1.  I’m changing things around a bit today.  Normally I do my blogging in the mornings.  Typically I get up between 5:30-7AM, take my morning piss, turn on my laptop, walk into the kitchen to make breakfast, prepare my meals for the day while waiting for breakfast, eat breakfast, and then spend the rest of morning doing any number of things ranging from writing programs, answering emails, writing articles (failing miserably in this department), reading, and/or blogging - all before I head to CP for the day.

To be blunt, my mornings are a cluster**** and I’d be lying if I said I didn’t wish I had more time to read more of the stuff I’d like to be reading.  I’m at a point where I feel like I’m forgetting more than I know, and it’s not a good feeling.

That said, I’m taking a bit of advice from Nate Green, and I’m going to experiment with doing more of my writing at night.  I don’t know, I’m hoping that by doing so I’ll feel a little more productive and my brain won’t feel so stagnant.

What’s more, by switching up my schedule this way, it will free up a little more time in the mornings for me to catch up on some reading/sun-bathing.  I’m not kidding when I say I’m whiter than a Maroon 5 concert.

Nonetheless, for the foreseeable future, I’ll be doing my blogging at night from now on.

2. And, for those who could give a rats ass, and are wondering why they’ve wasted 47 seconds of their life reading this first entry, and are also wondering why the hell I haven’t included any pics of random hot chicks recently - here’s a picture of British actress Sophie Winkleman

3.  I was talking with a few of our interns the other day about assessment, and one of the major points that I wanted to convey to them was that an assessment (at least in the general sense) isn’t to showcase to the client how much they suck at everything.  In other words, as a personal trainer or coach, the goal of the assessment isn’t so much to chastise the client to the point where they feel they can’t do anything correctly.

Rather, the main objective of the assessment is to ascertain what weaknesses - if any - the client may have in order to come up with the proper programming that will help him of her reach their goals in the quickest and safest manner possible.

Let me be clear.  I am NOT downplaying the importance of an assessment.  On the contrary, I think if you’re not doing some sort of assessment, you’re missing the boat entirely.  I think far too often, though, many in the industry go out of their way to look for a dysfunction - no matter how minute it is - for no other reason than to try to prove to the person that they know what they’re talking about.

While there’s certainly nothing wrong with pointing out a few things to a prospective client, try not to make it a habit to seek out stuff for the sake of seeking out stuff. If a dysfunction is there, it will present itself - you don’t need to spend 45 minutes testing someone’s glutes.  Take them them through your general assessment and then get them moving!  Get them out on the floor and watch them walk, pick up DB’s, bend over to grab a bar, perform a lunge, etc.  Trust me, you’ll be surprised at what you’ll find.

4. This has got to be one of the funniest things I have watched in a long time.

5.  Just when I thought the nuclear bomb of retard sauce that is Tracy Anderson couldn’t grow anymore, I read THIS the other day, and couldn’t help but feel her influence on the matter.  Wait, why am I defending the fact that I’m writing about how much Tracy Anderson sucks?  That’s like rationalizing why the ocean’s blue.  Or Lindsay Lohan likes coke.  Some things just are.

6.  Mark Young wrote a post over on his blog titled You Feed Your Kids What?, that I felt was absolutely fantastic.  I couldn’t agree more with what he had to say, and I wholeheartedly feel that parents need to suck it up and take more accountability with what their kids are eating on a daily basis.