More than just heavy lifting… The weight room is a relatively simple space. Fill a room with heavy things like barbells, plates, dumbells and kettlebells. Add some benches to sit or lay on and you have yourself the “bones” of a weight room. However, just like with a person, there is much more to a … Read More
MMA might be the most physically demanding sport in the world. The best athletes are explosive, strong, agile, resilient, consistent and incredibly dedicated. Even if a fighter has all of these qualities, it’s still easy for him to obtain poor information when prepping for a fight. It might not be the fighter’s fault; often times, … Read More
We wrapped up our fall COMPETE. Sports Performance Training program at Skill of Strength this past week and some of the improvements the high school athletes made were phenomenal. (We always test our high school athletes on the first and last day so that athletes see where and how they improved during the season.) In … Read More
Mike will now be posting weekly on NorthEastMMA.net. Check out his first article about how he believes all fighters should be evaluated by their strength coaches. During the initial evaluation, the trainer/coach should try to gather as much information about the fighter as possible. This SHOULD include: Injury history Medical conditions Medications/supplements Diet Recent fights- information … Read More
I wrote this article for StrongFirst and wanted to re-post it here… There is no denying the benefits of the hardstyle kettlebell jerk. Whether your goal is power, strength, hypertrophy or endurance, these can all be accomplished by training the hardstyle jerk. There are various drills and exercises to improve the hardstyle clean and jerk, … Read More
Do not be tense, just be ready, not thinking but not dreaming, not being set but being flexible. It is being “wholly” and quietly alive, aware and alert, ready for whatever may come. -Bruce Lee Just like strength, relaxation is a skill. It’s a vital skill that is vastly overlooked in the strength and conditioning … Read More
We have all been there. A new client comes in for an evaluation with a list a mile long of injuries, medical history and aches and pains. Before you even begin with this person, your strategy immediately changes. You throw out the “normal” stuff and try to gather as much information about their movement baseline … Read More
I love kettlebells. I love everything about them. The touch, the smell, the shape, the awesomeness. Ok, thats a bit much, but you get the point. I have been training with kettlebell’s since 2007. There have been some good swings, some great swings and some pretty ugly swings along the way. As I prepped for … Read More
I am terrible at writing and can’t put blogs together very well. I have way too many ideas and can’t seem to organize them into nice, flowsome (that’s flowing and awesome in one word) sentences and paragraphs. One thing I can do is write random lists that don’t necessarily tie together to share brilliant information. … Read More
I have been training high school athletes for almost 10 years. Along my journey I have made mistakes, but always try to learn from my mistakes in order to become a better coach. Here are 5 tips to keep in mind when you’re working with young athletes: 1. Coach, don’t just drill Kids … Read More