As the title eludes, I’ll be beginning a short vacation on Wednesday for about a week and a half. Lindsay and I are travelling to new York City where she’s planning to race in the New York Triathlon, dominating the field, doing flying spears off her bike into unsuspecting half-wheelers waking up REALLY early to swim in the Hudson River and then following up with some cupcakes and shopping. The only way this could be a better vacation for her is if she somehow found her way into a dancing street fight in the Upper West Side where both the Jets and the Sharks fought for her attention.

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Betcha never thought you’d see a reference to West Side Story on this site, did ya??

I’m going to spend my time sleeping in past most of her early morning training sessions, searching out some awesome independent coffee houses, maybe picking up a Go Pro carmera to take advantage of the cheaper US purchases, and making sure Lindsay doesn’t lose her mind in vintage stores. I’ll probably pick up some new fancy pants here and there too. I have a thing for John Varvatos clothes as they’re one f the few brands that seem to fit upper and lower on me, look good, and don’t cost more than the down payment on our new house.

Speaking of new house, this will be my first actual vacation of the year, which has seen me head to New York earlier in the year, London, Vancouver, San Francisco, Kansas City, Winnipeg, and Calgary. Each trip was for work, so they aren’t able to count as vacations, although I did have a free day in New York and London respectively, but neither was really a vacation. Lindsay and I have also put the wheels in motion on a new house build and are just waiting to get the building permits approved before digging starts. The new place will be about 4 times the size of our current house, and also have a full basement that we’re going to turn into a gym, so having a week to just decompress will be nice, especially because the rest of the year is going to be ridiculously busy.

In September, Tony Gentilcore and I will be taking our Awesomeness Workshop on the road to jolly ol London, UK, for a full weekend of assessments, corrective strategies, coaching compound lifts, crushing protein shakes, Predator Handshakes, and general tomfoolery. We’re teaching at The Third Space in Soho, which is an amazing facility I had the opportunity to check out back in March when I was there last.

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Here’s the link for more info and to register for the London seminar:

  ===> London Calling  <===

Following that, I’ll be heading to Washington, DC for the NSCA Personal Trainers Conference, coincidentally or not presenting at a time opposite of Tony. There’s also going to be folks named Alan Aragon, Brad Schoenfeld, Adam Bornstein, Chad Waterbury, Gray Cook, Annette Lang, Bret Contreras, Diane Vivies, and a whole bunch more.

===> Click for more info and to register for NSCA conference <===

Then 2 weeks after that, Tony and I will be heading back to Washington to teach our workshop, which will be fun explaining to customs agents why I’m going to their nations capital twice in one month. Hopefully they at least warm their hands before doing the cavity check.

This workshop will be held at Underground Athlete in Sterling, VA, and judging by the pictures I’ve seen of the facility it’s going to be an awesome experience. We’re going to look to include a LOT of hands on coaching in this one as the space is optimal and there’s a lot of equipment we can use and get rowdy with.

===> Click for more info and to register for Washington <===

On a completely different note, here’s a great stretch I’ve been working into a lot of my squat workouts and upper body pressing work to help stretch out the lats, shoulder blades, and also work on the squat pattern with some hamstring stretch to go along with it.

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One of the toughest points on this stretch is trying to keep the lumbar spine from going into flexion as you straighten your knees. Try to make sure you’re keeping some muscle activity going on to feel like the spine is staying in neutral and not going into flexion when you straighten your knees, and you should be able to feel some cool increases in mobility.

I had an article published on Juggernaut Training Systems site a few weeks ago, but forgot to mention it on this page when it came out. I mentioned it through Facebook and Twitter, but for those of you who don’t follow me on either of those options, I wanted to include a link here because I feel it’s one of my best articles. Even Greg Nuckols, the editor who accepted it and who is an elite level powerlifter and incredibly smart guy all around said it was one of the best deadlifting articles he’d ever read and learned a few things about his own set up from it. Whether he was blowing smoke or not, I don’t care. I’ll take all the accolades.

Check out Deadlifting HERE

I get asked on a regular basis how to be successful in the fitness industry, and I have to admit I don’t really know any exact quality that would make someone successful or not. I’ve seen people with masters degrees struggle to get clients and folks with weekend certifications blow up and fill their calendar then go on to produce their own brands with what seems like little to no effort. One thing that seems to be constant is the successful people know what they do really well and work on making that aspect even better. They build up a specific career capital that makes them the go-to person for that specific venture.

Eric Cressey wrote an awesome two-part series on how to build this specific career capital in the fitness industry, and while I think it would be required reading for anyone entering or looking to expand in the fitness industry, as with most business topics it can help anyone looking to build their own personal business, excel in the eyes of their boss or supervisor, or become a specialist in what they love doing most.

Click HERE for part 1

Click HERE for part 2

Along the aphorisms pertaining to “know thyself” is another 2-part series, this time from Tony Gentilcore all about what it’s like to be an introverted strength coach. Admittedly, I play a role on stage when I train as I try to coax out some level of emotion and intensity from my clients, and occasionally try to find a way to make them smile and laugh when they want to have nothing to do with it. But most of the time I’m a pretty low key kind of guy, quite content to sit at home alone and needing to be in a crowd of people all the time. Maybe it’s due to the hyperstimulation of being surrounded by people all day with loud repetitive music and clanging weights, but for me alone time and quiet time is very precious. Tony seems to feel the same way.

Click HERE for Part 1

Click HERE for Part 2

A couple days ago, Bret Contreras and Chris Beardsley put out a review on their Strength & Conditioning Research site about foam rolling. It was a compilation of all the existing research on foam rolling, how it works, where it works best, and what it could do for the body aside from just increasing range of motion. Coincidentally, it’s a lot of the same conclusions and research I used in my Foam Rolling 101 video series, which is available for only $67 for 6 hours, including a hands on section showing how to get the most out of your foam rolling.

===> Click HERE for more info and to get your copy <===

 

Lastly, just as a heads up, a few weeks ago Bret Contreras and I put up a post about Coregasms, where we were looking to try to figure out the mechanisms of how exercise-induced orgasms could occur, what exercises may be most likely to coax one to occur, and whether they were something that was good or bad. We had close to 200 people fill out our anonymous survey, and we’re just going through the data and will publish a post on it shortly. Interestingly, hanging leg raises seemed to be a favourite for causing them, and surprisingly so did running. Also interestingly, according to at least 3 submissions, we’re both perverts. Deal with that as you will, internet.