FREE TIPS

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

On a sunny spring day in 2012, I sat beside my girlfriend at the time as we looked out over the Juniata River. We were on top of one of Central Pennsylvania’s small, rolling mountains. We’d finished a hike called the 1,000 Steps and did a little exploring afterwards. I realized how tired I was...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

There’s a lot to get in during a week of hybrid athlete training. It takes intelligent planning to get it all in without burning yourself out – and to get the best possible results.   We take a counterintuitive approach that a lot of other hybrid coaches disagree with. But, tell ya what, we don’t...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

Gym shoes are an important, but often overlooked, piece of gym equipment. Folks make sure their shirts are right and their shorts are on point, then they show up to deadlift in cushy-soled running shoes that have them standing about four inches taller than they really are. That, my friend, is not how to set...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

We all want to see the fruits of our labor, right? Why would we do anything, other than something that’s purely pleasurable, if we can’t eventually note measurable progress? Well, unless we are seeing measurable results, or we’re getting some kind of pleasure, we typically stop doing the thing. So, we need to give ourselves...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

My friend Leann, who’s more of a sister, has a saying that I’m about to steal from her. It’s an entire philosophy, a way of living and being, condensed down into two words. The phrase will change how you see your life, and the world, if you let it sink into you and try to...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

“When will this start working? When will I feel the results? When can I expect to get _________?”   Fill in the blank: abs, faster, stronger, bigger, etc.   Chris, Rony, and I have gotten questions like this throughout our careers. As younger coaches, we’d stammer through physiological answers.   Well, strength gain typically takes...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

Two of my friends did two profound things within days of each other. These things were different. One was an action and the other was a statement. One was age-defying and the other was a slow walk toward decline, decay, and unhealth. Each illustrated mindset and belief.   “I don’t want to hold you guys...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

Strength matters, you know this, I know this, hell, I bet your Aunt Edna from Altoona, Iowa knows this. But here’s the thing, lots of strength with lots of body weight isn’t the best thing for you. Have a look at the general health of powerlifters and strongman competitors. They ain’t too healthy. Relative strength,...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

“Pain is a part of life, but suffering is a choice.”   The quote is a paraphrase that’s attributed to a guy folks look up to: the Buddha. Most people think of, and use, the quote in an existential way, not to deal with a sprained ankle or bum shoulder. But physical limitations often lead...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

I started lifting weights when I was 12 years old. Initially, my brother took me along with him to work out at a gym in Bellefonte, Pennsylvania. Soon after, I hit the Juniata Valley YMCA with my middle school buddies. We’d scour the muscle magazines for the next program that guaranteed us bigger, stronger muscles....Read More