Things I Like

Every once in a while, I like to write a post about things that I've been doing/using that I think are pretty cool and useful. I don't guarantee that you'll think the same way, but it's worth a shot. Right?

Front Squats: I've always liked front squats, but I didn't love them until recently. As of late, it has become my favorite squat variation. I personally go with heels elevated (or weightlifting shoes) and get as low as I can. This is extremely friendly to my knees, and I feel like it has a great carry-over to jumping. I have also recently gotten into Olympic lifting, and the front squat is of the utmost importance for that. A high volume of front squats in the last few months is also the stimulus for some good growth in my upper legs.

MobilityWOD: Kelly Starret is a genius, plain and simple. He is a DPT and the owner of San Francisco CrossFit, one of the first 50 or so CrossFit affiliates. His website, MobilityWOD has changed the way I view warming up and mobility work. I've been very conscious of the fact that (as Eric Cressey says) you can't underestimate the importance of soft tissue quality for a long time now, but KStar has added elements that I have never seen before. It is some of the most innovative, effective and painful things that I have come across. This is one of those situations when I tell clients "the more it sucks, the better it is for you". Well, the majority of this mobility exercises suck to do. He uses a variety of methods to restore mobility, including banded joint distractions, self ART with lax balls, and tissue "mashing" with foam rollers, wine bottles and barbells. Check it out; seriously.

The Prowler: Yup, I know I've written about my love of the prowler before and I'm going to do it again right now. Why again? Because I just got one! I bought an Econo Prowler from my good buddy Dan, and it was a fantastic purchase. We used it in the street in front of my house already, and it's a helluva way to get in some good easy-on-the-body conditioning. Sprints and hill sprints are amazing, so is the rower and jump rope, but they all usually leave your body a little banged up. Not the Prowler, though. It's basically a bunch of single-leg eccentric-less density work. Great way to get your heart-rate going and a great way to get some extra volume for your legs. Can't go wrong with it.

My dog and my sled.

Yellow Mustard: There will be an update about this tomorrow, but I am currently finishing up a pretty awful diet. One of the saving graces (Can I say that? Saving graces? Is that a thing?) was French's yellow mustard. A man can only eat so much chicken breast, turkey breast or tuna fish before he wants to start taking peoples lives. Some yellow mustard slathered on poultry really goes a long way. Plus, its zero calorie! (If you know me at all, you know how much I hate espousing the benefits of something that has no calories.)




Mad Men: Yup, the TV show. I don't watch a lot of TV (I don't have cable) so I watch things on Netflix. This is a show my sister has been raving about for a few years, and a few friends recently got into it and convinced me to start watching. I must say, I'm sad I didn't start sooner. Great characters, great dialogue and a really good story line. The only downside is that after watching an episode, all I want to do is go smoke cigarettes, drink whiskey and demean women.**

All Things Gym:  This is a fairly new website that takes all the iron sport stuff out there and condenses it into one amazing little package. Power lifting videos? It's there. CrossFit stuff? It's there. Weightlifting news? It's there in spades. Whatever it is that you enjoy in this wild world of weight training, you can find news and videos on this site. It is certainly skewed more to Olympic lifting stuff, but that's alright. Where else can you go to find the great new MobilityWOD video and also see Mikhail Koklyaev do a 100 kg (220 pound) barbell sit-up? No where!! All Things Gym is the website responsible for first introducing me to the Klokov Complex!

That's it for today. I hope you enjoyed the post and I hope you find at least something that I wrote about today to be enjoyable or useful to you somehow. If not....I dunno what to tell you, I wrote about some pretty cool shit, there's probably something wrong with you.

Go be awesome! Lift something heavy today!

**I do not demean women, ever. My Momma would slap the taste out of my mouth.