September is so close you can almost hear the bugling of a bull elk in the distance. If all goes to plan, you’ll be hiking that big boy out of the mountains in quarters. You’ve been rucking to prepare, but adding some simple core training will have ...
Fitness
Improve Run Times: This 2-Step Training Program Will Make You Faster
Whether you have a PT test coming up, are prepping for a selection course, or just burning up shoe leather for your own satisfaction, if you want to run faster, there are two performance areas where you should focus your training: heart rate and ...
Bouldering for Beginners: 7 Tips for New Sport Climbers
If you want a workout that’ll turn your body into a length of braided steel, bouldering is a sport for you. Bouldering is a type of rock climbing that doesn’t require a rope or harness because you only climb up 12 to 15 feet. But what the climbs ...
A Beginner’s Guide to Kettlebell Exercises
First, we broke down the granddaddy kettlebell exercise: the swing. But that was just the beginning. These four killer kettlebell moves that anyone can do — the goblet squat, the clean, the press, and the Turkish get-up — will take your kettlebell ...
Master of Swings: A Beginner’s Guide to Kettlebells
You can judge a piece of training equipment by how many problems it can solve and how much space it takes up. Kettlebells crush this assessment nearly every time because they meet multiple training ends — mobility, strength, power, conditioning — ...
Simple Assessments To Test Your Endurance
Mobility, power, and strength are all important. But without endurance to sustain them, they aren’t as useful. Endurance is the product of one main factor: an efficient aerobic system. Without an aerobic system that’s doing its job, you’re bound to ...
Strength and Power Assessments: Simple Tests to Gauge Your Levels
Athleticism is the foundation of a high-performing, resilient body and life. Strength and power construct the floor and walls of that foundation. If you want longevity, as well as access to all that your body is capable of, you need solid levels of ...
Simple Assessments To Test Your Mobility
The best way to get to point B is to actually know where point A is. If you don’t know where you currently stand, how could you ever know where you are relative to your destination? Easy answer — you can’t, homes. Fitness is like navigation. ...
How To Get Back Into Running After Time Off
The mood hits and you want to run. There’s a race your friends are doing that you want to sign up for. Or maybe you just want to get back into shape. Problem is, it’s been a while since you and your sneakers took a lap around the block. You could ...
4 Ways To Get Back in the Gym and Stay Motivated
“I was doing so well!” That’s the anthem of so many who have fallen off the training wagon. We hear it every week in consultations with new clients at my gym. Elite marathon runners, former SOF guys, college athletes — even these normally dialed-in ...
Get Dirty: Work Out With Sandbags for a Strong Core
Gym closures, membership commitment issues, and the newfound convenience of working out at home have kept lots of us out of the Box. The downside of the home gym, though, is gear. Fitness equipment is expensive, takes up a shit-ton of space, and is ...
Eustress Training: Keep Your Head and Kick More Ass
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 ...
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 ...
Trail Running: 6 Basic Tips to Train Successfully
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 people into trail running. Why? It’s easier on your body than running on pavement; each ...
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 Dead at 80, Pushed Quadriplegic Son in 1,000+ Races
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 Bodybuilder 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 for Strength: Use Construction Equipment for Serious to Gains
Everything you need to get big is sitting in your garage. Lift dirty for strength by repurposing these common building materials, even if you don’t have everything on the list. Most of this material can be purchased for relatively little money at any ...