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Stuff to Read While You’re Pretending to Work: 5/10/2011

Rubber Hitting the Road:  When “Talking” About Opening Your Own Facility Is Not Enough – John Izzo

This was a fantastic article by John Izzo which hits the nail on the head on so many fronts, I don’t even know where to begin.  Not a week goes by where either Eric or myself don’t recieve an email (or phone call) from someone asking business advice.

Full Disclosure:  while Eric is a machine and a brilliant coach and business partner; and while he’s the Cressey behind Cressey Performance; and it’s his name/brand that people undoubtedly recognize; it’s our business guy, Pete Dupuis, who’s the mastermind behind much of our success as a business.  He’s the one who’s taking phone calls from parents (trust me, at times, not fun) and coaches, scheduling clients, tracking sessions, keeping track of expenses, paying the bills, ordering equipment, negotiating with the landlord, and most important of all, writing my paychecks!

I say this because while John hits on many. many valuable points in his article, one point that I feel is crucial – especially if you’re considering entrepreneurship in this industry – is hiring a business guy.  It will make all the difference in the world, and will allow you to focus on what your strengths are.  Which, for most, is assessing, writing programs, having big biceps, and coaching.

5 Most Overrated Exercises – Nick Tumminello

Did I or did I not tell you that livestrong.com was stepping up their game and getting more quality trainers/coaches  to write for their site?  Here, my buddy Nick Tumminello, gives the low-down on a handful of popular exercises that aren’t quite as badass as they may first appear.

Why Kids Need Recess And Exercise – Denene Millner

The fact that this is even debatable blows my mind.  Back when I was in elementary school, some of my fondest memories are thinking back to recess – playing kickball, burnball, and triple-dog daring my best friend, Joe, to try to kiss (on the lips!) Susie behind the swings.

Needless to say, the highlight of the day was heading outside for those 30-40 minutes and doing whatever it is we felt like doing – whether it was throwing rocks at squirrels or using our lunch trays to slide down the hill in the middle of winter.

Today, however, kida are lucky to get 15 minutes – and that’s stretching it.  Instead, schools are under pressure to increase tests scores, and as a result, recess is often an afterthought – despite research showing otherwise that giving kids a break IMPROVES their capacity to learn.  And, lest we forget the ever growing obesity and diabetes epidemic amongst our youth.

Listen, I’m not blaming schools, and I understand that their first priority is to educate our kids.  But to deprive them of a simple need – the need to freakin MOVE – is a travesty in my opinion and something that’s a HUGE mistake.

 

 

 

 

 

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Stuff to Read While You’re Pretending to Work: 4/15/2011

Cool News:  a few weeks ago, I mentioned in passing how I was offered the opportunity to start writing for a fairly popular fitness website that currently has an Alexa ranking of 1,143.  Meaning, it’s the 1,143rd most visited website in the world, and 397th in the U.S (ie, pretty freakin good). So, yeah, it’s kind of a big deal.

I didn’t name any names at the time because nothing was set in stone, and I didn’t want to jinx myself.  Kind of ilike what’s happening right now here in Boston with all of the people who claimed that the Sox were easily going to win the World Series this year.

*inserts foot in mouth*

Well, given that I received my first writing assignment from them yesterday, I think it’s safe to let the cat out of the bag and let people in on the secret.

[Cue drum roll, laser show, and smoke machine]

The site is LIVEstrong.com, and I’m really exicted for the opportunity.  Adam Bornstein, former fitness editor of Men’s Health, has recently taken over and is in charge of upgrading the content on the site.    So, you should see some cool things happening in the near future.

Anyways, moving on to matters at hand, here’s some stuff to keep you occupied for the next hour or so.

Knowledge vs. Experience – Mike Robertson

Mike has writen a lot of great things in the past, but I think this is one of his best.  As a fitness professional myself, and as someone who has worked his way up through the trenches, I couldn’t agree more with what Mike had to say in this post.   To all the upcoming coaches and trainers out there – READ THIS POST!!!!!

Is Sugar Toxic? – Gary Taubes

Here, Gary Taubes, author of the renowned book, Good Calories, Bad Calories (which admittedly, is still sitting on my bookshelf waiting to be read) gives his thoughts on Robert Lustig’s notion that sugar is nothing more than a toxin to the body – which namely stems from his lecture, Sugar: The Bitter Truth, which has gained a lot of attention in the past year or so.

It’s a compelling argument for sure.  But sometihng I’m not remotely qualified to throw myself into.  I will say this, though: I learned a new phrase – DIABESITY.  Clever.

And, to close out the week, here’s a video of yet another “fitness professional” (and I use that term VERY loosely here) demonstrating how to use kettlebells. Weeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee.

I don’t know what it is about kettlebells, but it seems there’s an epidemic of videos popping up on Youtube of people just butchering technique.  I saw one the other day that Leigh Peele posted on her Facebook page of a personal trainer from Florida taking his female client through a tutorial on KB swings, and he just got shit on by the RKC and HKC crowd (and rightfully so).  It was that bad.  I think by the end of the day the video was removed from his youtube page.

Anyways, to her credit, the woman above apparently is going to seek professional instruction on how to use (and teach) proper kettlebell technique.  But shouldn’t this have been something she should have done before posting a video on youtube?  And, more importantly, what are the odds that if aliens came down from outer space and kidnapped her, that they’d find a Teddy Bear where her brain should be?

Have a great weekend everyone!

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Stuff to Read While You’re Pretending to Work: 3/25/11

T-minus FOUR days, 17 hours, 32 minutes, and 23 seconds and I’m outta here on a much needed vacation (but who’s counting).  My girlfriend and I are heading down to her homestate of Florida next week, where I plan on doing nothing but being horizontal (get your mind out of the gutter) and soaking up vasts amounts of vitamin D.

We’re going to be in Jensen Beach as a matter of fact; which, coincidentally, is the pineapple capital of the world!

It’s going to be glorious.  I’m contemplating possibly taking the entire week off from training – I honestly can’t remember the last time I did that, but seems how Lisa’s mom got us a week’s pass to the local gym, that’s highly unlikely.  I say I’m going to take time off, but then after like two days, I go through withdrawls and have to lift something heavy off the floor.  It’s like a tick.

Anyways, Ihave the ladies showing up for the women’s group in like fifteen minutes, so I’m just going to leave you this week with a few things to keep you from doing your work:

Success Tips from Cressey Perfomance – Jason Bonn

Jason is one of the team members of Precision Nutrition, and is also currently interning at CP.  Here, Jason sheds some light on his experience at CP and does an excellent job at helping people realize that it sometimes makes more sense to focus on the “common threads” in life.

What Women Should Never do (but often do) While Trying to Get In Shape – Juliet Deane

This was/is a fantasic article that pretty much lays the smack-down on every myth, fallacy, and idiocracy that saturates the fitness industry with regards to training women.  Huge props goes out to Juliet for writing such a thorough and well written article – and, this is only PART 1

13 Tips for Anyone Who Wants to Improve Performance and Look Better Naked Part I – Training – Molly Galbraith

And, not to be outdone, Molly (who rocks a 341 lb deadlift, with movie star good looks to boot) provides all sorts of sound, practical advice that can (and should) be followed by anyone – whether you have a boy part or girl part.

That’s it for this week!  Have a great weekend everyone.

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Stuff to Read While You’re Pretending to Work: Vitamin D Conspiracy, Liver Health, and A Little Glute Guy

Vitamin D Conspiracy Leads Straight to Big Pharma – Dr. Allen Spreen

Giving myself a little credit, I’ve been on the vitamin D bandwagon before there was even a bandwagon – lets just be clear here.  Moreover, given vitamin D’s role in improving bone health, helping with depression, decreaing fatigue, and it’s overall effectiveness with turning people into barrell chested freedom fighters, it should come as no surprise why I was touting it as the “next big thing,” all the way back in 2008.

Thing is, though, as more and more research spills out of the medical world on the merits of supplementation (or just simply getting more sunshine throughout the day), there are seemingly more and more naysayers out there who are kind of douchy – big pharma being one of them,

Liver or Let Die – John Meadows

This was a fantastic article by John Meadows that details just how much of a big deal the liver is not only for general health, but how it also plays an integral role in fat-loss as well.

Interview with Bret Contreras – Dean Somerset

No surrpise here, Bret drops some knowledge bombs.  I love Bret for many reasons – his smile, his witty personality, his charm – but most of all, I love him because he’s humble and not scared to tell it like it is.

And, it certianly doesn’t hurt that he gives me some props in the interview (which, admittedly, wasn’t warranted). Thanks to both him and Dean for an awesome interview.

ou happen to come across any filming of The Hobbit while in New Zealand, you HAVE to send me pics!!!!!

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Stuff to Read While You’re Pretending to Work: Chin-Ups vs. Pull-Ups and a Little Bit of Bittman

It’s been brought to my attention that some of you who have been long-time subscribers to the blog (through Blogger or Google Reader) haven’t been getting any updates of current content.  As it so happens, when we switched over to the new site, I was an asshat and forgot all of my login info for the old site.  Go figure!

As a result, we had to set up a new feed through feedburner, so for those interested here it is:

http://feeds.feedburner.com/gentilcore

Unfortunately, my first choice, http://feeds.feedburner.com/Mr. Alicia Keys was already taken.  Nonetheless, hopefully this clears up some of the confusion, and I appreciate all of those who contacted me personally to give me the head’s up that this was an issue.

And now, here’s some stuff you should read.

Pull-Up or Chin-Up?  Which is Better? – Mike Reinold

Mike discusses some interesting research and breaks down the chin-up and pull-up and explains which one is “better.”

Is ‘Eat Real Food’ Unthinkable – Mark Bittman

One of my femaie clients sent me the link to this article a few weeks ago, and I was just able to sit down and read it the other day.  All I have to say “right on!”  Here, Bittman calls out the USDA and basically states what friends like Cassandra Forsythe, Mike Roussell, Brian St. Pierre, Leigh Peele, John Berardi, and a lot of other really smart peeeps have been saying for years.  Namely, the USDA needs to get their head out of their ass.

How to Make Oatmeal….Wrong – Mark Bittman

Yet another female client sent me this link, which essentially sparked me to read the article above.  I figured that if two separate clients sent me two different articles, from the same author, I should probably check them out.

I gotta say, this Bittman guy has a new fan.  I love his no BS approach.  It’s weird how practical, common sense can go a long ways.

 

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Stuff to Read While You’re Pretending to Work (Or, Stuck At Home – Snowed In – *Grabs Staple Gun*)

Everything You Know About Fitness Is a Lie – Daniel Duane

YES!!!  Kudos goes out to Men’s Journal for running thie piece.  It’s always a good thing when the mainstream media isn’t afraid to give people a little dose of “tough love.” Here, the author is basically told he’s weaker than a baby’s fart, and that all the time he’s spent doing his “sport specific” training on a BOSU ball has been, well, worthless.  In a nutshell, he has his “come to Jesus moment,” calls out the fitness industry, and it’s glorious.

Cliff Notes Guide to Hamstring Strains – Here’s an older post I wrote last year that I felt needed some extra love.   

The Secret of Loaded Carries – Dan John

It’s no secret that I’m a huge fan of Dan John, and this article is yet another gem by the man himself.  So, the question remains:  will I or won’t I act like a screaming 14 year old girl at a Justin Beiber concert when I go see him speak this weekend at Mike Boyle’s annual MBSC Winter Seminar??  HINT: