The renewed site looks fantastic but every page now takes forever to load and I can’t find any of the older articles.  Still, you can’t have everything.

Anyway, with a little help from my friend the Google site search, I’ve done a compilation of my top 10 favourite posts from the old article bank.  Be aware that the formatting on these posts is not great and there aren’t loads of pretty pictures to look at if you’re easily bored.  For great content, though, these articles are hard to beat: 

1. The path to pulling 600lbs: Steven Morris took himself to task because he woke up one morning and found that he could bench more than he could deadlift.  The road he embarked upon led him to pull over 600lbs only a little over a year later…
2. Steve Cotter on pistols: the original pistol-powered human spring, Steve Cotter, gives his view on why pistols are a great exercise and gives some pointers on how to do them well.
3. Dave Tate explains how to remedy falling forward on the squat: falling forward on the squat is one of the most common errors when squatting heavy.  Tate explains why this might be happening to you and what you can do about it.
4. Eric Cressey talks shoulder impingements (part one and part two): Eric is a well-recognised expert on all things shoulder-related.  In these two posts, Eric talks about what shoulder impingement actually means and what the difference is between external and internal impingement…
5. Andrew Billing reassures us that there is life after 30: Andrew was a late starter but still managed to get up the motivation to build his own garage gym and even compete at powerlifting.  In this article, he talks about his experiences.
6. Louie Simmons reflects on powerlifting since 1966: pretty much what it says on the tin.  The grandfather of modern powerlifting reminisces about the last forty years of lifting heavy stuff and talks about some of the successes he’s been a part of.
7. Jim Wendler talks about upper back training for the bench press: forgetting to build a stable platform for benching is often referred to trying to “fire a canon from a canoe”.  Here, Jim talks about how to go about training the upper back to get that canoe bigger and heavier.
8. J P Carlson on dips: people often get quite strongly divided over dips.  For some, they are a great triceps builder and a sexy, kind-of-bodyweight-but-with-extra-weight old-school movement.  For others, they are the fastest way to sore shoulders.  This is a great article, though, because it really grabs the bull by the horns and asks how much weight you should be using if you’re going to get anything out of them.  Hint: if you’re not using lots of extra weight, you might want to take up knitting…
9. Wendler on the Yoke: in one of my favourite articles, Jim Wendler talks about the importance of and the enjoyment in building big traps.  Apparently, deadlifting is just part of the answer.
10. Dave Tate does what he does: this is a great article by Dave Tate: an introspective about why he lifts and what he gets out of it.  Inspired by yet another shoulder operation to help remove bone spurs caused by benching, it starts in a very dark place and gradually claws its way back to the light.  Very much like Dave’s experience being put under general anaesthetic, really…

Did I miss your favourite?  Let me know in the comments.

1. Behind the scenes at the Elite FTS compound – Zach’s camera work will make you a bit dizzy but the footage is not-to-be-missed.  It’s also nice to see someone working the weighted pull-ups and dips for a change.  Zach is lifting 80lbs for 5 reps there, which is about 35kg.  Not bad for a big guy…
2. Josh Henkin’s Sandbag challenge – Josh has come up with a challenge and the winners will receive free sandbags.  All you have to do is lift a heavy sandbag up onto your shoulder, squat, move it to the other shoulder and put it down again.  30 times.  Uh-huh.  And if you lift more than the other guys, you win.  Hmm.  I’m not entirely sold yet…
3. Dave Whitley scares the sh*t out of Jim Labadie – Jedd Johnson of Diesel Crew shares a great video of Dave Whitley driving a nail through a board while Jim Labadie holds on for dear life.  If you need inspiration for a new party trick, and you like nails and stuff, this could be it.
4. How to build a home gym – a really informative and well-researched article on what you could do to equip a home gym if you wanted to go all out.  Personally, I think you can do really well with a lot less and I would start with a pull-up bar and a dipping belt (I actually use a climbing harness) for weighted pull-ups and dips before anything else.  A box will help with pistols (to remove the flexibility hindrance) and you’re sorted.
5. The latest requirements from the Bar-barians – speaking as a low-rep fan, why anyone would want to be able to do 40 dips, 20 pull-ups, 50 press-ups and 5 muscle-ups in 6 minutes is slightly beyond me.  But it looks like a fun challenge so if I can get hold of a video camera with 6 minutes worth of memory, I might give it a go!
6. How to find out if you are a natural conventional or sumo deadlifter – a great, technical article to answer to the question of whether you might be better off pulling conventionally or sumo-style.
7. One-arm, one-leg push-up – this looks like another nice party trick.  I went through a one-arm push-up phase a while back.  Once I could knock out a few reps, though, I got bored and stopped doing them.  High reps just don’t grab me, unfortunately.  I could never be a real bodybuilder…
8. The Close-To-Impossible – any article with a picture of Jasper Benincasa automatically gets a mention by me.  This picture ranks up there for me with that picture of John Gill doing a one-arm front lever.  I would love to see someone doing either the Close-To-Impossible or the one-arm front lever close up and live (not just on a video).  
9. Sumo deadlift tutorial – if point 6 made you think about sumo deadlifting, this could be the tutorial you need to get started.
10. I-Bodybuilder questioned – by Alan Aragon on Lyle McDonald’s site, BodyRecomposition.  I think T-Nation is great but sometimes I feel like they may be taking the p*ss a bit.  This is a good article that reins in the epic enthusiasm surrounding the I-Bodybuilder project. 

Well, I enjoyed reading those articles again and it certainly took my mind off the nagging hunger of my diet!  I hope you found something interesting in there too.

Garage gym goers don’t spend time in their garage for the décor or the ambiance.  They can’t distract themselves from an unsuccessful workout by ogling girls on the treadmill, retreating to the sauna or floating in the pool.  The garage gym goer wants results.

Results can be measured in pounds or kilograms, by a measuring tape around the waist, or the more high-tech method of taking a photograph in front of a mirror.  Results can be hitting the deadlift PR you’ve been working towards for three years or finally getting your first one-arm press up.

Whatever result you want, there are articles on the internet that will tell you how to achieve it.  But how can you know which articles are trustworthy and which are not?

The top 10 free strength and fitness websites

Here at The Garage Gym Online, I’ve been combing the internet for several years now for the best information on strength training, fat loss and fitness.  This is my top 10 list of the resources and writers that I have come to rely upon:

1. T-Nation must be at the top of any list of free resources for strength training.  T-Nation have gone out of their way to be the premier free source of the highest quality information in the field, attracting the best writers and the best coaches to share their insights.  The only caveat is that they are also a supplement company so beware the hype when it comes to articles about supplements.
2. Eric Cressey is probably the fastest rising star of the celebrity strength and conditioning coaches on the internet at the moment.  His material is always worth reading and his insights are wide-ranging.  He has particular expertise in baseball (and therefore shoulder injuries).  I benefited hugely from Eric’s writing (mostly published on T-Nation) two years ago when I overdid my pull-ups and dips and neglected my foam rolling.  A couple of weeks following some of Eric’s protocols in his shoulder savers series on T-Nation and I was back in the gym and have had no problems since.
3. Mike Robertson is another rising star who has done much to alter the face of the strength and conditioning market as it is seen on the internet.  Mike does a regular podcast where he interviews other strength coaches.  These are always worth listening to and Mike often brings other extremely knowledgeable people into the limelight who wouldn’t normally seek it.
4. Diesel Crew are the authority on the internet for grip training but they also have a number of great general “how to” articles, including the best “how to squat” article I have ever read.
5. Elite FTS are the authority on the internet for powerlifting.  I learned more from Dave Tate’s “how to bench” video than anything else I have ever seen.  The next time I was in the garage, lying on the bench, all I could hear was Dave’s voice in my head saying “you don’t know how to f**king bench, keep your traps tight and grip the bar tighter”.  I swear my bench went up 5kgs just by watching that video.
6. Lyle MacDonald is probably the one source of dietary information as regards cutting fat or gaining muscle that I trust on the internet (with the caveat that Alan Aragon is starting to win me over but that’s another story).  From his early appearances on T-Nation to his present status as fat-loss guru, Lyle has always won my respect.
7. Dragondoor, the vehicle for the remarkable human that is Pavel Tsatsouline, is a great source of articles about bodyweight and kettlebell training.  Not very frequently updated, I tend only to go there if I am looking for an article that I have already read before.
8. Beast Skills is the bodyweight exercise website I always dreamed of creating but have never been strong enough to do.  All I can say is, I want to be Jim when I grow up.  Wait… I’m already older than he is… Damn.
9. Strength Coach Podcasts is a free podcast that offers an insight into the world of Mike Boyle’s Strength Coach, a subscription-only site that boasts a roster of the most well-known sports and strength coaches in the US. 
10. Superhuman Radio is another free podcast run by the extremely easy-going and likeable Carl Lanore.  Carl’s zest for life and sheer enjoyment at discussing strength and fitness, particularly as he embarks on his fifth decade, is a joy to listen to.  Miss this and your life will be poorer for it.

That’s it for the websites.  I hope you found it a useful list.  Did I miss any out that you would have put in?  Do you have any great websites to share?  I’m always on the lookout for new information that I can put to work in my garage and I’d appreciate any insights you may have.

Next week, I’m going to write about the top 10 strength and fitness blogs that I read regularly.