Latest posts
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How to Do Banded Squats (And How to Tell If They’re Working)
Most people’s knees drift inward when they squat. Not because they’re weak exactly — because the glutes and outer hips haven’t been trained to push back against that tendency. The band fixes that. It adds resistance in the direction of the failure pattern. Your body has to produce an answer to it. Three or four…
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How to Do a Back Extension (And Why Most People Are Doing It Wrong)
The back extension is one of those movements that looks too simple to be worth thinking about. You lower your torso, raise it back up, repeat. It’s usually done at the end of a session with a bit of weight for a few easy sets. It doesn’t feel particularly hard, which is part of the…
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How to Do Hanging Leg Raises: Complete Guide to Advanced Core Training
The hanging leg raise appeared on my sciatica recovery menu before I fully understood why. The logic at the time was core activation and posterior chain rebuilding — anything that might decompress the spine and strengthen the structures around it. For a while it worked as part of the routine. Then it started irritating the…
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How to Do Weighted Pull-Ups: A Complete Technique Guide
Weighted pull-ups came out of a specific problem. I was pressing consistently — bench, dips, overhead — and the pulling work was not keeping pace. Not because it wasn’t there, but because I hadn’t taken vertical pulling as seriously as everything else. The imbalance eventually showed up in how my shoulders felt under load: tighter,…
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How to Do a Barbell Row: A Complete Technique Guide
The barbell row wasn’t a movement I took to immediately. It’s demanding in a way that isn’t obvious until you try to do it properly — holding a heavy hinge position while pulling with your back rather than your arms is harder than it looks. Early on I was probably going too heavy and not…
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How to Do a Barbell Bench Press: A Complete Technique Guide
The first time I benched properly was because someone who knew what they were doing showed me before I had a chance to develop bad habits. He walked me through the setup — retract the scapula, align yourself with the bar at eye level, feet pressed into the floor, back locked into the bench. Then…
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How to Do a Conventional Deadlift: A Complete Technique Guide
I came to the deadlift the way most people do — I read that it was the king of compound movements and I wanted to get bigger without spending two hours in the gym. If it trained almost everything at once, it made sense to make it the centre of what I was doing. So…
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How to Do a Barbell Back Squat: A Complete Guide for Serious Beginners
The barbell back squat is widely considered the king of lower body exercises — and for good reason. No machine, no isolation movement, no variation comes close to what it demands from your body or what it gives back in return. The hack squat and leg press will build your legs. But the barbell back…
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Moving to Advanced: What Changes When You Start Training the Big Compound Lifts
If you’ve been working through the beginner and intermediate movements on this blog, you’ve already built something most people skip — a real foundation. You know how to move. You’ve learned what it feels like to engage the right muscles, control your body through a full range of motion, and build strength without rushing the…
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How To Do Negative Pull-Ups For Beginners
Learn proper negative pull-up form and how to progress to chest to bar pull-ups. Clear cues, common mistakes, and step-by-step coaching.