Stuff You Should Read
Filed under: General Health
Now that I have had a little time to catch my breath this week, and actually get in three quality training sessions, I have been able to not only blog consistently, but do a little reading as well.
I love reading blogs as I find they can often offer little tidbits of wisdom that often get lost in long overly-written articles. Plus often times the comments sections can offer just as much if not more than the blog itself.
Below are some of my favorites from the past week or so, check em out and let me know what you think!
On an aside, I hadn’t really done much foam rolling, ok any at all, since I moved back to Maine. My gym doesn’t have any foam rollers, lame I know, and mine has just been sitting on the porch where I keep planning on using it but never getting around to it. A lazy hypocrite I know. Well my knees have been a little creaky lately and I figured that it is probably because I have let my tissue quality go to shit.
So last night I busted out the foam roller and my oh my was I in for some fun. My body hated me. My upper back, lats, pecs, and especially my vmo’s and adductor magnus lit up like a Christmas tree. I can’t even tell you how much better and more free I felt after that rolling session and some targeted stretching. I have decided to make this a 5 minute morning habit.
For all of you out there slacking on the foam rolling, I can’t encourage you enough to hop on. It will make a world of difference.
Vitamin K2: Supports Bone Strength and Cardiovascular health – Dr. Mercola. While Dr. Mercola will often take things to an extreme, he is usually mostly right about stuff. Now for you long time readers of my blog hearing about the importance of vitamin K2 should not be new, but he delves into a lot more detail than I ever have, and it worth a read. Another reason why I am going to enjoy 2oz of Organic Valley Raw Sharp Cheddar Cheese today!
For more reading on vitamin K2, check out one of my favorite blogs, as he wrote about it here.
The China Study: Fact or Fallacy? – Denise Minger. Denise goes into great depth and detail, as she crunched the data of the massive China Study herself! Performing some actual statistics on the raw data, she came to some very different conclusions than our dear Dr. Campbell. This is one hell of a read, but if you are someone who has any interest in the China Study, it is well worth your time.
Best. Ad. Campaign. EVER – Tony Gentilcore. This blog is just plain awesome, and it makes me chuckle. Tony delivers one of his most simple yet entertaining blogs that I feel is really pertinent to the training world, and women in general. Give it a read and let me know if your favorite line is the same as mine “Why not just get a 2×4 and put a dress on it?”
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Posted on July 29th, 2010 by Brian St. Pierre
7 Comments
July 29th, 2010 at 1:11 pm
Haha, that 2×4 comment was priceless
August 1st, 2010 at 7:11 pm
What would you think of getting massage done Brian? It seems to me that foam rolling doesn’t really get into the places that might need the most attention. I know that some trainers are dead against them, but then again people have their own agendas too…
August 2nd, 2010 at 1:31 pm
Nice work Denise Minger! She gives a few classic lines in her article. Like…
“Wait a minute. This is good news? Didn’t Campbell just say being bigger “comes with very high costs” and that it’s associated with “more cancer and coronary heart disease?” Why is body size a bad thing when it’s associated with animal protein, but a good thing when it’s associated with plant protein?”
Ha!
August 3rd, 2010 at 10:22 am
Hooch Turner,
I think massage is great. Improving soft tissue quality will go a very long way. I think anyone dead set against foam rolling or soft tissue work is missing a huge piece of the puzzle.
August 3rd, 2010 at 5:33 pm
I think you might be right, based purely on my own feelings after foam rolling. Massage is great, if one can afford it, and it’s often very difficult to tell someone who only speaks Chinese that you need PNF stretching, or whatever for this or that muscle. At least with SMR, one can be really specific to one’s own needs.
Ok, so now that that can of worms is shut, is static stretching after foam-rolling, exercise suicide? There’s a good video out by a guy called Keats Snideman who’s a massage therapist, who thinks it’s a great way to improve soft tissue quality (though he might be using contract/relax stretching). Invariably, of course, there are naysayers, who say that stretching a muscle to its end of range, is conditioning that muscle to be weak at its end of range..
August 4th, 2010 at 6:06 am
Hooch Turner,
Static stretching after foam rolling can be extremely beneficial, especially on areas that are incredibly short that need to regain their length. Now I wouldn’t necessarily hammer on my pecs immediately before benching, but after foam rolling you can do some static stretching for areas that need it (like hip flexors, pecs, adductors, etc), do a dynamic warmup, and you will be good to go.
Improving posture to maintain long term health vastly outweighs any potential negatives of stretching, which can be offset by proper dynamic warmup before training anyway.
I just saw way too many people get benefit from stretching after soft tissue work when I was at CP, to believe that it is not beneficial.
August 9th, 2010 at 1:05 pm
Well, seeing is definitely believing, and from what I know about Cressey Performance, the internet is right in this case.