The coaching cue – a clear, simple and timely reminder to a lifter to correct any movement errors that occur during a set. Cues can be verbal, visual, or tactile, and it must be concise, actionable, and delivered with confidence. Here’s how you can give better cues and improve your craft as a coach.
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Ever wondered what a Starting Strength seminar is like? Join Coach Marvin and Don as they head to Wichita Falls, Texas to attend a Starting Strength seminar.
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Are your technique errors a cause for concern? Assess your lifting form with a practical checklist and determine how to address these form errors.
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Have you ever seen stars, fireworks, or swirls during an intense workout? Let’s explore this phenomenon known as phosphenes and discuss whether it is something you should be concerned about.
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Ever noticed knee valgus (knee caving in) on some lifters when they squat heavy? Here’s why it happens.
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Is the arm pull in the Olympic lifts as inefficient as Rip makes it out to be?
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Do you find your first training after taking a break tougher than expected? Here’s why.
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Getting nervous or scared before attempting a heavy lift is normal. Here are some strategies to overcome this fear.
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Are your deadlifts starting off with a rapid hip rise at the beginning?
Let’s learn why this happens and tackle this common technique error!
In this edition of broscience by Coach Marvin, he talks about the concept of levers in physics through daily movements.
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Coach Marvin talks about how to get better at pressing heavy.
Press 2.0? No!
Double layback? No!
Instead, we’ll learn how to optimise the “Zeroth Rep” of the Press!
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Achieving your fitness goals realistically is balancing what you need versus what you want with the time that you have.
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Training for health through strength is a worthy pursuit, but the specter of injuries looms on every exercise regimen. Here’s what to do if you get injured in the gym.
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Set up the safety pins when you bench press so that it can safety catch your barbell in the event of a missed attempt. Coach Marvin shows you how.
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With two publicised barbell training related fatalities within the past two months, a question looms large: “Is barbell training a safe pursuit?” Here’s my objective evaluation of the situation and how you can avoid being a statistic.
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While spotters can help you when you miss a squat, nothing beats the reliability of correctly set up safety bars. Learn how to use them and live to squat another day.
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Coach Marvin talks about how to set up the safety bars at the correct height for the squat.
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Ever felt like your progress is going nowhere or that your injury is taking forever to recover from?
I’ve been there and have helped others who were in the same situation. Here’s what I learnt.
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Being strong goes beyond just the physical benefits. Coach Marvin sharing what he learnt from the conversations he had recently with 2 clients about how being stronger has boosted their confidence.
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Last month, I talked about Aryan and some lessons that we can learn from him. This month, let’s talk about his twin, Karran.
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Barbell training can be a good way to teach young adults about life. Here’s the story of Aryan.
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Let’s continue our effort in learning proper bro-science! This particular one is important in ensuring the safety of our muscular gains endeavour because there’s nothing scarier than falling forward face first with a heavy bar on your back. Let’s talk about balance and stability.
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Physics concepts such as forces, moments, and work done are essential to understand when it comes to lifting barbells. Let’s take 10 minutes to refresh our physics, so that we can make sense of Mark Rippetoe’s model built from first principles.
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“Is this my 4th set? Or is this my 5th set?”
If you frequently find yourself losing count of which set you’re currently on, Coach Marvin has some tips to keep track of your sets done.
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Want to start barbell strength training but concerned about getting too big/bulky/muscular? If you answered yes, this article is for you.
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Dr. Nick D’Agostino is a Starting Strength Staff Coach and a Doctor in Physical Therapy. Coach Marvin had the pleasure of working with Dr. Nick for almost 2 years during his injury rehabilitation and then in a coach-lifter relationship.
During this time, Coach Marvin realised that Dr. Nick’s practices in physical therapy is something that is different from anything that he could find in Singapore.
Let’s listen to this conversation with Dr. Nick as he discusses his method of practice in physical therapy!
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How dangerous is it to lift with “POOR FORM”?
Should we do it anyway?
Let’s try to understand the role of maintaining a rigid back when we are lifting!
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Are you working towards being a better lifter or athlete?
If you are, here’s how a coach can be beneficial throughout your entire lifting career.
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There are 3 support points in the bench press: shoulders, glutes, and feet. However, the role of the feet in supporting the movement is often underused.
Here, Coach Marvin reminds us of “Bud Light”, a cheesy way to remember to keep your butt light on the bench.
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Getting to the end of your Starting Strength Novice Linear Progression and wondering how to adjust your programming to continue making progress? In this article, I will reveal the trade secrets that helped me become the strongest Indonesian Starting Strength Coach (SSC).
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Tired of being skinny stick insects, Atul and I embarked on a competition to gain weight. During the process, I learnt some lessons and realised that there are a few parallels between training and our pathetic attempt to gain weight.
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Setting up for your first rep on the deadlift is pretty straightforward and has been discussed many times in the Starting Strength space. However, how do you ensure that the subsequent reps are set up properly?
Here are 2 cues from Coach Marvin to solve this issue.
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When I was 15, I was diagnosed with imperfections of the lumbar spine, resulting in chronic back pain. For years, I blindly followed my doctor’s advice and avoided heavy lifting. But avoiding the issue won’t solve it – thankfully, I realised that the best cure for a weak back is to make it stronger.
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How do you load your bar for deadlifts safely and efficiently?
What tools do you need?
Here are some tips and tricks to make it easier to load and unload your bar for deadlifts!
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RPE is a polarising topic. Some lifters deem it unreliable or useless, because it relies on individual “feeling.” Others like it, because you can calibrate stress to ever-changing performance conditions.
So, is RPE as simple as using your “feeling” to determine intensity? Is it the answer to programming for fluctuations in human performance? Let’s dig in.
Calling all you skinny guys – want to gain mass and muscle, but worried about losing your six-pack? Here’s why your six-pack doesn’t matter, and why you should be practical about it.
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Ever wondered how much you need to bench press in order to be able to do a push up? Here’s my attempt to find out.
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Throughout my coaching career, some clients have been incredible teachers for me.
Here’s to the newbies who are terrified about beginning their training – this is how you can work effectively with your coach to achieve your goals.
“Why do you teach people to squat like a stripper?”
This is probably the most commonly asked question about the hip drive in the squat. I recently met a guy at a commercial gym, who, when he found out that I’m a Starting Strength Coach (SSC), asked exactly that. To clear the air once and for all, here’s why.
As a coach, I regularly encounter clients who want to get strong fast, and achieve their physique, body weight and body fat percentage goals ASAP. While there’s nothing wrong with setting optimistic goals, they need a better perspective on time and feasibility.
I explain how, using lessons from the familiar childhood bedtime story, The Tortoise and The Hare.
If you have been following Hygieia’s social media pages, you might remember me documenting my attempts to gain weight, but failing. I felt that something was off, but didn’t know what.
Only after consulting with an experienced dietician did I figure it out. I also realised that having the right professional in your corner makes a real difference. Here’s what I learned.
The population census conducted in hell revealed that the most prevalent “squat-sin” amongst the participants was cheating (depth) when they think that they might fail the next rep. Coach Marvin shares his wisdom in preventing this embarrassing issue.
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The timer goes off – it’s time to go for your PR. Palms sweaty, knees weak, arms heavy. You’re nervous. You’ve never lifted this weight before. That last warm-up felt unusually heavy. And you start to doubt yourself: “If that last warm-up already felt so heavy, can I really lift the weight on the bar?”
Here are 5 ways to mentally prepare and push through a heavy lift.
Ever been told by a doctor that you should avoid lifting weights, running, *insert physical activity here* because of your back, neck, shoulder or knee pain? At the same time, that same doctor recommends that you should strengthen the muscles around the structure that’s causing the pain as it’ll help stabilise the joint. So what should you do? You’re not alone in this dilemma – Coach Marvin had the same experience when he was diagnosed with a spine degenerative condition and was told to avoid his favourite sport. Here’s why the advice given by the doctor isn’t always sound.
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To our new clients, hello and welcome! This article will summarise what you’ll be doing in the first few months of training with us, along with what you might experience during that process.
If you’re considering joining us, you’ll find out more about our training methodology principles and what to expect when you join us.
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A heavy bar is loaded on your back. You start descending, bending your knees and hips so that your hip crease dips below the top of your patella. You try to get back up, but darn, it’s heavy! Here comes your natural instinct to survive – raising the chest up, in the hope that the bar will follow. Even worse, you might start looking up! Because you’ve got to look up to go up, right? Well, well. If this is you, please read this article to understand how your survival reaction is detrimental to the lift.
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“[S]aat ini tidak ada bukti yang pasti bahwa latihan kekuatan – atau program latihan dan diet lain – akan memperpanjang masa hidup secara signifikan. Tapi dengan bukti ilmiah yang banyak, walau memiliki kelemahan, secara kuat menunjukkan bahwa kita bisa mengubah arah penurunan.” [Bahasa Indonesia translation of Barbell Training is Big Medicine]
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Learning to squat, press, bench, and deadlift; there’s no lack of tutorials showing you how to do each one of those correctly and safely. However, safety is not only dictated by your form or whether or not you are choosing the correct weight on the first day, but also knowing how to set up your equipment correctly. Here are some guidelines for your reference.
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Jika saya mendapatkan satu dolar setiap kali seorang klien atau atlet bertanya mengapa mereka harus melakukan squat dan tidak bisakah mereka melakukan lunge saja, atau pertanyaan-pertanyaan serupa dengan variasi latihan berbeda, saya mungkin mendapatkan cukup uang untuk membuka gym yang telah idamkan. Jika saya menambahkannya sebanyak pertanyaan serupa di forum, saya bahkan mungkin bisa membayar sewanya. [Indonesian translation of Strength & Barbells by fellow Starting Strength Coach, Michael Wolf]
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You’ve been training for a while, and you noticed how much you’ve progressed. Your numbers have indeed been going up, but are you strong enough? Before worrying about whether or not you’re strong enough, take a moment and think about why you started strength training in the first place.
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The more we accept that we are weak and trying to hide from the hard physical effort, the more vulnerable we get. The best way to break the vicious cycle of getting weak is to expose yourself to the challenging physical effort.
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Have you heard of the five-second rule? Have you noticed yourself or seen anyone giving up on their lifts, although it looked relatively easy until they gave up?
If you are guilty of such a crime, don’t worry! You are not alone! The majority of the lifters belongs to Team “Let it go!”
Bro science tells us that there are only two kinds of lifters in this world – lifters that are strong and lifters who let it (the bar) go.
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Earlier this month, I had a bad back tweak from squatting. It was terrible. I was limping for almost a week. At one point, it was so painful to wake up from bed; I was shaking for minutes whenever I stood up.
However, within 7 days, I resumed my normal daily activities. Here’s the details of how it happened, why it happened, and what I did to recover.
You wouldn’t want to piss the gym staff or potentially the other gym users, would you? Of course not. You are nice that way.
So here it is, the UNSPOKEN RULES of the strength gyms.
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Massa otot di tubuh Anda seperti uang di tabungan. Keduanya dapat diraih dengan perencanaan yang matang, dan keduanya merupakan salah satu hal terpenting yang Anda bisa capai – jika Anda berpikir jangka panjang.
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I love my parents, and I bet you do too. My goal is to increase their quality of life – to be physically independent and enjoy whatever they want to do for the rest of their lives, however long that may be.
Here’s my advice on how to convince your parents to start strength training.
Hello, my name is Marvin, and I am a Starting Strength Coach (SSC) based in Singapore. I am proud to say that I am one of only five people in Asia with this credential…
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Hello, my name is Marvin, and I am a Starting Strength Coach (SSC) based in Singapore. I am proud to say that I am one of only five people in Asia with this credential…
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Hello, my name is Marvin, and I am a Starting Strength Coach (SSC) based in Singapore. I am proud to say that I am one of only five people in Asia with this credential…
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Hello, my name is Marvin and I am a Starting Strength Coach (SSC) based in Singapore. I am proud to say that I am one of only five people in Asia with this credential…
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Hello, my name is Marvin and I am a Starting Strength Coach (SSC) based in Singapore. I am proud to say that I am one of only five people in Asia with this credential…
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There will be times in life whereby your training schedule gets disrupted by life stressors – it could be anything from having a new baby to work deadlines. Since life happens and disruptions can’t be avoided, how can you best manage training around external stressors?
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Oh boy, what a boring title! The content of this article could potentially be boring, as with the message that I’m trying to send across. What is said here is not a secret…
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Coach Marvin talks about healthy ageing using a simple but effective solution – strength training with barbells.
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