Entries by Ian King

Static stretching fear mongering

I recently received a thesis study conducted in the US and shared with me by a coach out of Austria, which i appreciated. Here are some thoughts I shared in return. Note the aim (or at least my aim) of static stretching is not necessarily to in the acute sense enhance or detract VJ height. Nor […]

Performance Coach or Director – Why the term sucks  

[The following is an extract from the book ‘Barbells & Bullshit’ by Ian King, 2010.] I have noted a trend over the last decade or so for physical preparation coaches involved with athletes and sporting teams to refer to themselves as ‘performance’ coaches or directors. In fact, this title appears to be the pinnacle of […]

Feedback on my latest book – Barbells & Bullshit  

I recently received this feedback about my latest book: Ian, Great book… …keeping me up late. Very entertaining, hilarious, gut-wrenching and scary as you unfold the reality of this industry, while pairing it with guidance to a conscious way of thriving in the field of physical preparation and life. Also, you have brilliantly made the […]

The World is Flat!  

Popular stories have humans believing the world was flat and that Christopher Columbus, in his late 1400’s explorations to the America’s, travelled in spite of this belief and the risk of ‘falling off the edge’ of this flat earth. If this were true, Columbus showed courage and shaped the world as a result. As a race […]

Enough to make your blood boyle

I looked, and looked again – surely not! I couldn’t believe my eyes! There on the ‘net on an ‘industry leading’ site was three stages of a strength progam that KSI had provided a client some years prior. Being given away as a PDF download – free! How is that possible!? For the duration of […]

Performance coach. Really?  

The following is an extract from Ian King’s latest book ‘Barbells & Bullshit’ – due to be released later this month. I have noted a trend over the last decade or so for physical preparation coaches involved with athletes and sporting teams to refer to themselves as ‘performance’ coaches or directors. In fact, this title […]

Surely they can perform better than this!  

Many years ago I met a gentleman at a NSCA trade show who owned a major equipment distribution company in the industry, and who had a booth at the trade show. He seemed a genuine person. So recently when I learnt his company was distributing my material – just without my name on it and […]

There is no such thing as a functional exercise  

There is no such thing as a functional exercise or training program. It’s time to put some perspective on the use of the word ‘functional’, which has become somewhat of ‘catch-cry’ since the start of the 21st century. I believe it has probably gone too far now, and too many reputations on based on it, […]

What is the future of an industry that condones this type of behavior?  

In 1998 and 2000 I published the How to Write and How to Teach books. I then took some of the How to Write content and made it more user-friendly for the end user in Get Buffed! 1999. Most appreciated the contribution I made through these writings. They were based on my experiences and conclusions […]

Players turned coaches have a short memory  

After having watched a player I formerly trained in a team sport for many years become a coach and appear to err in the same over-training ways he would have complained about as a player under my guidance, I formed a hypothesis that many players who were trained in an optimal environment suffer short term […]