Videos Archives - Tucson Strength

Cleanliness is a part of our culture

Danny — Wed, 29 Apr 2026 02:30:25 +0000

Cleanliness is part of our culture

Many strength gyms feel that being grungy and dirty is part of the culture. At Tucson Strength we allow chalk and have some of the best strength equipment on the market and some of the strongest humans around training with us. Just because we cater to the strength enthusiast we don’t fall for the grungy equals hard core vibe. We clean our gym multiple times a week and our equipment is constantly maintained. Torn vinyl on machines is replaced. Belts and cables replaced when worn. Yes we allow chalk in our gym but it’s not a dust pit. If you are looking for a great gym to train at in Tucson, stop on by for a tour. See the Tucson Strength difference.

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ANNUAL GYM MAINTENANCE FEES?

Danny — Sat, 14 Feb 2026 20:01:05 +0000

What are Annual Gym Maintenance Fees

The biggest trend in the gym industry is to charge an annual membership fee. They do this to say it will secure the membership rate you are paying so you won’t be hit with and increase in dues. The money also goes to helping maintain the gym and equipment. I totally get it, gyms are expensive to run and I don’t disagree with gyms that do it. We wrestled with this concept for the past couple of years. We see the costs go up year over year and we don’t want to just continually add more and more members to stay ahead. But after lots of thought we realized this isn’t the direction we want to take with our community. We charge a fair membership rate and we know how frustrating it can be to see a charge show up on your card months later for an additional membership fee. So while other gyms do this, you won’t find annual fees tagged onto your regular dues.

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Gym Has Been Completely Renovated

Danny — Fri, 19 Dec 2025 00:46:28 +0000

Check out the new layout

We are super excited about our new gym layout. This allowed us to organize the gym with a much more cohesive layout. We have upgraded our equipment line to offer the newest most innovative equipment on the market as well as some of the greatest classic pieces of all time. We have hand picked each piece of equipment from around the country to offer the best experience for the serious strength enthusiast. We are proud to carry some vintage Cybex, Body Masters, and Flex equipment as well as new pieces from Arsenal and Hammer Strength.

Our powerlifting area is the most comprehensive over any gym in the state of Arizona. We have numerous competition combo racks, competition benches, a monolift, and professional deadlifting platforms. All of our bars are competition bars. We have Texas Power bars, deadlift bars, and squat bars as well as every specialty bar you could imagine.

Our Functional Training area boasts an 1800sqft turf inside with More kettlebells than any other gym in town. We have a fully functioning Crossfit area and 5 Olympic Platform with bars and kilo bumpers.

Whether you are into Powerlifting, Olympic Lifting, Bodybuilding, Hyrox, Crossfit, or general Strength, you wont find a better equipped gym.

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Where it All Started

Danny — Sun, 03 Aug 2025 01:43:19 +0000

Tucson Strength Origin Story

Tucson Strength started in a small community park as a kettlebell class. I was working as manager of a gym chain and putting in 70 hours a week. When bonus time came they said they couldn’t afford the promised $8,000 bonus. I was disappointed, but believed the owners didn’t have the money. The very next day they pulled up in a brand new BMW. I had a 4 month baby at home and a family to support. With no money in the bank I quit my job. I had a friend that found a few ladies that wanted to train and took some kettlebells I owned and met them in the park a few blocks from my house. We were rained on, chased by bats, and eaten by mosquitos.

Within a few months I rented a spot that was smaller than the turf area of our current gym. I borrowed $25,000 from my parents and opened a spot with 5 clients. Till this day I still can’t believe what Tucson Strength has become. We started small and have grown into an amazing community. I am so grateful for every person that is or has been part of our community. God has put some amazing people in my life to make all of this happen.

When you walk into Tucson Strength you aren’t just walking into a gym. You are part of an amazing community built by a passion to help become stronger and overcome their own obstacles in life.

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No New Years Specials?

Danny — Tue, 14 Jan 2025 15:55:17 +0000

NO huge fitness Specials in january?

The emails have come in daily on what special deals we are running for January? Just about every gym runs their best prices of the year in January. It seems to be an industry standard. January is usually the biggest month of the year for the gym industry. Over indulgence, time off and travel for the holidays usually pushes people over the edge with their weight, and January seems to be the month to get back on track. The picking is hot for gyms. Most gyms can expect to have 50% more business than normal in January than any other month of the year.

At Tucson Strength we don’t toe the industry line. Yes, we love new members and want to help people get back on track, but we don’t offer huge deals to attract EVERYONE. Actually we rarely ever run big specials except for our November Holiday specials. Why? Because we don’t want to have 100 new members that are shopping by price only to choose our gym. When a gym throws out a net to catch as many members as they can, they many times attract people that aren’t the best fit for the culture and community that they are trying to build. At Tucson Strength we are about attracting the people that want what we have to offer. We offer a great community, a helpful staff, and world class training equipment. We aren’t the big box gym.

Also when gyms just offer huge discounts in January they flood their gym with new members and your long time members feel shoved to the side, waiting on equipment and it throws off the entire vibe of the gym. We are offering a discount on our enrollment fees this month and a special for first time personal training clients, but that’s about it. If you are looking for a new gym that feels like home and want to escape the over crowded big box gyms, we encourage you to check us out..

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Deadlifting Dont’s

Danny — Wed, 26 Jun 2024 17:11:47 +0000

What not to do on the Deadlift

The Deadlift is one of the Big 3 in the sport of Powerlifting, something we take seriously at Tucson Strength. When I first shot this video the intent was to inform the powerlifting athlete of what NOT to do because it will disqualify you in in powerlifting competition. The more I think about, if you are going to deadlift with barbell you shouldn’t do any of these things regardless if you are competing in a sport or not.

Ramping

Ramping isn’t a powerlifting rule book term, but it’s the slang for letting the bar rest on your legs. Once that bar passes your knees, you should not let your knees shoot under the bar. This allows you to slide the bar up your legs and can create a mechanical advantage to getting the weight up. I’ve seen people do this quickly and get away with it, but when you do this you leave it up to the judges, you run the risk of getting DQ’d for the lift. I see people doing this in the gym on their training sets and the more you practice it, the more you will be prone to make it a part of your habit. STOP IT.

DESCENDING BAR

Once you break the ground with the bar, the bar must always be moving up. The bar can stop, but it can’t go back down then up again. If you are in a grind of a lift and fighting the weight and keep the bar moving up. Many times at a meet if the head ref sees the bar go down and back up they will give you the down command because they already know the lift has failed. Also your feet have to stay planted. If you step before the bar touches the mat its a red light.

DOnt drop the bar

DOn’t get in the habit of dropping your deadlifts in the gym. You will always revert to your training when things get heavy. When you lockout the deadlift and receive the “down” command keep your hands on the bar until the plates touch the mat. If you drop right before you will still get a red light.

shaking the bar

Many lifters have a prelift tradition of getting nuts and jerking on the bar. If you jerk on the bar so hard and the plates leave the ground, that is a red light. Once the plates leave the ground it is considered an attempt. Yes getting psyched up is part of the sport, but so is control.

Hope these tips help.

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Are you Doing This on Your Bench Press

Danny — Wed, 19 Jun 2024 16:29:11 +0000

This is important for a big Bench Press

The bench press is the king of all gym lifts even if you aren’t a powerlifter. How much do you bench is first thing people ask when you tell them you lift weights. It is by far the most popular and visible of the barbell lifts. Unfortunately most people mindlessly unpack the bar, let the weight drop onto their chest then push the weight up.

Try This

The bench press is a a compound movement that involves nearly your entire body. We won’t go into all the details in this blog as to keep it focused on upper body mechanics. Your lats and upper back musculature is just as important as your chest and triceps on the bench press. Before you unpack the bar your shoulders should be retracted and depressed. You should feel the muscles between your shoulder blades engaged and your lats (underneath your armpits) fully activated. Once unpacked you should be actively pulling that bar down to your chest. If the bar just falls down onto your chest you will lose tightness and be forced to fight the weight up.

Don’t mistake the lowering of the bar to a general eccentric lowering of the bar with your chest. This is an active recruitment of the back. Think about pulling your chest to the bar as you are lowering the weight. When executed correctly, you will feel your lats light up and the weight bearing on your back, not your chest. This tightness will allow you have maximal recruitment of your chest and tripes when executing the lift.

The best way to master this is to practice using your back on all your warm up sets. How you lift light weights is how you lift heavy weights. You are only as good as your practice.

In the video above we also have a warm up drill to help you activate the right muscles.

If you need help we strongly encourage finding a qualified strength coach. Don’t ask the random personal trainer at a Big box gym. If you are in Tucson, our team of coaches are happy to help.

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Low Bar vs High Bar on Squats

Danny — Mon, 10 Jun 2024 16:56:27 +0000

High Bar VS Low Bar on Squats

This blog could be an entire chapter in a book. Lets start with the basics of bar position. High Bar squats should have the bar placed in the meat of the upper traps. Many times lifters will put the bar where the trapezius muscle meets the cervical spine and that is not an optimal position. The bar can end up resting on the spine and cause issues. Also, having the bar that high on the back can cause the bar to roll forward and cause you to tip forward. The ability to let the bar sit on the upper trapezius muscle will give some padding and also also the lifter to achieve maximal tightens and connection to the bar. On the high bar position the lifter wants to think about pulling the body up into the bar to create a wedge. Some people think about pulling the scapula down to create the wedge. Many people will use the cue of Chest up, which is ok, but it can also cause the lifter to arch the lower back which isn’t a position to be in while squatting.

Low Bar Position

Low bar has the bar resting on the top of the rear deltoids. The lifter things about retracting or squeezing the scapula together and the bar will rest on ledge made by the rear deltoid muscles. Maintaining the back squeeze throughout the execution of the squat is crucial for a strong squat. Some lifters will allow the bar to be lower than the rear deltoids which may make the squat feel easier because the bar is lower on the back, but this can cause issues of having the bar slide down the back. If this happens it can risk serious injury or at minimum dropping of the bar off the back. The USPA Powerlifting Federation actually have rules in place to ensure super low bar position is not used.

WHO SHOULD USE WHICH POSITION?

If you are an upright squatter the high bar position is optimal. It allows the bar to stay over the mid foot throughout the execution of the squat. If you are someone that has to lean forward a bit to squat to depth then low bar position will be optimal for you. Again putting the bar lower on the back will allow the bar to stay over the mid foot during the execution of the squat. There is so much more I could say on this topic but I will point out a couple of things to be aware of. If you have really tight ankles and long femurs High bar will be very difficult for you to execute, you are most likely a low bar squatter. If you are a low bar squatter you have to have decent shoulder mobility to keep the bar in position on your rear deltoids. So if you are struggling with each position it would be helpful to get with a coach that can get you dialed in and possibly work on any mobility issues you have that is holding your squat back. Here is an article on some other key aspects of squatting you should know if you want to have a big squat. If you are looking for a gym in Tucson that specializes in powerlifting feel free to reach out to us. We also offer online programming and coaching.

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A Gym for Everyone

Danny — Tue, 04 Jun 2024 00:24:52 +0000

We aren't just a bunch of meat heads

Yes we are a strength focused gym. People have known us as the hub of powerlifting in southern Arizona, but Tucson Strength has something for everyone!

Shelly is 80 years old and crushes her workouts with the help of her trainer, Diane Zibaoui. At Tucson Strength we meet you where you are at and help you build a solid base of mobility, strength, and conditioning to improve your overall health.

We are gym that caters to the elite athlete needing a place to train as well as the beginner just starting their journey. We have some of the most dedicated personal trainers in Tucson that can guide you in one on one personal training, group training and programming. If you are an advanced athlete come on in and enjoy some of the best Strength Training equipment around.

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Bench Press Safety

Danny — Fri, 17 May 2024 16:41:46 +0000

Bench Press Safety

Bench Press is by far the most popular of all of the barbell lifts. It’s what every male in the gym under 30 cares about. “How big is your bench bro”? Bench press is a great exercise for upper body strength and development and though it is popular it is by far the one exercise that causes more injury in the gym. This occurs because most people use improper technique and usually train it too often and too hard, but that is not the purpose of this post.

We see it all to often of someone pushing to failure on the bench press. The weight seems to be going up and then it comes right back down. If you don’t have a spotter, you have big dilemma on your hands. Either your trapped under the bar on your chest, or for the very unfortunate, the bar is on your throat. Though it isn’t extremely common there are deaths associated with bench pressing every year. If that bar lands on your throat you will die from asphyxiation or a broken neck.

THe Solution

Using face savers are the answer. Unfortunately most chain gyms don’t offer benches with face savers, but powerlifting gyms usually have an this as an option. If you don’t have access to a bench with a face saver, you can bench in a squat rack and use the spotting rods. The key to setting this up is finding the correct height where the bar can touch your chest and not make contact with the spotter arms. Roll the empty bar back towards your throat and make sure the bar is resting on the arms and not your throat.

When should face savers or spotter arms be used

Face savers should be used anytime you are training without a spotter. Even if you are going light you will never know when things can go south. Last year we had a gentleman in our gym training with 75% of his max and he suddenly tore his tricep. The bar came crashing down suddenly. Even if you are using a spotter the face savers should be set up. Even with the best spotter in the world, if the weight slips out of your hand or a freak accident happens, their reaction time won’t be able to catch the bar in time to save you. We feel that Bench press face savers are crucial for safety. If you are training at home usually by yourself you should have a face saver set up without a doubt.

At Tucson Strength we have 5 competition benches all equipped with face savers and 6 squat cages with spotter arms.

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