Articles

In Defense of Program Hoppers; DUP Revisited

Ever since I wrote my article on Daily Undulating Periodization (DUP) a couple months ago, I’ve had a nagging feeling that something wasn’t quite right, like something was a little bit off. (If you haven’t read the first article, or if you don’t know what DUP is, I’d suggest you check it out first) Physiologically, I’m not sure the rationale behind DUP totally makes sense of the situation. Not that it is entirely nonsensical, but

Greg Nuckols October 1, 2014

What it Takes to Break World Records

This is something I feel like I need to say And I don’t mean that in a “this needs to be said, so I may as well say it,” way. I mean it in a, “It does not benefit me to say this, and I benefit from not saying it, so I feel like I’m the one who is supposed to say it because then people will actually listen,” way. This is what it

Greg Nuckols September 16, 2014

Making Sense of Strength

“The Map is not the Territory” -Alfred Korzybski For starters, I just want to be up front about the fact that the subjects covered in this post are very vast subjects. There are dozens of very long, technical books written about them, and this post is just a basic introduction. Actually, it’s more like an introduction to an introduction – I’m currently 20,000 words into a book talking about all of this stuff in much

Greg Nuckols September 9, 2014

High Bar vs. Low Bar Squatting

Before we get into this post, I want to let you know about our giant How to Squat guide. It covers everything you need to know about every aspect of the squat – from biomechanics to correcting weaknesses to technique. Click here to open it in a new tab so you can check it out after you’ve finished reading this article. Sayre’s law: “In any dispute the intensity of feeling is inversely proportional to the value of the

Greg Nuckols August 26, 2014

Stress: The Silent Killer (of gains)

One of the biggest problems we have when we talk about training is that we tend to only talk about physical stressors. We like complicated periodization models, manipulating training volume, intensity, and frequency. In short, we like having a sense of control. We like thinking, “If I plan out and control these training factors, I’ll get this outcome.” Sure, nutrition and sleep play a role too, but as long as those factors (often given the

Greg Nuckols August 13, 2014

Interview with Coach Boris Sheiko

Boris Sheiko is the man behind the Juggernaut that is the Russian National Powerlifting Team. He was gracious enough to grant me an interview. If you don’t know who Mr. Sheiko is, you haven’t spent enough time in the powerlifting world. His lifters win European and World Championships in larger numbers and more frequently than those of any other coach in the world that I’m aware of – by a very broad margin. 1.

Greg Nuckols July 30, 2014

Band-Resisted Pushups = Bench Press for strength gains? Plus, how useful is EMG?

First things first, please give this post a little time to get rolling. There are bits of it that are primarily for nerds like myself, but there are also directly actionable parts, so be patient while we get there. You may have heard of EMG before. EMG stands for Electromyography – essentially measuring the electrical activity in your muscles. Muscle contraction starts with a nerve impulse. If the nerve impulse is strong enough, it creates

Greg Nuckols July 18, 2014

Speed kills: 2x the intended bar speed yields ~2x the bench press gains

If you want to get stronger, training volume and intensity are the two most important variables, right? Well, a recent (May 2014) study published in the European Journal of Sports Science sheds some light on another crucial factor – bar speed. Now, if you’re like me, you’ve always heard that you’re supposed to lift the bar (concentric) as fast as possible, and that doing so would recruit more fast twitch fibers since you’re producing more

Greg Nuckols July 14, 2014

Buy-In

I’d like to introduce you all to a friend of mine. This is Alex. I’ve known Alex online for a while now, but I didn’t meet him until this summer, when he was cool enough to let us stay at his place while we got set up in an apartment (it’s hard to apartment search in CA while living an Arkansas and North Carolina). Luckily, he was the cool kind of person you meet online

Greg Nuckols July 5, 2014

The best programs and exercises for a HUGE total are…

Half of you clicked on this because you thought I finally sold out, and started writing click bait articles for the sake of page views. The other half wanted to learn the super secret (probably Russian) exercises and programs that’ll take your performance to the next level. On both counts, sorry to disappoint. We’re starting today with an old article from Dr. Bryan Chung. Go ahead, check it out and read it (it’s short) before

Greg Nuckols June 16, 2014

PubMed Doesn’t Replace A Strength Coach

What’s worse than someone who thinks science is worthless? Someone who thinks it’s the best thing since sliced bread, but doesn’t understand it (including its limitations) whatsoever. This post will NOT be as dry as the last one, so feel free to keep reading even if you aren’t a huge nerd. PubMed will never replace the need for a strength coach. I think that someone can gain a lot from staying in the scientific

Greg Nuckols May 30, 2014

Exercise Science: What is it good for?

It seems like the anti-science backlash is beginning. (warning: this is a 2100 word post about the scientific process. for a TL;DR, jump to “Is there really a conflict” at the bottom.) The old-guard of strength coaches sat quiet long enough. For these people, science is useful insofar as it verifies things they already believe, but can be dismissed if it counters their own opinions and observations. Apparently, the relatively new trend of evidence-based coaches

Greg Nuckols May 15, 2014

Articles archive