Welcome to the Training Lab Blog

The Training Lab is the knowledge hub for online Strength and Conditioning content. We have curated articles designed to empower you to Be Your Best inside and outside the weight room.

This isn’t some fitness blog trying to sell you a cheap diet or a new magic pill. Our writers are sourced from the top minds in the strength training industry. The Training Lab is a forum to share knowledge within a vast network of coaches and athletes around the globe.

Above all, we are here to bring performance to the people.

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Branding for Strength Coaches Part 3: Selling Your Programs

So, you’ve chosen your niche, set up your TrainHeroic profile and established your coaching brand — now it’s time to get those programs in front of the right athletes. Whether you’re launching your first program or looking to boost sales for existing ones, this guide...

TrainHeroic’s Top Online Bodybuilding & Physique Programs

You’ve had that vague dream in the back of your mind of competing in fitness, figure, physique or bodybuilding, but never a plan to make it on stage. You train hard, eat well, and suffer through cardio, but there’s something missing from your routine. Or maybe you’re...

Branding for Strength Coaches Part 2: Getting Started in the TrainHeroic Marketplace

When it comes to selling your programs as a strength coach, standing out is key. A well-crafted profile on the TrainHeroic marketplace not only helps potential clients find you but also establishes trust and shows off your uniqueness. In Part 1 of this series, we...

Winter Warfare: How to Bulk Up This Season

It’s that time of the year to wreak havoc and prepare for a massive winter bulk! But wait, what is a winter bulk? What does it take, and how do we achieve it? Joseph Lucero (CSCS), owner of Harvesting Strength, is a powerlifter and strongman coach with years of...

8 of the Best Hamstring Exercises for Meaty Legs

Your hamstrings are not just for decoration or making yoga feel impossible. They’re essential for basically any athletic movement involving your legs—jumping, running, lunging, squatting, and picking up weight. Add these eight killer hamstring exercises into your...

Branding for Strength Coaches Part 1: Why You Need A Niche

If you're a strength and conditioning coach just starting out, you’ve likely noticed that the fitness world is crowded. You’re competing with thousands of other coaches offering similar services and it’s easy to feel lost in the shuffle. But what if there was a way to...

The Best Exercises to Improve Your Sprinting Speed

Looking to get a boost in your sprinting speed? Whether you’re striving for a personal best or just getting your legs and lungs back into the habit of running fast, these exercises will give you a more efficient, stronger and speedier stride.Written Bymorey croson...

Top 6 Exercises for Managing Shoulder Injuries

After 6 years of coaching at the highest levels across multiple disciplines, the most common issues I see in my sports therapy clinic have to do with the shoulder. Statistics show us that shoulders are the most commonly injured area in many sports including CrossFit,...

How to Get Your First Pistol Squat

The single leg squat (a.k.a. pistol squat) is a challenging, advanced movement that requires single-leg strength, stability, mobility, balance, and motor control. If you are looking to get your first pistol, or just want to continue getting better at them, here is a...

Top Tips for Powerbuilding Beginners

Powerbuilding is a huge asset to the performance training industry — being able to look dangerous and actually be dangerous is a deadly combination. Let’s discuss the top tips for any powerbuilding program to help you create workouts possible for building serious size...

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athletic woman doing pull ups and bodyweight training

The Benefits of Bodyweight Training

While fancy new gym equipment and trendy fitness classes come grand go, we’ll always have a tool that we can exercise with at any time and in any place: Our own bodies. Improve Your Strength & Body Awareness Without Using Weights Bodyweight training — aka...

Queer Therapy Talk: What is Pride Fitness?

Over his years helping gay clients work through emotional traumas, Craig Freund has witnessed trends relating to shame, self-esteem, and body image. Queer people are more likely to experience body image issues due to being historically ostracized from society....

4 Steps To Improving Your Pesky Shoulder Injury

Shoulder injuries are some of the most common in functional athletes. The high demands we place on our complex and intricate shoulder joints can mean tears, tweaks, impingements, and a whole host of nagging issues. Check out this blog and arm yourself with some...

LGBTQIA+ Fitness Brands to Support

Show up to your June pride parties looking swaggy as hell by shopping these LGBTQ+ friendly fitness brands. Grab some new gym gear, swimwear or lounge clothes that speak out for the queer community, their heart and struggles. Businesses like Out-Fit, Alo Yoga,...

Take Pride in Your Body With Coach Liz Bristow

Body by Daddy supports the LGBTQ+ family by encouraging the idea that exercise shapes your body to better fit the image you have of yourself. Liz Bristow’s programming comes with over a decade of experience training queer folx and managing their fitness. She uses...

A group of women at a birthfit training session

BIRTHFIT: Strength Training for Bad*ss Moms

BIRTHFIT offers expert strength training for women throughout the entire motherhood journey from prenatal to postpartum. Lindsey, Leah, and Kate provide a supportive, intelligently-guided fitness community for moms and athlete moms-to-be. They take into account...

Kettlebell Training for Strength & Conditioning

Kettlebells are funny-looking in the world of fitness equipment, but they’re insanely useful for building your strength and conditioning. We’d argue it’s necessary to learn how to use them properly. In the spirit of spreading valuable information, here’s a piece...

Athletic young woman showing muscles of the back and hands on a isolated black background with clipping path

Relieve Back Pain & Bulletproof Your Spine

Chronic back keeping you from doing the things you love? You’re not alone. Nearly 80% of Americans experience back pain at some point during their life. But since it comes in all shapes and sizes, it’s hard to know how to fix it. Understanding and addressing spinal...

Muslim athlete in gym using TRX bands for workout during Ramadan

Working Out During Ramadan: Maintaining & Making Gains

It’s falsely believed by many Muslim athletes that Ramadan = losing progress (gains!). This isn’t the case if you train, fuel, hydrate, and sleep appropriately. Of course that’s easier said than done, but following a few of these strategies can make all the...

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Mobility 101: A Complete Guide

Mobility is hot topic, and vital for anyone spending time in the weightroom.

The ability to have full range of motion in your muscles and joints is one of the most important aspects of training. Improving your mobility can help you workout for longer, reduces joint pain, and can reduce the risk of injury.

In this guide you’ll learn more about mobility, who it impacts, why you should be focusing on it no matter what your age or training history, and how to tame common mobility hot spots from head to toe.

Olympic Weightlifting 101: A Complete Guide

In this article, Mike Dewar shares a basic template on how to build an Olympic weightlifting program geared toward the beginner and intermediate lifter.

Mike covers everything from the 8 goals of an Olympic Weightlifting program, how to build your own 4 week program including full sample sessions, the 5 key variables in Olympic Weightlifting, and 30 exercises perfect for beginners.

10 ways to build an unstoppable engine for competitive crossfit

To succeed in CrossFit, you need the ability to repeat near maximum efforts with as little rest as possible.

It’s not enough to simply have a high one rep max or a large unbroken set of muscle-ups. How many reps at 90% of your max power clean can you do in 8 minutes?

In this article, Todd Nief gives us a full breakdown of the 10 ways he helps Crossfit athletes build an unstoppable engine for competition.

How to Zercher Squat: One Exercise to rule them all

We all want that golden ticket. The one-size-fits-all exercise and perfect program. You know – the one that makes us look like the Hulk as long as we follow that program to the T.

Well folks, that all sounds great. But in reality, we know there is no one-size-fits-all exercise, program, food, or supplement… PERIOD. However, coach Ryan Leibreich has a secret weapon exercise that will get us close; it has a lot of bang for its buck. It builds massive quads, big glutes, a wide back, and some awesome biceps. Exactly what every athlete needs.

4 scientifically proven ways to develop explosive power

Building athletic power is one of the most desired, if not the most desired, quality in athletic performance today. It’s as important for the athlete training for the sport of life as it is for a D1 high performance athlete.

The question is…how do we optimally train it?

In this article coach Joel Smith, a long-time D1 S&C coach, gives us the lowdown on creating explosive power in the weightroom. From Olympic lifting to plyometrics, this is your one-stop guide on all things athletic power.

Nervous system training 101: The creation of superhuman strength and athleticism

Consider the following: pound for pound apes have double the strength of a human being.
They can also jump about 30-40% higher than top human jumpers.

How is this possible given their similar amount of muscle mass?

Our simian friends have an interesting piece of their brain and spinal cord that allows them stronger muscle contractions: less grey matter.

TrainHeroic Instagram: For Athletes, By Athletes

Looking for some Monday motivation? How about a new training session to shake things up a bit?

TrainHeroic’s Instagram is for for athletes, by athletes. We share news and notes on the latest in the strength game, valuable training insights and tips from thought leaders in the fitness game, exercise guides, sample training sessions and more.