In this "Tools of the Trade" series, we highlight important pieces of training equipment and how to implement them into a training program. This post will focus on the most important training apparatus your gym is probably missing: a Glute-Ham Developer (or GHD for short).
Read MoreIntriguing title, eh? It's all about "grabbing the reader," apparently...or at least, that's what Coach Dan tells me. Let me assure you, this post has ABSOLUTELY NOTHING to do with helping you lose 10 lbs. It also has nothing to do with some new kale-and-açaí-berry “miracle food” smoothie that might help you LOSE WEIGHT FAST AND KEEP IT OFF? (Raise your hand if you've heard that phrase a thousand times in commercials.) But headlines and promises like that work, and they work by preying upon our collective cultural obsession with weight loss.
Read MoreHang cleans can be tricky business for athletes who are just starting a legitimate strength training program. Without a good strength coach on hand, getting the clean technique down can be a daunting task. But the good news is that the learning curve is relatively steep and once you start getting the proper feel for the basics, it won't be long until you're ready for more complex variations and higher weights. This article is intended to call out five important elements of a good hang clean. Take them to heart and you will be on your way to cleaning up your technique (see what I did there???).
Read MoreTime to beat a dead horse. Half-squats are bad. If you are serious about training, your squats should be breaking parallel every time . It's a matter of efficiency and even safety. I'm not assaulting your character if you lack the mobility required for the hips to reach necessary depth, but if you aren't taking the steps to improve that mobility then you're probably not invited to my birthday party (it's okay, no one shows up anyway).
Read MoreIt’s waiting for you. Lurking in the corner of every gym. Watching you from beneath your physical therapist’s desk. Peering up at you from under your chiropractor’s drop table. Hiding in your mom’s basement, between the treadmill and yoga mat.
The foam roller.
Read MoreTraining for athletic performance involves utilizing barbells, moving heavy weight, and bringing a warrior-like intensity to the weight room every day. And as much as I love writing about all of those things, there is another particular training method that deserves its day in the sun. Bodyweight training.
Read MoreThe thing: the Internet is chock full of funky advice to females on how to be fit—much of which tells us that our aesthetic appearance is the end-all, be-all of our overall health and fitness. So now—just in time for Christmas!—the Volt team would like to give all the ladies out there some concrete reasons why we SHOULD lift, reasons that AREN’T all about looking cute in a bikini. Because, let’s face it: there is just SO MUCH MORE to life than looking cute in a bikini (especially when you live in the Pacific Northwest, like me, where hot, sunny days are few and far between).
Read MoreIn the #MentalSweat series, I want to explore some of the awesome research that appears in many of the sports performance and physiology journals that show up on my desk. There is always tons of great insight into the theory and application of many of the principles that we base our training methods on. Hopefully, it sheds more light into why our programs are so effective and how we utilize these principles across different sports, phases, and movements.
Read MoreAh, the age-old discussion of why girls don't (or won't) lift weights. If I had a nickel for every time one of my female clients or friends has asked, “Why should I lift weights? Won’t lifting weights make me bulky?”
Read MoreIt’s no secret that an athlete needs to train differently than someone just looking to get a little healthier, or gain a little muscle. And no one is surprised when I say that a soccer player needs to train differently than a football player. This all boils down to the fact that every sport has specific demands: both on movement (kicking a ball, swinging a bat, blocking and tackling, etc.) and on the metabolic energy pathways used for that movement (explosive with lots of rest, varied sprinting and jogging, etc.).
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