Spring high school track is in full swing across most of the country and even programs in the colder climates are getting going. Depending on your location and athletic department, early season weather and facility availability often make it a challenge to train. Allotment of time for the facilities between different sports, school schedule dynamics, and normal athletic association rules start t [...]

A guilty pleasure of mine is Pierre-Jean, a great resource to my understanding the context of performance. I will be including my notes on his presentation with the Henk Kraaijenhof video. His information shared in messageboards and his 2008 presentation in Sundsvall was outstanding, given his first language is French. After a few months that lead to over a year, I have finally been able to final [...]

This morning I needed to buy some play sand for some new sandbags I was filling for today's workout. So I decided to stop at Lowe's. I had heard all these fantastic things about them. It was was convenient, on my way to library to return some overdue books. Walked in and could not find anybody to ask where the sand was, finally after about five minutes I found a worker who directed me to aisle f [...]

Carl,Had a question for you. I hear all these gurus talking about activating the glutes prior to exercise or turn the glutes on or get them firing is the usual response given for these drills. Are the glutes ever “turned off”?? will they not fire under load (i.e sprinting, squatting, etc.) or is it more of a timing issue like Al Vermeil talks about with Comerfords stuff and the TA-Transverse [...]

Back and Front Squats are fine. Not everyone can squat heavy but the exercise is still royalty. Mike Young's article and countless world class athletes are not idiots, the exercise is just an option. The real issue is that the squat is common and measured. Can't squat deep? Bad Mobility. Can't squat heavy? Bad strength program. Can't squat correctly? Bad Strength Coach. Can't squat at all? Fa [...]

Circuits? The gurus first considered them to be outdated and now they have their own soundtrack! Our own maverick contributor Davan was using BBGS circuit style work for an array of reasons with great success, and when he shared this in another forum it was considered old dogma.The gurus believed they (Davan's circuits) were encouraging bad technique, poor loading benefits, administrative pitfal [...]

Mike Boyle's RFESS (rear foot elevated split squat) has made some serious waves in the strength and conditioning community. I think that is important that he dares say no to back squat or front squat any more. My question now is with olympic lifts being bilateral, can the same be said with the back being a poor transducer (better stated as a coupling agent due to anatomical syntax) with cleans? I [...]

Study Design: A biomechanical lumbar spine model was constructed to simulate three-dimensional spinal kinematics under the application of pure moments. Parametric analysis of the model allowed for the estimation of how much of the coupled motions could be predicted by the lumbar lordosis and the intrinsic mechanical properties of the spine.Morning research is always an interesting as it manages no [...]

In the trenches? What does that mean? I know many claim they are in the trenches but just training people for money is not the case. I think the definition is what percent of your income is from pure results and what business is a product of word of mouth? I don't care if you work a "four hour work week" or slave away at 80 hours a week with a training group, what matters is the depth of your w [...]

Is the "Boylegarian" leg exercise the new front squat? We are back full circle with spinal loading with a split squat but that is another argument. Now I have nothing against Mike Boyle advocating single leg biased exercises but the math is not adding up. The RFESS (rear foot elevated split squat) is not a single leg exercise but more like a 1.5 leg exercise. I would bet that none of his freshma [...]