1. At the expense of sounding like a broken record or your spouse or significant other who’s always nagging you to take out the garbage, I just wanted to remind everyone one last time that there are still a handful of spots left in mine and Dean Somerset’s Boston Workshop this coming weekend (July 27-28th).
I’m trying really hard to come up with a different adjective other than ‘awesome’ to describe everything….
Lisa made these lamb kabobs the other night that were so awesome!
Dead animal flesh in general is awesome.
The weather today sure is awesome.
OMG – I just saw a bird. Awesome.
I found out that my great, great, great, great, great grandfather’s second cousin was a viking! Awwwweeeeeeeesome.
Okay I’m kidding on that last one.
But seriously, this workshop is going to be awesomely awesome.
Dean and I have planned out an entire weekend where we cover assessment, corrective exercise (and why I think that’s a garbage term), program design, and we may or may not reenact that scene from Point Break where Keanu Reeves’ character, FBI agent Johnny Utah, is chasing after Patrick Swayze’s character, band robber Bohdi, and instead of shooting his BFF in the back, Johnny Utah points his gun towards the sky and screams aaaaaaargh like a boss.
For the record, if it does go down, I’ll be playing Johnny Utah.
Suffice it to say, we have a jam packed weekend in store and it would be a crying shame to miss out on it. What’s more we have a few guest fitness celebrities who are going to be hanging out as well, and if nothing else it’s going to be a weekend full of networking opportunities (and deadlifts).
So what are you waiting for? For more information and to sign up GO HERE.
2. I’ll admit it: I’ve done my fair share of poo-pooing women who go out of their way to emphasize “cardio.” In my own defense, however, my main beef with cardio is that many (not all) women use it as their main source of ammunition against weight and fat loss, which I feel is a very inefficient means to an end.
I’ve worked with plenty of women who became growingly more frustrated with their results despite logging progressively endless hours on the track or treadmill.
It was only when being introduced to strength training, weening off the cardio, and finally addressing some nutritional deficiencies (usually making the mistake of chronically dieting and eating too little) that they started to reap the benefits of their labor.
Now I get it: for many, running or doing “cardio” is a way to blow off some steam, soak your body in endorphins (runner’s high), and there’s no way to discount the valley of research out there supporting the bevy of other benefits that it offers.
Besides, if that’s what someone enjoys doing and it keeps them off the couch and watching re-runs of Mad Men, who am I to judge?
My main pet peeve is when someone starts complaining about lack of results – especially as it relates to aesthetic goals – and they continue to do more of the same. No one is discounting the benefits of cardiovascular exercise. But lets just remember that it’s only a small fraction of the equation.
I just get bummed out when it’s viewed as the ONLY equation.
Unfortunately many women are programmed to think that things like yoga, pilates, aerobic classes, and training for a marathon are the only way to lose weight (or more to the point: lose fat).
All the above examples are fantastic modes of exercise. And all the above suggestions can work…..to a point. But if one’s goal or motivation to do any of the above is to lose weight, and they only focus on one of those things, at the expense of excluding everything else (like strength training), I wholeheartedly feel they’re limiting themselves.
Which is why I generally lean more towards the camp of telling women to tone it down when it comes to implementing or focusing on cardio.
I don’t feel it should be stopped altogether. But I’m tired of the unrelenting gravitational pull that the treadmill has on women.
Which is why I was such a fan of John Kiefer’s Why Women Should Not Run article I linked to a few months ago.
Sure it was a bit sensationalized, but I never felt it was condescending towards women (as many who were up in arms about it felt). I saw it as an argument that running isn’t necessarily the panacea of health and beacon of fitness that many claim it is.
I saw it as a dude writing about his tribulations with training women and attempting to “de-program” them into maybe entertaining the thought that weight training might be a more viable option given their goals.
I never interpreted it as him telling ALL women that they should stop running.
Regardless, I can see how so many were up in arms – especially those more qualified to dissect his research.
That said, I really enjoyed two articles I read over the weekend HERE, and HERE (< — this one is super geeky) which served as a counterpoint to John’s original article.
I think both cases/arguments have merit (although, I do feel the Jezebel article had a bit of “no man is going to tell me what to do” vibe to it, which wasn’t John’s intention in the first place), but I feel it comes down to a middle of the road compromise. Everything has its place, right?
Plus I’m willing to admit my biases, and I have to say: after reading both articles this past weekend my tone has changed a bit.
I highly encourage all of you to read all of them and make your own judgements.
And that’s all I really have for today folks. Sorry so short, but I’m in the home stretch prepping for the workshop this weekend. I still have to order the smoke machine and lasers.
Whaaaaaaaat!!??!
