3.7 / 5 ( 3 votes ) Trying to get a straight answer out of a gym about how much it is to train there is like trying to figure out how to assemble a 20,000 piece all black jigsaw puzzle with the biggest hangover of your life. Gyms keep that info hidden tighter than Osama Bin Laden. Most of the time you won’t get a straight answer over the phone, you can’t find it on a website, and the only way you can find out how much you need to give em is by going in for a “consultation” (*cough* sales pitch *cough*). Then, when you DO go in and find out how much it is each month, they slap you with ..read more

Yesterday in our powerlifting team whatsapp we got to discussing training volume, how much is too much, should we be doing more, and what’s optimal.  I could write for days on this, but today will be a brief summary, hopefully opening the door to some Qs from you that I can expand on later. TERMS Before getting into it, we need to understand a couple of terms; “volume” – the total number of lifts done of squat, benches and deadlifts (or close variants) at or above 50% “tonneage” – the number of lifts (volume) multiplied by the reps done at that weight “weekly volume” – the total co ..read more

2.5 / 5 ( 8 votes ) Remember that great scene in the Godfather III – ‘just when  I thought I was out, they pull me back in’? It seems to be the story of my life with boards.ie. As I’m sure some of you know, I got unceremoniously banned a few months ago, and while my daily moron quotient has dropped substantially, I still get the odd message from people saying “hey whatcha think of this”. And it happened again this morning. This time about rack pulls. Rack pulls are probably good for this guy, because he’s trying to add muscle to his upper back. But is that why YOU’RE doing them ..read more

5 / 5 ( 4 votes ) God… where to start? It’s Wednesday, and the dust has just settled on a weekend of powerlifting. 1 year ago, we entered our first competition, and last weekend – Team RevFit Powerlifting had it’s largest ever contingent at a comp (18 lifters). Some won classes, most didn’t. All hit PRs, some bigger than others. For some it was their first competition, all got cheered on regardless. Many thought they weren’t strong enough, all found out they were. Over the weekend, approximately 100 lifters, taking 1,000 competition attempts clanged and banged on barbells to win compe ..read more

It was a bit of a mad weekend at RevFit HQ. We’d 18 lifter compete at the Irish Powerlifting Federation’s Leinster Open over the course of Saturday and Sunday. As soon as I’m finished this post, I’ll be putting together a team meet report, but since we’d SO many lifters, that’s gonna take a while. 2 or 3 weeks back, my participation was in doubt. I posted the following message in the IrishPF discussion group;   ​// DEALING WITH SICKNESS AND SET BACK ​​This is one I’d love to hear more from the higher ranking lifters on… ​Call this week 23 of prep. ​ For the first 20 weeks I h ..read more

5 / 5 ( 1 vote ) Earlier on I posed a question on my own personal facebook page; —- Has anyone else figured out a way to politely say “stop posting that fucking round back dog taking a dump higher than Afroman deadlift and squat bullshit you have your clients doing in the gym” to PTs on Facebook and the ‘gram?! —- I posted it after I saw ANOTHER personal trainer post ANOTHER video of client doing something I would politely describe as “less than efficient” and more truthfully describe as “a bigger waste of time than tits on a bull”. I wasn’t really looking for answers. If your deadli ..read more

I’m squatting over 10 years at this stage. I’ve come from squatting 120kg to a bench in a pair of york knees sleeves and a shitty velcro argos belt to doing over double that in powerlifting competition. If you asked me 3 months ago if there was anything I was going to learn about squatting now that would completely change how I thought about the lift I’d have scoffed and said no. (pride commeth before a fall right?) But back in October I had some sense slapped in to me by a man who’s coaching powerlifting longer than I’m alive. Guess even in my 30s I can still display the arrogance of y ..read more

  If you’ve been reading these posts for a while, you’ll probably know I’m the Technical Director for the Irish Powerlifting Federation, and one of their competition judging team. Every time I come back from a competition I see some things that I feel obligated to share because it hurts so much seeing lifters spend weeks and months getting ready for a comp only to make a balls of it on some small technical aspect. After last weekends IPF All Ireland’s I was reminded AGAIN about how much energy people waste setting up their squats. GET A HOT SQUAT In competition, you won’t get a “sq ..read more

5 / 5 ( 1 vote )   I know what you’re thinking. After seeing our BIG Black Friday announcement a few days ago, it’s unusual to see a Cyber Monday follow up right? ESPECIALLY after the content of that message. The one where I gave out about price kickers, tyre shoppers and the mania that happens over Black Friday. (…I did make one purchase, for the record – it was something I’d been looking at for a while tho and was going to buy on Monday, until I saw they’d a Black Friday sale) As much as I’d planned to avoid black Friday… once the buying kicked off, I ALMOST kept going. To th ..read more

Most Guys Are Too Busy Exercising To Actually Train. I used to exercise 5, 6, sometimes 7 days per week. I’d show up and do whatever I felt like on a day. But I didn’t start making big leaps in strength and muscle until I started following a plan. For example, in the last week I’ve trained 5 times. Hard. Sometimes 2 hour plus sessions. I’ve deadlifted 260kg for 2 sets of 3 reps and done 30+ reps above 130kg on the bench. What’s more, I’m going to have to do it all again for the next 10 weeks in the run up to my next competition. But here’s the thing – why should you care? You ..read more