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Good Reads for the Week

By August 20, 2010December 22nd, 2015Good Reads for the Week

Happy Friday my fitness friends! Here are over 70 links to articles, blogs, and videos of the week. I get most of these off of Twitter and Facebook. I try to make this an weekly educational opportunity so I don’t censor material according to whether I agree with it or whether or not it’s politcally correct. Happy reading!

In this article Charles Poliquin discusses different types of people and their corresponding type of training. When Charles wrote this years ago I thought he’d officially turned crazy. Now I think he may be on to something.

In this blog Keats Snideman shows a healthier alternative to a typical lunch meat sandwich; a quick chicken sandwich. I don’t know why, by the Snideman twins have such soothing voices and are such great speakers that I think they could trick me into listening to them for five straight hours even if they were talking about nothing!

In this blog Eric Cressey gives us three good reads for the week. Yours truly made the cut. Booyah!

In this blog Dan Hubbard rehashes Tony Gentilcore and my guest blog where we tore into a trainer who spoke against the squat.

In this blog Tony Gentilcore gives us his favorite 3 assistance exercises for the squat, bench press, and deadlift.

In this blog Tony Gentilcore gives us 3 things to read while you’re pretending to work.

In this guest blog on Laree Draper’s site, Dan John describes his “hip displacement continuum.”

In this blog Franz Snideman introduces a Pavel Tsatsouline seminar at his studio in La Jolla, CA on October 9th. If you live in San Diego, you gotta go! Pavel’s the man!

On October 23rd, Franz’s twin bro Keats is hosting an HKC seminar in Tempe, AZ with Mark Reifkind. I’d rather be in La Jolla (my favorite place), but since I’m stuck here in Scottsdale I’m pretty sure I’m gonna give the HKC a try.

This Sean Skahan blog is part IV of a four-part series on the glutes. He talks about how he strengthens his athletes glutes and includes the hip thrust at the end. I will keep saying this until I’m six feet under; get a Hampton thick bar pad and use a barbell! No athlete needs to “air thrust.” Great article series by Sean; back track and read all of them if you haven’t seen the first three.

In this Mike T. Nelson blog he talks about being a scientist and some stuff that he’s learned along the way. I like some of the stuff Mike talks about in regards to gaining strength; specifically biofeedback.

In this blog Kevin Neeld talks about valgus collapse, overpronation, and orthotics. Kevin’s a smart guy!

In this blog Danny McLarty offers some thoughts on periodization. I must admit; I’m a huge fan of cybernetic periodization too.

In this Elitefts article Josh Bryant offers five quick advantages of the front squat.

In this blog Carson Boddicker talks about forced pronation in association with the trigger mechanism.

In this blog Bryan Chung tears apart some recent journal research on different loading schemes on muscle protein synthesis.

In this video Bill Hartman shows Valerie Waters some cool tips to help reverse negative posturing incurred from sitting.

In this article Usain Bolt talks about some of the secrets to his success.

In this blog Cedric Unholz talks about Olympic Weightlifter Misha Koklyaev and includes a badass video of him lifting heavy weights.

In this article Nick Tumminello tells us how to do the kettlebell Muay Thai clinch chin up. Awesome exercise for MMA fighters!

In this article Mark Young discusses some flaws in the research in an study involving the FMS.

In this blog one of Tony Gentilcore’s female distance coaching clients rages against the machine. She’s not happy about overweight whiny women.

In this blog Carson Boddicker discusses Deep Sacral Gluteus Maximus and its practical applications.

In this blog Chad Waterbury advises how to eat to build muscle.

In this article Dr. Perry Nickleston discusses functional movement, pain, and the joint-by-joint approach.

This article suggests that going too low in saturated fat could increase the likelihood of stroke mortality.

In this blog Jeff Cubos provides FMS yoga solutions. I’m going to have to award Jeff with “Blog of the Week!” He went above and beyond on this one! You have to check this one out…he links over fifty pictures and articles and provides concurrent or alternative strategies for improving the 7 individual tests in the FMS.

In this blog Mike T. Nelson provides some motivation quotes from Einstein.

This pubmed abstract indicates that arginine does not increase blood flow. If true, many billions of dollars were wasted on NOX2 products by high school kids who swore it gave them “sick ass pumps.”

In this blog Nia Shanks gives some badass advice in this random strength training tips post.

In this blog Tony Gentilcore teaches us a new exercise that comes highly recommended by Dr. Stuart McGill. It’s called “Stirring the Pot.” That Tony…he’s always stirring the pot. Ba da ching! Okay fine! I’m in “joke time-out” for 24 hours.

In the guest blog on Eric Cressey’s website, Brian Grasso talks about coordination training for youth.

In this blog Mike Robertson asks “What is your goal?”

This new study suggests that high rep lifting is better than heavy lifting for hypertrophy.

This New York Times article sheds some light on the obesity epidemic…it’s getting worse!

In this blog the Diesel Crew gives us 7 tips for those pressed for time.

Here’s the latest Fitcast episode.

Here’s a new study that explains “Muscle Memory.”

In this blog David Lasnier dishes out some serious hatin’ on the crunch.

In this blog Vern Gambetta reminds us that the body is not a machine and recommends that we stop trying to isolate and activate certain parts.

In this blog Ryan Johnson bashes on the high box jump and points out some inherent flaws.

In this blog P.J. Striet gives us five common reasons why people don’t hit their weightloss goals.

In this article Dave Tate gives us more benching techniques. This is the final part (part VII) of the series. This article contains links to the first six parts. If you want to bench like a man, you listen to Dave Tate!

Here’s a good TMuscle article by Smitty on grip training.

Here’s part III of Mike Robertson’s blog series on knee pain. Lots of videos in this one. Check it out.

In this blog Eric Cressey shows a couple of cool videos demonstrating strength!

In this blog Kevin Neeld shares some good links to studies and athletic-related information.

In this blog Vern Gambetta offers us some training basics.

This guy is B.A. Baracus!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=au1aVrhKbJQ&feature=player_embedded

In this blog John Izzo talks about cyclical trends in the fitness industry and how every time people stray from the basics they find their way back to good old barbell, dumbbell, and bodyweight movements.

In this video Martin Rooney shows how he teaches MMA skills to football players.

In this blog Tony Gentilcore asks what are you doing to get better and gives a great example of what he needs to do to step it up.

In this blog Howard Gray is all riled up about marketing hype in strength and conditioning.

Here’s a link to the latest strengthcoach podcast.

In this blog Robbie Bourke interviews John Sharkey.

In this blog Cedric Unholz discusses supplements vs. real food.

In this blog Mark Young provides a poem that is very relevant for people seeking physique or health changes. Print it and post it on your fridge!

Charles Poliquin debates one arm rows vs. barbell rows in this blog.

In this blog Kevin Carr discusses single leg progressions.

In this article Smitty discusses lower back health.

In this blog Mike Reinhold gives a good link and presentation on the evolution of the human shoulder.

In this blog Howard Gray presents part I of the responsibilities of a good coach.

Keith Scott gives some of the simplest yet best advice I’ve ever seen in this short blog.

In this article Jim Wendler offers some football advice by informing the readers about five things he wishes someone would have told him. Does this mean that Jim Wendler is human?

I have to admit, I laughed pretty hard when I stumbled across these Ian King videos. I’ve been wondering what this guy was up to. Has he lost his mind? You’ve gotta admit they’re pretty funny. Unless you’re the guy he’s mocking…anyway we all need to have a sense of humor so hopefully people can appreciate these videos.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=siRqryARUKg&feature=related

Hope you enjoy the links my fitness friends! Have a great weekend.

37 Comments

  • joe says:

    Nice set of reads. I really like the Bill Hartman entry, which I think would pretty much benefit anyone who has a desk-type of a job.

    I’ve been hearing a lot of different type of reactions from the study that suggests that high rep lifting is better than heavy lifting for hypertrophy.

    And with strength training being one of those fields where everyone and his mother believes that they are experts even if they don’t have anything to back up what they’re saying, I’d like to get your view on this topic, as I know that you won’t just blurt out ideas to show off or say things without having real knowledge or experience in this.

    • Steve says:

      Nah, its bull. See Bryan Chung’s devastating review included in Brett’s list. (sorry, I’ve repeated myself below.)

    • Joe, I’m curious as to the level of experience and training history of the subjects. I assume there will be a follow-up study measuring actual hypertrophy. For max hypertrophy, I always tell people to get strong in a variety of rep ranges. For example, be able to squat 405 x 1, 315 x 10, and 225 x 30. I personally stick to mostly low rep ranges for pure strength training and then add in some higher rep hypertrophy work later in the workout. This is what most powerlifters do.

  • Dave C says:

    Awesome vids from Ian King, that guy is spot on with his stuff, very funny.

    Any opinion on his claims of plagiarism by some very well known coaches?

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6WTG9Mv5mFc&feature=related

    • Howard Gray says:

      I have found this all very suspicious, and upon further investigation have no had satisfactory responses from certain people accused. But that is all I know on the matter.

    • Dave, I didn’t watch this video because I’ve already spoken to some of the accused. I think it’s a bit of a misunderstanding on the part of the accused. I believe Ian has accused a few coaches and one in particular I feel was very undeserved of this accusation. There is definitely some damning evidence regarding the main target of the accused but I think that he obviously learned his lesson and won’t continue to do it. Since I really like the main target of the accused, I am biased. I think this guy is one of the nicest guys in the industry and I feel horrible about the entire situation. I can definitely see Ian’s point though.

      • Josh R. says:

        The main accused person is 100% guilty of plagiarism and should have to deal with consequences that are commensurate to the gravity of his actions. The accused has a history besides this of copying other people’s work, almost word for word. If this were any other field aside from the lucrative cash cow side of the fitness industry, he would of likely faced graver consequences. Directly copying someone’s written work is completely unethical to our society’s standards

        • Josh, not trying to make excuses for the accused, but have you ever met him? One of the nicest guys you’ll ever meet. That’s why it’s hard for me to be objective here. I also don’t like to speculate when I haven’t heard both sides of the story. I know it sounds like I’m making excuses as I’ve heard of the other situations as well, but I’m just wondering if there is more to the story that I don’t know.

          • Ian King says:

            Bret – I tire of people making excuses for blatant copyright breaching or plagiarism as you would call academia. One of these ‘nice’ guys (we can go without name use if you want) has published enough of my work verbatim to fill a book, and used this content to form the basis of books and articles of many years. This is irrefutable. If you have seen anywhere that permission was granted for use let me know. It doesn’t exist. Who would give permission to copy such extensive volumes of work? Where are the credits? Where is the ‘permission given’ to copy? It doesn’t exist because – it doesn’t exist. And where the paraphrasing was used that may avoid legal definition of copyright breach, this issue of non-original work comes into play. I understand the inter-connecters of friends and not wanting to throw these associates under the bus etc etc – so I appreciate you and others want to keep out of this – but lets call a spade a spade – this is in my 30 years of being in the industry the most extensive case of copyright breaching I have ever seen – so please, let’s not pretend is a minor issue or a ‘mis-understanding’.
            I appreciate you efforts to stamp out plagiarism, non-crediting, and non-original works. I would hope therefore it would be difficult to side-step this one, no-matter how many time it is claimed the dog ate the permission letter…..I don’t normally engage in forum / blog exchanges about this, however after publishing so many innovations over the last few decades it’s not much fun watching the attempts to take credit or benefit commercially and professionally from my works. It’s even less fun watching professionals with integrity turn a blind eye out of fear of offending their buddies or damaging their cash cow, especially in these public forums. The message to others if the industry turns a collective blind eye to this is more of the same. Thank you for your time.

          • Bret says:

            Ian, nice to hear from you. Your program design methods among other ideas you had heavily influenced how all trainers around the world operate. Kudos to you for that. You deserve more credit and I make sure to reference you when appropriate (I did so in my slides from my talk at The Fitness Summit last week as a matter of fact). I can sympathize with your situation for sure. In a perfect world everyone would be able to come together, act rationale, and figure out a solution, and we’d operate in a way that was honorable and didn’t violate ethics. Hopefully in time this improves, but unfortunately things will probably continue. I hope that people wake up and change their ways, but money has a way of skewing people’s judgement. At any rate, hold your head high Ian, you’re a legend and you’ve made a huge mark on the S&C world. – BC

  • Laura says:

    Thanks for the million links, Brett. You’re a great resource. I’m the client of Tony Gentilcore who wrote the guest blog post you linked to. Just to clarify a little: It’s not that I’m unhappy with “overweight whiny women.” My point is that women who aren’t in the shape they want to be in need to start getting a bit more angry at a fitness and nutrition business largely built on selling them lies that will never work/

  • Not to suggest any imperfection in Miss Eason, but somehow the photographer has made it appear that she has excessive lumbar lordosis and anterior pelvic tilt.

    • I agree here with Danny, all figure models arch the shit out of their lower backs and anteriorly rotate their pelvis as much as possible to try to make it look like they have more glute and to accentuate the curvatures of their low back/hips. Literally every single “butt-shot” shows girls doing this. For girls, it’s like an inherent “instinct.” They know from puberty on to do this when someone’s snapping a picture from behind. 🙂

  • They always have the girls going into a BIG APT to highlight the booty for pics. I’m ok w/ it for picture taking/modeling purposes. Actually, I’m more than ok with it! 🙂
    Hopefully the girls don’t walk around/stand around like this when no one is looking however!

  • Brett, your blog is now one of my favorite blogs. I learn a ton from you!

    Thanks for the plug on the Pavel Seminar!!!

  • Howard Gray says:

    Ian King deserves an oscar for his acting performances – as does his able assistant – pardon my ignorance for not knowing his name.
    Cheers for linking me Bret – appreciate it big man

    • I don’t know his assistant’s name either but he’s hilarious. Is it just me or do guys from Australia, New Zealand, and England often seem funnier than guys from America?

  • Steve says:

    Good reading, again, Brett.

    One of the items above (“This new study suggests that high rep lifting is better than heavy lifting for hypertrophy”) is absolute bull.

    How do I know its rubbish?

    Well – most conveniently – a few items above that one refers to the same study being destroyed by Bryan Chung! (“In this blog Bryan Chung tears apart some recent journal research on different loading schemes on muscle protein synthesis”).

    I mean it stands to reason, we all know that lifting heavy weights builds muscle and we cringe at high rep pink weight stuff.

    The article in question: Burd NA, West DWD, Staples AW et al. Low-load high volume resistance exercise stimulates muscle protein synthesis more than high-load low volume resistance exercise in young men. Public Library of Science 5(8): e12033, 2010.

    • Steve, be careful. This is one situation where we need to be open-minded. You can’t automatically assume “pink weights,” although I admit that that’s what came to mind when I read the study. Just because women and “pussy” men will undoubtedly turn to pink dumbbells out of laziness and fear of strength doesn’t detract from the study’s legitimacy in my opinion. All the bodybuilders will tell you they go “heavy for high reps.” Tom Platz busting out 315 lb squats for 60 reps, Ronnie Coleman doing parking lot lunges with 185 lbs up and down the lot, Konstantin Konstantinovs doing 50 Kipping pull ups, Matt Kroc doing twenty one-arm rows with 200 lbs, etc. This is what needs to come to mind.

      • Steve says:

        Yeah, but that’s hardly what the article was about. Heavy-for-many is not just quantitatively different to light-for-many, its qualitatively different.

        • Steve, good call. I just went back and looked at the protocol. One group did 90% 1RM to failure, another group did 30% 1RM with total work matched to first group, and a final group did 30% 1RM to failure. Thirty percent of max is pretty darn light.

  • PolyisTCOandbanned says:

    The high-rep, low weight stuff is interesting. I think an easy explanation exists in terms of inroad. If you take a low weight to failure, versus a high load, you’re obviously WEAKER (i.e. exercised more, pushed the muscle harder). I mean in the sense that your “1RM” is temporarily lower. It seems like a similar benefit could result (and be more time efficient) if you just did drop sets.

    • Poly, don’t get all “Mike Mentzer” on us! 🙂

      • PolyisTCOandbanned says:

        I had to look up who that was. Interesting dude.

        I don’t know where I picked up that term, but I knew it would have a HIT connotation. Scratch that..I’ll come clean. I bought a Darden book in 1990! 🙂

        I don’t know what you want to call it, but the term “failure” has a connotation of “on/off” and doesn’t really properly describe that failure at different loads implies different amounts of temporary strength reduction.

        I’m not nescessarily arguing that one should train until one can’t lift one’s arms. Or arguing that you shouldn’t train that way! I just don’t know which is better for getting stronger.

        I do think, you can get yourself to that level of fatigue in a very time efficient manner with drop sets.

        And I do think the guys doing the 30%1RM to failure were way more “wiped” than the guys doing the 90%1RM to failure. It just may be that by getting more wiped they grew more.

        It could also just be that more time was spent exercising by doing the 30%1RM and that was the important effect (TUT vice inroard). I donno. You could image some test, were you give the 90% failure guys the same amount of time as the 30% guys. Let them rest a little and pump out an extra rep or two at the end. Wonder how that would compare.

        • Nothing wrong with HIT methodology…some very useful principles…just shouldn’t be considered gospel. I loved the “inroad to recovery” analogies. When doing high volume strength programs like Sheiko, you get really skilled and master technique, you avoid sloppy reps, you get much more practice, and you don’t experience the kind of total body fatigue that accompanies training where intensity is the primary stress (although having volume as the primary stress can kick your butt too). Some do very well with this type of program. I don’t. I need to practice at higher intensities (% of 1RM) or I lose my strength. So I do better on strength programs where intensity is the primary stress. I’ve found that I can get away much higher frequency than I ever thought possible too.

  • Daniel says:

    Which one is Ian King?

  • PolyisTCOandbanned says:

    Ian King is a cool dude. I think he actually cares about this stuff.

  • allie says:

    you are an animal. great links & vids. thanks!

  • felixuhlirach says:

    It’s my opinion that hypertrophy rep ranges will vary by trainer, training age, muscle group, and fiber distribution.

    My quads respond to high rep squats (even grueling 100-rep sets), my hamstrings respond to low rep, heavy deads. My forearms didn’t grow until I did extended barbell complexes with heavy eccentric action, and my tri’s grow when I bench heavy. Not dip, bench. My back grows when I do anything, my calves were far more developed when I was a distance runner, than when I did agonizing sets of calf raises.

    This has been beaten to death, and now that I’m getting older, I realize that as long as there is a profit motive in the fitness industry, there will be always be someone angling to make a buck on some study of some random dude/dudette performing some random exercise.

    Your mileage may vary. We are all a sample size of one. So go see what works!

    • Sure Felix, I’d agree. To add to what you’re saying, sometimes what works one year won’t work the next so you need to be able to switch it up to keep seeking the right stimuli.

  • felixuhlirach says:

    Oh, and that Ian King video regarding plagiarism is absolutely lacerating.

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