How I Split and Structure Workouts

If you spend enough time in the gym or the fitness realm, you’ll find that there are a lot of things to spend your time doing. Strength, mobility, plyometrics, conditioning… but never cardio. F*** that shit (calm down, this is a joke, people).

You may also figure out that there are a lot of muscles to work. How on earth are we supposed to even begin exercising everything in a feasible and practical way?

One day, you’ll stumble upon training splits. This is essentially the answer to the given problem: How do you address all of the things that a training program is supposed to address?

Continue reading “How I Split and Structure Workouts”

If You Had to Pick One Muscle to Train… The Glutes

Physical therapists often have trouble getting their patients and clients to perform all of the exercises that they prescribe. Whatever the excuse, this is a good reason to keep any exercise program as short and concise as possible. If you can keep it to less than 3-5 exercises per day, this is plenty. To keep it concise, you need to know what is important and which exercises will give you the most bang for the buck.

Also, if you’re a therapist and your home exercise programs are 20 exercises on average, then you don’t know how to efficiently prescribe exercises.

Continue reading “If You Had to Pick One Muscle to Train… The Glutes”

A Simple Workout For Anyone To Try That Doesn’t Require Equipment

A common topic that my dad brings up are the physical problems that his friends are having.

“Bill is having some trouble standing up from a chair. Is there anything he can do?”

“Jack is having some shoulder problems. It’s bad. Can you take a look at him?”

“My friend fell. This is the second time he fell. Are there any exercises you can show him?”

“You were easily the most popular kid in high school. Way more popular than that one captain of the baseball team.”

Continue reading “A Simple Workout For Anyone To Try That Doesn’t Require Equipment”

How to Quickly Fix For Your Knee Pain (And The Long Term Solution)

Bothersome knees are the worst. They affect almost every activity imaginable from running, going up stairs, and even sitting! For a joint that seemingly only does one thing (hinge back and forth), it seems like a lot can go wrong with it. Of course, there is a component of rotation, but that is beyond the scope of this article.

In my experience, most knee pain (barring any acute mechanism of injury) is relatively simple to address. Outside of acute injury, creaky and bothersome knees really come down to poor strength and mechanics of the hips (particularly the glutes), hamstrings, and quadriceps.

So the long term solution is exercise and strength training (big deal. That tends to be the solution to every problem). But what can we do to get some short term relief?

Continue reading “How to Quickly Fix For Your Knee Pain (And The Long Term Solution)”

7 Reasons You Should Meditate – Evidence-Based Brain Rewiring

Meditation and mindfulness is a practice that has been around for thousands of years, but it has recently seen a surge in popularity in the self-help, improvement, and mental health spaces, and for good reason. Meditation has extensive benefits and is one of the few “brain rewiring” practices that actually has evidence to back it up.

Here are seven benefits to meditation.

Continue reading “7 Reasons You Should Meditate – Evidence-Based Brain Rewiring”

3 Ways to Achieve Progressive Overload Without Adding Weight

We have all heard the basic tenant of strength: progressive overload. But, when we talk about progressive overload, we only ever think of adding more weight to the bar (or dumbbells).

Even going through graduate school, this was the main form (and often the only one taught) of overloading and increasing the challenge for patients and clients. Somehow, adding weight was the real bee’s knees to being a great trainer or clinician.

It definitely made me question if I got my money’s worth from my doctorate.

Continue reading “3 Ways to Achieve Progressive Overload Without Adding Weight”

Should You Even Bench Press? The Truth (and 5 alternatives)

There are two constant truths of life. The first is death.

The second is that all bros will bench press and curl on Mondays.

This act of suspending heavy weight over our supine body, lowering it and lifting (or bouncing) it back up seems to be a constant ritual in the iron world. Go to any gym, and the bench press (along with squat racks and deadlifting platforms) will be a revered piece of equipment that is analogous to an altar in a church.

Continue reading “Should You Even Bench Press? The Truth (and 5 alternatives)”

5 Ways To Instantly Lift More Weight and Break Records

Anyone who knows me know that I love principles and philosophies, especially if they are somewhat rooted in science.

One thing I hate are hacks. You know. The little “tips and tricks” that Instagram gurus and ads will sell to you like, “This one breathing exercise made me lose 48 inches around my waist!” or, “This one food will detoxify your entire rectum!”

That shit always infuriates me for two reasons. For one, these people usually have such a mediocre understanding of fitness and training that they have yet to solve a single person’s health and fitness problems. Second, they prey on vulnerable people who don’t know any better.

So let me give one back to them. Here are 5 ways to actually lift more weight and get stronger today.

Continue reading “5 Ways To Instantly Lift More Weight and Break Records”

3 Exercises To Bulletproof Your Legs

Lower extremity injuries are all too common from the average person to the elite athlete. Often, these injuries are predictable and thus preventable through proper training and maintenance.

Before we run through the exercises, we need to establish a few principles to work with.

Continue reading “3 Exercises To Bulletproof Your Legs”
Verified by MonsterInsights