I got a new post up at Breaking Muscle called The Top 5 Olympic Weightlifting Shoes for Under $200 Bucks. Make sure to check that out.

Also, if you haven’t noticed, the blog has a new look! Don’t get me wrong, I liked the old look, but it was slowly starting to get far too messy for my taste.

I want this blog to be EASY to read, easy to navigate … Zen in its simplicity so that the few things I’m trying to highlight really stand out, and so that you can really get into the content.

Yes … the sci-fi styling of the logo was on purpose We’re heading into the future, my friends!

Oh! And for those of you who like this kind of geeky stuff, I’m now using Headway Themes.

You spoke, and I listened. The series, “Your Monday Moment of Zen” in which I splatter together a bunch of links to cool stuff and my own musings on any topic under the sun was far more popular than I’d thought. I’d started them as a weekly thing, then I tried to shift them over… Continue Reading

A few weeks ago I wrote up an article at Breaking Muscle entitled the 7 Dumbest Things Athletes Can Get Away With That You Can’t. One of those was my point that not everyone should make Back Squats a staple of their workout routine. Ooops! That sparked some controversy! And then I made it worse… Continue Reading

The subtitle to my blog is not Zen and the Art of Weightlifting for nothing. It isn’t a joke, nor is it my way of being gimmicky. I don’t take it lightly. I strongly believe that Olympic Weightlifting is an Art Form in the same way that Kung Fu is.  My friends Adam Stoffa and JC… Continue Reading

We were somewhere around Barstow on the edge of the desert when the Squats began to take hold … And suddenly there was a terrible roar all round us and the sky was full of what looked like huge bats, all swooping and screeching and diving around the car, which was going about a hundred… Continue Reading

                    I’ve got a new article up at Breaking Muscle entitled, “I am Batman: How to get 10% Stronger in 10 minutes by Playing Dress Up“. Here’s a quote: My lifter Arron has a unique way of facing his fear. When he’s heading up to the… Continue Reading

Of the top ten most popular articles over on Breaking Muscle in 2011, my own article on the 7 Fitness Myths was #1. Given the amount of back and forth discussion it generated, I suppose that I shouldn’t be too surprised. In fact, it prompted me to write up a formal response to some of… Continue Reading

I got a question recently from a reader about the differences he saw between the way I coach the snatch and the way Greg Everett’s lifters at Catalyst Athletics seem to be performing the snatch in their videos. When I watch the daily video at Greg Everetts website I often see the lifters keep their… Continue Reading

I’ve got a new article up at Breaking Muscle about tackling your New Year’s Resolutions – The Hard Way. Every year, you make New Years Resolutions, commitments to yourself to reach goals you CLAIM are important to you. And every year, you fail to meet most of them – maybe all of them. Think about… Continue Reading

This last year has been a substantial one in the life of the Iron Samurai. The blog has gone from being a rather obscure one to being one of the most widely read blogs in the English speaking world on the subject of Olympic weightlifting, as well as being a platform for articles on (what… Continue Reading