Just a little diversion for you: talk about awkward moments in sports!

T-Nation is running a great article, Strength Exercises That Work Your Core. Forgive their customary T&A shot (if that sort of thing bothers you); the exercises are excellent, and the embedded video demos are very helpful.

Generally I find exercise research fairly straightforward, and nutrition research a quagmire. My recent readings on soy are no exception. First, I read this T-Nation article, The Soy Conspiracy, which certainly sounds damning. It's an interview with Kaayla Daniel, author of The Whole Soy Story. But then Syd Baumel's critique of the book gave me pause. Especially since he's not one-sided, as evidenced by his piece, Should We be Scared of Soy?. I don't eat too much of it anyway, so you're on your own deciding this one. :-)

This is devolving into a link blog. That's okay though, as I feel like I've covered most of what I want to cover (check the guide and the archives). As I try new stuff I'll post it, but until then...

• Gregg's favorite exercise is one of my favorites too. The difference between us is that he uses kettlebells instead of DBs, and he includes pictures.
• There are some great ideas (and workout names) in this Crossfit thread, Hardest Metcon Workouts ("metabolic conditioning").
• With the outdoor season right around the corner here in the NE, it might be worth having a look at this article on preventing quad soreness.
• Patrick Beith: Summer Training for Speed (and Part II).
• Finally, Dispelling The Top 10 Nutrition Myths (update: this guy slams this piece; update 2: see discussion below).

Two interesting posts that might seem unrelated, but they both say the same thing: you are not stuck with the hand you're dealt. Read on:

• The Genius in All of Us has a nice post up on "the nature and nurture of muscles."
• Jason Ferruggia interviews Patrick Beith: Speed Training Secrets.

A few of the links that caught my eye recently:

• All Around Strength posts a nice collection of back exercises.
• Static stretching still has its place: Jason Ferruggia on stretching.
• It doesn't get much simpler, and I bet it works: simplefit.org.

About a week ago I whined about being in a rut, and I received some nice supportive messages in response. The first one was from Dusty Rhodes, and suggested (among other things) doing a few workouts with a training partner. I figured I'd take his advice today, without letting my complete and utter lack of a training partner stop me. So I piggy-backed on today's Pike Workout (click through for exercise descriptions in the comments):

This was a challenge. The idea is to do it as quickly as you can:

Get a Deck of Cards.

Shuffle them.

Spades: Burpees
Clubs: Mahlers
Hearts: Pushups
Diamonds: Squats

2-9 = Face Value
10-K = 10
A = 15

Go through as quickly as you can and keep time. My time was 28:09.

So that gave me something to shoot for, but I fell short, finishing in 30:09, and I took advantage of the optional Mahler substitution (two-count Mountain Climbers), which has gotta be miles easier (or at least tons faster). Dang. Overshooting 30:00 by a mere nine seconds particularly rankles. Surely I could have gutted out another ten seconds somewhere in there?! Still, the training partner who had no idea he was my training partner certainly helped me push myself. With about a quarter of the deck to go I really wanted to quit, but since I swore to myself I'd post the results I couldn't bear the thought of reporting "failed to finish."

Very interesting interview with Eric Cressey all about deadlifting. The whole thing is good, but in particular read his response to the question, "what are the unique benefits of deadlifting?" Here is the first of the 10 points he makes in response:

First, I'd say that (along with box squats) it's the single-most effective movement for training the posterior chain (glutes, hamstrings, adductor magnus, and lumbar erectors). The posterior chain is of paramount importance to high-level performance; watch the best sprinters run, and you'll see that they seem to just "float"—and it's because they're running with their hamstrings and glutes. In contrast, watch a guy who runs with his quads, and you'll see that his hips are bouncing up and down; there's a lot of wasted movement. The glutes and hamstrings are all fast-twitch fibers with a lot of strength, speed, and size potential—potential you'll never realize without deadlift variations.

Suddenly juggling is popping up the fitness weblogs I frequent. First I noticed Ross Enamait posted a piece, Juggle Your Way To Improved Performance, and then Straight to the Bar posted a link to the YouTube of juggling sites, JuggleTube. They have a terrific old video of Francis Brunn on the Jack Benny show. I then searched for a Kris Kremo performance I'd seen before, but they didn't have it. Good ol' YouTube to the rescue!

I really need to do more with this weblog than repost the Crossfit WOD when it looks like a particularly good one, but until then, today's looks great:

Five rounds for time of:

• 45 pound barbell Overhead walking lunges, 50 feet
• 21 Burpees

The guy leading in the video knocks it out in 9:10 (which, incidentally, beats my time for just the burpee portion). Monstrous.

What can you do against a guy who makes shots like this? Not much, I guess. Roger Federer is the athlete I'd most like to see live, and I have no particular love for tennis over any other sport. (via kk)

Update: I just got an e-mail with a link to a Federer between-the-legs winner.

A few days ago a fellow named Dusty Rhodes posted some advice on my Jumping Out of a Rut post. Today I happened to notice another comment by him on a different Ultimate weblog, and I followed that back to his weblog, which is excellent. My only excuse for missing it to date is that it's not on Ultimate Talk, as far as I know. It's enjoyable to read, and he seems to track many of the same sources I do (and, as a bonus, he's posting more regularly than I've been lately). He's even a fellow Never Gymless fan. And here I thought (self-centeredly) that I was pretty much the only Ultimate player to have discovered Ross Enamait and his books!