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My Biggest Mistake: Why Majoring in the Minors Almost Benched My Career
by- Josh Bryant Josh doing cheat front raises in 2006 at Metroflex Gym One of the biggest mistakes I ever made in my strength career wasn’t skipping workouts, eating junk, or being lazy. It was the opposite. I worked harder than an ugly stripper but I put my intensity in the wrong place. I majored…
Bench Press Mistakes and Fixes: From the Outhouse to the Penthouse
by- Josh Bryant Never Miss a Rep – Bulletproof Your Bench with Josh & Mark Bell In parts of Appalachia, a boy’s rite of passage wasn’t a trophy or a certificate—it was Pawpaw leading him down a muddy creek bed with a mason jar and a grin. You’d wade through Laurel Fork or Tug Fork,…
Reps for the Mind: Stop Loops Before They Kill Your Brain
Most people think memory loss comes from bad food, being a booze hound, bad sleep, or just Father Time kicking your ass! A 2024 Chinese study (424 adults, PMID: 40457276) found something more sinister: :Repetitive negative thinking. The mental loops of stewing, worrying, and overthinking crank stress hormones that torch your hippocampus—the same way saltwater…
New Level Strong: What We Can Learn from Brendan Todd’s Breakthrough
Brendan’s 2104 total in action. Too many strength coaches hide behind hundred-dollar words while moving fifty-cent barbells. That kind of circle jerk might impress academics in the ivory tower, but it won’t build cock-strong, son-of-a-bucks in the real world. Let’s look at something that does work in the real world—and has built one of the…
Your Calves, Your Second Heart, and Why Context Runs the Show
by- Josh Bryant Folks argue all day about whether walking counts as exercise. If you cracked the top 10 at the Boston Marathon last year, a 20-minute stroll after dinner is basically active recovery—like flossing your teeth, not pulling one. But if you’re 450 pounds, logging 800 steps a day, and rocking a resting heart…
Train Violently to Be Violent: The Path to Explosive Power
By Josh Bryant and Joe Giandonato Explosive Strength Training with Josh: Lost in Translation While maximal strength sits atop the food chain, being strong as an ox, but slow to show it just means more splinters in your ass from riding the pine. The great ones don’t just hoard strength—they unleash in fractions of a…
Build Strength That Lasts—New Program Just Dropped
Labor Day is about doing the work that builds something that lasts. Right now, strength is in crisis—big numbers that only exist under perfect lighting and a spray of posing oil. They disappear when chaos, fatigue, or real life shows up. Sound familiar? That’s why Tom Haviland and I built Physically Fortified Powerbuilding—a brand new…
Rename. Reframe. Dominate.
by-Josh Bryant Your mind isn’t some southern frat boy in a pastel polo and Crimson Tide blazer, loafers dangling off a country club barstool, sipping vodka tonics or some weak spritzer, bragging about daddy’s boat. That’s passenger-seat energy. Your mind belongs in the arena—on the field of play. It’s the fullback on 4th-and-1, elbows and…
The 225 Bench Test Blueprint: Build Strength, Boost Reps, Break Records
by Josh Bryant and Joe Giandonato Bench Press More with Josh’s Program In part one, we put the 225 bench test under the microscope and called it like it is—where it proves something, where it’s smoke and mirrors, and how it stacks up when you strip it down to validity, reliability, and objectivity. Coaches and…
225 for Reps: Chump Pump, Chest Thump, or Real Performance Predictor?
Cade Collenback—the best long snapper in college football—just smoked 37 reps at 225 under Josh’s watch. by Josh Bryant and Joe Giandonato Summer’s winding down—beach towels turning into gym towels, poolside tans fading like a broke influencer. But don’t get sentimental—football’s back. Pads are poppin’, grills are lit, and the weekend’s once again reserved for…