Michael Boyle's Strengthcoach.com Blog

I’m spending a week at the lovely Arizona Grand Hotel just outside Phoenix. What a week. Visited EXOS, met Stuart McMillan and a bunch of the Altis guys, and got to have a nice dinner with Mark and Amy Verstegen.

All this on top of getting to spend a week in the sun and at the pool with my wife and kids.

But, what does this have to do with mobility and strength? Good question.

In 2011 I filmed Functional Strength Coach 4 at the Arizona Grand and met Mike Baltren and Max Shank.  Mike and Max had just founded Ambition Athletics in Encinitas, Ca. and came out for the seminar.

I actually knew Max from this Youtube clip. He and Ben Bruno are the two strongest guys I have ever seen pound for pound.

So, when a guy like Max says this:

Like many, I used to believe that mobility work was a waste of time, and even once bought into the nonsense that doing mobility training would make me weaker.

I am here to tell you that I was WRONG. Dead wrong. Wrongity, wrong, wrong.

Not only did ignoring mobility training leave me battered and torn up, I started to actually get weaker. My lifts went down, and the number of exercises I could do pain-free also went down. I was at least smart enough to not do exercises that hurt me, but I was losing options–FAST.

Well, I listened. Max has done a great job with his Five Minute Flow series and How Mobility Made me Stronger.

I love when guys realize that it’s not just about how much weight you lift. Yes, we were all young and invincible once but, trust me, it doesn’t last forever. Mileage adds up. Let Max help you slow down the mileage.

To check out How Mobility Made Me Stronger, click here.

I wrote this a few years ago for StrengthCoach.com

Build Bigger Legs, One Leg At a Time

Over the years for a variety of reasons, I’ve advocated for more single leg training. I summed up my “whys” in this article for T-Nation back in 2007. In the simplest sense, single-leg training results in less back stress due to the reduced loads used. And, although the phrase “functional training” is overused, single-leg training meets my definition of functional training,  the application of functional anatomy to training. You do almost everything in sports from a split stance, or by pushing off one leg from a parallel stance, so it just makes sense to train your body that way.
Since I’ve already made that argument about single-leg training, there’s no need to rehash it here. Instead, I want to present an entirely new question: What if you could actually get more stress to your legs, build more useable strength, and potentially add more size by working around your back, which is often the weak link in bilateral exercises like squats?
This is what bodybuilders have been doing for decades. By bracing your back in the leg press, you can hit your leg extensors — your quads — with far more load. That’s because the load doesn’t have to be transferred through your back to get to your legs.
Now, before you think I’ve done a 180 and come to love the leg press, let me assure you that my opinion hasn’t changed. Yes, the machine allows bodybuilders to pile on the plates, but we now know that the back pays a price. It’s just a different price than the one lifters pay for using heavy loads in the squat. Instead of compressing the spine, the leg press causes a rounding of the back, which over time might create more damage.

Safety isn’t the only reason to avoid the leg press. The exercise has evolved into a kind of a circus act, done with the help of knee wraps, hands on thighs, and abysmal ranges of motion. Did you ever see that video of Pat Robertson, the 74-year-old televangelist, leg-pressing 2,000 pounds? If you took the exercise seriously before, that video surely curbed your enthusiasm.
All that said, when the goal is to build bigger, stronger legs, I still think it’s a good idea to target those muscles without having to place heavy loads on the spine. We just need to find a better way to do it.

To finish reading, click here

This is a great read that will really get you thinking. As a matter of fact, its going to be our next staff book club read.

Here’s a few nuggets from the book:

“ researchers at the California Institute of Technology have estimated that the recent sevenfold to eightfold increase in rates of autoimmune disorders such as Crohn’s Disease, type 1 diabetes, and multiple sclerosis is directly related to the lack of beneficial microbes in our gut”  p 49

“ according to the Environmental Working Group women use an average of 12 personal care products daily, men six…. Just using these personal care products women are exposed to a daily average of 168 chemical ingredients, and men to 85” p 125

Read Eat Dirt

If you are a soccer person, I recently recorded the Just Kickin It podcast with Josh Faga.

We talk about fitness, monitoring, using the ball in speed work and lots of other stuff.

Soundcloud – https://soundcloud.com/just-kickin-it-pod/episode-89-mike-boyle

iTunes – https://t.co/1AsBLmWEbn

Website – https://justkickinitpod.com/2017/04/03/episode-89-mike-boyle/

Twitter – https://twitter.com/JustKickinItPod/status/848905040861515776

It’s been years since we had soda in our house. It was initially tough to do. I was raised on Pepsi. My dad’s summer job when we were kids was driving a Pepsi truck and making deliveries. However the evidence continues to mount that soda is bad for you and, that the companies know it. Give this a read.

Coca Cola Caught Undermining Public Health Initiatives

We just got done reading Most Likely to Succeed as a staff and, I have to tell you that it was my favorite book of the year. I find myself talking about the concepts every chance I get.

Here’s just a few samples of quotes from a book that will make you rethink everything you thought you knew about education.

“in todays world there is no longer a competitive advantage to knowing more than the person next to you because knowledge has become a commodity available to all at the swipe of a finger” p 20

“ Imagine if we relied on our schools to teach kids how to ride bikes. Teachers would lecture and assign reading from bicycle textbooks. Students would stay up late memorizing the various components of a bike. They would be marked down on tests- and lose self confidence for failing to spell derailleur. Some students would excel. Others would struggle. None would ever ride a bike”  p28

Give Most Likely to Succeed a read.

July 27th-30th will be a @bodybyboyle heavy weekend in Chicago for the @perform_betterSummit!

• Thursday, July 27th: CFSC Level 1 for The Summit Pre-conference

     • Friday, July 28th: @michael_boyle1959 is speaking about “Training The Client with Pain”

     • Saturday, July 29th: @kev_in_carr is speaking about “Movement As Medicine: Prescribing The Worlds Strongest Medicine”

     • Sunday, July 30th Brendon Rearick (@collectmomentsnotthingz) is speaking about “Building an Adaptable Training Model”

Level 1 CFSC USA:
– April 1st – Elkridge, MD (Route 1 Athletics)
– April 8th – New York City (Crunch Fitness)
– May 6th – Chicago, IL (WATTAGE PT)
– May 20th – Philadelphia, PA (Drexel University)
– July 15th –New York City (Drive 495)

Level 1 CFSC International:
– May 13th – Belfast, Ireland (Total Performance Fitness)

Level 2 Events:
– May 14th – Belfast, Ireland (Total Performance Fitness)
– July 16th – Newhall, CA (Results Fitness)

Or join us on the Thursday before all four Perform Better Summits for a CFSC Level-1 event:
– Orlando June 1st
– Rhode Island  June 22nd
– Chicago July 27th
– Long Beach Aug 24th

These are nothing short of amazing. Take a look.

Would you like to see what people all around the country are doing at their facility but, don’t have the time or the budget? Let StrengthCoach TV take you there.

Want to talk about what you saw? Check out Strengthcoach.com and be part of the conversation

I love to hear it when someone describes themselves as a “Boyle guy”. In 2012 Kevin Neeld wrote one of the most flattering pieces anyone has ever written about me:

What It Means to Be a Boyle Guy

I didn’t link to this so you can realize what a great guy I am, I’m linking to it as a reminder that if you are or ever have been a Boyle guy than you owe it to yourself to not only keep learning but, to keep helping others.

On my Strengthcoach.com site I can actually see the names of the people that are on the site at any given time on the bottom of my screen. I love when an old interns name pops up.

I’ll be honest, Strengthcoach.com is the place where “Boyle guys” can and should hang out. The opportunity to learn from each other and, to help one another is there for all of us every day.

If you really are a Boyle guy, you owe it to the next young kid to be on the site sharing your experiences.

That’s what we do. We help each other with no expectation of anything in return. The return is the respect you gain from your peers when you give of your time freely, even though we all know time is limited.