Do you remember learning to drive? I look back in amazement that I and everyone in the town I grew up in did not die as a result of me having unfettered access to 3,000lbs of steel and gasoline. And like you are probably thinking about yourself, I wasn't even the worse driver I knew; I was actually...
Why can Jon North snatch 166kg and I can’t? Because he’s snatched 165kg. Pavel tells everyone at RKC certs who’s paying attention that “strength is a skill” and he’s absolutely right. But a skill is an outcome. How does one acquire a skill? By doing it a lot. The process of acquiring a skill is...
One of the great complisults I've gotten as a coach was from a woman in my Booty Camp class. Booty Camp happens to be all extremely dedicated ladies who come to the gym that I teach at every morning at 6am and take what is offered. I designed this class to compliment the other three days a week...
Most of the people who read this blog are my clients and potential clients. They tell me they want to get back into shape, maybe lose a few pounds, and just get a little hotter. As you might have noticed from my weekly Q&A posts, I get asked a lot of questions from those readers. But after doing...
"We excuse our sloth under the pretext of difficulty."-Quintilian In this ongoing series, I deal with common excuses that I hear every day from clients and potential clients. I'm too busy. Oh, did you see last night's American Idol results show? No you're not. Moving more and eating less takes...
In case you haven't noticed from my inconsistent posting last week, Coach Stevo has been a little busy. No this post isn't going to be a pity party. I know that all my readers and clients are very busy, too this time of year. So rather than complaining, I thought I'd set a good example and tell you...
All the blogs I read have done posts about how not to get fat during Thanksgiving. I follow some really great fitness and nutrition experts, so the posts are all very scientific, well reasoned, and long. But many people have asked my advice about how not to get fat during Thanksgiving, so here's...
In this ongoing series, I post (with permission) actual questions that have landed in my inbox. What should I do for cardio? Whatever you want to be able to do a lot of in a given amount of time. Cardio training is getting your body more effecient at using its fuel systems to produce force over...
As far back as I can remember, my right hip has always turned out. My feet were perpendicular; at 12 and 3 o'clock. I blamed 7 years of fencing, but it never really "bothered" me, because I always did things like squat and swing with a little more external rotation than others and it seemed to work...
I was in New York this week and spent my time going to gyms and seeing how people who go to gyms work out. As you know, I spend most of my time either training my clients outside or training with other fitness nerds. My wife insisted that I go to the gym in her building and train her which opened...
In this ongoing series, I post (with permission) actual questions that have landed in my inbox. What muscle does [that] work? All of them. If you're working with me or doing any of the exercises I've mentioned on this blog, the answer to this question will always be "all of them." The movements I...
Dan John knows about carrying around heavy things. He loves carrying heavy things so much that he slapped a picture of him doing it on his first book. In the snow. With a smile on his face. But the praises for the loaded carry is not limited to strongmen and throwers. Mike Boyle recently talked on...
Meh.In this ongoing series, I post (with permission) actual questions that have landed in my inbox. Can I have a Luna bar? Sure! Wait, you're suffering from being extremely underweight, right? Or you just hiked 2/3 of the Appilachian Trail this weekend? A doctor diagnosed you with hypoglycemia...
I learned the kettlebell swing about two years ago from a guy named Antonio who is carved from marble and has a butt you could rest a beer on. Rightly thinking the swing might have had something to do with that, I have swung a bell almost every day since. Without exaggeration, I have performed the...
Part 1: Tight Chest In this series, we are going to look at the factors that are holding you back. The little fixable things that are making you look less hot than you could be, or in today's case, less hot that you already are. These are the weak points that most sedentary people have which I seek...
As a coach, I think a lot about movement. I write a lot about it, too. A couple of months ago, Dan John clued me in to a model of movement that I love called "The Five Human Movements." I loved it so much that he named a workout after me that used all five. But in hanging out with Dan and the other...
Coach Stevo Fun Fact: I majored in the Philosophy of the scientific method at the Univerisity of Chicago, a school that in 1945, pulled out of the Big 10 Conference because football was too much of a distraction. What did I learn from this eduacation? Science is fun. Ok, football is probably more...
"Bobby, can you do me a favor and stand up? I just wanna make sure you still can."I've written about a lot of healthy habits in the past. Most of them were probably pretty obvious, some of them maybe not so much. Today I want to talk about what might be the most obvious healthy habit of all. You...
courtesy of the New York TimesThis week, the world lost 22 amazing men in a helicopter crash in Afghanistan. I didn't know anyone on that helicopter, but I know people who knew too many. This article is dedicated to the memory of what those men accomplished and how you can apply it to accomplishing...
There are very few "laws" in physics. And Newton's Four Laws of Thermodynamics are about a "proven" as science gets. As a big fan of science, I have to tell you that in Coach Stevo's House, we obey the Laws of Thermodynamics. That's because your body is a system like any other in that Newton...