YOU CAN CLICK AND LISTEN INSTEAD OF READING. …OR READ ALONG….
TRAINING
This week is our second week of our current cycle for Squat Endurance and Lactic Tolerance. Monday has a SE strength piece, Thursday has an Extra Credit LT piece. If one of those is a lower level of yours, plan accordingly so you don’t miss those assignments.
I’ve said this fairly regularly, but to reiterate, upper body strength is the hardest for us, cumulatively at The Standard. Specifically body weight, so push-ups, pull-ups, and ring dips. Most of us have improvement we’d like to make in one or more of those areas. The ONLY way we are going to realize notable improvements is to do some intentional work on toward those goals. So, if you have Upper Body Pulling goals… pull-ups, you have to be diligent about working on them. How do you know when to work on them? Any day that involves a really firm grip is a day you should work on them. We deadlifted heavy last week, so that would’ve been a perfect opportunity to knock out one or two sets of assisted pull-ups or negatives, or cable pull-downs. The same goes for Upper Body pushing and ring dips. If you struggle with pushups, specifically with depth, exposures are the only way you’re going to realize improvements. Any time we finish a workout that involves pushing away from your body, you can knock out some pushups afterward. This concept: Less volume, more often… is called “Greasing the Groove.” It’s more exposures at higher quality which breeds better adaptations.
The other GIGANTIC CONTRIBUTOR to upper body strength is the overall weight of your body. Losing non-functional weight can ONLY make your numbers go up, which brings me to the next subject…
LIFESTYLE
A couple months back, this egregiously corrupt and erroneous-to-anyone-with-a-brain chart came out:
Yeah… so you’re telling me that CANNED peaches, not a real peach is better than pineapple? You’re saying that Lucky Charms are better than ground beef? Ok, well, we don’t have to take this any further to see that this chart, which took three years and many MILLIONS of dollars to create, is completely corrupt and utterly worthless. So why talk about it? Because “research,” like this is what schools look at for lunchroom meals. It’s what medical professionals (who often don’t have a single course in med school about nutrition) use to make recommendations to patients with dietary challenges. ALL of these problems: corrupt science, uncritical thinking by institutions, and uneducated health care workers, need to be talked about because it’s more important than EVER to understand what good nutrition looks like.
Nutrition is SO EASY to understand. Acting upon that understanding is harder.
Greg Glassman, creator of CrossFit and uber genius if you ask me, said it as succinctly as possible:
Eat meat and vegetables, nuts and seeds, some fruit, little starch and no sugar. Keep intake to levels that will support exercise but not body fat.
Aligning with Greg, I tell people this: “If Jesus could have eaten it, then you can too.” He could’ve eaten meat, vegetables, nuts, seeds, fruit, and starches since they all naturally occur in the wild. He couldn’t eat Chick-Fil-A. If you can manage to ONLY eat what Jesus could have, you will live a long, healthy life, and be leaner and stronger than you are right now. If you get that ONE thing right; you’ve gotten almost all of the benefits of a healthy lifestyle in one action.
To come full-circle, if you have upper body strength goals, the less you weigh, the easier it gets. Let’s eat meat and vegetables, nuts and seeds, some fruit, little starch, no sugar, and keep intake to levels that will support exercise but not body fat. We’ll lean out, our accessory work efforts will make us stronger, and we’ll reach our goal even faster.
IN-HOUSE
1) Step 1 for 24 hour access is complete; we installed 2 new cameras that see each person coming in and out.
2) ChalkIt will soon house everything we do and we won’t need the member’s app anymore. I’m currently working on the migration, but eventually we will have tracking, LM categories, class reservations, and billing all in the same place. Hopefully this helps to minimize confusion and makes your experience simpler and better.
3) One of the things I value is the pursuit of improved methods and information, so I’ve been working through a Titleist Golf certification to identify mobility restrictions and fitness solutions to address them. It’s been really good to be a beginning learner again; I think my brain is processing daily information better because I’m challenging it with completely foreign content. Part of that process is a seminar that’s happening THIS WEEK IN FLORIDA, so I’ll be gone from Thursday to Monday afternoon. Please make Tim and Sam’s lives easier since they’re graciously picking up my slack. I’ll bring back goodies for all of you white-ball-hitting dweebs. :)
LET’S HAVE A GREAT WEEK!!
HERE’S A QUOTE:
“COMPARISON IS A THIEF OF JOY.”
…compare yourself today only to yourself yesterday.