You’re only as strong as your weakest link. By now, you must be sick of hearing that phrase! We all know that the big prime movers are at the mercy of the small stabilizer muscles. Sure, prioritize the compound, multi-joint movements like squats, deadlifts, presses, chin-ups, and rows that typically make up the “A” series…
Correcting muscle imbalances should be a primary goal when designing strength training programs. With most individuals, a significant discrepancy exists between the shoulder internal rotators and external rotators. Simply put, we do far too much internal rotation during our daily activities and certainly during exercise and not nearly enough external rotation. You should address that…
Everyone trains their upper and lower back, glutes, hamstrings, and calves, but neck training often gets neglected. That’s a mistake! Remember, a chain is only as strong as its weakest link – your posterior chain of muscles is no exception! Eccentric Method A strong neck is important and a great method to use involves eccentric…
In the presentation below I discuss a new way to plan your strength training programs. I call it “The Alternating Conjugate Periodization Model” and I think you’ll find it interesting. Take a look… For more information, check out page 101 of my book The Elite Trainer where I devote an entire chapter on periodization.
JP: Let’s discuss the concept of supplement periodization. What specific supplements would you recommend during a strength phase, power phase, hypertrophy phase, and endurance phase? And to take it one step further, what supplements should we use before, during, and after our workouts? Dr. S: I will break this question down into several sections: Strength…
If you’ve been in the muscle-building game for a while, you know quite well that you can’t stay on one routine forever. No matter how well you do initially, eventually gains will come to a halt and when that happens, a change is required. The problem is that you can’t just go to your favorite…
The famous adage “If you fail to plan, you plan to fail!” applies to strength training as it does to just about any other endeavor. Arriving at the gym with no plan will lead to haphazard results. Tudor Bompa, considered by many as the father of periodization, puts it this way: “In training, nothing happens…
If you’ve been in the muscle-building game for a while, you know quite well that you can’t stay on one routine forever. No matter how well you do initially, eventually gains will come to a halt and when that happens, a change is required. The problem is that you can’t just go to your favorite…
In this presentation, I’m going to discuss a new way to plan your strength training programs. I call it the alternating conjugate periodization model, and I think you’ll find it interesting. Look for an article on this topic soon. In the meantime, check out page 101 of my book The Elite Trainer where I devote…
The following template is inspired from the work of the late Professor Yuri Verkhoshansky, who was a senior track and field coach for the Soviet national team for many years, a pioneer of the shock method of training (known as plyometrics), and an innovator in the area of planning and training periodization. MAXIMUM SIZE METHODS…