Would you rather feel overwhelmed by circumstances or challenged but in control? How about being able to kick more ass in the gym without destroying your body? With simple, effective workouts that build mental skills, you can train yourself to feel ...
Fitness
4 Exercises That Will Bulletproof Your Bow Draw
It takes a metric crap-ton of reps to be a proficient archer, let alone a good one. There’s so much to work on — drawing, anchoring, finding your sight picture, not getting target panic, and the list goes on. But going from zero to dozens of bow ...
How to Prep for and Crush the Memorial Day Murph Challenge
The Murph Challenge is the official annual fundraiser of the LT Michael P. Murphy Memorial Scholarship Foundation and has become a Memorial Day tradition among many veteran and fitness communities worldwide. Lt. Michael “Murph” Murphy was a US Navy ...
Winning the Half-Marathon Mind Game
Hall of Fame distance runner, collegiate cross-country coach, and author Rich Davis said that "long-distance running is 90% mental, and the other half is physical." It’s funny because it’s true. And it’s applicable to both trail and road ...
6 Basic Tips to Train Like a Trail Runner
You don’t have to be a wiry, mesh-tank-top-and-short-shorts-wearing, Gu-eating, ultra-zen human mountain goat to run trails. There are actually a lot of average-person trail runners. Why? It’s easier on your body than running on pavement; each and ...
Becoming a Ninja: Behind the Scenes of ‘American Ninja Warrior’
Watching the daring acrobatics on TV's American Ninja Warrior, I would mutter to myself, “The obstacles don’t look that hard.” That’s what I thought until I tried it myself. My wife and I own and perform with a cirque entertainment company. ...
Dick Hoyt, Runner Who Pushed His Quadriplegic Son in More Than 1,000 Races, Dies at 80
Dick Hoyt, the man who inspired a worldwide running community by pushing his wheelchair-bound son, Rick, across more than 1,000 finish lines, died peacefully in his sleep this week at his home in Holland, Massachusetts. Rick Hoyt was born with ...
Get Off the Couch: 8 Easy At-Home Fitness Hacks
If you’re like 99.9% of new-year-new-you resolution makers, then you need to put down the bag of Doritos right now. If you want to get in shape, it’s all about forming some simple and healthy daily habits. When they’re simple, it’s easier to blend ...
Understanding Fitness: Strength, Power, Endurance, Capacity
“Fitness” does not describe a single thing. It is a collection of attributes. Understanding these attributes will help you train more effectively and reach whatever fitness goal you set for yourself. Strength Strength is more than large muscles. ...
11 Questions & A Cup of Coffee: Three-Time CrossFit Champion Mat Fraser
Mat Fraser is a simple man. He likes shooting guns, drinking coffee, and working out. Well, “working out” may be a bit of an understatement: he’s been the fittest man on earth for three years running and is a heavy favorite to make it four years at ...
You Don’t Know Squat: Single-Leg Variants
Now that you know how to squat correctly, let's up the ante. These three single-leg squat movements can correct muscular imbalances and shore up strength deficiencies. By forcing a single side of your body to move weight through full ranges of ...
You Don’t Know Squat: Three Variations on Basic Squats
Squats should be simple — even toddlers can get deep into a squat. The reality is that technically squats can be incredibly complex. What seems like a simple movement requires a number of joints, tendons, ligaments, and muscles to operate in concert ...
Meet the Afghan Muscle Man Taking the World By Storm
Afghan bodybuilder Raqib Farooqi looks like a real-world incarnation of Aquaman, and he’s taking the internet by storm. Farooqi lives in the western province of Ghor in Afghanistan, and videos of his workouts have gone viral thanks to his extreme ...
Why Running Still Matters
Love it or hate it, covering ground quickly on our feet is built into our DNA. Running matters — it's the very essence of the human body in motion. It’s a wildly popular sport among enthusiasts, yet many people don’t find much enjoyment in slamming ...
Inside the Fitness Cult of Gym Jones
On the south side of Bloomington, Illinois, in a warehouse next to an empty golf cart dealership, a small tribe of men and women prep to suffer. Over the sink in the restroom where I’m hiding hangs a 1st Ranger Battalion flag. ...
How to Work In A Workout During the Holidays
The holiday season is officially upon us, and you know what that means: food, drinks, traveling, and a wealth of reasons to not exercise. It’s easy to reach for that extra piece of pie and that eighth glass of wine because “it’s the holidays.” It’s ...
FRA Holiday Gift Guide: Fitness
Get a start on your New Year’s resolution by stacking cutting-edge fitness gear under the Christmas tree, with some hints from this Free Range American holiday gift guide. More of us are training at home these days, so we’ve put together a list of ...
Lift Dirty: How to Program for Results
This is part 3 in our Lift Dirty series. Part 1 is on what building materials and construction equipment make the best workout gear, and part 2 explains how to set up a dirty home gym. In gyms throughout the world, you will find hundreds of ...
Lift Dirty: How To Set Up a Construction Equipment Gym
This is part 2 in our Lift Dirty series, which focuses on setting up an exercise space. Part 1 discussed what building materials and construction equipment makes the best workout gear. Dirty gym equipment is heavy and awkward and usually makes a ...
Lift Dirty: How to Use Construction Equipment to Gain Serious Strength
Everything you need to get big is sitting in your garage. Lift dirty by repurposing these common building materials for huge strength gains, even if you don’t have everything on the list. Most of this material can be purchased for relatively little ...
How to Squat Like an Old-Timey Strongman
Nineteenth-century strongman Arthur Saxon was famous for backlifting 4,337 pounds. If that isn’t strength, then I’m not sure what is. What makes a move like that so hard to consider today is the leverage required to move that much weight and the lack ...
Simple Food, Simple Training: The Fitness Secrets of South Asia’s Wrestlers
It’s a sweltering Friday afternoon in pre-COVID-19 Dubai, and two of the emirate’s many laborers — Mohammed and Iqbal, both from Pakistan — are ready to fight. Wearing little more than a speedo-like loincloth, the two fighters glare at each other ...
Coronapocalypse: 10 Ways to Survive Working From Home
As the COVID-19 pandemic continues to spread, more and more U.S. employees are being volun-told to stay home. For some, that means no work — and no paycheck. For others, that means clocking their hours at the homestead. But “social distancing” from ...
4 Ways to Beat the Daily Grind and Crush Your Workout
It’s 0600, and you’ve had a long week at work. Your body is sore, you are low on energy, and the idea of driving into PT or completing a WOD makes you want to punch something. You have a banger of a workout to get done this morning, but you need to ...
How to Increase Strength and Break Through Plateaus With Cluster Sets
Plateaus are common in strength training. Nearly anyone who has ever lifted a barbell has reached a place where progress eluded them. This happens because people tend to stick to what they are comfortable with, which can lead to stagnation in the ...
How to Improve Your Deadlift One Rep Max
Deadlifts are a versatile exercise that translate directly to our lives outside of the gym. Every day, we’re lifting, bending, and reaching for things. Deadlifts strengthen all the muscle groups used in those daily activities. But as with any aspect ...
Recovery is Just as Important as Working Out — Here’s Why
A general assumption is that in order to lose weight, gain muscle, or get in better physical shape, you have to work more and work harder. While it’s true that the body must be put under stress in varying degrees for muscles to grow, what is ...
What is Physical Mobility, and Why is it Important?
Some people are avid gym-goers, and others can't wait to hit the trail or the slopes every weekend. Many people commute every day during the week and work in offices or labor-intensive work fields. No matter where you fall in that mix, those ...
The Fitness Regimen That Will Prepare You for Elk Hunting
There’s no doubt that hunting elk in the Rocky Mountain West is a physical activity. If you don’t live in a state like Colorado, where the average elevation is 6,800 feet above sea level, then you are already going into the season at a disadvantage. ...
True Grit: How the Vikings’ Anthony Harris Made it in the NFL
The job of an athlete is often romanticized. What the general public sees on television is only a glimmer of reality. Everyone can probably agree that athletes conquer many physical barriers to reach their goals, but it is almost impossible to grasp ...
