Don’t miss these great links!

After last week’s crazy amount of links, I don’t feel too bad about these select few items, as I’ve been pretty busy this week…

The Journal of Pure Power has issued a free edition about recent research on the kinematic difference between the squat and the deadlift, concluding that there were significant differences and that to get better at deadlifting required more deadlifting…
The ever erudite and witty Aaron Friday has posted some comic relief with a selection of Mitch Hedberg jokes. Reading them reminded me that it was possible to laugh at something that wasn’t either (a) a photo of a dog or cat with a caption, or (b) something too rude to reprint on this site…
According to IronMind, Magnus Ver Magnusson has found an Icelandic strongman for the future. Hafþór Júlíus Björnsson stands 2.05 meters (nearly 6’ 9”) tall and weighs 170kg. You have to check out the article with the photo, where he makes the four-time World’s Strongest Man winner, Magnus Ver Magnusson look like a school kid. Hafþór used to play basketball, apparently, but a knee injury ended his career. He’s since gained about 35kg of bodyweight and deadlifts 350kg.
Also on IronMind, check out this great meet report from Giants Live Kiev 2010, where Laurence Shahlaei pushed Derek Poundstone down to the wire before conceding first place. The meet guarantees Poundstone and Shahlaei entry to the 2010 World’s Strongest Man.
Heavy and frequent lifting has been the subject of an experiment by Brian DeGennaro. He lifted heavy twice-daily for a number of months and was pleasantly surprised by the results…
Jason Ferruggia has done a two part series on effective conditioning (part one, part two). Expect talk of sled pushes and pulls, battling ropes, sledgehammer strikes and hill sprints.
I was depressed to discover that, according to the Guardian, us coffee addicts are merely staving off the effects of caffeine withdrawal and that we are no more alert than people who regularly do without. Recent research suggests that a cup of coffee only serves to counteract the effects of caffeine withdrawal that have built up overnight. I later found more detail about the study on the Neurologica blog.
“Four ways to get freaking huge” is a very simple but funny article on Muscle and Brawn that is less about getting huge and more about progressing and getting stronger. In short, keep it simple, lift heavy, eat big and don’t miss gym sessions. It’s the sort of article that’s quite nice to send to someone who is still doing cable cross-overs, smith-machine bench presses and biceps curls three times a week and isn’t really getting anywhere.
Now for a few videos: given that it was apparently National Slayer Day in the US on Sunday, and Slayer happens to be one of my favourite bands to work out to, check out this early Slayer bootlegs from 1983: