Usually, my "random thoughts" series focus on anything from corrective exercises to sports performance training. However, given the release of my buddy John Romaniello's great new fat loss resource, The Omega Body Blueprint, I figured I'd throw out 15 thoughts on the subject of leaning out. Here goes!

1. We often hear about how the average American consumes a certain amount of <insert unhealthy food or beverage here> each year. What I'd be curious to hear is how much of the excess consumption comes from "nibbles," "tastes," "bites," and "samples. In other words, I'd be willing to bet that people are getting a lot of extra calories with quick tastes throughout the day - whether it's a "preview" taste of whatever they're cooking, finishing a child's meal, or trying a sample of a product as they walk through the grocery store. I'd be willing to bet that just removing these tastes from one's diet would make a significant difference in portion control for the average person who struggles with his/her weight.

2. There's been some research on how sleep deprivation can lead to weight gain, but I don't think it's gotten the attention it deserves. As such, I'll put it out there right here: poor sleep quality absolutely has a profound effect on body composition! Take it from a guy who has six month old twin daughters at home; the past six months have been "eye opening" from a training results standpoint, too!

This obviously happens predominantly through endocrine mediums that modulate appetite and where we store calories; this has been well established in research on night shift workers in the past. However, we can't overlook the indirect impact it has on training quality in a more experienced athletic population. If you're chronically sleep deprived, it's going to impact your performance in the gym. I, personally, found that while my "peak" fitness levels didn't fall off, my ability to display them consistently did. In other words, as an example, I could still go out and deadlift 600+ pounds, but I couldn't do it as often or as predictably. Over time, those hills and valleys add up to a detraining effect.

Additionally, when you're dragging and crunched for time, there is a tendency to cut corners on everything from warm-ups to finding quick pick-me-ups like energy drinks. This is a very slippery slope.

3. I've never bothered to confirm that the numbers are right on the money, but over the years, I've heard that 80% of North Americans are chronically dehydrated, and that dehydration is the #1 cause of daytime fatigue. If these are, in fact, true, how come nobody ever highlights drinking more water as a means of improving fat loss efforts? It improves satiety and "displaces" calorie-containing beverages - and that's on top of helping to optimize exercise performance and "normal" health factors. I wish more folks would look to water as a "magic pill" over anything they can buy on the shelf of a supplement store.

4. Fat loss is pretty simple, until you're 90% of the way to your goal. After that, EVERYTHING matters: macros, hormones, programming, timing, and a host of other factors. This was a key point John Romaniello makes in his new e-book. You wouldn't take your Ferrari to a mechanic who specializes in working on Honda Civics, so you need to make sure you seek out expertise from people who have actually helped people to finish that final 10% on the way to the goal.

5. Everyone has a few foods that they find irresistible - food that they always eat if they're in the house. If you're trying to drop body fat, before you take any other steps, you need to get these foods out of the house. The goal should be making "cheating" as difficult to accomplish as possible. For me, it's natural peanut butter.

6. A lot of people can only train three times per week - and that's totally fine. With that said, I'm still largely in agreement with Dr. John Berardi's observation that the most fit people you'll encounter get at least six hours of exercise in per week. In other words, if you've only got three hours to work out each week, your training definitely better be dense; you need a lot of volume and relatively short rest intervals. Don't expect to be in phenomenal shape doing a 3x5 program MoWeFr unless you have an awesome diet and are really busting your butt working hard during those three sessions.

7. When it comes to athletes, gradual reductions in body fat are the name of the game. You see, often, body weight – and not body composition – are what predicts their success. Pitchers are a perfect example; I’ve seen many who have just indiscriminately lost body weight, only to see their velocity drop considerably. This may come from the actual loss of body mass, the increased training volume that caused it, the type of training (extra aerobic activity?), or – most likely – a combination of all these factors. One thing is for sure, though: dramatic weight reductions rarely work out really well.

8. One of the biggest complaints of folks on "diets" (as much as I hate that term) is that healthy food gets too bland. Without even knowing it, a lot of them start adding sauces that are loading with extra calories, usually from sugar. Nobody ever seems to recognize that BBQ sauce and ketchup can be loaded with sugar, for instance.

Fortunately, a quick solution is to encourage them to gravitate toward using spices and herbs over sauces to add some flavor to meat and vegetables. I love turmeric, sea salt, and pepper on my eggs, as an example.

9. Avoiding liquid calories is the still, in my opinion, the biggest dietary game-changer most folks in the general population can implement. I wish I could go back in time and eliminate every soda I drank as a kid.

10. There is an inverse relationship between strength preservation and conditioning intensity during a fat loss training phase. In other words, if maintaining strength is a high priority, you'd be wise to leave the aggressive interval training out - and instead opt for lower-intensity supplemental conditioning. Obviously, this means results will come a bit slower - but you'll hold on to your hard-earned strength gains more easily.

11. My business partner, Pete, told me a funny story the other day, and I thought I'd share it here as a good fat loss lesson.

Pete did his first "big" presentation - to an audience of about 150 fitness professionals - last month. As luck would have it, he wears a watch that also tracks his heart rate - and Pete happened to glance down at it right before he went on stage to present. His resting heart rate is normally in the 55-60bpm range - and it was up over 120bpm at that moment!

Obviously, this is a specific challenging, unfamiliar incident that can get heart rate to spike. However, there are people out there who respond to most challenges like this; they are constantly "wired" throughout the day. This obviously has both short- and long-term health impacts, and you can bet that if you're always on edge, it's going to be a lot harder to lose body fat.

We don't have the option of just removing stressors from our lives, but we can change the way we respond to them. A few coping strategies to keep you mellow and unconditionally positive in the face of adversity might just help to get/keep you lean, too.

12. Speaking of stress, I'm a firm believer that sometimes, when it comes the war on excess body fat, we need to look at reducing stressors before we look to add stressors (via exercise and caloric restriction). Think about it: if you have a busy, overweight executive who is sleeping four hours a night and crushing terrible fast food, is the first priority to put him on a crazy high-volume exercise program? Shouldn't we try to add some quality sleep, better food, a little massage and/or meditation, and a moderate exercise program from which he can bounce back? In other words, isn't it a better bet - both for short-term health and long-term adherence - to "normalize" routines before getting on a crazy routine?

13. If you want to understand fat loss, you need to understand insulin management. For the real geeks out there, check out this paper I wrote for an exercise endocrinology course back in graduate school. There were enough references in there to last me an entire career...

14. It's very easy to fall off the bandwagon on the nutrition front when you're on vacation. If you're only going on 1-2 vacations per year, this probably isn't a big deal. However, if you're someone who travels extensively and does a lot of weekend trips, these dietary missteps can add up. Vacations are extra challenging because they often include all-you-can-eat buffets, plentiful dessert choices, and lots of alcohol. You'd be amazed at how easy it is to pack away 5,000 calories in a day if you're having two big ol' strawberry daiquiris while on the beach, and then enjoying a slice of cheesecake and two glasses of wine with dinner.

The last thing I would ever tell our clients to do is avoiding "indulging" while on vacation, so my strategy has always been to simply encourage them to get some exercise in first thing in the morning on half the days they're on vacation. In addition to the short-term metabolic benefits it yields, an exercise session has a way of keeping people accountable to their diets so that they avoid going overboard. If you work out early in the day, you're more likely to go grab a healthy breakfast - which will help to limit caloric intake later in the day. And, you're less likely to have that extra glass of wine at 11pm if you know you're going to be in the resort's health club at 8am.

Of course, this is coming from a guy who took a TRX to Costa Rica for his honeymoon, so take my recommendations with a grain of salt!

15. I'm constantly amazed at how many calories I need to eat to maintain my body weight - and I don't consider myself an ectomorph, by any means. In fact, I'm probably more toward the endomorph ends of the spectrum. What separates me from the rest of the endomorph population in this regard? To me, it's two things:

a. I eat a very clean diet - which means I need a greater quantity of food.

b. My daily non-exercise activity level is pretty high, as I typically walk 4-5 miles per day while coaching on the floor. I'm also not very good at sitting still, whether it's tapping my foot while I'm working on the computer, or constantly bouncing around the house doing different things. I'm actually more stressed when I'm sitting still!

To this end, I think most folks who struggle with their weight need to find ways to add a bit more movement to their daily lives. Wearing a pedometer can be a great initiative in this regard.

In wrapping this article up, if you're looking from some direction from a guy who has put far more time and effort into learning about the rhyme and reason for optimal fat loss approaches, I'd encourage you to check out John Romaniello's new resource, The Omega Body Blueprint. It's on sale for 50% off through tomorrow (Saturday) at midnight, and I really enjoyed going through it.

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It's interesting how folks like to pigeonhole people into specific specialties. Over the years, I've been called "The Shoulder Guy." I've also heard "The Deadlift Guy" and "The Mobility Guy." And, if you talked to my wife, she'd probably call me "the guy who can't empty the dishwasher without getting distracted."

The truth is that expertise is in the eyes of the beholder. And, since this is my blog, let it be known the I really see myself as "The Meatball Guy," and I'd prefer to "be holding" a meatball.

Being a meatball connoisseur isn't just a gift, though. Much like any proficiency, it's a craft I've worked tirelessly to hone. And, while my closest friends and family are very supportive of my meatball pursuits, the truth is that not everyone understands. As an example, my phone rang the other night as my wife and I were preparing a meatball extravaganza. One of our Major League Baseball clients was calling, and it went like this:

Me: "What's up, bud?"

Him: "Nothing. What are you up to?"

Me: "You know, the usual. Just eating some meatballs."

Him: "Dude, you have to find a new meal!"

Find a new meal? Seriously? Maybe he should "just" take up playing professional football instead of baseball! And, maybe Bobby Fischer should have "just" played checkers instead of chess! Me walking away from meatballs at age 33 - the prime of my meatball career - would be analogous to Barry Sanders walking away from football healthy at age 30 after ten consecutive 1,000-yard rushing seasons. It just wouldn't make sense. I want to change the world, one meatball at a time.

Recognizing this, today's post is about recognizing those who have helped me achieve this level of meatball expertise, but also offering key advice to the up-and-coming meatball aficionados. To that end, I present to you the 10 Laws of Meatball Mastery.

Law #1: Meatball Mastery does not occur without the help of others, so you must be open-minded.

As shocking as it may seem, I did not invent the meatball. Rather, I've stood on the shoulders of a few meatball giants who've provided my top three "go-to" healthy meatball recipes. Here they are:

1. Everyday Paleo Marvelous Meatballs (Sarah Fragoso) - These are great for a numbers of reasons, the foremost being that they are a) meat and b) in a ball shape. Beyond that, I like the fact that I get to use a lot of stuff from the spice rack that I might not otherwise use.

2. Everyday Maven Paleo Pesto Meatballs - I'm a sucker for pesto, but unfortunately, it almost always comes in really high calorie Italian Food recipes. This is a nice alternative. Candidly, we generally make these with ground turkey instead of ground beef and add a bunch of spinach and onions. It tastes awesome, but doesn't always stick together as well as you see with ground beef, presumably since the fat content is a bit lower.

3. Anabolic Cooking Baked Meatballs - I like this recipe because I'm a big oregano fan, and the oat bran gives a little different texture than using almond flour. This recipe is featured in Dave Ruel's Anabolic Cooking, an awesome healthy recipe cookbook I highly recommend. Fortunately, Dave is a good friend of mine, and was kind enough to give me permission to post the recipe here (click to enlarge):

Law #2: Meatballs are a form of artistic expression.

We've been conditioned to believe that meatballs should just be a few different ingredients: meat, bread crumbs, and eggs - basically whatever it takes to make things stick together. This is like saying that a good gym should just be full of cardio machines and nothing else.

Instead, we load our meatballs up with all sorts of vegetables and spices. In terms of vegetables alone, we might include celery, onions, spinach, carrots, and peppers. Try adding these, and you'll get a heck of a lot more nutritional value - and get to feel like you're creating a completely unique piece of meatball art each time you cook.

Law #3: Meatballs can (and should) be used for special occasions and as gifts.

Meatballs aren't just a versatile food choice; they're also a gift for every occasion. I made a "meat-heart" for Valentine's Day for my wife, in fact. We're still married, so I have to assume that she loved it.

And, what birthday would be completely without blowing out the candle on a meatball?

I also like to incorporate meatballs into the celebration of Labor Day, Arbor Day, and Presidents' Day. And, I fully expect a meatball feast in celebration of my first Father's Day this upcoming June. Meatballs are the gifts that keep on giving.

Law #4: As with a fine wine and dinner, accompaniments matter with meatballs.

If you think meatballs can only be eaten with spaghetti, you're missing out. Some of our favorite meatball sides include baked kale chips, spaghetti squash, brussel sprouts, and sweet potato fries. Experiment and you'll find your favorite pairings.

Law #5: Don't even consider store-bought meatballs.

Next time you walk through the frozen foods section of your local supermarket, take a look at some of the pre-prepared meatball options. In most cases, they will include several ingredients you can't pronounce. When it comes to meatball ingredients, with the exception of eggs, if it wasn't green and didn't have eyes, it shouldn't belong in your meatball. This leads me to Law #6...

Law #6:  Meatballs must actually have meat.

As is often the case in mass food production these days, "soy protein concentrate" and "texturized soy flour" somehow managed to make their way into MEATballs. If you think this is limited to only the store-bought frozen versions, think again.

I like Whole Foods, including their hot foods bar. Unfortunately, one of the things I like the most about them is the fact that they display their ingredients - and it gets them in my doghouse with respect to meatballs. I'd love to give them the benefit of the doubt, but it's tough to do so after this Twitter exchange...

Please don't pee on my leg and tell me it's raining. Meatballs shouldn't include "filler" materials, especially when sold at WHOLE Foods.

Law #7: Meatballs must meet a minimum size threshold.

As I showed in my picture earlier, any respectable meatball should be large enough to be eaten like an apple during the "leftovers" period. If it's small enough to be eaten put on a toothpick without that toothpick breaking, then you're really just dipping your foot in the shallows of a vast meatball ocean. Go big or go home.

Law #8: Meatballs bring the world together.

Last year, I attended John Romaniello and Neghar Fonooni's wedding in New York. At the reception, they had a meatball bar that featured four different types of awesomeness. Combined, Jason Ferruggia, Adam Bornstein, Sean Hyson, and I consumed approximately 600 of them. While it was probably a horrific experience for the terrified caterers that looked on, it's strengthened our friendships. Come to think of it, in communicating with these guys over the past year, I don't think we've had a single conversation or email exchange that didn't involve meatballs.

The next time you've got an old friend with whom you've want to reconnect, send him some meatballs as an icebreaker. If he's not more than thrilled at the gesture, then he's probably not worth the effort, anyway.

Law #9: Meatballs do not require bread crumbs.

Historically, bread crumbs have been a key inclusion in both meatballs and meatloaf because they help to hold everything together. Thanks in large part to the gluten-free and paleo trends, we've learned that almond and coconut flour (or meal) are healthier ways to hold things together.

As a quick tip, it's cheaper to buy your almond flour in bulk than it is to buy individual bags at the grocery store. We order four pounds at a time on Amazon.

Law #10: Meatballs are meant to be shared.

If there was ever a food to selfishly guard for yourself, the meatball would be it. That just wouldn't be right, though; meatballs are best enjoyed in the company of others.

Moreover, meatball recipes are meant to be shared, too. Have a favorite way of enjoying them? Please share it in the comments section below.

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It's been super busy over the past ten days, so as we come back to Earth from The High Performance Handbook launch, I want to say a big thank you to everyone who purchased the product and helped to spread the word. I really appreciate your support!

I'll be back shortly with some brand new content, but in the meantime, I wanted to highlight some of the articles that were featured during last week's launch. It's a combination of articles I wrote for other sites, as well as ones other individuals authored.

Strength Matters, Ya Big Sissy - This was a guest post I wrote for John Romaniello, along with an awesome detailed introduction from him.

How to Write and Adapt a Program - This was a great post Dean Somerset wrote to kick off the launch week.  His site also featured a guest post from me - Band-Resisted Power Training: A Game Changer - as well as a cool top ten list at the end of the week.

So You Can't Squat? Do This Instead - This was a guest post I wrote for Jason Ferruggia.

Training for Rotational Warriors - This was a guest post I wrote for Martin Rooney.

5 Common Assessment Mistakes - This was a guest post I wrote for Alwyn Cosgrove.

The Most Important Aspect of Any Program - Here's an excellent post from Mike Reinold discussing the HPH program.

Individualization: How Results Go from Good to Outstanding - This was a guest post I wrote for Kevin Neeld.

Earning the Right to Train Overhead - This was a guest post I wrote for Wil Fleming.

Easy Training Modifications for Overhead Athletes - This was a guest post I wrote for the International Youth Conditioning Association.

Why You Must Not Stretch Hypermobile Clients - This was a guest post I wrote for The Personal Trainer Development Center.

Efficiency: Important for the Joes and the Pros - This was a guest post I wrote for Schwarzenegger.com.

Why It's Not Always JUST About Strength - This was a great article from Tony Gentilcore, and it complemented his earlier post, The Single-Biggest Mistake Most People Make With Their Programs, nicely.

7 Tips for Gaining Strength Fast - This was a guest post I did for Sean Hyson.

Front Squat - This didn't really have anything to do with The High Performance Handbook, but it was an absurdly good post from Mike Robertson that deserves some love, especially since he reviewed HPH earlier in the week.

High Performance Training with Eric Cressey - This was a Skype interview I did with Tyler at The Garage Warrior.

Eric Cressey on Shoulder Work, Breathing, Business, and The High Performance Handbook - Anthony Renna interviewed me over the phone for the Strength Coach Podcast.

Episode 275: Strength Adventure with Eric Cressey - Here, Kevin Larrabee interviewed me for The Fitcast.

An Interview with Eric Cressey - As the name imples, Bret Contreras interviewed me, and you can read it here.

How to Customize Your Training - Another interview, this time with Chad Waterbury.

Q&A with Eric Cressey - Jim Kielbaso interviewed me for this post.

Version 2.0 Interview with Eric Cressey - John Izzo interviewed me for a post on his website, too.

Single-leg Success Strategies - This was a guest post I wrote for Fitocracy.

I think this wraps it up. Needless to say, I did a lot of talking and typing last week!  In case you missed it, you can still pick up a copy of The High Performance Handbook.

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One of Yogi Berra's most enduring quotes is: "When you get to a fork in the road, take it."

While the quote is certainly a comical one, it has a great underlying message: you're going to have to make decisions in life.  You can't just stand still and wait for someone to get things done for you, or life to magically unfold before your eyes. In other words, you create your own destiny.

The word "create" is what today's post is all about.  There are a lot of things that have to take place for you to even get to those forks in the road that'll shape your life - and certainly the ones pertaining to fitness.  Whether it's your journey to get/stay fit or your aspirations of being successful with a career in the fitness industry, what you do now is setting you up to be in a better spot when those opportunities (forks) come up in the future. 

There isn't a single path, though.  Let me elaborate with a story about John Romaniello, one of my best friends in the fitness industry.  It's especially timely, as he is released a new book today that will likely end up on the New York Times Best-Seller list.

Roman and I met back in 2001 and immediately hit it off.  We were both guys who'd struggled with being overweight as teenagers, and had found fitness as something that didn't just help rescue us from those frustrations, but also gave rise to the possibility of a career in the fitness world. We'd push one another with everything from training logs, to what we were doing in continuing education.  Eventually, with a few other fitness friends, Roman and I helped co-found Rugged Magazine (now retired) to get more opportunities to hone our writing abilities.  We though we were so cool that we wore sunglasses inside, too.

While we had similar goals of being successful in the fitness industry, and certainly enough in common to be good friends, our experiences in the early 2000s were dramatically different.  I got my undergraduate degree in Exercise Science and Sports Management, and my graduate degree in Kinesiology.  Roman's undergraduate degree was in English/Psychology.

As we entered the real world as business owners, we went to working with different populations. I became a shoulder/elbow geek and specialized in baseball strength and conditioning, and Roman went to the trenches with the general population and focused his attention on helping people improve body composition (lose fat, gain muscle).

I caught the powerlifting bug, and Roman competed in bodybuilding and did some modeling.

I had one girlfriend in my four years of undergraduate studies, and one during my graduate degree. Roman probably made out with more attractive girls than I even spoke to over those 5-6 years.

My writing is more "sciency," and at times very technical.  It's also rated PG.  Roman's approach has a more conversational tone; he isn't shy about throwing in an F-bomb here and there, or using modern cultural references - movies, for instance - to make his point. And, he'll even cover some controversial topics.

We’re both workaholics, but via different methods. I like to work consistently; I’m someone who fidgets when I don’t have something to do. Roman’s a guy who works in bursts, logging an absurd number of hours over a few days, and then does a better job of decompressing and enjoying life when the work is done.

In spite of these differences, we've both managed to turn out okay, both socially and professionally.  I've been married over two years to the love of my life, and Roman is engaged to his. We've both had successful in-person and online businesses. We've both written a ton of articles and books, and done some angel investing in start-up companies. We might have been great friends who supported one another, but our successes have been via remarkably different paths.

At risk of sounding narcissistic, I am often asked "How do I get to where you are?"  It's a hard question to answer, as I'm 31 years old and still have a lot of things I want to achieve in life - so I guess you could say that I don't really know exactly where I "am."  More challenging, though, is getting up-and-comers to realize that the correct path is going to be different for everyone.

While I can certainly give some suggestions on how to best prepare for the knowledge side of things, the truth is that everyone will respond best to a different course of action. They all have unique personalities, learning styles, and specific goals. That’s what it’s so important to encounter a lot of people to determine your way in the working world - or to simply fine-tune your nutrition and strength and conditioning programs.

You read EricCressey.com because you like the perspective I offer, but it’s important to recognize that what you might learn from me should be supplemented by what you can learn from others, including guys like Roman. It’s just like coaching different clients/athletes; in the quest to get them to all have good technique, you’ll need to use different cues to figure out which works best for that individual. The single-most important thing you can do to get to want to be in any aspect of your life is get out of your comfort zone and seek fresh ideas that’ll challenge your status quo.

That’s why I’m so excited to throw an endorsement to his new book, Engineering the Alpha.

This project, which was co-authored with another good friend, Adam Bornstein, highlights ways to make your life more awesome. It covers fitness, nutrition, psychology, career development, and even interactions with the opposite sex. This book talks about a lot of the mistakes Roman (and I) made in the late 1990s, and can save you a lot of headaches and wasted time. It's extremely well researched on the training, nutrition, and social behavior sides of things. And, for under $20, it’s a pretty darn good bargain for such an entertaining and educational (“infotainment”) resource. Oh, and the foreword is written by some guy named Schwarzenegger; you may have heard of him.

Check it out here.

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Recently, I had a conversation with my good friend John Romaniello about charity work. John brought up how he is most passionate about feeding those who can’t afford to eat in America, and something he said hit a nerve with me:

"I find it to be the very definition of irony that we spend much of our time in the fitness world telling people to eat less to lose weight or eat more to gain weight. Meanwhile, in America, there are people who still can’t afford to eat – period."

I thought back to when I was a kid and discovered that my mother (a high school teacher) kept food in a drawer of her desk to feed students who came to school hungry. It was astounding to me that in my hometown – a reasonably affluent community in Southern Maine – there were still families who couldn’t afford to eat.

John and my conversation ultimately brought in another fitness friend, Ben Bruno, and we discussed how we might be able to use our industry presence to increase awareness and, more importantly, make it easy for our readers and colleagues to help to feed folks. We stumbled upon an organization called Causes International that will allow us to do just that, and – as it turns out – much more.

You see, Causes International focuses on upcycling, the process of donating your used electronics so they can be sent back UP the chain, and either disposed of in an environmentally clean and sustainable way—or given to those in need. This is a big deal, as electronics that aren’t disposed of properly often wind up releasing extremely toxic heavy metals—such as lead, cadmium, mercury, chromium and deadly toxins like polyvinyl chlorides—directly into the environment. We may not notice it yet in the US, as over 80% of our "electronic trash" is sent overseas, but there are parts of China and other industrialized countries where people can’t breath the air or drink the water, and children are dying or being born with defects because of these toxins.

These electronics – even if they’re outdated or broken – actually have residual value to those who refurbish them and introduce them into other markets, or simply reuse the parts. With over 12 million laptops thrown away in 2007 alone in America, and more than 100 million smartphones tossed in the garbage annually around the world, there are a lot of financial resources going to waste, literally and figuratively.

That’s where Causes International comes in; they have developed not only education—but practical, real-world solutions for fixing the e-waste epidemic for good. In this case, in line with the theme of our drive (Fitness Feeds), the “good” will also refer to feeding the hungry.

Here’s how it works:

Step 1…

Do your normal spring cleaning and notice how many outdated pieces of technology you find (the average American has 4-5 items). Figure out which items you want to donate, and enter them for donation directly on the special donation page Causes set up for us at www.FitnessFeeds.org. Over 60,000 items, in 13 different categories - iPhones, iPods, iPads, and MacBooks (even with shattered screens), plus various other items, like other smartphones, video games, graphing calculators, or digital cameras - are eligible.

Step 2…

Once you do that, you’ll receive a free, pre-paid shipping label you can print off —so that you don’t have to spend a penny or leave your house in order to send in your used electronics. You just hand it to a UPS driver or put it in one of their 40,000+ boxes around the country.

Step 3…

This is the best part: the items you donate can be used to generate revenue to help Feeding America put food on the table for hungry Americans. Every $1 raised can provide 8 meals for those in need. That’s not a typo: $1 yields 8 meals.

And, your donation is 100% tax deductible.  There's no cash outflow, either, so Causes has done a great job of combating the "donor fatigue" seen by charities in a down economy.

Our goal with this drive is to provide 100,000 meals to those in need by the end of April, and we can do it with your help. We’d love it if you’d put that broken or outdated iPhone to great use, and encourage your friends to do the same by passing along the www.FitnessFeeds.org link.

This is an absolute win/win for everyone. You’re cleaning out the clutter in your house, while feeding those in need, while saving the Earth, while getting a tax deduction – and without spending a penny. However, Ben, John, and I wanted to sweeten the deal by offering a free PDF special report, “30 Ways to Shake Up Your Training Programs Today,” to anyone who donates. Just forward your receipt on to receipts@fitnessfeeds.org and we'll send it along. We'd normally sell it, but in this case, it's just our way of saying thanks for supporting a great cause.

Thanks for your time, consideration, and support. I’d encourage you to click the link below to start upcycling today:

www.FitnessFeeds.org

Here's this week's list of recommended strength and conditioning reading:

Who Are "They," Anyway? - This was an outstanding post by Mariana Bichette, who - as a MLB wife and the mother of a minor leaguer and 15-year-old ballplayer - has a tremendous perspective on everything from player development to scouting, not to mention how parents can best handle the teenage baseball years.  I hear about parents talking about "well they ranked this kid as #4 in his class in Kentucky" (or whatever other number/state) on random blogs or showcase websites.  If you liked my recent article, 20 Ways to Prepare Young Athletes for Success, you'll love everything Mariana writes.  Look around her website and you'll see what I mean.

Roman's Road Rules - This article from my buddy, John Romaniello, is a great resource to anyone who travels regularly but still wants to eat clean and train regularly.

Vitamin D Deficiency Rampant in Patients Undergoing Orthopedic Surgery, Damaging Patient Recovery - Vitamin D has gotten a lot of attention in recent years, and with good reason; it clearly has some serious implications in terms of our health on the musculoskeletal and endocrine fronts (just to name a few example).  This article at Science Daily certainly verifies that, and serves as a good follow-up the study a few years back that demonstrated players with deficient pre-season Vitamin D levels were more likely to get hurt over the course of an NFL season.

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Here's this week's list of recommended strength and conditioning reading:

Engineering the Alpha - My good friends John Romaniello and Adam Bornstein co-authored this book, and it is now available for pre-order.  Full disclosure: I have not read it yet.  However, I know how much time, dedication, and knowledge these two put into it - and it's sure to be fantastic, with a great combination of fitness/strength and conditioning stuff and recommendations on making your life cooler overall (if you like reading Tim Ferriss' stuff, you'll also enjoy this).  They also have a ton of cool bonuses for those who pre-order this week.

Noted Surgeon Dr. James Andrews Wants Your Athlete to Stay Healthy By Playing Less - Here's a great interview at Cleveland.com with Dr. Andrews.  While I wish they'd used the word "competing" instead of "playing" in the title, it is a valuable read - and an excellent follow-up to my post from last week, 20 Ways to Prepare Young Athletes for Success in Sports and in Life.

Set a PR Every Week - Dave Dellanave wrote an excellent article on autoregulatory training for T-Nation.

Here are some good strength and conditioning reads to peruse this week:

Do You Have a Management Problem?  - Martin Rooney always has some great content not only in terms of training, but also with respect to how to take control of your life and make all the pieces fit together.  This is one such example.

10 Mistakes Coaches Make - My good friend John Romaniello reminded me that yesterday was the tenth anniversary of my first article at T-Nation.  While it certainly wasn't my best of all time, I thought I'd use this opportunity to highlight a different one that I wrote over the past decade that stuck out in my mind.

Training the Lactate System - Patrick Ward brings to light some great points that a lot of folks overlook with respect to understanding work capacity, optimizing recovery, and training sport-specific energy systems. If you liked the discussion of heart rate variability that I posted last week, you'll enjoy this as well.

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Here's this week's list of recommended strength and conditioning reading:

How to Get Published - I thought this new e-book from Sean Hyson, Lou Schuler, and John Romaniello was a great idea.  Writing in the fitness industry opened a ton of doors for me at a young age and also helped me to educate myself on a various of topics.  These three guys are super accomplished in the writing world, and it definitely shows with the quality of this product.  If you're looking to get published (especially in the fitness industry, but regardless of the industry), give this a read.

Weight Training Programs: Assess, Don't Assume - Last May, I wrote this post up, but it slipped to the archives. It's worth a read regardless of whether you're a fitness professional or just a fitness enthusiast.

27 More Nutrition Facts - I'm a sucker for "Random Thoughts" pieces, especially when they come from bright guys like Dr. Mike Roussell.  It's a great chance to process a ton of information in a short amount of time.

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Today’s post is going to rub some folks in academia the wrong way.  Therefore, I want to preface the piece that follows by saying:

a) I am a huge advocate of a multi-faceted education, encompassing “traditional” directed study (e.g., classroom education), self-study, internships, and experimentation.

b) I loved my college experience – both undergraduate and graduate.  I benefited tremendously and made a lot of valuable connections.

However, it didn’t come easily; I got out of it what I put into it.  To be candid, there are a lot of my peers who took the exact same courses and got the exact same degrees who didn’t walk away having gotten their money’s worth.

But, then again, does anyone really get their money’s worth?

College isn’t cheap nowadays. Check out the following statistics from CollegeBoard.com (as of 2011; this is sure to increase in the years to come):

• Public four-year colleges charge, on average, $7,605 per year in tuition and fees for in-state students. The average surcharge for full-time out-of-state students at these institutions is $11,990. 
• Private nonprofit four-year colleges charge, on average, $27,293 per year in tuition and fees.
• Public two-year colleges charge, on average, $2,713 per year in tuition and fees.

Of course, this doesn’t take into account the cost of books, travel, food, accommodations, and the $5,000 in on-campus parking tickets you’ll end up paying.  Educations can run upwards of $220,000 - and that's before you consider student loan interest and the opportunity cost of investing that money.

Assume 24-30 credits per year (12-15 per semester), you’re looking at a per credit hour cost of $399.66-$499.58 for public, out-of-state.  It’d be $253.50-$316.88 for public, in-state.  Public two-year colleges would be $90.43-$113.04. Finally, private would be $909.77-$1137.21. Sorry, Mom and Dad; I’ve never in all my years heard a kid say that an hour with one of his professors – even in a one-on-one context – was worth over a grand.

They also charge you to do internships elsewhere.  In other words, you have to pay to get credits accepted – which means that the cost per hour you actually spend with college faculty is, in fact, even higher.

Many folks go to college to figure out what they want to do.  Others go because it is a social experience that is both fun – and helpful in maturing them as individuals.  That’s fine.

However, it is becoming tougher and tougher to consider it an investment, especially since the “success gap” between college graduates and those who don’t attend college is getting smaller and smaller.  Along these lines, if you haven’t read it already, I’d strongly encourage you to read Michael Ellsberg’s New York Times piece, Will Dropouts Save America?

The exercise science field is one in which this success gap is arguably smaller than in any other.  The barrier to entry to the personal training field is incredibly low; independent of schooling and previous experience, one can become certified in a matter of a few hours via an online test, and many gyms will hire people who aren’t even certified or insured.  In fact, as I wrote a few years ago, Josef Brandenburg, a great trainer based in Washington, D.C., actually got his pet pug certified.  The sad truth is that he could probably do a better job than most of the trainers out there who are pulling $100/hour.

Of course, I’m preaching to the choir here.  Most of the folks reading this blog are educated and highly motivated to be the best that they can be.  You seek out the best reading materials, DVDs, seminars, and colleagues from which you can learn.  Personal training means a lot to people who grew up and went to college wanting to eventually help people get healthy, improve quality of life, optimize sports performance, or simply be more confident.

However, that doesn’t change the fact that our profession as a whole has become a “fall-back” career.  It can be what college kids decide to do over summer vacation to make a few bucks, or what extremely well-paid lawyers or accountants take up when they get sick of long hours at desk jobs.

That doesn’t make them bad people; it just means that the minimal regulation in our industry has rendered a college education in this field a trivial competitive advantage in the workplace.

Additionally, this doesn't mean that college professors aren't qualified or doing their jobs sufficiently. It just means that the curricula that typifies an exercise science degree simply isn't sufficient to provide a competitive advantage over non-college-educated candidates in the workforce. There are exceptions, no doubt,in the form of outstanding professors who go above and beyond the call of duty to help student, but I can't honestly say that I've ever heard of a college kid coming out of any undergraduate exercise science program boasting of a competitive advantage that was uniquely afforded to him/her because of the education just completed. The closest thing might be a program with a strong alumni network that provides easier access to job opportunities.

Of course, the cream will rise to the top in any field – and that’s certainly true of exercise science as well.  The industry leaders are, for the most part, people with college educations in exercise science (or closely related fields) – but the question one must ask is, “would these people have been successful in our field even without the courses they took in their undergraduate studies?”

Don’t you think Mike Robertson’s drive for self study would have sustained him in a successful career in this field even without a degree?

Don’t you think Todd Durkin’s energy, charisma, and passion for helping people would have shone through even if he hadn’t gotten a degree?

Moreover, I can list dozens of bright minds making outstanding headway in this field with “non-exercise-science” college degrees.  John Romaniello (Psychobiology/ English), Joe Dowdell (Sociology/Economics), and Ben Bruno (Sociology) are all successful, forward-thinking trainers who come to mind instantly, and they’re just the tip of the iceberg.

Some of my best interns have come from undergraduate majors like English Literature, Acting, and Biology.  We’ve had others who didn’t even have college degrees and absolutely dominated in their roles at Cressey Performance.

Guys like Nate Green, Adam Bornstein, Sean Hyson, Lou Schuler, and Adam Campbell don’t have college degrees in exercise science (although Campbell did get a graduate degree in Exercise Physiology following his undergraduate in English).  However, from their prolific writing careers and by surrounding themselves with the best trainers on the planet, they’ve become incredibly qualified trainers themselves – even if they don’t have to train anybody as part of their jobs.

With all these considerations in mind, the way I see it, you’ve got three options to distinguish yourself in the field of exercise science – and I'll share them in part 2 of this article.  If you’re a high school or college student contemplating a career in exercise science, this will be must-read material.

In the meantime, you may be interested in checking out Elite Training Mentorship, our affordable online education program for fitness professionals.

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