Two more excellent Angela Hart videos linked to from Crossfit WODs: Common Rowing Flaws and Rowing Technique Refinements. Putting your weight into it is a particularly valuable tip, I think.

If you've been thinking about cobbling together some rings, you might want to give PlaysetParts.com a look. In particular, their round trapeze rings, either in uncoated aluminum or Plastisol -coated. A few lengths of chain and a few quick-links and you're good to go.

That said, if you want to buy a set ready to go out of the box, I can't say enough good things about Ringtraining.com. Great products, great service. Their rings have a larger inner diameter (7" instead of 5") and have a thicker grip, I think.

UPDATE: Got a few, ostensibly for the kids, and they are pretty small. Keep that in mind if you have big hands.

For your viewing pleasure: 20 Nike commercials, plus one.

Podium Sports Journal looks good, and I liked the piece titled, "The Nine Mental Skills of a Successful Athlete." The thing I particularly liked was his definition of a successful athlete:

What these athletes have in common is that their sport is important to them and they're committed to being the best that they can be within the scope of their limitations - other life commitments, finances, time, and their natural ability. They set high, realistic goals for themselves and train and play hard. They are successful because they are pursuing their goals and enjoying their sport. Their sport participation enriches their lives and they believe that what they get back is worth what they put into their sport.

Jim at Beast Skills has done it again: fantastic muscle-up tutorial. Make sure you not only watch his embedded video of Andreas Aguilar at the 1991 World Professional Gymnastics Championships on the rings, make sure you watch all the way to the dismount.

• Compared with a bunch of carrots, a package of Twinkies, to take one iconic processed foodlike substance as an example, is a highly complicated, high-tech piece of manufacture, involving no fewer than 39 ingredients, many themselves elaborately manufactured, as well as the packaging and a hefty marketing budget. So how can the supermarket possibly sell a pair of these synthetic cream-filled pseudocakes for less than a bunch of roots? Michael Pollan delves into the answer and implications (sorry, this one's a couple weeks old).
• I'm a computer guy, and let's face it, most of us spend too much time at our desks. Hence, this T-Nation article: (De)-Constructing Computer Guy.
• Dusty Rhodes linked to this Mark Sisson piece, Is There Any Safe Meat?, and that started me exploring Mark's site. Lots of interesting stuff on there. For example, I had previously posted some soy links, so was interested to read Sisson's take: 10 Things to Know about Tofu. I also really appreciated this nugget from his recent wine & chocolate post: Like chocolate and coffee, wine is one of those "marginally nutritious" issues that is endlessly debatable and ultimately not a huge factor in health, in the sense that there is probably some benefit to be gained from reasonable consumption thanks to the antioxidants, but don't expect any miracles. It's important to put these sensational stories in perspective...

The folks at UltiVillage have put together a 2006 World Ultimate Club Championship trailer, which features a ton of excellent highlights (it took place in Australia, if you're wondering about that intro).

Wow, this looks like a gold mine: the Bigger Faster Stronger complete magazine archives are now available free online.

Last time I linked up some unicycling videos I had no idea who Kris Holm was. Now I do. Gave me vertigo in spots. Quite a combination of fabulous control and complete insanity.

Jason Ferruggia has been on fire lately. These three are must-reads (some profanity):

• Things That Suck
• Don't Believe Everything You Read
• The Supplement Scam

Those brought to mind another rant of his that I vaguely recalled, so hunted it down for you (and for me): Stretching The Truth.

Straight to the Bar linked up a good David Lang Parkour training video. That led me to check out Mr. Lang's YouTube favorites page, which is a gold mine of good videos. I could waste far too much time poking around those. I did catch this best of David Belle compilation, which includes some great stuff I hadn't seen before. The monkeybar work around 2:30 is terrific. I also checked out zesyo's training videos, which are also very good (particularly the first one).

Crossfit hosts two interesting rowing videos featuring Angela Hart: Tabata Wattage Rowing and Row Stroke Rating. The wattage video seemed like more of a warmup than a workout, but the stroke rating video was very illuminating. It perfectly illustrates how the problems with my times (and maybe yours) might be aided by reducing my stroke rate.