Don’t miss these great links!

I’m still running behind with the links because there’s so much great stuff being published…

• Time Magazine has reported some news that we’ve all been dying to see enter the mainstream press.  I’m going to quote a passage in full: “the average American … scarfs down a quick carbohydrate-heavy breakfast of a bagel or muffin or cereal, which averages out to about 10g of protein.  That’s a worrying trend … because protein is critical for maintaining muscle mass.  As the population ages, loss of muscle mass could become a trigger for expensive healthcare costs linked to falls, fractures and long term disability… Contrary to conventional wisdom, which holds that the elderly tend to lose their ability to make muscle from the protein they eat, rates of muscle building remains the same throughout life.  As little as 4 oz of lean beef or chicken can boost muscle bulk by 50%.”
• RossTraining has made some handstand push-up handles for doing, er, handstand push-ups.  Check them out here.
• Seth Godin always has great posts on his blog that really make you think.  Most of the time, they’re not immediately training or fitness related so I don’t link to them here.  However, this post about our conventions when asking how things are is very pertinent.  Seth notes the difference between focusing on the positive and focusing on the negative.  It’s so tempting to focus on the negative and see how we can erradicate it.  But actually focusing on the positive might make that happen more often instead…
• Geoff Neupert is probably gnashing his teeth somewhere wondering why I link to all of his posts and quote him every time he posts.  Well, you shouldn’t post such great material, Geoff!  Check out this secret to getting stronger immediately, which explains the importance of goal setting and visualising your goals.  Write this off as nebulous fluff at your peril!  Geoff has some sturdy statistics to prove his point…
• Speaking of people who produce great material, Aaron Friday has written a great post about what it means to get old.  And he confesses to certain teenage misdemeanours that I’ll leave to your imagination…
• Last week, I was pleased to link to Bret Contreras and Keats Snideman talking about the Functional Movement Screen.  Mark Young has looked into some of the research that has been done on the screen with a critical eye.
• Train Better Fitness has a great guest post about incorporating strength training into your routines.  There are some good videos of tractor tire flips and keg carries and a sample routine if you’re interested.
• Athlete Creator has done a great post inspired by the Conan quote “what is best in life” called “what are the most anabolic things in life“.  It’s not entirely serious but it contains an enormous amount of truth, nevertheless.
• The Tight Tan Slacks of Dezso Ban has a nice little deadlift article that describes the benefit of doing good mornings and pulls for driving up the deadlift. 
• Legendary Strength has done a great little article about his training history, an idea he claims to have stolen from Josh Hanagarne.  Stolen or not, it makes for a great read.  I am sure we can all see something of ourselves in there somewhere.  What’s interesting for me is that some of the areas that he finds did nothing for him worked well for me (at varying times) and other things that worked for him did not work for me.  I guess that shows that we all respond to different training stimuli in different ways.
• Jerry Brainium at IronManMagazine has written the definitive guide to cortisol.  While there is quite a lot in the article (too much to reproduce here), Jerry concludes that “the major goal with cortisol is to keep it under control and in balance with the anabolic hormones so that your body favors anabolic over catabolic effects in muscle”.    He gives a list of things that drive cortisol up and a list of things that push it down.  There are some surprises here.  I didn’t know that creatine and laughing both drive cortisol down, for example…
• I was surprised to find that there is a podcast out there called Natural Bodybuilding Radio and I had never heard of it!  Anyway, here is a great interview with Bob Galucci, the winner of the 1981 Natural Mr America.
• I saw this video of 1930s “parkour” on BoingBoing.  Watch it all the way to the end.  I was amused to see the guy sit in a tractor tire and roll down a hill!

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_nPR8MLTe_w&feature=player_embedded

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