I know most of you have already hit the road or are soon initiating your plans for Thanksgiving, so I hope everyone has a great time with family and friends. Here are a couple random thoughts before I get my own eat on this weekend: 1. SAPT Thanksgiving Lift. Tomorrow at 8am. I've been looking forward to this since, oh I don't know, 364 days ago when the last one ended? As I mentioned, along with the video footage on Monday, please feel welcome to join us, even if you're not an "SAPTer." We don't bite, I promise. We even wrote a few sample workouts and conditioning options for those of you looking for something different.

So, come on out and wobble before you gobble.

2. Exercise Selection. Is it really the most important programming variable?

The other day I got thinking about, how (correct me if I'm wrong), it seems that most people tackle their training merely by choosing which exercises they are going to do. When in fact, I would argue that this is a short-sighted approach given that exercise selection is only ONE variable when it comes to intelligent program design. And, I will go so far as to say that choosing the exercises is pretty far down the list of primary factors to consider.

Programming for athletic performance, fat loss, muscle gains, etc. is much more than just picking which exercises to do on each day of the week. For example, when I write programs, the actual exercise choice is usually the last thing I put down on the paper! I'm not going to delve into detail here, but it's an idea I have for a future blog post.

3. Pizza is now considered a vegetable? I read this post by Tony Gentilcore earlier this week, and, if anything, it just made me sad. In short, the government as mandated that pizza can be served in schools as the one serving of veggies each day for the children. I'm not going to rant here, but I may or may not have thrown myself in front of a school bus after finding this out.

Juliet (of HeyJoob) then brought up a great question: "Where is the line drawn between the government supporting its economy/freedom vs. the health of its people?"

However, I would argue that the gov't isn't even supporting its economy in this case, given that we'll have millions of kids with diabetes, needing health care, in the next decade or two.

Okay, maybe I just went back on my promise and ranted a bit. I apologize, I'm better now.

Before I go though, watch the video below by Jamie Oliver if you haven't watched it already...it is THE best speech on obesity I've ever seen:

^^^Seriously, watch Me^^^

4. Sarah had a fantastic post yesterday on both life and training lessons she has picked up over the past thirty years. You would be remiss not to read it if you haven't yet.

Click Me ==> 30 Years, 30 Lessons <== Click Me

5. Speaking earlier of exercise selection, Rob Adell snatches 319lbs. Makes you think twice about obsessing over a sub-par bench press when there are people throwing 319lbs over their heads, right?!?!

Oh, and this kid is only 20 years old:

THAT's how to demonstrate athleticism and power, and THAT is an example of someone who should be performing a barbell snatch.

6. Have a Happy Thanksgiving, everyone.

Thanksgiving is this week. Awesome. I mean, come on, Thanksgiving rocks pretty hard. It's one of the only days of the year (if not, the only day...) where it's widely acceptable, and even encouraged, to make it your top priority to eat, sleep, play backyard football, and watch football as much as humanly possible. And then repeat as many times as you can before the day is over. Not to mention, this is the first Thanksgiving I can recall where the football games actually matter. Like, when was the last time the Lions were good?! On top of that, the 49ers are my favorite team, so it's awesome to seem them doing well for the first time since circa 2002. I have high hopes for they'll pull off something respectable this year. Admittedly, those who know me well understand that watching football is far from my favorite pastime, but I bring this up nonetheless as it's a fairly monumental shift on the Thanksgiving football side of things.

Okay, SO, since you're all going to be eating turkey and pie as far as the eye can see, and then laying down to nap shortly thereafter, what better way to start your morning than to train inside Northern Virginia's Mecca for all things awesome in the lifting department??

This Thursday morning, at 8am, SAPT will be hosting its 2nd Annual Thanksgiving Lift. All ye in the Northern Va area are welcome to to come and train with us.

Yes, you read that right. All you need to do is show up and have some fun. No excuses, either...it's early enough so that you all can finish in plenty of time to travel and/or enjoy the rest of the day feasting and relaxing.

Come on, you know you want to. Plus, you get to see all four of the SAPT coaches under one roof! While, yes, at any given moment you may find us lifting heavy things, or in a similar position as Coach Ryan in the picture below...

we are actually kind-spirited at heart, and appreciate the little things in life, namely:

The smell of new tennis balls
When others actually use their turn signal in traffic
When your smoothie blends just right (you know...when all the frozen fruit and ice chops PERFECTLY and quickly, and doesn't get lodged in the blade or stuck at the top without going down to the bottom)
Achieving that perfect, crisp brown on a s'more marshmallow without torching it
The aroma/atmosphere of a good coffee shop
Hitting the traffic lights just right on a busy main road
Rescuing kittens that look like this:

Considering we will all be there, along with a fair number of the SAPT community, where ELSE would you want to be on Thanksgiving morning?

Feel free to join simply to socialize, try out new and quirky exercises/routines you may have never done before, compete in farmers walk and/or tire flip races, and render your stomach more eager than ever to go home and devour copious amounts of dead animal flesh.

And, in case you missed it last year, here are some brief clips of our 1st Annual Turkey lift: