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• Hi guys,
  I was listening to your fitcast episode 177 and you had a message from John, the cameraman in South Wales who had the problems with tendonitis in his elbows.I am a sports therapist in South Wales, who has done a lot of work with chronic elbow pain both sports and non sports people.I think I may be able to help him, so is there any way that you can pass my details onto him incase he would like to contact? –Anne Marie
• Hi Kev,
  What up? My friend’s band, Miss TK and the Revenge, have a song called “Future Power” that I think you will enjoy. The lyrics are BTTF influenced with mentions of “gigawatts” and “Deloreans”. Check it out on Itunes or send me your email and I will email you the MP3. Thanks for doing a great podcast, Jason
• Kevin, I just listened to this podcast, and I think you got the whole CEU thing wrong when it comes to Boyle. NSCA isn’t giving CEUs for HIS part of the seminars, but they’re not cancelling ALL of the CEUs. For example, Mike Robertson is only getting .5 CEUs instead of the .6 he applied for because Boyle is one of the speakers at his upcoming conference. I think you should mention that the next time you do a podcast, because I’m sure a lot of people are confused. -Mark
• Hey guys,
  I’ll make this short, I am a personal trainer in North Dakota. I’m an avid reader and learner and have really been thinking about making the trip to Long Beach for the perform better summit in August. Is this something that a first year trainer should do or is it for more seasoned trainers? I would love to go and experience it but I am having trouble finding people to join me as well. Most of the people I train with or am friends with don’t read and learn as much as I do so i’m not sure they see the benefit in making the trip to California. Would it make sense for me to just make the trip alone? I am thinking of talking to my fitness director to see if she would be interested in joining me but I’m guessing it will be a no. basically can you tell me what kind of demographic attends the summit? what should a person like me who is an unknown fitness professional expect from attending the summit? Hopefully this gets to you guys and thanks again for all the Podcasts…can’t say enough how awesome they are in place of mindless tv…Aunna Grand Forks ND
• Hey lady and germs! I appreciate all your humor and informative discussions for helping the public become smarter, better, stronger and healthier people. Everything I learn from you guys, I pass on to my clients and they love it! so thanks to you, they think I’m the best trainer ever!
  I am a personal trainer in the Denver area and have a question about one of my clients. She’s 56, 30 lbs overweight and I’m training her 3 days/week on variable circuit training sessions to maintain muscle and tone. We don’t do anything heavy, usually stick around 14-18 reps for all exercises, but hit muscle fatigue after each set. Then on the off days she’s doing her cardio.The last month now, she’s complained of muscle spasms. First it was in her adductors, left leg. Then she felt the spams in her right forearm. The spasms would always occur the next day after I worked her out. Have you ever heard of this? Could the workouts be causing the spasms? How, why? It could be minor, but she doesn’t like them. I tell her its normal and not be to alarmed. But I don’t want to lose her either if they keep happening. Any ideas?By the way, thanks to your advice, last week I bought Mike Boyle’s Functional Strength Coach 3.0. I haven’t watched them yet but am stoked to learn from the one of the top experts in the area for Sports Performance Training!!Thanks and keep passing on what you know!David from Denver
• Hi guys, sending the love from Australia!
  I have a question for round table or wherever you see appropriate.I have a client who has been training with me for about a month. He’s very overweight, and struggles with a lot of anxiety before our sessions. He says he goes to the loo… Sorry…. Restroom!…. about 3 or 4 times while gettig ready for our appt because he’s so nervous! He says he loves our sessions and will continue with them, but I’m after maybe some strategies I could try with him to put him at ease? Any suggestions you guys have would be great. Our gym is a Personal Training studio and we always have the training area to ourselves, so it’s not like he’s worried about other clients looking at him. I think he’s just worried that he can’t keep up with what I’m going to give him to do.Thanks for all you guys do with the podcast, I look forward to it every week Nadine
• I’m looking for nutrition and fitness advice for my 8 year old daughter who is about 15 pounds overweight. I was an overweight child myself, but discovered exercise and healthy eating in my 20’s. I’m currently 45 years old and probably about 5-7 pounds overweight. I work on it daily, however. I remember struggling as a heavy child with self esteem and food control. I don’t want my daughter to have to endure the same things. Any advice on a daily food guide and an exercise plan for a girl who really doesn’t like to sweat? –Dana B.

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• Hi all, I am a 27 year old, 5′5 female, and began competing in fitness and figure a year ago. I had weighed 130 for ten years before competing (and had been lifting weights all 10 years), but I gained a lot of muscle in the past year and now my “off-season” weight is 137. My pants don’t fit me anymore, and I would like to lose muscle from my legs (specifically from the quads and glutes) while maintaining shape elsewhere. I have heard 3 theories about how to go about losing muscle from the quads/glutes: 1) do high rep, “muscle wasting” reps with little to no resistance; 2) stop working out legs altogether 3) stop lifting weights and just do cardio. I realize spot reduction of muscle in one area is difficult if not impossible, but I want to at least try and was wondering what the best guess as to technique would be. -Lauren

• My question is about how to safely squat deeper. When I get right around parallel, my form tends to weaken. I think my lower back is rounding a little, because its usually sore after a squat session. Are there any stretches or mobility drills that you would suggest to improve squat depth? I am not looking for ass-to-grass depth, but just below parallel would be great. I feel like my form is limiting my ability to get much stronger. -Mike

• I know young kids should not lift weights because of them growing, but can a 7 yr old use TRX since it’s his own bodyweight? -Michelle

• Hi guys, I’m Jennifer.Is it true that dieting can trigger eating disorders? Not 500-calorie or 800-calorie a day stuff, nothing crazy, but just the simple fact of being in a deficit? Or is that just something eating disorder places say because they don’t want their clients dieting? Or is it really a big unknown?If you have a history of eating disorders but genuinely have fat to lose (say obese or at least plump) are there things you can do to make dieting safer? Would those precautions be the same for thinner people?

  Many thanks,
  Jennifer

• Hi, I’m a 15 year old girl from England and was wondering if you could help me out by giving me some basic ideas on what kind of exercise i could do.. at the moment i’m training for a 5k charity run on the treadmill in my shed. i want to carry on with fitness and am interested about going into sports science when i’m older. could you give me some idea about what other exercises i could do to keep fit once i’ve finished training for the 5k, i play field hockey as a goalkeeper twice a week in season, plus netball and rounders. any help would be much appreciated.
  thanks,
  Megan X

Hey Everyone,

This week I actually couldn’t wait to get this blog posted!

So on Thursday I took what we call the PEB. It was my 1^st physical exercise test for this year and the results were better than I had hoped thanks in no small part to the work I have done for this blog series.

My max effort bench came in at 178 lbs, more than 13 lbs better than my previous personal record when I was in the best shape of my life, and 28 lbs more than my previous test in 2008. My time in the mile and ½ run was 12:50, which beat my previous record best by 32 seconds (not too bad for a fat boy like me). As I had feared I didn’t improve much in my agility run, but my sit-and-reach topped out at 22 inches which to me was amazing as well.

Now I cant mention something so good, without mentioning the “ugly” as well.  After that performance I did indeed have a moment of weakness, and was more than tempted to celebrate with a piece of my personal kryptonite, cheesecake. Fortunately my INCREDIBLE fiancé kept me in line and showed me the error of my ways. Without her I honestly think I might have buckled.

This week I am hoping to stay the course and on track. I have to spend a few days at a training center which I know from personal experience has a world class cafeteria and workout center, and being away from some of the distractions of normal life at work should allow me to focus even more on the areas I want to work on in my life. And, with no TV at this center, I should get caught up on the “FITCASTS” I have backing up on my iPod.
Thanks to all for your support and see you next week.

Thanks for reading.

DW

Larry:

Mea culpa – MIDPOINT EVALUATION – Fitter YES, Fatter, About the Same. The storm that hit the country this last week did particular bad damage to the area I live in. Not quite as bad as when a tornado came through (Stamford, CT) four years ago and a large tree fell and sliced my wife’s Honda Pilot in half, but close. No power for over five days, no internet, phone or cable, and a large oak tree came down perfectly across the only road leading out of the complex I live in, so no car movement to leave the affected area. Kevin kindly gave me a pass on my blog for last week, but the stress of the storm and some other marital issues led me to test Tom Venuto’s tenets on “Emotional Eating”. Also, although we were car bound, we could walk to a convenient IHOP that was quick to solve our fridge cleanout issue due to lack of refrigeration.

The distraction of the storm put my eating plan on hold, and if I had a stronger constitution probably could have stuck closer to plan, but after a while, I was not strong enough and rolled over, especially with the offer of all you could eat pancakes. My weight held pretty steady, without any improvement, and I did discover I could work out by Coleman lantern light but my treadmill was not cooperative. I did some outside walking and got to know all the neighbors better, because all of us could not exit the area due to the tree issue. The storm receded and the clean-up crews returned to get rid of downed wires and transformers, and on Friday cable and internet access was resumed.

The only other thing to report is my third cortisone shoulder injection. The day I get the large dose, my shoulder “pings” somewhat and I experience what might be described as a roid rush. But it seems to allow me to workout within limits that minimize pain and discomfort and put off the inevitable surgery that will take me over six months to recover from . . . buying some time.

Batty:

This was one hell of a week for me. It started out with my beloved 6 year old ferret, Kane, unexpectedly taking a turn for the worse and I had to put him to sleep. That pretty much made my week suck eggs. So, it kinda passed by in a haze and I just kinda was on auto pilot this week.

Here are some more half naked pictures.  No real change, but that’s not the end of the world I suppose.  I’m just looking forward to getting home and staying there for a while so I have access to the equipment I need.

Thanks!