A Three-Year Journey with ETK

The year is 2006, and one of my personal training students was inquiring about my next training plan. Student: So, what’s your next routine, Os? Me: I’m doing a program called Enter the Kettlebell (ETK). Student: What is that? Me: I’ll be doing kettlebell clean & press three times a week, snatches once a week, […]

My Minimalist Training

My journey to StrongFirst started with questions that were always on my mind, “What is strength? What does it mean to be strong?” I pursued this question through fighting, training, studying, and researching how to become strong, both physically and mentally, and obviously the name StrongFirst came up. Everything I read was intriguing, so real […]

Four Progressions to Conquer the One-Arm Pushup

When I first attended the StrongFirst Bodyweight (SFB) Certification in 2016, I failed the one-arm pushup test that weekend. Having recently passed the SFG Level I Certification seven months prior, I was new to StrongFirst methods and strength training and still in the early stages of becoming strong. Fast-forward to today, 2023, I have now […]

Pick Your Perfect Program in 2023

“Water, water everywhere, nor any drop to drink.”— Samuel Taylor Coleridge from The Rime of the Ancient Mariner The quote above from the classic poem describes the availability of programs for the trainee. Programs, programs everywhere, nor a one to follow… It can be classic “paralysis by analysis” and the search for the “right” program […]

Staying Fit While Deployed

Having spent 20 years in the U.S. military, most of it during the Global War on Terror, I’ve seen my share of deployments. I rotated into combat zones seven times as a Navy SEAL, twice as a member of Team 2, and five times as a member of the Tier 1 SEAL unit. Staying fit […]

Defeating Limited Training Time: A Modified Built Strong Program

I usually say, “I’ve never gotten to see Game of Thrones,” to highlight how busy my life is. For the past nineteen years, I’ve worked full-time in Emergency Services, doing shift work. Additionally, I’ve owned and operated Access Health and Fitness in Dublin with employees for twelve years. I’m also married with three level-headed, non-stress […]

Do It Yourself Hand Care

Remember when you were a kid and your parents always told you to brush your teeth? Well, like a lot of kids you might have let it “go in one ear and out the other” and either forgot or just plain refused to do it. Then one day you might have had a regular check-up […]

Upstream Strength Strategies

“Every system is perfectly designed to get the results it gets.”—Paul Batalden, Medical Expert In his book, Upstream: How to solve problems before they happen, Dan Heath talks about how upstream decisions can have a greater impact on downstream results. He also explains the difference between upstream decisions and preventative measures (being proactive is not […]

How to Increase Power with “Grinds”

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 […]

A Strength Plan for Professional Soccer Players

In team sports, soccer being a prime example, the time available to train an athlete’s physical strength is quite limited. The majority of training is spent performing tactical and technical sport related exercises. Keeping this in mind, I planned a new strength program for Renate Calcio, one of Italy’s professional soccer teams, around two fundamental […]