Another great week here on Straight to the Bar. The highlights :

Via Balance Board Blog : for anyone with no - or limited - use of their legs, this is a very promising series of experiments : use of the Wii's Balance Board whilst seated. Good stuff.

Got children? Head over to Steve Maxwell's site and find out how to encourage strength-training right from the start. A great read.

Logan looks at an interesting way to begin your kb juggling routine - the Foot Flip. Good fun.

When I think of strength and someone who is fit I do not think of someone who goes out and runs long distances. Now that may be a matter of opinion, but surely I am not alone in this thinking. Where people got the idea that running for long distances is actually good for the body I have no idea. Pheidippides, the first person to run the distance of a marathon after the "Battle of Marathon", actually fell dead after proclaiming victory to his fellow Athenians. There are no other living creatures that regularly jog. If you observe dogs, for instance, when they exercise it is only for brief bursts of intense and fairly short runs. This is the same when small children get together and play in a friendly game of "tag". They run around as fast as they can until they can't run anymore and then stop and rest. Most children are in great shape and they don't jog at all. Around the world you can witness most every native tribe practicing the same. They don't jog around the Amazon or in the bush of Australia, but instead most of the time you will see them walking to where they need to go. When it becomes necessary, for various reasons such as hunting, they will go to maximum exertion for only short periods of time. This seems to be the natural way to exist, exercise, and how every creature that plays does it.

Now of course there are always the exceptions to the rule such as wolves, hyenas, and other wild dogs which are often noted for their great endurance by trotting country sides for hours on end. As for humans, there are many anecdotal stories of African and Native American hunters running down their prey, but again this is not a routine matter as it is with traditional aerobic jogging or any other traditional aerobic fitness forum.

While humans cannot out sprint many animals we can do surprisingly well in endurance running contests. Another great exception to the endurance running rule is the Tarahumara people from the Sierra Madre Occidental in Mexico. They originally began distance running in order to communicate from village to village, but then turned it into competition forming a "foot throwing" sport similar to soccer over long distances.

For every good study that comes out about jogging there will always be a negative one. I am not in full support of distance running in any sense, but only in the times where it may be necessary in life to survive. Looking at it from a hormonal perspective long distance jogging does indeed produce large amounts of cortisol in relation to growth hormone and testosterone. The best exercise to deliver the most "bang for your buck" is increased intense, but brief (15- 45 minutes total), amounts of sprinting variations which use the whole body as opposed to just the legs. Sprinting, Kettlebells, pushups, pull-ups, clean and presses, intense yoga, etc. are all much better then jogging. Essentially sticking to the basic human movements and then simply adding weight will provide the absolute best long-term results packed environment. Not only will you add muscle to your body, but you will get the look of a sprinter, professional dancer or a completive fighter as opposed to a jogger or marathon runner. Personally I like the look of the former a lot better. Not only that, but many studies have shown that high intensity workouts yield much bigger, stronger hearts, lungs and dramatically increase overall physical capacity than compared to that of long distance counterparts. This type of training will enable and empower you to survive critical situations where overall physical fitness is not just needed, but in many cases vital.

I enjoy reading about some of our modern day warriors and even some of centuries old that didn't really battle in wars per se, but instead in the competition arena such as Milo of Croton.

Love it.

Video

90 Degree Push-up progression. Good stuff.

Site

When it comes to strength training, the Getstrength guys certainly know their stuff. Their articles, blog posts and newsletters are all excellent reads; but the best place to start may be their video collection. Some very interesting exercise variations there.

If you'd like to recommend a site or event to us, send us an email.

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Via Fight Geek : think dips are just an optional extra? Take a look at this.

Via Recreate Fitness : air time.

Kenneth Jay takes a look at two oft-confused terms as they apply to kettlebell training : tempo and speed. Nice one.