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Random Thoughts

By August 7, 2012January 1st, 2016Random Thoughts

Greetings fitness friends! Here are 20  random things for you.

1. New TNation article – Don’t be Donald Duck (how to rid excessive anterior pelvic tilt)

A couple of weeks ago I got THIS article published on TNation. It was very well received. If you haven’t read it yet, definitely check it out.

2. Quick Home Workout for MyOMyTV

HERE is a quick workout I created and filmed for Marianne’s website. Goblet squats, swings, push-ups, inverted rows. Give it a try!

3. Gangnam Style

From here on out, when I speak at conferences, I’ll open and close to this dance:

4. Single Leg Hip Thrusts 1.5 Reps

Ben Bruno came up with an excellent idea for single leg hip thrusts: One-and-a-half reps. Check out out here:

5. Why Baseball Players Shouldn’t Olympic Lift

Eric Cressey wrote an excellent article last week HERE.

6. Zatsiorsky’s New Book: Biomechanics of Skeletal Muscles

Vlady is still at it – he just published a new book on muscles HERE. This stuff is right down my alley, but I checked out the Table of Contents and my brain hurt just looking at it. Zatsiorsky is a genius.

7. Grip Training DVD by Adam Glass

HERE is a badass DVD by world-champion grip specialist Adam Glass. I’m rarely this captivated by strength-training DVD’s, but this one is freakin’ awesome. This is NOT an affiliate link – I’m posting it here for any readers who want to learn more about grip training. If you’re in this boat you will love this DVD. I didn’t realize how many nuances there were to the sport of grip training. I highly recommend it.

8. Hollow Body Position

Check out these vids on the hollow body position. Gymnasts swear by it, and it reminds me of the RKC plank I’ve been using with my clients with much success.

9. Who is Your Olympic Athlete Body Match?

Click HERE to find out. Mine is James Davis, a fencer from Great Britain.

10. Strength & Conditioning Research Blog

In case you didn’t know, Chris Beardsley is posting blogs on our Strength & Conditioning Research website. They are awesome!

Click HERE to learn how ballistic training differs from traditional resistance training.

Click HERE to the different strength qualities and how to diagnose your athletes.

11. Perspectives on Bolt’s Performance

Words can’t describe how jacked up I was for the big race last night. I had a feeling that Usain would prevail, and boy did he pull through. Click HERE for a few links to Usain’s performance by Mike Young. THIS interactive link is the best. And if you want to know why Jamaicans are so damn fast, click HERE to see a cool infographic on Jimson Lee’s site.

12. HardCore by Smitty and DeFranco

Smitty and JoeDeFranco created a new DVD which I loved as usual. Click HERE to check it out (no affiliate link). I even filmed a video testimonial since I liked it so much – it’s embedded in the page that I linked.

13. Is A Calorie Just a Calorie?

Layne Norton wrote an excellent article HERE.

14. Visual Bodyfat Ratios

Below is a cool graphic I saw representing different bodyfat ratios. The only problem is that as the dude loses fat, his package gets noticeably smaller. Wouldn’t that suck if this indeed happened? Thankfully it doesn’t so no need to worry – your manhood will remain unscathed!

15. What if Every Sport Was Photographed Like Beach Volleyball…

THIS article cracked me up! The pics are hilarious.

16. Arthur Jones – Biased, You Think?

Nick Tumminello posted this video on Facebook and it blew me away. Arthur Jones in his heyday. Listen to it for yourself…do you think he was biased regarding barbell training vs. Nautilus machines?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_MaldG7eqUU (sorry it won’t embed for some reason, you’ll have to click on the link)

17. Free Course from John Berardi

JB is offering a free 5-day course HERE (no affiliate link) on the essentials of nutrition coaching. JB is the man so I’m sure this will be a valuable resource.

18. Men vs. Women

I know this is old but it’s so true! Thought I’d share it even though you’ve probably seen it.

19. Hip Thrust Blog Comments

A couple of weeks ago I posted THIS blog regarding the hip thrust. Even if you already read it, you may want to go back and check out the comments. I received some very good questions from readers and they’re worth reading.

20. Heavy Ass Kettlebell

For my bday I purchased a 203 lb kettlebell. The KB on the left is a 106 pounder (48 kgs), the KB on the right is a 203 pounder (92 kgs). The other day I busted out 3 x 8 swings. Love them! I’ll shoot a video and post it shortly.

That’s all folks! Cheers, BC

25 Comments

  • teri says:

    thanks Bret! I’ve become a huge fan of yours and really appreciate how you’ve been helping redefining my ASSet! 😉

  • Jini Cicero says:

    Great collection of links and things.

    Thank you!

  • Keith Washington says:

    Hey Bret. Here’s a question for you: If you had two clients (better yet, if you could have two of the same individual)…..same height, weight, body comp., joint articulations, tendinous insertions, etc. And they both squat 400 pounds max; client A does low bar, wide stance squat while Client B does high bar olympic style squat. Would one actually be stronger than the other due to leverages and moment arms and such??? Just my brain clicking in its own strange way!

    • Bret says:

      Hi Keith, if I’m understanding the question correctly, I’d go with the low bar wide stance squat, but this is misleading because most men can’t go too much below parallel with a wide stance, whereas the guy doing high bar Oly squats would be able to go rock bottom. So if it was just a demonstration of strength, the PL squat would be greater. But if both trained with those lifts for several months, both would see great improvements in their particular lifts.

    • Derrick Blanton says:

      Keith, this is the type of question that I literally lay awake thinking about! (I only wish I was kidding.)

      I cautioned myself about posting too much on BC’s board, but this query is like a shiny display window taunting a compulsive shoplifter..

      (What? No, I don’t know by experience.. What exactly are you implying?! I don’t like where you’re going with this!!) LOL, but seriously..ahem..

      My money says the OLY style lifter is stronger. They are both maxing at 400, but the OLY guy is moving the weight through a much greater ROM. If you gave the OLY guy one week (or maybe one hour) to practice the PL variation, and cut his ROM to parallel, his max will likely go up.(450?)

      Conversely, the “squat morning” PL guy may have a far more difficult time mobility wise squatting that deep, and no way is he going to do so with more weight.. (If he does, then he should revise his stance pronto).

      Btw, there actually is a PL guy on YouTube-moniker “Blenderate” who squats ATG, and he is just stupid strong..(462×20)

      Anyways, strength is a skill says Pavel; of course he’s right. So it would depend on how you want to measure the strength. Leg press? Dead lift? Prowler push? Atlas stones? A lot of variables to consider..Specific adaptations to imposed demands.

      But overall expression of lower body strength across multiple variables, I go with OLY guy..

  • Lynda says:

    Thank you thank you THANK you for Gangnam Style! Mad <3. Oh, and the rest of the article was full of great stuff, as always 😉

  • Josh says:

    Thanks a million, great resources and wealth of knowledge.

  • Collin Andersen says:

    Can’t wait to see the video of your Gangnam Style =)

  • Samuel says:

    I was pretty disappointed with Adam Glass’ Industrial Strength Grip Vol. 1, and he also never extended the simple courtesy of replying to an email I sent him. After that I decided not to buy anything from him again – now for all things grip, I prefer Jedd Johnson over at Diesel Crew. I’m glad to hear you got something out of ISG Vol. 2 though, and I hope other people have/had better experiences.

  • Eric Moss says:

    where on earth did you get that mammoth kettlebell?

  • marc says:

    YOU ALWAYS DELIVER GREAT STUFF. SORRY I MISSED YOUR B/D.CIAO MARC

  • Ryan Hurst says:

    Hey thanks for sharing my video (I’m the dude in the last hollow body vid)!

    Those crotch shots from the volleyball-esque photo link were hilarious. Also: 203lb KB? That’s freakin’ crazy.

  • tony says:

    thanks. some good reads

  • natrone says:

    Your APT article has been highly helpful. This leads me to my question, what are the best exercises to address posterior pelvic tilt then?

  • Paul says:

    Hi Bret, that Arthur Jones video is hilarious! What a legend. What are your thoughts on Arthur Jones and modern day h.i.t proponents such as Drew Baye? I stumbled across his website and found some intriguing articles that as per usual when discussing training methods – generated lots of debate, for example: http://baye.com/crossfit/

    • Bret says:

      To be honest, I think Arthur Jones was an arrogant bulley and if I was at that seminar I would have put him in his place (but we have much more research now indicating that he’s full of it). I like HIT and saw great results with it but HIT folks are cultish and unwilling to face the facts – multiple sets lead to greater strength and hypertrophy. But HIT does have its place. Just that the HIT cult takes things way too far just like all other cults.

  • Chris B. says:

    Something else in regard to anterior pelvic tilt is that it will also affect the position of the ribs. When the pelvis tilts forward the lower anterior ribs will elevate or flare out. This will also affect the function of the diaphgram. So if you are trying to reduce anterior pelvic tilt, when you are performing an exercise such as a hip thrust, you want to keep your lower ribs pulled down using your obliques. Exhaling fully will help with that as well.

    • Bret says:

      Thanks Chris! I agree.

      • DebbyK says:

        How would one keep their lower ribs pulled down using the obliques?

        …Engaging pelvic floor?

        …Thinking about bringing your lats to your obliques?

        I can’t quite get the cuing on this…
        I tend to anterior tilt, as well as have rib flair, so I know this is important, especially after my shoulder surgery…

        Thanks for your help
        Debby:)

  • moss says:

    hi!
    with regard to glute hypertrophy, what are your strength standards for the BB glute bridge, and the BB hip thrust. in other words, how much weight do you need to be thrusting in order to have eye-popping glutes!

  • Kat says:

    Best post ever Bret!!! Love the song…reposted and has become my new favorite dance ;). This is gonna be in my workout mix!!

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