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

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

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

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

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

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