When I first started blogging over a decade ago, I recall reading a tip on one of the many blogs about how to blog that has stuck with me ever since. You have to write to someone. The best blog posts are written in a way that allows the reader to feel as if you …
The Squat
For the first time since March 6, 2020,I got under the bar and completed sets of High Bar Squats. As I mentioned in my last post about strength loss, I was most concerned about Squats and Front Squats because training those movements with body weight and resistance bands is just not the same. True enough, …
The Gish Galloper
It took me 3 days to finally decide to listen to the YouTube podcast where Dr. Eric Helms and Brad Minor, who wrote the article critically analyzing Dr. Mike Israetel's volume ramping approach to hypertrophy, faced off with Dr. Mike and his mute friend Jared Feather. I don't generally enjoy debates. I find them uncomfortable …
Where’s the Strength?
With my home gym now partially completed (I wanted to be sure the stands would support a Bench Press before I ponied up the cash for a bench), I began lifting actual weights again yesterday for the first time since March. I figured I'd start light and see where I stood in terms of strength, …
Squat Stand: The latest in living room decor
I was going to write a post yesterday about how hard it is to Squat with resistance bands. Instead, I impulsively purchased Squats Stands that were on sale at Amazon. The reason squatting with bands is so hard is that you have to put the bar on your back in a deep squat position, while …
Continue reading "Squat Stand: The latest in living room decor"
Decaffeinated me?
I sure do love caffeine. I have used it in many forms, from coffee to tablets to fancy pre-workout powders loaded with it. The problem with caffeine is that while it helps improve alertness, our bodies adapt to it rather quickly, and caffeine will then just bring us to our "normal" state of being caffeinated. …
The 5th Inning Stretch
COVID-19 has made a mockery of human life on planet Earth. A microscopic virus has shown us how fragile, unstable and ultimately tragic our attempts at stability are. Sports, especially professional sports, seems an odd place to focus our pandemic woes, but if the pandemic has shown us anything, it's that humans need distractions. Boredom …
Lean Enough
I was living in Germany in the late 1980's when Keith Richards' solo album Talk is Cheap was released. I loved it instantly and the song Big Enough would get stuck in my head for days. I'd go to the laundromat and tired of waiting for my clothes to dry, I'd start pulling them out …
Backing it Off
Sometimes I hear something or read something that clicks in my brain, making me consider something I probably should have known anyway, but since we live in our brains, justifying and rationalizing the way we think and the choices we make, it occasionally requires an outside voice to break into the inner monologue. I was …
The Elusive Perfect Split
There is no perfect exercise. The Squat is often held up as the ultimate leg developer, sometimes nicknamed the King of Exercises. It is a great lift, but it does not develop the hamstrings and one of the four quad muscles is basically asleep during the Squat as it is the only one of the …

