General
Fast Cars, Hot Chicks, Big Muscles And The Meaning Of Life
Hey guys and gals, Chris here… it’s going to be a crazy few weeks for me. I’ve got the “Modern Therapeutic Techniques” seminar this weekend with Todd and Dr. Rabinowitz at New York Chiropractic College. A few days after that I fly out to Winnipeg to help Dustin Pague with his final weight cut for UFC [...]
How important is an education?
A few weeks ago I had a high school junior message me through Facebook to ask if I would take some time to answer a few questions on going to college for exercise science. OF COURSE I said yes… And my answers were some things I wish that I had heard before starting college as [...]
Do Your Intentions Match Your Actions?
Do your intentions match your actions? It’s a matter of congruency. My guess is no. I’m not saying that you, in part from everyone else, have anything wrong with you–it’s just a numbers game. Most people intend to do more–training, living, growing–but fail to act accordingly by what they envision. It’s like playing a movie in [...]
8 Weeks to What?
As many of you know, my gym is adjacent to a mixed martial arts school. So, you would think that there’s a constant flow of fighters strolling through the doors. And while there are some, it’s not nearly as many as you think… You see, there’s a common term thrown around in the MMA game: [...]
Easy Ways to Completely Avoid Making Progress
Earlier this week Chris asked us a question, have you progressed? Hopefully you took some time to think objectively on the question. Have you written a good movement history, or does it need a greater effort of penmanship? Are you learning? Do you have a support system? I thought about Chris’ questions a lot over [...]
Was it worth it?
When I was growing up I kind of got in trouble- a lot. Not big trouble, but I definitely pushed the envelope quite often. For instance, in the first grade I got in trouble in class for something I don’t even remember. But, I do remember that the punishment was to take a letter from my [...]
Why Habits Determine Success
Last week Chris talked about about the construction of BSP NOVA, One Piece At a Time. His analogy for training progress is perfect–our bodies, and our goals, change as we manipulate one variable at a time. What’s frustrating, though, is this isn’t how we think. We envision the whole rather than the thousand meaningful parts that [...]
Lift For Boston!
I’m sitting comfortably in my bedroom as I write this. My dog is dreaming on my bed behind me, wimpering and huffing at rabbits yet to be caught. The cracked window in front of me welcomes a cool breeze as I sit listening to “Murder in the City” by The Avett Brothers. Tomorrow, if all [...]
A Better 3/4
Each year, just past the first quarter of the year, I celebrate my birthday. This one happens to be 27–the first number I wore on my football jersey in college. I wasn’t fond of having that number–I didn’t pick it–and I changed to number 40 for my sophomore season to honor Pat Tillman. I also grew [...]
Youth Training: Building a Base that Builds a Monster
I have a favorite client. She’s not an Olympian, nor is she a professional athlete. A few years back she learned how to read and she’s now on her way to mastering long division. She’s my neice, Kendra. That’s her nailing the is0-lunge hold a few months back. Since then she’s been introduced to a [...]
Intermittent Eating 2: Paleo
A few years ago my ex-girlfriend’s mom gave me a copy of Eat Right for Your Type. If you’re unfamiliar, the book is about eating foods that fit your blood type. The book is based mainly on conjecture; there’s minimal–if any–solid research supporting the author’s claims. But at the time I was enthralled. I’m Type O [...]
Quadruped Arm Traction
I’m a strength coach and a manual therapy student; so when I get the opportunity I like to take my lessons from massage school and apply them at the gym. It’s kind of like how I combine man’s best friend with exercise equipment. (Seriously, get yourself a Fit Bull.) It’s common for strength coaches to [...]
Why You Should Visualize
“Tension is part and parcel of what we call the mind. Tension does not exist by itself, but is reflexively integrated into the total organism. The patterns in our muscles vary from moment to moment, constituting in part the modus operandi of our thinking and engage muscles variously all over our body, just as do [...]
Don’t Look at the Scoreboard
I’m a football fan and a studier of great leaders. Knowing this, my brother and my sister-in-law bought me Nick Saban’s book How Good Do You Want To Be? for Christmas. The book recounts some of his lessons from the football field and from life. For example, Coach Saban was a student at Kent State [...]
Upper-Body Warm-up and Prehab
During the fall, high-frequency upper-body training wrecked my already football-ravaged shoulders. I ended up with a twinge of impingement syndrome in my right shoulder and an accident while overhead pressing gifted me a minor glenohumeral separation/dislocation/that shit really hurt for a while. To remedy the errors that I made, I backed down my pressing volume, had manual [...]
