For today’s Mobility Monday, we’re going to dive in and deconstruct a mobility drill that is used by thousands of strength coaches. This mobility drill can also be called the greatest stretch of all time or if you’re looking for something a bit more descriptive, hands-to-instep with a rib pull. I’m sure there are some slight variations of … Read More
A lot of people train at Skill of Strength. Every day we see business professionals, teachers, personal trainers and strength coaches, MMA fighters, retirees, moms and high school athletes. We like to consider everyone who walks through the door at Skill of Strength an athlete. Keep in mind each athlete is talented in his or her own way. Today, let’s … Read More
Pull-ups are one of my favorite exercises. I’ve been performing weighted pull-ups for ten years now. I’ve learned that in order to reach your goals you must follow a smart program and be careful not to overtrain. From my experience, you should never perform more than 15 reps in a training session and you need to make … Read More
Starting a new training and/or nutrition program is usually really exciting. In the beginning you’re super duper motivated and ready to commit for life. Okay, or at least for the 21 days of the “fix” or 8 weeks of boot camp, right? For the first week, or maybe even a few weeks, you’re feeling awesome, … Read More
Over the last few years I’ve spent a ton of time writing programs for athletes who play various sports. I’ve worked with high school and collegiate athletes, professional fighters and some incredibly strong people at my gym, Skill of Strength. Twice a year we host an event called the tactical strength challenge or TSC. I love preparing … Read More
Today we’ll go over my favorite active straight leg raise correction (ASLR). I’m a huge fan of the functional movement screen. My first FMS certification was at the Reggie Lewis Center in Boston around 2008. Since then, I’ve been using it with all of my clients. We utilize the entire screen at Skill of Strength, but … Read More
This post could also be called, how to find a strength and conditioning coach who knows what he/she is doing! Today’s post is inspired by something that happened last week. An athlete we just started working with told me about a guest strength coach who came to his school to take his football team through … Read More
Shoulders that are stuck in internal rotation eventually wreak havoc in some way, shape or form! I see this all the time! Many people are stuck in a position where their shoulders are internally rotated, they lack thoracic extension, and they don’t have even halfway decent scapular retraction and depression. If you’ve worked with clients that move like this, you … Read More
It’s been my experience that a lot of people misunderstand sports performance training. You may be thinking, what’s to misunderstand? Isn’t sports performance training just a fancy way of saying you are an athlete working out so you’re not completely out-of-shape when the season rolls around? Kind of, but not really. Here’s the issue. Many people view sports performance … Read More
Every fall and spring as athletes transition back to their field sports, they inevitably find themselves riddled with hamstring pulls and hip flexor strains. Often times athletes are procrastinators, and they try to cram what should have been 3 months worth of training into a 3-week period when they realize pre-season is right around the corner. Now, … Read More