No two athletes are the same. And while we believe that in a group training setting all athletes will improve follow the same training, it is important to analyze each athlete individually as well to determine if large individual differences in performance warrants some individualization of programming. For example, if an athlete is working on a goal of performing a...

The push press is a great exercise for improving sports performance, but for a lot of people in the strength conditioning world, it’s a really undervalued exercise in terms of analyzing how an athlete moves and figuring out what they need to work on to improve as on overall athlete.   Push Press Video Transcript: So what’s the Push Press?...

Postpartum Fitness Sarah Duvall At the start of 2018, I asked TheBarbellPhysio followers what they wanted more information on this year. By far the biggest request I had was for Postpartum fitness advice. So, I reached out to my friend Sarah Duvall. We recorded a talk on postpartum issues to give athletes, coaches, and clinicians some guidance on this area....

The pistol squat is a challenging bodyweight strength exercise. It not only requires strength but significant control and mobility. Quite often the extreme mobility demands of the pistol squat are overlooked. So, we will start with the most commonly limited mobility deficits for the squat and then discuss a progression of strength exercises you can use to build up to...

No matter what recreational activity you choose to follow, minor tweaks and injuries are inevitable. Participating in CrossFit is no exception to this. Injuries happen with CrossFit, just as they do with powerlifting, weightlifting, bodybuilding, running, and any organized sport. Yet, there is still a widely held belief that CrossFit is itself a more dangerous activity. But is this true...

Without question, kipping pull-ups are the most controversial exercise performed in CrossFit. While a regular movement in CrossFit workouts, you won’t see it in the rest of the strength & conditioning world. And many non-CrossFitters will criticize the movement as being a non-functional, injury-causing movement that allows CrossFit athletes to cheat. CrossFit athletes, on the other hand, argue that it allows...

Note: This article is a bit heavier on the science than what I typically put out. BUT understanding WHY tendinopathy occurs is vitally important to properly rehabbing them. Please thoroughly read this before implementing it with yourself. As clinicians, there are some injuries and dysfunctions we see more commonly than others. Tendinopathy ranks high on the “most frequent” list when...

...

Without a doubt, the most common complaint I hear from athletes is that they have “tight hip flexors”. Most of the time they’ve spent months stretching and foam rolling with no effect. Most of the time, performing combinations of core strength, hip flexor strength, and loaded mobility drills create far more significant and permanent changes than what they’ve been wasting their...