A client got me a Kindle for Christmas and I must say this thing is an impressive little device. Any who, when Dan Johns book Never Let Go became a Kindle freebie a couple of weeks ago I snatched it up. (It's $10 now, but still worth it). Now this bad boy is long, 418 pages but it's a really easy read and every article/ story is really good. They're mostly reprinted, old articles, from T-nation.com, in fact I had already read most of them but after reading them again I'm reminded of how easy it is to forget things we "know". Here's a quick synopsis of the book: Learn and do the basics: Squat, deadlift, clean, bench...you know the stuff they judge to be … [Read more...]
Why Everyone Learns to Squat
February 17, 2012 by
Virtually (not always if they don't stick around long enough) every client I train learns to squat. We're talking 90% or better, obviously I think it's important. So I was caught off guard a little this week when I got hit with this gem by a "fitness professional" none the less (paraphrasing): "You know, you should only have experienced athletes squat because it's bad for the back and knees and it's non functional. I went to a seminar and learned there's just too much spinal compression to justify using it." at first I was in disbelief for these reasons: I just met this person an hour before. they told me every fallacy attached to the exercise in 2 … [Read more...]
FitnessTerms I Wish Would Die
February 14, 2012 by
Every profession (and I'm using that term loosely in reference to my own) has terms, sayings, whatever, that make people in that profession cringe every time they hear them. These are mostly made up pseudo science terms that have a BS definition. Sometimes these are real scientific terms that are bastardized to mean something other than what they actually mean, in the rest of the world. Honorable Mention: Momentum Momentum as used in "fitness"- think Planet Fitness, no more than a 50lbs dumbbells we don't judge unless you unless you dead lift, grunt or try to do anything worthwhile, in which case you don't fit our mold and we judge you to be a "Lunk". Don't … [Read more...]
Geezers, Get up and lift a damn weight..
February 7, 2012 by
During my undergraduate education the dogma of the day regarding exercise and aging went something like this, "When you get old you will lose all your muscle and die". Well not quite. maybe it was more like, "When you get old you should do "weight bearing" exercise to maintain muscle mass, but you'll lose all our muscle eventually anyway, become a invalid and die small and weak, as a gelatinous mound of carbon/ protein based goop". Well guess what? 1980's exercise we like aerobics class, cause 10lbs dumbbell curls do something Yoda's...You are dead wrong...again.... I covered why you geezers should be lifting heavy weights before: Geezers are (Strong) … [Read more...]
Groundhog Day, Training, Bill Murray and Doing the Same Thing All the Time
February 2, 2012 by
Groundhog day, the Bill Murray movie, not the actual "holiday" that centers around Punxsutawney Phil, describes most gym goers workouts...... metaphorically speaking that is. Many people do, the same thing day after day. Basically they heard something, somewhere, and decided that X,Y,Z was the ticket and eventually, if they bang their head into the wall hard enough, a magical switch will take place and they'll be in great shape all of a sudden. Never mind that Albert Einstein guy: Think about it, how many people get on the treadmill everyday and run their ass off, at the same pace, in hopes of a better body but never get anywhere? Or worse that damn … [Read more...]
Beginners Suck…and it’s the “Trainers” Fault
January 26, 2012 by
While it's getting to the end of New Years resolution gym rush time, there are still some more motivated guys and gals who have hung on. These people are still beginners, I'm talking like total newbies. Yeah, they bought an issue of Men's Health or whatever and they took the centerfold, fold-out, workout out of it and they carry it around the gym and so the exercises for the sets and reps prescribed, but let's face it, they suck. Now they don't suck a little, like as in, not good or that's wrong, but they suck a LOT- a- bit. This isn't to bash on these folks, they've overcome a lot just to get to this sucky point and quite honestly it's not entirely their … [Read more...]
Who works on the weekend? Not me, I read!
January 21, 2012 by
My morning perusal of the interwebs left me with a bounty of good articles...so good you should read them too. Some Thoughts on Louie and Westside- Charlie Weingroff Mr. Weingroff is super smart and his thoughts on neck packing really influenced my training the last year. I know, it's like ummm "packing your neck" made a difference? Yeah, yeah it did.. This article is awesome, covers several misconceptions and arguments against the Westside Philosophy. Plus the videos range from informative to down right cool..Best part is in the first video when Louie says he has physicists and engineers come out to evaluate training. I've said it before and I'll say it … [Read more...]
Dave Tate on Human Potential/ Drugs in Sports/ Passion etc..
January 20, 2012 by
Dave Tate speaks the TRUTH about human potential and drugs in sports.... http://youtu.be/R7WUHVA9lqE He makes the point I was talking about here: Achievement, 10,000 hours, Grit and why you're not a pro athlete... … [Read more...]
