The Perfect Christmas Present
The holiday season is fast approaching, and before the Black Friday rush at the local shopping outlets I want to let you in on what THE perfect Christmas present is.
Ready?
Olympic Lifting shoes.
Yea, I know. Perfect and you’re ready to go shopping.
Wait, why are you staring at me with that dumb look on your face? Isn’t this self explanatory?
Ok, well this is a two part answer. First I’ll talk to the women folk, so guys leave the room or just scroll past the next paragraph.
For the ladies:
Well hello ladies. I’m going to be frank here. Buy you’re men Olympic lifting shoes because they will help make them stronger. Here are some of the many reasons why you need your man to be stronger:
1. Zombies
2. You’re getting stronger and its embarrassing to be able to open the jars your gentlemen caller cannot
3. All men want to get stronger, if not they are what’s colloquially known as “fancy men”
4. On second thought, they are not men at all
5. Every time the man in your life accidentally puts on your jeans and they fit a kitten commits ritualistic suicide
6. Did I already mention Zombies
7. Oly shoes will help stabilize the knees during heavy lifting and help prevent injury
8. You can give the gift of increased dorsiflexion that they always wanted
Now girls, go away and go buy the shoes or talk about purses or put make up on house pets or whatever ya’ll do when no one is watching.
Are you gone? Its hard to see over the internets.
Guys come back.
You remember that episode of the Simpson’s where Homer bought Marge a bowling ball that said “Homer” for her birthday?
Foiled again womens!
Trick question! If you said no you’re a girl and you need to go away
Here’s how this work:
1. Buy Oly shoes and encourage squatting
2. They squat
3. You get this to look at
SQUAT BUTT!
Things I like more than Squat Butt: nothing to include bacon
So in summation: give the gift that keeps on giving and buy some Olympic Lifting shoes for Christmas.
Also, than I wouldn’t make you take your shoes off on strength days.
Shoe links (in order from most to least expensive)
Read MorePrimal Body, Primal Mind Podcast
Primal Body, Primal Mind is one of the most through and well researched Paleo books out there. Nora Gedgaudas is one of the smartest Paleo authors out there. While a lot of what she talks about is on a level above what most of us can comprehend, she’s an excellent speaker and presenter that can make many of complex neruobiological topics accessible.
Unfortunately, the Podcasts come few and far between and are now mostly interviews that she conducts on other shows.
While most of these Podcasts focus primarily on athletic performance, fat loss, or health her focus is more on brain health and functioning.
To say that brain health is out of my league is sort of an understatement. I can barely put a coherent sentence together let alone comprehend how diet relates to mental health.
It is definitely interesting to see how the same basic paradigm can affect so many different aspects of human health and performance
Read MoreThe UnRX Podcast
The UnRX podcast is easily my favorite for two reasons. First Mike made the mistake as having me as one of his early guests back in June to talk about the Rumble by the River. The second is the wide variety of guests on the show. Everyone from Dallas and Melissa from the Whole 30 to Drywall.
Its really the only nationwide venue for a Crossfitting community that is not ran by Crossfit Headquarters. While I don’t think that Dave Castro is the new Big Brother, but its good to hear people talk about the future of the sport, or nutrition, or programming that are not contractually obligated and can be sarcastic about the whole thing.
The real beauty here is that its so much less serious than the others that it comes much closer to sounding like real talk radio than anyone else.
The best analogy for this is that its the off Broadway version of a podcast. You have to be pretty far committed to the whole Crossfit deal to try to find and listen to this, but its enjoyable enough that even the most casual Crossfitter will enjoy it.
Read More
The Healthy Skeptic Podcast
The healthy Skeptic Podcast is the podcast that people with podcasts listen to. While most of the podcasts I talk about a great because they aim at the beginner or the generalist, you need to be pretty well versed in Paleo just to keep up with the banter between Chris Kresser and Danny Roddy.
Each week they choose a topic and simply go to town on the specifics and the details that you really are not going to find anywhere else. Chris does a great job of making these PH.d level topics as accessible as possible for the lay person.
When I started listening to the podcast I considered myself pretty well versed in the subject of Paleo. I mean, I was already giving two plus hour lectures in the gym. So I figured that this would be just another means for me to keep current on the latest developments and keep myself amused. I was very wrongs.
Apparently, the digestive tract and the way that food interacts with it and the it interacts with the rest of your body is rather complicated. I almost hate that I primarily listen to this podcast while driving. Partly because Chris is kind of monotone and I’m usually on the road really late or really early.
The real reason is that there is so much good information being put across the airwaves that I don’t time or the cognition to fully comprehend it all.
The podcast answers some really tough and really specific questions. Its sort of a nice, weekly humbling experience of what my limitations are. What I do as an advisor in the gym and on the blog, Chris does as a practice and has the knowledge and pedigree to back up his profession.
Chris is on a whole different level in terms of Paleo knowledge. Its a privilege to listen to him speak for free in my car. I will say that if you are new to Paleo it may be too much information. Also, if you are a hypochondriac you will probably freak the hell out.
So definitely check this out. Its a probably the highest level class available in car university.
Read MoreThe South Georgia Throwdown Part 2
Saturday night when I was in my near catatonic state, I got a phone call from my friend Ben telling me what the next day’s first workout was. I was not happy.
Once again, I threw up my little guy card and cried discrimination. Ironically, this turned out to be the highlight of the entire weekend.
The workout was:
| 15 min to find 1 rep maximum in the Clean, Bench, and Deadlift than 1 min rest than 1 min muscle up amrap |
This workout definitely did not favor the smaller athletes, but I hit three new personal records which was amazing considering how bad I felt.
I set ten pound records in each: clean 235, bench 205, and deadlift 415.
There were some other huge records. Meg set a 20lb deadlift PR at 245 (I think) and clean 140lbs
Erich hit three PR’s also. He also got 11 muscle ups, which is unreal. Bench 295, Clean 255, and Deadlift 475.
The scaled divisions had to do ground to overhead and deadlift. Hayden got 190 and no one knows where that came from. He was struggling with 175 in the warm up. Ben F set a 20lb deadlift PR at 375lbs and barley missed a 205 clean and jerk twice.
To be honest, I breathed a huge sigh of relief in my programming when this was announced. I’ve thrown in the bench press more than the average Crossfit programming recently. I know that Meg had never benched before July and that Erich had not benched in over a year or two. So much of lifting is technique and so much of platform coaching is knowing what jumps to make and how to read an athlete that without that training experience in the box, this event would have been much worse for everyone.
Also, I am ridiculously weak at upper body pushing movements.
The second workout was custom made for not me.
It was:
| 10 min amrap: row 1500m than as many 95# OHS as possible in remaining time |
I put up a 41, and Ned edged me out with 42. Erich got 73 and the winner of the event Mike McGoldrick got an unreal 92.
I hate rowing and I hate overhead squats. I am short and I have immobile shoulders. All it needed was wall balls and I would have punched a kitten. I was actually really pleased with how I did in this workout. I wish I could have grabbed another rep or two, but I kept a perfect pace on the row and got off the rower at exactly 6:03.
This was another great test of fitness. There were a lot of people who blew themselves out on the rower and turned to mush on the squats.
The final workout was finally something in my wheelhouse.
The workout was:
| “Swinging Backwards Annie” 50 kettlebell swings 1.5 pood, 10 double unders, 40 swings, 20 double unders, 30 swings, 30 double unders, 20 swings, 40 double unders, 10 swings, 50 double unders |
I had one of the faster times of the day with 9:25. The fastest times were sub 8:30. This was honestly the first workout I’ve ever done in a competition where I thought I had a chance of posting the high score. Actually, not true. Annie at Survival of the Fittest I did post the high score.
Either way, I’m great at double unders and know a thing or two about swinging a kettlebell.
The thing that was scary is that almost everyone who beat me had pretty crappy swings. They just have that much work capacity that it didn’t matter. Seeing athletes that are on a whole different plane of physical reality is just straight up scary. How much faster could they have gone? I don’t even want to know.
The good thing was that Erich’s swings never looked better for that many reps, so I think my workshop was worth his time.
I wound up taking 24th place, and was the lowest placed of everyone from Inception. It was an amazing event. It ran well, the people were great, the competition was stiff (even those of us fighting for not last), and the atmosphere was great. A huge thanks to everyone at World Camp for hosting the event, ya’ll did an amazing job.
Read More