Miscellaneous Miscellany Monday: Marcel the Shell, Pumpkin Recipes, TankNasty

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1. Being the understanding and thoughtful boyfriend that I am, I didn’t think anything of it when my girlfriend suggested to me yesterday (it’s Sunday afternoon as I type this) that we get up early and head to to some random store I’d never heard off called Bay State Somethingerother (I wasn’t paying attention) to do a little “shopping.”

“All I need is an hour,” she said. You might have just started playing the theme music from Jaws right there, because any self-respecting man knows that once you get a woman near the words 40% off, all sense of time gets thrown out the window. Much like one human year equates to seven dog years; the same can be said for every minute spent shopping with your significant other.

All that said, I begrudgingly followed, shopping cart in tow. I know all the guys reading can commiserate, and while I won’t get into the specific details, it went something like this:

10 Minutes In: I’m hungry!

12 Minutes In: I’m bored!

17 Minutes In: Seriously babe, something’s wrong here. I think I’m allergic to something, I can’t feel my face.

26 Minutes In: For the love of god woman, can we please go hom……….what the whaaaaaaaat. Are those axes? Sweet!

Amidst all the two for one sales and what-have-you, out of nowhere, I see a bunch of axes on display. I immediately head over to the beef jerky isle, and my day was complete. There’s no real point to this story other than……..don’t you get it? Axes!!!

2. One of the cool things about writing this blog is that I’ll often have people link back to it that I otherwise never would have known about. One such person is Harold Gibbons. As it is, he’s linked to my blog several times either quoting me or pointing people to articles I have written. In any case, I finally sat down and read some of his stuff, and I have to say it’s really, really good. If you have a few minutes I highly encourage you to check it out HERE.

3, Speaking of things you should check out; my good buddy, Mark Young, recently released some really kick-ass interviews with many of the top names in the industry – Mike Robertson, Leigh Peele, Lyle McDonald, Nick Tumminello, and some guy named McGill, to name a few – on anything and everything that deals with the core.

All in all, you’re looking at over ten hours of interviews jam packed with knowledge bombs on how to build a lean, sexy, strong (or whatever adjective applies to you) mid-section. What’s more, they’re ABSOLUTELY FREE!! Click HERE for further information.

4. It’s no secret that I have an affinity for two things: Matt Damon, and to a lesser degree, pumpkin. I love the stuff. So, you can imagine my excitement when one of my current clients, Cara, mentioned to me that she was dedicating an entire week on her blog to 5 Cool Things To Do With Pumpkin and Protein Powder.

Since I know many of you who read this site are always looking for healthy (albeit tasty) things to eat, these recipes should be right up your alley. Furthermore, for what it’s worth, Cara likes to lift heavy stuff, so she’s basically the coolest chef ever. And, while she doesn’t know this yet, Cara promised that if at least 500 people click on her site, she’ll bring in a batch of pumpkin bars to CP the next time she’s in to train. So, if anything, do it for me goddamit!

High Fiber and Protein Pumpkin Pancakes

Warm Peanut-Pumpkin Protein Pudding

Pumpkin FraPROccino

Quick Protein Pumpkin Oats

Pumpkin Protein Breakfast Cake

5. Quote of the week, courtesy of Alwyn Cosgrove:

Trainers and coaches who aren’t confident in their abilities, will just try to hammer the client every session – doing random stuff, just hard all the time. There’s no skill in that approach. Smart trainers build progression into their programming and are more concerned with their clients progressing and getting results than just hammering them all the time. Fatigue and soreness are not indicators of progress.

Couldn’t have said that better myself. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve had to “de-program” new clients who have worked with trainers in the past who just absolutely crushed them each and every session. Almost always, they’re used to the “pin-the-tail-on-the-donkey,” approach where the trainer seemingly has no plan and just picks exercises out of no where in an attempt to pass the time.

Much to their surprise, they’re often dumbfounded when I tell them that “less is more,” and that they’ll actually have their very own individualized program to follow. As well, once I’ve spent the time cleaning up their technique (Really? After five years with the same trainer, you still can’t do a proper squat?), it’s not a coincidence that they actually start seeing results. It always comes down to the quality of training, and not necessarily the quantity.

This isn’t an attempt to blow sunshine up my own butt (well, sorta). Rather, it’s just to demonstrate that while it’s important to push our clients and to get them out of their comfort zones (at times), there’s a fine line between that and just doing “stuff” for the sake of doing it. As Alwyn stated, fatigue and soreness DO NOT indicate that any one training session was better or more effective than the other. If more trainers would understand this, the industry would be much better off.

6. Here’s a nice article from man-crush, James Fell (the guy who took Jillian Michaels to the cleaners not too long ago) titled The Six Pack Pursuit Gets Ripped.

7. If you ever want to know what it’s like to eat legalized crack (which in this hypothetical situation packs 7 grams of fiber and 6 grams of protein per serving), then I’d head to your local Whole Foods, Trader Joe’s, or any grocery store that has an organic section (or just click HERE) and pick up a box of Flax Plus Raisin Bran, made by Nature’s Path.

8. My girlfriend showed this to me the other day, and for some reason it cracks me up every time.

9. Last but certainly not least, CP mascot Tank Cressey now has his own Twitter page. He updates it pretty regularly (who knew he was so funny?) – so if you’re ever curious as to when he catches his tail or needs to drop a heater, this is your chance.

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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