So the last two days I’ve put up some rather lengthy blogs – one over 2000 words, and the other just a shade over 1000, which by blogging standards is a lot.  Especially when you consider that many of the “experts” will tell you that the ideal word count for a post should be anywhere from 600-800 words.

I woke up this morning and knew I had to hunker down and write several programs and wasn’t quite sure whether or not I’d be motivated to do any writing.  As it turns out, my assumption was correct.  Instead I tried to occupy myself with more productive things such as piling all the coasters, organizing my DVD collection, and trying to eat a potato chip without chewing on it, which is actually more difficult than it sounds.

Above all else, it’s freaking gorgeous outside and I’d much rather be outside enjoying the nice weather than sitting here tapping away on a keyboard.

To that end, I’m bidding everyone a fair farewell today and leaving you with some cool stuff to read.

Beautiful Badass Pillars – The Simple, No Nonsense Guide to Being a Beautiful Badass – Nia Shanks

Whenever it comes to women and training, I often defer to Nia, and this post is the reason why.  She just “gets it.”

I particularly love her thoughts on isolation exercises. You know, things like isolation bicep curls, tricep kickbacks, and the like.  Whenever I work with a woman and she starts asking me if or when we’ll start including some direct arm work into the mix I point out two things:

1.  Chin-up variations and row variations will usually be all the “direct” arm work one will ever need.

2.  If she can’t perform at least two (un-assisted) chin-ups and/or ten clean push-ups, then we’re not going to waste our time with trivial exercises.

Sure there’s a time and place for them, but as Nia points out……you have to EARN the isolation exercises.

Fillers: Pairing Strength and Mobility – Todd Bumgardner

This was the feature article over on t-nation.com yesterday, and I thought it was fantastic.

A large portion of my talk last weekend in Toronto dealt with this whole notion of fillers and how integral they can be in terms of covering or “corrective exercise” bases.

Here, Todd does an awesome job showing the reader how to implement them into one’s programming and offers a lot of cool variations to boot.

9 Deadlift Corrections to a Safer and Stronger Life – Dave Thomas

This article has been all over Facebook and Dave actually sent me a note saying how I was a huge inspiration for him writing this article.

It goes without saying that I love anything and everything deadlifts, so it should come as no surprise when I say I read this and immediately peed myself a little.

This one definitely receives the Tony G seal of approval.

Check em out, and let me know that you liked them!. Show the authors some props as well!