Cornerstone Strength and Conditioning

11/01/2026

Currently hiring a full-time/part-time Strength & Conditioning Coach

Looking for a new recruit to grow and lead our youth and athletes in the Hunter!

We’re seeking a confident, growth-driven S&C Coach who wants responsibility, leadership, and real influence to shape athletes and adults in the Hunter

22/07/2025

If you've got an area of the body that's known to be chronically stiff, chances are it's going to be the next area of injury :(

Swipe across to see how you can prevent / improve this
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22/07/2025

Ah yes, the elusive pull-up—the arch nemesis of many and the pinnacle of strength for others. To some, they look effortless. To others, they feel a lifetime away.

Over the past decade, we’ve helped a person or two get their first one. I wanted to share some thoughts—some technical, some observational—on the journey. My favourite story? A lady who got her first pull-up after a few gins at the Christmas party. Sometimes, you have to forget how weak you think you are, to realise how strong you actually are. 😉

Why You Don’t Have Pull-Ups Yet

Here are the three main reasons most people struggle:

1. You’re too heavy
Strap 20kg to anyone and it becomes a massive challenge. For many, the fastest way to progress is to shed a few kilos. (Not a weight-loss post, just reality.) Yes, technically, it’s about building enough muscle to overcome your body weight—but it’s often easier to lose 5kg than to add the muscle required to match it.

2. You’re not strong enough
Your lats, rhomboids, and arms do the heavy lifting here—literally.

3. You lack shoulder mobility
If you’ve only trained partial-range pulls, or have had an injury that affects scapula retraction, you’ll struggle to get your chin over the bar.



Now What?

Once you figure out which of those apply (and it might be all three), it’s time to get to work.

Firstly though, I can’t stress enough 2 things.

a) Its usually a long game, and you have to be patient. It’s a movement that for most, you have to commit to small improvements because there’s not usually any quick wins.

b) Do too much (or not correctly) and you’ll pay the price with some sort of tendonopathy (golfers or tennis elbow) which will put you back months.

Within our Cornerstone level system, we have a rough outline of milestones, however today I put together a detailed document outlining the milestones to hit, the timeline, and the movements/things to focus on when you run into roadblocks.

If you're interested, drop us a comment below and we'll send it through, no strings or spam attached.

15/07/2025

As an athlete, I trained in the gym for almost 15 years before I actually did proper S&C.

So why is Strength & Conditioning Important for Athletes (especially youth athletes)?

I'm not going to list the normal ones you can research yourself, the following are the benefits I, and we find.

1. Strength build confidence, confidence improves performance. Self explanatory, but very underrated.

2. Slow down to speed up. Having a better connection with your body allows you to build neurological pathways faster. In order to do this, performing movements slow allows us to 'feel'. Feeling builds connection to our body, and connection is critical when we're asking it to do things at speed. The ability to feel your foot pushing through the ground is critical to putting more force through the ground when trying to run faster.

3. Add elements to your game. More strength and confidence meant I was able to contest and tackle harder, and come out on top. It completely shifted many more elements, but if that's not in your game, it can be.

4. Strength is the foundation for speed for athletes. Full-stop.

5. Wasting time on silly conditioning or pointless endurance work kills your energy, and other parts of your game

6. Adaptability. As athletes, we can find ourselves in a small box. Being able to lift heavy, move different ways, be more mobile, juggle etc makes you more adaptive, and being more adaptive leads to having more tools in your toolbox to respond to a dynamic environment.

14/07/2025

SURROUND YOURSELF WITH PEOPLE WHO ADD VALUE TO YOUR LIFE!

🔥 Who challenge you to be greater than you were yesterday.

🔥 Who sprinkle magic into your existence, just like you do to theirs.

Our journey isn’t meant to be taken alone. Find your tribe, work hard and inspire each other.
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26/05/2025

The Importance of Being Able to Backflip… And Why Things Often Suck (At First)

Last weekend at the trampoline park, I saw a dad doing backflips — total mad dad flex 💪😎.
My 4-year-old asked, “Daddy, can you do that?”
“No way,” I said.
But deep down… I wished I could 🤔.

Which brings me to this: everyone trains for different reasons — but at Cornerstone, one of our core values is Growth Mindset 🌱.

It means being curious, being okay with being a beginner, and having the guts to try 💥.

As we get older, we lose that. We stick to what we know. And sure, there’s value in that — I wore the same soccer boots for 10 years 👟. But I still tried new pairs every now and then 🧠.

The real danger? When we stop exploring altogether. That’s when we lose adaptability — physically and mentally 🥀. In your 30s it’s inconvenient. In your 70s, it’s life or death ⚠️.

That’s why we program things that feel hard, boring, or frustrating — because we care. Not just about your sweat, strength, or physique — but you 🧠❤️. Your resilience. Your long-term health.

Handstands suck at first 🤸‍♂️. They feel pointless — until that first moment you float on your hands.
Juggling frustrates most people 🪄. But link those throws together? Addictive.
Push-ups? Boring when you can only do two. But build your strength and suddenly: rings, dips, heavy carries, bench — fun 💪🎯.

It’s always the same: everything is a skill. Even strength. It takes time and patience 🛠️.

You don’t need to train the same way for six months, but you do need to build foundations. And that means mastering the basics 🧱.

We say it often: Basics Build Beasts 🐗.

Fancy stuff’s everywhere. But you can always tell who’s earned it — and who’s faking it 🎭.

At Cornerstone, we’re here to lay those strong foundations so you can build as high as you want — without it all toppling over 🏗️.

If you’re tired of spinning your wheels and ready to build real strength — you know where to find us 🚀.

As for me, I’m off to work on those backflips. I’ve got a long way to go. Wish me luck 🤞😅

Cheers,
Mike

20/05/2025

2 missing ingredients for strength... or why you're not getting stronger.

I’m not going to go into too much of the nuance today, because there’s a number of reasons.

Consistency, adequate recovery/nutrition, too much variety are just a couple.

But lets just say you’re turning up to the gym consistently, you eat pretty well with at least 1.5g / kg of protein per day, and you follow a half decent program.

Whats missing?

Honestly, I think for a lot of people, there are two defining factors we see.

1. You don't know how to activate and isolate the muscles you're trying to work.
2. You simply aren't working hard enough

Lets address the first one. Ever heard of a physio or someone tell you (or someone else) they don't know how to activate or switch on your glutes (or other muscle group)? Probably. Essentially, if you cant activate your lats, you’ll struggle to improve or ever get a pull-up. If you can’t create tension in your glutes, you’ll never reach your potential on a deadlift.

So how do you do it? Here’s some things that we find can work well.

1. Find a position or load you can find some semblance of tension, hold that position and squeeze… hard. For glutes, I like a simple glute bridge.
2. Once you can feel it, try to spend another 10-30sec trying to create more tension in the muscle.
3. Once you’ve done that, and there’s a bit of fatigue there, do a few reps (ie glute bridges) and try to maintain the same tension and feeling.
4. Once you can do that, go back to the movement (ie deadlift) and work through a parital range of motion and make sure you can feel it. Extend to a bigger range of motion if you can.
5. Once you can do that with a light or no load, then add load and slowly build.

Follow the same process for say pull-ups. I love to start with a banded or cable row and try to get the tension in the lats. Then build to the same thing but more overhead. Remember keep it light. Once you can do that, add load. Then complete scap pull-ups (trying to get tension - which is hard) and also work on chin over bar holds while trying to get lots of tension through the lats and the back. Once you can get tension in the top and bottom positions, then work on the eccentrics, and then full reps. It can be a long process, but its better than being a human who can’t do one.

NOW…. onto the second reason, not working hard enough.

This is a little 50:50. In many respects, honestly, many people just don't know how or aren't confident pushing themselves from a strength perspective. Again, there’s a number of reasons for this. Just know if you’re in the not confident boat, find a good coach/environment and just keep practicing and you’ll get there.

The other 50% just don’t really want to. And that’s totally fine. Just don’t complain about not hitting PB’s. We have heaps of people in the gym in this category. They’re happy just to chip away because its maintenance for them and they’re here for different reasons. TOTALLY AWESOME! �
However, if you do want to get stronger, most of the time, you need to be doing sets where you only have 1-3 reps in reserve. That means if there are 5 sets, you have AT LEAST 3 sets where you’re working close to the limit. Many people ‘build’ and end up having just 1 ‘working’ set. You dont have to be a rocket scientist to know that’s probably not going to cut the mustard.

I’m not saying every set for your whole session needs to be super hard, but you do need quite a few. For those who arent confident, this is ESPECIALLY important. You cant build confidence off 1 top set. Plus that 1 top set is rarely your best technique. I love to go back and hit 1-2 more sets at the top weight to feel like I have that weight locked in. You know what to expect so you have an opportunity to do it that little bit better, and given enough rest, I find the sets afterwards are usually much more solid.

AND, by doing more sets at the top weight, you have an opportunity to combine the two things I’ve spoken about today, being pushing yourself and ACTIVATION. Learning how to create tension while moving a heavy load is a HUGE advantage, and something you absolutely need to get stronger.

Hope this helps

11/05/2025

Netballers and all field court athletes… groins are often neglected but so important.

First time people do these they really struggle.

It can be helpful to think of your leg like a square. You want to make sure you’re putting work into not just your quads and hammys/glutes, but your groins and lateral quad/glute meds as well, ESPECIALLY if your sport involves changing direction.

08/05/2025

06/05/2025

CONFIDENCE

The most important thing our kids and parents want from the youth program, whether they say it or not.

When we talk about goals, kids will never say confidence, or parents when face to face. But when we get parents on the phone, confidence is at the forefront of their mind.

Few things in this world give kids the confidence they feel from getting to understand how their body works, how to use it, and getting stronger.

Confidence comes from proving to yourself you can do what you say you’re going to do.

Love watching these kids grow in confidence.

05/05/2025

MOBILITY MATTERS

Everyone wants it.
Most hate doing it.

It’s not just about sweating and getting stronger. It’s about moving with freedom.

Most of us neglect our groins, but they’re essential for doing anything even modestly athletic.

What’s Jaspers groins screaming at him here?

21/04/2025

Really excited to see someone step into this opportunity. Most people in the fitness/coaching industry know how hard it is to find a full-time role, a fulfilling role doing something you're passionate about and also having autonomy and potential for growth. Im proud that we have close to 4 full-time team members which not many gyms can say.

That's the opportunity in front at the moment.

This Isn’t Just a Coaching Gig We’re searching for someone driven & ready to own of a key role in both facilities, particularly with our athletes.