Tag: Deadlift
Most of us know the important role strength training plays in sports. This also applies to soccer, where the quality of technical skills is fundamental. During the 2022-2023 season, with the help of Fabio Zonin, StrongFirst Certified Master Instructor, I designed a training program based on StrongFirst principles for Pro Vercelli Calcio a soccer team […]
I felt a pop and folded like a house of cards. Two years ago, I herniated a disc during my top deadlift set. I was training earlier than usual so my body was rather stiff. Despite a brief warm-up, I loaded up the usual 405 pounds and got into position. Arms straight, hips hinged, and […]
The good old days of bigger, faster, stronger are long gone. We know better now. Times have changed. The game of strength has new rules. It is not just about strength. It is about strength AND speed. It is about power. Force and Power Swinging a 32kg kettlebell is challenging, but we can all agree […]
An Excerpt from Deadlift Dynamite The paradox breathing technique, developed in the USSR by opera singer Alexandra Strelnikova for applications obviously unrelated to lifting, will teach you how to tense your abs while “packing” your belly with air. Lie on your back with your legs straight.[i] If you are top heavy, anchor your feet under […]
Meeting Pavel for the first time about twenty years ago changed my life. It is a story that has been told in these pages before. I was impressed with this quiet gentleman who knew so much about training systems far from the American tradition. We discussed the eloquence of Russian sport science that produced performance […]
“Dedication, absolute dedication, is what keeps one ahead.”—Bruce Lee Simple & Sinister embodies the quote above. Dedication to achieving Simple and continuing to Sinister has led students on multiple-month and multiple-year journeys. A rarity in today’s scrolling-based attention-span world, the dedicated pursuit of the S&S goal is a worthy endeavor. However, dedication can and will […]
Lifting the Dinnie Stones is a challenge for which strength enthusiasts from all over the world travel to Scotland. Donald Dinnie not only lifted but carried the “Steens” across the Potarch Bridge in 1860—a feat that would not be replicated for more than a century. In 1972, somebody was finally able to do what he […]
“If something is important. Do it every day.”—Dan Gable. The most feared and revered barbell lift. The most neurologically taxing exercise. The “king of all lifts.” The list of ways to describe the barbell deadlift goes on and on. In December of 2021, the question that wouldn’t leave my mind was: “Is it possible to […]
An Excerpt from Deadlift Dynamite If you know your way around the kettlebell, you have an unfair advantage when it comes to learning barbell skills. Start with a barbell half-deadlift because it is less demanding of skill and flexibility. And it really teaches you to drive the hips forward, an essential element of Andy’s competition […]
Results are What Matter For decades I have heard about thousands of training related products that claimed to work magic for athletes, oftentimes supported by “abstracts” of research and clinical studies. But very few of them were ever mentioned again just a couple of years later. Similarly, the internet and social media expose us to […]
