Proper Ab Training

 I usually check around for good info on proper training and nutrition tactics. I found this on Mike Stare's blog. He defines and illustrates some proper techniques for training the abs. My only crit of this is CHINUPS!!!! C'mon man where are the chinups.

http://beverlyfitnessblog.blogspot.com/2010/01/proper-ab-exercises.html

Yoga Versus Exercise

Shamefully this is what the people I meet on a daily basis see. Yoga is the feel good stuff and exercising is for people who want to look like bodybuilders. May seem funny to some but this is seriously the feedback I get from lots of people from all over the world and all walks of life.

Even worse are the studies that place yoga against "conventional exercises" for hypertension and overall health improvements in the elderly. I simply can not believe people who study the science of exercise can not see the big picture here. They literally are in the middle of trees but can't see the friggin' forest.

There is not a difference between yoga and exercise. Yoga is a specific and generally dynamic form of exercise. Yoga is not just stretching and breathing. That is like saying gymnastics is just swinging and jumping. Gray Cook once brought up a good point about complex movement patterns creating an environment where the body stabilizes, balances, stretches, and contracts all during one exercise. Yoga is quite similar to this. I personally do not call myself a raving fan of yoga, but I know that yoga is just another form of exercise or movement patterns we should not attempt to segregate from other forms of exercise.

Deadlift PR

 Well, this Wednesday I went for 405lb raw deadlift. I didn't get it. Gave myself five attempts, but no cigar. Really major upset while I was at the gym, but when I was able to clear some of the fury and riot-creating music induced from my mp3, I found I still came through with a new PR for raw deadlifting. A month ago I was sitting stale at 370lb raw and now I am at 385lb raw. Not only that I have a new "hook grip" PR. I went from a mere 315lb to 345lb. Not bad at all but definitely not where I want to be. I still have 405lb in my goals. However, I am just going to say I have to hit this number before my 35th birthday in August.

 It's a good time now to go into a power dominant cycle of training. Mainly dealing with "explosive" relative strength qualities (think maximal effort without the use of weights). I agree with Tudor Bompa in that moving from max strength training to power conversion types of training is a very good method to convert max strength into power. I remember hearing a quote form some movie that has stuck with me:

"Having power is one thing...being able to use that power is quite another."