Mike Boyle is one of the foremost experts in the fields of strength and conditioning, functional training, and general fitness. Mike co-founded Mike Boyle Strength & Conditioning in 1996, a facility offering comprehensive performance enhancement training and personal training to all ranges of clients. He served as the Head Strength and Conditioning Coach at Boston University for 15 years, as well as 25 years as the Strength and Conditioning Coach for Men’s Ice Hockey there. Boyle earned a ring with the Boston Red Sox as the team’s strength and conditioning in 2013. From 1991–1999 he served as the Strength and Conditioning Coach for the Boston Bruins.
Mike began his journey while studying to be an athletic trainer at Springfield College, which happened to be a hotbed of strength and conditioning at the time. While at Springfield, an interest in strength and conditioning developed when he volunteered for three years at Boston University working primarily with the football team. It was the start of his 25+ year career at BU. Boyle was named to the 2004 and 2005 Men’s Journal list of the top 100 trainers in the United States. Boyle founded the Certified Functional Strength Coach program in 2013 to provide education and certification to coaches around the world.
In this episode, Coach Boyle takes us through his reasoning for discontinuing the use of bilateral squats in his programming. He shares his thoughts on how to truly evaluate every aspect of your program and be in constant search for ways to improve. Mike shares the journey that resulted in his current philosophies and the in-depth “why” on his current programming. He discusses how the athletes that he trains have had such incredible results in the vertical jump without heavy barbell back squats.
In this podcast, Coach Mike Boyle and Joel discuss:
- The neurological inefficiency of bilateral movements and concepts in bilateral deficiency.
- How he gets results in speed and power development without use of heavy bilateral movements.
- How back pain should not be a natural result from training.
- The process of being married to best practices, not concepts.
- What the concept of functional training really is for him.
- Why he prefers the deadlift over the back squat.
Mike also talked to SimpliFaster about functional athletic performance training.
Podcast total run time is 1:17:13.
Keywords: functional fitness, unilateral squats, deadlift, vertical jump
