How NOT to get FAT on Thanksgiving

A few years ago, a buddy of mine and I made a bet to see who could gain the most weight over Thanksgiving Break.

Being the ultimate competitor, I decided to pack on a whopping 12 Pounds between the Thursday of Thanksgiving and the Sunday night of that week.

Even though I was the champ, it took me two months to get rid of the excess weight I gained.

In order to prevent you from making the same mistake I did, here are five tips to keep you from getting "fat" on Thanksgiving.

1. Exercise
Lift weights, sprint, do plyometrics, whatever... Just make sure you put yourself in a situation where your metabolism is amped up.

2. Drink Lots of Water
This will keep you from eating too much. Plus, being hydrated will help keep your body from packing on too much fat.

3. Eat Something Healthy Before Dinner
Going to your Aunt's house on Thanksgiving with an empty stomach is a bad idea. This will only make you eat like an animal once its time for dinner. Before you go to the party, try to fill up on some healthy food like fruits or vegetables.

4. Eat Plenty of Turkey
White meat or dark meat? Who cares? Its Thanksgiving. Load up on as much protein as you want. If you are really that concerned about which meat to eat off the turkey on Thanksgiving, you should probably not be reading this website.

5. Bring Your Own Dessert.
Not all dessert has to be horrible for you. There are plenty of protein bars or organic cookies you can slip into the party so you don't have to eat pumpkin pie all night.

If anyone has any other tips they would like to share, please post them in the comments section.

The World Must Be Changing

You can tell alot about the world simply by looking at what people watch on YouTube.
Videos that get the most hits usually involve some form of FAIL or social disaster.

In the "fitness" world, people usually watch videos of the bench press more than strongman training.
This correlates perfectly to the question people get in the real world (when they actually speak to each other) "What's Your Bench?".

We currently have 27 Advanced Training You Tube Videos.
As you can probably guess, the video with the most hits is of Billy Blanco bench pressing 330lbs.




That is until now....

A week after I wrote Death to the Squat, we now have a new leader in "hits".
Its the video of Lyle McCombs performing Mixed Isometric Back Squats.


While I hate using the squat as a means to test athletes, I do think that the Mixed Isometric Squat is a much more interesting movement than the barbell bench press.






Is the world changing?

Will people no longer use the bench press as the overall indicator of a man's strength?

Considering we only get a few hundred views per video on our humble YouTube Channel, the answer is probably no.

But it does make me feel better that in my small world people are starting to recognize what's important.


For those of you that are still on the "FAIL" bandwagon, enjoy.....

Death to the Squat?

Before anyone loses their mind, please understand that I really do like the squat.

I just hate coaching it while we test for Power Points at Advanced Training

Starting today, we will no longer use the Squat as one of our three main indicators.

Why?

Its very hard for our athletes to differentiate between guys who are cheating (not getting deep enough) and guys with flexibility issues (can't get deep enough).

Since our guys are so competitive, this becomes a very big deal when it comes to Power Points   Ratings.

Enclosed is a good example of this situation.





"Technically" the athlete should go deeper on his squat.

Unfortunately, he has some mobility issues in his ankles that are preventing him from getting to the desired depth (bucket level) without risking injury.

Is the athlete a "cheater"?

Absolutely not.

He is actually an animal.

Having said that, I am pretty sure there is only a small percentage of people out there who could actually move 430lbs x 6 on the back squat (even if they "only" went as deep as he did).