One of the first questions that CrossFit, power lift, or Olympic weightlifting athletes ask me after a shoulder surgery such as a rotator cuff or labrum repair is “when can I squat after shoulder surgery?” With many shoulder surgeries, the shoulder position required to get set up in a back squat position can be challenging. The shoulder must move into...

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...

Continually improving your skillset is an absolute must for all fitness and rehab professionals. A better understanding of how the human body works will help improve the outcomes you get with clients. But improving your efficiency, sales, and general well-being is also crucial to your success. Fitness and rehab professionals frequently ask me for recommendations on learning options, and books...

The Safety of Deep Squats I am excited to have Dr. Mitch Babcock of HealthHQ contribute this amazing research review on the safety of deep squats. Squats unfortunately continue to get a bad wrap in the medical world as a knee destroyer. But the available literature on deep squats shows them to be very safe. Research also proves them to be...