For his title role in American Sniper, Bradley Cooper gained 37 pounds of lean mass. Here’s the exact workout and supplement plan he used to do it. …read more

It’s time to finally fix your squat. Here’s an in-depth look at squat mechanics from the author of Starting Strength. …read more

You’ve seen their ridiculous photos. Now it’s time you heard the truth about how and why they do it. …read more

If your friends and family don’t understand why you spend all that time in the gym, send them this. …read more

Those popular ab exercises you see in many workout programs are ineffective and injurious. Luckily, there are smarter alternatives. …read more

In last week’s article we talked about implementing assessments for overhead mobility into your box, this time we’ll talk front rack (Front rackanese?).  One of the first things I’ll ask when going over the front rack is, who out there has a perfect front rack position?  Usually the answer is not too many.  Improving front rack position is something that most of us can probably benefit from.

How much faster would you be at Fran if you could just get yourself into a solid front rack position?  Of course it would be faster.  What’s exciting to me is that we can improve our Fran times with a through evaluation and corrective strategy without having to pound a thousand reps (although mobility is not an excuse not to train hard).  What’s also interesting is that if you do have a significant restriction, you’ll never reach exercise mastery with exercises that require a sound front rack.

I also tend to see a decent amount of pain associated with the front rack position.  The pain is typically in the shoulder while in the rack and while pressing out of and returning into the front rack during overhead press.  Give them a set of dumbbells and ask them to do the same and they don’t have the pain anymore.

I also see a decent amount of medial elbow pain in the front rack.  It makes sense, if you’re missing motion from the joint that’s supposed to rotate (The shoulder into external rotation) you’ll try and get motion from the next joint down the line which is the elbow (Which last time I checked doesn’t rotate too well).  You’ll also see individuals with poor shoulder rotation end up in thoracic and lumbar extension with their ribs flaired up.  We know this isn’t efficient.

Assessing front rack position is actually pretty …read more

Here are five training and diet tips to help you lose the fat, keep the muscle, and make some jaws drop. …read more

An inside look into the drug use of a real IFBB pro bodybuilder. …read more

A guide to mastering and progressing the GHR, Nordic ham curl, reverse hyper, and back extension. …read more

Are you matching your carb intake to your activity level, metabolic condition, and goal? You should be. …read more