EAST Fitness Foundations

10/03/2017

This doesn't seem like that much of a shocker, but it's going around the internet so worth sharing. Apparently if you package junk food in boring wrapper, people are less likely to buy it. Huh.

https://www.theguardian.com/science/2017/mar/06/obesity-sell-high-calorie-foods-in-plain-packaging-says-2017-brain-prize-winner-wolfram-schultz-peter-dayan-ray-dolan

Peter Dayan, Ray Dolan and Wolfram Schultz share €1m neuroscience prize for work unravelling the brain’s reward system

08/03/2017

"Eat food, not too much, mostly plants." Classic advice, holds up just as well now as it did when Michael Pollan first said it. This new study suggests that going vegan probably isn't as good for the earth as a responsible omnivorous diet. Eating less meat and more veggies is good. Eating all veggies and no milk, dairy or animal products probably isn't the way forward. Unless of course you're making a Peter Singer-esque utilitarian argument. Then you're probably right within the constraints of your argument.

https://qz.com/749443/being-vegan-isnt-as-environmentally-friendly-as-you-think/?utm_source=atlfb

A message for vegan friends: You are not saving the world.

08/03/2017

This isn't just for guys, though it's written as if it were.

"Analyze what’s going on, and target your warmup to loosening up those adductors, or getting your knees tracking properly. “Warm up by performing the movement” is no longer adequate (I’ve changed my views on this in the last three years)."

It's about more than warming up, it's about adjusting your expectations as you realize that you're starting to get old.

https://www.completehumanperformance.com/old-man-training-part-1/

Old man training, part 1. Do not go gentle into that good night, Old age should burn and rave at close of day; Rage, rage against the dying of the light. Dylan Thomas Ten years ago, I was unstoppable. I was indestructible. I was strong, capable, my body could do anything I asked of…

08/03/2017

There are a few other articles that were supposed to come before this in the queue, but I think this one needed sharing.

https://theoverheardpress.com/2017/03/07/crossfit-gym-wont-let-visitor-do-special-program-in-corner-his-fitness-suffers-tremendously/

Baltimore– While traveling for work last week, amateur competitive exerciser Jeremy Durbin suffered a tremendous setback in his athletic development. Durbin, who can’t afford a CrossFit affil…

07/03/2017

James Clear puts out some good articles that sometimes overlap with training and fitness. You've probably heard people compare recovery/stress with water running into a sink or maybe digging a hole and refilling it. Either way, a big part of progress is recovery. Sleep isn't always the sexiest topic but it is important. This is a thorough article that that looks at recovery from multiple angles.

http://jamesclear.com/sleep

Everything you need to know if you want to get better sleep.

06/03/2017

Two clients recently sent this article to me. It's the same Mark Rippetoe article that Mark Rippetoe has written since the dawn of T-nation. It's a new article, but you know the drill. Low bar back squat, shoot the hips back, don't worry about keeping vertical. He makes a few funny observations as only Mark Rippetoe can. Unfortunately I think Mark misses some big points. The article is unnecessarily confusing for new lifters. Also, I think he needs to admit that for most CrossFit athletes there's really no room for the LBBS. It creates too much interference in squatting patterns and prevents the development of olympic lifting positions. Mark was a huge influence on anyone who learned to lift a few years back. I do think there are better, more nuanced sources out there now. When all you have is a hammer, everything looks like a nail. Mark's hammer is one specific style of squatting that may not match your goals.

https://www.t-nation.com/training/squat-mechanics-a-deep-analysis

It's time to finally fix your squat. Here's an in-depth look at squat mechanics from the author of Starting Strength.

04/03/2017

Stuart McGill was the first person I heard talking about how hip structure influences squatting technique and depth. Since then, folks like Dean Somerset and Tom Purvis have shared excellent resources explaining how personal anatomy affect biomechanics and movement. Add Dr. Quinn Henoch, PT to this list. His recent video for Juggernaut Training Systems is a must watch if you're interested in this sort of thing.

http://www.jtsstrength.com/articles/2017/02/27/squat-school-hip-structure-squat-technique/

Not everybody’s body is structured the same, so why would we all the squat the same. Dr. Quinn Henoch takes Team Juggernaut Weightlifters and American Record Holders in the Sn**ch, Colin Burns and Cortney Batchelor, through an assessment of their hip movement and discusses the implications this has…

03/03/2017

I've just started seeing more articles by Anoop Balachandran from his site Exercise Biology. He's earned 2 masters and a PhD. More importantly he works with some of the brightest in the field. His recent article, co-written with Brad Schoenfeld is all about Evidence Based Practice.

"In fact, we’ve used anecdote or expert opinion as ‘evidence’ to treat people throughout the history of medicine. But this approach clearly didn’t work well as shown by hundreds of examples of medical mistakes we made in the past. For example, smoking was ‘good’ for heath until studies showed otherwise; bloodletting was the standard medical treatment for almost 2000 years by the foremost doctors of the West, and so forth. In short, EBP evolved because anecdotal evidence or expert opinion were not producing ‘results’."

I'd really recommend reading the whole thing.
http://www.exercisebiology.com/index.php/site/articles/evidence-based_practice_in_exercise_nutrition_common_misconceptions_and_cri/

some of the common misconceptions and criticisms of EBP in nutrition, exercise and fitness..

02/03/2017

Everybody knows that ass to grass (ATG) squats are the best, right? Maybe, maybe not. Read this article for a bit more context on the advantages, disadvantages of partial ROM squatting.

http://sigmanutrition.com/quarter-squats/

This is a post by Arthur Lynch. Arthur is a PhD researcher in muscle physiology, an international-level raw powerlifter and coach here at Sigma Nutrition.

01/03/2017

People often will often ask questions like: "I can squat X so what should my clean be?" It's a complicated answer with a lot of it depends. This site can give you some quick and dirty ratios though. They pull numbers from Bob Takano, Greg Everett and a few other notable sources.

http://www.olylifts.co/

01/03/2017

"And when you give the average person an infinite reservoir of human wisdom, they will not Google for the higher truth that contradicts their own convictions. They will not Google for what is true yet unpleasant. Instead, most of us will Google for what is pleasant but untrue."

"If I read an article today telling me that processed grains are harmful, there will be three articles telling me tomorrow that they’re fine, and then another article telling me why all of the previous articles were wrong. By now, I don’t even care anymore. I don’t trust any of them. The abundance of contradicting information scrambles my brain and makes me just want to go play Mario Kart for an hour."

Not health related but very important to consider. When everybody is sharing their opinions regardless of qualifications/experience/expertise then it creates a sort of information inflation where individual sources are devalued.

https://markmanson.net/everything-is-f**ked?utm_campaign=mmnet-newsletter-2017-02-28&utm_medium=email&utm_source=mmnet-newsletter&utm_content=Read-Everything-is-Fu**ed

Some people are still holding out that technology will save humanity from itself. But we keep forgetting that the world doesn't run on information—it runs on emotion.

28/02/2017

Good article on how to approach the open. It seems like everybody is putting out Open strategy videos nowadays. I watch them too, but this article is a nice counter to the hype.

"Here is some real advice for 17.1, or 17.2 - for f**k's sake it's just advice for competing in general. Go in with a smile; you, giving your best will produce the highest pace that you can most likely hold. When it gets hard, remember it’s hard for everyone, and that your finish time or finished reps are the reminder that you didn’t give up, not a reflection of your self-worth. Competing is about showing up, starting, dealing with the bu****it inside your head, deciding not to quit, and then finishing knowing you did your best - everything else is just fluff."

http://www.gritandteeth.com/written//please-stop-telling-me-im-doing-it-wrong

It seems like it’s that time again- NO, not the CrossFit Open; it’s time for everyone to give his or her advice on how you should approach the Open. Funny enough, the content derived for these “hints and tips” is generally just the same bu****it reformulated to fit whatever coach is selling wh