General Fitness Archives

How To Control Aging Through Exercise

You’ve heard that regular exercising helps make you look younger and may even extend your lifespan and improve the physical quality of your life. But how? What are the variables you can control or at least heavily influence in the healthiest direction?

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What To Do When You Overdo It

Last night was a CNS-tapping, high volume workout that was made harder by my actions of the previous day.

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If You Run, Try Running Barefoot

A few years ago, Val and I were looking into a technique of running called POSE, which advocates running on the balls of your feet and keeping your knees bent instead of the locked-out knees and heel striking that virtually all but  truly elite runners use.

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More Drama in Crossfit-Land

*Update: Greg Everett of Catalyst Athletics and Performance Menu has more to this Crossfit nonsense. While you are at this linked article, why not go ahead and do the workout Everett put up.

Recently, Crossfit affiliate, Greyskull Elite had a scathing piece he wrote titled, Why I Resigned My Affiliation With Crossfit and was met with much discussion, debate and controversy. Things had barely subsided and now we learn that Robb Wolf, one of the Crossfit “old-timers” and all-around good guys got canned amid a considerable amount of acrimony.

Robb explains the whole thing in How I Got fired From the Crossfit Nutritional Certification.

Some of the thing at issue is what Crossfitters should eat. How ridiculous! They favor the Zone, Robb prefers Paleo. That longstanding issue about quality control is that there is no quality control. Buyer Beware.

All I can say is I am glad I left Crossfit years ago. I train to escape the drama, kool-aid and the egos not immerse myself in it.

I do look forward to what Robb does and you can find out at robbwolf.com.

The Muscles of Athleticism


As an athlete, should you consider it an insult if someone says you are “quad-dominant”? Why? Because it implies the athletic muscles from your posterior side, the backside, are under-developed. Simplistically speaking, the front muscles; bi’s, tri’s, pecs & quads are known as “beach” muscles and while there is nothing wrong with developing them and looking good, the real athleticism comes from the developed posterior chain muscles, joints, ligaments and tendons of the hips, spinal erectors, glutes, hamstrings, calves and down to the ankles.

Since, as Dan John says, “the body is one piece”, you need to work the entire body and not give short shrift to those muscles, ligaments and tendons “hanging out” behind you. Developing these muscles make you more athletic, stronger, faster and a less likely chance of injury. You can’t get any more functional than that, can you? The beauty of human movement is the synchrony of the hips, glutes and hamstrings firing off at just the right time.

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A Former Crossfit Affiliate Speaks Out

I was walking down the cyber-street, turned the corner and saw this cyber-skirmish with a former Crossfit affiliate, John Sheaffer of Greyskull Elite well underway.

Whether or not you are a Crossfitter, you’ll probably enjoy the post, Why I Resigned my Affiliation with CrossFit. It is well written and amusing. Be sure and put in you .02 worth.


My Favorite Fitness Principles

You can go online, searching for information on a topic, like fitness and strength and it is much like drinking water from a fire hydrant. (While drinking from that hydrant, I already have forgotten where I read the analogy)!

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Aging Athletes Still Have “Game”

“Forty-, 50-, 60-year-old athletes can do single training sessions, but they can’t do it day after day after day,” Foster said. “When you’re 18, you can recover from anything.”-Carl Foster, Director of the Human Performance Laboratory at the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse.

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10 Things To Improve Your Training

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Your training is going well. You are making gains. Lifts are going up and times are coming down. And you’re injury-free. Can it get any better? Of course it can. Here are some ideas.

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Does Exercise Increase Your Metabolism?

Not according to Edward Melanson, an exercise physiologist and associate professor of medicine at the University of Colorado, in Denver.

Melanson and his colleages published their findings in the journal Exercise and Sport Sciences Reviews. Here is the abstract:
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