8 Grams by Jon Feinstein

Visions of Fast Food by Jon Feinstein “There’s this weird relationship that we as Americans have with fast food,” says Feinstein, who titled each image with the given item’s fat content, in grams. “I made a project where the food mostly looks disgusting, yet some of it is still strangely enticing—probably because the branding is so embedded in our psyches.”

Crossfit for Baseball? by Eric Cressey “The randomness of the “workout of the day” is simply not appropriate for a sport that has quite possibly the most specific sport-imposed asymmetries in the world of athletics.”

Clean Eating Gone Wrong by John Berardi “What if I told you that a diet of 1/2 cup oats, 4 egg
whites, 5 ounces of chicken, and 1/2 cup broccoli could be a recipe for getting fat?  Hard to believe?  Well, in this week’s update, you’ll find out how even the cleanest of diets can lead to weight gain…”

USC RB Johnson recovering from weights accident by Gregg Beacham                 If you haven’t heard USC RB Stafon Johnson crushed his Larynx the other day while bench pressing.  He is thankfully expected to make a full recovery. I don’t believe this is necessarily a “must read”, but more of a wake-up call.  This is an extremely rare accident, but it can happen.  Always make sure you use a spotter you know, like your workout buddy (if you don’t have one get one), and most importantly use your thumbs.

The Biggest Loser has pissed off many folks in the training industry and rants about the show can be found on many a training blog.   Why? Mainly because the trainers on the show are garbage.

I know, I know.  You’re about to say ” But, look at all the weight they’ve lost!  And Jillian Michaels is awesome, she’s so tough.”

Bob and Jillian, the  so-called trainers on the show could be more fairly referred to as  idiots or entertrainers.  Entertrainers or entrainment is a term I believe was first coined by Mark Verstegen of Core Performance.  I usually use the term entertrainer to describe the crappy trainer at your local gym who has a client tangled up in a TRX with one foot on a Bosu ball and two dumbells under 10lbs.  Entertrainers favor overly complicated, flashy moves and dislike science.

The Biggest Loser, however, takes entertrainment to another level.  Appearing on a reality TV show and literally being in the entertainment industry is no excuse for the horrible training done by Bob and Jillian.  Screaming and yelling at their clients however maybe encouraged to add drama and excitement for all you reality show addicts.  Either way it is disgusting and done at the cost of humiliating another person, thus making them the ultimate enterainers or best reason to throw your TV out the window.

Mike Boyle who has written his own blog post about the show says “I’m ashamed to be a “trainer.”  I don’t even own any army clothes and I have never screamed at a fat person in my life.”   One reason so many in the personal training field hate the show is because we are compassionate, we  got in to this field to help people.  Additionally we have read a book or two and understand that making people cry, fracture their hips, or humiliating them on tv is not help.  You might be thinking that the weight loss is a great help and it is saving their lives, I’d agree if it was accomplished in a healthier  manner.

Today’s post was intended to be a guest post, a  link to Coach Dos Remedios’s “The Biggest Losers…the viewers“.  But I got side-tracked with my own rant and other links, here is another.  Coach Dos does a great job with this post and includes some shocking comments from previous contestants of the show, it is the best post on the subject yet, read it  here.

Check out some of the articles I’ve read in the past week.  They are all available online.  Read them on your computer or print them out, but never do this:

Blowing It.

The Perils of Ignoring History: Big Tobacco Played Dirty and Millions Died.  How Similar Is Big Food? This article written by Kelly D. Brownell of Yale and Kenneth E. Warner of University of Michigan was brought to my attention by Mike Boyle who wrote a post about it on his Strength Coach Blog.  If you read only one of these recommendations make it this one.

Now Hiring is a hilarious article about how personal trainer Jon Messner runs his business.  “Jon Messner Performance is a personal training studio that specializes in pain management.  JMP has nothing to do with yoga, pilates, bodybuilding, or basket weaving”

What Are Your Four Pounds Made Of? A great article from Ryan Andrews at Precision Nutrition about the importance of eating real foods and why “Mother Nature has got your back”.

Lift Strong is an organization founded by Strength Coach and two time cancer survivor Alwyn Cosgrove.  Lift Strong has recently teamed up with Elite FTS to launch an apparel line.  Check out the article and gear.  All proceeds benefit the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society.

I spent the better part of this glorious Labor Day weekend reading “I Will Teach You To Be Rich” by Ramit Sethi.  I decided to take a break from reading training related publications as I’ve noticed that I can’t seem to shut-up about training or watch a baseball game without discussing it for 9 innings including pulling out actual programs and trying to read an article in the blazing sun with no sunglasses.  So, on Sunday and Monday I did not look at one thing related to strength and conditioning.  And I read a whole book, that’s right folks a whole book in two days!  It was quite enjoyable and surprise, it had me thinking about training the whole time.  “I Will Teach You To Be Rich” by Ramit Sethi (the title is kind of harsh – sorry Ramit) is a great read.  It opens by drawing a huge parallel between fitness/weight loss and money.

“I’ve always wondered why so many people get fat after college.  I’m not talking about people with medical disorders, but regular people who were slim in college and vowed they would “never, ever” get fat.  Five years later they look like the Stay Puft Marshmallow Man after a Thanksgiving feast, featuring a blue whale for dessert. …But try talking about post-college weight loss with your friends and see if they ever say one of these things:

“Avoid Carbs!”

“Don’t eat before be you go to bed, because fat doesn’t burn efficiently when you’re sleeping”

“If you eat mostly protein you can lose weight quickly”

“Eating grapefruit in the morning speeds up your metabolism”

I always laugh when I hear these things.  Maybe they’re correct, or maybe they’re not, but that’s not really the point.  The point is that we love to debate minutiae.”

Ramit says that it’s the same way with finances, people get hung up on minutiae.  They spend all their time debating interest rates, watching the stock market, listening to their friends, and parents, but never taking action.

“…Focusing on these details is the easiest way to get nothing done.  Imagine the last time you and your friend talked about finances or fitness.  Did you go for a run afterward?  Did you send money to your savings account?  Of course not.”

Unfortunately this is true for a large percentage of the population, even some in the fitness profession get so hung up debating minutiae that they seem to forget to lift weights themselves.  So- quit worrying about the details and get started!  You don’t have to go broke investing or go for broke in the gym, just start!

Remember contributing 5% of your income to your 401k to quote Ramit isn’t “sexy.”  Nobody gets to see it, you can’t show it off like a new pair of shoes, but it can make you rich.  Likewise  if you only increase your squat by 5lbs a week you might look like a sally, and have to tolerate the constant badgering of your buddy saying “just put a plate on!”, but he’s been following the one plate, two plate, three plate, done workout for years, and you’re about to get a whole lot stronger than him.

Let’s have a look at what you would earn and what you could lift one year later…

If you were to contribute 5% of your 100k salary to your 401k in 1 year you would have saved $5,214, if you have company match $10,428.

If you started with an 8 rep max of135lb squat and added 5lbs (2.5lb/side) per week for a whole year at the end of the year you would be lifting 395 for 8reps.

Ask yourself, when was the last time you saved $5,214 or added 360lbs to a lift.

Need help getting started?  Pick up Ramit’s book or check out his blog.  For the gym I like Wendlers 5-3-1 , a great simple program for consistent gains.  If  you haven’t read Starting Strength yet, start there.

When Dr. John Berardi dropped me an line the other day,telling me all about his new program, I thought for a second the guy had lost his mind.

Now, don’t get me wrong.  I respect Dr Berardi.  He’s recognized as one of the top nutrition coaches in the world.  And his programs get people results.  Fast.

However, when I watched this video he sent over, and learned that he’s giving away $20,000 of his own money, he definitely got my attention.

Check out this blog post for yourself.

Now, to qualify for this reward, you have to participate in the Lean Eating program.  But that’s a no brainer. You should want to do that ANYWAY if you’re interested in body
transformation because there is nothing else like it.

You get 6 months of world class coaching, the type of coaching you can’t find, well, anywhere.  And, during these 6 months, if you achieve the best body transformation, you’ll win 10K.

Worst case scenario, you come out with the best body of your life.  Best case scenario, you come out with the best body of your life, and 10 GRAND.

So, I highly encourage you to check out this post below.  In it, Dr Berardi shares with you two critical components for body transformation success.

And then he tells you exactly how one man and one woman are going to swoop in and claim $10 G’s of his own money.

Now, this message is time sensitive.  No, it’s not gonna self-destruct or anything. However, spots are limited in this program.  And LOTS of people want in.

So, if you’re interested in finding out exactly how to eat toget in the best shape of your life, click here.  10grand may be waiting for you on the other side: