Stuff You Should Check Out: July 6th, 2012

I’ve always loved reading different blogs, and in a lot of cases there’s a ton of great information to be had from different sources. I wanted to share a few of the big ones I’ve come across in the last week or two.

Carb Rinse? – Swimming Science

Carb intake has been shown conclusively to help aerobic performance over events that last more than 5 or 6 minutes. That being said, there’s always contradicting science and anectdotal evidence about the optimum intake per pound of body weight or energy system, or even what source. Further more, are substances like Gatorade or Powerade or even Kool-Aid or water and pixie stix worth the cost? This article showcases some of the research behind carb ingestion and also some carb diffusion methods and how it can trick the CNS, that will prove somewhat interesting to those of you who compete in endurance activities and don’t have the stomach for ingesting high doses of sugar during your events.

Sean Hyson Has a Free E-Book – Sean Hyson

Most free e-books are worth about as much as the paper they’re printed on (since they’re e-books, they aren’t printed on paper, which is where the devilish detail of said joke lies). This one is different. In it, Sean, who is one of the editors of Muscle & Fitness magazine, tears apart the most popular workout products on the market, including all of the following, which is a screen shot of the book he included on the page I’m linking to.

Essentially, he gives unbiased information on what he likes and doesn’t like about each of these products, and also gives you his take on whether they would even be worth the cost or the time to do them. If you’re looking to drop weight or gain muscle or have better sex or fights or fights during sex, he’s helped show you the best of the best, and he’s giving it away. It’s well worth your time, so check it out.

The 3 Most Basic Lower Body Movement Patterns – Bret Contreras

Bret’s a beast. Not only can the guy dissect the biomechanics of a good squat and a dysfunctional squat, he can deadlift 585, focuses on glute training more than any other man I know, and can train people in an apartment off a couch and still make them get dieseled out. This article is pretty much of the better ones I’ve ever read, because it talks about training basic movements first, and worrying about what muscles are being trained second. Training the movement trains the muscles, not the other way around.

And as an homage to Bret’s love of including glute pics in his posts, here a pic of glutes.

Stop Comparing Sprinters to Runners – Jon-Erik Kawamoto

One issue that continues to jump around is who looks better: a sprinter or a marathon runner. Jon-Erik answers this question with another question. Who runs faster for a longer distance, the sprinter or the marathoner? Distance running is a sport, and much like you wouldn’t want a jockey to be bulky, or a gymnast who looks like they just finished a cycle of D-bol, you wouldn’t want to have a marathoner carrying an additional 50 pounds that they have to haul up a hill. We can sit back and say they’re emaciated all we want, but they are efficient engines composed of legs and lungs, making them good for what they’re looking to do, which is run. Well done, JK!!