Friday Musings: Mental Mondays, Zelda Symphony, Walking into Mordor, and Harry Potter

1. As Sarah mentioned earlier this week, starting on Mondays, we're going to have a pseudo-permanent guest blogger, Brian Levenson, do a "Mental Monday" piece each Monday. Check HERE for a bit more information. Brian's extremely skilled at what he does, and he and I are actually working together on an upcoming project which, to say the least, I'm quite excited about.

I know this means you won't be hearing from me on Mondays for a while, but hey, at least you'll be spared the continual nerd references I can't seem to stop myself from making, right?

2. Speaking of nerdy things. Any of you who have been reading my material on here for an extended period of time know that I have a borderline dangerous love of all things Zelda.

Well, last night, the National Symphony Orchestra (NSO) was playing at Wolf Trap, which is America's National Park for the Performing Arts and also just happens to be 30 minutes from my house. And guess what the event was? The Legend of Zelda: Symphony of the Goddess. In which the NSO was performing a symphony based on the themes from the game, along with highlighting memorable moments from all the Zelda games on the big screen above the orchestra.

So of course I had to go. And it was amazing. The only thing that could have made it more enjoyable was consuming a Chipotle burrito during the show. Which I did, thank you very much, so it was as good as it gets.

The place was PACKED, with nerds and non-nerds alike, and heck, even if you have no interest in the Zelda series, you'd still enjoy the show as the symphonic movements the the orchestra played were spectacular.

Before the show started, I met the guy in the picture below, who, come to find out, owns the most valuable Link outfit currently on the internet. It's valued at over $2,100 and he fashioned it all by hand himself. He even has chainmail under the cloak....crazy!

DCIM100SPORT

3. Guess what fun fact I found out recently?

If you go into GoogleMaps, click on Walking directions, and type in "The Shire" as your origin, and "Mordor" as your destination, a little box pops up saying:

"Caution - One does not simply walk into Mordor"

Hahahaha. Enter #255 why Google is the coolest company ever. I'm sure the programmers over there have a boatload of fun messing around with stuff like that.

4. I recently began reading the Harry Potter series for some fun reading to do in my spare time, and I must say: I'm hooked, and I finally see what all the fuss is about. It makes for a fantastic "cooldown" session when I get home from work around 9pm, and am able to read it for two hours thirty minutes or so before plopping into bed.

I realize I'm - oh I don't know, maybe a decade or two behind on this one - but I can't recommend them highly enough for those of you who haven't read them. J.K. Rowling is obviously a brilliant writer, and I'm continually blown away by her sequencing of events, character development, and the themes she weaves throughout the series.

I honestly can never seem to extricate myself from the book once I get started, and it has become my latest Sunday afternoon pastime. I just began the fifth book (Order of the Phoenix) and I think the only thing I'm regretting about beginning these books is that they have to end at some point.

.....Well, that wraps it up for today. I do apologize for completely inundating today's post with all things dorky. I'll do my best to make it up next week by discussing manly things like chopping wood, blowing up stuff, sports, and lifting heavy things.

Monday Musings: New Facility, Backpacking Europe, and Deadlift Foot Placement

Gotta make this one brief today... 1. I'm thrilled to say that, last Friday, we successfully moved SAPT into our new location last Friday. To those of you who train with us, you can look forward to a climate controlled environment during your next session!

Also, thank you again to all those that came to help us move.  Your assistance was MUCH appreciated, and we're extremely grateful that you gave up your time on Friday to aid us.

Our new address is 3160 Unit E, Spring Street, Fairfax, Va 22031.

2. This October, I'll be fulfilling a childhood dream of mine by going backpacking in Europe. Thanks to pretty much the most awesome boss, SAPT team, and wife, that I could ask for, I'm able to take a couple weeks off to backpack through Ireland, Switzerland, and Italy.

Needless to say, I'm already as giddy as a little schoolgirl for October to arrive, as I've been literally dreaming about it (and slowly, very slowly....been saving up for it) since I was twelve years old.

For those interested, I'll be glad to share more details in the future, but for now I did want to share one of the things I'm most excited about: Canyoning in Interlaken, Switzerland.

One of my good buddies did this last year, and told me it was literally the experience of a lifetime. Basically, you take a bus up right into the heart of the Swiss Alps, and then repel, jump off, and slide down the canyons and waters of Switzerland to return to the bottom.

Here is a video of what I'll be doing, you can catch the gist of it in the first 45 seconds of the vid:

While in Switzerland, we also plan on visiting Schilthorn, the breathtaking summit of Burnese Alps, upon which a revolving restaurant sits. The restaurant, Piz Gloria, was actually a setting used during the old James Bond Film, On Her Majesty's Secret Service. Here's a picture of the location:

Needless to say the entire experience will be pretty surreal and I'm definitely open for suggestions from those of you who may have traveled Europe before.

3. My friend Tony Gentilcore recently uploaded a brief video explaining the "ideal" foot placement for deadlifting. Given that he discusses what is easily one of the most common mistakes I see (both in commercial gyms and in people entering SAPT for the first time), I thought I'd share it here:

Hope everyone is having a great start to the week!

Inspiration from Ross Enamait

I never get tired of watching videos of Ross training and getting after it. He merely trains in his garage or outdoors, and yet his strength, endurance, and power is unparalleled by countless individuals who have access to all the "fancy" equipment. Ross receives countless questions from internet warriors (both on his website and in the comments section of his videos), and he almost always responds to each and every inquiry. It cracks me up as he never tires of giving pretty much the same answer every time, when people ask him what motivates him, and how he has become as physically fit as he is.

"Real gains don't come in days or weeks. I've been training for 20+ years. Patience and consistency are perhaps the most important supplements to any routine.....There's nothing special about me. I've just been working hard for a long time." -Ross

People are always looking for the magic formula or silver bullet, be it the latest exercise program, nutrition "secret," or piece of specialty equipment.

Guess what? There isn't one. And I know few people that could prove this better than Ross.

Stick to the basics. Train smart. Work hard. Never back down. Be consistent. Repeat every day for thirty years.

Enjoy the training video above (I also LOVE all the quotes he interspersed throughout the video), and then apply these lessons.

Friday Musings: Butt Jump Roping, Pet Peeves, Star Wars A Cappella, Mentoring, etc.

1. The other day I had programmed some low volume jump roping for one of the girls, Paula, at SAPT. Upon watching her first session, it was quite evident that she was no foreigner to jump roping, so Coach Kelsey looks over at her in passing and and says, "You know, you're pretty good at those." To which Paula responds, "Well, I can also jump rope on my butt. So, using my feet isn't really that big a deal."

Obviously Kelsey and I had to see this stunt for ourselves, and asked her to perform a few reps. Needless to say, she knocked it out of the park, and it was the first time anyone in SAPT ever did anything like this:

2. Chris Romanow once told me, in a joking-but-not-really-joking tone, that the majority of people's goals (moving better, looking better, athletic performance, fat loss, remaining injury free, ruling the world, etc) could be solved by a healthy, regular dose of goblet squats and spidermans.

And the more I coach people and do these things myself, I'm right there with him. My personal contribution to the list would be loaded carries and kettlebell swings.

davidfarmerwalk

Do those four movements, multiple times a week and you're set.

3. These need to be posted at every youth sporting event. *Everywhere. I slow clap those that created and posted this sign:

4. A few of my pet peeves, in no particular order:

1. Morning People. More specifically, morning people who insist on talking to you within one hour of your morning awakening.

The morning should be used for three to four things: Enjoying a quality cup of coffee, spending some time on reflection (on what, that is up to you), reading, and perhaps pooping if that's what schedule you're on. Notice that talking is not on the list. Just because you are a morning person doesn't mean that the person that happens to be in the same bedroom/house as you likes to discuss the world's problems first thing in the A.M.

The only exceptions to this rule are A) If you're my wife (I love you, babe), and B) If I wake up past 10AM. People have every right to talk to me if I ever get out of bed that late.

2. When you're (manually) doing dishes and the cup/glass isn't large enough for your hand to reach all the way to the bottom, so you end up standing there, pinching your knuckles and skin into the glass, trying to stretch out your fingers with the sponge to barely reach the bottom.

3. When you're wearing socks and you step in something wet.

4a. People who don't turn right on red. More specifically, when you're driving down a two-lane road, and the person in front of you changes lanes into the right lane before the turn you need to make, but of course the light turns red so they end up blocking you for the next two minutes. Stay in the other lane and be considerate, dang it.

4b. Drivers who don't use their turn signal. I swear you could cut me off in traffic, but if you're using your signal, hey, you're good in my book.

4c. Those who won't get out of the left lane. I don't think I need to explain this any further, do I?

5. Extroverts. Why do you people always need to be around me and talking to me?!? Can't a man get some alone time around here? AHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!

6. People who squeeze the toothpaste tube in the wrong spot. You know who you are.

7. Overhead kettlebell swings. Wow....just, wow.....please stop.

8. Cracking knuckles. Makes me want to crawl into the fetal position each time I hear it. Never done it, don't plan on it any time soon.

9. When you're at a restaurant, and you finally achieved the perfect water temperate by getting the ice:water ratio just right, and the waiter comes along out of the blue, merrily filling up your glass without asking, completely screwing up everything you've worked so hard for.

10. Country music. 'Nuff said there.

5. I have no idea who this guy is, but can you say awesome? Here he does a a Star Wars themed, four-part a cappella musical tribute set to a few cinematic themes by composer John Williams.

Corey - If you live in the area, I'll give you a free assessment and coaching session for putting this together. Our address is 3831 Pickett Road, Fairfax, Va.

6. Read this article by Jim Wendler:

Mentoring Wendler

Here's a quick preview:

Towards the end of my senior year, I finally asked Darren why he never spoke to me during my first year in the weight room. And it was this lesson that I have taken with me in all areas of my life. His answer:

"Because you hadn't earned it. I've written hundreds of programs and helped so many kids and teachers with their training – and almost all of them quit after the first week. I had to see if you were going to stick with it. I had to see if you were serious. I'm not going to waste my time or my energy."

We all have someone like Darren in our lives. Unfortunately, few people are receptive to it or exhibit the will, heart, and resolve to show them that they deserve their attention.

I know because I see it around me daily. I see kids and lifters that ask questions and think they want to be great and strong, but always fall short of the small amount of commitment it takes to prove themselves. Everyone wants a handout rather than earn it. - Jim Wendler

Such awesome words of truth spoken by Jim Wendler here. I'm not sure if it's just me but it seems that the most recent generation seems to feel, for some odd reason, that they're the center of the universe, and that nothing can ever be their fault. If they didn't accomplish something or if they messed something up, there's an obvious excuse, right?

On top of that, I seem to experience more and more conversations with individuals who do wayyy too much talking, and too little listening.Well spoken, Jim.

7. This article is very cool, and definitely worth scrolling through all the pictures.

21 Pictures That Will Restore Your Faith In Humanity

I first learned about "The Bystander Effect" in a sociology course in college, and Tony Gentilcore actually wrote a great, quick piece about it HERE. Learning about such incidents always make my heart drop a bit, and question the general tendency that humans learn toward at times.

Scrolling through the pictures in the linked article definitely helped temper the "cynicism" of humanity that occasionally shrouds my thought processes. Ah, there is hope in the world!

That's all for now, have a great weekend everyone.

*Except for the sporting events of my future kids. **They're obviously the exception and need to open up a big can of you-know-what on their opponents.

**That's a joke***.

***Maybe.

Patterning for Improved Skill Acquisition

A few thoughts I've jotted down in my journal over the past few months that I thought I'd share here... All of the athletes (yes, all) that walk in our doors at SAPT become, nearly instantaneously, better at their sport simply from performing a correct goblet squat for the first time in their lives. Yes, the loaded carries and hip hinges certainly aid in this phenomenon as well, but for now I'm just talking about squatting. We personally recommend the majority of the young athletes (ages 13-18) entering SAPT for the first time to begin with just a 2x/week training regimen, and then, if needed and appropriate, they can increase the frequency. But you'd be surprised at how much you can accomplish in just two sessions a week with someone who's brand new to virtuous training methodology.

In the past, Day 1 has been a "squat emphasis" day, where the first main movement they do is a goblet squat. Day 2 will be a "deadlift emphasis" day, where we help them pattern the hip hinge and learn to deadlift with a kettlebell, keeping a neutral spine and using their posterior chain. After they groove the squat or deadlift (depending on the day), they'll then move on to their unilateral work, pushes, pulls, loaded carries, direct glute work, and all that good stuff.

Now there is nothing wrong with this layout, as, after all, it has worked for a myriad individuals and allowed them to become stronger, less prone to injury, and become more of a beast on the playing field.

The thing that had been troubling me though was I felt that, simply put, they weren't squatting enough under our watch. Given the fact that despite the thousands of team conditioning sessions, commercial gym group workouts, and exercise DVD routines they'd undergone, their squats resembled something along the lines of a baby giraffe learning to walk for the first time. I guess their previous instructors were either too ignorant or lazy to teach them good squatting mechanics, but who am I to judge?

And it can take a long time to "undo" the habits developed from thousands of bad squats performed in a life time. And while 1x/week of squatting twenty-five TOTAL reps can certainly do the trick, I've found it even more time-efficient to squat everyone during every single session.

So, if they're training 2x/week, they squat every session, toward the beginning of their workout while they're fresh. If they're training 3x/week, then yep, they squat 3x/week. Patterning it every day until it becomes second nature.

This means that the unilateral work and direct glute training take the back burner, at least until they can execute perfect squats every single time. Good squats will lay the foundation down for everything else in subsequent training cycles.

While squatting 1x/week will work for a 400lbs squatter, everything changes when someone can't hold a 25lb kettlebell and sit back without everything turning very ugly very fast.

I guess all I am saying is that, in order to "reprogram" someone's nervous system and motor control, they need to practice this motor control training frequently and correctly. Nothing too new or revolutionary, but something to consider when you have limited time to work with a young, developing organism.

Friday Musings: TRX Pullup Progressions, Ninja Blenders, a Letter To Men on How To Treat Their Wives, etc.

1. The TRX Pullup Progression is quickly becoming my favorite way of helping women: A) Achieve their first-ever bodyweight pullup B) Groove good pullup technique, as this is difficult to do while hanging from a pullup bar C) Be more awesome in general, and wreak pWnage upon the arrogant-yet-ironically-weak male gym population D) Develop the musculature of the back and arms in the context of a pullup, and receive a decent core stability challenge to boot.

Here is my beautiful wife, Kelsey, demonstrating the movement:

A few things to think about:

i) Careful of slipping into crazy anterior pelvic tilt (butt "sticking out") toward the top. This is actually the most common mistake I see with these, as this exercise creates a surprisingly difficult challenge for the anterior core (depending on how vertical your torso angle is), and those with low back issues will quickly experience pain if they don't brace properly. Tilt your tailbone down toward your ankles, keep the glutes squeezed tight, and brace your abs.

ii) Drive your feet "into the ground" to help propel yourself upward. Do this more than you think you need to in the beginning to help you groove good technique, and as you become stronger, lessen the amount of assistance you draw from your legs.

iii) Be sure to think "shoulders away from your ears" as you pull up to the top, so that you're not shrugging, enforcing aberrant movement patterns, and defeating the entire purpose of the exercise.

iv) Hold at the top for a bit, squeezing your shoulders "back and down" as much as possible.

v) If you tend to really struggle in the pullup department, begin slowly, starting with just 1-3 sets of 4-5 reps. As you get stronger and become more acclimated to the movement, feel free to do as many as 8 sets of 5-8 reps, spread throughout your workout. I've had numerous women do this, with great results to show for it.

Giving credit where credit is due: I did not invent this exercise. I first saw them on Tony Gentilcore's website, in which he gave credit to strength coach Elsbeth Vaino for being the first to share them HERE.

2. Just putting it out there: I love smoothies. I consume anywhere from three to four every day. One of our 11-year-old "Ankle Biter" athletes actually just told me the other day that he has a sneaking suspicion my blood is made out of smoothie from drinking so many of them.

Well, anyway, the other week, my beloved Magic Bullet met his maker. I don't know whether it was poor manufacturing, or the fact that I tested the limits of its lifespan, but nonetheless I had to regrettably say my goodbyes.

With no blender at hand, it didn't take me long before I spiraled into a perpetual state of sweaty palms, memory loss, and hyperventilation into paper bags every five minutes as I was beside myself with what to do for "in between meals."

Well, needless to say, I couldn't let this nonsense continue for any extended period of time, so I ordered (expedited shipping, of course) the Ninja Master Prep Professional Blender.

Let me tell you, this thing ROCKS. For a few reasons:

1) It's called the Ninja. Need there be any other reason for you to purchase it?

2) It doubles as a blender AND food processor/vegetable chopper. Time saved in the kitchen = 30 minutes a day.

3) The motor is pretty freaking strong. I think they used the same one that powers F-22 fighter jets.

4) While I can't prove it yet, I'm pretty sure that Chuck Norris, Gandalf, and Luke Skywalker all use/used this blender for their travels across the world/Middle Earth/galaxies. Now, I know you're sitting there shaking your head, thinking something along the lines of "Now Stevo, all of those figureheads don't need a blender to chop their vegetables and blend their smoothies. Chuck Norris can use his ninja-like hands and the other two guys....well, it's obvious why they wouldn't need a blender."

Don't be silly. Of course they used this blender. Even if they could dice their veggies and fruits using magical powers, why avoid using the Ninja blender if you have the opportunity?

Besides, when you're finished unpacking the blender, your fat cat can make her home inside:

DCIM100SPORT

(She totally needs to go Paleo. That, or Intermittent Fasting.)

I think I got a little off track, but the point is, I highly recommend this blender to everyone.

3. Four quotes I recently read from John Romaniello that I wanted to share here:

1. "Read as many books as you can. Reading often makes you more interesting, more intelligent, and though I can’t prove this, I suspect a more useful human being. It also makes you a better writer."

2. "Tipgenerously outrageously. Not because you have a lot of money, or because of the 1% chance a waitress might give you her number; but because at some point this week, some jerk stiffed her, and it ruined her week. You just fixed it. Karma will be kind."

3. "When explain your dietary habits, keep it simple. If you find yourself at a party and you’re 15 minutes into describing the difference between Paleo and Slow Carb, take a breath and stop talking. No one really cares about your endeavor to reset your insulin sensitivity."

4. "Floss your teeth for better fitness. I feel that you need to have the basics down before you start in adding things intended for ‘advanced’ reasons. I have friends who don’t floss but go out of their way to use whitening strips or see a dentist for teeth bleaching. This is stupid, to me—if you just took care of your teeth on a daily basis, you’d have to worry a bit less.In the fitness context, people ignore basic nutritional needs, but try crash diets or supplements; they can’t take the time to foam roll, but want the hottest training strategy.If you can’t make a habit of flossing your teeth, you shouldn’t bother with supplements—likely, you don’t have the basics figured out."

Good stuff, John.

4. Wow, I can't express how many men members of the male species need to read this. It's a letter that Ronald Reagan gave his 26-year-old son, Michael, right before his wedding day. He essentially lays it down for him, puts his Yoda hat on, and tells his son how a man should treat a woman.

I definitely found myself slow clapping for Reagan as I read this:

Love, Dad - By Ronald Reagan

(^^^ Read Me ^^^)

5. That's it. Hope everyone has an awesome weekend