[caption id="attachment_12993" align="alignright" width="199" caption="Mmm...chicken! Wait, what's this?"][/caption]

I have a lot of backlogged news stories to share, so today, I’m going to throw a few at you with a few comments (any bolding in quotes is mine). Some of these are pretty old, but no less pertinent. Feel free to leave your thoughts in the comments!

I’ve mainly provided links that deal with fast foods or fake foods, along with a little dig at soy because we can never take too many shots at that food.

More Fake Soy Foods

Raise your hand if this scares you: It looks, feels and tastes like chicken, but it’s made of soy *raises hand* The fact that anyone could think a food product made like this could confer any health benefits is laughable.
Hsieh has developed a process that makes the soy product simulate the fibrous qualities of a chicken breast.
….
To create the soy chicken, Hsieh starts with a soy protein extracted from soy flour. The soy then goes through an extrusion cooking process that uses water, heat and pressure while pushing the mixture through a cylinder …

March 11, 2010 | 14 Comments

A few weeks ago in my overview post on sprint training, I promised an overview of some training periodization theory. There seemed to be a good deal of interest in the topic, so here we go. Lucky for those of you that couldn’t give a hoot about sprinting, the same theories apply to any other real sport.

Training Periodization

So what is periodization? Basically, it’s just setting up a progressive cycle to improve specific skills and hit peak performance at the right time. Every athlete knows that you can’t be at your best every day.

Contrary to what some people and fitness programs would have you believe, you cannot set new PRs every workout or competition. Perhaps initially, when you’re still not very good at what you’re doing, but eventually you’re going to hit a point where you can’t peak on a daily basis. To try will lead to inevitable overtraining and burnout.

So you have to break the year down into segments and pick a few events each year that you want to be at your best.

Structuring The Year (Macrocycle)

The macrocycle is typically a one-year …

March 8, 2010 | 11 Comments

Editor’s Note: This article was originally published in 2008. Part of our “Best of the past” series time to time will include reviewing and updating some of our top old posts for everyone to re-read (or read for the first time in many cases). Enjoy!

I was riding my mountain bike yesterday and all of the sudden it just came to me. I just started thinking about how many things I’ve learned through my own personal working out (since I was a kid and playing competitive sports) as well as being a trainer (since 1998). So today I just wanted to share some of the things this 36yr old has personally learned about all things health and fitness….in no certain order….

Pushups are the best upper body workout designed….no machine can replace that…you don’t need any equipment and you can do them anywhere.
It’s easy to become a certified trainer (as I have seen overweight people become certified)….it’s not easy to work as one full time (hence a high turnover rate in many clubs)
Diet is 85% of where results come from…..for muscle and fat loss. Many don’t focus here enough.
Working out too much doesn’t lead to good results….hence most people are still struggling …

March 1, 2010 | 88 Comments

Editor’s Note: This is a guest post by JC of JCD Fitness.

When discussing eating habits, especially within the fitness population, the subject is often a very touchy one.  To many, eating is much more than some task we must perform in order to survive and merely function, while for a select few, it’s nothing more than simply supplying energy needs.

For those of you who’ve no idea who I am, when I first discovered this health and fitness stuff, I was a mess.  I followed all the old school dogma of eating clean and very frequently (often 6-8 meals per day).  I was obsessed with every minute detail about eating healthy but I was completely missing the forest for the trees.  After months of following strict, rigorous diet guidelines, I would go on week-long binges only to feel like a complete failure afterward.  Needless to say, I was tired of the everlasting cycle, so I sought answers.  I found my cure in the form of Intermittent Fasting (IF).

Nowadays, I am not too concerned with my food choices as long as they fit in with my current training and aesthetic …

February 25, 2010 | 39 Comments