“It’s funny, but you never really think much about breathing. Until it’s all you ever think about.” – Author Tim Winton There is no doubt that you have heard of employing some type of breath control to improve your performance, your state of health, or to reduce stress. Moreover, it probably isn’t a stretch to …
Controlling Your Breath for Performance and Health Read More »
There are many ways to assess the quality of your kettlebell training. One is being mindful of how your training feels. Another, admittedly more scientific way, is to keep tabs on how fast your body is moving to determine how fast and hard you’re swinging, cleaning, snatching, or pressing the bell. In other words, how …
Serious strength is best built on a solid foundation of fundamental compound lifts, such as deadlifts, squats, and pressing. To ensure safety and maximize the benefits, that strength needs to be accessible across the movement’s full range of motion. Since not everyone starts off with perfect mobility, here’s a simple strategy to make you stronger …
I was watching Andy Bolton pull over 900 pounds from the back stage at the Arnold Classic. It struck me that his deadlift looked exactly like a hard style kettlebell swing. Afterwards, I asked Andy, “Correct me if I am wrong, it seems that you try to keep your shins vertical, don’t think about the …
Over 200 years ago, Swedish scientist Jöns Berzelius discovered lactic acid in the muscles of an exhausted stag that had just been hunted down. Acid is the enemy of both tension and relaxation, drawing one into the stiff no-man’s land in between. It muffles the brain’s commands to the muscles, inhibits all three energy systems, …
Acid, the Enemy of the Quick—An Excerpt from The Quick and the Dead Read More »
“If you don’t know where you’re going, any road will get you there.”—George Harrison Over my years as a coach, I have seen many people demonstrate a variety of kettlebell movements with differing degrees of success. Perhaps they are unaware of the mechanically advantageous groove for a movement, or they’ve just never really appreciated that …
The SFG Clock—A Guide for the Swing, Clean, and Snatch Read More »
There are plenty of instructors in the StrongFirst community who have diverse skill sets, but few are as versatile as Artemis Scantalides. 16 years ago, she made the decision to leave a job in I.T. to pursue a career in the fitness industry and hasn’t looked back since. Starting off as a personal trainer and …
Helping Performers Fly Higher and Women Believe in Their Strength Read More »
Most endurance training plans are predicated on sheer volume. For triathletes, runners, and cyclists, that can mean triple-digit mileage every week. In other sports and activities, it involves more sets, repetitions, and tonnage, possibly across multiple sessions per day. The trouble is that such high volume often leads to injury and in the long run …
The very definition of a lift is moving load upwards against gravity; but what goes up must come down. If you’re only paying attention to one half of every squat, deadlift, and press, you’re missing out on a heap of strength and stability, and likely setting yourself up for injury down the road. It’s time …
Controlling Gravity for Better Squats, Deadlifts, and Presses Read More »
Even if you enjoy throwing iron around on a regular basis, or spend your days advising others on health and wellbeing, the reality of modern living means even the best of us can feel the effects of inactivity. It might be time to hold a mirror up to ourselves and see whether we are really …