Tag: Michael Boyle

Assessing Credibility in the Internet Age

If you missed the previous two articles in this series, check them out here:

Today’s article features an important topic that I’ve touched on in the past. The internet can be a valuable tool for pulling information, but you have to be careful about where the information is coming from! Check out the article and post your comments below.

Click here for more information on the release of Mike Boyle’s new Functional Strength Coach 4!

Assessing Credibility in the Internet Age by Mike Boyle
Functional Strength Coach 4

I wrote this over a year ago and have been a little hesitant to post it. A recent Strengthcoachblog.com post got me to sit down and finish this article. Tim Edgerton, a UK strength and conditioning coach, named me the most influential man is strength and conditioning the other day which was cool. However the rest of the list was at least half non-coaches. There were a bunch of academic NSCA types, a few internet marketers and a few coaches. As I said in my previous post, this made me think.

The “how to get rich on the internet” business is thriving in fitness and strength and conditioning. New products are launched every month. I’m sure many of you reading this are saying “ you have a paid website, you just did FSC 3.0, who are you to talk”? Legitimate questions. However, the fact is my website sells content. Good content, updated every week. I’m not simply picking up affiliate commissions for using my list to sell another program.

I’m actually a bit tired of internet marketing. It always seems to be similar guys selling similar products. The same resumes.

“__________ is one of the worlds most sought after experts in the field of strength and conditioning and ….”.

Next time you consider buying a product, ask yourself a few simple questions.

1- Is the seller actually one of the world’s most sought after experts in any area?

2- Does the seller make his or her living in the area in which they are selling a product or do they make their living selling the product? In Alwyn Cosgrove’s words “have they been there, done that and, are they still doing it?”

3- Has the seller ever made a consistent living actually coaching, training or helping people lose weight?

4- What does the seller do every day? Do they sit at a computer and write effective sales copy or do they work in the field?

5- Are they making money by telling you how to make money?

6- Did they ever make a substantial amount of money doing what they are selling?

7- Is their resume legitimate or have they inflated their qualifications and client list?

If you don’t know the answer, do a little searching and find out. You might be surprised at what you learn. I think there are a lot of Bernie Madoff’s in fitness. Look at the last name, Madoff. Like “made off” with your money? I may sound cynical but, I don’t want to bankroll some twenty five year old who just read Four Hour Workweek. Buying products is great. I have bought many and sold many. Just be sure when you buy that you are buying a product from a person who has done the work and succeeded.

– Mike Boyle
Functional Strength Coach 4

To your success,

Kevin Neeld

P.S. – Mike Boyle is releasing his new program, Functional Strength Coach 4 on Tuesday, April 24th. Functional Strength Coach 4 is Coach Boyle’s most up to date system cultivated from over 30 years of coaching everyone from general fitness clients to athletes ranging from junior high to All Stars in almost every major sport, that will guide you to better results with your athletes and clients. Click here to be the first to know about the all new Functional Strength Coach 4!

P.S.2. As always, I appreciate you forwarding this along to anyone you think will benefit from the info! You can use the social media dropdown menu at the top right hand corner to share it via Twitter and Facebook!

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The Tao of Mike Boyle by Nate Green

If you missed yesterday’s article, check it out here: 25 Years, 25 Mistakes by Mike Boyle

Today’s article comes from an interview Nate Green did with Mike Boyle. Enjoy, and as always, please post your comments below!

Click here for more information on the release of Mike Boyle’s new Functional Strength Coach 4!

The Tao of Mike Boyle by Nate Green (Originally printed on TMUSCLE)

38 years of under-the-bar experience, the best exercises, and why back squats still suck.

“… Tao is often referred to as ‘the nameless’, because neither it nor its principles can ever be adequately expressed in words.”

Aw, what the hell, we’ll give it a shot.

No questions, no time limit, and no stone unturned. Training? Nutrition?

A little piss and vinegar? It’s all here.

The following is what happens when you get on the phone with a top-level strength and conditioning coach and hit “record.”

-Nate Green

Mike Boyle Speaks

• I might be the most criticized guy in this profession. If not, I’m certainly close.

• But I get results. We’ve had Olympians, national champions, professional athletes–you name it. All those guys come through our gym. And people think I don’t know what I’m talking about?

• When people come and watch my athletes train, they’re always surprised. They can’t believe they’re as strong as they are. They fully expect to come in and see the Richard Simmons show, like I’m going
to be wearing a jump suit and headband and making my athletes stand on Bosu balls.

• I’ve got girls doing chin-ups with a 45-pound plate around their waists. How many guys can do that?

• I’ve been lifting weights for 38 years. I started when I was 12 years old with a 110-pound set of barbells in my basement. I grew up on muscle magazines. They were my early education, you know? Man, I remember seeing Boyer Coe guest pose in 1979. Steve Reeves, Gladiator, Hercules…that stuff really got me into the lifestyle.

• People look at me and say, “He hasn’t been under the bar.” Yes, I have. And, frighteningly, I was pretty damn strong.

• Right now we’ve got training experts who don’t train anyone and strength coaches who’ve never competed in anything. Would you take business advice from someone who doesn’t have a business
or isn’t making any money?

• You have to keep training people to stay fresh. If you don’t keep learning, you’ll get to a point two years down the road where you won’t know what you’re doing any more.

• The better the athlete the more self-impressed you are. They learn everything so easily and you start to think it’s you. “I’m an awesome coach because I can get that guy to do exactly whatI want him to.” Listen, when you’re training a guy who’s projected in the first round, getting him into the first round isn’t a big accomplishment. That’s where he was supposed to go.

• Last year we had four guys make teams–three un-drafted free and one seventh-round pick–who all stuck with NFL teams this year. I was more proud of that than any other thing we’ve done.

• A lot of what people tell you isn’t true.

• First, I didn’t say the “people shouldn’t squat” thing to be controversial or sell DVDs. That clip was pulled directly from the DVD set by a marketing guy who watched the entire presentation and said,
“This is the hook.”

I had no idea how crazy the backlash was going to be. I even got some pretty harsh emails from some respectable people. Well, people I used to respect. Apparently they don’t have time to think.

Since then, I’ve had people forward me information about the bilateral deficit. All of a sudden, they’re saying, “You’re really right.”

• The bilateral deficit? Well, they’ve found, particularly as it relates to the lower body, that you’re clearly stronger when you train with one leg versus two.

Let’s say you’ve got a guy who can deadlift 300 pounds for reps, but can’t squat 400 pounds for reps. More often than not, he will be able to single-leg squat with 200 pounds on each leg for reps.
So what does that tell you? He’s at less risk because the load is lighter, but he’s getting more work out of each leg.

• The thing I always hear is, “Well, if they have weak backs, why don’t you just get their backs stronger?” Hold on. We’re not talking about having a weak back. We’re talking about the back
being a limiting factor. That’s very, very different. A guy who hang cleans 300 pounds doesn’t have a weak back. The simple fact is that when someone fails in the squat it’s not because they don’t have
any more juice in their legs. It’s because their back can’t handle the load.

• I wrote an article called “An Apology Letter to Personal Trainers. “I’ve been telling them how to do their job for years and never trained a single non-athlete. Over the past few years I’ve started to, and it’s hard work.

• I think personal training is much more difficult than working with athletes. We’ve got 2 hours per week to counteract the other 166 hours of the week. It’s not a good ratio to try and make changes.

• Still, some trainers just suck. Like the ones who just tell their clients to go for a walk. That’s the exercise equivalent of calling yourself a nutritionist and telling your starving client to go steal
sugar packets from Dunkin Donuts.

• Or the flipside, you have the Crossfit guys who are just going to shit kick you until you can’t move. That’s just as bad. We’ve got uneducated trainers who don’t challenge their clients and uneducated trainers who try to kill their clients.

• All the guys who get mad at me on the Internet, I just want to say, come talk to me when you’re 40.

• I have the huge value of hindsight. I was just like you. I was a meathead. I wanted big muscles and to be strong as hell. If my shoulders hurt after benching, I’d ice them, take Advil and bench again five days later. If my back hurt from deadlifting, well, my back is supposed to hurt from deadlifting, right? I came to realize over time that I was wrong.

• Take a look at all these guys with surgeries. It’s insane. How can they still be espousing the same principles when they’ve gone under the knife so much?

• Experience is wasted on the old.

• Everyone squats ass to grass? Where are they? I go to gyms and I don’t see them. When you live in the Internet world there are thousands of guys doing heavy squats ass to grass with no problems. Call me skeptical. By the way, I’d love to see all these guys “laying it on the line.”

• The best way to learn is to find someone who’s doing what you want to do, and read everything they write, watch everything they’ve put on DVD, and hopefully get to talk with them in person.

• The close-grip hang snatch is the best power movement you can do. But you have to do them with a clean grip to spare your shoulders. The only reason guys do it with a wide grip is to use more weight, since it decreases the distance the bar has to travel.

• Why from a hang instead of the floor? Size differences. Olympic lifting favors shorter people. Suddenly when you’re teaching the snatch to a football lineman, they have a hard time addressing
the bar on the floor. It’s also more practical to do it from the hang since it spares the back.

• I always take the original exercise and try it out. If it doesn’t work to my standards, I modify it. If that still doesn’t work, I drop it completely.

• If you’d have asked me a year ago I would have said the Turkish Get-up was a gimmick. Now I think it’s probably the best total-body core exercise you can do. And that’s part of the learning process!

• I can remember reading the early kettlebell stuff and being decidedly unimpressed. I had a million reasons why I didn’t like it. But then I started watching my athletes get up off the floor. Nearly every one of them did a Turkish Get-up without even knowing it. I think it’s a skill we lose as we age. Have you ever seen an old person try to get up off the floor? It’s very difficult for them. I think it’s an exercise everyone needs to be doing.

• The trap-bar deadlift is probably the best lower-body exercise. I think it’s clearly the best bilateral exercise, since you’re engaging your erectors and your traps much more than in a squat.

• Programming is an art. You can’t just mix a whole bunch of stuff together and expect it to taste good. That’s called shit soup.

• Everyone who foam rolls gets hooked on it, and everyone who doesn’t thinks it’s stupid. Do me a favor and spend seven dollars and buy a 12-inch foam roller. It’ll change your whole life.

• And another thing: stretching doesn’t have to take that long. You don’t need to go to a yoga class. Just stretch your major muscle groups like your hamstrings, groin, hip flexors, lasts, and pecs.
Shouldn’t take more than ten minutes. When you realize later on that all the injuries you’re going to get are because certain muscles get too tight or get knocked out of alignment, you’ll thank me.

• After you stretch, do some kind of dynamic warm-up and mobility. I remember watching old-time Olympic lifters warm up before their training session, but I had no idea what the hell they were doing. They’d roll their wrists around, drop down into a deep squat and rock from side to side. Now I know they were doing mobility work.

• After all the warm-up stuff you have strength. My only major rule here is that for every pushing exercise you should have a pulling exercise. It’ll shorten your workouts and save your shoulders. Same thing for your lower body. For every quad-dominant exercise, make sure you’re doing a hip-dominant exercise. Throw in some Turkish Get-ups and you have a decent strength program.

• I end all my sessions with conditioning. TMUSCLE readers aren’t doing enough of it, either. If you’re comfortable, or are doing long, slow cardio you can pretty much conclude it’s a waste of time. Any young, fit guy should finish his conditioning and have to lie on the floor thinking, “God, that was awful.”

• People should think and investigate more. Anthony Robbins has always said that success leaves clues. I’m a big believer in that. Whether I like or don’t like someone, I’m going to watch what they’re doing if they’re succeeding. I’m willing to say when I’m wrong.

• I’m searching for the perfect training program, the Holy Grail if you will. I can’t just suddenly stop searching.

• I’ve been there and done that. But the important thing is I’m still doing it.

– Mike Boyle
Functional Strength Coach 4

To your success,

Kevin Neeld

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25 Years, 25 Mistakes from Mike Boyle

I’m finally getting caught up from an exciting couple of weeks with the US Women’s National Team at the IIHF World Championships in Burlington, VT. To say my time spent with the program was a learning process would be a drastic under-statement. Sometime in the near future I’ll write up a recap of my experience to share with you.

In the meantime, I want to do something a little different and share some outstanding content from the coach that I’ve learned more from than any other person in the industry. Mike Boyle has had a heavy influence on my philosophy as a coach and has been a major mentor for me over the last 5 years. Aside from the fact that Coach Boyle has been in the industry for longer than I’ve been alive, he’s spent the entire duration of his experience constantly pursuing new information and testing different training methods in the interest of building a superior program. In other words, he doesn’t just rest on his laurels and assume he has it figured out.

Me and Coach Boyle at Perform Better in Chicago

His ability to change his mind, also known as “learning”, has drawn a lot of criticism. Interestingly, this criticism almost always comes from younger coaches with less experience that, for some reason, believe they have unique insight into what is in the best interest of Boyle’s athletes. As you’ll read in a few days, there is a profound difference between being an internet or “theoretical” expert, and being a real-world results expert. Often times, situation-specific perspective is lost in the argument. Over the next few days, I want to share a few of my favorite articles that Coach Boyle has written over the last few years. Please post your comments below, as I imagine these topics may stir up some great discussions!

25 Years, 25 Mistakes by Mike Boyle (originally printed on TMUSCLE)

Click here for more information on the release of Mike Boyle’s new Functional Strength Coach 4!This year I’ll enter my twenty-fifth year as a strength and conditioning coach. Last month I watched Barbara Walters celebrate her thirtieth year with a special called “30 Mistakes in 30 Years.” I’m going to celebrate my twenty-fifth anniversary by telling you my top twenty-five mistakes. Hopefully I’ll save you some time, pain, and injury. Experience is a wonderful but impatient teacher. And unfortunately, our experiences in strength and conditioning sometimes hurt people besides us.Mistake #1: Knowing it all I love Oscar Wilde’s quote, “I’m much too old to know everything.” Omniscience is reserved for the young. As the old saying goes, you have one mouth and two ears for a reason. I’d take it a step further and say the ratio is four to one: two eyes, two ears, and one mouth.

To continue down the cliché road, how about this one: “It’s what you learn after you know it all that counts.” When I was young I had many answers and few questions. I knew the best way to do everything. Now that I’m older I’m not sure if I even know a good way to do anything.

Mistake #2: Not taking interns sooner

I was so smart that no one was smart enough to help me. (See mistake number one.) My productivity increased drastically when I began to take interns.

Note: Interns aren’t janitors, laundry workers, or slaves. They’re generally young people who look up to you and expect to learn. Take your responsibility seriously. Remember the golden rule.

Mistake #3: Not visiting other coaches

God, it seems everything goes back to number one! I was too busy running the perfect program to attempt to go learn from someone else. Plus, when you know it all, how much can you learn?

Find the good coaches or trainers in your area (or in any area you visit) and arrange to meet them or just watch them work. I often will just sit with a notebook and try to see what they do better than I do.

I can remember current San Francisco 49′ers strength and conditioning coach Johnny Parker allowing us to visit when he was with the New England Patriots and then asking us questions about what we saw and what we thought he could do better. Coach Parker is a humble man who always provided a great example of the type of coach and person I wanted to be.

Mistake #4: Putting square pegs in round holes

The bottom line is that not everyone is made to squat or to clean. I rarely squatted with my basketball players as many found squatting uncomfortable for their backs and knees.

It killed me to stop because the squat is a lift I fundamentally believed in, but athletes with long femurs will be poor squatters. It’s physics. It took me a while to realize that a good lift isn’t good for everybody.

Mistake #5: Not attending the United States Weightlifting Championships sooner

My only visit as a spectator to an Olympic lifting meet made me realize that Olympic lifts produced great athletes. I know this will piss off the powerlifters, but those Olympic lifters looked so much more athletic.

I remember being at the Senior’s when they were held in Massachusetts in the early eighties and walking away thinking, “This is what I want my athletes to look like.” Understand, at that time I was a competitive powerlifter and my programs reflected that.

Mistake #6: Being a strength coach

How can that be a mistake? Let’s look at the evolution of the job. When I started, I was often referred to as the “weight coach.” As the profession evolved, we became strength coaches, then strength and conditioning coaches, and today many refer to themselves as “performance enhancement specialists.”

All these names reflect the changes in our job. For too many years, I was a strength coach. Eventually I realized that I knew more about conditioning than the sport coaches did, so we took on that responsibility. Later, I realized that I often knew more about movement than the sport coaches too, so we began to teach movement skills. This process took close to eighteen of my twenty-five years. I wish it had been faster.

Mistake #7: Adding without subtracting

Over the years we’ve continued to add more and more CNS intensive training techniques to our arsenal. Squatting, Olympic lifting, sprinting, pulling sleds, and jumping all are (or can be) CNS intensive.

I think I do too much CNS intensive work, and intend to change that. My thanks go out to Jason Ferrugia for pointing out this one.

Mistake #8: Listening to track coaches

Please don’t get me wrong. Some of the people who were most influential in my professional development were track coaches. I learned volumes from guys like Don Chu, Vern Gambetta, Charlie Francis, and Brent McFarland.

However, it took me too long to realize that they coached people who ran upright almost all the time and never had to stop or to change direction. The old joke in track coaching is that it really comes down to “run fast and lean left.”

Mistake #9: Not meeting Mark Verstegen sooner

Mark may be the most misunderstood guy in our field. He’s a great coach and a better friend. About ten years ago a friend brought me a magazine article about Mark Verstegen. The article demonstrated some interesting drills that I’d never seen. I decided my next vacation would be to Florida’s Gulf Coast as Mark was then in Bradenton, Florida.

I was lucky enough to know Darryl Eto, a genius in his own right, who was a co-worker of Mark’s. In the small world category, Darryl’s college coach was the legendary Don Chu.

Darryl arranged for me to observe some training sessions in Bradenton. I sat fascinated for hours as I watched great young coaches work. Mark was one of the first to break out of the track mold we were all stuck in and teach lateral and multi-directional movement with the same skill that the track coaches taught linear movement. This process was a quantum leap for me and became a quantum leap for my athletes.

This was my step from strength and conditioning coach to performance enhancement specialist (although I never refer to myself as the latter). The key to this process was accepting the fact that Mark and his co-workers were far ahead of me in this critical area.

Mistake #10: Copying plyometric programs

This goes back to the track coach thing. I believe I injured a few athletes in my career by simply taking what I was told and attempting to do it with my athletes. I’ve since learned to filter information better, but the way I learned was through trial and error… and the error probably resulted in sore knees or sore backs for my athletes.

Track jumpers are unique and clearly are involved in track and field because they’re suited for it. What’s good for a long jumper is probably not good for a football lineman. It took me too long to realize this.

Mistake #11: Copying any programs

Luckily for me, I rarely copied strength programs when training my athletes. This mistake might be beyond the statute of limitations as it was more than twenty-five years ago.

I think copying the training programs of great powerlifters like George Frenn and Roger Estep left me with the sore back and bad shoulders I’ve carried around for the last twenty-five years. What works for the genetically gifted probably won’t work for the genetically average.

Mistake #12: Not teaching my athletes to snatch sooner

We’ve done snatches for probably the last seven or eight years. The snatch is a great lift that’s easier to learn than the clean and has greater athletic carryover. Take the time to try it and study it. You’ll thank me.

Mistake #13: Starting to teach snatches with a snatch grip

When I realized that snatches would be a great lift for my athletes I began to implement them into my programs. Within a week some athletes complained of shoulder pain. In two weeks, so many complained that I took snatches out of the program. It wasn’t until I revisited the snatch with a clean grip that I truly began to see the benefits.

Just remember, the only reason Olympic lifters use a wide snatch grip is so that they can reduce the distance the bar travels and as a result lift more weight. Close-grip snatches markedly decrease the external rotation component and also increase the distance traveled. The result is a better lift, but less weight.

Mistake #14: Confusing disagree with dislike

I think it’s great to disagree. The field would be boring if we all agreed. What I realize now is that I’ve met very few people in this field I don’t like and many I disagree with. I probably enjoy life more now that I don’t feel compelled to ignore those who don’t agree with me.

Mistake #15: Confusing reading with believing

This concept came to me by way of strength coach Martin Rooney. It’s great to read. We just need to remember that in spite of the best efforts of editors, what we read may not always be true.

If the book is more than two years old, there’s a good chance even the author no longer agrees with all the information in it. Read often, but read analytically.

Mistake #16: Listening to paid experts

Early on, many of us were duped by the people from companies like Cybex or Nautilus. Their experts proclaimed their systems to be the future, but now the cam and isokinetics are the past. Just as in any other field, people will say things for money.

Mistake #17: Not attending one seminar per year just as a participant

I speak approximately twenty times a year. Most times I stay and listen to the other speakers. If you don’t do continuing education, start. If you work in the continuing education field, go to at least one seminar given by an expert in your field as a participant.

(Note: Mistakes 18-25 are more personal than professional, but keep reading!)

Mistake #18: Not taking enough vacation time

When I first worked at Boston University we were allowed two weeks paid vacation. For the first ten years I never took more than one.

Usually I took off the week between Christmas and New Years. This is an expensive week to vacation, but it meant that I’d miss the least number of workouts since most of my athletes were home at this time. I think the first time I took a week off in the summer was about four years ago. My rationale? Summer is peak training time. Can’t miss one of those weeks.

I think there’s a thin line between dedication and stupidity, and I often crossed it. I think in my early years I was more disappointed that the whole program hadn’t collapsed during any of my brief absences. I felt less valuable when I returned from a seminar and realized that everything had gone great.

Stephen Covey refers to it as “sharpening the saw.” Take the time to vacation. You’ll be better for it.

Mistake #19: Neglecting your own health

This is an embarrassing story, but this article is all about helping others to not repeat my errors. Every year in February I’d find myself in the doctor’s office with a different complaint: gastro-intestinal problems, headaches, flu-type illnesses, etc. I had a wonderful general practitioner who took a great interest in his patients. His response year after year was the same: slow down. You can’t work 60-80 hours a week and be healthy.

Like a fool I yessed him to death and went back to my schedule. After about the fifth year of this process my doctor said, “I need to refer you to a specialist who can help you with this problem” and he handed me a card. I was expecting an allergist or perhaps some type of holistic stress expert. Instead I found myself holding a card for a psychiatrist.

My doctor’s response was simple. I can’t help you. You need to figure out why you continue to do this to yourself year in and year out. I went outside and called my wife. I told her it was a “good news-bad news” scenario. I wasn’t seriously ill, but I might be crazy. Unfortunately, she already knew this.

Mistake #20: Not recognizing stress

Again I remember talking to a nurse who was treating me for a gastrointestinal problem. I seemed to have chronic heartburn. Her first question was, “Are you under any stress?” My response was the usual. Me? Stress? I have the greatest job in the world. I love going to work every day!

Do you know what her response was? She said, “Remember, stress isn’t always negative.” It was the first time I’d really thought about that. My job was stressful. Long days, weekend travel, too many late nights celebrating victories or drowning sorrows. A part-time job to make extra money meant working at a bar on Friday and Saturday until 2 AM, and that was often followed by drinks until 4 AM.

Sounds like fun, but it added up to stress. The lesson: stress doesn’t have to be negative. Stress can just be from volume.

Mistake #21: Not having kids sooner

As a typical type-A asshole know-it-all, I was way too busy to be bothered with kids. They would simply be little people who got in the way of my plans to change the world of strength and conditioning. I regret that I probably won’t live to 100. If I did I’d get to spend another 53 years with my kids.

Mistake #22: Neglecting my wife

See above. It wasn’t until I had children that I truly realized how my obsession with work caused me to neglect my wife. I have often apologized to her, but probably not often enough.

Mistake #23: Not taking naps

Do you see the pattern here? Whether we’re personal trainers or strength and conditioning coaches, the badge of honor is often lack of sleep. How often have you heard someone say, “I only need five hours a night!”

In the last few years I’ve tried to take a nap every day I’m able. As we age we sleep less at night and get up earlier. I’m not sure if this is a good thing. I know when I’m well-rested I’m a better husband and father than when I’m exhausted at the end of a day that might have begun at 4:45 AM.

There’s no shame in sleep, although I think many would try to make us believe there is.

Mistake #24: Not giving enough to charity

Most of us are lucky. Try to think of those who have less than you. I’m not a religious person, but I’ve been blessed with a great life. I try every day to “pay it forward.” If you haven’t seen the movie, rent it. The more you give, the more you get.

Mistake #25: Reading an article like this and thinking it doesn’t apply to you

Trust me, denial is our biggest problem.

To your success,

Kevin Neeld

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Body By Boyle Online in the Palm of Your Hands

On Tuesday, I mentioned that Eric Cressey posted a video of a staff in-service of him outlining his lower body assessments. A lot of the lower body assessments we incorporate with our athletes at Endeavor I learned directly or indirectly (through resources he recommended) from Eric, so it was great to get a current look at what he’s doing. I definitely picked up a couple ideas that we’ll be using in the future. If you missed that post, check it out here: Elite Training Mentorship. Alternatively, if you don’t care about the post at all, and just want to watch Eric’s video, go here: Elite Training Mentorship

They’ll be releasing another video in the near future so make sure you head over to the site now so you don’t miss it!

Body By Boyle Online

Over the last year, I’ve mentioned on several occasions how great of a resource I thought BodyByBoyleOnline was. For those of you that don’t know, Mike Boyle’s private facility Mike Boyle Strength and Conditioning (MBSC) in Woburn, MA was voted as the #1 Gym in America by Men’s Health. Since that time, Mike was appointed as the Strength and Conditioning Coordinator for the Boston Red Sox, another feather in his cap after training a gold medal winning team in the U.S. Women’s Ice Hockey Team (’98), working in the NHL with the Boston Bruins, and being credited with creating the first true “NFL Combine Training” success story in Mike Mamula. This is on top of the professional athletes and celebrities that he’s trained over the years in his private facility. In short, he knows his stuff.

The Ultimate Online Strength and Conditioning Educational Resource

What makes BodyByBoyleOnline so valuable is that it’s essentially an inside look at how Mike runs his facility. They post all their staff meetings, guest speakers, and a ton of other valuable content. In fact, they now have over 100 hours of video content on topics such as strength and conditioning, assessments, speed training, rehab, kettlebell training, sandbag training, a talk on the thoracic spine, mobility with bands, rotary training, the FMS, and much more. While a lot of the content comes from Mike directly, some of it also comes from guest speakers such as SueFalsone (Athletes Performance/LA Dodgers), Charlie Weingroff, Dan John, Kelly Starret (MobiliyWod), Nick Tumminello, Negar Fonooni, Joe Sansalone, Charles Staley, and more! In other words, it’s a great resource for fitness enthusiasts, strength coaches, personal trainers, athletic trainers, and physical therapists.

The only thing that could really make it a more valuable resource is if they made it more accessible via smartphones, tablets, etc. And, I’m happy to report, they did exactly that. I got an email from Kevin Larrabee who does a lot of the behind the scenes work for the site and he told me that the site now offers iOS support…which basically meant nothing to me. But he went on to explain that iOS support means the videos can now be accessed and watched on your iPhone, iPad, and iPod
Touch. This makes the information much more easily accessed, especially for those that travel a lot and can’t always get internet access through their computer. I’m excited about the change, as I know the content is top notch, so making it “portable device” compatible will surely make it more accessible to everyone and therefore get quality information out to more people. And I spent a full work week in airports last year with no internet access, so it’d be great to have access to something like this! If you’re interested, check out this link for more information: BodyByBoyleOnline.

To your success,

Kevin Neeld

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Hockey Strength and Conditioning Update

This is the first Hockey Strength and Conditioning update of 2011! As I mentioned in a previous post (2011 Hockey Strength and Conditioning), we have a few exciting things in store for our members this year. If you didn’t read about it yet, click the link above to check it out. The overall intention was to expand our content to provide more information that youth coaches and parents could use. If you weren’t sure if the site was right for you last year, it will be in 2011!

There’s been some great stuff over the last couple weeks:

My Road to the Top from Michael Boyle
Hopefully you’ve read this already, but this is a must-read for aspiring strength and conditioning professionals. As I’ve mentioned in previous posts, the underlying theme of Coach Boyle’s article really applies to anyone that aspiring to do anything. This hit home for me.

In-Season Core Training-Phase 3 from Sean Skahan
This is the third phase of Sean’s in-season core training program for the Ducks. It’s a great mini-circuit that would hit all the major movement patterns in a short amount of time. For youth coaches, this progression is something you could pull off the site and start using immediately. As long as your athletes demonstrate proficiency with the movements, it’s okay to progress to the next phase.

Video of the Week: 1-Leg DB Row from Darryl Nelson
Darryl shows a variation to a traditional 1-arm db row and provides some coaching cues to correct some common errors that the athlete in the video is demonstrating. It’s always interesting to see what other coaches look for while their athletes are lifting.

Table Stretching from Mike Potenza
Four partner-assisted stretches to loosen up the hips. Mike walks you step-by-step on how to perform the four stretches, what compensations to look for, and how to position your body to ensure the athlete is moving in the right places. I may just be lazier than Mike, but if I was working with older athletes that were mature enough to get it, I’d teach the team how to do this so I didn’t have to stretch everyone out personally. It’s all situation specific though.

By the weekend we’ll be posting an article I wrote on “Dissecting the 1-Leg Squat” (which dives into why I’ve abandoned the pistol variation altogether and exactly how I think the exercise should be performed to get the most bang for your buck) and a youth team dynamic warm-up with videos. This dynamic warm-up is the first part of our “youth training programs” addition to the site. In my opinion, establishing a dynamic warm-up should be the first priority of youth coaches because it’s something that can be done before EVERY practice and game. This warm-up is exactly what we use at Endeavor with all of our youth hockey teams and I’ve included videos of all the exercises so people unfamiliar with the names will know how to do them. Any questions, just hit up the forum.

Which leads me to…

The forum activity has been outstanding over the last week. Kevin Schaeffer asked a great question on how to improve sleep quality, especially for teams that are traveling a lot. Interesting responses there. Sean started a thread on the controversial topic of whether VO2 max testing is worthwhile for hockey players, and I added a video I stole from my friend Maria Mountain that redefines how we think of “strong.” The Hockey Strength and Conditioning forum is starting to turn me into one of those guys that just lurks around the internet all day waiting for an exciting update.

This guy knows what I’m talking about

If you aren’t a member, go check out what you’ve been missing by clicking the link below. If you are a member, go check out all the content I mentioned above and hop on the forums to comment on the threads!

Click Here for the best in Hockey Strength and Conditioning

To your continued success,

Kevin Neeld

P.S. Remember, it’s only $1 to try HockeyStrengthandConditioning.com for the first week. You will never find more hockey training content anywhere for $1, and it’s only getting better.

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