Long, Long, Ago.. In a Distant Land, Circa 2014 There was this dude. Jaret Grossman. At the time he was putting out these, fairly well done and if not enjoyable, tolerable motivational YouTube fitness videos. Little did he, or we, know at the time that 2 of the stars of his videos, both, virtual unknowns at the time would become fitness superstars. One was Marc Megna The other was future instafamous duck butt sensation Jen Selter And just to cut to the chase she's had a LOT of influence on the whole fill your ass with cement in a Miami hotel room cause that's not sketchy at all fitness culture that's been around since circa … [Read more...]
You Should Do This: Offset RDL
May 16, 2018 by
Sometimes I think, "WOW that would be a GREAT exercise." "I wonder why no one has done them before? I'm so smart." Then I search the YouTube and learn. People already do it. Have done it for years. I'm not that smart and mostly. THERE IS NOTHING NEW IN EXERCISE. Except Tri-phasic training, that was legit new. Its ALL been done before. So when I had a false ephipany and thought, "Offset RDL's would be a GREAT exercise. I'm glad I thought of them." I hadn't. Within 3 days, I saw a video of them on the Instagram. Silver Lining: That's kind of a good thing, finding that other people do actually think these are worthwhile. Why? Because that … [Read more...]
Half Kneeling: It’ll Fix What Ails Ya.
May 9, 2018 by
Q: What Makes Everything Harder? A: Half Kneeling... Do it in half kneeling and it's harder. Shoulder Press Corner Press Cable Row Pallof Press Do them in half kneeling, go ahead, use less weight... Its harder. Why? In the words of Gray Cook: "Tall and Half Kneeling Positions force you to OWN your position" In My Words, "You Can't Half-Ass, Half-Kneeling" When in Half-Kneeling it's really tough to hide your weaknesses with NO LOAD. Add even minimal loads and there's no denying it. Half-Kneeling is an Inherently Unstable Position. Yes, it tries to put you on your ass. Unless you align, activate, brace and move with solid, effective … [Read more...]
Wrist Wraps Do as Much For Elbows as Wrists.
May 3, 2018 by
Wrist Wraps = Healthy, Happy, Wrists And Elbows Elbows Yes, elbows. Wrist Wraps do Two Obvious Things: 1: "Cast" your wrist in place so the hand and forearm stay aligned. This ABSOLUTELY helps you LIFT MORE WEIGHT. 2: Keeping the wrist aligned also keeps a LOT of stress off the wrist joint and helps keep the wrists happy and healthy. Already covered #2 in this article: Bent Wrists, Loose Grips = Fire Elbow and it Sucks But the less obvious benefit is: Wrist Wraps Protect You From FIRE ELBOW Wait But What: It's all connected, nothing functions in isolation and: What Happens at One Joint Affects ALL Other Joints Maybe the effect is small, but there is an … [Read more...]
You Should Do This: “The Worlds Greatest Stretch” AKA Groiners W/ Rotation
April 25, 2018 by
"The Worlds Greatest Stretch" Pretty sure I first heard that term applied to this exercise in this book. Circa 2005 (and the book was 2-3 years old then). Fun Fact: Core Performance was the 2nd real "training" book I ever bought. The first was Functional Training for Sports. Core Performance is a book that, unfortunately, I didn't recommend for a long time. It has a really heavy focus on movement, mobility, and "integration". At the time I read it I was 22-23ish and bulletproof. So I was like, "WTF is all this "movement" about, you gotta smash some weight". Well, what I didn't have was experience, perspective and humility. 1) I should have known, at … [Read more...]
Fake News: Understanding Science and The Media, Part 3
April 19, 2018 by
If you missed Part 1 and/ or Part 2 click the links, read them and then pick back up here.. Fake News Part 1 Fake News Part 2 This is a long one folks, about 4500 words. Wanted to get this trilogy done and back to the regular fitness stuff. A note on the long quotes. I often get accused of taking things out of context. So I included the context. "I Don't Want to go "On" Creatine. I Want to be Natural. " Maybe I'm wrong but the whole "on"/ "off" something has to do with steroid lingo. Where you cycle on and off of this or that steroid. I think it's safe to say, when people say this, they're pretty much implying: creatine is either like or is an anabolic … [Read more...]
Fake News: Understanding Science and The Media, Part 2
April 11, 2018 by
This is a continuation from Part 1 which you can find by clicking here: Fake News, Part 1 BTW: this a LITERAL continuation. I wrote the post in its entirety. it was 7,000 words and ain't nobody got time for that. So I tried to find logical ending points every 1500-2500 words and break it up. SO, like I said, GO READ PART 1. Then come back and hit up part 2. Artificial Sweeteners Cause Weight Gain I'm not gonna lie, I hear this the most and it always has me feeling like: Wait But What? Artificial sweeteners have a VERY low-calorie content. For all intended purposes its ZERO. How the hell could they cause weight gain? "A new meta-analysis and … [Read more...]
Fake News: Science and The Media, Part 1
April 5, 2018 by
*Be forewarned this is the first in a series of posts. There is literally NO TRANSITION from one to the next. The original post was about 7000 words and aint no body got time for that. So I chopped it up into readable bites. Literally I decided on what I thought were good points to rest and CUT and PASTE into the next post. So they do stop and start a bit abruptly, but you're smart and can handle it. The intention is to educate a bit on some science(y) type stuff you may not really understand so that you have the tools to be more mistrustful educated and skeptical about media driven science. So the next time you hear "A new study out today" from some mouthpiece on the … [Read more...]
