Life

Unconstrained Cover Reveal

Hey everyone. I've been quietly plugging away at the new book, which is why you haven't heard from me in a while. Writing is going well, and I hope to have the new book out to beta readers

The plan for 2024

Happy New Year, everyone! Hope the end to the holiday season was just as fun as the beginning. Like most of you, I'm getting back into my routine, and I wanted to give you guys an idea of w

Hey, militant Liberals….can it.

So, most everyone who knows me personally puts me squarely in the ‘Liberal’ camp, though I don’t really identify with any specific ideology. I basically believe that you should be able to do whatever

Perspective is interesting

I was reflecting tonight… When I was 18 years old, I was working at Metal Forge in Albemarle, NC. It was 1993, and this was a good job. I made auto parts for the Ford Taurus, on a special line that wa

Best Housewarming Gift EVER

Been quite some time since the last post, mostly because life has been a mess. Since my last post, I joined an Improv comedy class and had my first show (a warm hi to all my fellow improvers at Bay Ar

A FB friend asked me to read one of Food Babe's posts before discounting her–This is the result

In a conversation on Facebook, I was asked to read a post or two from Food Babe before categorically dismissing her. Since I’ve only really read snippets here and there before, I decided to drop my de

T-Mobile vs. AT&T–A Cross-Country Comparison

So, in our cross-country trip, one of the things we did while resting in NC was switch phone carriers, from AT&T to T-Mobile. My reasons for doing this were quite simple, and come down to a combin

Lessons Learned–Driving Cross-Country

Well, this has taken a good bit longer than I expected, but here it is none-the-less: A list of the various things I learned from driving cross-country twice. In no particular order, here goes: I have

A Few Words on Political Correctness

Earlier today, I saw something posted on Facebook that got me thinking. It was this image , and it’s definitely worth checking out. I have a few different thoughts on this subject, but more importantl

The Truth about your contribution to Climate Change

I've got something that bugs me literally every time I see a post idolizing Elon Musk for doing something green or praising some idiotic law, and it’s simply this: 98% of all of this effort is f

Chasing the Sun–East to West Cross-Country Road Trip, Day 8

We got an early start on our last day, leaving the hotel in Vegas at 8:30 AM. Our first stop of the morning was Bonanza Gifts , which is the world’s largest gift shop. We stopped by here partially bec

Chasing the Sun–East to West Cross-Country Road Trip, Day 7

We got out of the hotel this morning at 9:30 AM, and our first order of business was to give the car a bath. This actually took a good bit longer than I expected, and we didn't actually get to l

Chasing the Sun–East to West Cross-Country Road Trip, Day 6

Well, we woke up late this morning and didn't get out of the hotel until 10:30 AM. Because of our late departure we went ahead and ate lunch before leaving Denver. We stopped at The Grubbery , a

Chasing the Sun–East to West Cross-Country Road Trip, Day 5

Today went a little differently than planned, but that’s probably for the best. Last night, technical difficulties with my host prevented me from publishing yesterday’s update on schedule, and kept me

Chasing the Sun–East to West Cross-Country Road Trip, Day 4

Got out of the hotel at about 9:30 this morning and back tracked a little to hit a spot that was closed yesterday: The J.M Davis Arms and Historical Museum. This place has to have the largest collecti

Daily post delayed

Sorry all, but the post today will be delayed until at least tomorrow due to technical difficulties with my host, Site5. I will get it up as soon as possible. Unfortunately, since I was up way too lat

Chasing the Sun–East to West Cross-Country Road Trip, Day 3

We got up a little after 8 AM this morning, and headed out of Memphis on our way to Oklahoma City. We knew we were going to have a full day of driving ahead, so we planned to skip lunch and basically

Chasing the Sun–East to West Cross-Country Road Trip, Day 2

We started out the day by waking up at 8AM. This wasn't by choice; for some reason we have had the horrible luck of picking hotels on first night of both journeys that have inadequate AC systems

Chasing the Sun–East to West Cross-Country Road Trip, Day 1

Today was the first day out on the trip back. After some debating we decided on the route I originally plotted for the return trip due to it being shorter, theoretically allowing us to stop and enjoy

West to East Cross-Country Trip, Day 8

Well, today was kind of bitter-sweet, as it marks the end of our west-to-east journey, but it is the beginning of a week spent with family and friends, some of whom we haven’t seen in years. We starte

West to East Cross-Country Trip–Day 7

We left this morning at 9:30AM and headed north to our only stop for today in Savannah, Ga. There, after about 20 minutes of cussing the senseless one-way streets, we finally arrived at the Georgia St

West to East Cross-Country Trip–Day 6

Tonight’s post will be a bit short, because while we had a great day, we didn’t really visit any scenic locations for photos. Instead, we spent the early morning recovering from last night’s festiviti

West to East Cross-Country Trip – Day 5

We left out this morning of 8:45 AM and headed south to Alexandria, LA. There we stopped in at Silver Dollar Pawn , home of the Cajun Pawn Stars . We did not get to meet any of the stars but we did se

West to East Cross-Country Trip–Day 4

We woke up a little after 7 AM, and were out the door and on the road by 8:45. We only made a little over 300 miles yesterday so the real goal today was to make up some distance. For that reason there

West to East Cross-Country Trip–Day 3

Well, last night went better than the night before. I didn't get in the bed until 2 AM, but once I got to sleep I managed to get about 4 hours of sleep before I had to get up. We still got out o

West to East Cross-Country Trip – Day 2

Today was a bit more difficult than yesterday for a lot of reasons. For starters, lack of sleep was a big problem. I didn’t get to bed last night until 1 AM, and due to the poor AC in the room that le

West to East Cross-Country Trip – Day 1

Well today went well, though a bit more hectically than we planned due to a brain-fart on my part (but I’ll get to that). We began well, Beth had the majority of things packed last night, so I just lo

Program Review–Boss Barbell Strength Method (on a cut)

Hot on the heels of my last review , I thought I would go ahead a review this program, since I’ve now run it for two mesocycles. For those of you who haven’t heard of it, Boss Barbell Strength method

Cross-country GT500 road trip is on the way

It’s official: Everything is in place, and in a little less than a week, the wife and I will begin on a ~4200 mile trip from Gilroy, CA to Stanfield, NC over the course of a week. We’ll spend a week v

Program Review–Doggcrapp Training

This is a long time coming, but I wasn’t in a place to write about it until now, so here goes. Last year for almost the entire year I ran DC full time. I was coming back from an injury, and I decided

Two Training Vids

Two new vids today. One is a form check for my first set of 435×6 this morning, which also happens to be a 6RM PR. And the second is an oldie but goody of me benching 340 for 5 back in February o

A Cure for Gout

Well, first things first, the title is admittedly a bit sensationalized, but I believe it’s largely justified. ‘Cure’ might be too strong of a word from a scientific perspective, but it’s largely an a

The 2014 Shelby GT500–A Review

As some of you may know, back in March I traded my 2012 GT500 in on a 2014 GT500. I’ve now had the car for a little over two months, and put about 4,000 miles on it (including a trip to the track), so

Mapex MyDentity 6-piece Shell Pack Review–With Sound Clips

For a few years now, I’ve been back into drumming pretty regularly, and have been getting by with a modestly upgraded old Tama Rockstar DX kit. While I really liked the look of the old Tama power toms

Site Migrated (Finally!)

Well, at long last, I've finally migrated my site from Blogger to WordPress. I'm still working on a few technicalities, but it should mostly be working at this point. If you notice any iss

High-Protein Deserts

Over the holidays, my wife was kind enough to experiment with some high-protein deserts so I could get my sweets fix while keeping a reasonable protein intake. A couple of these were excellent, and de

Great Article on Pain

This is especially interesting for those of you with chronic pain, but it’s applicable to everyone. Regardless, this is the best article I’ve read to date on the new findings in regards to pain resear

And Now For Some Unique Christmas Songs…

Here’s a selection of Christmas songs that have caught my ear over the years. A few are old standards, just reworked in a very unique way, and others are originals. All are worth a listen, though some

High-Protein Slow-Cooker Recipes

Thanks to Jaime Lewis’ excellent ‘Stew-Roids’ series (link is NSFW), I have spent the last six months or so eating and experimenting with high-protein stew-like recipes. In general, I’ve found that I

A Christmas Cover

I don’t often do covers, and I even less often do Christmas tunes. However, about 10 years ago, I was feeling particularly Christmas-y and decided to rework a Christmas tune. Unfortunately, I didn’t g

A Very Interesting Musical Take on Bambi

Yes, that Bambi. This is the audio of a Spastic Ink song called ‘A Wild Hare’, synced to the Disney movie Bambi. Ron Jarzombek wrote the song as a musical recreation of this scene, and it is really co

Second Trip to the Track with the GT500

Well, my first trip to the track with the GT500 was pretty much a bust. I couldn't get out of the 13's, and only got three runs in total. For the second trip, instead of going to Infineon

Five Great Hair-Metal Songs You Probably Missed

Well, my obsessive listening habits have brought me around to hair metal from time to time (I am a child of the 80’s, after all), and it still shocks me how many obscure gems are out there to discover

Pure Alaska Salmon Review

As I’ll detail in an upcoming post (once I’m sure the dietary protocols are repeatable), I’ve been experimenting with Protein Sparing Modified Fasts (PSMF) in an effort to cut the most fat in the shor

Wisdom from a Master

This week, I got the opportunity to get a training session from the current all-federation raw World Record holder in the 242lb weight class, Dan Green . The session was hugely enlightening, and after

The reports of my death have been greatly exaggerated…

For those of you still checking in, you'll note I haven't posted anything significant on the fitness side since March 5th , over five months ago now (yikes)! As I've eluded to in the

Finally ‘completed’ a new song…

I say completed in quotes because art is never really done, you just get tired of working on it at some point. Anyhow, this track is a song that my youngest son was doodling on one day that really ins

Three Simple Rules of "Sensible Supplementation"

As is typical of Suppversity, this is an excellent writeup on how to evaluate supplements. Combine this philosophy with the info on examine.com , and you have a winning strategy. Three Simple Rules of

Full ROM = More Growth, More Strength, More Structural Changes & More Sustainable Gains & Fat Loss – Insights from Realistic 8 Weeks Leg Training + 4 Weeks Detraining – SuppVersity: Nutrition and Exercise Science for Everyone

This is an excellent review by SuppVersity of a study on squat depth which basically agrees with what I said back here : Squatting deeper allows you to get the same stimulus with less weight (or great

(Bi)Weekly Science Roundup

Scientists eradicate lung cancer in mice by inhibiting a protein Skin cells from a primate used to create new brain cells Extinct frog from revived from DNA Possible way to slow down aging: SIRT1 acti

Site Outage

Under the subheading of ‘Why is this hard?’, I decided to transfer my domain to a new registrar, going from SOPA-loving, outage-prone Godaddy to what seemed to be highly rated (and much cheaper) 1…

Study: Fish Oil increases lean mass, reduces fat mass and Cortisol

Effects of supplemental fish oil on resting metabolic rate, body composition, and salivary cortisol in healthy adults This is a controlled study where one group was fed Safflower Oil and the other Fis

Tapped: A documentary about water that’s worth watching

A while back I watched Tapped , which is a documentary detailing the regulations that are enforced upon municipal tap water and, conversely, the complete lack of regulations surrounding bottled water.

(Bi)Weekly Science Roundup

Until my work life calms down a bit, I think bi-weekly posts are going to have to suffice. Here’s what I found interesting over the last few weeks: Scientists create chips that automatically and grace

Guest Post: The Benefits of Exercising During Cancer Treatment

Today I have a special guest post from Melanie Bowen , who is an Awareness Advocate for Cancer treatments at mesothelioma.com . Melanie’s message urging cancer patients to exercise in order to improve

Can CrossFit improve aerobic fitness and body composition?–Strength and Conditioning Research

This is an excellent study on CrossFit. The only thing I really dislike about it is that they confounded the results by switching the subjects diets prior to beginning the study. Otherwise, the method

Addressing the Elephant in the Room – Pt. 2: The Elephant’s Shadow

In Part 1 of this little series, I addressed a contentious bit of speculation regarding my own personal use of steroids and what benefits TRT doses of Testosterone may or may not have had on my progre

(Bi)Weekly Science Roundup

Well, I slipped a little with this one, as work has gotten a little crazy and my free time has been sorely impacted. However, here’s some of the science news that I was able to read this past week: Ca

Weekly Science Roundup

This week’s roundup is pretty full, lots of interesting developments: Nanoparticles that look like cells help Nano machines evade the immune system Transparent transistors, printed on paper; May allow

Addressing the Elephant in the Room – Pt. 1: The Elephant Itself

In a number of places, I’ve seen people who are dismissive of someone’s progress (including my own) or minimize it with statements like ‘ Dat dere CellTech ’, which is really just a euphemism for ‘He’

The Power of Negative Thinking

This is a very strong confirmation of the last few paragraphs of my article on Willpower , and an excellent article discussing the science behind daydreaming about the ‘negative’ aspects of goal setti

Weekly Roundup of Scientific Progress

This week begins what will hopefully be a weekly roundup of links to articles and studies showing off some of the amazing discoveries that pop up. I find it disturbing that while most of the mainstrea

There’s No Such Thing as Everlasting Love (According to Science)

This is a great article that I think a lot of folk should read, and one of the reasons I have stated many times that romance novels and movies paint an unrealistic and ultimately unattainable view of

More Data is Always Positive

Something that I’ve seen over and over throughout the last few years in the realm of weight loss is the advice to only weigh yourself at long intervals, typically once a week, so I wanted to take the

“Happy Holidays, now buy my fitness/nutrition book”

If you follow any fitness or nutrition blogs, you’ve probably seen this kind of message posted. You may have even been unlucky enough to get an email or twelve from some fitness person hawking whateve

PLoS ONE: Hunter-Gatherer Energetics and Human Obesity

This is a pretty good study that should put the nail in the coffin for the theory that paleo man burned more calories purely due to cultural necessity. PLoS ONE: Hunter-Gatherer Energetics and Human O

Evidence-Based Fitness: How many sprinters does it take to change a lightbulb, or what about important but not significant?

This is an excellent article about the difference between 'statistically significant' and 'important' that a whole lot of scientists should read. Evidence-Based Fitness: How ma

Lessons Learned: TRT

NOTE: What follows is not medical advice and should not be construed as such. Speak to your doctor before acting on anything you read in this blog. The author is not responsible for any damage resulti

Have Some Standards!! « Bodyweight Strength Training « Beast Skills

Excellent article on why you need to hold yourself to correct form and depth standards while lifting. Have Some Standards!! « Bodyweight Strength Training « Beast Skills

Skeletal Muscle Protein Metabolism and Resistance Exercise

This is an excellent study showing the benefits of BCAA supplementation, especially for those of us who train fasted. Includes some surprising conclusions, like BCAA supplementation alone (without exe

Q&A: Diet–Pt. 2

NOTE: This is part of a running series of Question and Answer posts answering questions from readers and redditors . Q: I know that I need to eat with a calorie deficit in mind, but how many calories

Q&A: Diet–Pt. 1

NOTE: This is part of a running series of Question and Answer posts answering questions from readers and redditors . Q: I know the purpose of a 'cut' is to increase one's muscle defi

Q&A–Body fat related questions

I wanted to post up some of the questions I’ve gotten from time to time from folk regarding training and diet in the hopes that it helps other folk who are still finding their way. This will be the fi

Want to know what’s wrong with education?

Some of you are aware that my career (and a large part of my expertise) is currently focused on perfecting education, however I almost never write about it in my blog, or discuss it in normal conversa

Pain Is In Your Brain | Exercise Biology

Pain Is In Your Brain | Exercise Biology This is a pretty interesting article and video discussing the sources of pain, which is something I’ve become intensely interested in since I’ve come to the co

Are Deep Squats Bad for your Knees? | Exercise Biology

Here’s a pretty good article talking about both sides of the ‘deep squat’ debate that’s worth a read, especially as a counterpoint to my post on the subject. The one thing he doesn’t bring up that I b

Nocebo?

Everyone's heard of placebo , right? There have been plenty of studies that demonstrate the placebo is a powerful effect, and that the act of simply expecting improvement often leads to improvem

There’s No Such Thing As ‘Cardio’

This is an awesome tl;dr on a study released by the author that shows something anyone who has performed a widowmaker already knows: Anaerobic resistance training builds cardiovascular fitness just as

An Observation about Laziness

For those of you not following my training on Fitocracy , towards the end of last week, I finally broke the crappy Chinese-made Olympic bar that came with my 500-lb. weight set. Sounds awesome to say

Wonderful Birthday Present from the Wife

This year, Beth really outdid herself with my birthday present. GT500 Book VIEW SLIDE SHOW DOWNLOAD ALL Since I got the GT500, she’s been taking lots of pictures of it at all of the scenic locations w

The Math of Recovery [Excerpt] • Myosynthesis

The Math of Recovery [Excerpt] • Myosynthesis Great book excerpt by Matt Perryman on models of recovery. I sure wish he would go ahead and finish the book and release it, I'd be first in line to

Rehab workout regimen

So, as I mentioned previously, I’m doing a modified version of Madcow’s with machines until I am cleared to lift like a big boy again. Well, I expected to actually be on this for up to a year, but thi

Study: The mere anticipation of an interaction with a woman can impair men’s cognitive performance.

Well, now, this is an interesting study . The TL;DR of it is this: A previous study has shown that when men interact with women, they don’t think as well. This study shows that, not only is that true,

Final Gym Review–NET Fitness

So, after checking out Gold’s Gym and Muscle House Gym , I decided to try out the gym that I was originally thinking of just skipping: NET Fitness . The reason I was thinking of passing on it was kind

Gym Review–Muscle House Gym

Continuing from the previous review of Gold’s, the next Gym I checked out was Muscle House Gym , near downtown Gilroy. Muscle House is pretty much diametrically opposed to Gold’s. Where Gold’s is your

Gym Review – Gold’s Gym

Well, the first week of trying out commercial gyms here in Gilroy is done, and after spending a week lifting in Gold’s, I have a few things to say about it. First and foremost, the signup process for

An excellent article on the science behind organic foods

Thanks to John Phung for the heads up! The Sins of Organic « Dangerously Hardcore

Injury Update, First Track Run in the GT500, Other Random Stuff

Well, this week was the first week I was allowed to do ‘limited training’, which basically means nothing that loads my cervical spine. Since I am really concerned about breaking the instrumentation (s

Post-op Update

Well, this is day three post-op , and things are looking pretty good. Pain is really mild, and very manageable. I have some referred pain in my traps which seems to be worsening slightly, along with s

Injury Update–Post Surgery

Got to come home today after a successful anterior cervical discectomy and fusion of my C6-7 disc. First, regarding the surgery, I feel way better than I expected to. Pain is minimal, and mostly comes

Injury Update – Pre-op Meeting Over

So, the wife and I went up to Stanford yesterday to meet with the staff for the pre-operative tests and info. On the test side, not much needed to be done. They took 5 vials of blood (I got a few punc

Injury Update–Decision Made

Well, I finally made the decision to move forward with the surgery today after getting some feedback on my EMG and speaking to a fourth surgeon. As I mentioned in this post , I got an EMG from Dr. K t

Injury Update

So, the dozen people or so who read my blog may have noticed now that I’ve been remarkably absent of late, with my last training-related post being almost a month ago. There are a few reasons for this

Injury Update–Final Surgeon Weighs In, EMG Preliminary Results

Well, Monday morning I went to see the final surgeon for his opinion on whether or not I need surgery for my extruded/herniated C6/7 disc. This surgeon is Dr. John Lettice , who comes highly recommend

Be Careful Who You Get Your Supplements From

As a public service announcement for those who don't get over to Reddit very often, here's an interesting thread where an enterprising lad took a sample of the very cheap, very concentrate

Which is Better for Increasing Strength: 1, 4 or 8 Sets Per Exercise?

Interesting research review that examines a study that not only tracked strength differences but also mass differences on identical regimens of squats (only differing in sets performed) with three gro

Random Thoughts, Injury Update

As I was clearing out a spam comment on a post last night, I happened to run across this comment in my progress post . Originally, I responded to this in typical ‘thanks’ fashion and didn’t think much

The American Scholar: A New Theory of the Universe – Robert Lanza

This is without a doubt one of the more interesting articles I've read recently, intersecting nicely with my own thoughts on the nature of existence . Taking the position of Devil's Advoca

Four Rookie Lifting Mistakes, and a Simple Guide to Success

This is an article that’s been floating around in my head for over a year now, as I’ve seen people , over and over, despair over their inability to have any major success at lifting. In some cases, th

Want to Learn How to Squat?

Let this little tyke show you how it’s done….

Fitocracy Member Spotlight: cabichandani – Fitocracy Blog

Congrats to one of my buds on Fitocracy and Dailyburn, Cabichandani, on his much deserved member spotlight. Fitocracy Member Spotlight: cabichandani – Fitocracy Blog

Original Artwork for the Infinity Symbol

Below are the four designs I worked on for the infinity symbol for the logo. The original idea was to go for something that looked kind of like a chain link that had been twisted into an infinity symb

Site Updated

Well, if you’ve been on the site this morning, you might have noticed a bit of chaos as I updated the theme, cleaned out a lot of cruft, and added some new features. Long story short, I decided to go

Belgium Makes Teens Text And Drive During License Test | Geekologie

This is awesome. Too bad they can't make every American take the test…Of course, if I'm gonna wish for something, I guess the first thing would be to wish for driving tests that are

What D&D Character are you?

Interesting Find… A long survey to determine what D&D Character you would be. My results are below, though I never expected to be a Wizard… I Am A: Chaotic Neutral Human Wizard (6th L

Injury Update: Now with more MRIs!

Take heed, boys and girls, here there be some foul language. Turn back if you offend easily. Well, now it's settled: I've officially fucked myself up good and proper. As I told my office m

ChAoS & PAIN: I Am Not A Superhero #2

As usual, a little crass, but a good point that needs to be made to legions of people, and not just about lifting weights. ChAoS & PAIN: I Am Not A Superhero #2

Willpower and Desire as They Relate to Fitness

Numerous times recently both on Fitocracy and in questions from readers of the blog, I have gotten questions on dieting. This is not a huge deal, and while I think it has been covered more thoroughly

Cholesterol adds more muscle gain to old people who train

Now, I'm not sure you should read too much into this (old folk, correlation != causation, etc.), but this study does make me think twice about the advice of some very large guys (like Jamie Lewi

50+ Quotes Guaranteed to Inject Your Day With Unbridled Awesomeness

50+ Quotes Guaranteed to Inject Your Day With Unbridled Awesomeness : “This is the true joy in life, the being used for a purpose recognized by yourself as a mighty one; the being thoroughly worn out

Mouthpiece Could Ease Stress, Hasten Recovery in Athletes | Playbook | Wired.com

Interesting article on a study that showed mouthguards reduce cortisol, if for no other reason that the cited study used squats as the exercise of choice. Mouthpiece Could Ease Stress, Hasten Recovery

Thanks to James Ford

Just wanted to drop a note to say thanks to James Ford for their excellent customer service. When I bought my GT500 , I noticed that the black paint had a number of swirls and light scratches already

Injury Update

Well, today marks the day I went to visit a new doc for ART therapy to try and resolve this injury . I went to Premier Spine and Sport , and met with Dr. Brink , who also happens to be the doctor for

Song for the Day

I suspect this is going to surprise a number of people, but I’m a fan of some of John Mayer’s music despite not being much of a fan of him, personally. While I always like to listen to great musicians

What an Intermittent Fasting Diet Looks Like: A Visual Guide

Many times on Fitocracy I see threads where people are discussing dieting, and one of the common themes I see is incredulity that it’s hard to eat enough food while ‘cutting’ (dieting to lose fat). Ot

General Summary of Changes to Diet, Exercise, and Supplement Intake

NOTE: As an addendum to my progress post , I am still keeping a running tally of changes I make to my training, diet, and supplementation in order to trace back the effects further down the road. This

xkcd: Lakes and Oceans

This might be one of the most awesome things I've ever seen…. xkcd: Lakes and Oceans

Setting up a drum set is an all-day event…

So I just got finished moving my wife’s office into the spare bedroom, along with putting the little kit in storage, and then setting up the big kit. All told, I’ve been working this pretty much non-s

Fitocracy–A Candid Review

I’ve been using Fitocracy for several months now, and I felt it was finally time to post up a review, along with some suggestions. While I’m not sure Dick and Co. will be particularly interested in wh

The Geek Test

After reading Are You Geeky Enough to be a Weightlifter by Nick Horton , I just knew I could beat his score on The Geek Test . After all, I’m a Networking geek, have limited social skills, spent most

The 2012 Shelby GT500 – A Review

For those of you who don’t know me personally, about 3 weeks ago I bought a 2012 Shelby GT500. At this point, I’ve driven the car over 3500 miles, including two 1,000 mile road trips and several days

Influence of squatting depth on jumping performance. | The Spartan Warrior

Apropos of my article on the subject, this is a good summary of a study that shows the carryover that occurs when squatting deep: Influence of squatting depth on jumping performance. | The Spartan War

ChAoS & PAIN: Go Fucking Feral #2- A Shutthefuckup Salad With A Side of Extra Rants

A little more militant and crass than I would have put it, but pretty much dead on I think: ChAoS & PAIN: Go Feral Pt. 2 Be warned, this site is NSFW!

Little Victory for the Day

When you are injured , you have to take training victories where you can get them, so here’s my victory for the day: ";" alt=""> Widowmaker – 275×20 at 215 lb bodyweight A

Are Emotions Prophetic?

Here's an interesting Wired article discussing a recent study about how emotions are sometimes better predictors than logic when you have incomplete information. This goes a long way towards hel

Why Calories Matter

In a previous post , I talked about my own tests with ketogenic diets, along with my use of borderline OCD food and exercise tracking combined with a BodyMedia FIT to test the theory that calories mat

The Truth Behind 5 Food Myths by Alan Aragon | The Spartan Warrior

Good reading to help steer you past the 'bro-science': The Truth Behind 5 Food Myths by Alan Aragon | The Spartan Warrior

The Result of a Failed Bulk

Well, the results of my month-long bulk in Pensacola are in, and they are not pretty. However, if you’ve been following along, you know that things didn’t exactly go as planned. First and foremost, th

The Story of How I Came to the Conclusion that Calories Matter

Since it seems I’m on a kick to tackle all possible controversial topics, let’s discuss one of the most controversial ones in fitness: calories. In a number of discussions over the last year, I have h

Why raw, deep squats may be the best way to prevent injury

After watching me squat, a number of people have mentioned that I was “going to get hurt” or said that I was tempting fate due to the fact that I squat as deeply as my body possibly can and do so with

How to Test the ‘Metabolic Advantage’ of Fad Diets Using SCIENCE™

A lot of people read various fad diet books and are drawn in by them. There is no shame in this; The line they usually sell is very tempting. ‘Lose weight without dieting’ or ‘Lose weight without coun

Lifting in Pensacola…

Well, since today marks the first day I’ve lifted since tearing my trap almost two weeks ago, and the first time I’ve ever lifted in a commercial gym, I felt the need to wax poetic about it for a bit.

Why half squat?

Awesome article on why you should squat like your body is intended to: All the way down. Why half squat? via reddit.com

How to Properly Track What You Eat

So, coming soon, I’ve got a number of posts I am going to put up about dieting and how to succeed at it. But before I get into any kind of a discussion about dieting, I need to cover some basics, and

A month long semi-bulk coming up…

Well, it’s official: I’ll be flying out to sunny Pensacola, Florida tomorrow afternoon for a month of work with the Navy, and that means the cut is over…at least for the time being. I’ve learned from

24 Months of Working Out – Detailed Progress, History, and Timeline

Basic Before and After Shots The Ubiquitous "New Body, Old Pants" Pic 24 Month Slideshow Jump to: Exercise Program Diet Conclusion and Results Timeline In the Beginning… Starting this out,

Interesting Wired article debunking an old ‘truism’

Turns out, opposites don’t attract, but things would likely be better if they did… Opposites Don’t Attract (And That’s Bad News)

Ever had someone claim that they had a ‘fast metabolism’ or ‘slow metabolism’ to explain their inability to gain or lose weight?

Well, here’s a TL;DR summary of the research on it. Does metabolism vary between two people?

Ever wonder what the effect of physical activity late in life is?

A new study published in The Physician and Sports Medicine has a very useful set of MRIs that should open your eyes:

The best assessment of the scientific data on Creatine you are likely to ever see…

I’m in awe of the clarity of this analysis, and it shows just how clear the data is on the positive effects of one of the few proven supplements. http://examine.com/supplements/Creatine/#main_rubric

Are You Doomed to Regain? Thoughts on Tara Parker Pope’s Fat Trap.

What a great rebuttal to the horribly negative, defeatist 'Fat Trap' article. Are You Doomed to Regain? Thoughts on Tara Parker Pope's Fat Trap.

Fittit thread about pelvic tilt that should be required reading for anyone who has back pain or sits all day…

This is probably the hand’s down best explanation and prescription for examining and correcting both anterior and posterior pelvic tilt I’ve come across. Well worth the read. http://www.reddit.com/r/F

This site is full of win

http://hyperboleandahalf.blogspot.com/ Seriously. Great little comics that never fail to lighten up my day.

What Crossfit is and isn’t…

This is a good article I found on /r/weightroom that addresses what Crossfit actually is. Worth the read for anyone considering (or currently doing) Crossfit. http://impact-pt.com/fitness/what-crossfi

When is a Calorie a Calorie?

This is not only an excellent meta-analysis of high-carb low-fat diets vs. low-carb high-fat diets, it’s also a great insight into the history and accuracy of caloric testing. Well worth the read for

Awesome article on Willpower from Matt Perryman

This ties in really well with an upcoming article I have on succeeding at goals. Fascinating article that can help you understand willpower and how to exercise it appropriately to reach your goals. Br

Awesome feature of Wolfram Alpha I just discovered…

You can have it look up nutrition facts for you. Check it out . Pretty cool, and works on the mobile page too.

Why Training Hard, Rather Than Smart, Will Keep You Fat This New Year. | RippedBody.jp

Great article and a good read for anyone looking to begin a fitness program this year. Remember, you can't out exercise a shitty diet… Why Training Hard, Rather Than Smart, Will Keep You F

I get asked a lot why I don’t eat fruit… | The Spartan Warrior

This is an awesome rebuttal to some very common nutritional disinformation. Well worth the read if you are worried about Fructose. muffintop-less: I get asked a lot why I don’t… | The Spartan Wa

Comparison Review: TC Electronic Studio Konnect 48 vs. Focusrite Saffire Pro 40

Approximately 4 years ago, I rebuilt my DAW , and shortly thereafter I decided to punt the whole internal soundcard paradigm to the curb and switch over to a Firewire-based external audio interface. T

Barbell Training is Big Medicine

An awesome article by an MD on why strength training is an enormously healthful and far reaching form of exercise: http://startingstrength.com/index.php/site/barbell_training_is_big_medicine

I can’t decide if this is awesome, or ironic….

Omni Consumer Products — Fight Club Soap – Logo Bar

Adjust a car’s sideview mirrors to eliminate blind spots

This actually works, and I feel like a dolt for not thinking of it sooner… http://boingboing.net/2011/12/13/adjust-a-cars-sideview-mirro.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_

Progress, or a Reasonable Facsimile Thereof

You may have noticed a few changes to my blog, and this is (IMHO) for the better. You see, when I started this whole thing, it was just a place for me to post some random junk that I had written over

Slow Roast Beef

Want a low fat, high protein, DELICIOUS meal for relatively cheap? Make yourself some of this… Slow Roast Beef

My thoughts on God and Religion

Introduction A few months ago, some friends of mine sent me The Language of God: A Scientist Presents Evidence for Belief with a very nice note explaining why they thought I should read it. These frie

The result of OCD song rating tendencies: You find some exceptional songs

OCD song rating tendencies lead to discovering some truly exceptional metal tracks.

Three books that destroyed my ability to enjoy standard Sci-Fi

Three books that I have read in recent years have completely eliminated my ability to enjoy your typical space-opera sci-fi. And believe it or not, I think that's a good thing. Here's the

Top funny iphone 4 pics

Review of the Nexus One

About a week ago, I got my shiny new Nexus One from Google, and I have been happily using it since. While I didn't leave it on Eclair (Android OS 2.1) for long, here are my thoughts on it under

How to update Nexus One to Froyo on ATT

After spending a bunch of time figuring this out through many incomplete guides, I thought I would post one here. These are very direct instructions. If you don't understand them, please don…

6 Month workout progress

6 Month workout progress This week marks the end of 6 months of working out after a ~10 year hiatus. I started out with the goal of getting as big and strong as possible in 6 months. I didn’t really c

Android vs. iPhone: A review

First, an introduction for those of you who don't know me personally. I have had the iPhone for about 2 years now, and despite it's flaws (which are numerous), I have always said it was th

How-to: Use Android as a Media Player

The biggest major disappointment in the Android OS, for me at least, is the poor stock media player support. Out of the box, you get a very weak music player (named, creatively enough, Music) and abso

New Ars Technica article up

Designing a highly reliable small & medium business network Check it out and let me know what you think. Comments so far have shown it to be pretty controversial.

Installing Win7 on my DAW

Well, I am finally getting around to installing Win 7 since it's the holidays and I have time on my hands. Since I am posting, I have obviously been partially successful, though it has been much

First Ars Technica article up

Today is kind of an auspicious occasion: my first article has been published. While in some ways this seems like small potatoes compared to writing books, it's actually kind of a big deal to me

Eating Leather – Drakensang: The Dark Eye review update

So, in my previous review of this game, I ranted quite a bit on how buggy the stupid thing was since it crashed my system. Since then, my system got flakier and I came to realize it wasn't the g

Review of "Angels and Demons" by Dan Brown

I don’t normally review books, but this one I have to get off my chest. I’ll put the summary right up top for those who don’t want to read the whole thing: This book is a horribly unimaginative way to

My son’s new guitar

It's a Dean MAB1. Awesome guitar, if you can get over it being MAB's signature guitar. Plays well and sounds great. Here's the specs: – Real Floyd Rose – EMG 81/85/SA act

Hacked facebook pics

Some of these are really funny in a disturbing type of way. Moral: Be careful which sites you tie into your Facebook…

My new 7-string guitar.

An Agile Interceptor Pro 27 in tribal green. Specs: – Mahogany body, ebony fretboard – 27″ scale length – Dual EMG 707 pickups – Licensed Floyd Rose – Grover tuners

Kind of a neat thing I noticed today…

My number of plays for Steve Vai hit this: Just thought it was pretty cool considering how much Vai likes the number "7".

Drakensang "The Dark Eye" Review

How to start….. let's begin with the pros…. 1. German RPG system. Something like Die Swartz Auge. I honestly can't be bothered to learn the German pronunciation, but the system

One very funny reply to a book promo on Wired…

Just read the "article" and then the first two replies…. Wired Article

The best progressive metal bands you’ve never heard of…

I was listening to some Fates Warning and I realized that there are a ton of bands (including the previously mentioned one) that are packed with amazing musicians and compositional talent and yet most

My favorite funny pics

WARNING: These are bound to be offensive, but fuck you if you can't take a joke… Entire Site: http://brianhill.clthosting.com/images.asp?f=images Favorites:

The Global Warming Hoax

Well, I felt it was finally time to post some thoughts on this subject. Since moving to Cali, this particular topic has been foremost in my mind. Every time I see someone doing 90 MPH in their Prius ,

Amazon.com is the Devil

WARNING: This is an angry rant, and probably should not be read by anyone who is easily offended or dislikes swearing. You have been warned. In the "things that really annoy me" category,

Cool weird places to check out

Georgia Guidestones Ultra-strange story and a pretty cool set of "commandments" nestled in the middle of nowhere. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Georgia_Guidestones The Great Blue Hole Big a

New Survival Film

In these troubled times, I feel it is appropriate to help my fellow Americans out. There is a survival film that has been floating around for years that describes the situation we are quickly moving t

Review of the 2003 Toyota Echo

WARNING: This is meant to be humorous, but like Southpark, should probably not be viewed by anyone, ever. If you get your panties in a bunch, I'm very sorry. If after all of this, you choose to

The Problem with the World and the Future of Mankind

According to Brian Hill, resident Speculation Engineer and Pseudo Scientist Well, after a long time, I decided to post this up, as this is the culmination of a bunch of thoughts that have been running