I really hate it when people go, "It's easy for you to workout and eat right, you work in a gym." Or, my favorite "it's easy for you to be in shape, you get paid to work out all day." WTF is that, yeah, I work out all day..... The truth about this whole working out and being "in shape" thing: It Sure as Hell isn't Easy. If it was everyone would do it and most are not. Fact is: MOST people in the United States are overweight. (the number is somewhere around 60-70%). That's Fu#king Atrocious. I'm not going to be one of those "You're fat cause you're stupid and lazy" guys. Cause, you're not stupid.....you know what you should do AND you're not … [Read more...]
On Weight Belts and How Not to Blow out Your Back
Weight Belts, they're Totally Misunderstood. Some research says: Weight Belts Don't Work. <----but this is mostly in occupational settings and has, for reasons I can't understand been extrapolated to the athletic performance arena. Some, most, research says: Yes, They Do. Here's a really nice research review, kinda old, but still pretty good. And that dude at the gym, the guy with the jorts and sweet rat-tail, he's always wearing one. But he's a total tool, The HUGE guy who deadlifts 5 plates for reps, he uses one too. And he's the strongest guy there.... So what's the deal? The deal is: [Tweet "Weight Belts are Used Wrong 99% of the … [Read more...]
10 Random Thoughts on the Deadlift
#1: No, The Deadlift Doesn't Blow Out Backs: People are generally really scared of this lift and it's because this is, "deadlifts destroy your back" mind virus has permeated the culture for, since forever. It needs to stop. That sh@t YOU did, that blew out your back, it wasn't even a deadlift to begin with. [Tweet "Don't blame an exercise for your sh@tty technique."] #2: When I started this whole creating disciples to one day take over the world Training People Thing, no one Except me Deadlifted. I'm dead serious about this. <-----see what I did there? In college at (The) Towson University the ONLY people I ever saw deadlifting were with me or in the … [Read more...]
On Gym Etiquette and not Being “That Guy”.
You're Gonna Do It This Year. You're going to stop spending 25% of your day ingesting worthless, no low value infotainment at he the price of your health and wellbeing. [Tweet "It's ok, Kim, Khloe and Kourtney won't even know you're gone and they can keep up with themselves."] Hell, you made a New Years Resolution. Like that means anything. But sarcasm aside, this is what you're dealing with: It gets rough. Mostly cause it's like 10lbs of sh@t in a 5lbs bag, but partly cause there are lots of total A-holes out there. Here's your, New to the Whole Fitness Thing, survival guide. Lets start things off with the basics: Don't curl in the squat rack. This … [Read more...]
Eat Whatever the Hell You Want Till January 2nd.
Stop Worrying about How Much Weight You'll Gain Between Christmas and New Years. You hear all these stories about X,Y,Z gaining 10lbs last year and Uncle Don is going to tell you how if it wasn't for this time of year he'd still be at his "playing weight". You'll read all these articles about: "How to keep off Holiday Weight Gain" "How Not to Get Fat this Holiday" "Skip the Cookies and Eat some Carrots" "Quick Workouts to Keep Christmas Cookies Fatness at Bay" and other assorted BS. These are mostly people parroting what they hear and see and the media doing what it does using scare tactics to feed into the over-inflated fears of holiday weight gain. A local … [Read more...]
Yeah, But He’s Not Certified in That….
When does Human Anatomy and Basic Biomechanics not Matter Anymore? When the certifying agency says so... First off, I love the TRX. I think it's a great product and the educational back-end support on their site is really first class. They mostly get it right, especially for the non-"fitness professional" user. Point of Contention: People shouldn't do pushups like this. From Mens Health, not TRX, but that's kinda sorta how they show it in the manual. It just ain't right. The head of your humerus is all up in your acromion process and stuff. As my Freak Beast of a friend, THE Alex Goldberg recently said in regards to TRX pushups: <---on my … [Read more...]
“Ohhh, She Takes Care of Herself” on Maytrdom and False Sacrifice
Recent Facebook Conversation: Friend: "Hey my kids just started at a new school and really feel like the fat kid. I need to start working out." Me: "That would be a good thing. Let me know what you need help with." Friend: "You can Tell All the Moms Here Take Care of Themselves" "Don't know how they do it" "I just don't have the time". When I hear this it strikes me as: Weird Sad Shouldn't we all Take Care of Ourselves? Isn't that really important? Since when did "Taking Care of Yourself" become something that is out of the ordinary? Shouldn't that be the default? Especially in a society that has the time to consume 8 hours of … [Read more...]