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I’m not one to tell people how they ought to think. Folks have the right to think whatever they want. I do, however, like to challenge perspectives and make people think. I believe getting someone to say, “Huh, well I never thought of that way.” is one of the most powerful gifts we can give...Read More

My friend Jordan has a brutally honest flag hanging behind the squat rack in his home gym. It reads: Comfort is a Slow Death. The fabric of the flag is yellow, and the type is bold and blue – it arcs across the middle of the flag. I love seeing it every time he sends...Read More

Slowing down is part of aging. It’s a deal with no opt out. That being said, there’s a lot that we can do to fight off age-related cognitive decline. Sleep, stress management, and nutrition are huge factors. But so is exercise, specifically what most people call cardio. (We call it aerobic training.) Did that shit...Read More

I love Stoic philosophy. The Stoics have been my guides since I was a teenager. I’ve burned through copies of Epictetus’s Discourses and The Enchiridion. My copy of Marcus Aurelius’s Meditations is thumb worn, and I’ve bought more copies for friends than I could ever remember. The minds of these good men have molded my...Read More

Hybrid athlete training requires a delicate balance between training and recovery. More so than other forms of training because you’re stressing the body in multiple ways during the same training program. And that often means two totally different types of workouts on the same training day.    That is a lot to manage if you’re...Read More

You’re not getting faster and you’re not able to go for longer. Your endurance has plateaued. You’re consistently training, and you think you’re doing the right things to improve. But you aren’t? What in the heck gives?   It might be that you’re chasing exercise feelings while skipping out on the most important aspects of...Read More

Difficult training weeks are a part of the fitness process. You might curse your coach and everyone who’s ever loved them while you’re in the thick of hard a session, but we need those sessions to push ourselves forward. The rub is that we must be smart about how we approach them. But the good...Read More

Lots of folks are hooked up to wearables and fitness trackers nowadays. I’m one of them. So are many of the Beyond Strength members. People are sporting Oura rings and Whoop bands. They’re checking their HRV with Morpheus and monitoring their recovery on their Garmin watches. The question is: how is all of this technology...Read More

You want to set some goals, but you aren’t sure where to start. You wonder what even defines a goal as good. Well, let’s talk about it. We’ll start by assessing your goal-setting skill and we’ll talk about the two different types of goals and how they support each other. Then we’ll have a chat...Read More

There is a section of a creek here in Loudoun County that’s near and dear to my heart. It’s a secret, so I won’t tell you where it is. My friend Dave Hudgens (pictured above) showed it to me, and his friend showed it to him a long time ago. Over the past few years,...Read More

“Man, it’s dark when I start working and it’s dark when I’m done. I had to watch the sunset from a meeting room today.”     A Beyond Strength member recently said that to me at the end of class. While he still made it to the gym that day, he outlined why a lot...Read More

We started the final phase of our strength and hypertrophy training block this week. In honor of that, we’re talking about muscle growth and how you can increase yours. There’s a lot of convoluted information out there, so I’m going to do you a solid and make it simple. Muscle growth isn’t complicated. It just...Read More

Have you ever wanted to do a triathlon, but you’re not that strong of a swimmer and the thought of spending $5,000 on a bike makes you want to throw up?    Well, perk up! I’ve got just the thing for you!   It’s called the Murderous Mile.   Now, don’t let the violent name...Read More

There are lots of orange leaves, it’s cold in the morning, and today’s sunset is officially 6:17pm in Sterling, Virginia. Ladies and gentlemen, it’s fall – autumn if you want to be British about it.    As the seasons change, so does our training at Beyond Strength. We spend each season of the year focusing...Read More

It was a Tuesday, and it was the worst day of Paul’s life. When you hear why, you might think that Paul’s led a cushy life. Maybe it won’t seem like such a big deal. But remember, we all create our own special hells and relegate ourselves to them. You see, that Tuesday was the...Read More

Imagine a sweaty, dirty, grimy hole-in-the-wall gym in a small town deep in the hills of Central Pennsylvania. If you know me, knock about 13 years off of my age and place a 24-year-old Todd in your mind’s eye. I’ll help you. He’s about the same size, but there’s no red beard on his face....Read More

Megan Galata has transformed after two years and change of training at Beyond Strength. Like, big time transformed. She went from never really strength training before to achieving our current highest level of fitness standards, the Black Level. She’s the first woman to do it.   Her journey started with Beyond Strength started with hesitant...Read More

Something’s not working. You’ve been training hard; you’ve been training consistently, but you’ve plateaued. Or worse, you haven’t made any progress. You feel like you’ve got the elements of your training in line. You’re strength training. You’re conditioning. You’ve even added mobility training to your regiment. But something isn’t right. You should be a better...Read More

We focus a heck of a lot on mobility at Beyond Strength. Healthy joints that move well are the foundation of an active life. We layer strength and endurance on top of them, but you ain’t building strength and endurance without healthy joints – at least not with any kind of longevity. So, we build...Read More

In 2017, Chris and I were in a weird spot with our training. Neither of us wanted to do it.   That’s right, two gym owners that spent the balance of their adult life as coaches struggled with training motivation. At the time, we filmed a segment every week called “Coaches in Chairs.” We’d sit...Read More