Back to the Friday randomness…

1.  A few weeks ago, Matt Fitzgerald (my co-author from Maximum Strength) and I filmed a series of “Monday Minute” segements for Competitor.com.  Basically, it’s a weekly one-minute exercise demonstration and description along with the rationale for that exercise.  Here’s this week’s:

Wasn’t that fun?

2. One of the resounding themes at this past weekend’s Perform Better Summit in Long Beach was “invest in yourself.”  It’s no coincidence that all the presenters at this year’s event agreed that devoting time, effort, and funds to continuing education was a huge part of their success.  In a dynamic field like fitness/strength and conditioning, if you’re not getting better, you’re falling behind.

Alwyn Cosgrove wrote a good blog the other day about how he and his wife Rachel have used this mindset to establish one of the best staffs of trainers in the country.  Likewise, Mike Reinold published an essential list of the best titles in physical therapy, athletic training, strength and conditioning, manual therapy, etc. here last week. Just being around guys like Alwyn and the rest of the presenters makes you want to get better and better, and reading stuff like this from Mike reaffirms that mindset.  Not coincidentally, this weekend preceded my twice-a-year book buying shopping spree.  I purchased ten books online last night and can’t wait to start devouring them.

So, I guess the question for the weekend is, “What are you doing to get better?”  Let’s hear what you are going to do in the next week to set yourself apart in your chosen field.  Are you going to read a book?  Attend a seminar?  Watch a colleague in practice or call him/her to talk shop?  If you’re not getting better, you’re falling behind.

3. This is the most flat-out atrocious piece of journalism I’ve seen in my entire life:

Why Exercise Won’t Make You Thin

Talk about skewing research to tell the story to which you’re clearly biased  in order to generate some controversy!  There is no mention of excess post-exercise oxygen consumption or the difference among different types of exercise (steady-state cardio, interval training, resistance training). There isn’t any discussion of visceral versus subcanteous fat loss.

And, it isn’t that exercise won’t make you thinner; it’s that exercise combined with increased calories may not make you thinner. In other words, exercise is good, but morons are bad.

This is a perfect example of a journalist who clearly knows NOTHING about exercise interviewing a bunch of experts and then presenting one side of a story without making some very important qualifying statements (trust me, I’ve seen this multiple times before when freelance writers have interviewed me for stories for mainstream magazines).  In this writer’s case, those qualifying statements should be:

a. “Research has shown that exercise in conjunction with a maintenance or reduction in calories does increase fat loss as compared to maintaining or reducing calories alone.”

b. “I really am in no way qualified to write this article.  In fact, I’m probably not even smart enough to turn on a treadmill, so they just put me on this hamster wheel in my cubicle to make me feel somewhat qualified to discuss exercise.”

Honestly, I could go on all day ranting and raving about this, but such rubbish journalism isn’t even worth my time.  Instead, I’d just encourage you to give up Time Magazine altogether for publishing such crap.  I know I will be doing so.

Have a good weekend.