Dan John: Wandering Weights, Issue # 93
Wandering Weights
Our Epic Journey Through All Things Heavy, Issue # 93
New this week on OTP: Glenn Pendlay on structuring the training week
I’m sitting in my hotel room in Minnesota and I am just finishing up a few things. I really enjoyed the Dragon Door Health and Fitness Conference. I learned a lot from the speakers and it was nice to get some hands-on work with muscle-ups and the neurogrip. I think we need to constantly expand the toolbox…in all areas of life.
Let’s start off with three great collections: Books, articles and movies. I am very pleased to have read and seen many of these. I love so many of these movies!!!
Josh has been a friend for a long time and I applaud his honesty and insights. He is a man of singular courage.
“That’s one of the biggest challenges with Tourette’s. Pain is a signal that says ‘stop doing whatever it is that hurts.’ With Tourette’s, it’s not really an option. It’s like spraining your ankle and then, instead of bandaging it, icing it, and elevating it, you’re forced onto a pogo stick for 30 minutes of each hour.
“But, like everyone else, when it hurts, there are only a couple of questions worth asking. (And they’re not ‘Why is this happening to me?’ or ‘How come everyone but me gets to have a perfect, pain-free life?’)
“Instead, when it hurts, I try, whenever possible, to look at myself and say:
“’So what?’
“and
“’Now what?’
“That’s it. Any adjustments we can make to our jobs, lives, attitudes, medical care, goals, etc, are just answers to those questions. There’s nothing else besides dwelling and moping and venting while the clock ticks, the sun sets, and we now have one fewer day left to live.”
Geoff Hemingway’s post seems to fit in well with Josh’s posts.
“I know it’s been FOREVER. It’s always been forever. I’m a terrible blogger. I am doing my goddamn BEST to get better, though so please bear with me.
“Today’s post has been inspired by my colleague, friend, and mentor Brian Patrick Murphy. He writes a regular blog. He’s a LOT better at it than me and I highly recommend his stuff. Today his post was about things he is grateful for, and I’m going to take a page from his book and list some of the things I am grateful for as well. Sorry to copycat, Murph, but a good idea is a good idea.”
My good friend, Chandlar Clark, has a fun website and is offering a special discount for WW readers. I buy a lot of his stuff for Highland Games gifts. Discount Code: danjohn Save 25% at checkout.
I thought this was a pretty solid piece from the general media on fat loss.
“I still eat like I was taught when I first met my trainer — by planning my meals and fueling my body for the day’s activities. There are a lot of fruits, vegetables, and lean proteins in my diet. I eat more often now, but because the food is more filling, I don’t eat as much. I have also learned to time my meals around my day. I gave up all processed foods and sugars over two years ago and no longer crave them. Sometimes they are part of a rare cheat meal, but not often.
“My workouts are still four or five days a week. I train with Ryan once a week. I alternate the days I am in the gym weight training, so I am never training the same muscle group two days in a row. There are rotations of weights and resistance training and cardio. During my running season, at least once a week I’ll do a long run early in the mornings.
Someone told me he couldn’t find my free “How to throw the discus book.” Here.
Slade Jones pinged this article to me. It is a light and breezy read, but Europeans do some things right, in my experience. A lot of right.
“Buying food is a different experience in France than in the USA. The French do their grocery shopping for every-day consumption, preferring to go to an open-air market for fresh fruits and vegetables, a fromagerie for cheese, a boulangerie for bread, and a boucherie for meat. I used to do this every day, then walk to my apartment building and climb four flights of stairs to reach my place—shopping and exercising in the same day.
This article got buried when it came out, but it is really worth your time to read and review for using KBs with athletes.
“So, why do kettlebells provide more of an advantage to athletes than conventional barbell lifts? It’s because barbell exercises focus more on the concentric phase of the lift. Usually, the concentric movement gets the most ‘credit’. The eccentric phase is when the weight is lowered, and an isometric contraction occurs when you reach a complete pause in the lift. Athletes MUST train all three phases to see gains in their performance. Period. No sport uses only concentric movements, so why would you only train that phase of a lift?”
I have to run to a meeting. Until next week, keep lifting and learning.
Dan
DanJohn.net
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