The kipping pull-up is often a polarizing debate in the fitness community. I’ve written about this many times, and my viewpoint is that when done properly, the kipping pull-up is a good upper body pulling plus conditioning exercise (read this article for more). The shoulder strength & control that is developed from a technically sound kipping pull-up is great, BUT...

One of the most common problems I treat with CrossFit athletes is shoulder pain with kipping pull-ups. This injury can happen for several different reasons, as I discuss with my Performance Plus Programming partner, Pamela Gagnon. For athletes struggling with Kipping mechanics, join thousands of athletes that have improved their strength and form on our Lats to Fly program! Common...

Before discussing hamstring flexibility, we need to talk about testing hamstring flexibility. Many athletes believe their hamstrings are tight. But, often they have all the hamstring flexibility they need to perform all of their sporting activities. If an athlete passes the following tests, they do NOT need to work on hamstring flexibility. Unless they participate in sports requiring extreme hamstring flexibility...

Note from Zach: Huge thanks to Kelvin King for writing this article. Kelvin has a ton of amazing exercise variations, like the dead bug exercises he shows below. Be sure to follow him! A little rant: I love dead bugs.  However, their relationship to specific sports performance has not been fully tapped into. The transferable skill of dead bug variations will...

Want strong legs? A killer back? Improved sprint times and jumping height? Need to rehab lumbar spine pain? Then you need to be doing deadlifts! Want to do deadlifts for a long time? Then you need to avoid these common lifting mistakes and focus on dialing in proper deadlift form.   The Most Common Deadlift Mistakes #1: Squatting The Deadlift A...

I’m excited to have my friend Brian Bouchette join TheBarbellPhysio.com to share this great video discussing anthropometry and how it can impact squat performance. If you want to have an in-depth knowledge of squat performance then this is something you need to understand!   Dr. Brian Bouchette explains how body dimensions, or anthropometry, affect squat mechanics, focusing on the impact...

Hip impingement is a common complaint that we see in fitness athletes due to the demands of their sport that push the hip joint through full ranges of motion repeatedly. As the sports of CrossFit and weightlifting have become increasingly popular so has the number of athletes suffering from hip impingement.  This condition can be quite difficult to treat and...

Note from Zach: I’m excited to have Meghan Callaway and Sarah Duvall back on TheBarbellPhysio to share this incredible article on training the glutes. These two incredible ladies have teamed up with Kellie Hart Davis to create their “Glutes, Core, and Pelvic Floor Workout System“. This product is amazing and I highly recommend taking a look at it! The glutes, perhaps...

Thanks to Pamela Gagnon for joining this week to discuss Toes To Bar efficiency. This is a movement that a lot of fitness athletes have difficulty with as their technique robs them of energy and slows them down! Pamela has some great insight into optimizing your technique. Gymnastics skills such as the T2B give many CrossFit athletes a lot of...