1. I started this week off with a bang with a few good (and goofy) YouTube clips in my newsletter, so there’s no reason to shy away from a continuation of the awesomeness in this blog.

2. Tony Gentilcore got the day off from work today.  He claimed it was to go see the filming of the next Functional Strength Coach seminar, but we all know it was just a front for his regular ol’ “weird ninja dude in the woods” routine.  Glad you enjoyed your alone time, big guy.

2. Congratulations to CP athlete and New York Mets minor leaguer Tim Stronach (St. Lucie Mets: High A), who just missed both a perfect game and no-hitter on Wednesday.  “Stro” took a perfect game into the 8th inning, and then lost the no-no with one out in the 9th.  The wildest part is that Tim didn’t even know until the day before that he’d be making the start.

Stronach packed 21 pounds on his 6-5 frame this off-season with loads of hard work at Cressey Performance, and deserves all the success that comes his way.  Great job, Tim!

3. I received an email with the following question yesterday: “I play basketball. I watch how guys lose lots of weight and bodyfat preparing for the combine. How do they do that?”

Answer: The overwhelming majority of college basketball players I’ve encountered live on sugary sports drinks, chicken wings, pizza, and booze.  Simply cleaning up their diets for a month or two will work wonders even if training is held constant.  Did you expect something more revolutionary?

4. Here’s another study showing that swinging a heavy bat prior to regular hitting is an inferior warm-up protocol as compared to swinging the normal bat or an underweighted bat.  Researchers  “suggested that when preparing to hit, 5 warm-up swings with either a light or normal bat will allow a player to achieve the greatest velocity of their normal bat.”  This is in complete contrast to the use of weighted baseballs to increase throwing velocity; I love ’em when used with the right population.

5.  Huh?  What?  Come again?

6. I went back through Jim Smith’s Accelerated Muscular Development today to check up on how he approaches formatting for e-books (as we prepare some for the upcoming project’s release).  While I was looking it over, I got to thinking about how it never ceases to amaze me how thorough Smitty is with his products; he just seems to cover everything.  I’ve said it before: this is a great resource; I’d highly recommend you check it out.