1. We moved into our new house on Wednesday of this week.  All of the packing, lugging, and unpacking was well justified when I realized that my commute is now limited to a whopping 3-minute walk to Cressey Performance.  It’s a far cry from the 40-60 minute drive (each way) I had previously.  I did the math on it and realized that it’ll save me 16 full 8-hour days of work per year in commuting.  I think 2010 will be a productive one – especially now that I’ve got my own home office!

2. Optimal Shoulder Performance was released on Monday, and it’s already gotten some great reviews from those who attended the actual seminar:

The early-bird price ends soon, so don’t miss out!  Purchase Optimal Shoulder Performance now!

3. Mike Robertson has been doing some great podcasts lately.  The last two have been with Pavel Tsatsouline and Joe Kenn.  They’re 100% free; check them out HERE.

4. Some new research was just published that showed that a 2-0-2 tempo and 2-0-4 tempo elicited just about the same acute hormonal response during bench pressing (with the exception of IGF-1, which was slightly higher in the 2-0-2 tempo).  I have long been a believer that we should be less concerned with modifying the ACUTE endocrine response to resistance training via programming variables.  Everyone has seen that wanker in the gym who uses a meticulous 406 tempo on every exercise, counting to himself as he lifts his pathetically tiny weights.  We all knew he was a complete tool for being so neurotic (and weak), but now we have some research to show that those extra two seconds on the eccentric weren’t as important as he insisted.

Don’t get me wrong; I recognize that eccentric exercise is more damaging to tissues and therefore probably has more benefit in the context of building muscle mass, but you also have to realize that using prolonged eccentrics limits that the lifter can use.  So, it’s really a system of checks and balances on strength and hypertrophy development.

5. Uh, is anyone else as fired up as I am for the start of the Major League Baseball season?