Be as Strong as You Look: 8 Weeks of Built Strong Training

In the first days of quarantine, when things shut down and the composition of my days changed overnight, I came to a quick realization: I may never again have an opportunity quite like this to train for muscle mass. I was a 43-year-old father of two with a time-consuming day job who had been training […]

Increase Your Pressing Strength and Overhead Stability with the One-Arm Barbell Press

The one-arm strict barbell press is a challenging press that will build strength and muscle stability. Pavel recommended the side press in Power to the People! and this stricter variation is a valuable addition to your strength training regimen.  The prehabilitation and rehabilitation benefits of the strict barbell press are tremendous as the grip and […]

Stop Fearing Heavy Weights

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 […]

My Successful Training Plan for the SFB

Introduction From the outside, the StrongFirst Bodyweight Certification (SFB) may look like the least “shiny” of the three certification StrongFirst offers, but for many it´s also probably the one they will have to work the hardest for, both physically and mentally. But what you get from the SFB when you put yourself in the (possibly) […]

How Over Twenty Ladies Did Their First Chin-up Within a Year

Given the absolute strength differences between men and women, a chin-up is an excellent challenge for ladies with strength goals. I train a number of women, so I decided to challenge my students (and myself) by embarking on an audacious one-year long plan to help as many of my female students perform their first chin-up […]

How I Achieved Five Reps of the Iron Maiden

The Goal The idea of the Five-Rep Iron Maiden was planted in my head back in 2018 after completing the Iron Maiden Challenge at The Dome in Chicago. Training for something as big as Iron Maiden takes years of practice and after training for something for so long, it’s hard to be “finished.” Ben Eisenmenger […]

How to Improve Your Performance by Rebalancing Your Body: A Lesson from a World Record Strongman

I would like to share a training method with you that is rarely understood in the realm of fitness but so powerful it completely saved me from persistent hip discomfort and tension within a few days. Over the course of a few months, I saw improved performance while hiking steep hills and a more powerful […]

Enter the Barbell Deadlift

Why the Barbell? At some point every person who trains for strength should learn to use a barbell. When it comes to heavy lifting, the barbell reigns supreme. Two hands on a knurled bar with a balanced load; it doesn’t get any better than that when it comes to getting strong. There are also many […]

Quarantine Fitness

I grew up hiking, skiing, mountain biking, and hunting in the mountains of southwestern Montana. Following college, I joined the military and served in the US Special Operations Command for sixteen years before transitioning to a corporate job in the private sector. When I was much younger and fitter, I experienced some of the most […]

Simple Strength for Difficult Times Part Two: Get Even Stronger in Quarantine

When I wrote the article “Simple Strength for Difficult Times” I outlined an 8-week plan, confident that within two months we would be all back to our gyms and our regular life. Unfortunately, this hasn’t happened yet. Most of us are still under lockdown and many gyms all across the world are still closed. As […]