Another week, another set of links:
- This itinery of things your personal trainer won’t tell you made me chuckle. Given that I’m in the middle of a weight-loss phase at the moment, I completely agree that body composition goals are made in the kitchen and not in the gym…
- Speaking of weight-loss, if you’re thinking about dropping some weighted cardio into your routine or want to drop a few pounds by adding sledgehammer swings into your workouts, then check out this great video at Strongerman. He uses quite a heavy hammer, though, so be warned…
- IronMind has announced that David Horne has won the 2010 Britain’s Strongest Hands competition. Read more about it here.
- Read up about active isolated fascial stretching (yes, I had to read the article to find out what it was too). It claims to increase coordination, reduce muscle tension, increase range of motion, prevent injuries and improve posture.
- I read a great suggestion for a really inventive piece of homemade-style gym stuff recently: old fire hoses for heavy rope training. You can see them in action here.
- Alan Aragon wades in to dispel some of the mythology around T-Nation. Worth a read if you are dwelling too heavily on your pre-, peri- and post- workout nutrition and less on your actual lifting or diet…
- Manfred Hoeberl’s name cropped up again recently, as IronMind did a quick feature about him and how he very nearly closed a No.3 gripper on sight. On sight! After a bit of practice, he was clicking the handles together…
- The one and only Bill Starr has recently published an article about deadlifts on IronManMagazine. It’s quite a long one, though, so you might want to fix yourself a protein shake first.
- Jason Feruggia has done a quick post giving five easy tips to build a bigger back, including a gratuitous photo of Mr Christmas Tree himself, Dorian Yates. Jason’s techniques show a lot of similarity with DC training, I am coming to realise, and I can see where he is coming from. However, I am not convinced by the arching technique all the time as I have found that a neutral spine means I stay a lot more comfortable on my rows.
- Martin Berkhan has some tips for staying at super-low bodyfat percentages all year round. He has a lot of interesting comments about which foods to eat and when. Rather than repeat it here, if you’re interested, I would definitely recommend checking it out. However, I couldn’t resist this great quote: “your diet is where you fix things first and foremost. Adding more cardio when your diet is suboptimal is an inefficient and time-wasting strategy that will result in an increased risk of burnout and overtraining.” I couldn’t agree more.
- Bret Contreras (a.k.a the Glute Guy) has done an article listing his top influences and sources of great information about fitness and strength. Bret’s blog is definitely an undiscovered jewel, so please go and see what you’re missing.
- And if you’ve made it this far and you’re looking for something a little less on-topic, have a look at the top 40 nature photos of all time.
And finally, we had a curious visitor to our back door last week. Before he was chased off by Jake, I managed to snap this quick photograph…
Makes a change from hedgehogs, I suppose
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