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I love doing dips, although I'm 100% convinced they didn't help my bench press. I do think they helped my press, though.

I watched "average" teenage boys become headhunters; boys that are taking their first steps into becoming Men of Action.  In a few years, I hope they can take the lessons of aggression, leadership and action and put them to good use for themselves, their family/friends and where ever their lives take them. 

A few weeks ago, I did a Q/A on Instagram. Keep in mind that I asked that the questions be short/answers short - like most people I find typing on a phone ridiculous and impossible to write 16 week training cycles.  So I tried to be as precise with my answers as possible while not being so damn boring.

The most important thing to understand when training athletes is the difference between G.P.P and S.P.P. Also, it's important to understand that mastery in a specific discipline does not mean mastery in weight training. In fact, it is usually the opposite; master of one thing, beginner of another.  This is very lucky for you, whether you are a coach or an athlete.  What this means is that you don't need advanced or fancy training methods to achieve results.  Besides the huge pile of dung that is "sport specific training", the misunderstanding of training mastery by elite athletes is ruining training.

The following three Prowler workouts can be done during the same training week. All sets are done on the vertical posts. The easy and medium workouts can be done between training days and after bench press or press workouts. The hard Prowler workout can be done after you squat and deadlift.

On the flipside of conditioning, you have “easy” or the standard conditioning. What this offers is a way to zone out and relax. A way to discipline yourself to adhere to a schedule. To escape the constant mind-hustle and the mental gymnastics that goes on all day and night.

It's easy to say “I don’t need to condition now” because many people technically don’t. But I guarantee you will.

The following is a portion of the new book, 5/3/1 Forever.  The book is extensive and covers how to PROGRAM your training for long term results.  Besides the actual weight training, conditioning, jumps/throws, mobility, conditioning and recovery are discussed.  This has been years in the making with a lot of successes and a lot of failures.  The goal of the book is to give you the tools to help plan and periodize your training, whatever your goals may be.

Question:
I know there are a lot of variables to this question but do you find that older lifters (over 55) respond better to full body training 2 days a week or focusing on one main lift a day 4 days a week?

Answer:
It doesn't matter at all - for any lifter. People get so caught up in this stuff, and I totally understand why, but it doesn't matter at all. Just like where you put the bar when you squat, what kind of grip you take on chins/pull-ups, casein vs. whey...I should write an article on this. Just a lot of bickering and ridiculousness.

Anyway, with an older lifter there are a couple things that need to be addressed/looked at. First...

The best thing about the fitness and strength industry is that you can always rely on it for some really good laughs. The fact that unilateral exercises have sparked such heated debate is amusing, and as always, the answer lies somewhere in the middle. First, let's examine the pro-unilateral crowd:

Without a doubt, the Boring But Big is the most popular assistance template for the 5/3/1 training program.  This is because it is easy to program, easy to use and great for both strength and size.  There are two basic ways to do the Boring But Big template: