Barbell training for strength using the Starting Strength method is hard work and a common occurrence that gets in the way of this hard work is shoulder and arm pain. In many cases this pain is a result of technical problems with the low-bar squat (the lift that is generally performed first in the training session). Here are some points to consider before you begin your training or if you have started to experience problems.   SHOULDER PAIN Causes: Shoulder pain is fairly common when low-bar squatting because the position demands a great deal of flexibility. When you first learn how to l ..read more

Every year around February the CrossFit community is abuzz with talk of the CrossFit Open. This 5-week event is the first of three stages that ultimately crowns the “fittest” men and women alive. When the Open was first introduced in 2011 it was more of a community fitness event. Everyone of all skill levels was encouraged to participate and although some harder movements would appear (i.e., muscle-ups), they would generally appear towards the end of the 5 Open workouts enabling most people to get several scores in before being “eliminated.” Fast forward to present day and the Open is tr ..read more

A very common question I receive from athletes who have just completed a dedicated strength cycle is how they can maintain their strength gains when they go back to CrossFit. This question arises because the athlete notes correctly that peak levels of strength attained while strength training cannot be maintained when, in the case of CrossFit, programming seeks development of nine skills sets in addition to strength. So, what is one to do? The answer is a complicated one. In this article I will discuss a variety of considerations so that you are better equipped to create a plan that will ..read more

The following article was written by myself and Michael Wolf.   The information detailed here is for a specific group of people, namely those who have just completed an 8-week linear progression strength cycle with little to no conditioning and are planning to return to high intensity training such as CrossFit. If you are one of these individuals, your gains from strength cycle will likely result on your PRing one or more of your Olympic lifts and benchmark WODs. However, transitioning back to CrossFit after not doing conditioning for a while has its challenges and is best approache ..read more

Name: Michael Age: 36 Height: 5’9″ Michael’s Training Program Michael came to me wanting to get stronger. He had made progress in CrossFit classes, but recognized that his form was suffering due to limited flexibility and he needed regular coaching to make further progress. I spent several weeks with Michael deconstructing the main barbell lifts. Once he was moving well with the empty barbell, I graduated him to a standard linear progression strength training program using the Starting Strength method. Aside from a few in-person sessions early on, Michael’s training was conducted remotel ..read more

One of the the biggest (if not THE biggest) points of contention in the health and fitness industries is whether excess calories or excess carbohydrates are responsible for high levels of obesity in the United States. Calories In/Calories Out proponents: Those in this camp say a calorie is a calorie and that thermodynamics is the driver. That is, if you eat more calories than you expend, you’re going to get fat. Carbohydrate/Insulin Resistance proponents: Those in this camp generally say that excess carbohydrates are the driver; if you consume too many carbohydrates, especially refined c ..read more

In Type 2 Diabetics the insulin produced by beta-cells of the pancreas is no longer able to drive uptake of glucose into cells (insulin resistance). Beta-cells attempt to compensate for this deficiency by increasing their production of insulin. However, this upregulation is short-lived and the beta-cells will eventually fail entirely. In this situation, if an individual’s insulin resistance is eventually managed or reversed, they will be presented with a new problem – their beta-cells can no longer produce insulin and the individual will need to manage their insulin with injections/pumps ..read more

My old High School Science Research teacher Dr. Pavlica repeatedly told us budding young scientists that you can’t just talk the talk – you have to walk the walk. It certainly stuck and as I became more active in coaching and training clients, I made sure that I was pursuing my own health & fitness journey with the same commitment I wanted my clients to have. Given that I am now 40 years old and have achieved many of my health & fitness goals, I thought there was no better time to post a client success story featuring me. This was a 10 year journey and, as the picture below clearly sh ..read more

Several months ago a research study was published by Drum and others comparing CrossFit® training to an American College of Sports Medicine (ACSM)-based training session. The paper begins by discussing CrossFit as an extreme/high intensity conditioning program and notes how people have been concerned about its safety, in particular, to what extent it contributes to Exertional Rhabdomyolysis (ER), a condition where muscle damage causes the bloodstream to fill with proteins and other cellular material. The authors’ rationale for the study is that “ongoing high rates of perceived exertion ..read more

Name: Reinhold Age: 51 Height: 6’2″   Reinhold’s Training Program Having lost a fair bit of his strength during a period where he had to dial back activity as a result of bone marrow cancer, Reinhold came to me wanting to get back to where he was before the diagnosis. However, he didn’t just want to regain his strength – he wanted to do so with better form. His flexibility had presented him with significant limitations ever since he started CrossFit training (unable to squat below parallel, unable to press arms straight up due to shoulder tightness, etc.) and he wanted to remedy tha ..read more