Training
Latest Training Articles
How-To Manage an Ankle Sprain
You rolled your ankle, whether it be in a pick-up basketball game, stepping awkwardly off the platform, or performing your best interpretive dance of Kenny …
Range of Motion Considerations
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 …
Progressive Loading
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 …
Training With A “Spondy” Part II: Returning To Activity
In part one of this article series we discussed terminology, incidence, and the implications of spondylolysis and spondylolisthesis. In this second and final installment, we’ll …
Training with a “Spondy” Part I: Introduction & General Concepts
Spondylolysis or spondylolisthesis are two intimidating words that are often described as representing a “broken back”. These aren’t words anyone wants to hear when experiencing …
Guide to Heel Pain
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 …
Placebo Performance Enhancing Drugs
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 …
Strength & Cancer-related Mortality: Is it enough to exercise, or do you actually need to get strong?
Cancer is among the leading causes of disease and death in the U.S. and contributes to a substantial burden of disease in the world [CDC, …
The Menstrual Cycle, Estrogen and Performance: Part IV
In the final part of this series we will look at how altering exercise programming based on the menstrual cycle actually affects strength in athletes. …
The Menstrual Cycle, Estrogen, and Performance: Part III
In the third installment of this series, we’ll review the data on how the menstrual cycle affects training and sports performance. If you’re new to …
Running and Knee Osteoarthritis
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 …
The Menstrual Cycle, Estrogen and Performance: Part II
Discussing the biological plausibility that the menstrual cycle affects physical performance requires an understanding of the menstrual cycle’s physiology, exercise’s effect on that physiology, and …
The Menstrual Cycle, Estrogen and Performance: Part I
The increase in women’s involvement in sports has increased interest in the influences of women’s unique physiology on athletic performance. The effect of the menstrual …
Training With Hip Pain Part IV: Femoroacetabular Impingement Syndrome
In our last article we discussed how to manage muscle injuries of the hamstrings, groin (adductors), hip flexors, and quadriceps. Today we’ll move on to …
Training With Hip Pain Part II
In the first article of this series we provided an introduction to the hip, discussing anatomy as well as ideas about “normal” versus “abnormal” findings …
Training With Hip Pain Part I
Pain in the front, side, or back of the hip are common complaints within the lifting community. A combination of factors are typically involved when …
Core Stability: Does it Matter?
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 …
The Genetics of Exercise Adherence
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 Science of Training Motivation
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 …
A Case for Training Calves
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 …
How-To: Incorporate the Snatch and Clean into Your Program
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 …
General Physical Preparedness (GPP) Training For Lifters
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 …
On Perfect Technique
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 …
How-To Train Arms for GPP
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 …
Normal Movements of the Low Back During Squats and Deadlifts
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 …
Normal Movements of the Low Back During Squats and Deadlifts
Last week’s article made a strong case for embracing variability in movement for active individuals, particularly when learning a new movement. However, much has been …
Movement Variability: Should we eliminate it, or embrace it?
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. …
The Barbell Medicine Guide to Tendinopathy
Have you ever been told you have “tendonitis,” golfer’s elbow, tennis elbow, or jumper’s knee? Tendonitis is a common concern among those who engage in …
Autoregulation and RPE
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 …
Training Expectations: Understanding Stalls
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 …
Does Bar Placement In The Squat Matter?
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 …
Myo-Reps
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 …
Returning to the Gym
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 …
Part V: Current Recommendations for Youth Resistance Training
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 …
How-to Exercise at Home
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 …
Where should my priorities be to improve my health?
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 …
Resistance Training for Youth: Part IV
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 …
Pain in training: What do?
So you’ve been training, but have started experiencing pain. This is an extremely common experience that we get asked about on a daily basis. Essentially, …
Resistance Training for Youth: Part III
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 …
Resistance Training for Youth: Part II
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 …
Resistance Training for Youth: Part I
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 …
Strength Training for the Endurance Athlete Part III: Programming
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 …
Shoulder, Part IV: The Rotator Cuff Teardown
The “rotator cuff” is a set of four muscles around the glenohumeral joint including the supraspinatus, infraspinatus, subscapularis, and teres minor (see figure). These muscles …
The Shoulder, Part III: Internal Impingement
In part 2 of our shoulder series we discussed the topic of “shoulder impingement”, which is commonly understood as the mechanical compression of the tissues …
The Shoulder, Part II: External Impingement
In the first article of this series we discussed the concept of “normal” or “abnormal” scapular movement (i.e., scapular dyskinesis), which is the pathomechanical foundation …
The Shoulder, Part I: Scapular Dyskinesis
The shoulder joint is complex, and pain affecting its use in daily activities and sport is common. This article series will review common shoulder diagnoses, …
The Pendulum of Specificity in Application: Part I
This article was originally published in September of 2014 as the first of four blog posts addressing The Principle of Specificity. Since then, the coaches at Barbell …
When Logic Fails: Part 1
Take home points: In the context of complex systems, logical analysis can be useful in generating hypotheses, but not for drawing conclusions with a high …
Navigating Potholes: My Back Pain Experience
I will spare you my lengthy back pain origin story and set the scene in 3 bullet points: Pre-back pain, I was a pretty killer …
Fear, Catastrophizing, and Training
Introduction Regular followers are likely familiar with our interest in a “biopsychosocial” approach to both training and injury, particularly the modifiable psychological factors that can …
Novice Bench and Press Plug-In
Note: We published this protocol in the Barbell Medicine newsletter in March of 2018, but have since added some additional context, explanation, and recommendations for …
A Novel Approach For Replacing USELESS RPE
It has been said that using Rate of Perceived Exertion (RPE) is useless for strength and conditioning, which has caused quite a stir between the …
The Importance of Singles
A little over one year ago I reached out to Austin Baraki in desperate need of coaching. Thankfully, he didn’t hesitate to accept the task …
Press Like A Pro: The Classic Press
“How do I increase my press?”- The Internet Fresh on the heels of the 2017 USSF Fall Classic, a strengthlifting meet that contests the press instead …
Podcast: Should Kids Be Strength Training
This is a transcription of the podcast, which is available on iTunes, SoundCloud, or YouTube. But first, a brief comment on this topic. This is …
Q/A with Dr. Baraki and Dr. Feigenbaum
Dr. Feigenbaum: Hey, welcome back to the Barbell Medicine Podcast. I’m Dr. Feigenbaum, I’m joined here with Dr. Baraki. This is another Q&A …
The Grip Problem
This article was originally published on StartingStrength.com on August 3rd, 2016. I am reposting it on my own personal blog. All images are property of The …
General Strength Training Template for the Intermediate/Advanced
By Jordan Feigenbaum Hey there! I was contacted by Scivation a few months back to come up with a series of workouts geared toward improving …
Powerlifter Switches to CrossFit, “Competes” in the Open, Hilarity Ensues
By Jordan Feigenbaum So this is about a week two weeks late, but I thought I would catalogue my thoughts about how my foray into …
The Beauty of the Bell Curve
By Austin Baraki, MD, SSC, ft. Leah Lutz “You refuse to settle for mediocrity in those around you, and you relentlessly push people to be …
Starting Strength Camps in Australia
Tom Campitelli and I are going to visit Australia this January to hold a series of extended Starting Strength Camps. While camps normally cover one …
The Fatal Flaw of (most) Physical Therapy
By Austin Baraki, MD, SSC This past week I was alerted to a new article in the journal Physical Therapy by Falvey et al. titled …
September is Strength Month
By Jordan Feigenbaum If you’re a regular reader of this blog, you probably have a vested interest in things pertaining to training, nutrition, and a …
Training in the Dark
“Just keep putting in the work. You’ll be fine. You’re strong. You’ve got this. Focus, Jordan.” This was just some of my internal dialogue on …
The Double Funnel of Programming
By Jordan Feigenbaum This post was inspired by a recent Facebook post of another coach, Jacob Tsypkin, owner of TZ Strength when he mentioned the idea …
What Happens When a Powerlifter Goes to the CrossFit Games?
By Jordan Feigenbaum About two weeks ago I had the pleasure of attending my first CrossFit Games, held every summer since 2007 in sunny southern California. …
Exercise Recommendations in Primary Care: A Quality Improvement Initiative
By Jordan Feigenbaum, Emily Sanchez, Brandon Schabacker, and Movicque King Updated 3/30/2016 Readers, I’m posting part of a quality improvement project I’ve been working on …
GainzZz™ in Clinical Practice Part IV
By Austin Baraki Sorry for the delay, folks! I’ve been busy graduating from medical school :). We’ve made it to the fourth, final, and most …
GainzZz™ in Clinical Practice: Part III
By Austin Baraki In our first article we defined sarcopenia as a loss of skeletal muscle mass and strength, and discussed how disuse, poor nutrition, …
12 Ways To Skin The Texas Method
By Jordan Feigenbaum The Texas Method may be one of the most popular intermediate training programs in existence. Developed by happenstance in Texas (duh) and …
GainzZz™ in Clinical Practice: Part I
This article begins a multi-part series discussing the growing problem of sarcopenia in our aging population. We will discuss our current understanding of sarcopenia, ways …
The Pendulum of Specificity Part III: Hypertrophy
By Jordan Feigenbaum MS Anatomy and Physiology, Starting Strength Staff, HFS, CSCS, USAW Club Coach In part three of this series, we’re going to discuss …
The Pendulum of Specificity Part II: Fatigue
By Jordan Feigenbaum MS Anatomy and Physiology, Starting Strength Staff, HFS, CSCS, USAW Club Coach In part two of this series, we’re going to discus …
Force Matters
By Austin Baraki Introduction Today we’ll be discussing a paper published in the Journal of Sports Sciences in April of this year (see here) …
Meet Recap and Lessons Learned
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Top 10 Mistakes People Following Starting Strength Make
By Jordan Feigenbaum MD, MS, Starting Strength Staff 1) Not reading the book Seriously, most people who are doing “Starting Strength Novice Progression” have never …
Booze and Barbells Part II
By Jordan Feigenbaum MS, Starting Strength Staff, CSCS, HFS, USAW CC In case you missed part one of this three part series, click here. In …
Booze and Barbells Part 1
By Jordan Feigenbaum MS, CSCS, HFS, USAW CC, Starting Strength Staff One of the most common questions I get with regards to nutrition and/or training …
Dialing in the Training: Three Case Studies
Jordan Feigenbaum MS, CSCS, HFS, USAW CC, Starting Strength Staff When it comes to dialing in the training there are numerous valid approaches that will …
Programming For the CrossFit Games Athlete Part 5
By Jordan Feigenbaum MS, CSCS, HFS, USAW CC, Starting Strength Staff You can read parts one, 1.5, two , three, and four, before checking this …
Programming for the Crossift Games Athlete Part 4
By Jordan Feigenbaum MS, CSCS, HFS, USAW CC, Starting Strength Coach Week 6: Cycle 1: Peaking (2 of 2) Day 1 i. Bench Press- up …
Meet Recap….Learning Lessons
This past week I competed at the USAPL NE Regionals in Philadelphia, PA and had, by far, my worst performance at a meet ever. The …
Programming for the CrossFit Games Athlete Pt. III
By Jordan Feigenbaum MS, CSCS, HFS, USAW Club Coach, Starting Strength Coach Ahhh, deload weeks…..the week(s) that EVERYONE hates (including me). In this installment I’m …
Programming For the CrossFit Games Athlete Pt. II
The idea is to give the athlete the best preparation for CrossFit competitions, which will start in late February. You may notice the trend of …
Programming for the CrossFit Games Athlete pt. 1.5
Just a little pre-weekend update before I head down to Atlanta to hang out with the Starting Strength crew and help out at Rip’s seminar …
Programming for the CrossFit Games Athlete: Part I
By Jordan Feigenbaum Unless you’ve been hiding under a rock for the past few years, you’ve undoubtedly seen or heard of the CrossFit Games. An …
2012 USAPL Raw Nationals
I’ll be chronicling my participation in the USAPL Raw Nationals (181 class) on this post and will update it throughout the weekend. You can watch …
Meet Recap and a Challenge
Hey everyone! Thanks for checking out the blog once again. Today’s post is about my powerlifting meet (USAPL MO State Raw Meet) and a little …
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