Happy Monday! Here are a few thoughts bouncing around in my head after a week of reading, podcasts and other continuing ed. Enjoy!

1. The worth of an exercise has nothing to do with the amount of weight on the bar. A perfect example of this would be 1-leg squats. A lot of athletes find the exercise extremely difficult using simply bodyweight or a minimal external load – but there are a ton of benefits to being able to perform simple 1-leg squats.
2. Functionally, the muscles of the core are asked to isometrically stabilize, not create movement. Stop with all the crunches. Stop with all the Russian twists. Stop with all the core exercises that create movements…it’s not what the core is responsible for doing.
3. A very general statement, but I think most athletes could benefit from more hip extension. More bridging, more sled marching, more 1-leg RDL’s, more movements that get athletes to use their glutes and hamstrings to create the hip extension that they perform in sport.