To accessorise: to add something to something else to improve usefulness, versatility, or attractiveness.

It’s not in the best interest of your progress to skip exercises, but it happens. Sometimes you just have to leave the gym earlier that anticipated, time gets away from you, you’re chatting too much or you’re just absolutely spent on energy, so not all exercises are going to make the cut on that day.

When that happens, here are some tools for your tool belt so you can modify your training in the least detrimental way possible.

Oftentimes we have people come in to the gym that have been training for 2-5 years or more. They have gym experience. When it comes time for them to perform fundamental movement patterns though, they really lack confidence in how to execute them, or what loads to use. This is absolutely no shade on them; it’s just a reflection of how services are commonly rendered in the fitness industry.

One of our fundamental values at TSF is cultivating independent lifters. Our service delivery is entirely reflective of this. We coach in such a way that we not only help people get stronger, but also to teach them the skills to be able to resistance train safely and effectively in any gym, without guidance, for as long as they see value in doing so.

In this article I unpack why we think developing autonomy is so important, and how we go about cultivating autonomy as coaches.

The third edition of the TSF Team Champs is set to take place on March 12th. Camaraderie, teamwork and the social aspect of sport have always been fundamental pillars and values that we’ve strived to uphold at TSF, and nothing highlights that more than the Team Champs.

I’d like to unpack with you a little history, some stories and some of the reasons why we think running the Team Champs is so damn important.

Getting started in strength training doesn’t need to be a super intimidating, complicated process. If you can move, you can strength train.

At its foundation, strength training is about adding load to human movement. It’s one of the things that I love about it so much; that it is infinitely scalable, which makes it incredibly accessible. Even an 80 year old with no experience with sport or exercise can start strength training in some form.

Perhaps you’ve read a little about strength training and it’s benefits and you want to get started. In this article I discuss where to start and what to focus your efforts on in your first six months in the gym.

Training for a powerlifting meet can be so much fun and can really encourage you to push hard in your training. You see all of your hard work come together as you step on the platform. You have a blast making friends in the warm up room and making some noise on your stage.

Then the bar hits the floor after your final lift. Now what?

The “post-comp blues” are a very common experience. Many lifters will report less consistent and less productive training in this post-competition period, which sucks. How you approach your off-season training is just as, if not more important than slamming your meet prep. This is where we lay our foundations.

So how can we set ourselves up for a productive off-season, rather than sinking deep in to the post-comp blues, and the lousy training that comes with it?