​You’ve seen them in the gym.  Bicep curls, tricep kickbacks, shoulder raises, seated leg press.  Well I’m here to say “no more!”

Why?  Because corrective movements aside, performing anything but compound movements with free weights is cheating yourself.  Sure, I could list all the reasons why isolation movements suck (lack of carryover to everyday activities, they fail to use multi-joint movements and muscles that rev up your metabolism, inefficient use of your own time, etc.), but I have a feeling it’d put you to sleep.  Suffice to say, squat and deadlift variations, as well as heavy pushing and pulling, should serve as your protein, carbs and fat every time you feast on the gym.

Can you guess the sport that will injure over 60% of its participants?

Nope, not football.  Nor is it extreme dodgeball.  In fact, it’s running.

Diet fads really come and go.  Today you have countless people trying to lose weight with any of the following: Paleo, Intermittent Fasting, Carb Backloading, and do I dare say Atkins?  Next you have all the “carb dogmas” of low carb, no carb, or all carb – the latter being my rebellion against all this uncommon sense.

Does your back hurt?  Of course it does.  You’re an American.

Kidding, of course, but the statistics are ridiculous.  80% of Americans will experience lower back pain at some point in their lives.  You can blame this fact on our mostly sedentary society, the prevalence of desk jobs, being overweight, etc.  Yet, once you get past the fact the people HAVE back pain, things get a bit more interesting.

Well hello there.  I'm Alex and I’m not sure why, but for whatever reason you’ve stumbled across this blog and I’m honored.  This blog will be about strength and conditioning, nutrition, and just making yourself better both physically and mentally.

So what's my goal in creating this site?  It's to help people feel better, move better, and look better....in that order!