Uhh…Random/Interesting Stuff?
Filed under: General Health, Training
A CP client sent me a link to a Harvard website all about running. As I am sure you know, running is certainly not my favorite thing to do, and I am quite fond of the Mike Boyle quote “You have to be fit to run, not run to be fit”.
That being said, this website is quite fascinating. It is looking at the history of human evolution, and the fact that humans have been running for millions of years without the aid of the modern running shoe. It looks at the running mechanics of people who have never worn shoes in their lives, compared to the running mechanics of people in shoes.
It shows the different ground reaction forces, feet angles, and the resulting differences in the way our bodies absorb these forces and changes. It is really interesting, and really expands on the topics covered in Born to Run (which I reviewed HERE, awesome book by the way). I highly recommend you check this site out, especially if you are a runner.
This may sound dry and boring, but it is written for the lay population, and has lots of videos and charts to show the data, and it is very eye-opening and makes me even more certain that for most people, getting out of your shoes as often as possible is a fantastic idea.
On another note, Tony, Pete and I just completed a month of Jim Wendler’s 5/3/1 program, and I must say, I came away impressed with the results. All three of us have set some PR’s after finishing this program, and that is quite a feat.
Pete increased his box squat by a whopping 50lbs (granted, his max had probably gone up some before this program, he just hadn’t tested it), his bench went up by 20lbs, his trap bar deadlift went up 40lbs and his 3-rep max chinup went up 12lbs. These are some remarkable gains. I will also note that since July I have helped Pete put on 18lbs, so that has certainly helped his gains.
Tony finally pulled 600lbs on the trap bar, which was a 25lb PR for him, improved his 3-rep max chinup by 6lbs, and was able to up his bench by 5lbs as well. He didn’t test his back squat because his knees would probably explode. For someone with over 12 years of training experience, this is incredible progress for 1 month of training.
Now my testing was a little hit or miss. With Tony pulling 600, that meant he was now 5lbs ahead of me on the staff leaderboard. This was unacceptable. I attempted my bench, but after a night where I had to get up at 1 and at 5:30 to take the puppy out to pee (she is only 15 weeks, she can’t hold it that long), I bombed out miserably.
Considering I am also about 20lbs lighter than I was when I set my bench PR of 345, it probably wasn’t going to happen anyway. My trap bar was a different story, and since the video evidence of me dominating Tony needs some formatting, you will just have to wait until next week to see me setting a PR pull. I also plan on testing at least my chinup next week, as I can’t be the only guy on staff who’s total weight is under 300lbs, and possibly my box squat as well, so stay tuned!
Have a great weekend everybody!
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Posted on January 29th, 2010 by Brian St. Pierre
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