Michael Boyle's Strengthcoach.com Blog

Every week when I put together my compilation of Good Reads for the Week, I have a section at the bottom of the list entitled “Membership Sites.” Thinking about it more, I realize that title may put some people off because a membership implies spending money, and why spend money when you can get loads of other free information, right? Trust me, I completely understand this sentiment. As a new strength coach right out of school, to say I am not rolling in the dough would be an understatement. Still though, I want to learn as much as I can in order to become the best coach I can be and turn my hard work into a viable career down the road. Here’s the problem though; learning ain’t cheap. As much as I would love to attend all the various seminars and buy all the awesome DVDs and books, it’s just not in the cards right now. I’m sure a lot of you newer coaches and trainers can relate.

Before I ramble too far off topic, the purpose of this post is to tell you a little bit more about www.strengthcoach.com, which is the website where I get the vast majority of those “Membership” articles. Basically, it’s a forum run my Mike Boyle himself, along with an extensive article database and video library. I don’t want to spend too much time describing it because the site speaks for itself; check it out HERE.

The articles and videos are cool, but for me, the forum is what really makes the site worthwhile and differentiates it from all the other stuff out there. While Mike runs the site, it’s by no means a one-man show. In fact, the membership list reads like a veritable “Who’s Who” of strength and conditioning, personal training, and physical therapy: Mike Boyle, Alwyn Cosgrove, Bill Hartman, Gray Cook, Charlie Weingroff, Bret Contreras, Nick Tumminello, Dan John, Brett Jones…the list goes on and on. And these guys are not only members to put on the list to make it look better; they are also frequent contributors. This means that on a daily basis, you can read their knowledge bombs on all sorts of different topics. Moreover, if you are so inclined, you can ask them direct questions, to which you will get personalized and direct answers in a timely manner (usually a few hours, literally). If these guys don’t have your answer, they will find someone that does.

Here are a few examples to illustrate what I’m talking about. A couple months back, a member had a question about something he read in one of Dan John’s articles. Rather than try to interpret Dan’s work for him, Mike e-mailed Dan and asked him to jump in and answer the question directly. Dan gave an extremely detailed response and has been answering questions ever since. Similarly, another member once had a question about how the football strength and conditioning program at Iowa was structured. Again, Mike e-mailed the coach there and was given the exact layout of the program, which he then passed along to all the members. This all happened in the span of one afternoon. Think about that for a second. That almost sounds too far-fetched to be true. It’s not though; that’s pretty much a regular day on the forum. All that costs just $9.95 a month. In my mind, for someone new to the field trying to get the most bang for your buck, that’s money well spent. Also, because it’s a pay site, the members are all serious and passionate about learning, so you don’t have a lot of the negative banter that you might associate with an internet forum. It’s a positive community with everyone looking to help each other. There are a lot of coaches and trainers looking to expand their knowledge base, but also quite a few everyday exercisers that just want the most cutting edge information on training, dealing with injuries, etc. There’s something for everyone.

If you want to take it a step further, I also recommend that you check outwww.strengthandconditioningwebinars.com. Like the website name suggests, it is a series of online seminars put together by all the top coaches, trainers, and physical therapists in the industry (many of whom are also members on strengthcoach.com. I was honestly a little bit skeptical when I first joined because I have taken several online courses before that I felt lacked the same quality of live courses. These webinars, however, are top notch. They are put together with a series of slides, must like you would expect to see if you went to a live seminar. The slides are automatically synched up with the presenter’s words, so you don’t have to do anything expect just sit there and learn. To give you an example, I just watched one from Ben Shear called “New Concepts in Rotary Stability and Training the Rotational Athlete.” It was over an hour and was top-quality. They are all like this, and there are at least 2-3 new webinars coming out each month. Again, the site speaks for itself, so I suggest you check it out HERE.

It may sound hollow for me to be endorsing two sites operated by Mike Boyle considering I work for him. I hope this is not the case. I can assure you that I do not have any vested interest in whether you subscribe or not. I am not even an affiliate for either site. In fact, in full disclosure, the employees at MBSC get free memberships at both sites, but I actually pay for my membership at strengthcoach.com. I signed up a month before I started working there and paid for the entire year up front, so I missed out on that perk on my job. I have never considered asking for my money back because I already feel like I have gotten my money’s worth ten times over