The gym is for everyone. It’s for bodybuilders working to reach 5% body fat on stage and powerlifters who want to bench press 500 pounds. The gym is also for folks who have some gray in their hair, some well-earned laugh lines, and a few general aches and pains from more than two decades of […]
Is there a feat of strength more visually striking than taking a heavy chunk of metal from the ground, heaving it into the air, and locking it overhead? The image alone, sometimes seen in silhouette, is iconic. The clean & jerk, along with the snatch, make up the Olympic lifts — the only strength sport […]
The quest for a deep, muscular chest has probably been ingrained deep in human DNA since time immemorial. As such, dumbbell chest flyes were likely the second exercise ever invented, right after the king of chest-builders — the bench press. The chest flye is an old school gem of an isolation (single-joint) exercise which has […]
Physical therapist John Pallof shared a simple exercise with a few influential strength coaches in the early 2000s. It offered an effective way to challenge core stability in an upright, athletic position. Due to the exercise’s relative starting and ending point, he called it the belly press. Fast-forward two decades. Pallof’s “belly press” was renamed by […]
Ask several people to describe the toe-to-bar movement and you’re likely to hear multiple descriptions of how the outcome should be accomplished. That is, actually getting one’s toes “to the bar.” You might think the exercise was relatively simple enough considering its self-evident name, but that’s like thinking there’s only one way to “squat.” Credit: Jordi […]
Although current social media pages might be filled with so-called “glute girls” who prioritize their posterior in the gym, targeting your glutes and hamstrings isn’t just for likes and shares. A muscular backside also happens to be a key component in performing big feats of strength, as well as driving athletic performance in nearly any […]
Pairing your back and biceps in one workout has been a classic muscle-building session for decades. It’s a time-tested approach that’s reliable, effective, and it simply makes sense — the majority of rowing and pulling-type movements that target your back also recruit your biceps. Credit: MDV Edwards / Shutterstock Even when your biceps aren’t getting […]
For most lifters, a week full of workouts just isn’t complete without some tickets to the gun show. But good arm training goes beyond simply ripping through some biceps curls and triceps pressdowns. There needs to be a method to the madness if you want to do more than build a pump that only looks […]
“Doubling up” can be a good thing — A doubleheader at the ballpark, double meat in your burrito bowl, and a double shot of espresso to jump-start the day. But it can also be, well, double trouble — Double vision, double traffic fines, and double-dipping your chip at a party. But how about doubling up […]
When it’s time to train your lower body, barbell back squats get plenty of attention, but single-leg training should spend more time in the spotlight. In particular, it’s worth focusing on the dumbbell split squat to bring awareness to the staggered position and learn to coordinate weight distribution across both feet. The dumbbell split squat, […]