Tag: SFL
“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 […]
Brett Jones, StrongFirst Director of Education, has a saying, “I can be talked into just about anything.” Brett is referring to your individual context for doing something—the reason WHY you choose to do what you are doing. The same question can be applied to your barbell front squat training: Why are you doing front squats? […]
Strength is a skill…and you’ve decided that it’s time to add SFL skills to your toolbox. But you have limited barbell experience and zero access to a coach. Plus, you don’t really want to train wrong. Can you even get ready to attend an instructor certification? This article shows that you can, with two pre-requisites: […]
“Year’s end is neither an end nor a beginning but a going on, with all the wisdom that experience can instill in us.” Hal Borland As we reflect on the past year and look towards 2019, the truth of this quote hits home. Even as companies (and individuals) “close out” a year’s worth of business […]
With August upon us, members of the StrongFirst community from the New York City area and elsewhere have already begun their preparations for the 2018 New York City Marathon. Wait a minute. That can’t be right! Marathon training inevitably cannibalizes muscle and leads to a loss of strength. I’m not entirely sure, but I think […]
When creating the StrongFirst Lifting (SFL) Manual as well as the accompanying SFL Barbell Certification, we developed standards for the five tests administered at the SFL. These standards are based on the International Powerlifting Federation (IPF) and the USA Powerlifting (USAPL)’s “Rules of Performance.” Some of the SFL standards are identical to theirs and some […]
When I teach the bench press during the StrongFirst Lifter Certification, the path of the bar section is one of my favorites. In the deadlift and the squats (Zercher, front, and back), the bar path is generally a straight, vertical line. However, in the bench press, many people curve the bar path from the start […]
On the flight home from teaching a StrongFirst Lifter certification (SFL), I was thinking about the programming section and some of our discussions. One of the questions that always gets asked is: “What about assistance exercises?” My answer is simple—until you have spent at least a year working on the movements that we taught at […]
How do you boost your bench press? By mastering the pause between your concentric and eccentric movements. Master SFG Dr. Michael Hartle explains why and provides two practice techniques to help teach you how. Lower. Pause. Press Up. Repeat. Four words that could describe a lot of different things going on in that order. However, […]
The lifts, the preparation, the weekend itself, and priceless bits of advice—the barbell and its ultimate instructional experience, the SFL Certification—are demystified.
