Not everyone was meant to squat deep, but a simple test will tell you how deep you can safely go. And if “butt wink” is a problem, there are easy ways to fix it. …read more

The real story you’ve never heard behind the demonization of steroids, from Ben Johnson and Lyle Alzado to Barry Bonds and Lance Armstrong. …read more

I once heard some fantastic advice about passion and goal setting from someone who’s name I’ve since forgotten.  I’m pretty sure I’m going to butcher this but the advice was something along the lines of pursuing what it is in life that distracts you from what you’re supposed to be doing.  For example:

If you read through my college notes you’d find 3 things:

I’m pretty much obsessed with programming.  It’s something that runs through my mind pretty much every single day of the week.  When I’m distracted and day dreaming it’s usually because I’m thinking of the next thing I’m going to be doing in the gym.  I’ve been programming for myself, friends and patients since I was about 16 years old.  I love it.

Good programming takes a lot of thought.  Earlier in my competitive career all I cared about was performance.  How do I get stronger, faster, bigger and better conditioned?  Then I started personal training, strength & conditioning and physical therapy professionally and became more concerned about injury prevention.  Also, after pounding weights like a madman for over a decade I realized how important longevity becomes once some nagging injuries start rearing their heads.  I was also influenced from some of the brightest minds in the therapy and strength and conditioning world about what safe and effective programming should look like.  All of these events really changed my mentality and approach to programming.

As a therapist there are only so many things you can do to control your patients.  I can perform manual techniques, instruct patients in a home exercise program, perform mobility assessments, give advice on …read more

So if you’ve been following the site, following my social media or subscribe to my newsletter you’ll know I’ve been training like a madman for the past several years for competitive crossfit.  Over the past weekend all of the hard work paid off and I competed at the Crossfit Regionals with Team Verve.

Over the past several weeks myself and 7 other athletes from Verve (Nate, Kaplan, Ryan, Robyn, Maddie, Anna and Courtney) have been putting in some long hours getting ready for this little shindig.  We have been following programming put together by Matt Chan and had some excellent coaching from Joylyn, Matt and Cherie.  It was a battle and after the dust settled we ended up 10th place in the Southwest Region.  I had an absolute blast.  Thanks to my girlfriend, team mates, coaches, members of Crossfit Verve, ATP Mechanix, Steve’s Club, Crossfit Tribe and everyone else along the way for the support.  Here are some of my favorite pictures from the weekend:

Dozens of top bodybuilders, including Arnold, have used Olympic lifting to build their physiques. So why haven’t you? It could be just what you need. …read more

Women get curves by building muscle. They show those curves by losing body fat. Why then are they doing everything to make both those things so damn hard? …read more

Why drop your carbs crazy low if you don’t have to? If your insulin sensitivity is good, and it probably is, you can eat more carbs than you think. …read more

Christian Thibaudeau used to make fun of CrossFit athletes, but since he began coaching them, they’ve taught him a few valuable things… along with earning his respect. …read more

You only need two or three exercises to build your abs. The trick is to choose the right exercises and breathe correctly while doing them. Here’s how. …read more

We all know how important it is to keep a neutral spine while deadlifting.  There are so many fantastic videos out there showing how not to deadlift.  Here’s one of my favorites:

I honestly feel bad posting this video.  In reality this looks like a hard working gentleman, but his technique could definitely use a little work in order to make it a bit safer.  Also, lifting in pajamas in the living room is pretty sweet, beautiful plants in the background as well.

For most, just cueing to keep your back flat is enough to square things away and get the spine in a neutral position.  For others it’s not so easy.  If you’ve coached people the olympic lifts or deadlifting for long enough you’ve probably encountered this.

For some athletes as they reach the bottom of the deadlift, their lumbar spine starts to round.  It’s even worse with a snatch grip or deficit deadlift.  Your first intuition is to tell the athlete to keep their back flat.  Then their snatch or deadlift ends up looking like this:

So your next logical cue is to keep the knees back so the bar travels up in a straight line and doesn’t grind your patient’s knee caps off.  So now the lift looks like this again:

The lumbar spine starts to round again.  Despite all of the cueing you give your athlete, you can’t clean things up.  If you’re looking for a more in depth explanation of why this happens and why it’s important to correct this, then read my article HERE.

This is where a bit of corrective exercise is going to be needed.  However, the first thing that is needed is an assessment or screening tool to determine if there is a problem.  If you’ve got an athlete …read more