I guess you can say I'm feeling nostalgic. And perhaps a bit click-baity.

This is my fifth year in the strength and conditioning industry and it feels like it's flown. But I can't stop thinking back to my naive, younger self, who worked in marketing, and thought he knew everything when it came to exercise.  He made a lot of mistakes and hated reality - because it always slapped him square in the face.

So consider everything below as part memoir and part road map for success.  Enjoy!

This week I'm continuing the introspection train I started two posts ago.  Call it part memoir or even part snooze fest, but I think it's important to show how you're continually trying to improve your craft, regardless of how vulnerable and flip-floppy it makes you appear.  

As with my first post, everything written below are lessons I've learned through the past few years. Still, they can help almost everyone out there even if training and lifting heavy things is merely a hobby.  Enjoy!

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.

The Beast Tamer Challenge.

Between April 2016 and February 2019, I thought about this challenge every day. It was on my mind every time I trained. I’d start thinking about it as I innocently walked past a kettlebell. Then, without warning, it would enter my dreams. Until I conquered this challenge, it was conquering me.

If you’re unfamiliar with the Beast Tamer, it involves three events with a 106 lb kettlebell:

1. a strict overhead press with no knee bend and minimal side bend

2. a dead-hang, thumbless pull-up with the kettlebell attached to your waist (and yes, your throat - not the underside of your chin - must touch the bar)

3. a pistol - otherwise known as a single leg squat - where your hips must break parallel with your knee while you hold the bell.

For those those of us that have a kettlebell problem, it’s fun. Only 70 men had ever completed it under StrongFirst. My goal was to become #71.