Traptasic Pull Ups! In my opinion, it’s more important to engage the right muscles than to simply satisfy arbitrary standards. So when you do a pull up, are you aware of what you are doing and what you are engaging, or are you just throwing your chin over the bar? Are you using your lats? Traps? Serratus? Are you braced through your TVA, or are you using your 4 pack? Are you breathing through the movement or are you holding it in? It’s a small change, but simply injecting so

Breathing Needs To Be Taught… This wasn’t a question, it’s more an observation of mine… You probably don’t need another muscle up drill, weird plyos or a Smolov cycle; if you want to perform well, you need to breathe well, and a lot of adults don’t… The bottom third of your lungs is where two thirds of the gas exchange takes place - if you’re not using it, everything becomes so, so much harder… Your cardio / hyrox / CrossFit will be a struggle; you’ll be weak in the middle /

Why Am I Storing Fat In My Legs & Hips? (F) I used to subscribe to Charles Poliquin's theory on this - that typically, women store more body fat in the lower body because 1) they are storing DHA for pregnancy / breast feeding and 2) their diet is typically quite low in it, hence why it’s trying to store more of it… I’m paraphrasing obviously, and while it does make some sense, current research doesn’t really support DHA deficiency as a primary cause of women storing fat aroun

A lot of people equate heavier lifts, faster times and numbers on the scale with progress and transformation, and they will push for those things until they break. Break being the key word. What if there was a different way? What if didn't have to break? What if, instead of completing X amount of reps with Y weight to Z standards, we focused on awareness? What if we listened to what your body is telling you? What if instead of asking “did you get to the right position?”,

“My consultant even gave me a tube of all the fragments of disc matter they’d taken out” Without going into too much detail… By using breath work, awareness and specific movements at the right intensity, the gentleman (Andrew, pictured below) went from being “beyond fucked” (<- from my notes), to picking up and carrying the 50kg sandbag, pain-free, in 4 sessions - something he didn’t believe was possible when he reached out - and is now, several months later, picking up 100+k

Pretty much all of the higher skill movements in CrossFit, Calisthenics, Strongman, etc - things like snatches and muscle ups - rely on the neural output and muscle base that have been developed earlier… It’s kind of obvious when you say it out loud, but if you can’t contract your pecs or lats at will, you’re going to struggle to strengthen them, and if you haven’t strengthened them, you probably won’t be able to use them in any meaningful way… And this means that your muscle

Bloody good question! Google sensory and motor homunculus (or don’t, most likely…) It’s kind of like a map in your brain’s cortex showing how much “brain space” is devoted to different body parts… The hands are pretty big on that map… Grip strength and sensory input from the hands can influence how much force your entire body can produce. Your hands are one of the most densely innervated parts of your body. - They send massive sensory input to the brain - They have strong

I saw a video the other day that said: “Drinking Cold Water Is Wrecking Your Health” And it listed 5 ways drinking water was bad for you - drinking it with meals dilutes your stomach acid, necking it instead of sipping it means you won’t absorb any of it, cold water gives you chlamydia, stuff like that. And I thought, “**** off Instagram… **** all the way off - I know a bloke who drinks 16 coffees a day!”. There are a lot of people out there who hydrate solely through caffein

Kettlebells, Sandbags, Maces, etc... Kettlebells typically increase in weights of 4kg - so 16, 20, 24, etc. Sandbags usually 10-20kg, and Mace 3kg… This seems like rather large weight increases when compared to barbells that usually make use of 1.25kg fractional plates and in some cases even 0.25kg… Why would you want large weight increases? 1/ The bigger weight jumps produce a sharper increase in load that gives a stronger neurological message to the body, which can drive

To increase your performance, you need to push the boundaries… You need to lift heavy, heavier, and heavier still. You need to complete the work out quicker, run faster than yesterday, more reps than last week. You need to consistently force adaptation… Or do you? The following bullet points have been lifted straight from google… The Risks of Training at High Intensity for Too Long: Overtraining Syndrome (OTS): This serious condition occurs when the intensity and volume of

I’ve been using them on and off for 4(?) years or so - way longer than I've been an insty hoe, that’s for sure… I think if you want to be capable, you need to train strength, power, rotation, and overall capacity. In my opinion, the best tools for the job are heavy sandbags, calisthenics, kettlebells and the mace. (And some type of combat, but that’s probably a blog for another time) So no, the mace is not purely for Instagram… The mace trains throwing patterns. Straight lin

Unfortunately, by pistol proficiency, I am not talking about single handedly clearing an entire hotel like John Wick - I am talking about the far less impressive but far more realistic and achievable skill of the single leg squat… I really like the pistol squat: - It develops unilateral strength (addresses muscle imbalances) - It improves core stability and joint mobility (handy for injury prevention and efficient movement) - Training pistols enhances your day to day life (m

(Alternative title: how I stay healthy all winter...) 1/ The Pina Colada The pineapple provides Vitamin C and Bromelain, ideal if you want an anti-inflammatory boost and a strong immune system - think of it as sort of like a preemptive Lemsip! The coconut cream contains medium-chain triglycerides which, to quote directly from wikipedia, “can help in the process of excess calorie burning, thus weight loss. MCTs are also seen as promoting fat oxidation and reduced food intak

I could sit here and type a whole load of cool sounding things - reflexive stability this, core integration that, closed-chain this, spinal alignment that - but it doesn’t really mean that much to most people… Might as well type it up in a foreign language… So here is a nice, quick, hopefully easy to understand reason to build your handbalancing abilities… If your goal is to control external objects - barbells, kettlebells, a partner / opponent, etc - it’s a good idea to hav

Ok, so just like with everything else in the fitness industry, we’re all beautiful, unique, individuals - snowflakes, if you will - and as such, it’s very difficult to provide all the answers to every possible scenario / individual circumstance / idiosyncrasy / etc in what is hopefully going to be quite a short blog... What I can do is provide the key points, flesh out some details and provide a map that will get 95 out of 100 people a strict ring muscle up… Let’s do this…

There are plenty of benefits to training with Kettlebells; to quote directly from Pavel and his book “Enter The Kettlebell”: - Develop all-purpose strength, to easily handle the toughest and most unexpected demands. - Maximize staying power - because the last round decides all. - Forge a fighter's physique - because the form must follow the function. - With just two kettlebell exercises, takes you from raw newbie to solid contender. - Well-conditioned, flexible, resilient and

Cayenne Pepper “Cayenne Pepper is recommended for its spiciness and ability to irritate the eyes” Cheers wiki… Cayenne pepper is an absolute weapon though… Gents, if you are a little low in testosterone - and especially if it’s caused by too much stress - then you might want to consider getting a little cayenne pepper down you every day… Not a lot, ½ a teaspoon total would be more than enough for most people… Cayenne Pepper: - Will raise T levels within half an hour. - In

Getting a one arm chin up is actually pretty straight forwards - not easy, but straight forwards… First I would focus on strength… Build your weighted chin ups up to past 50% of your bodyweight for 3-5 reps. Here’s some hypothetical athletes… Hypothetical athlete A weighs 80kg and can do 5 chin ups with 20kg around his waist. Total weight = 100kg - Athlete A builds to a set of 3 chin ups with 20kg around his waist. - He takes 10% off his total weight and waits 3 minutes - He

Stress… It’s unavoidable… And you know, a certain amount can actually be a good thing! Stress your glutes with some lunges, your glutes will grow bigger and stronger. A little cold exposure can strengthen the circulatory system. A little alcohol makes me less of an uptight tosser… But - and I think this might be my new favourite saying - the dose makes the poison… Stress causes changes in hormone levels; it can alter immune, cardiac and gastrointestinal function; and it can m

Firstly, that’s ok. Secondly, you may have different bony anatomy. And thirdly, if you were in a coma, we could put you in full splits - front and middle... In a coma, you’re a level 99 contortionist… So what’s going on? Simply put, it’s your nervous system that determines your range of motion. If your nervous system doesn’t feel safe, it won’t allow you access to more ROM (or strength). How can you convince it to give you more ROM? - Can you generate / maintain the proper te

Hyrox… For Time… 1 km Run 1 km Ski 1 km Run 50 m Sled Push 1 km Run 50 m Sled Pull 1 km Run 80 m Burpee Broad Jump 1 km Run 1 km Row 1 km Run 200 m Farmers Carry 1 km Run 100 m Sandbag Lunge (10, 20, or 30kg Sandbag) 1 km Run 75/100 Wallballs (6kg) How To Train For Hyrox? You will all have your own reason as to why you want to do it - a bit of fun, a challenge, lose some body fat, etc - so how best to train for it will come down to the individual… The person doing it for fun

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There’s an abundance of men and women around the globe who, no matter how hard they train, no matter how tight the diet, just can’t seem...

Within a few weeks of starting gymnastics, Gilbert could do a back flip - it wasn’t really a goal of his, it just seemed like a cool...