THE BEY BLOG & Third-Party Media

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Concussion Prevention: More Than Just Fish Oil

Although Omega-3's have been the nutrients touted as being the most helpful in the prevention and reduction of concussion severity, they are not the only ones. Read this brief article on the neuroprotective benefits of Nicotinamide Riboside (NR) and help protect yourself.

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How to use "SuperStarch" for Fat-Loss

How and why to use "SuperStarch" to achieve a leaner body or to fuel athletic performance.

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A Supplement Strategy for Larger, Stronger Muscles

Learn how to use Phosphatidic Acid to improve your muscle's response to strength training.

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Spoonfuls of Honey and Coffee

While nothing replaces quality sleep as the number one energy-provider, a little bit of the right pre-activity concoction can help give athletes an edge over their competition. Here is one that has gained in popularity over the last little while for its convenience, flavour, and surprising results - with an added twist from yours truly.

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Athletes & Nutrition: An Interview with Michael Loreto, M.Sc Pt. 2

In this portion of the interview with Michael Loreto, M.Sc - he and I talk about the different types of stress faced by athletes - including mental stress, and why this should breed more compassion despite that they are compensated fairly.

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Athletes & Nutrition: An Interview with Michael Loreto, M.Sc Pt. 1

In this portion of the interview with Michael Loreto, M.Sc - the product designer for Hekate, a company which produces functional mushroom blends for health and performance - we talk about the evolving, complicated science of gut health, and I give my take on the three products that I have found most helpful with improving digestion in athletes and other high-stress people. Put it on in the background and take a listen.

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Why I Think All Athletes Should Take A Micronutrient Supplement

As a strength coach, here are the reasons why I think micronutrient supplements (particularly greens powders) are important for athletes to consider, and which ones I think provide the most benefit.

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Building Your Recovery Toolbox: Red Light Therapy

This instalment of The Bey Blog looks at Red Light Therapy and talks about why and how it should be included as part of your regular recovery program.

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Understanding Force Couples

Force Couples occur where two different muscles perform the same action on a joint. This post examines two examples of Force Couples in the body that can make athletes prone to pain and injury, and provides solutions for each.

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Self-Assessments for Athletes: The Straight Leg Raise

How to perform the Straight-Leg Raise assessment and what it can teach you about your movement.

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Building Your Recovery Toolbox: Using The Sauna

Next up on this blog series about useful recovery modalities is the sauna: a tool that can produce aerobic adaptations as well as increases in muscle mass. Here’s how.

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Why To Include "Jump/Throw" Days Into Your Off-Season Training Program

How can including sessions focused solely on jumping and throwing help your health & performance?

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Building Your Recovery Toolbox: Earthing Blankets

As the science continues to evolve around the benefits of various grounding/earthing technologies, this product might just stand above the rest as a cutting-edge recovery tool.

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The Recovery Rules: Origins of Stress

What are the three forms of stress most pertinent to athletes, and how should athletes recover from them?

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Applying Strength & Conditioning Principles to the Rehabilitation Process

For physical therapists, here is the strength & conditioning perspective on helping your athletes recover from injury. For athletes, follow this simplified formula during the rehabilitation process for a successful return to sport.

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The Philosophy of Progression Part 5: The Triple Progression Method

Here is the final post to the Philosophy of Progression series. It investigates the Triple and Quadruple Progression methods, and when and why one might use them.

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The Water Rules

Hard water or soft water? What type of water should athletes be drinking, and when?

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Learning From Charlie Francis: Sled Drags & The Reverse Leg Press

The reverse leg press was one of the strength exercises revered by sprint coach Charlie Francis and his famous sprinter, Ben Johnson. Here's how we can use sled work to duplicate some of the adaptations brought about by this seldom appreciated exercise.

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Sprinting and Sport Specificity: Beyond Appearances

Many believe Sport-Specific Training (SST) to be related to how much a program or exercise mimics the actions performed in a given sport. But is SST misunderstood? Read to find out.

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Rehabilitating and Preparing the Achilles Tendon

So you've had an Achilles tear? Follow these principles to get yourself back to action efficiently.

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Athlete Recovery: An Interview About Tracking the BOLT Score

Learn how to use the Body Oxygen Level Test (BOLT) to improve your aerobic fitness and monitor your recovery.

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Athlete Recovery: Tracking Your Heart Rate

Tracking your morning and evening heart rate can be a game-changer for sports performance. Read to find out why.

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Self-Assessments for Athletes: Improving Lateral Power

This edition of self-assessments looks at programming to improve lateral power and the good things that come with that- such as more strength when pushing & dragging; and better direction-changing and lateral shuffling.

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The Philosophy of Progression Part 4: The Double Progression Method

Building on Part 3, this post looks at when and how to implement a Double Progression method in your training.

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Self-Assessments for Athletes: Ankles

How to assess your ankle range-of-motion and reduce your chance of injury at the Achilles tendon, knees, and lower back.

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Creatine, Free Radicals, and TAS: A New Model For Creatine Use?

If supplementation with creatine monohydrate reduces Total Antioxidant Status, should we reconsider how we recommend its use to team sport athletes?

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Young Athletes, Strength Training, and Weight Gain

When it comes to helping young athletes gain weight, we have had success when taking these considerations into our programming.

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Self-Assessments for Athletes: Toes and Feet

This series will present some ways that athletes who are training on their own can identify the qualities of movement and athletic performance that need the most work; and will provide some strategies to go about improving them. First one up: assessing the toes and feet.

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The Philosophy of Progression Part 3: Using A Single Progression Method

In this post we will explore the use of the Single progression method in your training program for the purpose of building muscle mass.

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The Philosophy of Progression Part 2: The Fourth and Fifth Progression Methods

After discussing the first three methods of progression in Part 1, this is a short post about the fourth and fifth methods.

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The Philosophy of Progression Part 1: Strength Training for the Athlete

My hope with this blog post is to simplify Strength Training Theory for athletes who are training on their own; and to introduce coaches to the work of Anthony Ditillo who's book, "The Development of Physical Strength," is quoted by the late great Charles Poliquin as being, "the best ever written."

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Can Scars Affect Performance?

What affect can scars from surgical repair or previous injury have on athletic performance?

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Fighting Fire with Fire

The role of asymmetry in "sport-specific" training.

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Tissue Preparation: It's Not Just About the Warm-up

Try these proven supplemental approaches to optimize the health of your tissues. Remember, athletes who stay injury free get more play time and ultimately, make more money.

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Why Jumping and Sprinting Athletes Should Do Throws

Is it a waste of time to perform throwing work for athletes who mainly jump or sprint?

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Third-Party Media

Progressive Overload for Female Athletes (for members of Strengthcoach.com)

In my first contribution for Strengthcoach.com, I wrote this piece about the potential benefits of overloading female athletes with increased velocity as well as isometrics when working at higher intensities due to their unique strategy for generating high forces. Take a read through and let me know your thoughts.

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Making The DIY (Do-It-Yourself) Sports Drink

How to make your own sports drink for recovery and performance.

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Fitness Tests for Basketball Players

Read here to see why the Beep Test- while considered outdated by some- can be a fantastic option when determining how to build a conditioning program for athletes in high-volume sports, and how basketball players can use it to maximize output at their given position.

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Upgrade Your Palof Press

There is a way to make to this popular exercise even better. I present it here in a short piece that I wrote for STACK Magazine.

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Can Fish Oil Help Heal Concussions?

Based on the work of the MDs Michael Lewis and Julian Bailes, I believe this to be an important topic for athletes and parents alike. And it's not just about concussions...

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How to Get Athletes in Shape During a Limited Off-Season

Has your Off-Season preparation been cut short due to injury or other circumstances? If this is you and you are worried about getting into game-shape in time for the Pre-Season, this modified approach to the Triphasic training model might be for you.

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The Original Heart Rate Training System for Performance and Recovery

This is a system that I learned from the short time I spent with Yves Nadeau (fourth from the left), Canada's world-famous Speedskating coach. He is the most medaled coach of all time, and credited much of his success to two things. One, his ability to develop the aerobic fitness of his athletes; and two, his system for monitoring their recovery. This article is a summary of that system.

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Hack Squat: Upgrading the Old-School Strength Staple

An old concentric-style squat variation with slightly more emphasis on the knee extensors than its peers. A great squat alternative for improving rate of force development and getting around upper-body mobility issues that may hinder more traditional squat exercises.

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The Glute Exercise for Athletes

It's "Third-Party Media," guys. I wrote it, but I don't come up with the names. Let's just say it's a great exercise for the glutes; and a good exercise to build a foundation back to sprinting!

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National Soccer Coaches Association of Canada (NSCAC)

Whether a soccer fanatic or no, this panel I was on for the NSCAC Summit has plenty of good information on speed development whether one is a coach, or an athlete.

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Sodium Bicarbonate: The Best Performance Hack You Aren't Using

Here's how you can create your own concoction of sodium bicarbonate to improve anaerobic performance in training, practice, and competition.

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The Top Ten Weighted Carry Exercises

Here are some effective methods for implementing and executing weighted-carry exercises.

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4 Exercises for Better Throwing and Striking

Here is an older piece that I wrote for STACK a handful of years ago about some exercises athletes can use to improve their ability to rotate at the upper and lower body.

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3 Moves to a Better Front Squat

Can't get comfortable with the Front Squat? These drills will get you there.

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Six Mandatory Exercises to Prevent Injury

"Mandatory" might be an undeserved endorsement. But programming exercises to engage our subsystems (fascial slings) and the interdependence of the kinetic chain is always a good idea.

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Bowler Squats & Deadlifts for Athletes

Here is a high bang-for-buck lower body exercise that is great for bolstering single-leg strength and stability, as well as the ability to accelerate and change direction.

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The Smartest Way to Squat to Save Your Spine

The smartest way to squat to save your spine? That probably goes to the Swiss Ball Hack Squat- but this one comes close, and it's pretty damn good. Give it a read, and then give it a try.

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Diaphragmatic Breathing Guide for Beginners: Exercises to Get Stronger, Recover Faster or Just Calm Down

Breathing. We can do it passively; or we can do it actively. We can do it to relieve anxiety; or we can do it to amp-up and hit that deadlift PR. We can do it to decrease shoulder pain; or we can do it to decrease back pain. How we do it and why, is up to us.

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Advanced Strength Training for the Feet

Years later I look back at this piece and think about the things I've changed as regards my approach to developing the feet. But at the time it was written this piece had great feedback from the industry, and still contains some golden nuggets. You may also want to check out the seminar on foot development that I gave at the 2020 CPTN Conference.

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Four Easy Ways to Fix Shoulder Pain

Shoulder pain is a common affliction among athletes, weekend warriors, and the general population. Here are some techniques to decrease your pain, and some reasons why they work.

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7 Modifications for Strength & Hypertrophy

Here are some modifications for nagging issues with joints or soft tissue that will allow you to continue building size and strength successfully.

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7 Nutrition Hacks for Elite Performance You've Never Tried Before

This article contains some do-it-yourself strategies for creating your own sports-drink; bettering your sleep; and even improving your body's ability to digest food and absorb nutrients.

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