Don’t miss these great links!

Another great week for links, although some of these are a bit older as they didn’t quite make it into last week’s post. 

• Seth explains why me doing all of these links posts is actually a great idea.  I knew I could count on him.  Thanks, Seth.
• Another trainee on the quest to remove anterior pelvic tilt talks about their experience and their techniques for dealing with it here.
• This scene from the Matrix done entirely using stop-motion film making in lego will really brighten up your day.  I mentioned it to a friend and they said that someone out there has done the whole of Star Wars.  If anyone knows where that is, I’d been really keen to see it!
• The Tight Tan Slacks of Dezso Ban weighs in on gaining weight this week.  I think this article on Anthony Ditillo’s experience with weight gain would be one of the first things I would recommend to anyone asking about how to put on muscle mass.  It is hard to explain to people who have not seriously tried to gain weight how hard it actually is and how much of that hard work needs to be in the kitchen rather than in the gym.  That isn’t to say that you can get away without really hitting the iron hard for a few hours a week but you have to be eating for pretty much every hour you’re awake for it to work.  So on a typical gym day, you need to concentrate on lifting for an hour but eating for 12 hours.
• Jason Ferruggia has an interesting article on how to improve your chin ups.  Basically, Jason advises treating the chin up just like any other exercise and programming accordingly.  I largely agree with this.  However, I would add that relative strength exercises do behave slightly differently from barbell exercises in some respects.  I would also add that pull ups and chins are more like presses than squats in that it’s quite hard to force out a PR if you’re not completely ready for it.
• T-Nation has done an interesting round-up on carbs with Lonnie Lowery where he talks about grains, peri-workout nutrition and various other bits and bobs.  If you’re interested in how carbs fit in your diet, this is a great start.
• If you’re bogged down in work and the preparations for Christmas and you’re in need of some inspiration for your workouts, then this clip of Rocky training for his fight in Russia is a great pick-me-up.
• These drawings of “idea killers” made me chuckle.
• Another post from Chris at Conditioning Research about recent research that suggests that you don’t have to move weights quickly to develop explosive capabilities.
• More inspiration from Ross Training - this post contains the original 1994 essay by Henry Rollins “Iron and the Soul”.  I suppose that I count myself lucky that I didn’t face the same unpleasant school experiences as he did.  But then, I never met a teacher in all my time in education that cared as much as the one who put him on the right track…
• The Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research has published an interesting article looking into whether there is a cross-over between the powerlifting squat and the conventional deadlift.  Interestingly, the conclusion is that there is no cross-over, implying that improvement in one lift will not improve the other lift.  While this is true in my experience, this seems to be at odds with the experiences of powerlifters.  I suspect that there are other factors in play (i.e. powerlifters do a lot of rowing).
• And speaking of powerlifting, here is another post from The Tight Tan Slacks of Deszo Ban on the origin of powerlifting.
• For those of you who are personal trainers, or want to be personal trainers, this is an interesting article about programming bias.  Normally, I don’t really spend much time looking at Alwyn’s material, as 95% of it is marketing (sorry if I offend but it’s true).  This article, however, is a really interesting and honest look at how a trainer’s personal preferences and training interests can impact on the programmes and development of their clients.  So Alwyn’s interest in the deadlift has generated success for his clients in that lift but not in the other lifts.  Having said that, I would humbly suggest that the reason that the clients of functional trainers tend to do poorly at bench and back squat is that they don’t do those lifts very often.  Functional training seems to have embraced the deadlift but shunned the bench and back squat for other exercises…
• And if I’m going to be horribly unpopular, I might as well go all the way!  This interesting study published by the Journal of Applied Physiology, notes that the consumption of milk did not increase the effects of resistance training for increasing muscle mass for men already on a calorific surplus.  So if you can find a way to get your calories without milk, then don’t let anyone tell you that you need it.  It isn’t magic.  It’s just a food.
• And a good reminder for those of us who might be dieting, this study (also in the Journal of Applied Physiology) notes that exercise doesn’t help you lose fat unless you are eating fewer calories than you are burning.

Well, that’s it for this week.  I hope you enjoyed them.

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