OK, after last week’s epic post-athon, here’s a slightly less prolific week of links.  While you’re reading this, I am getting ready to take my exams at the weekend for my personal training course.  Then, fortunately, I’m going on holiday for a week, which I am very much looking forward to…

Pure and unadulterated lifting

• If you have some space in your back garden, it might be worth thinking about building a pull up bar.  Here’s how to do it.
• Charles Poliquin has reviewed Huge and Freaky, a new book on bodybuilding, and has produced an article about functional hypertrophy for athletes based on his trusty tri-set routine.
• Charles also weighs in on the subject of partials.
• And the partial-master himself, Sumoman, has further developed his squatification series.  See parts one, two, three and four.

Diet, paleo diet and evolutionary adaptations

• PLoS Blogs have published an interesting article about the role of cooking in human evolution.  Having recently read Richard Wrangham’s book on the subject, I was interested to see what they had to say.  The article is a very interesting collection of sources and analysis but as a reader I was dissatisfied because of the lack of structure in what is quite a long post.  Interestingly, I have found that the same criticism applies to a number of popular science books I have picked up recently.  It seems at the moment that the scientific academia could collectively use a good editor… 
• Seth Roberts has discovered that walnuts improve his mental arithmetic scores, implying that they may in some way improve his brain function.  I have to say that since I discovered Seth’s blog, I feel that I have become measurably smarter.  Perhaps this is an effect of the walnuts by proxy…
• The Global Socialogy Blog is predicting a global food shortage for several factors causing poor production, including poor weather conditions, poor governance in developing countries and arguments over land ownership.
• And after last week’s foray into veganism, here is an interesting diagram showing how it is almost impossible for vegans to exist…
• And, sadly, it appears that it is possible to overdose fatally on caffeine.  Find out more at Boing Boing.
• Finally, if you’re interested in how to bulk up textbook-style, you could do worse than emulate Project Goliath.  If that doesn’t work, check out Dave’s Gym Blog, which has a recipe for porridge that will definitely put some weight on you… 

Health and mobility

• Stop Chasing Pain has reviewed Gray Cook’s new book, Functional Movement Systems.  This is not the short, half-hearted sort of review that many people seem to think is all you need to do these days.  It’s a well thought out, detailed review of what you can expect to find and why it’s a great read.  More of this sort of thing, please.
• Overcoming Bias has published an article about how supplements can be bad for the health.  In summary, they found a study that suggested that: “on average supplements increase an ordinary adult’s chance of dying by 7%. While selenium reduces death rates by 0.2%, beta carotene increases them by 9%, vitamin C and E by 6%, and vitamin A by 20%.”  That multivitamin might not be the best thing then…
• Apparently, the invention of the bicycle helped to increase our height.  Is there anything this amazing invention cannot do?
• Rif has done a detailed post about his stretching routine.  He clearly takes this whole mobility thing very seriously.  It’s an interesting programme for me because, other than the foam rolling, there is nothing on that list that I recognise.  I guess if he ran pictures then there might be some similarities but it always intrigues me when people are doing things completely differently and getting results. 
• Relative Strength Advantage talks about whether the lat contraction could be the key to good shoulder health.  I think that there is definitely something in this, although my suspicion is that there is a bit more going on that influences how the lats interrelate with the shoulder girdle than just whether or not the lats are contracted…
• And I am very sad to say that it would seem that Britain is now the fattest country in Europe and the fourth fattest country Worldwide.  Numbers one through three are: Australia, the US and the United Arab Emirates.
• Inhuman Experiment draws our attention to an interview with the Methusaleh-maker himself, Aubrey de Gray.  If you’ve read any of Aubrey’s interviews before, prepare to be surprised, as there are a few things that come out of the woodwork here…

Other interesting stuff

• I like to think I’ve been around the block when it comes to willpower.  I got really cross when Dan John wrote a post on T-Nation saying that willpower is finite, i.e. you have a limited quantity of it and after that it is all used up.  So I was delighted to see this article suggesting that: “reduced self-control after a depleting task or during demanding periods may reflect people’s beliefs about the availability of willpower rather than true resource depletion.”  In other words, if you believe willpower is limited then you will experience reduced self-control.  So, to paraphrase Pascal, you are better off believing that willpower is infinite…

That’s it for this week.  See you next week for another great batch of links.