It’s that day of the week again, folks. Here we go…

1. Last night, Dan Toledano hit a 405 bench – his first 400+ pound bench. Congratulations, Dan. If you keep this up, you might actually get around to kicking that Star Trek fetish and meeting a girl who has all her teeth and is interested in your for more than just your Jedi Gym training background:

2. Speaking of bench presses, I got a question the other day about whether I thought that wrist wraps interfere with forearm hypertrophy. I doubt it, if you’d just using them to bench and possibly squat. For me, the benefit completely outweighs the cost, as the diameter of my wrists is right about six inches (that’s small, folks). So, for me, the wraps allow me to stay healthy for the long haul – even they don’t offer too much in terms of poundage increases. You can find some great wrist wraps at APT.

3. If you want to laugh like crazy – and don’t mind the occasional rattling off of obscenities, here’s a great blog from Cressey Performance client, Michelle Elwell. I could just post a hyperlink, but I’m not going to lie: the title is worth typing out:

https://www.michellethinksyoureanasshole.blogspot.com

Michelle is awesome – definitely one of our favorite clients. Yes, it’s because we’re afraid to not like her, but that’s not the point. Read, laugh, and if you’re one of the a**holes to which she’s referring, clean up your act, a**hole.

4. There is some awesome feedback on some tremendous results from a Maximum Strength follower HERE. You can pick up a copy through my website.

5. Here is a great read about how saturated fat isn’t all that bad – and how low-carb diets outperform low-fat diets (again!).

6. Great quote from Mike Boyle:

“Soft tissue work, whether for chronic muscle strains or for tendon issues, is like weight training. Treatment is actually a stimulus. In effect, what the therapist is doing is irritating the tissue to produce a chemical response. The chemicals produced are what begin the healing process. This why soft tissue work is often painful and can leave you feeling similar to a workout the next day. According to Dr. [Donnie] Strack, soft tissue mobilization (think massage) stimulates the formation of fibroblasts, which help take immature, and randomly aligned Type 3 collagen (found in tendinosis) and changes it back to a stronger, more parallel mature Type 1 collagen. In other words, massage changes the quality of the muscle fibers.”

For those of you who don’t know, Mike Boyle heads up what is definitely one of the best information sources on the ‘net for those interested in strength and conditioning and fitness. They have a 14-day trial offer in place for just $1 – so I’d definitely recommend checking out StrengthCoach.com. You really don’t have anything to lose.

7. I got my act together and organized all my baseball content in one place. You can check it out HERE.

8. As a surprise birthday present for my girlfriend, today, I’m taking her horseback riding*. She rode a lot when she was younger, and hasn’t been since she was a teenager. I, on the other hand, have never been on a horse, so it’s safe to assume that when I get on that critter, I’m totally screwed. I doubt that powerlifters and horses get along, so send some good vibes my way – and put in a vote for me for boyfriend of the month.

*Honey, if you actually read my blog, you could stop asking me what the surprise is by now. Don’t worry, though; if I had to put up with me all the time, I probably wouldn’t read this blog, either.

Have a great weekend, folks.