Tell Me Something That's True, But Nobody Agrees With

 

 

"Tell me something that's true, but nobody agrees with." Peter Thiel

If you don't know Peter Thiel, he along with Elon Musk (Tesla, SolarCity) and Max Levchin (Yelp) created this tiny payment processing company named PayPal. You may have heard of them. They since sold the company to eBay for $1.5 BILLION and all have gone on to start their own billion dollar companies. Peter has written a book "Zero to One" which I would recommend to everyone, not just entrepreneurs. 

This one question gets some context with this statement:

"What great businesses is nobody building? In business, every moment happens only once. The next Mark Zuckerberg won’t be building a social network.”

Whether you interpret this as work in the white space or zig when they zag; it boils down to creating a service or product to disrupt you industry or in other words ALWAYS try to put your competition (and yourself) out of business.

Technique Breakdown: Most Important Part of a RDL/Hip Hinge

The hip hinge which is demonstrated above during a Romanian Deadlift (RDL) is a core movement in the gym. Hip hinging lays the groundwork for olympic lifting, squats, deadlifts, and kettlebell swings. 

The hardest part of learning this is independently moving the hips through flexion and extension while limiting the movement of your spine, namely thoracic over-extension. The main issue I have with coaching up this movement is that most individuals spend their days slouched over in posterior pelvic tilt (think the opposite of arching your low back for a buttfie).

One of the main go-to drills for building spine stability where you aren't moving into flexion or extension during movement is the dead bug. 

Two main points of a dead bug!
1. Neutral Spine while moving.
2. Exhale fully to ensure proper positioning of your ribcage which is keeping neutral spine while extending your limbs.

If you would like a progressive breakdown of how I coach clients from start to the barbell, please leave me a comment and share this with a friend who looks like a question mark anytime they deadlift!

Saturated Smaturated, Dark Meat>White Meat

I have dreams about this chicken from adHoc

I'm speaking here not just from a culinary stand point but also a fitness professional. Now before you pick up that d-a-f (dry as fuck) see every protein strand because its overcooked chicken breast and come at me, hear me out! 

The average piece of chicken breast contains:
231 Calories
43g Protein
5g Fat
0g Carb
1.5g Saturated Fat

And dark meat:
287 Calories
38g Protein
14g Fat
0g Carb
3.7g Saturated Fat

If you look at it based on those numbers, you'll notice that you can squeak out a bit more protein out of chicken breast while keeping your saturated fat intake down. The increase in calories from dark meat comes from fat. (Note: If you have a physique based goal and are watching calorie intake, I would go white meat.)

As a cook, I much prefer cooking dark meat for two reasons: I think it tastes better and it's pretty difficult to overcook thighs and drumsticks. But the SATURATED FAT!!!!!!

And saturated fat is BAD right?! 

Here's a few points on Saturated Fats and why you should include them in your diet.

1. Saturated fat seems to support the enhancement of good cholesterol.
2. Fats from palm oil and coconut oil are highly saturated, but not necessarily bad. Palm and coconut also contain medium chain fats, which can support health and optimal body composition.
3. Eating saturated fats showed direct improvement in mood and cognition. It's why comfort foods are often very fatty.

The biggest problem with saturated fats seems to be the sources (processed food and oils) combined with refined carbohydrates which as a result causes your health to suffer. If you do choose to consume tropical oils like palm and coconut oil, I would attempt to eat them in their native form. The refinement process often creates hydrogenated fats in an attempt to make the products more shelf stable. 

Saturated fat should make up no more than 10% of total calories.
 

I can't stress that enough....read that sentence above one more time. NO MORE THAN 10%

For someone eating 2000 calories per day, that would be a maximal intake of 200 grams of saturated fat per day.

As a fit pro and common sense weilding human, I know that a bucket of fried chicken or pizza on a weekly basis isn't healthy, but I'm also a lover of good food. And sometimes it comes in the form of a pizza or chicken. I don't deprive myself of these types of foods because of some fad diet. 

Always, everything in moderation.

Technique Breakdown: Plank Plus Row

Looks cool and easy enough, rowing while in a plank. I wish that were so. 

After seeing enough people butcher the movement, I've decided to do a breakdown of how to perform it. 

Equipement needed: 

Sled, Battle Rope, Airex pad (optional)

1. After you tie the rope to the sled, pull the rope out until the end and place an aired pad right in front of it. 
2. Get into a 3 point plank, and without allowing the hips to rotate, row the rope and pull the sled towards you. 
3. I'm shown here with a cone to really hammer down the point of not allowing the hips to rotate.
4. To make this move harder, feel free to bring your legs closer together to make yourself "less stable" and thus forcing you to work harder and stabilize. 

Exercise You Need to Do: Constant Tension Hip Thrust

This tip today mostly goes out to the ladies but like I've written in the past; guys, lets not neglect glute work because chicks dig glutes too.

This version of the hip thrust is as effective as it is inappropriate looking. Rest assured that if you've been hip thrusting with any regularity and are not satisfied by your results the constant tension hip thrust will give you a kick in the behind. (See what I did there, one moment while I lol here at my own pun)

A few key points:

• You have to be confident with your hip thrusting technique, adding speed to any lift is based on the knowledge that your technique is sound. Otherwise you'll be speeding your way to an injury. 
• I like to give the cue it's like a piston on a car engine, you need to come down just as fast as you explode up into full hip extension. 
• For greater glute tension, try to move the hips into posterior pelvic tilt.
• Make Diamonds! That's how hard you want to squeeze your glutes at the top of every finish.