Stuff to Check Out: Pre-Canadian Thanksgiving Edition
This weekend is Thanksgiving in Canada, which is typically a month or so earlier than the American Thanksgiving holiday. The reason for this is we usually have an earlier harvest since we have earlier winters, plus we like the idea of having a small season between Thanksgiving and Christmas shopping.
In terms of spending, it’s also a better option to stretch this season out a little, as many will tend to blow their budgets if given a short time frame and a lot of hype about the coolest toys of the season. Remember Tickle Me Elmo? How’d that work out for everyone who spent hundreds, if not thousands on those little buggers?
“It’s clearly a budget. It’s got a lot of numbers in it.” – George W. Bush
Now because we’re going to be hosting our first Thanksgiving dinner in our new house, we’re going to have a few additional things happening this weekend, which seems like the perfect time to put together a “Stuff to Check Out” post for everyone to enjoy.
- Workshops
Tony and I are teaching our Complete Shoulder and Hip workshop coming up in Chicago (next weekend!!) and then in Los Angeles in November 14-15. There’s still a few spots left in Chicago, and it’s the last weekend for any kind of early bird rate in Los Angeles. If you run a gym or personal training department and would like to bring a group of trainers to attend, I could even work out a group discount for you. Just email me and we can discuss it.
I’m also speaking at the Masters of Movement event in New York for November 7-8. This 2-day conference-style event will feature 4 presenters each delivering more in-depth concepts of their approach to building monsters, athletes, and how they view developing movement competency in their specific populations. You have a couple of elite powerlifters, world-class olympic lifting coaches, and a snarky Canadian. The early bird option will be ending soon, so get in on this while you can.
Lastly, I put up a Facebook status last week about looking into potential venues for workshops for 2016, and had an amazing response. We’re working out the details on a few places and trying to nail down dates, but once they’re ready to go we’ll be able to announce them. Suffice it to say, both coasts will get some love, as well as a mini European tour.
#2: The Next Chapter: Reflecting on 8 Years at Cressey Sport Performance – Tony Gentilcore
This was an awesome article from my business partner for our workshops, and discusses his decision to pull back from a facility he helped found and start his own thing. I can’t tell you how proud I am of Tony to make this decision, and can only imagine how much he has on his plate trying to build his own space, build a clientele from relatively scratch, and figure out how he’s going to position himself, but regardless, I know he’ll be successful at anything he does.
#3: Getting Back to Basics – Lindsay Somerset
With a lot of the athletes I work with, this is something I have to consistently remind them of, especially if they’re not making money through a contract or sponsorship. If you do an activity because you genuinely enjoy the activity, make THAT the reason you continue to do it, and don’t focus solely on getting specific results or feeling “good” for every single race or training session. If you no longer enjoy the activity because you’re putting so much pressure on yourself to compete and represent, you’ve lost the meaning of the event.
#4: Why Meaning Will Ultimately Determine Your Brands Content Marketing Success – Ronell Smith via MOZ
While not directly about the fitness industry, it’s something a lot of people could stand to understand about how you form your presence through social media and other online outlets, even if you don’t have a blog or any desire to have one. Ronell did an excellent job outlining how you can shape hat people think of you through what you post or publish, and also gave some salient information to help make a connection to the person on the other end of the interwebz and communicate your message more effectively. Plus he featured me in it, so that’s a win/
#5: The Female Pelvic Floor is a Dome — Not a Basin – Hjartardottir et al
I took a pelvic floor health workshop in early 2014 where a lot of concepts were discussed, and the shape of the muscles was one of them. It was mentioned without providing a specific context of available research, so when this popped up it grabbed my attention. Interesting to note, it was published way back in 1997, which means this is readily available information that still isn’t commonly known among even seasoned health professionals. Essentially, if the PF is dome shaped, bearing down on to it with increasing intra abdominal pressure as done with any effort of movement can help buttress this downward pressure more easily, as dome shapes tend to manage compressive forces easily. In situations where there is damage or pathological states of the pelvic floor, this posiition inverts and it becomes more like a hammock, making it harder to buttress compressive loading without running the risk of things like prolapse. Physics is cool.
