Training

Headaches are a common, painful, and oftentimes disabling symptom that can pop-up during exercise or at rest. Exercise may be useful for not only reducing migraine frequency in many, but also for improving nearly every aspect of general health in the population. Individuals who frequently experience the onset of headache during exercise should work with their physician to make sure there isn’t an underlying medical cause.

Debate around how deep you should squat is one example of a range of motion (ROM) controversy. Range of motion (ROM) can be defined as …

When starting their training journey, people begin to learn many of the fundamental principles of programming and progression. Terms like “adaptation”, “recovery”, and “specificity” come …

So you’re experiencing pain in your heel. It’s especially painful when you take your first few steps out of bed in the morning and limits …

The efficacy of placebo in enhancing performance is as well established as it is multifactorial. Geers 2014 This presents a paradox of a placebo being …

The United States population has become profoundly physically inactive in recent years. This has contributed to an increase in health problems such as heart disease …

Low back pain is commonly attributed to a ‘weak core’ or a lack of ‘core stability’, and this leads to lots of advice about ‘activating …

In the late 17th century physician-philosopher John Locke published An Essay Concerning Human Understanding, which suggested that the mind was a blank slate at birth …

The ability to engage in physical activity is an integral component of the maintenance of health and independence with age. This capacity is typically developed …

While resistance training for the calf muscles is typically the butt of jokes in bodybuilding gym culture, there are some legitimate benefits to increasing the …

Lifters occasionally ask us whether it is “okay” to include snatches or cleans in a training program that is otherwise focused on building strength in …

Barbell Medicine values the development of a well-rounded athlete and healthy individual, so while we have a clear focus on strength training, we aim to …

Belief that you can perform a task is an essential component to beginning the process of mastery. There are a host of both internal and …

In this segment of the How-To Do GPP series, we tackle direct arm training, or “arm work”. In the context of GPP, we train the …

Last week’s article made a strong case for embracing variability in movement for active individuals,  particularly when learning a new movement.  Still, much has been …

Our attempts to understand and explain complex systems commonly involve reductionist analysis, whereby a system is broken down into its component parts for easier understanding. …

It is late afternoon on a Monday and you’ve just arrived at the gym for Day 1 of this week’s training after a tough day …

The process of strength training is not a linear one where every workout allows us to realize a new level of performance, although improvement early …

Exercise selection is an important programming variable for both performance and health outcomes. From a performance standpoint, the type(s) of exercises selected play a major …

If you’ve used our templates or have been coached through Barbell Medicine then you may have seen “Myo-reps” programmed in your training. This strategy has …

Introduction If it has been some time since you last exercised, whether due to COVID-related restrictions or other circumstances, there is one important point to …

Hopefully after our journey through Part I, Part II, Part III  and Part IV of this series it is clear that youth benefit from a …

In 2019 we published our Beginner Prescription, a free workout program with supporting materials designed to answer the question, “Where do I start with exercise …

People are bombarded with conflicting and confusing information from multiple sources on health related topics. This makes it hard to recognize who to trust, what …

In part four of the Resistance Training for Youth series, we’ll discuss the role of different training elements (or modalities) in athletic development. We recommend …

Part III will focus on the specific effects of resistance training on youth athletes. As mentioned in the previous parts of this series, resistance training …

If early sports specialization is not advantageous in most scenarios, and with an epidemic of inactivity among our youth, we need to find a more …

This series will analyze current evidence for training the general youth populations as well as for those who already consider themselves athletes. We will give …

The benefits of resistance training for reducing injury risk in endurance athletes was covered in  Part 1 of this series.  In Part 2, we examined …

For an introduction to this program, please check out The Barbell Medicine Podcast: Episode #58: Programming For Beginners (and other musings on training) You can sign …