Instagram is full of accounts aimed at fitness, performance and health. Unfortunately, most of the content posted is crap that you should probably ignore. Sifting through the crap to find the gems and know what to trust is difficult if you don’t live and work in these fields Well, we do live & work in this world and our livelihoods depend on it. So, each year we eagerly and avidly look for strength coaches all over the world to learn from. Despite some issues, Instagram is by far the best medium to use when searching for new content from excellent coaches. We’ve decided to make an annual list and highlight a few people who are doing an awesome job, worthy of your follow. This article brings you the top 5 strength coach Instagram accounts to follow for 2020.
Last year’s list was truly impressive…and they all continue to put out some of the best content on the internet. If you have not read the list from 2019 you can check it out HERE. This year’s group of coaches is by no means “better” than last year’s. We just want to keep exposing our readers to new accounts to follow so each year we will pick different coaches to highlight.
What we consider when making our lists –
- Actual experience in the field programming and coaching athletes or reviewing and creating research related to strength and conditioning.
- Someone who has a specific athlete population that they work with, but it’s obvious their programs and techniques would crossover to other athlete types.
- Fitness models are not strength and conditioning coaches. They are not on our list.
- We appreciate creativity, but not gimmicks, when it come to exercise creation and selection.
- While we love when a coach is someone who is keeping him or herself fit…we put more stock in coaches who consistently get OTHER people to perform better, improve their fitness and become more resilient.
This is not a ranking of best to worst, just our top five. So, without further adieu, here is the Movement Guides Top Strength Coach Instagram Accounts to Follow in 2020:
- Coach Garrish: John Garrish is the Director of Athletic Development and Performance at North Broward Prep in Florida. Yes, the first person on our list is a high school strength coach…but this isn’t some ex-football player who lifts weights and is now leading kids towards injury. Coach Garrish runs one incredible athletic development program. His young students are engaged, organized and creating habits that will lead to long, healthy lives. He is true to the science and yet somehow creates a fun, competitive environment where kids excel. Give his account a follow and see how a true professional works in a real world situation. If I were a DI University athletic director or professional sports team I’d be trying to hire this guy to lead my strength and conditioning program! Pay the man. Check out this incredible account – https://www.instagram.com/coach_garrish/
- Strong by Science: Max Schmarzo posts highly intelligent bits of training information. Sometimes in videos, sometimes in charts, sometimes in quotes and sometimes in infographics. Each way he does it is very effective. Creative but never gimmicky he practices what he preaches. It’s obvious that he is a total geek for this stuff and that’s what makes his page legit. He has an appreciation for the history and science behind strength and conditioning but is also intermixing the very latest in what research says is effective. For good reminders, new tweaks on old moves and just great sound advice give Strong by Science a look – https://www.instagram.com/strong_by_science/
- Pamela Gagnon: I think it’s important to follow a mix of coaches who have a great general understanding of strength and conditioning principles but then also follow people who have a very specific skill set that they can help you with. This is why I have chosen Pamela Gagnon this year. For all things related to core, relative strength, body control and awareness follow Pamela. Why? Well she is a gymnast and gymnasts are bad ass athletes. If you have kids and a good gymnastics coach near by you should consider exposing your kids to this type of training. The athletic development that gymnastics creates is seconds to none in my opinion. As a clinician who treats people from all walks of life I can immediately tell when someone has a gymnastics background no matter how poor of shape they are currently in. Okay, back to Pamela. She works very closely with one of our choices for last year’s list, The Barbell Physio, Zach Long. Together they put together some awesome programs but she alone has incredible tutorials on how to achieve certain gymnastics or body weight movements. Want to learn how to perform a perfect pull up or push up? How about working towards your first muscle up or true hollow rockers? Again, for all things gymnasticy give her account a try – https://www.instagram.com/pamelagnon/
- Strong First: Strong First is the baby of renowned strength coach Pavel Tsatsouline. Pavel’s primary message is strength trumps all. We’ve couldn’t agree more. Movement Guides co-owner and coach Matt Wattles has been saying this to me for years, “All other things being held constant, the point at which stronger is no longer better is almost impossible to achieve.” Strong First is a great follow and it’s profile Linktree gives you access to a ton of free content in the forms of podcasts and articles. If you’re looking for a specific reason to explore this page, pay particularly close attention to their kettlebell tutorials. I have found some great new cues and coaching tips that have helped me better teach kettlebell movements. Pavel was recently a guest on the Joe Rogan Experience Podcast and he gave some great training advice and specific rep schemes to try. For simple, evidence based training advice that will require little equipment and maximize strength gains follow Strong First – https://www.instagram.com/strongfirst/
- Translating Human Performance: What’s the best measure of athletic ability? Probably the ability to jump. If you can get people to jump higher or further you are probably doing something right with your training and programming. Jumping high or far requires a great strength to weight ratio. It requires a necessary amount prerequisite strength and then the ability to apply that strength suddenly. Coach John Evans has the best account dedicated to all things jumping. Coach Evans nerds out on the mechanics, angles, tissue properties, and programming, He highlights differences between sports, between one foot and two foot jumps, between approaches, the list goes on. I love when I find someone who truly understands a certain niche and this account highlights just that. Besides the information the videos show some of the most amazing jumps and dunks you’ll ever see, which is just fun to watch. To learn more about jumping follow Translating Human Performance – https://www.instagram.com/translatinghumanperformance/
So there you have it, the top 5 strength coach Instagram accounts to follow in 2020. We hope you enjoy the mix of general content brought to you by Coach Garrish, Strong by Science and Strong First as well as some more specific content via Pamela Gnon and Translating Human Performance. Take a moment to follow these impressive coaches (and us, follow Movement Guides too!).
UPDATE!! Check out our list of the top Strength Coach Accounts to follow on Instagram – 2021 Edition
Also, read our other blog where we list the Top Physical Therapy Instagram Accounts to follow in 2020
Thanks you for your time!
Kyle Sela, PT, DPT, OCS, SCS
Co-Founder, Movement Guides, Inc.
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