Seldom-Used Workouts for Renewed Gains in Size and Strength I’m often surprised by some of my articles and essays that prove rather popular here on the blog. The opposite is true, as well. I’ll write an article that I’m absolutely positive will be a crowd-pleaser, only to discover that it never gets many views. Recently, for example, I was startled, but also nicely delighted, that my article Odd Training Splits and Ideas (That Work) has become one of my more popular posts written in the last couple months. I think it’s a pretty good read—it’s also one that I enjoyed writing—so I’m glad for its reception. Since it did have such a positive response, I thought I’d shine a light on a similar theme, but instead of odd training splits , this one will look at some unique training routines and workouts. These programs are great for building size and strength, and are only “odd” because they’re not the kind of routines used by t...
In Autumn When the Leaves Fall, the Sandbag is Carried, and the Thick Bars are Taken Outside With fall upon us—though it doesn’t feel particularly fall-like here in west-central Alabama, where I live on a few acres down a little-traveled gravel road—I thought I’d return to an essay that I wrote three years ago, and originally titled “Outdoor Lifting in the Fall.” Initially, I thought I’d just repost it as a “Thursday Throwback” piece, since I haven’t posted one of those in quite some time. As I was reading over it, however, I realized that it could be fleshed out even more, so I’ve added additional, brand-new workouts, and I combined the original article with another fall training essay on outdoor training challenges that I wrote a couple years ago, about a year after the first one. Perhaps it will give you some ideas for your autumn training… “What should be sad in the falling of spent leaves, of leav...