This is perhaps an odd collection of links, but they all relate (to varying degrees) to the pursuit of excellence, and how it develops in the brain. Basically, it takes lots of work and lots of time. There are no shortcuts.

• The Genius in All of Us: The Myelin in All of Us.
• The Genius in All of Us: Savants and Us
• New York Times: How to Grow a Super-Athlete.

I can't really tie this John Berardi post on chocolate into the overall theme of this post, but what the heck. I like chocolate, and that Domori brand sounds awesome.

I seem to be stuck in a pretty deep rut at the moment. Training, parenting, pet projects, work, you name it. But for our purposes we'll stick to training. I think my big three obstacles are:

1. Winter sucks. My basement, pretty dismal under the best of circumstances, truly starts looking like a prison by February.
2. Big (but largely good) changes in my schedule from last winter have left me without a regular workout time, and the times left to me are often abbreviated or during times where my body really doesn't want to do it. So I might have a choice of doing a 15-minute blitz midday (we don't need no stinkin' warmup) or a longer workout late at night when I really should be sleeping. The lack of routine is proving to be very difficult to deal with.
3. Motivation. I'm sure the schedule feeds into this, but ouch, even when I'm feeling gung-ho it takes a strong amount of will power to force myself to hit the intensities I'm aiming for, and when my heads not in it, it puts a big crimp in the quality of my workout.

Anyway, enough whining. Open question: How do you folks deal with your training ruts?

Here's a workout I tried tonight, trying to address my detrained state, and trying to build a warmup right into the workout to get my thick, syrupy, late-night blood flowing:

• Minute 1: 1 burpee.
• Minute 2: 2 burpees.
• Minute 3: 3 burpees.
• etc.
• Minute 10: 10 burpees.
• Minute 11: 10 burpees.
• Minute 12: 10 burpees.
• Minute 13: 10 burpees.
• Minute 14: 10 burpees.
• Minute 15: 10 burpees.

I bumped minutes 11-15 up to 75 seconds (told you I was detrained), and did lots of "just 3 more rounds and you can quit without hating yourself, you #$%@&$" self-flagellation to get through it. I hope this marks the beginning of a turnaround. After a couple months of just going through the motions, I'm due.

Two videos:

• Badminton is fantastic, especially when you play like this. This spring I'll have to share my badminton setup with you.
• Check out the prodigious effort in the wallball video attached to this Crossfit WOD. I do believe I'd throw up a lung.

"Janda situps" are supposed to be an excellent exercise, and super-hard. Lots of folks say you shouldn't be surprised if you can't even do one. They work by taking your hip flexors out of the equation via reciprocal inhibition (i.e. you tense the glutes and hamstrings and your hip flexors automatically relax). There are lots of Janda situp descriptions out there, and the evil Russian even sells a $150 machine so you can do them unassisted.

Of coursre, I figured, "who needs a machine?" So I anchored one of my Iron Woody bands, put my legs through it, and slid back until the thing was pulling mightily on my calves. I had my legs at 90 degrees, feet flat on the floor, and the band pulling hard enough that I had to resist pretty strongly to keep my legs in place. I did the situps, and didn't have too much trouble doing 4 sets of 10. I mean, 10 isn't a lot of situps, but based on descriptions I figure I'm either [A] Superman, or [B] doing them wrong. Given I still haven't mastered the flag, the standing rollout, or the front lever, I think we can rule out [A] (I'd like to cut myself some slack because I'm 6'4", but really I'm only in the ballpark of the flag, and I'm nowhere close to the rollout or the front lever).

Anyway, anybody have pointers for me? Perhaps I need to anchor the band higher such that it's also trying to pull my calves off the ground in addition to pulling them away from my butt?

T-Nation is running an excellent article by Christian Thibaudeau titled, The Training Strategy Handbook. It lays out the major set/rep schemes with pros, cons, and applications of each depending on your situation.

I'm behind on this, but it's a long article and I wanted to read it first before posting. If you haven't checked it out already, Michael Pollan's article, Unhappy Meals, is a must-read. Fascinating and engaging. I may have to check out The Omnivore's Dilemma.

• An interview with Oscar Pistorius. An inspiring athlete, unfortunately mired in controversy (some say his prosthetic legs give him an unfair advantage).
• Check out the "Knees to Elbows" video linked to from this CrossFit WOD.
• Interesting training article on preparing for The Secret Service Snatch Test.
• Chad Waterbury's article on his Full Throttle Program ("Simple Methods to Develop Fighting Endurance") was a good read. I bet that's an excellent conditioning regimen.

Skwigg's "Tidbits" post is excellent (best wishes to her in recovering from her knee injury), and Jim at Beast Skills recently posted this enjoyable interview with Jack Arnow.

NSCA's Performance Training Journal quickly summarizes yet another study demonstrating that you get more bang for your buck doing intense intervals rather than traditional endurance training:

The sprint training group performed four to six all out maximal (~700 w) 30 second sprints separated by four minutes of recovery. The traditional endurance training group performed continuous exercise for 90 - 120 minutes at an intensity of 65% of maximal aerobic capacity or a power output of 175 W.

You can click through for the results, but I've already told you which one comes out on top. As a bonus, you don't compromise your speed and power training by eschewing the long slow stuff. And you save time:

When comparing the time commitment of the two protocols the sprint training required 2.5 hours while the traditional endurance training program required 10.5 hours.

A quick Google Scholar search turns up a bunch of similar-looking studies (which I have not read).

Even if you don't do the WOD, it's worth keeping an eye on the Crossfit home page. Lately they've been posting tons of good videos. Here's a few of the more recent ones (after you click through you can pick WMV or MOV formats): Deadlifts, Towel Pull-ups, and Thrusters.

• I enjoyed Keith Scott's simple explanation of the hows and whys of foam rolling. Then I noticed his blog is good across the board. « via Joachim Bartoll »
• From "The Genius in All of Us": How Beckham Bends It. Be sure to check out the highlight reel he links to.
• Two videos: an impressive jump, and the Crossfit women display impressive Tabata squat prowess (you'll have to click through to the video).

Always looking for new things to try with my rings. I think I'll add scarecrows into the mix. « via Straight to the Bar »