Lean & Hungry Fitness

Nice, this fantastic catch by Andrew Fleming made SportsCenter.

I love these articles that underscore the huge gaps between pros and everyone else (and the gap between bona fide stars and workaday pros): author Nic Brown plays friend and tennis pro Tripp Phillips with the goal of winning a single point in a three-set match (well, two sets, really).

I’ve only been following the World Cup on my periphery, but after reading The Genius of Messi...

Messi simply does things — little things and big things — that other players here cannot do. He gets a ball in traffic, is surrounded by two or three defenders, and he somehow keeps the ball close even as they jostle him and kick at the ball. He takes long and hard passes up around his eyes and somehow makes the ball drop softly to his feet, like Keanu Reeves making the bullets fall in “The Matrix.” He cuts in and out of traffic — Barry Sanders only with a soccer ball moving with him — sprints through openings that seem only theoretical, races around and between defenders who really are running even if it only looks like they are standing still. He really does seem to make the ball disappear and reappear, like it’s a Vegas act.

… I had to find some video. There’s some real magic in there. The ankle-breaking direction changes look effortless, and all while controlling the ball so precisely. Really, great, even in small screen contextless clips. (via kottke)

Impressive parkour video from Damien Walters. (via conditioning research)

Great Nike commercial not made by Nike. Seeing Tiger in there is a little distracting, looks like this was made a bit before the meltdown:

(via ross)

Ross Enamait has a good post and video up demonstrating a variety of exercises you can do with a $5 pair of furniture sliders/gliders.

Amazing play by pitcher Mark Buehrle. Definitely worth sitting through the commercial MLB sticks you with at the beginning. (via kottke)

Interesting insights into why we need to dream. Get good sleep!

The Big Picture’s 2010 Winter Paralympics photos are great.

I hate burpees. Even at my fastest clip I do them pretty slowly (10 in about 25 seconds), and in no time at all I feel like quitting from exhaustion and misery. About two-and-a-half years ago I managed 100 in just under 10 minutes, and the experience so scarred me that I’ve only worked them half-heartedly and sporadically since.

So, in the spirit of working on your weaknesses, I resolved to make them a staple of my regime, and just managed to get my time back under 10:00. My approach was pretty simple: do 100 burpees every Tuesday and Thursday. For the first workout, set the Gymboss (cool, new 2009 version of an already-great timer!) to 2 minute intervals and do 10 burpees at the top of each interval, resting during the leftover time (yes, that’s a lot of rest!). Every workout, subtract 5 seconds from the intervals. So 1:55 intervals the next workout, then 1:50, etc. Once you get down to 1:00 intervals, and you do 10 at the top of each, you will get your 100 in under 10 minutes.

Here’s how it went for me (date, interval time, total time):

1/14   2:00   18:40
1/19   1:55   17:11
1/21   1:50   16:21
1/26   1:45   15:12
1/28   1:40   14:44
2/02   1:35   14:10
2/04   1:30   13:55
2/09   1:25   13:06
2/11   1:20   12:25
2/16   1:15   QUIT (pulled shoulder at 17, bailed at 50)
2/23   1:15   12:06
2/25   1:10   11:02
3/04   1:05   QUIT (chickened out at 67)
3/05   1:05   10:15 (needed revenge)
3/09   1:00   09:51

This feels pretty close to my wall. The final 30 burpees of that set were ugly, ugly, ugly. Practically staggering to my feet to manage a 1-inch jump. Ugh. But I’ll take it. Not sure what I’ll do at my next workout. Shaving off another 5 seconds each round doesn’t sound like much, but it’d actually represent improving my time by more than 8 percent!

P.S. I know 10:00 isn’t an earth-shaking time. Remember this guy, who cranks out 100 in 5:00 and change? Unreal.

My wife read an article recently that suggested, probably semi-tongue-in-cheek, that figure skating is not a sport because it is subjectively judged, and the participants wear costumes and perform to music. While I’m not a big fan of subjective judging, I think this unfairly short-changes these athletes. So, out of a great breakfast conversation with some friends, this chart was born (made with gliffy):

Notes:

• While it seems to me that there are some fat professional baseball players, none of those guys can spend all their time on the couch, and most are in great shape, so baseball is a sport.
• Perhaps golf was a game before Tiger came along and raised the bar, and now it’s a sport?
• Not sure about NASCAR or bowling. I know there are physical demands, but can you compete on the elite level without athletic training? If so, game. If not, sport. I’m not making any judgments, I just have no idea personally.

Updated, Alternate: My breakfastmates had proposed a risk clause, which I had taken out for simplicity’s sake, so if you prefer, this version puts it back in. Also, thanks to Alec for the Hemingway clause that also made it in:

Updated, Personal Version: Personally, I like the Hemingway clause but not the risk clause, so this is the version I use:

Information is Beautiful just put out a great tool, Snake Oil? The Scientific Evidence for Health Supplements. Here’s a little more about it.

This Conditioning Research handstand tutorial link brought the Bar-barians blog to my attention, which “keeps track of all of the developments in the Bodyweight Scene, with a special focus on all of the pull-up crews in NYC.” A month or two ago they posted two 2009 highlight videos, Top 10 Moves of 2009 and The Top 10 Strongest Moves of 2009, both filled with impressive feats. If you don’t feel like watching all 20 minutes (although I think it’s worth it), here are my favorite parts:

• Cleive: behind the legs clap pushups at 4:48 (1st video).
• Cruz: muscle-up hurdles at 5:33.
• Rick: slow muscle-up with obstacle at 9:16.
• HFK: 1-arm coffin at 5:35 (2nd video).

Pretty sure HFK stands for Hannibal For King, featured in this unbelievable video.

Coincidentally, if you are inspired to improve your pullups, the Jason Ferruggia post, Top 10 Ways to Improve Your Pull Ups also came across my newsreader today. Sound advice.

Love the Gorilla Productions Muhammad Ali Tribute:

(via ross)

The two most interesting training articles I’ve read in recent weeks are this one on glute training and this one on on fascia. Both well worth your time. (via mackey)

This is easily the best Ultimate Frisbee highlight reel I’ve seen, all clips collected from 2007 Nationals. (via catch)

I weaned myself off Ibuprofin as a pre-game ritual. Good thing, it turns out, as it looks like it does more harm than good.

Inhuman. Usain Bolt breaks the unbreakable record again, by a ton. 19.19 in the 200m. The gap he opens up in this race, oh my.

Here’s an HD video of Usain Bolt crushing his own world record in the 100 meters. 9.58! Tyson Gay turns in the third-fastest time in history at 9.71.

I’ve sung the praises of Tabata intervals many times, so it’s only fair that I include this interesting reality check from Lyle McDonald.