I’m sure by now many of you will have noticed that I have some serious competition in the category of link posts from a certain Mr Contreras. Personally, I think Bret probably owes me an interview for giving him the idea but I’ll see where I get to on that front 
OK, in the spirit of playful competition, I’m going to up the ante a little and give you a few links to blogs you may not have already heard of…
- Seth Roberts has found a study that shows the significant benefits of exercise to diabetics (and non-diabetics) for their blood-sugar levels. He also monitored his blood-sugar at home while exercising and while not exercising and found a significant impact.
- The wonderfully-named Grumpy Sociologist reviews the evolution of the sport of Mixed Martial Arts and its fans in a well-researched article with references. Theres some discussion about the different phases that the sport passes through insofar as society perceives it and the effect that this has on the athletes.
- Scott Abel blogs infrequently but when he does it is worth reading. And while he has a slightly abrasive style, upon reflection it comes across more as the exasperation of age rather than bitterness. This time, Scott discusses why partial movements are not great for bodybuilding purposes and why you shouldn’t listen to small people (he calls them “pinheads” for some reason) when it comes to getting bigger. It all comes back to the basic principles: eat more and lift more to get bigger. Eat less and maintain your lifting to lose weight.
- The Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research has published a study that supports the hypothesis that maximum strength training improves cycling performance in competitive cyclists. As someone who grew up watching cyclists going to war on forums claiming that weight training was useless for cycling, I am slightly gratified to read this…
- Please check out this great interview (part one and part two) with one of my favourite people on the internet, Jim Bathurst of Beast Skills, who first made me realise that a 180lbs dip was a possibility. I’ve since discovered Marvin Eder, however, so my sights are set even higher now.
- Aaron Friday discusses how his view on life changes as he attains mastery over different skill sets. He talks about investing for retirement and martial arts, amongst other things. As always, he is fluid and eloquent and leaves me wishing he would just write a damn book already.
- Methusaleh at Pay Now Live Later boils down the key to weight loss to one single factor: how much desire you have to lose weight. It is of course true and he illustrates the point with a great example. Also of interest to the scientifically minded is the point he raises about what is medically “normal”. To quote the old man, “I have been seeing a haematologist since 2005. It’s a long story… to summarise, my blood readings are low. They think I have a condition called aplastic anemia, which implies immune problems. I think their normal ranges are wrong because they are based on a population who’ve overstimulated their own immune systems with the wrong food.” I think this is very telling and may well cause problems in a variety of areas for those of us who eat paleo and exercise vigorously.
- I was absolutely delighted to see a mainstream reference to the concept of muscle being a vital biomarker of a person’s bodily age, with a post on the Rat Race Trap. I, of course, waded in and told them about Clarence Bass and Biomarkers but I hope that didn’t put them off too much…
- Similarly, I was very pleased to see the paleo diet cracking the mainstream as well, with this interesting post on Tim Brownson’s life coaching blog. Not being a nutrition buff, I didn’t wade in on that one, you’ll be pleased to hear.
- Coming back to more familiar territory, Eric Cressey rightly draws our attention to the importance of the inverted row. I love this exercise and I always feel better for doing it. However, I’m not entirely convinced that Eric’s model gets his chest ALL the way to the bar… or is it just the white T-shirt on the white background that makes it hard to tell? If you check out the link, please let me know if you think he touches or not.
- Josh has been thinking about building muscle recently, as you’ll see if you read his posts on the Strength Rules blog and the World’s Strongest Librarian.
- Slacklining: don’t try this at home but enjoy the vid:
- Parkour with ladders. Exactly what it says on the tin but completely insane:
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