Ben Pollack is one of this generation’s greatest lifters and geniuses, a physical culture expert, world record holder and US Open powerlifting champion. Know as “PhDeadlift” on social media, Ben is currently wrapping up his PhD and is one of the most educated and insightful competitors to grace the platform. Check out his site at phdeadlift.com.

I was lucky enough to get the chance to chat with Chris Duffin about training recently.  It was a great conversation because we both have a similar mental approach to training: if we’re going to make it worthwhile, we need to go into the gym with a very concrete goal in mind.  And the more frequently we do that, the better.  While light days have their place in any sound training program, they’re just not fun.

But as Chris pointed out, training doesn’t always have to be fun.  He put it really simply: training is your job.  I love that analogy, because I think...

While this piece is specifically around hamstring strain recovery the concepts can be applied across a number of similar soft tissue injuries.  Also understand its important to seek a qualified professionals assessment.  As the following content is not intended to be taken as medical advice but more simply as a sample training plan during the recovery process.

As a resource here are some provider searches that I can recommend.

http://www.rehab2performance.com

http://www.clinicalathlete.com

http://movementproviders.com

Outside of direct accident, nearly all muscle strains or tears can be traced to two issues.  Either training levels were accumulating fatigue at a higher rate than adaptation or recovery, or there were faulty movement patterns.  Typically the first of those two is the reason and referencing Tim Gabbet’s work is often accompanied with weekly increases in volume above 10-15%.  However in my in experience the latter often comes into play...

Let’s start by clarifying that this article is nothing more than a summary of my thoughts based on personal observation, coaching, and discussions with clinicians and professors over the years.  It is not summary of research or definitive fact, albeit from an anecdotal aspect I can consistently drive positive change when fine tuning based on the principles in this piece.

Over the years, I have observed a direct relationship between deep neck flexors and quality of bracing and output of force production. This relationship can be affected by a number of variables and isn’t one simple variable.  There is not one cue or position that will increase your force production or improve bracing quality, nor one sign that will let you know there is a potential problem or opportunity in addressing this area.  However, there is a set of overarching principles I have developed that will make it easy to understand and manage.  It may also explain why certain...

Let's start with what this article is not. It is not a top 5 exercises to develop great looking delts with lateral, front, and rear delt raises to develop each of the heads. Don’t worry, you will develop some amazing looking delts in the process as that also happens to be the output of strong healthy shoulders.

The Author’s Shoulders

It is a piece to help you develop strong, healthy, and powerful shoulders that can deliver tremendous power while reducing risk of injury in such a complex joint. This top 5 is for developing functional strength movements for the shoulders. Yes, I said the dreaded word ‘functional’. But I’m not talking namby-pamby soda can exercises, I’m talking real movements that develop strength while helping improve the operating mechanics of the shoulders. If you’re not familiar with my background or approach I am certainly a coach and athlete interested in real-world results and believe that stronger is better,...

Brandon Senn competes in Powerlifting and is the Head Coach at Kabuki Strength Virtual Coaching. His mission is to support athletes through global management systems that directly influence their performance within the competitive realm.

Over the past decade, the idea that you can fluidly manage training loads based on defined scales has gone from a distant idea to being adopted as a critical tool that many lifters use every day in their training. Some coaches even base entire training philosophies on this concept. That’s not to say the formalization of autoregulation was the beginning of its application. Since man began training for sport or towards desired physical outcomes we have been managing how heavy, or how hard we push at any given time mostly based by feel. Not since the creation of specified scales have we began to put a name to it. But as with formally attaching a name to this idea, everything must evolve. This article is going to expand on the idea of...

Call it whatever you like. Flossing, voodoo wrapping, compressing, blood flow restriction; you name it. There are a lot of terms floating around that describe a similar activity. We have gotten to a point where you can find compression bands just about anywhere. There is a reason it’s becoming more popular, it works. What most people don’t realize is there are a lot of different ways to use deep compression and a lot of different reasons someone may do it in certain situations.

1. Improving Lymphatic Drainage & Reducing Swelling

The idea of deep compression has been around for a very long time. The first time I heard about using this kind of compression was from Dick Hartzell and a book titled, Don’t Ice that Ankle Sprain. In the book, Dick goes into detail about leaving that ice bag in the trash and applying super compression to the ankle to stabilize and flush swelling. The super compression also can be analgesic (acting to relieve pain), allowing...

It has now been twelve and eighteen months, respectively, since I had hemicap surgery on my left and right shoulders. Performed by Dr. Anthony Miniaci at the Cleveland Clinic, the shoulder surgeries have performed better than I had hoped. In reviewing the introductory article I wrote in June of 2016, my goal then was to rehab the right shoulder ahead of the October surgery on the left, and to get back on the platform by the spring of 2017. I can report now that the second surgery was equally successful as was the follow up rehab work led by PT’s Jim Cavin (right) and Jason Vila (left) at North Lake Physical therapy who pushed me to the limit. It was a long, frustrating road as I wanted the pain to subside sooner than it did. However, by using our Duffalo and Transformer Bars, I was able to train the squat well ahead of regaining the shoulder range of motion necessary to get my myself under a straight bar and the Duffalo bar allowed me to start benching sooner...

Andrew Lock
Welcome to another World First.

In this landmark article I’ll explain the flexed spine and neutral spine controversy, how to understand it, and why movement patterns are the key to successful rehabilitation. Let’s begin – There is no joint range that the body naturally has that is bad for you. Yes, and lumbar spines do flex, and for a very good reason. Now it’s time to make like Charlton Heston and strap yourself in for some time travel (except we are going backwards in time).

It’s evolution baby. We are Homo Sapiens. Approximately 300.000 years as our current form and in the multiregional origin model, the evolution of humanity begins about 2.5 million years ago in the Pleistocene era continuing to the present day within a single, continuous species, evolving worldwide modern Homo sapiens sapiens.

Herein lies the key to the flexed spine.

Let’s consider an important key to survival – Calorie Expenditure Minimization (CEM). To...

It is not uncommon for athletes to develop restrictive patterns inhibiting hip extension due to postural deficiencies or imbalances.  The output of this may be pain, or just simply a reduction in performance.  In this article we will teach you how to quickly identify if you have these problems as well as how to resolve them in a safe, efficient, and methodical manner.  To accomplish this we will use several videos from our private video movement library.  There are hundreds more videos and drills all indexed along with guided tutorials on this website as well.  This piece will also highlight what we can accomplish with our multidisciplinary approach.  Our goal is not to be dogmatic to any one particular method, but to get you back training with the best movement possible to increase performance and reduce your injury risk.

Our first step is to perform a Hruska Lift test which is a tool from the PRI discipline.  When performing this test it is...