Recommendation · BodyThe host advises tucking the elbows in closer and dropping them at a 45-degree angle to the sides, which feels much better and takes stress off the bicep tendon. Flaring the elbows out causes more internal rotation at the bottom, lets the bar drift forward, and aggravates the bicep tendon. Going extra wide in grip prevents pinching the shoulder blades back, which is needed for a proper bench press; going more narrow lets the shoulder blades pinch back more, allows the arms to drop back, and keeps them there when pressing. Leading with the shoulders loses scapular retraction and sets off a cascade of issues.
ATHLEAN-X™ · 7 Exercises That Are Making Your Shoulder WORSE
Recommendation · BodyThe host advises getting away from a wide grip on the bar when overhead pressing, because a wide position causes the elbows to drift out to the side and out of the scapular plane. The scapular plane is oriented forward, not out to the side, so the arms should sit slightly in front of the body. Narrowing the hand positioning brings the elbows more in front of the body, adds a little more tricep contribution, and helps you get overhead in a much more free and mobile position. With dumbbells, don't flare the elbows out to the side; bring them in to around 45 degrees and press from there. Since shoulder problems are sometimes structural and sometimes just a lack of stability rather than a torn element, press one dumbbell at a time to create a stacked joint in the shoulder for more stability:
ATHLEAN-X™ · 7 Exercises That Are Making Your Shoulder WORSE
Recommendation · BodyPush single leg squats heavy to transfer strength to speed. Use the Garage Strength single leg squat roller for heavy single leg squats. Use velocity-based training, pushing the weight as high as possible without going below 0.45 to 0.5 meters per second on average (not peak average). Athletes can push loads upwards of 400 pounds using this method.
Garage Strength · The "Single" Best Lift Every Athlete Should Do!
Recommendation · BodyJeff Cavaliere recommends finding exercises that adduct the arm across the chest to train the chest to become more active. This includes floor flies with dumbbells (if no cable machine) and cable bench press (if available). He notes that floor flies avoid the shoulder vulnerability of unsupported bench flies.
ATHLEAN-X™ · You Hate Your Saggy Chest (HERE'S HOW TO FIX IT!)
Creator perspective · BodyFor a baseball pitcher, the arm is a whip — many big leaguers are super skinny, with force coming through the hand and shoulder. From an arm care point of view, a key priority is good mobility: assess T-spine mobility, the ability to separate (dissociate) shoulders and hips, and shoulder external/internal rotation control. The elbow will be taxed in some way regardless.
her coaching framework
Garage Strength · How The Best Pro Baseball Players Actually Train w/ MLB Strength Coach Stephanie Grubbs
Creator perspective · BodyGrubbs outlines a pyramid for hitters: first assess a good foundation of strength through the lower body, posterior shoulder, or lat to stabilize, plus the ability to contract and relax. Develop rate of force development through plyos and jumps on top of that foundation. Once strength and fast contraction are established, the hitter can contract fast to do their job, and you can get creative with transfer of training — the 'sexy stuff' like rotational med ball throws.
her coaching model
Garage Strength · How The Best Pro Baseball Players Actually Train w/ MLB Strength Coach Stephanie Grubbs
Principle · BodyDr. Andy Galpin states that to succeed at hypertrophy you only need to make sure the training is hard enough, and that as long as one of the three variables — frequency, intensity, or volume — is high, you will achieve hypertrophy. The only wrong combination is infrequent training combined with low intensity and low volume. This makes crafting a hypertrophy program fairly simple: you just have to make sure you do the work.
Andrew Huberman · Essentials: Optimal Protocols to Build Strength & Grow Muscles | Dr. Andy Galpin
Principle · BodyDr. Andy Galpin explains that your goal (hypertrophy vs strength) determines how you manage disrupted workouts — what he calls chaos management — and that 10% to 50% of your workouts will be chaos management situations (short time, hotel, not feeling it). For hypertrophy when short on time: lower the load, lower the rest intervals, and just get to the burn and get going as much as you can to hit total volume. For strength when short on time: cut your volume in half, get the few repetitions done at high load, and just don't do very many sets that day. He gives the example of a plan that normally takes 60 minutes when you only have 35 minutes available.
Andrew Huberman · Essentials: Optimal Protocols to Build Strength & Grow Muscles | Dr. Andy Galpin
Report · BodyDr. Andy Galpin lays out weekly working-set volume targets per muscle group: the minimum is 10 working sets per week; a more realistic number for most people, especially intermediate or advanced, is 15 to 20; very well-trained individuals should push toward around 25. He notes that past 25 working sets per week there is not a lot of research. He illustrates how easy the minimum is: three sets of 10 done three days a week gets you to nine working sets — almost 10 — and going to the gym one day a week doing three sets of 10 across three exercises also yields nine. Hitting 10 sets per week per muscle group is fairly easy (not even counting indirect activation of secondary muscles), and hitting 20 is actually still not that hard.
Andrew Huberman · Essentials: Optimal Protocols to Build Strength & Grow Muscles | Dr. Andy Galpin
Principle · BodyDr. Andy Galpin explains that if you're not seeing adaptations despite adequate volume, the repetitions in your sets may not be hard enough. A set of 25 that only starts getting hard at the end is not enough stimulus — and neither is a set of five or six that feels the same way. When sets aren't challenging enough, the rep range itself doesn't matter; the effort within the set is the issue. Rep range doesn't matter if you're not getting somewhat close to failure, though sets don't need to go to complete failure.
Andrew Huberman · Essentials: Optimal Protocols to Build Strength & Grow Muscles | Dr. Andy Galpin
Report · BodyDr. Cleather's most critical principle when teaching someone to lift is to take their brain out of it. He uses a 'ready, jump' cue where beginners move on the coach's command, manipulating space and time so the lifter cannot overthink.
Garage Strength · Why Most People Train Explosiveness Wrong w/ Exercise Scientist Dr. Dan Cleather
Report · BodyJake Tuura describes Seth O'Neill's research standard: a single-leg seated calf raise performed in a decent level of dorsiflexion, with a cutoff of two times body weight — producing two times your body weight with a single leg in a seated position. Per O'Neill's idea, if you hit that standard, you're pretty good. Track and field sprinters and jumpers find two times body weight easy and produce far more, while other team sport athletes not granularly performance-oriented probably won't have as good a number.
The standard is attributed to Seth O'Neill's research; athlete comparisons are the guest's descriptions.
Garage Strength · How To Make Weak Tendons Strong w/ Tendon Expert Jake Tuura
Report · BodyJake Tuura describes the Berlin protocol, which has only been done specifically on the Achilles tendon with a straight leg, and measured changes in Achilles tendon stiffness. It was performed four times per week, taking about 10 to 12 minutes per session. You push for three seconds as hard as you possibly can at a mid-range position or a little bit of dorsiflexion, then switch and do the other leg for three seconds, alternating legs. It's four repetitions per set, followed by a two-minute rest, repeated for five rounds — almost like clusters, a really specific set-rep scheme that can be looked up by searching 'Berlin method'.
Frequency and duration are the guest's recollections ('I think it was four times a week').
Garage Strength · How To Make Weak Tendons Strong w/ Tendon Expert Jake Tuura
Principle · BodyThe more advanced a lifter is and the more compound the lift, the closer to failure they need to train to recruit all fibers; advanced lifters should probably train within three to five reps from failure, and as a rule of thumb within one to two reps from failure, especially when compensating with more volume or heavy loads. Isolation exercises allow more reps in reserve (leg extension vs. leg press, pec fly vs. bench press).
medium
Garage Strength · How To 2x Muscle Growth In Half The Time w/ Muscle Expert Borge Fagerli
Principle · BodyWhen 12 or more weeks out from football season, work in the 82 to 95% intensity range for almost all training. Once inside the 12-week zone, work up to 90 to 95% intensity only once a week. If strength is maintained through the season based on speeds and percentages at around 90 percent of speed work, the athlete maintains that strength. Once outside the football season, rebuild and get ready for the next season.
Garage Strength · Why Everyone Should Power Clean for Football
Principle · BodyFor a contact field sport athlete, a back squat below 1.5 times bodyweight is a major red flag indicating non-functional strength — concerted effort should be put in right now, even if playing the season or pushing other goals is somewhat negative long-term. For a front row forward in rugby, not being near a double bodyweight back squat is a much bigger issue than for a winger. Once an athlete gets beyond double bodyweight back squat for many field sports, they can put the brakes on strength work a little bit. Going from a 200 kg back squat to 220 kg as a 100 kg player is beneficial, but probably not as beneficial as going from 180 to 200 was. The speaker uses three brackets when evaluating athletes on day one — really unhappy, pretty happy, very happy — based on strength-to-bodyweightrat
Garage Strength · How To Get Strong and Still Be Athletic w/ Sika Strength
Principle · BodyPractice power cleans (or hang power snatches, block snatches) regularly and make progress — that alone gets most of the benefit without maximal loads. The same power clean weight performed with sharp technique (contract-relax sequencing, catch at parallel) is far more beneficial for sport than the same weight with poor technique; ripping the bar off the floor and yanking it to the shoulders turns the lift into a poor upper/lower body concentric exercise with minimal sport transfer. Push top-end weight in the off-season when it makes sense — going from 0.8x to 1.1x bodyweight power clean year-over-year is fantastic progress — but don't chase 170-190kg cleans unless you are a thrower or American football player.
Host's endorsed position; some numeric figures flagged as possible numeric errors
Garage Strength · How To Get Strong and Still Be Athletic w/ Sika Strength
Principle · BodyGet the strength numbers, the required body composition, and conditioning dialed in first — then Olympic lift ratios become secondary. As a composite ceiling, an athlete with a 2.5x bodyweight back squat, a 3-minute 100-cal air bike, and a 1.5x bodyweight power clean is the best F1 car, though most athletes cannot reach this. In American football, key metrics include clean, back squat, single-leg squat, bench, vertical, flying 10, accelerating 10, 40, and shuttle — every one plays a big role. For a 90kg athlete back squatting 135kg (1.5x bodyweight), a single-leg squat target is roughly 60-80kg (about half the back squat load).
Host's framework; several numeric figures flagged as possible numeric errors, and the speaker's own math was uncertain
Garage Strength · How To Get Strong and Still Be Athletic w/ Sika Strength
Principle · BodyYou cannot excel simultaneously at running, squatting, gymnastics/parkour, sprinting, and being both jacked and lean — there are limits to the cake. The more you diversify your training goals, the worse you will be at each one individually. When choosing hybrid training goals, pick only two from a list such as: pull-up rep out, 100 cal test, back squat, 5k, vert, bench, deadlift, 60 minute run.
Guest's endorsed position
Garage Strength · How To Get Strong and Still Be Athletic w/ Sika Strength
Principle · BodyThe guest argues that getting kids to front squat, back squat, clean, snatch, deadlift, walking lunge, and run sprints is the core of good coaching. A young coach who spends five years on trendy brain-linking warm-ups instead will realize they would have been a far better coach without them. He suggests girls softball teams push their front squat toward 1.5x bodyweight, clean more, and increase power output for better bat exit velocity rather than buying into trendy warm-ups.
Guest's endorsed position; the 1.5x bodyweight figure is flagged as a possible numeric error
Garage Strength · How To Get Strong and Still Be Athletic w/ Sika Strength
