Here are 10 of the most overlooked and misunderstood facts about abdominal training - some of these may fly in the face of what you THINK you know to be facts! Keep an open mind and read the explanations. You may still not agree but it might just change your ideas on how your abs should be trained.

Getting through the winter holiday season without gaining 10-15 pounds never seemed like much of an issue to me personally, but based on all the questions I've been fielding about it lately, I thought I'd share my own thoughts on effectively handling the period of time stretching roughly from December 24th to January 1st...

Don't expect the usual "beginning, middle, and end" format for this one. I just need to vent. What I'm about to get into is beyond occasional lapses of bad judgment. It ranges from people who should know better, to people who do know better. It covers the gamut from stupidity to unethical conduct...

You're on a plateau. What else is new? If you want to look on the bright side, consider that stalling out is a sign that you're an advanced lifter. Only beginners make continuous progress.

If you don't want to look on the bright side (meaning, you're determined to get out of the rut and on to new PR's), keep reading, because I have an eminently logical, simple, and foolproof method of getting back on track...

Here are 5 quick and easy suggestions to help make your training programs MUCH more effective. I'll apologize in advance if I shatter some of the common misconceptions in training with this one!

For reasons that still elude me after several years of considering this issue, most personal trainers still insist on treating their novice/out of shape/deconditioned clients in the most disinterested, condescending, and punitive manner possible...

Gyms across the world are full of dedicated, hard-working trainees searching for physique improvement. Unfortunately, many trainees are make the classic but unfortunate mistake of ignoring proper exercise form. This "cheating" often becomes so rampant that eventually, some exercises actually begin to lose their original meaning...

This is an article about smart weight training…a system of organizing weights, sets, reps, and rest periods in such a way that you'll get maximum caloric burn and fat loss for minimum time and effort. The system works and has a documented history of very happy victi…er, I mean, clients.

It's unfortunate that so many coaches make the process of learning the Olympic lifts seem more difficult than a manned mission to Mars. In point of fact, developing safe and efficient technique in these lifts isn't much harder than learning to bench, squat, or deadlift, which most people seem to have no issues with...

Maximal strength (MxS) is defined as the maximum amount of force one can produce irrespective of time or bodyweight. The qualifiers "time" and "bodyweight" distinguish MxS from power and relative strength, respectively. MxS is perhaps the core quality that all individuals should be concerned with, because it's acquisition is the fastest route to all other motor qualities, including relative-strength, speed-strength, strength-endurance, speed, and speed-endurance...

I recently sat down with our resident supplement guru Dave Barr. We talked about protein, supplements, carbs, insulin, leucine, and what he's got in store for us for next week's teleconference. Read on Dave's forgotten more about nutrition than most people will ever know, and you can take his advice straight to the bank…

I think it's intuitively obvious that before you can recognize improvement, you must have an innate sense of what is "normal." Once you understand your current capacity, it's easy to know when you're performing better than usual...

A common postural deficit among males who weight-train on a consistent basis, and especially among those who aggressively train the bench press, is habitually protracted shoulders coupled with internally rotated arms. This so-called "gorilla posture" doesn't just look bad- it also increases the risk of training-related injury...

In my experience, "paralysis by analysis" is the most common barrier to action, and by extension, successful action. Because after all, analysis is the preface to action- it isn't action itself. Analysis can certainly serve a useful purpose, but for many, it's both a crutch and an excuse for delaying action...

I'm sure you've seen our recent requests for test subjects for an upcoming 6-week anecdotal study we're running in conjunction with USP Labs. We'll be picking and announcing our 10 test subjects later today (Sept. 5th, 2008), which will be culled from over 200 applications we received over the past week.

In past articles I've defined and described the differences between exercisers and athletes. This week, I'll present four practices that characterize the self-loathing exerciser mentality.

I have to admit, I love pull-ups. All versions actually—chins, pull-ups, parallel grip… low reps, high reps, weights strapped to my waist, you name it. I’ve done a lot of experimentation with this exercise too—much of which involved stupid-level high-tension stunts involving heavy eccentrics, plyometric loads, all sorts of stuff...

Cheating is perhaps the most maligned and least appreciated tactic in the weight room. It's so important, in fact, that I consider cheating to be the calling card of skilled lifters

While there are a lot of characteristics and traits that define skilled lifting, I believe there are two primary skills that truly separate experts from novices. The two skills I'm about to discuss allow lifters to pursue their craft for years without the troubling injuries that typically plague unskilled exercisers and Bowflex collectors...

I'll admit it— I think way too much when I lift. Maybe not during the actual lift, where I tend to focus on 1-2 primary movement cues, but between sets. Here's what's been on my frontal cortex lately...

My golf teacher Jeff Campbell recently remarked to me “Golf and bowling are the only two sports that you can enjoy without being good at them.” Luckily for me, I think he’s right. I started taking golf lessons about six months ago and have a total of 18 holes actual experience on the course to date. So I’m obviously a complete novice, but more importantly, I’m certain that golf is helping my lifting, in at least six different ways…

You can perform more work if you manage pain/fatigue by breaking the workload into several manageable chunks, rather than trying to accomplish it all in one all-out sprint. This is why I argue for many sets of low reps, as opposed to the reverse. It's also why I advocate accelerative performances with moderate weights as opposed to grinding efforts with close to maximal weights (for whatever reps are being used). These tactics favor performance over pain, which results in a higher work output with less pain and discomfort...

Last week I differentiated between the "exerciser" mindset and the athletic paradigm. I equated exercisers with an amateur approach, and athletes with a professional attitude toward fitness. Most importantly, I demonstrated how the fundamental distinction between these two divergent perspectives is one of attitude: exercisers hate what they do, they do it begrudgingly, and they wouldn't do it at all except for their certainty that they have to do it...

Probably 90 percent of all American adults are sedentary, fat, and/or just generally soft and out of shape. The fact that you're reading this probably means you're in the remaining 10 percent, which is to your credit. When I look at the active minority however, it's clear that 90 percent of them are what I call "exercisers." Allow me to explain and define...