JC...extra studly.
This is a first for me and I sure hope you enjoy it. I wanted to add a certain level of insight that a dialogue can allow for that a long-winded article doesn’t. JC’s blog, JCDFitness, is a voice of common sense for younger guys starting off on their fitness adventure. On top of that, JC is the dude who designed my new banner, which I think is pretty bad ass. I wanted to dig into JC’s brain for some perspective on a variety of topics. read more…
Athletes, especially those whose training is more than a gentle passtime, will injure themselves. Sprains, strains, pulls, or if you’re full of reckless abandon, deep gashes will occur. This article will deal with sprains, strains, and pulls (ssp’s from here on in), specifically what works, what doesn’t, and tricks to increase the speed of recovery. read more…
I know a few of my readers have recently been exposed to the work of Dr. Doug McGuff, specifically of the Body By Science fame. I’ve known Doug for about 4 years and known of him for about 8; he’s incredibly intelligent and dedicated to improving the health and fitness of his clientel and beyond. He’s to be commended. Prior to BBS, many of us knew of Doug through his “Ultimate Exercise Bulletin 1,” especially if you were from the early days of Superslow/HIT. We were (and still are) a certain type of crazy, as I’ve demonstrated.
The man in the video I’m going to post is named Doug Holland. Doug owns a training facility in Shriveport, Louisiana called “Intelligent Exercise” and he’s quite a role model for me. Doug is a champion powerlifter, successful business man and crazy in the best way possible. Not only does he put his money where his mouth is, namely train hard and brief, but he’s given me great practical advice for my own facility. Here’s a video of him getting a kill BBS-style workout in under 10 minutes.
Just a couple more videos showing the Eccentric Edge piece for vertical press/pull work.
The last video is a bit dark throughout but still gives you an idea after having seen the other videos…you do miss my power clean to get the lever up high enough, though.
I have attempted to explain this apparatus a few times to friends or on various message boards with poor results, so we finally took a video.
Unless you’re brutally strong (like Mark is) you don’t need 2 people. Either of us could have moved the weight; it would have been a sizeable deadlift, but it is possible to overload the negative with only one training partner. This is one of the many things we do at my studio; for you “power law” folk, this is as intense as it gets.
I love sleep. Really. I get more than enough and nap like an 80 year old man, which is to say daily. My mother thought I had mono when I was in high school because I slept so much. This post isn’t about sleep.
Hibernation is something I find very interesting from a hormonal/metabolic standpoint. Intermittent living, if you will. And while there have been articles written recently, specifically Graham Robb’s “The Big Sleep”, there is no actual evidence for humans hibernating, unless you count what an 18th century traveller reports as evidence. If you do, I hear there are humans who grow to be 12 feet tall near the southern tip of South America. I digress.
For me, during the summer I want to eat. A lot. My attention turns toward wanting to put on loads of muscle tissue via a superior hormonal environment and that comes with extra food intake. But in the winter, I want to get lean, see my abs, see veins on my abs. This seems very backwards, especially if you consider what Frank Forenchich says about heat blunting our appetite. I can’t tie this to activity, as I’m not especially the outdoorsy type and tend to play more basketball during the late fall/winter/early spring period, as Texas winters mean the afternoon is just right for the sport while summers steam your face off. To my point, it seems to make sense that we’d fatten up to get ready for winter, even if we’re not hibernating. Occam’s Razor is often very, very wrong, however.
So my question to you, my readers, is this: What is your ebb and flow of season appetite? Do you notice something similar to what I’ve experienced?
Most fitness programs are the same and only differ in how they apply the basic elements of fitness and health:
- To get stronger/gain more muscle, you have to lift more weight or do more work.
- To lose fat, you will have to lower calories or burn more than you take in.
- To get better at an activity, you will have to practice the activity.
Unless you’re a genetically abnormal individual, this holds for everyone…you are not special. read more…
A funny thing happens after a parent dies, especially when you feel it happened much, much too soon: you become Type-A with your hair on fire. Well, maybe not you, but in my case it was a nice reminder that death is very real and you have no idea how much you value your health until you lose it. My mother, throughout her chemo treatments, said to me, “I miss working out so, so much.” So since she has died, I’ve been applying much of those “I’d like to do that someday” sentiments in my life, and this includes my workouts. read more…
Hell on the hips, actually.
Never mind that the color pallet is nearly the same, this is about the claim from each that they mimick bare feet for running/jumping/peacocking. read more…
