Globo gyms – a guilty pleasure?

If you read any of my strength training posts, you’ll know that I often sing the praises of specialized strength training gyms – excellent equipment, like minded individuals, positive attitudes, blah, blah, blah. It’s true, all of it. If you are seriously interested in strength-training and you’re lucky enough to have specialized gym in your […]

Exercise – sometimes it’s a lifeline

Ok, everyone knows that regular exercise helps ease the symptoms of depression and anxiety. It’s exceedingly well-documented. For the most part, those of us who exercise regularly don’t need to be told about the very real endorphin rush one receives after physical exertion. It’s not a magic bullet, though, but it is a valuable tool […]

POWERLIFTERSvs. BODYBUILDERS – CAN’T WE ALL JUST GET ALONG?

Bodybuilders are the low hanging fruit of the weightlifting world. So visible, so easily parodied…And the sport is so incredibly weird, at least in it’s current form. To win a bodybuilding competition you must look completely unnatural on the stage – roll-on tan, dangerously dehydrated, the works. Let’s acknowledge the elephant the room, i.e. the […]

Dumb Luck

The other day a thought occurred to me as I drove down the road. It hit me just how many times in my life I’ve avoided literal serious injury or death by sheer, dumb luck. These were instances in which no common sense was yet available or, if it was, was studiously ignored. Broadly speaking, […]

Things can always get worse, but they can always get better, too.

I recently read a CNN article that explained that studies have shown that childhood trauma has been shown to later affect the grown adult’s relationship to money and finances. Basically, the instability and stress of living in a financially precarious household often causes extremes in people as they reach adulthood. Many become extremely conservative with […]

Bench prescient

Yesterday I did 6×5 @150kg in bench-press. I was training at the club and nobody else was there. Now, granted, I used a heavy competition bench with really sturdy safety arms, but heavy benching is always a scary proposition. Nothing will make you besmirch your undies faster than that feeling that you’re going to miss […]

Redemption Song

Recently, for a number of reasons, I’ve been thinking quite a bit about redemption. To be clear, what I mean is the restoration of one’s reputation and credibility as a person in general or even in a specific circumstance such as work or with a particular loved one. Reputation, as they say, takes a […]

How not to do drugs…

A primer in harm reduction: As a society, we tell our kids from a pretty young age that drugs are dangerous. In school we give them the dry clinical facts about the harmful effects of each of the drugs; alcohol, cannabis and other illicit drugs. This information is useful but it ignores the reality that […]

Blues for your Soul

It has been said – correctly – that the Blues is the mother of modern popular American music. Technically and historically speaking, there is a clear musical lineage from the Blues to Bluegrass, Jazz, Country, Rock, Gosple, R&B, Soul and Rap. Thematically, the Blues is, of course, about the injustices of life, or the need […]

“the tarry shingle of the morning…”

This morning I got up early, made my coffee, checked the news (yikes) and, for some reason, thought about gratitude. I mean, there is the war in Ukraine and gas has reached prices that make really make one contemplate how badly one needs to use their car. Inflation is ramping up and set to snowball. […]