Where I'm Coming From

 Okay, I was motivated to post a quick blurb about where my ideas and methods for fitness are coming from. Luckily, this is also the beginning of a new year so it seems good to post this. I like easy reads myself so I will keep this as simple as possible. I hope you gain more about where you stand (with your ideas) in fitness from reading this.

First off,  most of the following is not all from me. I always like the quote "Stand on the shoulders of giants". I have been extremely fortunate to be surrounded by really good trainers and other fitness professionals from an early point in my career. On top of this I was able to quickly seek out and find some of the "giants" of the fitness industry and learn from them. Sooo here are some of the giants I have learned from and stolen information from. If you don't know these fitness pros you should use your handy dandy google and find out more about them (no particular order):
Mike Boyle
Alan Aragon
Gray Cook
Ian King
Tudor Bompa
David Barr
Charles Poliquin
Stuart McGill
Chuck Wolfe
Paul Chek
Ashley Masurek
Tony Gentilcore
Christian Thibadeau
Charles Staley
Willy Wayland
Cassandra Forsythe
Joe Defranco
etc....etc...
 A lot more that I could list but this would turn into a blog about a list of the smartest people I know in the fitness industry. You wouldn't want that. From these fitness folks and my understanding of anatomy, kinesiology and biomechanics, I have reached this point in my career:

Top  Rules I still follow:

- Eat protein with every meal (snacks as well). Human body is a protein fortified machine. Protein is very necessary to maintain a strong body able to recover from daily activities. So eat the animals ruthlessly.

- Multivitamins are a joke compared to ingesting vegetation. Also different vegetables tend to counteract the acidic build up from protein. So eat different varieties and lots of it.

- Nothing wrong with drinking coffee. It keeps focus and from that it can improve strength while training. Just don't overdose because you may get the "shakes" and we'll all laugh at you.

- Strength Endurance is the first attribute that should be trained in any given new trainee.

- Concentric (think lifting portion) motion of any exercise should remain fast and controlled. Want to go for slow tempo training? Only slow down the Eccentric (think lowering the weight) part.

- All stretches should be held so you feel a "slight" stretch. Unless you are working directly with a therapist there is no reason to stretch to an almost painful position.

- If a person can not squat and lunge without pain that person would be really silly (putting it nicely) to go out on a run.

- Jogging slow is for folks who like bad knees, ankles and hips. Run at a proper speed with a solid gait cycle and if interested in making running a constant activity be smarter than the average and invest in a few sessions with a qualified running coach.

- Train with proper progression. A joint needs to be stable before it becomes flexible. Learn to squat before jumping. Learn to deadlift before "cleaning". Learn to do a proper pullup on a bar before training like a trapeze acrobat.

- The harder a person trains the more a person has to use active recovery techniques and sleep to keep healthy.

- Foam rolling is far more superior to stretching alone.

- When it comes to dropping fat, it's still a low carb world. High carb diets are for those looking for type 2 Diabetes. Drop the extra sugar and the fluffy stuff around the tummy will drop with it.

- Learning the Eccentric portion of "scawee" exercises (like chinups and pushups) will eventually lead to being able to do the entire exercise properly.

- Train to be fit not skinny. Skinny will not last too long. Going to a gym to hop from cardio equipment to cardio equipment and attempt an extreme low calorie diet is a formula for certain disaster. That big bulky muscle some people hide from actually is what will keep the body resilient, youthful, and keep certain things upright. One side note, bulking up generally comes from a surplus in calories not heavy weights.

Top Rules I have thrown out:

- Eat every 2-3 hours per day (6 meals a day). No real science behind this for speeding up metabolism. It is a real pain in the ass to do. I still believe it does give more satiation than less meals but still too much of a pain for a person with an actual life.

- Doing situps is worthless. Doing situps will not get a person a flat tummy or 6 pack but they still have purpose in building full body strength.

Top Dumb Rules that still are just as ridiculous this year as they ever were:

- Keep your knees behind your feet while squatting. This one is still absent minded as ever. I believe this came from the concept of keeping your feet and knees inline. Maybe from the powerlifting squat  that looks more like a wide leg Good Morning. Where ever it is from it still has strong influence on cookie cut classes, exercise videos and many trainers. How I hate it....let me count the ways...

- Do situps and crunches for a 6 pack and strong core. These exercises can help with trunk (core) functional strength BUT to see a ripped 6 pack a person will need the genetics. Second is building a strong body (from strength training) and third is the low total bodyfat revealing your prize. Men need to be below 12% body fat and women somewhere around 16% body fat. Otherwise just wear a bigger shirt.

- Train on an empty stomach in the morning will burn fat faster. This is so dumb and painfully idiotic I will not say anymore then do not do this.

- New trainees should join a "hardcore" over marketed bootcamp. I imagine this must be because people live on a budget. Well I hope that budget is big enough to support medical bills after being traumatized by military style "call to action". Some bootcamps and circuit training classes are actually okay. They are held by pros who LIMIT the number of participants and who can regress exercises and customize for the trainees needing this. MOST are not. Most bootcamps have people doing things they should probably never do in a lifetime and they end up with injuries. Best thing to do is find a qualified pro who can ASSESS your fitness level and joint health. Buy a session or two and invest in your body like you actually think your body is worth more than 19.99 a week.

- A person feels tight means a person needs yoga. A person has a bad back means a person needs yoga. A person is weak means a person needs yoga. Yoga has become the largest marketed form of conditioning I have ever seen. It is even bigger than wrongful marketing of marathons for people out of shape. I am biased. I must admit. However, yoga is not the "fix-all" answer. I do believe yoga has a lot of great aspects to it. The meditation (not in a nicknamed pose like doodling monkey on a fence pose), and many of the patterns are great (to limitations). My problem comes in when a person is holding a pose for too long, cooking in a classroom heated to a hallucinating hot temperature, attempting to do every pose and not listening to their body, and getting feedback from a seminar yoga instructor who prompts the person to keep pushing a ridiculous stretch not knowing anything about the person's anatomical condition.

 So, I kept it pretty simple and you can get a rough idea of where I am coming from. Hopefully you figured things out about where you stand with fitness ideas and practices.