Categoriespodcast Stuff to Read While You're Pretending to Work

Stuff To Read While You’re Pretending To Work: 9/2/16

Note from TG: be sure to scroll all the way down for some bonus material.

Wow – it’s September already. It’s Labor Day weekend here in the States, which means summer is more or less over, and so is any chance of me getting a sick tan this year. Noooo.

There’s no sense whining about it. It is what it is. Lets jump right into this week’s list of stuff to read.

34178802 - books on a dark background

Copyright: donatas1205 / 123RF Stock Photo

A quick reminder that Dean Somerset and I will be hosting our last LIVE event together of 2016 next month (weekend of October 15th) in Minneapolis, MN.

The stellar folks at Movement Minneapolis were kind enough to offer their four walls to host our Complete Shoulder & Hip Workshop. You can check out all the details along with sign-up information HERE.

Also, speaking of the workshop, Dean and I filmed it last Spring over in Norway and are planning on releasing it as an 11+ hour digital product titled the Complete Shoulder & Hip Blueprint in the next coming weeks. Catchy title, right?1

 

We’d still highly recommend attending a live event if you ever get the chance to do so; each one is always a little different and nuanced. However, the likelihood Dean and I will ever travel to North Platte, Nebraska or, I don’t know, the country of Moldova is slim. No offense North Platteians, I’m sure it’s a lovely place to visit.

Filming the event and making it into a digital product is going to get our information into more hands, which is kind of the point: we want to help more fitness professionals do a better job at assessment and writing effective programs, as well as helping non-fitness professionals better understand anatomy and exercise technique.

Get ready people: it’s coming.

Muscle Confusion Is Mostly a Myth – Brad Stulberg

I love, love, LOVE that this kind of information is starting to “bleed” into the mainstream media. I also love that names like Brett Bartholomew and Vern Gambetta – two highly respected strength coaches used in this story – are the go to sources.

Next time someone tells you how they need to “mix things up in the gym to keep the body guessing”…

  • Roll your eyes
  • Tell them the reason why nothing never works for them is because 1) they’re probably not working nearly as hard enough as they think they’re working and 2) adherence (and allowing enough time for something to stick) is going to trump any “muscle confusion” protocol.
  • Show them this article.

The Online Training Bullshit Detector – Eric Bach

Sure, you can train clients online. But should you?

That’s the question Eric Bach poses in this nifty article. Yes, I just used the word nifty.

Surviving the Dr. Oz Diet (and other fad advice) – Dr. John Berardi

I really liked this article by Dr. Berardi, and not for the reasons you might suspect. It DOES NOT shit on Dr. Oz (which, frankly, is easy to do).

Rather, it’s about learning how to better coach your clients, and how to best set them up for success and weed through the crowded fad diet bonanza.

BONUS

My good friend Mike Robertson invited me onto his phenomenal Physical Preparation Podcast earlier this week. Mike’s a big deal and one of the coaches I look up to most. His podcast is also one of the most informative ones out there and I never miss listening to it myself.

I was honored to be invited on, especially considering the caliber of coaches who have appeared prior to myself. I mean, who the eff am I?

We had a blast catching up and discussing everything from assessment, a typical training session, CORE, and of course, my cat.

LISTEN HERE.

CategoriesUncategorized

Morning Cup of Vomiting in My Mouth: Worst Diet Advice, Ever?

Haven’t done one of these in I don’t know how long.  This one’s a doozy.

New York, New York:

Not that this is going to come as any surprise, but a plastic surgeon and an orthodontist (huh?) have recently teamed up to promote an extreme weight loss plan that involves daily injections of the pregnancy hormone hCG in conjunction with a 500-calorie per day diet.  Of course they would!

Here’s the basic logic (from the story linked above):  despite the fact that there’s absolutely no scientific research that it actually does anything, you tell people to inject themselves with this hormone (which coincidentally isn’t cheap) so that they won’t feel hungry when they’re only eating 500 calories per day.

What the shit!?!?!?!

I don’t know about you, but I’d like to see the percentage of people who actually keep the weight off once they stop “treatment.”

My guess is not many.

Moreover, I’d love to be a fly on the wall as this soul-less, asshat of a doctor explains to people that following a 500-calorie per day diet, long-term, is in any way healthy.  Why not just tell them to drink battery acid and eat paint chips?  Surely they’ll lose some weight that way, too.

I really don’t know how these people sleep at night.  Hey, anything to pay off that BMW and fake tan, right?

And, I don’t care what anyone says, despite their claims to the contrary, the reason why they’ve never lost any weight (even though they’ve tried everything) is because they crush Dunkin Donuts like it’s their job and their idea of exercise is taking the elevator to the second floor.

People don’t like to be held accountable for their own actions.   It’s well established in the research that people vastly UNDER-report how much they really eat, and OVER-report how much they actually exercise.  We’re not honest with ourselves.

It’s pretty amazing how many people out there follow a “strict” and “clean” diet (supposedly) and run a marathon before breakfast everyday (supposedly); yet, low and behold, they’re still 40 lbs overweight.

Simply put, we’re just not as active as we think we are.  Sadly, for many, their ONLY form of exercise is the 3-5 hours per week they spend in the gym – and, that’s assuming that when they go to the gym, they’re actually exercising.

Think about it:  THREE hours of exercise per week.

While there are exceptions to the rule – more often than not, that’s not going to cut it (particularly when things like yoga, elliptical trainers, and pink dumbbells are the staple for most people).  We’ve all seen the infomercials selling exercise machines that promise the body of our dreams with only three, twenty-minute sessions per week.  Yeah, right.  And I’m going to drive over to Brittney Daniel’s house in my tank and take her out to T.G.I.Friday for dinner tonight.

In your dreams!

Listen, most people watch three hours of television before bed every night; so you’re kidding yourself if you think your Pilates class you take three times per week is going to do anything.  Even still, like I said, most people aren’t moving around as much as I they think in the first place.  Something’s better than nothing, but lets be real here.  What’s more, as my good friend Mark Young has noted repeatedly, if we’re talking strictly caloric deficit and it’s effect on weight loss, exercise takes a back seat to diet anyways.

Which brings us back to Dr. McDouchington.  Really?  You’re going to tell me that you have your patient’s best interests in mind by telling them to stick a syringe in their body and inject a hormone that 1) isn’t even being used for its intended purpose and 2) has no proof that it even works other than a few suspect studies?  On top of that, you’re then going to advocate they eat only 500 calories per day?

Excuse me while I go throw an ax into my face.

I’d love to hear what all of you have to say.  Do you find this just as absurd as I do?

CategoriesUncategorized

Miscellaneous Miscellany Monday: 1/31/2011

My girlfriend has been away for the past ten days doing some consulting work down in Colombia, and while it was nice to have some free time to hang out with the boys, leave the toilet seat up, burp out loud, and chew food with my mouth open, I can’t wait to see her in a few short hours.  So, since I’m going to have to leave to pick her up at the airport shortly, I’m just going to leave you with a few random thoughts today.

1.  I got a message on Facebook the other day from an old friend, asking this:

What do you think about that new 17 day diet? Is it hogwash?

B to the U……….llshit.  This is hands down, the epitome of what a fad-diet looks like.  Just look at the cover and your answers are right there smacking you in the face.

– A doctor’s plan for rapid results.

– 17 days, is all you need.  Giving people the illusion that that is all it takes – 17 days.

– All that’s missing are dancing elephants, fireworks, and midgets.  Can’t forget the midgets.

Does it get results? Sure.  Are they going to last? Not a chance.

The basic premise of the diet is to change your caloric load every 17 days (why not 16?  Hell, why not 22?) to keep your metabolism “guessing.”  In short, you’re expected to cycle your calories every few days or weeks, changing the combination of healthy fats, carbohydrates, and protein that you eat.

And therein, lies the problem.  People don’t want to have to think when they eat.  Sure, someone will be able to follow this plan in the short-term, and probably see some results.  But lets be honest – who’s going to want to have to count calories, adjust macronutrients, and let food ALWAYS be on their mind for the indefinate future?

You need to change HABITS in order for results to stick. Following some “cleansing” diet that has you pissing out your ass by day eight, isn’t going to change anything.  Except maybe your wardrobe.**

This isn’t a complete waste, however.  From what I can tell, there are good things about the diet.  I mean, he streses the notion of eating “clean” foods, and that it’s okay to indulge.  But in the long-haul, this diet falls short of helping people make behavioral changes towards their eating habits, and more specifically, it’s un-realistic.

Do yourself a favor, and go to Amazon.com and purchase Michael Pollan’s Food Rules: An Eater’s Manual.

It’s like $8 and will take you 25 minutes to read, and will do a great job at introducing the concept of behavorial changes that MUST take place in order to see long-term results.

2.  If I had to guess, I write anywhere from 25-30 (sometimes upwards of 40 depending on the time of year) programs per week.  It stands to reason, then, that writing MY programs is the last thing I want to do.  I don’t want to have to think.

Starting next week, both myself and Eric Cressey are going to be following Lean Hybrid Muscle by Mike Westerdal and Elliot Hulse.  I was lucky enough to receive an advanced copy last week, and after looking through it, I can’t wait to get started!  Eric already has a head start on me – hitting one of the workouts outs over the weekend –  and based off of the feedback he’s given me, it’s going to be badass!

3.  I don’t watch the show, but I watched this clip which was posted on Bret Contreras’ wall on Facebook, and I have to say, I haven’t teared up that much since Travis shot Old Yeller:

But, what’s up with Steven Tyler?  Dude is taking the creepiness to a whole new level:

4.  My new obession are sun-dried tomatoes.  I can’t get enough of them lately.  I’ve been rocking them in my omeletes lately and they’re delicious!

5.  I’ve decided that I really, really, really want to hit a 600 lb deadlift this year.  As it stands now, I’m going through a bit of a bulking phase (210 lbs and counting, thank you very much) and then I’m going to get my sexification on and diet down in the Spring.  After that, it’s game on.  The last time I tested, I hit 570 lbs and it went up fairly easily.  I figure I can follow another deadlift specialization routine similar to what EC and I did about a year and half ago, take an ample deload, and I can hit 600 like a G6.

Or, I can just wait until Nia Shanks actually comes to Boston for our deadlift-off.  Which ever comes first……

6.  Okay, time to go train.  Training at a commercial gym today.  God help me.

 

** Naaaaaaaaaiiiiiled it.