Belt Squats are a fantastic squat variation where the resistance is attached to a belt around an athlete’s hips so that the load stays on the legs with minimal spinal loading. In this article, we’ll discuss the pros and cons of different options for performing belt squats. First though, let’s cover why athletes might want to incorporate belt squats in...

The Best Single Leg Deadlift Variations  A lot of athletes program single leg dead lifts as a way to strength their hamstrings, their glutes, and their low back, but they often find that the balance requirements of your standard single leg deadlift tend to be the biggest limitation of their ability to progress that more so than the load...

One of the least discussed components to an athlete’s workout programming is the workout warm up. This piece of your workout will get your body prepared for optimal performance and should not be ignored. In this article, I’ll outline how athletes should structure their workout warm up and then share several examples of warming up for specific movement patterns. Workout...

Many athletes trying to push their squat weight up end up dealing with shoulder pain with squatting. While we don’t commonly associate the back squat with upper-body injuries, this is far more common than you might think. But breaking down your upper body mobility and addressing tightness can help alleviate this issue while you use other squat variations to continue...

We often think of nutrition, hydration, and mobility work in our preparation for sports. But how often have you considered your internal core temperature or ways to regulate that to improve your performance? Probably not very often. But, simple tactics like palm cooling have been shown to have dramatic effects in athletics. Let’s discuss how. Thermoregulation and Performance In the...

The hip thrust, popularized by Bret Contreras, is one of the most widely used exercises for targeting glute strength and hypertrophy. This movement takes the standard glute bridge and increases the difficulty by elevating the shoulders for a greater range of motion. A variety of different variations will allow us to increase the intensity of the hip thrust for more...

The psoas march is one of the best exercises for strengthening the hip flexors and abdominal muscles. It’s effectiveness makes it a staple in many programs I write for addressing hip impingement, hip flexor tightness, diastasis recti, and low back pain. If you’re looking to improve any of those areas, then these psoas march (PM) variations will be sure to crush...

If you’re an athlete, chances are you squat on a regular basis. That’s because the squat is one of the most common and important exercises in any routine. We often discuss how strengthening different muscles can help improve your squat performance. But, adjusting your squat stance can be one of the easiest ways to improve your squat performance. When athletes...

Returning to CrossFit gymnastics movements postpartum can be a challenging process for many new moms. Of all the movements CrossFit athletes perform, returning to toes to bar postpartum is probably the most difficult to get back. If you have been looking for help returning to toes to bar postpartum you have probably already seen there isn’t a lot of information...