Articles

Strength Training for Throwers

Bill Starr | January 28, 2010

"Throwers were some of the very first competitive athletes, other than Olympic weightlifters, to make strength a prime consideration in their overall training. In the fifties and early sixties when sports coaches were constantly telling their athletes to stay away from any form of weight training, throwers were doing just the opposite. Parry O’Brien, Bill Neider, Dallas Long, and Randy Matson were extremely strong and they ruled the sport."

Active Hip 2.0: The Directors’ Cut

Mark Rippetoe and stef bradford, PhD, SSC | January 09, 2010

"...active hip is best understood as the use of an actively locked lumbar extension and actively shoved-out knees, which results in a below-parallel squat that incorporates a stretch reflex using all the muscles of the posterior chain in the most optimal way possible. The active hip gets the thighs out of the way of the pelvis so good depth can be more easily obtained. At the same time it makes the squat stronger because of the now-active use of the external rotators holding the femurs out so that both external rotators and adductors can contribute to hip extension. This produces a more effective use of more muscles over a wider range of motion."

The Novice Effect

Mark Rippetoe | January 04, 2010

"We have a member here at WFAC who gained 55 pounds in 11 weeks. I shit you not. Zach Evetts started with us here in late August of 2009 and by November 12 when I weighed him and measured his bodyfat he had gained a total of 55 pounds of bodyweight and a little over 31 pounds of lean body mass (LBM). This calculates to a LBM gain of 2.84 pounds per week, approximately the rate of growth seen in young farm animals. Little baby pigs grow about this fast, and lots of people make money by raising baby pigs."

Keeping Strength in the Strength Program

Bill Starr | December 23, 2009

"I know of only a few truisms, one being if your parents didn’t have children, you won’t have children. Another is, whenever you make a strength program easier, you will get weaker."