I’ll tell you something, I love my trap bar. Now, it’s really a hex bar. I’ll get into that later. Most people still call them trap bars. About a year or so ago, I fell on some icy steps and sustained a very bad floating rib injury and a severe muscle contusion in the lateral […]
Strength Training
Are Deload Weeks Necessary? Most Trainees Need More Volume and Weight, Not Deloads
There seems to be a whole new crop of strength training writers which are getting rabid followers by telling them what they want to hear. What do they want to hear? How they can get strong without hard work. In fact, it seems anything that is about getting strong but NOT about actual training is […]
What is Fitness-Fatigue Model?
Originally published in January 2009 at GroundUpStrength This article is an attempt to clear up some of the misconceptions on the internet regarding the Bannister’s Fitness-Fatigue Model, the so-called “Dual Factor Theory”. Although it is simply a model it has been used to design one size fits all programs due to a misconception that it […]
Overtraining Doesn’t Always Produce a Decline in Maximum Strength
Originally published in 2009 at GroundUpStrength Overtraining as a term is used differently by different physiologists. I think it is important to understand, however, that ‘overtraining’ and ‘overtraining syndrome’ are not the same thing. Overtraining is what you do..the stimulus. Overtraining syndrome is a list of physiological symptoms resulting from that. In other words, its manifestations. […]
Why Strength Training Experience Matters for Trainers and Coaches
One of the most silly ongoing debates (or pseudo-debates) concerns how much experience matters, as opposed to knowledge, for personal trainers, strength coaches, etc. If we want to train others for strength, or, if we want to hire them to help us train for strength, should we be more concerned with their theoretical knowledge or […]
Do Not Have a Huge List of Absolutely Essential Exercises
One big problem that trainees have in designing strength training templates is the Exercise List. These tend to be lists of 35 to 40 exercises that the trainee is attached to for some reason and if he or she is not working hard on all of them then the program is just not right. But […]