1. Starting things off with a bit of TG content, I had the pleasure of teaming up with the likes of other top-notch coaches like Lee Boyce, Geoff Girvitz, Jeremey DuVall, and Anthony Yeung on a tongue-in-cheek piece on www.conFitdent.com on exercise selection and programming.
It’s a running series that I participated in a few months ago where I answered a litany of questions but was told I could only use “x” number of words (which is a lot harder than it seems) to portray my thoughts.
The gist is that every few weeks they’ll release a “series” of compatible questions or just go with a running theme.
In case you missed it the first time around, here’s one that involved Cardio Tips.
Just to reiterate: if you want to geek out and read all about supercompensation, strength deficit, periodization, or the difference between central fatigue and peripheral fatigue than I suggest opening up your copy of SuperTraining and have at it.
If, however, you don’t take yourself too seriously, and want a quick, bullet-point read…..than you can check out the latest iteration – Exercise Selection: How to Optimize Your Workout.
2. I touched on this a few weeks ago, but I want to try to keep this fresh in people’s minds as I think it’s going to be a SICK event.
I’ll be heading back to alma mater – State University of New York at Cortland (SUNY Cortland) – on April 5th, 2014 as part of the First Annual Cortland Strength and Conditioning Symposium.
With the likes of myself, John Gaglione, Dr. Mike Roussell, Dr. Cassandra Forsythe, and Spencer Nadolsky as the slated line-up it’s going to be an unparalleled event for students and fitness professionals alike.
Registration is now open, and it’s set at a VERY reasonable price as we want to ensure that this is an event that’s accessible to everyone.
For more information you can go HERE.
3. Part of the “charm” about this blog and what I feel makes it so successful is that I’m not afraid to go off the beaten track and let people know that I’m not just some fitness cyborg. I don’t eat, live, and breath fitness 24/7. I occasionally – not often – scratch a scheduled training session.
Sometimes I squat above parallel.
I eat gluten!!!
So I guess I won’t be invited to a Paleo party anytime soon.
More to the point: sometimes I just like talking about other stuff, and I’m not shy to share more personal components of my life here on this blog. I can’t tell you how many times people have stopped by to check out Cressey Performance and asked how my cat, Dagny, was.
At first I’m taken aback – “how the hell do you know the name of my cat?!” But then I remember that I talk about her on this blog about once a week, and I also post pictures like this on my Facebook page:
O…..M……G. She’s the cutest thing, like, ever.
And for the record I didn’t take a selfie of myself chilling with my cat. Come on: I do have some standards. Lisa happened to snake this pic of me when I got back from Edmonton and I was a little jet lagged the following day.
Anyways, with that out of the way I wanted to share a funny story from this past weekend.
Every Saturday night Lisa and I have our weekly “date night,” where 1) I actually take a shower and wear matching socks and 2) we go out to a nice dinner somewhere in the city.
As it happened this past weekend Lisa was taking me out for my belated Birthday dinner. As we were walking from point A (super secret birthday surprise) to point B (dinner at Ruth’s Chris Steakhouse) we found ourselves on Newbury Street.
For those unfamiliar with Boston, Newbury Street can be thought of where all the upscale shops and stores are located and as such, where all the uppity people tend to spend their money
For shit and gigs we both figured, “huh, we have some time to kill, why not walk into this fancy schmancy jewelry store and peruse some rings?”
As a side note and just for the sake of clarity: Yes, Mom, you read that correctly….Lisa and I were in a store, looking at rings. But more cogent to the point – I just want to let everyone know that I in no way would EVER buy a ring from said fancy schamancy store.
We just wanted to walk in – it was freezing outside! – and get an idea for what Lisa likes.
After about five minutes of meandering around the woman in the store approaches us and asks Lisa which one she’d like a closer look at. “That one,” Lisa said. Pointing to a 6.1 carat cushion cut diamond.
What followed was a whole diatribe about cut, quality, angles of light, and I think there may have been a Pythagorean theorem thrown in there for good measure. The woman was very friendly and more than willing to answer our questions.
Then, the question that was on both our minds came out. Lisa asked, “out of curiosity, how much is this one I’m wearing cost?”
$175,000.
Cue me destroying the back of my pants.
LOL – Lisa’s got good taste it seems…….;o)
4. One of the perks of being “kind of a big deal,” (my words, no one elses) is that I get sent free stuff to try out. Recently a Boston based company called EnergyBits sent me a sample to try out, and I just wanted to toss their name out there to my readers.
Giving the Cliff Notes version (ie: stealing from their own website):
Want more energy, more mental vitality, or a healthy high protein snack you can grab on the go? How about a quick way to boost your athletic performance, supercharge your run or crank up your endurance while working or working out?
Made from 100% organically grown spirulina algae and loaded with 40 nutrients, ENERGYbits® algae tabs have the highest concentration of protein in the world (64%) all for just one calorie per tab.
I’ve been trying to make a concerted effort to tone down my energy drink consumption, and have been using EnergyBits sporadically for the past two weeks as a way to boost my “morale” in the late stages of the day when I’m coaching.
I have to say: it’s working! I definitely notice a steady surge in my energy levels without the jitteriness that comes from downing a metric shit ton of caffeine.
A word of caution, though – they taste like butt-crack.
But this isn’t a slap against the company since they go out of their way themselves to tell people that the taste takes some getting used to. In fact they encourage people to not EAT THEM, but rather to take a handful and down it with a glass of water.
Either way, for those looking to get an energy boost without feeling like their left ventricle is going to explode, I’d highly encourage checking www.EnergyBits.com (<—- no affiliate code).
5. Lastly, my boy Dean Somerset wrote an EXCELLENT blog post last week titled Fit/Fat Shaming, Judging, and Simply Being You.
At the end of the day, what you do with and how you feel about your body is entirely up to you. It’s your body. Stop allowing others to dictate your thoughts and predications.
Dean’s explanation and insight is A LOT more thorough than that…..so I’ll just defer to him. Read it! Do it!
