Things that piss me off in "Fitness": Ohh how I loathe: CrossFit for competitive athletes and average people and for that matter anyone who doesn't plan on competing in CrossFit...btw Robb Wolf agrees Yoga/ Pilates to lose weight (and cure cancer) Group Exercise class, especially the choreographed kind The Bender ball Unstable surface training Distance Running Opinons passed off as scientifically tested truth: BROSCIENCE! But Nothing and I mean NOTHING pisses me off like training children as if they are adults. That, my friends is the epitome of ignorance in physical preparation. This morning I got an email from a friend who is coaching his … [Read more...]
Warm-Up Warriors: Overboard or on Target?
June 7, 2012 by
"It's cool to pee your pants"- Billy Madison (Adam Sandler) http://youtu.be/Bv6pjoKLPSY Obviously that's a load of B.S., it's not cool to pee your pants, it's probably the exact opposite of cool, it's anything but cool, it's totally uncool...... and that's how I feel about warm-ups.... Seriously, they suck, they are UN-COOL. No matter how many articles I read about how awesome the foam roller is or this stretch is or that mobility drill is they all suck as far as I'm concerned. They are boring as hell and detract from time that can be spent being awesome (smashing weight, eating meat, being a costumed crime fighter) But here's the deal: YOU GOTTA DO … [Read more...]
Stuff From the Web
March 21, 2012 by
This post is basically a rip off of the "Good Reads" format that Ben Bruno and Tony Gentilcore do every week. I went through the interwebs this morning and found a plethora of really good articles and blog posts... Carl Valle at EliteTrack.com discusses Peyton Manning and how posture can play a HUGE role in athletic performance. NFL Dead Pool- Mannings Neck Watch 4 Carl's blog over there is consistently really good, short, concise and always making a very strong, really smart point. 4 Pillars of Good Health by Adam Bornstein. For many people, the physical aspect is what’s lacking. We convince ourselves that being social, working, and spending time with the … [Read more...]
Book Review: Advances in Functional Training
March 8, 2012 by
Damn you Kindle your portability and way cheaper books! Damn You..... Actually, it's really awesome. After I finished Never let Go by Dan John, review (which was picked up and put out on Dan John's email blast) here, I picked up Mike Boyle's latest book Advance in Functional Training. It's the third book Mike Boyle has put out and it is BY FAR the best. The first book Functional Training for Sports was one of the very first books on training I ever bought and at the time a seminal "pick up and apply" book in the field. You could buy the book read it in a couple of days, understand or at least apply the concepts and you would be better off than most of the people … [Read more...]
The Combine, what I like and a really stupid test.
March 5, 2012 by
Admittedly, I like the NFL combine. Not as much as I used to but I still think it's kinda cool to watch. These guys are absolute freaks of nature and even a "poor" performance by them is an outstanding performance by 99% of people. Plus it's nice to see what these guys can actually do. Too often during college football games we hear that kid A squats 500lbs and kid B benches 450...Do these numbers happen? YES! They just don't happen for 3-5 players on every team...Let's face it, coaches lie to media. Ever seen a media guide with accurate heights and weights? ......Neither have I. Many strength coaches are notorious for lax standards on testing and report … [Read more...]
Book Review: Never Let Go- I read that sh*t
February 22, 2012 by
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...]
