Deadlifts are unfortunately all too commonly believed to be unsafe exercises for an individual’s low back health. But the research says quite the opposite of what many believe. Crazy right? An exercise known to help make your back and hips STRONGER might also make it HEALTHIER!!! Let’s dive into the research on deadlifts for low back pain. Are Deadlifts Safe?...

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....

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...

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...

Good coaches have an excellent eye for watching an athlete move and knowing what needs to be corrected. Excellent coaches take that a step further by then giving that athlete great cues that produce the desired outcome rapidly. We’ve all heard the cues “sit back” and “screw your feet into the ground” but having a more diverse set of cues...

In sports and fitness, the ability to get your body into proper positions is incredibly important to properly executing movements with efficiency to maximize performance. Fortunately, most athletes and coaches understand this principle and are programming mobility work with the hopes of improving their performance. BUT more often than not, the mobility work they are using isn’t good enough to...

The Most Overlooked Training Variable: Training Volume When athletes exercise or coaches program training plans, there is no lack of attention to sets, reps, variation in exercises, and providing sufficient stimulus for adaptations to occur. But the most overlooked training variable I see both from a performance standpoint, and an injury factor is training volume. Often athletes will blame their...