This guy came into the gym last week for the first time ever. He’d been watching YouTube videos for a month, trying to figure out what to do before he showed up. Looked terrified walking through the door. Told me he was worried he’d look stupid and everyone would judge him. I told him what I tell everyone – nobody’s paying attention to you. Everyone in here is focused on their own workout. And the…
Your vertical jump isn’t just about genetics. I see this all the time at our gym in Colorado Springs, CO – athletes walk in thinking they’re stuck with whatever jump height they were born with. Then six weeks later, they’re touching the rim for the first time or dunking when they couldn’t before. The difference isn’t magic, it’s smart training. AlphaGainz has been helping Colorado athletes add serious inches to their vertical for years now.…
Your squat numbers keep going up, but your legs don’t look any bigger. You’re benching twice what you pressed six months ago, but your chest still looks flat in a t-shirt. Training isn’t the problem. You’re showing up, doing the work, and hitting progressive overload. The missing piece is food, and not just eating more of whatever’s convenient. Colorado Springs sits at 6,035 feet. Your body burns extra calories just dealing with altitude. Water needs…
Serious powerlifting and weightlifting don’t fit into convenient 9 to 5 windows. Your body peaks at different times. Your work schedule shifts. Life happens and derails your planned training session. Then you’re stuck either skipping the workout entirely or compromising your program because the gym closes before you can get there. That’s not how you build real strength. AlphaGainz in Colorado Springs, CO operates 24 hours because we understand that peak performance requires training on…
High school weight rooms have a predictable problem. Kids rush to load the bar before they understand what they’re doing. A freshman watches a senior squat 315 and figures he should be somewhere close to that. Never mind that the senior has three years of training experience and the freshman just learned what a squat rack looks like last week. This creates injuries that shouldn’t happen. Shoulder problems from benching too heavy too soon. Lower…
My lifting buddy quit training last October. The season was over. He’d competed in three powerlifting meets between March and September, hit some PRs, and decided he’d earned a break. Took two months completely off. No gym. “I’ll get back to it after the holidays,” he said. By January, when he finally came back, his squat had dropped 40 pounds. Bench was down 25. Deadlift held up okay, but his form was sloppy. Took him…
I’m going to level with you about something most parents and young athletes don’t think about until it’s too late. Fall isn’t downtime. It’s not a break between seasons. Fall is when you’re either getting ready for winter sports or you’re falling behind. I’ve been doing sports coaching in Colorado for almost a decade now, working mostly with high school and club athletes. And every single year, I watch the same thing happen. September rolls…
Training athletes in Colorado Springs CO presents unique opportunities and challenges. The altitude, the concentration of elite competitors, and the diverse sports culture here demand specialized approaches to speed and agility training that produce real results. After coaching hundreds of athletes – from youth soccer players to competitive powerlifters transitioning to functional movement – I’ve identified what actually works at elevation and what merely looks impressive on social media. SAQ (Speed, Agility, Quickness) training isn’t…
My son got recruited to play football at a D1 school last year. Kid worked his butt off all through high school, made varsity as a sophomore, had coaches from colleges showing up to his games junior year. We thought he was ready. First week of college training, he calls me damn near in tears. “Dad, I can’t keep up. These guys are so much stronger and faster than me. I feel like I didn’t…
I hurt my back deadlifting last year. Bad. Couldn’t tie my shoes for three weeks. All because I was trying to lift more than I could handle with proper form. I thought adding weight fast meant I was getting strong fast. I was wrong. My brother-in-law Jim used to be a powerlifter. When I told him what happened, he just shook his head. Said he’d seen it a hundred times. Guys get impatient, start lifting…