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...

In the lower body, the glutes tend to get all the love. From strength coaches to the medical world, we all focus on improving glute strength for performance and rehab. But the quads are also vitally important to your athletic performance and the health of your knee joints. When your legs need some extra work, the following exercises are my...

Get Your First Pistol Squat For some athletes cranking out reps of pistol squats is no issue. But if you’re reading this, you are not likely in the lucky group of athletes. Instead, the combination of strength, balance, coordination, and mobility required for the pistol squat makes this a frustrating exercise. This pistol squat progression will help you improve both...

An athlete getting their first unassisted pull-up is a significant accomplishment. For many, it takes months or years of training to build the strength to get their chin over the bar finally. For others, they spin their wheels, never making enough progress. The three steps have worked time and time again to help HUNDREDS of athletes we’ve worked with accomplish...

The best fitness professionals have a plethora of exercises they can pull out at a moment’s notice to scale a movement based on a client or athlete’s needs. Unfortunately, far too often, we see programming without sufficient scaling options to ensure safe and effective workouts for all gym members. Join Dr. Zach Long (The Barbell Physio) and Dr. Andrew Millett...

As we previously covered in Parts I and II, blood flow restriction training has emerged as a game-changing rehab and performance tools. While traditional resistance exercise strength & hypertrophy must be done with heavy loads, blood flow restriction is the opposite. With blood flow restriction strength and hypertrophy gains have been shown in research at loads as low as 20%...

Blood flow restriction training has received huge amounts of attention in the strength & conditioning, rehabilitation, and research worlds. Its’ proponents cite huge amounts of research showing it a valuable tool for promoting strength and hypertrophy gains. In the first of this article, series, we will do a general overview of the science behind blood flow restriction training. In part 2,...

Sub-optimal glute strength is one of the most common faults I see in athletes. This can lead to a host of injuries as well as decreased performance. We’ve previously discussed using the push press as a test of the hip (glute) versus knee dominance in athletes. Analyzing an athlete’s movement while doing high rep push press’s will show their default...