Don’t miss these great links!

Another week and the end of the first quarter.  How are your goals going?  How are you New Year’s Resolutions going? 

Really?  That bad, huh?  Take your mind off it by checking out some of these links…

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• I am delighted that Steven Low has started writing a bodyweight strength training series, starting with this article about the fundamentals of bodyweight training.  If you are at all interested in bodyweight training, you must check this series out.  Steven knows a great deal about gymnastic movements and, as many of you will know from his time on the CrossFit forums, has a sound knowledge of physiology.
• Chase Karnes reckons that 90% of guys want bigger arms and 10% of guys are liars.  I probably fit into the liars category in that I don’t pursue bigger arms for the sake of having bigger arms.  Still, it would be nice to have bigger arms.  Enough already!  Anyway, this is a great little article about how to build up your biceps and triceps muscles.  It talks a lot more sense than the ususal 10-different types of curls and kickbacks routines that I get spamming my inbox on a daily basis.  Chase thinks that close grip bench presses and chins should be your main exercises along with plenty of volume and food.  I have to agree.
• T-Nation have published an article about rack pulls, an exercise (or group of exercises, depending on your point of view) that I have to confess I am a little confused about.  I read somewhere that Louie Simmons believes that heavy rack pulls don’t carry over well to deadlifts and you can easily build up to a large weight, stressing the body, with no real benefit in a competition.  I am not sure that this article really answered my questions but it was definitely welcome to have some discussion about an exercise that I don’t think gets a lot of press.
• Eric Cressey has made the bold statement that the single dumbest thing that personal trainers do is to do their own taxes.  The main reason being that it isn’t cost-effective.  I suspect that taxes are alot more complicated in the USA than in the UK, in that case…
• Deemed one of the Seven Wonders of Russia, Komi Republic is home to Manpupuner (Man-Pupu-Nyer), a mysterious site in the northern Ural mountains, in the Troitsko-Pechorsky District, made out of seven rock towers bursting out of the flat plateau known as the seven strong men.  If you check the pictures out on this link, make sure you scroll down to the second one, where you can see the scale of these massive rock towers with a person standing next to one.  This is not stonehenge-sized that’s all I can say.
• For those coffee-lovers amongst us who may be finding that the magnificent bean is starting to disagree with our digestion, it seems that switching to a darker roast is easier on the stomach.
• Mariusz Pudzianowski has really taken to MMA, it seems, and he may not be returning to World’s Strongest Man.
• Check out these great garage door covers.  I may have to get one for my Garage Gym.
• John Barban writes some great, common-sense articles.  This one about how much you need to weigh before you can see your six-pack is absolutely spot on.  It never ceases to amaze me just how light some of the big, golden era bodybuilders were when they stepped up on stage.  I’m thinking in particular of Frank Zane, who competed at considerably less than 200lbs.  Anyway.  So how much do you need to weight before you can see your six-pack?  Answer: a lot less than you think.
• Bradley Steiner has a great, slightly off-the-wall introduction to powerlifting on the Tight Tan Slacks of Dezso Ban this week.  It’s an interesting article, seen from the point of view of body parts rather than movements, but is all the more interesting because of that.  I particularly liked the rousing descriptions of how the squat and deadlift act on the various muscle groups.
• Mark Phillipi, World’s Strongest Man competitor, has done an interview with Mike Mahler, of kettlebell fame.  Mark says “I believe that getting stronger is behind successful improvement in all athletics”.  Amen to that, Mark.

And here is amateur strongman, Craig Pfisterer, getting strong by doing some uphill sled pulls with over 900lbs.  He has some problems with the harness, too, which make for the odd heart-in-mouth moment.