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by- Josh Bryant In Bloodsport, Chong Li blinds Frank Dux with powder. Dux remembers his blindfolded training with Tanaka and delivers. Preparation pays when it counts. Some people deliver when it counts—in sports, closing a business deal, or when the Big Kahuna locks the door at an Okinawa dive bar and you’ve gotta punch your…

In Greek mythology, Sisyphus was condemned to push a massive boulder up a mountain, only to watch it roll back down every time. Sound familiar? More days in the gym, more sets, more fatigue, yet the numbers on the bar aren’t moving. If this sounds like you, remember: More isn’t better. Better is better. Even…

by- Josh Bryant 2004: Odd’s Environment Helped Me Get This Stone on the Eighth Try There was a Racetrac gas station a couple blocks down from Metroflex, and the old joke was if you hung around there long enough, you were guaranteed to see three things: a fight, a hooker and a drug deal. But…

by Joseph Giandonato, PhD, MBA, CSCS Rob Floeter Introduction The term hybrid athlete has seemingly hijacked the fitness industry in recent years. But what qualifies someone as a hybrid athlete? How is potential as a hybrid athlete determined? What are some benchmarks to shoot for? And how should training be structured?  All of these burning…

by- Josh Bryant I’ve seen coaches do this forever. An athlete is really good at something, has an obvious weakness somewhere else, and pretty soon the entire program revolves around fixing it. On paper, it makes sense. But, quoting myself, you gotta bring your biggest gun to the fight. Get too hell-bent on fixing the…

Explicating Muscle Fiber Types: What’s the “Diff” Between “Slow-Twitch” and “Fast-Twitch”? by Joseph Giandonato, PhD, MBA, MS, CSCS Introduction The human body is the most sophisticated piece of machinery in nature. Comprised of an assemblage of intricate systems that work interdependently to facilitate functions and processes critical to sustaining life, the human body is irreplicable,…

Energy Systems: Comparing and Contrasting Aerobic and Anaerobic Conditioning by Joseph Giandonato, PhD, MBA, CSCS Introduction Human movement is facilitated by a torrent of chemical reactions in which stored energy is mobilized, released, and converted to mechanical work that comprises muscular contraction. Stored energy is found in two predominant forms: glycogen within muscles and the…

by- Josh Bryant At 16, I became the night and weekend manager of a hardcore gym. I was exposed to bodybuilders, powerlifters, ex-cons, great personal trainers, terrible personal trainers, and a cast of characters ranging from an exotic dancer who was in love with a strip-club bouncer who broke a wine bottle over her head…

by Joseph Giandonato, PhD, MBA, CSCS Introduction Enter any Globo-gym during the post-rush hour pandemonium and you’ll bear witness to legions of mile high squatters and clusters of middle-aged men performing bench presses with a range of motion that would make the down and distance preceding a quarterback sneak for a score seem like a…

Tom Haviland is a master of the Zercher squat. Muscles don’t need to be confused. They need a reason to adapt! Somewhere along the way, muscle confusion became a training principle. Maybe the Trappist monks have it figured out better than we do. These guys have been brewing basically the same beer for generations. No…