I’ve seen some valid criticisms of the notion of “functional strength” or even “functional fitness”. After all, strength is itself functional, however it is developed. The “functional strength” crowd doesn’t have a monopoly on whole body or compound exercises. These are used across the strength disciplines by powerlifters, bodybuilders, martial artists and so on. I [...]

I came across this interesting tool on the Crossfit Seattle website: a programme of athletic skill levels. It covers four levels from well-rounded beginner through intermediate, advanced and finally elite. The programme lists, by type of strength or conditioning, an appropriate benchmark for each of the four levels What makes this ranking different from the [...]

You know what I mean, those things that make your family and friends roll their eyes, the things that cause other people to shake their heads and almost pity your obsession! What lengths do you go to in order to make sure you get your training session in, or you have access to the right [...]

I’d love to have a gym of my own one day. I don’t like training by myself all the time, so even if I had a home gym I’d have to invite people round to use it. There are many aspects of a gym that affect the training experience. There is the space, equipment, décor, [...]

Commenting on a fellow trainee’s form seems to be the ultimate no-no in today’s fitness clubs. Recently I’ve seen some poor deadlifting form in my gym. Basic stuff: rounding of the lower back, hyper-extending at the top of the lift, that kind of thing. But gym etiquette dictates that you can’t say anything to people [...]

You will often hear or read people debating the merits of training with free weights or machines. Most people seem to fall into one camp or the other. A lot of it comes down to individual circumstances: the purpose of one’s training, a bad experience with one method, or simply a personal preference. I am [...]

Mine do! I was thinking about this today as I was on my way to the gym to make another attempt on Ross Training’s 100 burpee challenge (that’s burpees with press-ups, of course). I know that it’s going to hurt, I know that it’s going to make me feel nauseous and I know that it’s [...]

This post was inspired by a conversation on another site about how much stuff people have to carry around with them in the gym. I flout all modern gym health & safety rules by taking my little rucksack around with me – there’s no way I’m going to carry this stuff around individually. There’s a [...]