Nutrition plays a crucial role in athletic performance, whether you are a professional athlete or just a physically active person. A carefully planned sports nutrition plan is essential for improving performance, aiding recovery, and maintaining overall fitness. This guide will provide valuable information and tips for students looking to optimize …
From Gym to Graduation: Career Paths for Aspiring Professional Strongman
The progression from being an amateur to becoming a professional strongman requires determination, strategic planning, and physical strength and stamina. For college students who aspire to make a career out of their love for strength sports, the shift from working in the campus gym to competing globally can be challenging. …
Working on Hanging Feat of Strength
The other week I posted this on Instagram and Facebook. People got MAD! I’m sharing it here too even though I know the same thing will happen. 🙂 First a few words of warning. I am a professional strongman. Doing so involves some potentially dangerous feats of strength. For example, …
Do Genetics Matter?
I love the placebo effect. It’s a subject matter worth diving into. I first started really getting into it around the time that I wrote Mental Muscle. Facts like placebo surgeries often doing as well as real surgeries. Facts like placebos working…even when people are told they’re placebos. Facts like …
100 Squat Thrusts with Pushups
Something I came up with a while ago was the 100 Burpee Challenge, that is to do one hundred reps in a single unbroken set. In doing this I used variations of the burpee, including the squat thrust, both with and without pushups. In the following video, I hit 100 …
Oldtime Strongman Build
I’m a big fan of the oldtime strongmen for a number of reasons. 1) They accomplished amazing feats of strength, some of which still stand to this day.2) They did this in a time before pharmaceutical enhancement was available, so you absolutely know they’re clean.3) They tended to have more …
Parallel or Full Squats?
Should you be squatting to a parallel depth, that is your thighs parallel to the floor? Or should you squat all the way to rock bottom depth? Like many things, the answer is…it depends. Let’s start with what is healthier? Simple answer. A rock bottom squat means that you have …
Shoulder Health – 6 Planes of Movement
There is something you must understand about the shoulder joint. It is the MOST movable of all the joints in the human body. As a ball-and-socket joint, it has the most range of motion. (The other ball-and-socket joint where the leg meets the hip, is comparatively severely restricted.) What does …
Getup and Press
Credit goes to my friend, Tyler Bramlett, for introducing the getup and press to me. Long ago he told me about how he used it to rehab client’s shoulders with it and I’ve used it off and on ever since. It takes the basic getup exercise (done with a kettlebell, …
135 lb. Barbell Bent Press
Happy to hit a new recent PR in 135 lbs. with the barbell bent press. I feel really good about lowering down under the weight completely and not pressing it out. But this did initiate some spin on the barbell that I had to go with and count myself as …
Dragon Pistol Squat for Reps
This video showcases a recent PR in the dragon pistol squat for me. I hit twelve reps on each leg. Now, one thing I’ve noticed is I tend not to get too 100% depth when I’m working on reps. It’s close but not quite there. So I will be working …
Full Range Handstand Pushups with Straight Legs
Most of the handstand pushups at full range I’ve done have involved bent legs. This use to be because of height limitations. Now I have the overhead space needed for this tougher version. And that’s just it. This is a tougher version than the same exercise done with bent legs. …
120 lb Barbell Getup
I’ve been working on the getup for the past couple months. And I’m happy to report that I’ve hit a new lifetime PR in the move. Watch it here: I believe I had previously hit 115 lbs. years ago when I was practicing this exercise daily thought I could be …
Air Pollution = Unhappiness
In the past, I’ve discussed how air quality is critically important for your health. For example, here are two short articles: Are You Breathing Crap? Walking May Kill You Faster That this particulate matter in the air is absorbed into your lungs, into your body and can have a whole …
Masculinity Forged in the Gym
I had a hard time becoming a man. As virtually everyone in our culture, I was not initiated into manhood. We’ve forgotten how to do that. Thus, my growing up was in large part my attempts at self-initiation. A great book on what masculinity looks like, both the actualized and …