sport, fitness regiment or exercise you are participating in the lack of a well thought out progression is going to cause problems. Look at that picture above, I know all my fellow …
One of the simplest “hacks” you can do right now to immediately boost your performance and how you generally feel overall is to optimize your hydration. Proper hydration can be incredibly important for everything from helping prevent injuries to maximizing your performance during training. Because if you’re dehydrated your overall performance will decrease and you’ll …