Miscellaneous Miscellany Monday (The Best Superbowl Ads, New CP Site, and Other Stuff)
1. Raise your hand if you woke up this morning with a massive food hangover. Man oh man, did I ever eat a lot of food yesterday. In hindsight, however, the food choices really weren’t that bad- I just, you know, crushed it.
My girlfriend and I went over to the First Lady of CP and EC’s place for the game and brought an assortment of homemade (blackbean, whitebean/sun-dried tomato, and pesto/garbanzo bean) dips alongside a ton of veggies, crackers, and chips. Eric and Anna, on the other hand, were in charge of the dead animal flesh, and ending up making some EPIC fajitas. It was glorious. Sorry, I don’t have any photographic evidence that Eric did in fact, eat a carb.
2. Yeah yeah yeah, great game and all, but like everyone else, we were more interested in the Super Bowl commercials. I think it goes without saying that I’m buying stock in Motorola today:
And, I don’t know about you, but I just about choked on my pretzel when I saw this one:
3. At some point this week, we’re going to be unveiling our new Cressey Performance website (tomorrow perhaps?). It’s been a long process, but it’s definitely going to be well worth the wait. From what I’ve seen so far, it looks amazing and will pretty much kick Google’s ass any day of the week. Stay tuned…………
4. I was training with my girlfriend yesterday at a local commercial gym, and about midway through the training session I started doing some band resisted push-ups. Nothing revolutionary. After my first set, however, some random guy walks up to me and says, “huh, those look interesting. What are those?” Of course, I just said “band resisted push-ups.” To which he replied, “hmm, interesting.”
(Cue crickets chirping)
Then he walked away. Great talk dude!
Normally I wouldn’t find this at all weird, but earlier in the training session I saw the same guy performing incline bench press with chains. Mind you, he had 95 lbs on the bar with ONE chain per side- nothing impressive- but it’s a pure example of someone who thinks he’s more advanced than what he really is. You know for a fact that he read an article in some muscle rag telling him that adding chains would increase his bench 50 lbs in two weeks.
Needless to say, he had the foresight to apply accommodating resistance to his bench press (a fairly advanced exercise in my opinion), but when he saw someone use the same exact concept and apply it towards a push-up, it blew his mind.
I’m not knocking the guy for trying to get better and adding a little variety to his training, but it seems to me that too many people- particularly with regards to their training- try to sprint before they can walk.
5. Speaking of benching, everyone and their grandmother knows that Monday is National Bench Press Day. Walk into any gym, anywhere, and you’ll invariably see every bench being used by guys getting stapled by 185 lbs.
As such, whenever I write programs for online clients, I try to shy away from having them bench on Mondays. Well, a little piece of my soul died yesterday because I programmed benching on a Monday. In my defense, though, we’re trying to bring up his bench and it only makes sense to hit it hard when he’s most fresh. As well, I programmed bench press clusters, which are technically more bad-ass than “regular” bench. So, I guess what I’m trying to say is that I get a mulligan on this one.
6. Last week, I mentioned in passing how I’ve been making this ginger vinaigrette a lot lately. I realized after the fact, that I never mentioned the recipe. I had a few people write me last week asking for it, so I figured I’d share it here:
Lisa’s Ginger Vinaigrette Recipe:
Ginger Root– depending how strong you want it, the amount you use will vary. When I’m making ONE batch, I tend to use roughly a 1-1.5 inch long piece. I have no idea if that’s even the correct terminology to use, but I’m rolling with it anyways. Hopefully, you get the idea.
Extra Virgin Olive Oil– 2 tbsp
Apple Cider Vinegar– 2 tbsp. I like to use Bragg Apple Cider Vinegar. It’s unfiltered, and tastes fantastic compared to generic brands you find in the grocery store. It’s a little hard to find, but if your store has a natural foods section, you should be all set. If not, click HERE.
Roasted Garlic Cloves– to taste. I like to use a lot.
Place all the ingredients in a food processor of some sort (Magic Bullet) and let it mixify. Can you tell I’m out of my element here? In any case, this is great to use with stir fries or to add a little zing to your salad. Enjoy!
7. It’s not uncommon for me to get e-mails from people asking whether or not I know a good trainer or strength coach in their area. More often than not, I just ask Eric and he’ll point me in the right direction. However, I may steal an idea I got from Mike Robertson and add a Training Network page to my site. I think it’s a fantastic idea and would serve as a great resource for a lot of people.
Check out Mike’s page HERE.
Thanks for including me Mike, but you forgot a few things I specialize in. Namely, Stratego, eating dead animal flesh, and being awesome. Although, that can be debated. But, not really.
8. I received an e-mail from Adam Campbell, author of The Big Book of Exercises telling me how the book has climbed to #12 on the paperback advice/how-to/miscellaneous list.
As a contributor to the book (page 336), I think this is pretty cool. Adam put a lot of work into both books (there’s a female version too), and it’s undoubtedly an amazing resource for anyone looking to take their body to new levels in 2010.
9. Are those french fries you’re eating or a kayak? And we wonder why we have an obesity epidemic.
10. More and more people are checking out the blog on a daily basis, and I can’t thank everyone enough for the support. Not surprisingly, how much traffic the blog receives is generally on me and how often I’m able to actually write.
The more I write, the better I get, and the more people visit. But I also rely on all of you, the readers, to help spread the word as well. That said, if you notice on the bottom left hand corner of each post, there’s a “share” link. If you like what I write and feel other people would benefit, please feel free to link to your Facebook, Twitter, or Myspace page. Thanks!
