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Sunday morning I woke up to the news that a good friend of mine, Chris Young, passed away. My first reaction one of sadness and I simply said to my wife, "He was a great dude." Chris and his wife Marie would come over from London (not London, Ohio) and visit the states. In fact, our first meeting was a small seminar we had at EFS at the original 122 S. Main Street address. Chris was a passionate lifter and we originally bonded over our love of strength. But that soon morphed into a friendship that went far beyond training.

Some of the best advice I got from Jim wasn't training related. Right before my first daughter was born in the summer of 2009, I got a call from Jim (most of the time I called him) when I was teaching Physical Education for the Upward Bound program at Columbus State. I asked him about fatherhood and he told me two things.

As much as I am impressed and amazed at watching the videos of Ed Coan, Dmitry Klokov, Stan Efferding and the other great lifters I admire, these videos offer a different perspective and attitude I think we all can learn from. Once again, the only thing you have control is your attitude. You can choose to be/associate with the gossip scum, the Facebook fucks and the petty Life Suckers that martyr their lives and jobs - "poor, poor ME." Or you can choose to turn off the negative and realize that this short life deserves the best of you. Don't waste your life surviving. Find your passion and go forth, full bore.

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:

An athlete must train speed, strength, agility, conditioning, and most important, skill work. If one were to spend too much time on one thing, other areas would be compromised. In the United States, especially with football, the weight room seems to take up the majority of the time.

I’ve gotten a number of questions about the rehab for my shoulder and how I’ve gone about it. Before I get into it, let me put a HUGE asterisk by all of these words by proclaiming loud and clear that I am not a doctor or physical therapist. I can only offer what I’ve done the last couple months. I took it upon myself (personal responsibility) to talk to people that help people rehab their shoulders and read what I could on the subject. I then looked at the similarities and the common themes present. Here are some important things I learned through all of this:

The success of the 5/3/1 Method has been nothing short of extraordinary. The response towards this simple but brutally effective training system has been overwhelming. This is because it works. And works for just about anyone willing to put in the discipline and work that getting stronger requires Elite level lifters to absolute beginners have all used the 5/3/1 Method; the basic tenets of strength training have and will never change. Big exercises, constant progress, and personal records will never go out of style. High school and college coaches are now using the 5/3/1 with their athletes with amazing success; it is easy to track, implement and will inspire any team to push for themselves to the limit. Powerlifters use this program, for both raw meets and geared meets. The 5/3/1 Method is truly for anyone that is looking to get stronger. This is not a fancy training program that requires special equipment or Master's degree - all is required is your dedication to moving more weight than you had ever dreamed.

Now if you're a beginner and are working out without any guidance whatsoever, it's probably best to just stick with the basic program. One of the worst things a young lifter can do is take advice from other beginners on message boards –  they usually have all the advice and none of the experience