CategoriesStuff to Read While You're Pretending to Work

Stuff to Read While You’re Pretending to Work: 4/10/15

Before I get to this week’s list of stuff to read while you’re pretending to work, I wanted to toss some love towards a new show that Lisa and I just finished watching on Netflix….Bloodline.

The show revolves around the Rayburn family….Mom, Dad, four siblings, and the dynamics – past and present – between each member as they run their family owned beach resort in the Florida Keys.

The Rayburns are your classic American, small town, successful, happy family. Or so it seems.

John (played by Kyle Chandler, best known for his role as coach Eric Taylor in Friday Night Lights) is a local detective and moral compass for the family.

Older brother Danny (played by Ben Mendelsohn, who will assuredly win many awards for his role) is the family outcast and black sheep.

Youngest siblings, Meg and Kevin (played by Linda Cardellini and Norbert Leo Butz) are stuck in the middle of all the drama.

And rounding out the all-star cast, the patriarchs – Robert and Sally Rayburn – are played by none other than freakin Sam Shepard and Sissy Spacek.

The Rayburns have their demons to contend with…deep, dark, family secrets that would make an episode of Forensic Files seem like a Care Bears movie. To that end, it’s right up my alley. But I can’t speak highly enough of how well written and acted the show is. Not to mention how well it’s shot.

My fiance, Lisa, who is from Florida, ooo’d and aaah’d watching all 13 episodes and it reminded her of how much she misses it down there.

Suffice it to say if you’re looking for a new show to binge watch, and show that’s dark, supremely made, and is smart….Bloodline would get my vote.

Losing Fat Without Macro Counting: 10 Strategies – Anyman Fitness

We have the IIFYM (If It Fits Your Macros) crowd, we have the intermittent fasting crowd, we have Paleo, we low-carb/high fat, low fat/high carb, and we have any number of “fanatical” approaches on how everyone should eat to lose fat.

I’m sure somewhere out there in the world there’s a group of people who will say to avoid all foods beginning with the letters C, K, M, P, and Q on Thursdays, except for in months that end with the letter E and/or if it’s a leap year.

Then it’s all months that end in Y.

The point is: there’s a lot of information out there with a lot of different view points and it’s hella confusing. I felt this article was pretty level headed and “accessible” with its message. The less minutia the better in my book.

How to Bulletproof Your Hamstrings – Mike Robertson

It’s Spring time – tis the season for an epidemic of hamstring strains and tears.

This post by Mike is excellent.

One Movement That Will Help Your Pull-Up – Artemis Scantalides

As someone who works with a lot of female clients who’s goal it is to finally conquer their first chin-up/pull-up, I can’t approve of this article enough.

If I could make out with it, I would. I like it that much.

CategoriesStuff to Read While You're Pretending to Work Uncategorized

Stuff to Read While You’re Pretending to Work: Zombies!, Pull-Ups, and the best Warm-Up Article EVER

Wait a second – my alarm went off this morning.  I don’t think I’m dreaming.

*looks out window*

Volcanoes aren’t erupting, the streets aren’t flooded with molten lava, and from what I can tell, everything seems business as usual.

The Mayanpocalypsearmeggedonacaust didn’t happen.  We’re all still here!!!!!!

High Five!

But be weary my friends – we’re still not out of the woods yet.  The day is still young, and you never know when s*** is going to hit the fan.

If things do get real, and you’re forced to fight for your life, whether it be killing a grizzly bear with your nunchucks for your next meal, protecting your family from evil doers, or I don’t know, something less “doom and gloom” like clicking “next” whenever your Pandora station plays a Coldplay song……are you prepared?

Are you in enough ass-kicking shape to do what you need to do to get s*** done? Can you – WILL YOU – survive if you had to go all Snake Plissken on people’s asses?

Well just in case, earlier this week my boy, John Romaniello, released his latest training program:

Zombie Apocalypse Survival Workout

I know some reading are going to dismiss this product due to the “less than serious” premise. To that I say:

1.  Relax!  Don’t take yourself so seriously.

AND

2.  There’s actually a legitimate rationale behind it.

John, along with every other well-known fitness professional I know, routinely gets questions asking his opinion on CrossFit (myself included).

It’s a touchy topic to say the least, and something that has caused a rift between strength coaches, personal trainers, and fitness enthusiasts alike.

On one end of the spectrum you have those who swear by it, and literally eat, drink, breath, and LIVE by CrossFit.

On the other, you have those who loathe it, think it’s a fad, and that it’s hopefully going away.  Like, soon.

Well, it’s not going away.  And while I’ll be the first to admit that I too have my qualms with CrossFit, I also understand that it’s getting people excited to exercise, and there’s a lot to be said for that. How can I possibly poo-poo on that?

Like John I feel the idea of CrossFit is sound – it’s just that its execution is flawed.

To his credit John has been attending at least one CrossFit class a week for the past few months to try to get a better understanding and feel for what the culture is like.

And, not surprisingly, he’s mentioned several times that there are great coaches and absolutely terrible coaches.

The great coaches – and by extension, the most successful CF boxes – understand that it comes down to sound programming.  They take the time to properly coach their clients and use appropriate exercise progressions (and more importantly, regressions) to “guide” them through.

By contrast, the terrible coaches – and unfortunately this seems to be the rule rather than the exception – focus solely on the workouts. How can we completely obliterate our athletes/clients and make them hate life?  How can we – fingers crossed! – make them cough up their spleen?

The latter is what I 100% disagree with, and what I feel gives CrossFit its bad rap.

So what did Roman do?  He started taking CrossFit classes to see if he could fix it.

To quote the man himself:

“I thought to myself, “what if you took the idea of CrossFit–the idea of non-
specification,the idea of having a high level of general proficiency across the
board, and applied intelligent programming–with a classic Roman twist–to
that idea…what would you get?”

It’s a good question, and one worth exploring. So that’s what I did.

What I wound up with was the Zombie Apocalypse Survival Workout. 

Because really, when you strip away the fun and silliness, that’s what ZAW 
really is: my take on CrossFit. It’s CrossFit, Roman style, with all of the issues 
with programming fixed.”

Fittingly, today is the last day of the sale, so if you’re interested you better hurry.  The walking dead could be right around the corner……;o)

6 Coaches Weigh in on Pull-Ups – 6 Coaches, Duh!

Along with Bret Contreras, Ben Bruno, Dean Somerset, Tim Henriques, and Dan Trink, I was asked to contribute to this awesome pull-up article that was put up on T-Nation yesterday.

If we were a boy band, we’d totally be the most diesel boy band ever.

I’d be the shy one.

Warm-Up – Mike Robertson

The title says it all.

I wrote a blog post a while back titled The Perfect Warm-Up?  It was nothing revolutionary, but it cemented my thoughts on what I felt the purpose of a proper warm-up is, and then I offered a different spin on it.

Well, in THIS article – which should be titled The FOR REAL Perfect Warm-Up – Mike breaks everything down from what the warm-up should accomplish for each segment of the body to providing videos of all of his favorite drills.  This is a MUST read.