Michael Boyle

Michael Boyle is an expert in strength and conditioning and what’s often called functional training, and while he coaches daily during the workday, he also writes articles and book, and lectures nationally a couple-dozen times a year. He’s the co-founder of Mike Boyle Strength and Conditioning, where he trains athletes from junior high to collegiate level to All Stars in almost every major professional sport. I think he’d agree, however, where he learns the most difficult training lessons is with his aging, chronic-pain-ridden adults, who invariably improve in mobility and ability under his expert guidance.

Prior his work at MBSC, Michael was the head strength and conditioning coach at Boston University, where he continues as the strength and conditioning coach for men’s ice hockey. The eight years prior, he was the strength and conditioning coach for the Boston Bruins of the National Hockey League; he was also the strength and conditioning coach for the 1998 US Women’s Olympic Ice Hockey Team, the Gold Medalists in Nagano, and served as a consultant for the USA Hockey National Team Development Program.

Michael has produced more than a dozen instructional videos — the newest being the recently released Functional Strength Coach 3, a 10-DVD set. His first book, Functional Training for Sports was a huge seller, and his second book, Designing Strength Training Programs and Facilities, has helped thousands of trainers and coaches during the setup of their training facilities. These books and DVDs are available through Perform Better.

My introduction to Michael was through his Functional Training for Sports book, a gift in 2004 from my friend Byron Chandler, who knew chronic pain was starting to get the best of me. I read the book, but alas, I was not yet ready to understand what his training philosophy had to offer. I thought it was a good book with interesting ideas… for coaches and athletes, not for me.

Fast forward a couple of years when I began to get a clue; I re-read FTS, and went to work on the program. That training began a learning process that shaped my physical training and learning for the past several years. Fast forward again, as Michael and I began occasional email conversations, which led to our discussion earlier this summer to a project that became the new book, Advances in Functional Training.

It’s been an enormously busy summer and fall for him; I hope he’s taking a short break between projects, but I’d be willing to take a bet he’s got something simmering already. Michael lives with his wife and two children near Boston, and can be reached for article or lecture inquiries at his MBSC facility via his website, bodybyboyle.com.