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Functional Hypertrophy- Fact vs. Fiction

11. May, 2011 23 Comments Strength & Conditioning

A lot of people, including myself, used to think that higher rep training developed what is known as non functional hypertrophy. This is also referred to as sarcoplasmic hypertrophy. In simple terms the sarcoplasm has been described as a filler type gooey fluid inside the muscles that really doesn’t contract or produce force. Therefore it’s deemed non-functional because it kinda just sits there and looks pretty. In other words it’s good for bodybuilders, bad for athletes.

Myofibrillar hypertrophy is thought to be real muscle growth. The myofibrils have the ability to [...]

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The Power of the Snatch

21. Apr, 2011 14 Comments Strength & Conditioning

A perfect snatch is a beautiful thing. It seems that more coaches prefer the clean when it comes to Olympic lift variations for power production. But I’ve always preferred the snatch and have been obsessed with it since my early teen years.

Cleans are a great exercise but they are also significantly harder to teach/learn than snatches are. The other issue I have with cleans is that they can lead to wrist and elbow injuries. There are certain athletes, such as basketball players or baseball players, that I wouldn’t want to [...]

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Follow the Leader

15. Apr, 2011 14 Comments Motivation, Strength & Conditioning

Here’s a quick way for coaches and trainers to get more out of their athletes and instantly earn their respect.

Train with them.

It’s that simple.

Of course, you can’t do this all the time but once in a while, even if it’s a very rare occasion you should jump in on a workout to show them that you practice what you preach and lead from the front.

Athletes will always respect a coach more if he is willing to suffer with them. My advice would be to join in on a grueling [...]

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Deep Knee Bends

07. Apr, 2011 26 Comments How to Build Muscle, Strength & Conditioning

Today I want to share a few thoughts with you regarding squats (or deep knee bends as the old timers used to call them), how you do them and what else you include in your program with them.

Firstly, we need to address the range of motion issue. Ideally you should squat to below parallel while maintaining a neutral spine. A good deep squat is very healthy for your knees and also recruits the hamstrings and glutes far better than a partial range squat does.

However, most people lack the mobility [...]

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27 Tips for Healthier Shoulders- Part 3

28. Mar, 2011 14 Comments How to Build Muscle, Strength & Conditioning

IF you missed the first two parts of this post check them out at the links below-

Part 1

Part 2

On to part 3…

20) Do Dips on Gymnastics Rings Instead of Parallel Bars- Unlike the bars which keep you in more of a fixed plane, the rings allow you to move naturally and you can work around the pain.

If I could only do one upper body pressing exercise to build and strengthen the chest, shoulders and triceps this would probably be it.

That’s not to say that dips on parallel bars aren’t great, [...]

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27 Tips For Healthier Shoulders- Part 2

25. Mar, 2011 14 Comments Bodyweight Training, How to Build Muscle, Strength & Conditioning

I hope you guys enjoyed the first installment of this article. Today I’m serving up Part 2…

11) Do More Pushups- Pushups are still one of my top ten favorite exercises and always will be. They are also significantly better for your shoulders than any other form of horizontal pressing with a bar or dumbbells. Pushups are highly underrated because people don’t know how to load them properly or do advanced variations.

For loading you can get a weighted vest, chains, a Power Pushup (which is awesome) or even have a partner [...]

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27 Tips for Healthier Shoulders- Part 1

23. Mar, 2011 15 Comments How to Build Muscle, Strength & Conditioning

I’ve spent the last two and a half decades pounding the shit out of my shoulders. While that sucks for me it’s actually good news for you. Why, you ask? Because when you’ve torn traps, rotator cuffs and labrums you develop a pretty keen interest in avoiding shoulder injuries.

You also develop a pretty good MacGyver instinct about how to work around them. And today I’m going to share some of that information with the Renegade Army.

Here is a list of 27 tips that will help you keep your shoulders strong [...]

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28 Things I’ve Learned That Bear Repeating

08. Mar, 2011 2 Comments How to Build Muscle, Strength & Conditioning

Here are some conclusions I have come to over the last few years. None of this is really new as I’ve said it before. It’s just that the last few years of experience and experiments have confirmed some of these things and I thought I should share them with you as everyone could always use a refresher.

1) The best rep range for a combo of size and strength for most average, drug free lifters is still 5-8.

2) When training for hypertrophy gains, doing sets with weights below 70% of your [...]

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Simple Speed Solution

03. Mar, 2011 19 Comments Strength & Conditioning

The goal?

To run faster.

Your mission?

To find the most simplistic and efficient way of doing so.

Why?

Because why in the hell would you ever want to overcomplicate things?

Oh, wait. I know why. We live in the age of overcomplicating things. It’s a way of life, a FaceBook status update, a YouTube video, a way for a strength coach to seem smarter than he is.

But it doesn’t have to be that way. Improving your running speed can actually be quite simple.

Firstly, you need to get stronger. You run faster by improving the amount [...]

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Drop the Deadlift?

14. Feb, 2011 48 Comments How to Build Muscle, Strength & Conditioning

At this point telling you that the deadlift is the greatest strength and mass building exercise in the world is a bit redundant. You’ve all heard it a million times before. But if that’s the case why haven’t I had athletes pull a straight bar from the floor in the last five years? Why do many other successful strength and conditioning coaches not use the movement with their athletes?

The reason is simple; the deadlift takes too much out of you and is very hard to recover from. When you have [...]

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