Yesterday I was in a park with a friend of mine soaking up some sun. As we were lying there restocking our vitamin D supplies, we got to talking about bodybuilding. When we were younger, both of us were obsessed with strength training. We were in the gym lifting heavy many times every week, we […]

The squat is a an excellent exercise for building the lower body, in particular the glutes, hamstrings, and quads. Not only that, the squat can help you improve your posture, metabolic and cardiovascular health, and hormone levels. Not all squats are equally effective at producing these positive health effects though. A bad squat, performed with […]

During the years I’ve worked as a strength coach/personal trainer I’ve helped hundreds – if not thousands – of people learn how to train effectively and correctly. I’ve done a long range of strength and conditioning exercises with my clients; everything from push-ups to kettlebell swings to indoor rowing to the clean and jerk. However, […]

Strength training is great. No other activity has such a profound impact on bone health and body composition. You can run for hours on the treadmill every week and go to every Zumba class at your local gym, it’s not going to give you a strong, muscular body. You need to lift something as well, […]

Strength training is an essential component of a well-balanced fitness program. By performing squats, push-ups, dips, chins, deadlifts, and other multi joint exercises on a regular basis you can build a leaner, stronger body, correct muscle imbalance patterns such as lower crossed syndrome, and prevent and slow down chronic disease processes. Another potential, often forgotten, […]

One of the major questions personal trainers, strength coaches, and gym goers face is how often each muscle group and compound lift should be trained. Should you split up your clients’ training program so that 1-3 muscle groups are trained each session, or should you have them do full-body workouts? And what about your own […]

The deadlift and squat are often considered to be the king and queen of all strength training exercises – and for good reason. These two lifts target most of the major muscle groups in the human body, boost the production of growth-enhancing hormones, and can help lower the risk of osteoporosis, bone fractures, and a […]