Blog

How to Avoid Shoulder Pain

I wish there had been a resource on keeping shoulders healthy when I first got into barbell strength training, because I certainly could have used it.

Or maybe there was but I was too thick-skulled to listen. Injuries are for old guys and pussies, I always thought.

Shoulder pain

Boy, was I wrong.

While I’m by no means a “shoulder expert”, my own shoulder problems have led me to modify and find safer ways of training over the years.

Plus, I have seen my fair share of guys with shoulder issues training hockey players – a sport where shoulder injuries are about as commonplace as Big Macs on a fat kid’s dinner plate.

So without further ado, here are a few simple tips how to keep training hard while preventing shoulder pain.

5 Stanley Cup Champ Training Tips from the Chicago Blackhawks

With another great NHL season in the books, here are 5 training and success tips inspired by the 2015 Chicago Blackhawks Cup run.

1. Set Goals and Follow Through on Them

The one thing that separates the successful from those who never get anywhere in life is that winners set goals, then relentlessly pursue them until they get what they want.

Revisiting the 2015 NHL Draft Combine Testing Results

Last weekend, the annual NHL Scouting Combine took place in preparation for the 2015 NHL Draft held June 26-27 in Sunrise, Florida.

I’ve briefly mentioned Combine results in the past when discussing body fat levels of elite athletes from various sports.

There are some aspects of Combine testing that I disagree with but that would warrant its own article.

Today we’re gonna take a quick look at what happened when the top 120 draft-eligible prospects in hockey came together for a weekend of physical and medical assessments.

What Stood Out and What Can We Learn from the Combine?

Let’s look at the top 10 results in vertical jump, bench press and pull-ups. I picked these as they’re the simplest tests for power and upper body strength, and what most people are familiar with.

6 Snatch Tips for Athletes

No man should ever experience a life without snatch.

If you want bigger, stronger, healthier shoulders and a higher vertical jump, you gotta know how to perform and progress snatches safely over time.

Here are six ways to getting the most out of them.

1. Start with 1 Arm Dumbbell Snatches

I know some strength coaches dislike 1 arm DB snatches due to lack of hip extension – one well-known guy called them “not even a real lift” to my face not too long ago.

While I don’t disagree with that notion, I still believe they deserve a place in a proper strength training program.

It’s by far the easiest snatch variation to teach, thus making it very attractive in my eyes for teaching a large group of athletes how to accelerate and decelerate external loads rapidly.

Off-Season Hockey Strength Program: Phase 1

Note: I wrote this article back in 2015.

While I still use many of the same methods and principles explained below with my hockey players, the workout plan feels outdated to me.

I'm always tweaking and testing my strength program to give better results to athletes. That's why workouts from a few years back won't be as effective as what I'm doing today.

Access my latest, updated off-ice training programs here:

http://www.NextLevelHockeyTraining.com

During the final week of my internship under Kevin Neeld at Endeavor Sports Performance last year, I was given the assignment of writing a 12-week off-season training program for an imaginary teenage hockey player and one for a pro level hockey player.

After putting pen on paper, Kevin proceeded to ~~roast~~ question me for an hour in his office about why I chose specific exercises, sets/reps/rest periods, tempos and everything else involved in designing a comprehensive strength training plan.

Having to defend my view points to a much more knowledgeable and experienced strength coach was definitely a great learning experience and increased my confidence in being able to rationalize my training philosophy and methods to just about anyone.

I’ve had a few people, both online and in person, ask me about off-season hockey training – so I thought I’d use this article to give those of you interested a glimpse into how we train.

4 Reasons Why High Frequency Training Leads to Faster Strength Gains

My own training has been going really well as of late, which can be evidenced by numerous PR’s I’ve hit over the past few months.

I believe a big reason behind this is increased training frequency coupled with performing only a handful of key lifts while training with submaximal weights, something that I rarely see mentioned in fitness magazines where the typical recommendation revolves around increasing exercise selection and workout volume within a single session.

Trains with high frequency – is ridiculously strong

I’ve always believed the standard way of splitting the body in smaller muscle groups, then training each body part once per week is about the worst thing you can do as a natural person with average genetics when trying to improve strength and athleticism.

However, for the longest time I bought into the notion that you could only train “heavy” three times per week for fear of overtraining.

While I still think 3 full-body or upper/lower training sessions per week works well for quite a while for just about anyone looking to experience marked strength and size increases, at some point you need to try something different to blast through plateaus.

10 Great Classic Rock Songs to Train to

Most public gyms I’ve ever visited resemble Studio 54 more than a weight room when it comes to the music they’ve got blasting through the loudspeakers.

It has been scientifically proven that listening to Usher, Katy Perry or the Jonas Brothers when lifting heavy things decreases testosterone levels by as much as 80%, dropping your strength and power output capabilities down to approximately the level of a carboard cutout of Miley Cyrus.

To counteract the strength-sapping, catabolism-inducing effects of sucky training music, I have provided a daily remedy for treating these severe symptoms in this post.

Side effects may include a newly-found desire to load more weight on the bar, an uncontrollable need for headbanging between sets and a sharp increase in lusty gazes from attractive females wearing tight spandex.

Turn the volume up (I mean UP!) and wear your game face like the nice gentlemen of Metallica above as you go about shattering previous personal records with ease.

#10 Foo Fighters – Best of You

Dave Grohl has got one of the best voices in contemporary rock, and I get chills every time he lets loose at the 2:00 mark in this video.

« Previous 1 … 33 34 35 36 37 … 40 Next »