>As a collegiate S & C coach, I've noticed that an emphasis is being placed on strength and conditioning as a tool to enhance athletic performance. For example, in the last few years a majority of schools in the Mountain West Conference, including the Air Force Academy, have built new strength and conditioning facilities.
Usually, when you're talking weight training, you're talking about the five acute training variables; exercise selection, order of exercise, load, volume, and rest. There are literally thousands of training articles out there, discussing the many thousands of possible combinations of these variables.
I'm a salty consumer advocate. Ask anyone I know, including the editors of this web site. Being such, I do my best to associate only with good people whether it's in academics, business, or personal endeavors. Likewise, I associate myself only with ideas and concepts that have both empirical and professional support.
Now it's time to take a closer look at the smallest functional unit of training parameters: the repetition. If you build your repetition quality, you'll reap more gains from your workouts. That's definitely a good thing!
Regardless of the profession in question, your "rep" (reputation) is usually what gets you where you want to go. In the world of physique and performance enhancement, building your rep is equally important, except that we're talking about an altogether different type of "rep" here.
Add a few of these unique exercises to your training program to liven up your next workout.
This Tool Box series has become one of my most popular article sets to date, so why break with what's working? Here's the latest installment of this series designed to help experienced lifters fill in the blanks and learn the finer points of strength development.
If you're ready for another inflammatory and quite possibly insulting article on how we might tweak our diets to reduce the insidious nature of inflammation, read on.
I'll freely admit it. I've been extremely reluctant to sit down and write this article. Why? Well, the reasons are numerous, but it basically boils down to the pertinacity of the exercise community.
There's no such thing as isolation in training or in life. Everything you do, have done, and will do, affects everything else. Success is a synergistic – not additive – phenomenon.
It's high time we cleared the air regarding inflammation and all of the nasty consequences thereof. I've been preaching this stuff as an underlying theme throughout much of my writing, since first coming to T-mag (now T-Nation) a few years ago.
An interview with gastrointestinal expert, Leslie Bonci, MPH, RD, LDN
Many lifters and coaches grasp the big picture when they read about the movements I prescribe for strength development, but they often miss the finer points. I've written this "Toolbox" series to help these experienced lifters fill in the blanks. It'll also help newer lifters learn about some very effective exercises.
It never ceases to amaze me how trainees like to talk two and a half times their actual size. Only in the gym will complete newbies rant about their Ronnie Coleman-like genetics before even entering their first Mr. Akron contest.
We have some good news for you. The New Year's resolution crowd, famous for clogging up the gym for the first two months of every year, is starting to dwindle. As they devolve back into their sedentary lifestyles, you have the opportunity to evolve your training program to reach even greater heights. In this series, we'll show you how!
It happens every time I write an article or give a workshop. Someone asks me, "So, uh, Dan, do you think I should do it five times a week or should I do it twice a day?" It doesn't matter what "it" is – one arm lifts, Tabata front squats, Olympic lifts–I always get the same perplexing response.
To get stronger, a lifter must discover his weak points, then work to bring them up. These exercises will help.
"Are you kidding, JB? You expect me to eat this stuff? Where's the taste? Where's the variety!?"
A Roundtable Discussion featuring Lonnie Lowery, PhD, John Davies and Mike Robertson
Why in the name of Pavlov did I just eat that? I mean, the whole bloody thing!
Thirteen interesting exercises you've probably never tried: new movements that'll break you out of your training rut and infuse some diversity into your workouts.
What is it about Canada and great strength coaches? For some unknown reason, the Great White North produces some of the world's best coaches and trainers, with Charles Poliquin, Christian Thibaudeau, and Charlie Francis being just a few examples. Now, another young Canadian is beginning to climb into the ranks of the elite: John Paul Catanzaro.
The Blind Leading the Blind
Gary Homann isn't your garden variety weightlifter. Sure, he's 180 pounds at 6% body fat. Sure, he had the best 500 meter indoor rowing time in the world last year in his class and he's been an ACSM certified health and fitness instructor for the past nine years. But Gary's also got a Master's degree in applied health psychology and is currently working on finishing his Ph.D. in psychology.
