Balance is a derivative of strength.   If you want to improve your balance, then getting your base strength up is the fastest way. As we age, we don't lose something called "balance". We lose our strength as our muscles start to deteriorate.  The best thing an elderly person can do it keep from falling is to increase their base strength which will increase their balance.   For younger people, I often see videos of them trying to improve their balance by holding on to dumbbells and standing on one leg on an unstable surface.  Not sure if this is effective as they think it is. I think most people would be better served to focus on getting their base strength up in natural human movement patterns like the squat, deadlift, overhead press and the bench press and would find this to be the single best lever you can pull for balance.

1 week promo.

New Client:  How strong is strong enough? Me: You are asking a barbell strength coach how strong is enough?  That’s like asking Michael Saylor how much Bitcoin is enough. It’s actually a fair question to ask but sometimes difficult to answer.  Most new clients have no idea how strong they can get in just a few months and if I tell them those numbers they sometimes get intimidated given they are struggling with the numbers they are currently lifting.  

My typical response is let’s just focus on adding 5lbs each workout to your lift and let’s let that play out.  When framed this way, it’s not so intimidating to know you just have to add 5 more pounds versus if I throw a number out saying you will be deadlifting 315 in a couple of months or 405 within a year.  

I think at the bare minimum a client should go through Novice Linear Progression.  Meaning we will add 5lbs to each workout until we can’t.  At that point, you have built an incredible Base Strength that really is life changing.  

If the client is hooked to this type of workout then they can continue getting stronger but the programming will change from 15lbs per week to more like 10lbs or 5lbs increases per week.

I know. I still haven’t given you actual numbers and that may be the wrong thing to do with bitcoiners.  For now, let’s just focus on adding 5lbs to your next workout.   #getstrong #liftheavyshit #liftheavy

The pitch. What can you expect if you start barbell strength training with a linear progression model? 1. Results - You will be hitting a new PR on all your lifts 3x per week for a few months.  Numbers on the barbell don't lie.  You will be getting stronger by 15lbs every week on the main lifts. (Squat, Deadlift, Press, Bench Press) This process is very addicting. Who doesn’t love hitting a new PR!
 2. Feeling like a badass - Strength training with low reps and heavy weight makes you feel stronger all day.  It's different than high reps/low weight and chasing a short pump at the gym.  Being strong is a feeling that you feel every waking moment and it makes living life feel easier.  
 3. Simple and time efficient -  We are only lifting 3x per week which comes out to about 3 hours per week.  That's all you need to build strength.  I see too many people on social media selling complexity for working out.  Trust me, getting stronger is extremely simple.  We are getting back to first principles.   4. Aesthetics - For guys, you will look bigger and stronger when you walk into a room.  People take notice of a strong confident man.  Most other programs have you looking skinny and the only time someone knows you are working out is when you take your shirt off at the pool. (seriously bro, I don't care about your abs)  Getting stronger makes you look better with clothes on.  For ladies, it’s a myth that you will look too big and bulky. My female clients usually go down a size in clothes but may gain a little weight. Muscle weighs more than fat is the reason. 
 5. Back and Shoulder pain gone - The number one feedback I hear is that peoples back pain and shoulder pain from sitting at a desk in front of a computer all day goes away within a couple of weeks.  I'll write more about this in another post but remember that a stronger back will always hurt less than a weaker back.  

If you are interested in my online coaching services, I'm running a holiday special where you can get 3 months of training for $585 instead of $675.  That comes out to $195 per month or $16 per session.  Yes, I accept bitcoin.

This is Derik. A very competitive basketball player who is looking to increase his base strength to get a competitive edge on the court. I have him pressing twice a week in addition to squats, deadlifts and bench press. He started out at 65lbs and is now up to 95lbs. Until now we have just been adding 5lbs per workout

The press is one of the first lifts you will hit the wall and then programming will have to change from adding 10lbs per week to adding 5lbs per week. I like to add volume as well as the press seems to respond well to volume. It’s also one of the more technical lifts to learn and if you don’t have good technique its almost impossible to lift it over your head when the weight gets heavy. In this video, my client needs to have a closer grip and keep his elbows up in order to maximize efficiency.

The little hip thrust you see him doing is a technique we use to create a little bounce in the bar to help it get moving upwards. #getstrong #basestrength #liftheavy

#Fiat sociopaths either look either weak and skinny or fluffy and overweight. I’ve never seen one that looks strong. I think if everyone deadlifted and got strong, we would have more world peace. Strong body = strong mind. #Bitcoin  fixes money and the barbell fixes the body and mind. #liftheavy #getstrong #worldpeace

Stack sats and stack weights on the barbell = quality life. #liftheavy #strength #getstrong

Lifting heavy is hard. Bitcoin is hard money. Show your proofofwork in the gym and get stronger! #liftheavy #hardmoney

If you can listen to a podcast while lifting weights then you are not lifting heavy enough. #liftheavyshit #podcast #liftheavy

Congratulations to JoAnn getting her first plate in the #deadlift. She’s in her mid 60s and just started a couple of weeks ago. She started the deadlift at 100lbs and in two weeks she’s up to 135lbs. She only lifts 3x per week and I increase the weight on the barbell 5lbs each session for a total of 15lbs per week. Doing a novice linear progression will have JoAnn deadlifting 225lbs in a few months. #liftheavy #linearprogression #getstrong #strengthtraining #proofofwork

If you are a Novice the programming is very simple initially. I just add 5lbs to your lift 3 times per week. And depending on your age and genetics, I do that for about 3 to 9 months. Once you move out of the novice stage into an intermediate lifter then the programming becomes much more complex. 

Being in the novice stage is pretty cool because you are making spectacular gains in a short amount of time. You are pretty much getting 15lbs stronger per week in your lifts. The programming is simple but learning proper technique in the squat, press and deadlift can be hard. It’s critical that you are aiming for perfect technique while the weight is not so heavy.

I have more in common with a track and field coach than I do a personal trainer. Seems to me most track and field coaches I have met put a lot of thought into programming so that their client is making progress on a weekly basis and getting them ready for an end goal. This is very similar to strength training. Everything is precise and calculated in order to get you "stronger" each session. If I'm not getting you stronger, then why am I wasting your time? Most personal trainers I meet have their clients do random exercises each session for the sake of getting a good workout. They almost brag about how when their clients are done they are left laying on the ground in a pool of sweat because the workout was so hard. But what is the overall goal? And are they making weekly progress towards that goal? I have many clients who come from that world and they get humbled very quickly on their true strength in natural human movement patterns. They are shocked that after working their ass off in a gym for 5 days a week for a few years, that they aren't as strong as they thought they would be. Same thing happened to me. After ten years of trying every program under the sun and hiring multiple personal trainers along the way, I was in shock when I finally went to a strength coach and found out how weak I was. I'm of the opinion, if you are going to enter a gym with weights you should have a goal of getting stronger. If you are going to take up basketball, I'm sure you want to get better. If you join Jiu Jitsu, don't you want to get better each week? Can you imagine hiring a track and field coach for the long jump and your coach has you doing all these crazy type of workouts that leave you super tired and exhausted but only improved your long jump for a couple of weeks? Then you spend another 8 months and your coach made no progress on the distance you can jump? That's what happens to most people who hire a personal trainer. They get a little stronger the first couple of weeks due to being a novice then they plateau. And you can stay plateaued for months and years. If you are not jumping further in the long jump, you are not making progress. If you are not throwing the shot put further, you are not making progress. If you are not improving your speed in the 100M run then you are not making progress. And if you are not getting stronger in the gym then you are not making progress. This is something that Track and Field and Strength Coaches understand but most personal trainers don't.

In my opinion functional training is a complete waste of time when you could be spending that time on getting stronger in normal human movement patterns. #liftheavyshit #squat #strengthtraining

If you are on a budget and want to get a squat rack at home, you can get by with most racks and weights. Just don’t skimp on the barbell. Spend most of your money on the barbell. You want a good quality barbell that won’t give you any possible issues down the road.

If you want to get stronger you need to make sure you are you are strength training and not exercising. Most people I see at the gym are just exercising and not strength training. Most personal trainers I know have their clients exercising and not strength training.

What’s the difference between exercising and strength training? Exercising is getting a workout in for the sake of getting hot and sweaty and chasing the pump whereas strength training is having an end goal in mind and coming up with a program that makes progress towards achieving that goal. Strength Training is the process of accumulating the specific physiological adaptations necessary for improved strength. If your goal is to get stronger then you need to be increasing force production on a weekly basis. That means adding weight to the barbell in a progressive manner. We do it 5lbs at a time. Numbers on the bar don’t lie. You are only getting stronger if the numbers are going up. If you end your Friday with doing a squat for 5 reps for 100lbs and the following Friday you are doing 5 reps for 115lbs, then you got stronger. It’s that simple. Strength training is a plan to make numbers on the barbell go up. If your numbers are not going up every week, then you are exercising and not strength training.

Strength is the ability to produce force against an external resistance.

Strength is simple math. Follow along. 
Strength is the final way we interact with our environment. And everything we do is a percentage of our max strength in that human movement pattern. Getting out of bed uses a percentage of your total strength. Lifting a box above your head and putting it in the the attic uses a percentage of your total strength. Swinging a tennis racket uses a percentage of your total strength. Taking a hike uses a percentage of your total strength. If you want everything in your life to feel easier and your athletic performance to improve, then increase your total strength so the percentage of all sub maximal efforts decrease. To keep the math simple let’s say your maximal strength in the squat movement is 100lbs and you have to unload some 50lb compost bags out of your truck and squat down and put them on the ground. You are at 50% of your maximal strength in this movement pattern. 

These 50lb bags are going to feel a certain type of heavy to you and there is a limit to how many you can unload. Let’s say you can only unload 5 before tiring.

You decide to do a strength training program and you get your squat from 100lbs for a 1RM to 200lbs for a 1RM. 

You go back to unload some 50lb compost bags out of your truck. Now you are at 25% of your total strength. The bags will feel lighter to you and you will be able to unload more than 5 before tiring. Increase your maximal strength in natural human movement patterns like the squat, deadlift, bench press and over head press in order to decrease the percentage of your sub maximal strength in every day living and athletic performance. #liftheavyshit #strengthtraining

Bodybuilding with light weight and high reps vs Strength Training with heavy weight and low reps.

In my opinion, I think everyone should acquire a base level of strength before bodybuilding. 

Have strength be your cake. You can build a nice strong cake in a few short months of strength training. Let that be your strong frame. Then if you need to you can shape your cake and add some icing. I say “if” because most people will look damn good from just strength training alone. You will look great with your clothes on! Big, strong and powerful. 
But if you feel the need to bodybuild after building strength, you will end up looking more “jacked” with the added benefit of being strong and powerful. #liftheavy #strength #strengthtraining

Lift heavy shit!