The Garage Gym Online

Wow, another week has disappeared already!  Here are some more links to keep you amused in the quiet week or so that’s left before Christmas.

• More drama this week, with Lance Armstrong and Ben Stiller having a little disagreement, conducted via YouTube.  It seems that Ben Stiller has launched a charity called StillerStrong and his promotional video makes it clear that this is an intentional reference in the name to Lance’s charity LiveStrong.  It could be a storm in a teacup or it could be something more interesting…
• And more detail on the whole CrossFit debacle, with Robb Wolf throwing down the gauntlet to the CrossFit head office and challenging them to a public debate with Barry Sears on any sports science or nutrition related subject of their choice.  Meanwhile, Greyskull Barbell Club (formerly a CrossFit affiliate and now vocally in opposition) get on with training people.
• These great articles on training the lower back (part one and part two) on Natural Strength and written by Alan Calvert are a welcome reminder that I really need to get my behind into gear and address this weak point.  I’m getting to the stage where it is limiting some of my lifts so I need to work around my lack of mobility and penguin-like balance skills to do some work that will make a significant difference to my lifting.  Expect some dedicated lower back work from me in 2010 or feel free to bother me about it!
• Jason Feruggia has another great article bringing everyone back down to earth from their discussions of supersets, cluster training and other various advanced methods.  Just add weight to the bar each week and you’ll do just fine.  I couldn’t agree more.  I got to a double-bodyweight dip and chin doing just that.
• Jason is really producing a lot of great material at the moment.  Here’s another post he did recently with some great ideas for conditioning workouts or finishers.  I’m not really in a finishers sort of phase at the moment.  More of a “lie down on the floor and groan” sort of phase.  But, rest assured, I’ll be digging this article out come the summer.
• This post from Brian St. Pierre has such a great picture/caption of James T. Kirk that I had to link to it.  I really enjoyed the new Star Trek film and I especially enjoyed the way that they developed the characters of the original Enterprise crew.  In particular, I liked the way they owned up to how insufferably arrogant Kirk actually was/is.
• I don’t have many posts about the basics of health and fitness on this blog so this is a good recap.  Sometimes, when I’m bogged down in trying to get another couple of pounds added on to my close-grip chin or my bench, I forget that I should be spending more time moving about, enjoying the fresh air and so on.
• For those of you in the UK, it’s worth noting that Andy Bolton is doing a seminar in Harrogate at the end of January.  The seminar is not designed exclusively for powerlifters but should be useful for anyone looking to incorporate the powerlifts into their training programmes.
• Chris over at Conditioning Research has drawn our attention to a study that suggests that muscular strength is inversely related to the incidence of obesity in adult men.  Obviously, there are a lot of variables there and we can’t necessarily suppose that being strong is a safeguard against being fat, but it’s interesting none-the-less.
• Looks like Zydrunas Savickas is cleaning up this year’s strongman competitions, with a win at this year’s Ultimate Strongman Championships.
• I’m not really that interested in diet, other than I try to eat as clean as I can most of the time (beer and wine notwithstanding) but I really liked the simplicity of this paleo apologia.
• Begin 2 Dig looks at supplements this week and, unsurprisingly, comes down on the side of whey, creatine and caffeine.  But you won’t want to read the article for the conclusions.  As always it’s the rigour and the thought that goes into the article that makes this blog a winner.
• John Barban is on the look-out for 10 things he’d rather do than eat his dinner.  He got stuck after three, being sex, a hot shower and playing hockey/football with friends.  Maybe I’m odd, but I can think of quite a few off the top of my head… 1. Writing, 2. Going for a walk to the village and back, 3. Playing with my cat, 4. Planning my weekend, 5. Going for a spin on my racing bike, 6. Going to the indoor climbing centre, 7. Getting another session of rolling in (not fun but very satisfying), 8. Writing strength programmes, 9. Planning what I’m going to do in 2010, and 10. Catching up on all the great blogs I’ve subscribed to on Google Reader.  I’ll stop there…
• As someone who shares his house with a cat, I found this article quite telling.  Learn why cats really behave the way they do and how they manipulate you in many different ways…
• And another, slightly less cuddly animal post, from Reuters – this rather shocking image of a cannibal polar bear will make you stop and think.
• Be inspired, once again, by the Tight Tan Slacks of Dezso Ban.  This week’s article is by Peary Rader and talks about the remarkable achievements of Gary Deal, who battled polio to become one of the strongest lifters around.
• This is an old story but it’s a good one about the fisherman and the investment banker.  It’s so good, it’s practially a modern Aesop’s fable.  For me, it describes perfectly what many people fail to understand about what they can hope to achieve by earning more money.
• Fitness spotlight draws our attention to this great article by the bodybuilding competition prep guru, Justin Harris, on Elite FTS.  Justin says (and it’s worth quoting in full), “whenever I’ve talked to the “top guys” in bodybuilding or powerlifting, the discussion is never about rare compounds or exotic products.  It’s always about eating… When a I meet a local guy at a show or at the gym, they never ask about food. It’s always about some exotic compound.”  Bottom line, it’s about how much you eat and how much you lift.  Everything else is peripheral.   
• And finally, some good news about coffee at last!

For a list of my key articles by category, please check out this index.

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