The only strength training you need is heavy barbell strength training.   There are a lot of folks that live and die by that philosophy. They think that as long as they are barbell strong, and they’re training others to be barbell strong, they’ve done enough. And they’re wrong.   As much as I love...Read More

Chicago traffic sped by. We weaved through cars and accelerated through cross streets. We’d stop at traffic lights and the L clamored by, protesting against patience along with the car horns and people shouting out driver’s side windows. I sat in the backseat, enthralled. “That’s it, honey. You can’t just take up space. You gotta...Read More

Let’s begin with a thought experiment.   Try to remember a day that you spent in total comfort. Not a pinch, not an awkward seat, not a weird sense of pressure, not a worry and not a care.   Can you remember the day? I doubt it. But let’s say that you did.   Remember...Read More

This isn’t the typical weight loss article. There are no before and after photos, and I won’t tell you how much weight I lost. I won’t say, “Here’s what you need to do to lose 10 pounds in a month,” or some such bullshit. I lost the amount of weight I wanted to lose for...Read More

There are no ways around uncomfortable truths. We can avoid them and we can pretend that they don’t exist. But the truth is the truth whether we like it or not. And it always comes knocking even if we lock the door. It will find its way in.   I spent much of my adult...Read More

I’m starting this party with a seemingly contradictory statement: We’re a gym, but we’re not, like, gym people.   To us, training is a tool that builds our bodies and minds so that we may live the fullest possible life. And while we enjoy training, it’s not entirely an end in itself. It is a...Read More

Fitness marketing has people obsessed with the burn, the sweat, the feeling that you’re going to black out in a pool of your own fluids. They sell you on things like the “afterburn” of excess post-exercise oxygen consumption (EPOC). And to achieve it, you have to work so hard you piss down your leg while...Read More

Life is better with strength and endurance. That’s our credo. Because when you have both, you have access to more life – in the present and in the future.   We spend each training session at Beyond Strength developing one, the other, or both. So, it only makes sense for us to do a challenge...Read More

Picture, if you will, 14-year-old me blaring Pantera through the stereo. I’m in my room getting my lifting clothes on so my mom can drop me off at the Juniata Valley YMCA. I plan on being there for at least two hours, doing some kind of Westside Barbell-inspired powerlifting workout. I bang my head, breaking...Read More

This month’s endurance class includes a bunch of low-threshold plyometrics. These are reactive hopping exercises that require minimal height while jumping. Examples: jumping rope, side-to-side line hops, and low rebound jumps. They’re great for building tissue tolerance to prep for running, hiking, and rucking. And that’s why we include them—so our bodies get used to...Read More