The Best of GMB Fitness — 2016
Our best articles and tutorials of the past year
Despite the crushing loss of Prince & Bowie (both much beloved by our founders and staff), we managed to grow our team to over twenty members, certify 30 new GMB Trainers, and welcome almost ten thousand new clients into the GMB Posse!
This year, we published 27 all-new articles and 19 new YouTube videos, but we also devoted hundreds of hours to updating and improving existing content on our website with higher-quality video, more detailed instruction, and loads of answers to common questions from GMB clients.
Along with a handful of major product updates, that all adds up to a ton of activity, so after looking back over the past twelve months, we decided to compile a list of the best / most useful GMB content from 2016.
Here it is :)
Best New Content of 2016
Let’s start with the new stuff! Here’s the most popular new stuff we made in 2016:
How to Develop Your Perfect Bodyweight Squat
The squat is absolutely fundamental, both as a position and a movement. We espeicially love it as a transition, but many people lack the mobilty to be able to move freely into and out of the squat. Here’s how to master squatting, regardless of your body type.
Mobility for CrossFit Athletes
Though we prefer to Skip the Kip altogether, there’s no doubt that a ton of our clients do CrossFit. And that’s great news, because CF has turned millions of people onto skill-based training in addition to the strength and endurance training that have dominated the fitness industry for decades. Jarlo worked with our staff CF coaches to put together some tips and concepts specifically to help CrossFit athletes build their mobility.
Body Maintenance Guide
Since Jarlo’s a physical therapist, we’ve always focused on teaching good form in our tutorials and addressing common physical limitations, but this year we finally arranged the most actionable techniques into an easy-to-use free guide for anyone suffering from soreness or pain during exercise.
Splits
Not much to say about this one… After thousands of requests, we finally got around to putting together an entry-level tutorial for developing the splits!
Badass for Life
We’ve never been about trading our long-term health for short-term performance. Chances are, you’re not planning to die young either, so we wrote about our three main strategies for staying badass as we get older.
Stretching Methods Review
People ask us all the time about PNF, “Loaded Progressive Stretching,” dynamic stretching, and various materials published by the likes of Pavel Tsatsouline, Kit Laughlin, and Tom Kurz. Surprisingly, most effective methods of increasing functional range of motion have a lot in common, and this article compares some of the most popular stretching methods.
Bear Locomotion
We love teaching and practicing locomotor exercises, but many people struggle to see the benefits of adding quadrupedal crawling movements to their routines. This article goes deep into the bear crawl to demonstrate the physiology and training benefits of locomotor “animal” movement exercises.
Perennial Favorites: Flexibility & Handstands
Year after year, these topics continue to be popular with our clients.
Flexibility: Our 8-Step Daily Hip Mobility Routine
Thanks in part to getting picked up by Lifehacker, this simple routine has become one of the most popular things we’ve ever made. Millions of people have seen the video on YouTube, and loads of GMB clients tell us that they use it every single day. Try out our simple daily routine for hip mobility and see for yourself.
Handstands: The Best Damn Tutorial Anywhere
We didn’t set out to create the most complete or the biggest handstand course, but we did want to create a detailed and high-quality guide that anyone can use to get started. Many people have told us over the past year that this free guide to beginning handstands outshines paid programs osting over a hundred bucks.
Fixing Common Aches & Pains
We put a lot of work this year into making and improving a series of free guides to help reduce common pain complaints we hear from our clients.
Fix Your Tight Ankles & Weak Feet
Every day, all day, you rely on your ankles and feet to support your weight and carry you around, but do you appreciate them? Most of us only notice our feet and ankles when they’re causing problems. Check out these exercises for more ankle mobility and less foot pain.
Address Shoulder Pain from Common Restrictions
Shoulders were the first specific body part we ever made a specific video to address, and we return to this article each year to improve the exercises and methods based on Jarlo’s ongoing work with his physical therapy patients and comments from our clients. Try these exercises to address shoulder pain from limited mobility, strength, or motor control.
Exercises for Fixing Common Causes of Knee Pain
Knee pain is another one that comes up a lot. Since the knee is a hinge, a lot of issues actually stem from poor mobility in the ankles or hips, but this article will help you understand and figure out the best way to reduce knee pain with targeted exercises.
Our Free Bodyweight Exercise Tutorials
GMB has developed a reputation for detailed and high-quality tutorials covering the most popular and important bodyweight exercise skills. We put a ton of time and energy into these so you can incorporate them into any training routine you like.
How to Do a Push-Up Without Wrecking Your Joints
The classic push-up is a fantastic exercise, and if you do it with strict form, it can still challenge many strong people. But we see a lot of people doing push-ups that put way too much strain on their shoulders. This tutorial will show you how to master strict push-ups without risking shoulder pain.
The Pistol Training Method for People Who Have Tried Everything
For many people, the classic method of learning a pistol by squatting lower and lower over time is effective, but if you lack ankle mobility and hip recruitment in the bottom position, it’s not so easy. We devised a bottoms-up progression that works wonders for people who thought they’d never get the pistol.
Learn the Strict Gymnastic Ring Muscle-Up
There’s nothing inherently wrong with kipping muscle-ups, but they can be tough on the shoulders and don’t build strength as well as strict ones. We completely revamped this tutorial this year to make break down exactly how to build up your strength and mobility for the muscle-up on rings.
Movement Training Concepts
Behind the tutorials and programs we share, there’s a why and a how. Here’s the two most popular articles from 2016 about how the GMB Method actually works.
The Science of Motor Learning
Everybody knows that resistance training can help you build strength. And everyone knows that stretching get you more flexible. So why do so many people assume that they can’t train motor control? This article outlines how to build your ability to learn new skills.
Key concept: gradually increase the complexity of a movement pattern to challenge your motor control
What the Hell is Good Form, Really?
Everybody knows that doing exercises with good form improves results and helps avoid injury, but what does “good form” actually even mean? What if you can’t do the move perfectly? Here’s a clear and useful way to look at good form at any level of skill or fitness.
Key concept: focus on making each rep at beautiful as you can at your current level
Top Case Studies
We love featuring our clients, and 2016 was a great year for telling their stories in detailed case studies. Here’s a couple of our favorites:
Charlie Brown
A lot of people see our videos and say “I’d love to see an inflexible 60yo with no athletic background try that,” and we’re glad to oblige. At 63, Charlie can almost get a full front split after working with our Focused Flexibility program.
David Erikson
David joined GMB as a skinny 20 year old with lots of ideas but no clue how to actually get where he wanted to be, so he followed our advice and started at the beginning. Now he’s doing things he never expected. Check out his story here.
Client-Submitted Videos on Our Facebook Page
If you want to see real people using GMB programs and the results they get, checking out our Facebook is one of the easiest ways to see a variety of GMB clients’ successes. Check out some of their videos here.
If you’re a member of the Posse and have an idea or question you’d like us to cover in 2017, we’d love you to get in touch.
If you’re new to GMB and want to learn more, head over to our site for hundreds of free resources on movement, flexibility, and bodyweight strength. You can poke around and see what interests you or go ahead and sign up for a free bodyweight exercise workout.
Happy New Year! Let’s kick some ass in 2017!
Take care, and don’t be a stranger :)
