Miscellaneous Miscellany Monday: The Situation Workout, Weight Belts, and Ginormous Omelets

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It’s been a few weeks since I’ve done one of these, so lets get right to it!

1. Ahhhhhhhhhhhh, my eyes. My eyes!!!!!!!

I don’t know which impressed me more: the fact that he said “the situation” like 34 times in a span of 90 seconds, or that I’m not unconscious from beating myself over the head with my keyboard. Needless to say, I won’t be watching this dvd anytime soon.

2. Speaking of workout dvd’s, my girlfriend should make one. I spent the entire day yesterday following here in and around downtown Boston as she did some shopping. You name the store, we were there: Kenneth Cole, The Tannery, The French Connection, Lords and Taylor, Bebe, Lulu Lemon, to name a few. I was freakin exhausted at the end. How is it I can deadlift 500+ lbs for five reps and not blink an eye, but have me carry a few Sephora bags for two hours, and I’m sleeping beauty by the end of the day? I don’t know how you ladies do it.

3. Now, I know some of the guys reading this are thinking to themselves, “oh snap Tony, you’re so whipped!!!” And, to a degree, you’re right. I’ll swallow that pill. But in my defense, Lisa did take me out for a belated b-day brunch and watched as I ate this ginormous omelet at Fire and Ice:

I don’t even know how many eggs were involved. All I know is that they had to bring out a special plate in order for it to fit. Easy peezy.

4. While exchanging emails last week with a fan of the blog, I had to share a comment he made that I felt was pretty spot on:

It always frosts me to see people buying stuff like Special K Protein shakes (http://www.specialk.com/Products/GetProductNutritionInfo/17511) with 10g of protein plus lots of chemicals at roughly $1.50 per serving when they could drink the same amount of milk, nothing added, and get the same amount of protein, for roughly 23 cents. (if you ever blog on this, no attribution, wife would kill me.)

5. Not too long ago, one of our new female clients walked up to me and asked, “are we ever going to do arms?” As in she was perplexed that the program I wrote for her didn’t include any direct arm work. I responded with, “we’ll do arms when you can do five, clean, bodyweight chin-ups.”

Seriously, why waste any time training a muscle the size of tennis ball when we can perform something like push-ups and not only get a helluva lot more bang-for-our-training-buck but also burn infinitely more calories. At the end of the day, people like to do what’s easy and what they’re good at. I have a simple rule: the more someone hates doing any particular exercise, chances are it’s more beneficial for them. This is why you generally see more people using the leg press than using the squat rack.

In addition- and I’ve written about this before – 80% of your results are going to come from 20% of the work. Spending 10-15 minutes “doing arms,” ain’t gonna get it done sister-friend.

6. Like everyone else, I’m starting to get into the Holiday spirit. For all the times where I turn on the radio and sing along to Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer, I’m equally as likely to be really, really, really annoyed wth people. Take, for instance, the other day when I ran into Whole Foods to grab something quick to eat after training. I head over to the express line which clearly states “12 items or fewer, please.” I had three. The woman ahead of me, however, had 17. Yes, I counted.

I know it’s no big deal. And I certainly am not the type of person who would make a scene about something so trivial. But it’s just the utter disregard that this woman had for every other person in line who did, in fact, have less then twelve items.

7. It seems a week never goes by without someone asking what my thoughts are on weight belts. Admittedly, much of my thoughts on the topic are in line with Dr. Stuart McGill, and I feel that many trainees tend to use them as a crutch more than anything else. You’re wearing a belt for lat pulldowns? Really?

Personally, I only wear a belt when I’m using close to maximum weight on my deadlifts. As McGill states:

There is no question that belts assist in generating torso stiffness to reduce the risk of spine buckling in extreme heavy lifts. Many athletes working at this edge of the envelope will receive this assist.

To that end, here’s my two cents. Wearing a belt when you’re working upwards of 90% of your 1RM for squats/deads = yes. Wearing a belt when you’re doing leg extensions or doing 1/4 squats with 185 lbs on your back = FAIL.

8. My new website is thiiiiiiiiiiiiis close to being done, and I can not wait to see what all of you have to say about it.

9. And, finally, I’m currently reading a really fascinating book right now called Why We Make Mistakes – by Joseph Hallinan.

In it, the author points out how we are all biased in the way we perceive not only ourselves, but the world around us. And it is these biases that make us prone to commit certain kinds of errors. Like say for example, whether or not you should change your first answer on a test (you should, despite what you’ve been told), or whether or not it was a good idea to have that buffalo chicken quesadilla on your first date (nope, not a good idea). I always like to give good book recommendations, and this one definitely gets two thumbs up.

Book currently reading: Why We Make Mistakes

New website is thiiiiiiiiiiiis close

Did what you just read make your day? Ruin it? Either way, you should share it with your friends and/or comment below.

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