I've hit my share of plateaus.  They're frustrating.  They make you question what you know.  In a sense, they provoke the same reactions as seeing Donald Trump run away with the GOP nomination.

On the flip side, my most rewarding workouts have been those where I've busted through to the other side.  I've also learned much more from missing my goals than I have from achieving them. But seeing the forest through the trees is easier said than done.

If you think your program is the reason you're stuck on your squat/deadlift/press, there are plenty of general programs that'll help get you over the hump.  I'd highly suggest 5/3/1 or some Westside Barbell templates.  They might appear different but they're based on a simple principle - more practice, at varying weights, will help you improve.

That said, programming often gets too much credit for breaking plateaus.  In reality, the secret for 99% of us comes down to good coaching and great execution.  Below are three tips to help exactly that.

As you know, I have a love/hate relationship with "The Bachelor" and "The Bachelorette."  I love how sane and civil the contestants make me feel, but I hate how I can't. stop. watching it.  And by the way, the newest season premiered this past Monday and I'm currently tied with my wife in our fantasy league.

Yes, it exists.

But many of you don't know that I have the same love/hate relationship with single leg deadlifts.

You could have a blog solely dedicated to the Turkish Get-up.  Granted, not many people would read it - besides myself, obviously - but there are so many intricacies and variations that it's hard to learn them all.  If you've been around kettlebells and heavy get-ups for any significant period of time, you know what I'm talking about.

(Unless, of course, your idea of a get-up is to stand up "any way possible."  Because that's a terrible idea.)

While StrongFirst has plenty of content on the difficult steps of the get-up, I'd like to highlight one of the more underutilized steps: the hinge. And if you a) are shaking your head vigorously in agreement, or b) had no idea there's a hinge in the get-up, you're going to want to read below.

Last weekend I tested my mettle in the Tactical Strength Challenge (TSC).  Composed of a max deadlift, max strict bodyweight pullups, and as many kettlebell snatches in 5 minutes as possible, it's fun for people that can move some weight.  But utterly nightmarish for my inner introvert.

Nonetheless, I hit personal records in all three events (click Men's Open and scroll to #21) and you can't ask for more than that!  But more valuable than how I performed are the lessons I took from my training and the event.  Even better, my three takeaways below have already made me a better physical preparation coach.

I think there's some masochism inside all of us.  At least when it comes to suffering through conditioning and cardio. It's why high intensity work is so popular, and the association seems pretty clear - work hard, embrace the suck, get results.  And to some degree that does happen.

But only using high intensity conditioning, or using it too frequently, is going to lead you nowhere fast.  It's a lesson I learned through my own conditioning, as well as writing programs for my clients.  Both myself and (most of) my clients loved sweating, breathing hard, and getting smoked.  But I couldn't figure out why some people weren't getting better, and why they weren't improving markers of fitness (lowering their resting heart rate, increasing their heart rate variability, increasing VO2 max, decreasing musculoskeletal pain).

That's because I had fallen for what I like the call the "Tabata fallacy."