This fall will be my 20thyear in the Iron Game. In that 20 years I have tried at least 100 different “Hacks” in an effort to get my training completed when I didn’t have the ideal set up or machine. I remember in 1998 when the local gym, which ironically I ended up buying, had a brand new Smith Machine. At the time, I was newly diagnosed with my spondylolisthesis and was instructed by my neurologist not to squat until I had my CT Scan done and my results back. So I came up with the idea of using the Smith Bar as a leg press. I did so by laying on the floor, on my back, below the smith bar and putting my feet up on the bar. [Read more…]
Are the 3D’s in your DNA? – Personal Reflection
It’s fair to say that the 3Ds were part of who I was and what made me tick long before 3DMJ came to be. Dedication, Desire and Discipline ran through my veins long before I became a bodybuilder. I could be wrong, but I think this is true of many of us to some extent. However, when we discover something we are passionate about to pour that energy into, it can really bring out and further develop any amount of the 3Ds we have in us. [Read more…]
When Hard Work Doesn’t Pay Off! – Another Motivational Rant
In 2016 my son’s football team went undefeated! They were the Champions of their division. They busted their butts all year, were in great shape and most importantly, the team was in sync like a well-oiled machine. They were prepared for their Pacific Northwest Regional play-off game and were ready to kick butt. I remember the kick off for the first quarter like it was yesterday. With my eyes fixated on my son, I watched them rocket down the field in perfect formation. [Read more…]
This Old Dog Learns New Tricks! Football Programming Part 2
As I mentioned in part one of this blog, knowing the context in all aspects of an athletes’ life is important in order to succeed when training them. This is especially true when it comes to a sport that relies on multiple components of athleticism to achieve high performance, as it requires sufficiently complex training to address many aspects of physical fitness. With these athletes, weight training is only piece of the whole training pie. What better way to learn all the available context than to live with an athlete right? It just so happens this is the specific circumstance I have with my son Xander. [Read more…]
This Old Dog Learns New Tricks! Football Programming Part 1
Stay in your lane! Professing to be an expert in any niche that you either have not already done at a high level or have a ton of experience in is never right. You are only fooling yourself and hurting those who you are telling your lies to. That being said, it never hurts to learn, experience or expand your horizons and knowledge base. As long as you know your limitations. [Read more…]
Another Tool for Nutrition Programming – Calculating Your “Activity Factor”
I could be dating myself here, but about 10 years ago when I was a gym owner and spent a lot of time training general population clients, there was an accepted principle that to calculate a persons’ caloric requirement for weight loss you simply had to multiply their bodyweight in pounds by 10 (or 10kCals per pound.) [Read more…]
The Habits of Elite Athletes
The chicken, or the egg?
Over the years I’ve noticed a distinct difference in the habits of elite and sub elite athletes. To expand the population size of my observation, the general mind set and verbiage used by most successful and consistent gym enthusiasts, whom I will define as “elite”, is vastly different compared to the on-and-off general population who are not as consistent, and often times unsuccessful. [Read more…]
How to Execute Linear Progression Using Dumbbells
Hey everyone! This is a Q & A from our Question Bank:
QUESTION
I’ve wondered how you could do linear progression on dumbbells, since the increments are bigger than on a barbell.
ANSWER
I’ll answer this from experience only. I’ve run into this same question many times both in my own training and with clients. I’m sure there are many other ways to go about solving this, but these are the solutions I used in the past that served me quite well and more importantly got the result we were after. [Read more…]
Not Progressing On a Lift? Take a Step Back in Volume as a Springboard for Future Progress
When a lift stalls, throwing more volume at that lifts doesn’t always help. In this week’s blog I want to use a real case study, one that I have used with many novice and some intermediate lifters, where we actually lower volume to get a lift progressing. [Read more…]
Programming A “Lean Bulk” Without the Weight Gain
A good percentage of athletes we work with want guidance on if they should work to gain, cut or maintain. I’ve dealt with that question 4 times this week alone. Athletes want our professional opinion of what exactly the focus of their programs should be geared toward. Probably the most important aspect of any program is that it has purpose. With that being said there is a great deal of context that should be taken into consideration, hence why we hold hour-long consultations. [Read more…]