Michael Ashcroft

I’m borrowing a term from Mark Rippetoe here for the title of this post because I feel it aptly describes an  affliction that plagues modern humanity.

Please visit this link:

http://visol.com/en/products/Slimray.html/?cpn_code=facebookslimau1&setCurrencyId=3

And then tell me that isn’t some of the silliest bullshit you’ve ever seen or read.

If you purchase that equipment and honestly think it can help you, then you deserve to have your AUD$512.93 taken off you and to stay fat.  That Slimray Laser Liposuction doodad is silly bullshit.

I’m not sure why or how or when the concept of being able to remain fit and healthy without having to do anything became common place, but it is totally absurd.  What’s more disturbing is that people are more willing to attach an expensive fucking laser to their abdomen than actually do some exercise and stop eating shit.  Unbelievable.  Seriously unbelievable.

The success of products like this makes me seriously question the future of the human race.

Exercise some common-sense please friends and use your brains.  Don’t get sucked in by silly BS.

***If you’re truly lost for a place to start, read this:

http://www.arthurdevany.com/members/wp-content/uploads/2009/07/issue1.pdf

Robb Wolf’s interview with Arthur De Vany is brilliant for beginning to understand what it takes to be healthy and fit.***

Ever since I was about 15 or 16, I’ve had some issues with my lower back.  Every so often, my back will seize up and become terribly stiff and sore.  Anyone who has experienced lower back pain will know just how debilitating it can be.  Worse still, to get better we need to keep moving and keep the back active to prevent any further deterioration, which inevitably leads to a good deal of pain.

I’ve recently suffered a bout of quite bad (almost chronic) back pain for the last 5-6 weeks.  This has been due largely to the fact I failed to do preventitive maintenance, such as massage and consistent stretching.  So the tension and pain accumulated and all came to a head a few weeks back (as things like this do…)

I’ve since made some really good improvements in the past week and am probably 90% right.

If you suffer from lower back pain, I’ve got some field tested personal experience to share with you:

1. See a professional. I went and saw a Traditional Chinese Medicine man who was fantastic.  His name is Nick Conquest and he is based in East Brighton.  Massage, acupuncture and manipulation all-in-one.   Some of the acupuncture points, and the muscles they released, were sore for over a week.  Well worth it.  I would not have improved without some kind of help like this.
2. Be PRO-active, not RE-active. Much of this pain could probably have been prevented by regularly stretching.  Since visiting Nick (above), I’ve stretched my back most days and also done some rudimentary Yoga-type exercises (YouTube).  All have helped tremendously.
3. Don’t ignore the niggles! It’s rare that I suddenly ‘wake up’ with terrible lower back pain.  It usually begins as a small little pain and progresses until it is bad enough to stop me from living life normally.  I guess this ties in with the point above – the niggling pain is a warning to take care of yourself BEFORE it progresses to something more sinister.
4. If you do CrossFit…stretch. CrossFit-style heavy lifting and pushing your body’s limits takes its toll (no-brainer, I know) but it is super important to remember to look after yourself, even more than if you’re sedentary.  The analogy I use (I love analogies!) is like imagining your body is an F1 car, you race around the track as hard and as fast as you can, but then choosing to ignore your pit crew until something is critically wrong with your car.  Stupid, yeah?  Take your pitstops regularly to ensure you don’t have a catastrophic failure, instead of asking the pit crew to clean up the mess after you’ve already wrecked your car.

Let’s face it, we can’t all get to the gym as often as we’d like.  Life just gets in the way sometimes.  But you don’t have to let your fitness pursuits suffer.  You can still get a perfectly good workout done in your backyard or living room.  While its not ideal, it allows you to keep making progress during those times when you just can’t seem to make it to the gym to train.

These workouts are designed to take between 5-15 minutes, deliver a good dose of intensity and requires nothing but your able body and a little room to move.

Download the workouts here.

The combination of body weight and gymnastic exercises is virtually limitless.  If you think your body weight isn’t enough to challenge you, I suggest you check out this website: Beast Skills

If you can do even half the stuff on that website you’re a better athlete than me…

Stop with the excuses why you can’t get to the gym.  In just 5 minutes you can be all done.  So hurry up and get on with it already!

Some time ago I put together an article that descibed how the rowing stroke is executed and how you can go about improving your performance on the rowing ergometer.

A conversation I had today prompted me to go and look up the article and post it here for the benefit of everyone

Hope you enjoy it!

Click here to download the article: How To Improve Your Rowing In 20 Minutes

If anyone has any feedback regarding the article, please feel free to post it here in the comments section, or you can email me privately.