Everyone wants better glutes, whether you’re a guy or gal, athlete or non-athlete. That’s because glutes that are awesomely developed not only make your body look better, but they can also drastically improve your performance. When the glutes are strengthened and…
Muscles get all the attention.
But it’s the dense, fibrous tissue of your tendons that allow muscles to produce the powerful movements that transform your body.
The tendons must be strong enough to endure plenty of abuse because their role is to connect muscle to bone. If your tendons are weak you’ll suffer from strength loss, pain and worst of all you’ll be predisposed to a debilitating injury. It’s time to give tendons the attention they deserve.
In order to understand what can go wrong with tendons it’s important to know the key materials that form them. For the sake of this simple discussion, collagen is the essential protein that can make or potentially break your tendons. There are three primary types of collagen in the human body: type I, type II and type III.
Collagen type I and III are the key players at work in your tendons, but one of them doesn’t belong. You see, type I is the form that makes your tendons stronger and more resistant to tears. However, during the times when a tendon is chronically overstressed with excessive training the body responds by adding more type III collagen within the tendon.
What’s the problem with adding type III collagen to your tendons? It’s an elastic and weak protein that only belongs in your skin and blood vessels. Indeed, your tendons need the super strong proteins found in type I collagen to support explosive contractions.
Think of your body as a race car. If the car is out of alignment it will tear up the ball joints and tires. And if you add more horsepower and speed to the car, that destruction will get even…
Knee pain is something virtually all of us hard-training folks encounter at some point in our life. The cause of the pain can be attributed to many possible problems such as a fallen arch or weak outer hip muscles. However,…
Question: Hi Chad, I recently purchased Huge in a Hurry from Amazon, and think its a very well written book. I love the plans and how they’re laid out in the book. I’ve been strength training for a few years,…
Eric Cressey is one of the few people I keep in my circle of advisors. He’s been training, studying, lifting and writing with passion and enthusiasm that’s rare in this field. Cressey Performance is definitely a place to check out if you’re in the Massachusetts area. So if you missed part I of my interview with him, be sure to check it out here.
Now we’ll pick up the rest of his interview where Eric discusses his awesome new training manual, Show and Go, for a bigger, stronger, healthier body.
CW: I got a good laugh reading your statement in the introduction of Show and Go. You said, “This book is for people who give a sh*t.” Care to elaborate?
EC: I was actually pretty excited to be able to swear whenever I wanted; I guess that’s the beauty of self-publishing! Rather than reinvent the wheel, I’ll share a little excerpt from the text that I think will answer the question:
““…you’ll find that the tone of this manual is much less conversational and entertaining, and much more “troubleshooting” and “do this and get diesel.” Fortunately, just as you’re more tolerant to cursing, you’re also more tolerant to training programs that will challenge, educate, and motivate you to all news levels of strength, performance, and health. My feeling is that you didn’t purchase this e-book to be entertained; you purchased it to get direction and results.
This summer I decided to go on a vegetable juice fast. I’ve never done any type of fasting (unless you count the hours I’m sleeping) so I didn’t know what to expect. I always thought fasting was for emaciated hippies who weren’t tough enough to eat meat three times per day. But since my vegetable intake could use a healthy boost I gave it a trial run. You can read about my first 36 hours in part I here.
So now I’ll pick up on the night of day 2 of my vegetable juice fast. (I didn’t give you all the details of day 2 in part I.)
The first day, as mentioned, was a little rough. I was as hungry as an angry boar by mid afternoon but I stayed busy enough to fight off the hunger pangs. On day 2, my hungry was more manageable. By evening I decided it was time to replenish my muscles. I was leaner by day 2, for sure, but I felt pretty weak. So at 7pm on day 2 I did a circuit of 10 kettlebell swings, 10 clap push-ups, and 5 pull-ups for 10 rounds. I was weaker than normal but my endurance was up to par, maybe even a little higher. This was a pleasant surprise.
Vegetables are the best food on earth. A magical food group, if there ever was one. It doesn’t matter if you want to burn more fat, build muscle, or improve your overall health, consuming more vegetables on a daily basis will make a dramatic difference. How many foods can you say that about?
To stay lean and healthy, I can sum up a lifelong nutritional strategy in one sentence: consume vegetables all day long with some lean protein. Veggies reduce inflammation, fight cancer and every disease, and they’re loaded with nutrients your body needs to keep your good hormones up and bad hormones down.
But there’s a problem: I despise eating vegetables. Sure, I wave a big ol’ veggie flag because my clients’ results depend on eating plenty of them, but in my own life I’ll freely admit that my intake is woefully inadequate. So I recently took it upon myself to change my ways.
Here’s a situation I’ll bet you’ve experienced many times. You run into an old friend. That friend recently started working out again and he or she is looking more fit. So you ask your friend how things are going with…