Fav Posts This Week:

Welcome back to my favorite posts for last week!

1) Biggest Loser vs. Real Life Personal Training

In this interview with a participant from the UK's version of The Biggest Loser, some of what happens in the background and off screen has light thrown on it. There are two sides to the story as I see it:

First of all, from the athlete/client side, they see these amazing transformations happen in the course of a season. And along side it they see the trainers yelling and pushing and going ape shit. Then they wonder why they don't see this same transformation in their own lives. (I'm lucky to have intelligent clients that get it's about more than their 2-4 hours a week with me.)

Then from the trainer end, you get criticism about how hard these contestants get pushed, and then to go back to their clients and have them do their lateral raises balanced on a bosu ball to better fire their stabalizers (cough, cough, bullshit work).

2) Toe Angle and Squatting 

Most people have shitty ankle mobility. So when I initially teach a squat, I say that I'd like their toes forward, but they can turn them out 15-20 degrees for comfort if they need to. Otherwise, you get the knee issues that are touched upon in this article and video series. And that leads me to:

3) Is it your hips or ankles making your squat suck?

It's a little test for what is holding you back. For most, particularly if you have a desk job, it's probably both.

4) Kiefer Knowledge Bombs

These is a great myth busting article. And as with most Kiefer articles, every claim he makes is referenced, and you can go to those references at the end of the article. None of the references will be Wikipedia, either.

5) Heavy Duty Cholesterol Primer

Mark Sisson lays down some heavy, geek-boner worthy information on cholesterol, debunking myths about dietary cholesterol, explaining what artery plaques are really about, so on and so forth. You'll need some serious time and attention for this one, but totally worth it.