To start, this is not a bash on Crossfit. This is not a personal attack on Greg Glassman, Crossfit coaches or anybody who participates in Crossfit. This is simply my view of what Crossfit is and isn’t. With that said, I will bet my bottom dollar that I will personally be attacked by the...

This is not easy and it’s actually the 3rd or 4th round of Jason performing it. I said it a few weeks ago and I’m sticking to it…. The racked sled walk (first exercise) is the hardest thing I have ever done. Put it in a metabolic circuit, preferably at the beginning, and you...

When you want to succeed as bad as you want to breathe…. Then you’ll be...

The things I look for in a coach or employee (or anyone I want to be around for that matter): 1. They have to care – “No one cares how much you know, until they know how much you care”. I can remember Michael Boyle saying this and it resonated from the second I heard it. But...

This could be the hardest damn exercise I have ever done and I hate Dan John for inventing it. Well, I don’t really hate Dan because he is like a sweet teddy bear (but obviously he has a mean streak). I’m not kidding when I say that the contraction from your abdominals during this...

In the goal of body fat loss, there are two types of people: 1. Those who reduce their calories (and track them) 2. Those who don’t Not by coincidence, there is one of two outcomes: 1. Those who lose body fat 2. Those who don’t With 10+ years of training people and witnessing literally...

“I suck at chinups or I can’t do a chinup (or insert your exercise you can’t do)”. This is one of those exercises that people often say they CAN’T do but wish they could do. They want a specific exercise that will all of the sudden make them start banging out...

I haven’t played on a set of monkey bars since I was a child and I’ll be honest, when my friends at Fitness Anywhere sent me a TRX/Monkey Bar rack, I felt like the uncoordinated kid on the playground. I COULD NOT BELIEVE HOW HARD IT WAS! I looked nothing like my primate...

Here are a few tough pushup variations for you to play with on the TRX. The first one requires two TRX’s and appears easier than it is. At the top position, where you can typically rest a bit, the TRX’s are pulling your arms into abduction so now the top position now becomes...

Are you lazy or do you just have poor time management skills?

Here is an anterior core exercise we like at IPT. Like most of the TRX exercises, this is great because its so easy to progress and regress the exercise. For those of you that train groups of people, this is extremely important. Rather than having to explain an completely different movement...

No mind blowing stuff here…. this is simply just the workout myself and some of my guys did this morning. Normally I would have some video for you but we just didn’t get around to it for some reason. I skipped out on plyo’s and Oly lifts due to an irritated achilles from...

Here is a great hip dominant selection that I picked up from my good friend Robert Dos Remedios. The nice thing about this exercise is how easy it is to regress or progress the difficulty (this is true with mostly all of the TRX exercises). Set the handles at about hip level, move away from...

This is an advanced progression off of a regular Valslide Pushup. You must have some impressive horizontal pushing strength along with core stability in order to do this….. Seriously, if you are weak you won’t be doing anyone any favors by butchering this great...

I have a Love/Hate relationship with the Bodysaw exercise…. it is now weighing a little heavier on the hate side. We have been having some fun in the gym with the sandbells and started throwing them into our bodysaw progression. Enjoy the...

Here is a clip of a little finisher after...

Single leg squat with a sandbell.....

What do you do when Mike Boyle speaks? You shut up, listen and take notes. Coach Boyle has been my biggest influence in the industry as he always has a way of making complex subjects seem simple. That, in my mind, is the sign of a great coach. Here is what Mike has to say on some of the...

This is our final Sled/TRX exercise. Enjoy....

Here is the next exercise in our Sled/TRX series......

This is the first of a series of exercises I am going to show you with the combination of the sled and TRX.....

This is a guest blog entry from my good friend Mike Richeson. Mike is one of the more intelligent humans I know who possess talent in several areas of life…. let’s just say that Mike doesn’t suck at life! His blog isn’t necessarily a fitness blog but more of a life blog. ———————————————————————————————– The other day, a friend of mine said, “You’re so lucky you’re healthy.” Given some of the context of the conversation, she was correct. I haven’t been put down because of some terrible disease, and I haven’t been banged up in a car accident. I’m very lucky in that regard. Part of the conversation was just health and fitness in general, though, and I tend to use those terms interchangeably. Yes, there’s a difference between health and fitness level, but fit people are...

Timed sets are an interesting thing. Take a :30/:30 protocol for example (30 seconds of work followed by 30 seconds of rest). At first glance it seems to be purely metabolic given the short rest periods. We have been implementing these more at IPT and the rules of strength training are being broken...

I want to hang out with this guy. I would buy him endless amounts of beer to perform tricks for me on...

Nothing fancy today… just hard work at the end of a training session. We did this for 3 continuous...

When I think sport, I think strength and power. I hate the term “sport specific” but when I sport specificity I think complexing. A complex is when you pair two exercises together, a strength exercise followed by a power exercise of the same movement pattern. It is a great way to...

This is another great anti-rotation exercise on the TRX. The key here is that your hip stay stable as if a glass of beer is sitting on your low back...

This is a fantastic exercise that Chris Frankel from Fitness Anywhere came up with. We use this in our Anti-rotation progression. It is different than Stu McGill’s stir the pot exercise on the stability ball but the name is still...

My good friend Robert Dos Remedios, better known as Coach Dos has a new ‘Member only’ premium site. This website is rockin’! It is chalk full of workouts, an extensive exercise library, interviews with fitness pros and much more. Seriously do yourself a favor and check it...

This is a reactive core exercise we use with some of our MMA guys. By reactive I mean that they have respond to the coaches order to stabilize without knowing when the coach will call it out. This is to mimic the unpredictable nature of MMA....

I know! You can’t believe it right?!?!?! I am actually blogging. After getting hell from several people at the Perform Better Summit in Providence this past weekend, I figured I should work a bit harder to schedule time to update this blog. All I have today is a great warm up that we do...

Listening to Dan John speak or reading his book offers several ah-ha moments along with some inspiration. I can’t say enough about his book ‘Never Let Go’….. I couldn’t put it down when I read it. Fantastic quotes like “the goal is to keep the goal the...

The trick here is to use the pendulum effect as resistance. You can start behind the anchor point of the TRX to make it easier or move past the anchor point to create a more challenging...

Here is an article I wrote for Fitness Anywhere a couple months ago titled “TRX Core Training for Mixed Martial Arts”. I am a big fan of the TRX suspension trainer. It is such a versatile piece of equipment that can offer so many great exercises and variations that are not possible...

As you know, MMA is a passion of mine. From a sporting demand there is nothing like it. Many people ask how we train mixed martial artist. The truth is we train them very similar to any athlete. What is very different is our conditioning and in particular our use of metabolic circuits. These...

Here is one of our TRX Anterior Core Progressions: TRX Plank Coaching Cues:1. Maintain “pillar” type stability2. Do not allow excessive arching at the low back3. Perform a 30 sec hold. Once proficient progress to the next exercise rather than progressing in time TRX Body Saw Coaching...

The Health Hut has featured the Impact Performance Training Blog as one (see # 5)of the Top 50 Exercise Science Blogs. DN

I was recently interviewed by Anthony Renna on the Strength Coach Podcast episode 42. A few things I spoke about were: ** Being “Brilliant at the Basics” **”Common Mistakes of a Mixed Martial Artist”**”Considerations and Training for MMA”**McGill’s...