CategoriesStrength Training Equipment

What Is The Best Training Equipment To Use For Functional Strength?

Someone on You Tube last week asked me why I like to use a lot of different types of strength training equipment with my own training and also with my one on one clients? They wanted to know if the reason for this was for variety and to keep it interesting so you don’t get bored, or if there was a more specific reason I do this. Firstly, the equipment I use is not for variety and fun but because it aligns with the methods I use to improve movement efficiency, strength, and overall function. Some tools are better than others, and some only apply to certain individuals who may need them due to injury or a sporting requirement meaning I may only use them from time to time. This led me to the question, what type of equipment do I find is the best? This is a question that I am regularly asked by people looking to invest in equipment for a home gym. In today’s article I will explain what my favorite types of equipment are and why.

CategoriesMaster Functional Movement Patterns Strength Training Methods

Why I Like To Use Farmers Walks & Turkish Get Ups In Workouts

On this blog I regularly cover articles and videos about various methods and exercises you can use to strengthen the body to either correct muscle imbalances and injury, or improve overall movement performance for life and sports. Rarely do I provide you with a set workout to follow for it is impossible for me to know exactly what your body needs. We are all unique in the way our bodies move and the best workout is the one that is tailored specifically to your needs, instead of following someone else’s training program which may not be best for you. This is what you see all the time in magazines and social media. Having said all that, I am going to share with you today a workout I have used a lot for myself over the years and why I rate this as one of my best workout of all time. Some of the exercises I substitute for similar ones so don’t get hung up on the specifics of each exercise, instead pay attention to the logic behind the overall structure of the method that is used. Enjoy.

CategoriesSports Strength

How To Choose The Right Exercises For A Sports Specific Strength Training Program

Strength training and sports specific conditioning has really evolved rapidly over the past 10-15 years as many coaches and athletes search for better ways to train and get every little bit of potential from their body. Yet there is a huge gap in knowledge between elite professional athletes and the amateur or even semi-professionals, especially when it comes to deciding what exercises to use. Far too many programs and methods are based on body building methods, whose purpose is to look good in a mirror, not to move efficiently or powerfully for sports. And the use of so called “core workouts” with endless abdominal workouts is equally disastrous to any sporting enthusiast, which is ironic as they are used to prevent injury and only end up in creating one! Where do you start? Well there is endless exercises, methods and programs to use, the key is to understand the principles of how to choose exercises that right for you using a simple process I am going to share with you from our Sports Specific program in this article.

CategoriesMaster Functional Movement Patterns

Train Movement Not Muscle If You Want A Strong Body Free Of Pain

This is quite a controversial subject for many people, especially people in the body building scene. And I would like to start off by saying I have nothing against body building if that is your passion and that is what you like to do. I just have a problem with people adopting body building techniques who are not body builders and want to become fit and healthy. And especially people who go to someone for a rehabilitation or injury prevention training program and think they are doing “functional training” or “core training” but are really using a muscle based approach no different to body building. This type of training has taken over almost all of the gyms you go into these days, and even in the rehab world itself with physiotherapists, specialists, Pilates even, there is still a real emphasis on muscle based training. I myself used this approach early in my career as a personal trainer 20 years ago. And although some people recovered well from some injury or pain, there were many people that never really improved or seemed to be continually re-injuring themselves, myself included.

CategoriesJoint by Joint Approach Master Functional Movement Patterns

How To Use The Joint By Joint Approach To Improve Your Functional Movement Skill

One of the best changes I ever added to my assessments, thought process, and training methods was incorporating the “joint by joint approach” invented by physical therapist Gray Cook and strength coach Mike Boyle. When working with new clients and especially those with injuries or chronic pain it can be very difficult to know where to start, what to look for, and more importantly what to do to restore pain free movement. I was never taught this concept at any point in my first 5-6 years of personal training and I completed many advanced courses in rehabilitation and worked with many experienced therapists and specialists. I used to rely on postural corrections based around muscle imbalances and would drill down to specific areas with isolated exercises and stretches. While I had some success doing this I regularly would get very frustrated with poor results with transferring isolated exercises to full body movement. Then one day I read the book Movement by Gray Cook and came across the joint by joint approach something clicked in my mind that helped me join the dots together with what I had been doing. Everything seemed to make a lot of sense looking at the body in this way and enabled me to make some big changes that worked much better than anything I had been using previously. In this article, I will explain how I use this method right now and why I believe everyone should be taught this concept.

CategoriesHypertrophy Master Functional Movement Patterns

Can You Build Muscle Size Using Functional Strength Training Methods?

I believe most people are aware of the amazing benefits to their body by using functional training exercises over machines and various isolation exercises for improving movement in daily life and sports. I have posted numerous articles and videos explaining this concept in great detail for many years and the knowledge and education of this is training method much better than what it was 10-15 years ago. However, there still is a misconception that these exercises will not help you improve muscular strength and in particular hypertrophy (muscle size). There are several reasons why people fail to put on muscle size when using a functional training approach, but what you will find it is not the exercises that are to blame. In this article, I will show you exactly what you need to know to improve your movement efficiency and muscle size if that is something you are wanting to do.

CategoriesCore Strengthening

What Improves Core Strength The Best? – Functional Integrated Movement or Isolation Abdominal Exercise?

For a long time I have been discussing the value of using a more integrated and functional approach to strengthening the core, versus the traditional and more popular method of isolating the abdominal muscles with a multitude of floor exercises. My argument has always been that the activation of the abdominal muscles is more consistent with their “true function” when using integrated movements and are more effective at improving movement efficiency and joint stability. The argument against my point is that these exercises may not truly strengthen the muscles of the core to their full potential, leaving you exposed to weakness and injury. You cannot feel your abs burn during a squat or a deadlift as you can during a plank so the plank must be better, is often the logic most people explain. To test my bias and put this argument to rest I decided to share with you some important research and studies that have investigated this debate before, and give you my thoughts of how I use this information to guide me with exercise prescription.