Well 2008 came and went. Did you achieve your goals for 2008? Did you lose the fat you needed to lose or gain the muscle mass and strength you had hoped for?

For some reason I always seem to end up writing articles about contaminants found in various supplements we ingest, in particular creatine, but there have been others. First I wrote “What’s in your creatine?” which exposed the fact not all creatine supplement are created equal. That article single handedly changed the creatine market at the time. I followed that up with “What’s in your supplements” which was really just a continuation of the first article, with additional testing and comments. I’m calling this one, “What’s in your water?!” for lack of a better title.

I have always been conscious of the potential impurities in drinking water. My town sends out a yearly report on water quality, and has always been well below EPA limits on the chemicals they test for. Regardless, I have always used a water filter to filter my drinking water. (1)

Coaches often discuss the optimal rest intervals between sets for various training objectives. One common “rule of thumb” is that for maximal strength you want “complete” rests, and for hypertrophy you need “incomplete” rests between sets.

GH therapy and possible applications to connective tissue/joint degeneration in active populations.

A common issue for athletes and other active populations (e.g. SWAT, SOF, etc.) is joint and connective tissue pain with various causes and diagnosis such as tendonitis, bursitis, cartilage degeneration, to name a few.

The use of various anti-inflammatory drugs, as well as nutritional supplements (e.g., Glucosamine, fish oils, etc,), and other therapeutic modalities are of value, but are far from a cure at this point.

A topic I have been researching for some time is the use of GH and other growth factors as a possible treatment for joint/connective tissue degeneration.

The causes of joint pain are multi factorial, but in active populations are often training related: over training, lack of proper warm up, loading and exercise choices, and other variables.

That’s the first place people should look when having chronic joint issues, but not everyone has a choice in the matter as to how much exercise they do and or the types of exercise they perform; various athletes, special operations soldiers, SWAT operators, etc.

Acute, catastrophic injuries resulting from weight training are thankfully, rare. For those of us with chronic, painful, “non-descript” injuries however, that fact is less than comforting. There’s nothing more frustrating than that all-too-familiar “it doesn’t hurt until I lift” pain.

Sometimes, these injuries take the form of chronic inflammatory problems such as medialepichondialitis (tennis elbow), a shoulder that clicks, low back spasm, heel pain, the list goes on and on. Often, these injuries are unnoticed during normal day to day activities, but as soon as you try to run or lift, or anything else, there it is again. This leads to the observation that weight training doesn’t cause injuries, it reveals them.

In this post I’m going to outline a training method that, more times than not, will allow you to re-establish your training without flaring up those injuries. I call it the “boil the frog” method. But first, let’s look at a few things you really should consider if the opening paragraphs of this post sound like you…

The Science of Pre, During, and Post Workout Nutrition

The issue of post and pre workout nutrition, or “nutrient timing” is a never ending discussion among dedicated athletes and weekend warriors. The International Society of Sports Nutrition (ISSN) has recently put out a position paper on the issue of nutrient timing. This paper is a must read for those who want the latest science on the issue. Abstract follows with link to full paper:

Review

International Society of Sports Nutrition position stand: Nutrient timing

My own TV show on The Science Channel? Nope, but I just about spit my protein drink out my nose when I saw the new show on The Science Channel called Brink. It’s a science based show -which is fitting to the name at least- with topics like: Be on the Brink, To Brink or not to Brink, This week on Brink, and all manner of Brink/science related stuff. If they start a section called Brink Zone, I may need to speak with my lawyer! Funny stuff, and actually a good show, though I may be biased…check it out:

BRINK

It could be worse I suppose, could be some horrible gossip show or a fan show dedicated to Celine Dion fans or something…

It’s recently dawned on me that if you follow my training recommendations, you’ll be essentially training like an Olympic weightlifter, although you may not actually be doing the O-lifts themselves. The salient points of such an approach include:

Process Training Vs. End Point Training
By Will Brink

The title of this blog is not actually a type of training, but a personality type. People who train only to achieve an endpoint I refer to as “Endpoint Trainers” and those who integrate and internalize the process of training into their life, I call Process Trainers. The endpoint Trainer is always focused on the endpoint, and views the process of training as just a means to an end to achieve that end point/goal.

Perfect example of that is the person who is training to hit a specific goal of losing 30lbs, and once they achieve that goal, stop training. People who enter a weight loss contest at work or at the gym, achieve that goal, then stop exercising. This phenomena is not limited to weight loss by any means. We see it a lot with high level athletes at the college and professional levels. Once they stop playing the sport, they stop exercising altogether. I have seen this way too many times to count.

If you’re a competitive lifter, your “core” lifts are your actual competitive lifts (clean & jerk and snatch for O-lifters and squat, bench, and deadlift for powerlifters).

Historically, most lifters have tended to go intense & heavy on the core lifts, and then a bit lighter on the assistance lifts. In recent years, powerlifting maverick Louie Simmons turned the traditional paradigm upside down: his Westside charges go moderate and fast on the core lifts, and then get down to business, going super-heavy on the assistance lifts.

Here’s why this approach CAN work very well, especially for experienced lifters: