Random Concepts to Make you Feel Awesome

1. Since I’ve been off work this past week, I’ve been trying to workout every day, eat a whole shit-pile of veggies, and essentially try to recover from the past 3 months without a real day off. Plus, I’m trying to get charged up for the gong show that is January in any health club, and make sure I don’t get sick or burnt out or trigger-happy for all my clients. Having just come off a 70 hour week, I’ve still managed to workout three days, finish the baseboards in the bedroom (they look fantastic, by the way. It pays to have a dad who’s been a carpenter for 40 years or so and can teach a young buck stuff like that), and still managed to put up some fantastic posts this week, like yesterdays piece on not avoiding crunches.

2. Today is an off-day from working out, as I’ll need all my strength to brave the internationally renown salute to capitalism and lack of parking, West Edmonton Mall.

I figure in and out in less than an hour, but with my luck I’ll get stuck in the parking lot for about three hours as old guys in hats take up three spots each to make sure no one doors their ’84 Cutlass Sierra.

3. I was talking with one of The Future’s co-workers the other day (BTW, Lindsay apparently doesn’t like her nickname. What do you think?), and she said her husband broke his leg, and while they were in Mexico for their wedding he was approached by a guy who claimed to be “a fitness expert who specializes in a very elite form of fitness.” Here I am thinking, well maybe it was Gray Cook or Gary Gray, maybe Charles Poloquin or Paul Chek? Nope, no such luck. The guy informed them he was a Cross Fit instructor from Delaware.

DELAWARE, MAN!!!!!

She knows about Cross Fit and pretty much told this guy to hit the bricks. I can understand the allure of the program, but the simple fact that this douche decided to bump himself up by calling it a very elite form of fitness just shows how little he knows about fitness or what goes into a workout. Nothing against Cross Fit instructors who know their shit, but they even have to accept that there’s a lot out there who don’t know what they are doing, especially when the guy’s walking around in a boot, with a freshly broken tib-fib. I mean, anyone could watch a video on clean and jerks and call themselves and expert, right? I guess it makes them elite to have everyone follow the “Workout of the Day” regardless of capability, history, injury, or other personal factors, but what do I know.

4. Did anyone catch the lunar eclipse on Monday night? Nope, me neither. Apparently the lunar eclipse hasn’t happened during a winter solstice in over 400 years, but who cares? National Lampoons Christmas Vacation was on, and that shit only happens once a year!!!

5. While teaching a class this past weekend I dropped the bomb of knowledge that is such:

Deadlifts are 99 percent hips and 20 percent shoulders. That adds up to 119 percent. Why? Because deadlifts are just that awesome.

What have been some of your mind-numbingly amazing concepts when it comes to training? I want to have a full arsenal prepared for my unsuspecting clients come January.

6. The 405 deadlift is almost here!!! I feel like a kid waiting for Santa, but I’m hoping tomorrow, or possibly next week to give it a try. It’s not going to happen fast enough, though, as my back is getting a good beating from all this heavy lifting. No problems, just sore and stiff. I’ve been doing a huge amount of active mobility work on it, something I don’t normally get much time to do, and it seems to be helping out. As an example of what I’m doing, check this out:

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Not in the least bit sexy, but if it leads into cool stuff like this, I’m happy:

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7. After being dumped on hard by a pissed-off Mother Nature, the snow has finally stopped, and the roads are starting to improve slightly. The temperature is supposed to get close to freezing on Christmas day, and I guess the plan of action is to go cross-country skiing with The Future and her sisters out in Spruce Grove. If you’ve never seen a big guy cross-country ski before, it tends to look something like this:

I’m gonna get lapped by old Swedish guys swearing at me for not staying inside the lanes. But I’ll catch them on the downslope, the cocky bastards. Gravity is my friend in that instance. Upslopes, not so much.

8. I’m gonna take a break from the blogging for a few days over Christmas. Hopefully your worlds don’t collapse in on themselves, but come on, we all know this little blog taking a few days off won’t cause any riots or make the trains stop running in Europe or bring massive flooding or anything like that.

…..Or will it??