A Philosophy of Strength and Health

What do you do when it is 15 degrees outside and your training plan calls for painful intervals on the trainer? Head to the Maven's secret underground, climate-controlled training facility where your teammates can goad you into working harder and the images of Vinokourov , Mayo, Beloki and Armstrong attacking and suffering in the Alps spur you on just a few minutes more...ticking the pedals over in anger. You won't find these women in "arrears" in their races this year. Venga , venga , venga !

For any given male, the quality and quantity of work done in the weight room is inversely proportional to the amount of Under Armour worn.

There's a great essay by Michael Pollan , author of "The Omnivore's Dilemma" in Sunday's NY Times. He writes beautifully and does a great job of exploring the issues surrounding the American diet. The bottom line for Pollan is: Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants. It is not rocket science. Keep it real, keep it whole and keep it simple. My favorite quote from the essay follows: “The problem with nutrient-by-nutrient nutrition science,” points out Marion Nestle, the New York University nutritionist, “is that it takes the nutrient out of the context of food, the food out of the context of diet and the diet out of the context of lifestyle."

Weightlifting is not just about propelling the bar upward with triple extension of the the lower extremities. One of the more challenging aspects of training an athlete to do the full lifts (especially if s/he has only done the power versions or has done too much upper body rowing stuff), is teaching the athlete to pull against the bar and pull themselves down under the bar before gravity beats her/him to it. When the weight is greater than bodyweight, it becomes essential. This sequence of photos is less than .50 seconds. See how the athlete literally pulls himself against/around the bar? Actively pulling, not just floating with the bar--usually a losing proposition. This MUST happen when you weigh 77 kg (169 lbs) and the bar is 113 kg (248.6 lbs). It is hard to do when the weight on the bar is less than bodyweight; the athlete usually wants to just power the bar up, up and up and not her/his body down to meet it. Note: See the wrist flexion? The bar path is virtually straigh...

Here are some excerpts from Kathleen Nelson's column in the Post-Dispatch today. Seems a website called marathonguide.com issued a list of the country's 25 outstanding US marathoners. The only criteria was running at least 3 marathons (!) in a year and consistently finishing near the front of the pack. Now, I am constantly arguing the necessity of smart weight-bearing activity and strength work for endurance athletes and weekend warriors. This guy's story just blew me away. Fosamax for a man at the age of 31--with an MD? The spotlight also shone last week on Dr. Thomas Whalen. He described himself as a middling runner at St. Louis University High who barely made the cross country team at Emory University, a Division III school. He had little time to run during medical school and has taken Fosamax for almost a decade because of osteoporosis. Yet the 41-year-old Whalen made the list of 25 outstanding U.S. marathoners, selected by marathonguide.com. Then: Whalen ran six m...

I've posted previously about using the hex bar deadlift to teach basic triple extension mechanics and proper back management with lifting. Ideally, the athlete will use this lift as an adjunct in training while also using bodyweight squats, back squats, front squats and possibly overhead squats. See the video here . This hex bar weighs the same as a traditional 20 kg or 45 lb bar. It is essential to have 45 cm bumper plates to put the bar at a reasonable start position. I have elevated the bar higher off the floor if the athlete has really poor hip/ankle flexibility. The hex bar deadlift, when done appropriately, really helps the athlete or patient learn what it is to "push" the weight off the floor using the legs, not the back and upper body. I do not use this lift for assessing 1 or 3 RM for anyone.

(neat picture of Stagg Field featuring a Chicago vs Michagan home football game, turn of the century) Got my Chicago alumni mag the other day. There was a little photo collage of different student groups selling stuff to raise money. Breckenridge House was selling the following t-shirt: "That's all well and good in practice...but how does it work in theory?" Excellent. But my all-time favorite has to be the following: The University of Chicago: Hell Does Freeze Over