Joseph had tried various sports and activities when he was in grade school. Nothing clicked. He was a below-average student, often getting in trouble at school. Watching cartoons and playing video games were his only interests. His mom was desperate. She brought him to me at 12 years old, not sure he would last, but…
Women have only recently started to weight train, right? WRONG!!! Women have been weight training for well over a century. When the aerobic craze hit in the 70s and 80s, however, more women were doing aerobics than weights. The fear back then was that weight training would lead to overdeveloped muscles. Fortunately, we know better…
This morning was the last med ball session of the year. Next week, I’ll transition to a strength and hypertrophy phase (i.e., the first phase of Mass Explosion). I never eat before doing med ball training. I’m up at 5:00 a.m., take some BCAAs as outlined in Lean and Mean, and then on the field…
For several weeks now, 15-year-old Joseph has been working hard on hanging-band squats and assisted chin-ups. Friday night he was able to see what effect that type of training has had. After working up to 45 pounds a side on hanging-band squats, he was ready for conventional squats with the “big plates”. No problem! Now,…
Albert Einstein once defined insanity as doing the same thing over and over again but expecting different results. There are many examples of insane traditions in the health and fitness world. Here are some that come to mind… Insane Nutrition Tradition We’re told to eat less to lose weight, so people restrict their calories…
Weight training can have a profound effect on bone density — but only if the weights lifted are truly significant and supported by the spine, not just moved by the limbs. Squats fit the bill perfectly. Unfortunately, most females don’t go heavy enough to fully reap these bone-building benefits. A common concern among women is…
Many myths exist regarding weight training. For instance: The list goes on. None of these are entirely true. Weight training is simply a tool—it’s not the tool itself that should be blamed but rather how you use it. If you consistently train in a shortened range of motion (ROM), you may become muscle-bound and inflexible….
The Elite Trainer by John Paul Catanzaro is a synthesis of the very latest thinking in strength training and an indispensable guide to developing individualized programs for recreational and professional athletes. John Paul Catanzaro, B.Sc., C.E.P., C.K., is a Certified Exercise Physiologist and a Certified Kinesiologist with a Specialized Honours Bachelor of Science degree in…
The state of strength training in North America is outdated. We seem to be many years behind the Europeans in this field. Most of the curriculum in our schools today deals with aerobic training spurred by the Dr. Kenneth Cooper movement of the late 1960s and early 1970s. To make matters worse, the value of…