In the words of Jerry Seinfeld,"What's the deal with foam rolling?"

If you've been around a gym the past few years,you've probably seen foam rollers and wondered a) what they're used for, b)are they effective, or c) are they part of some secret ninja trainingapparatus?  

Well, for those that "roll" regularly,this post will simply be preaching to the choir.  However, for those ofyou that are new to foam rolling (or, like the 24 year old Alex, think it's awaste of time), then this post is especially for you.

Tomorrow is Monday and in meathead terms, that means it’s bench day.  Why?  BECAUSE MONDAY IS ALWAYS BENCH DAY.

To prepare you for the onslaught of bros that will be hogging your equipment and most likely talking about their pecs, bis, and tris, I decided to help you with your creativity.  If you have a limited amount of time at the gym, here are a bunch of exercises that can help keep you lookin’ good while throwing in some spice to your “all chest all day” workout plan (although, that workout plan is highly ill-advised).

Well hello there.  I'm Alex and I’m not sure why, but for whatever reason you’ve stumbled across this blog and I’m honored.  This blog will be about strength and conditioning, nutrition, and just making yourself better both physically and mentally.

So what's my goal in creating this site?  It's to help people feel better, move better, and look better....in that order!

Today’s post is a bit different, as I decided to highlight some other articles and good reads that I’ve recently come across.  In a perfect world, I’ll be able to do this type of post every week or two, but we’ll see how things pan out.  Hopefully the articles I post below will pique your interest, as they have mine!

Diet fads really come and go.  Today you have countless people trying to lose weight with any of the following: Paleo, Intermittent Fasting, Carb Backloading, and do I dare say Atkins?  Next you have all the “carb dogmas” of low carb, no carb, or all carb – the latter being my rebellion against all this uncommon sense.

As Thanksgiving is only a week away, we’re entering one of the happiest times of the year.  Yet, if you’re someone looking to shed a few pounds, or maintain your progress from the past few months, the thought of holiday eating may cause an immense amount of stress.  If you’re a part of that crowd, you may have already devised some sort of plan that will control your eating/drinking during this time. Not to say that your plan is bad, but when it comes to holiday eating, it’s time for the wise words of Mr. Mike Tyson:

“Everybody has a plan until they get punched in the face."

Onepiece of diet advice that I always seem to be giving out is pretty simple: eatmore protein.​

This past week, one of my clients asked me whythey needed to eat more protein if they weren't focused on buildingmuscle/taking the "swoletastic voyage."  While I explained thathigher protein diets have a ton of other benefits, I realized I had always takenthese facts for granted.

The best way to explain why almost all Americansneed more protein, is to look at the benefits we all receive from"upping" our protein intake.  So, other than trying to"look good nekkid," why else do we eat protein?​

Is it me, or have thecommercials during the Super Bowl decreased in quality every single year? I'm not quite sure where the funny commercials were last night....maybethey were also lost in the blackout?

Anyway, hope everyone had a great SuperBowl, and I can't believe it's already February!  That said, here's a newlist of great reads to read while you're sitting at work, regretting those 18wings you might have eaten last night..

Just the other day, someone asked me if I had a man crush on Dwight Howard’s shoulders.  The answer?  Why yes, yes I do.

Now, let’s not go off the deep end, as I think he’s completely overrated and the Kim Kardashian of the NBA (famous for never really doing anything).  But, attaining “Dwight-caliber” shoulders will remain a pipe dream for the majority of Americans.  The reason?  They already have a bad shoulder.

I was on Facebook a few weeks ago when I saw a “Facebook friend” (need to make that clarification for those that understand the differences vs. real life) say something to the tune of “Worked hard at the gym for my birthday cake!”  I didn’t want to be “that guy,” nor did I have the heart to tell that person that it doesn’t quite work like that.

It’s OK, I’ve done it too.  In fact, I’ve probably done most of the mistakes I write about on this blog.  So, let’s think about this problem in a more scientific way: does a 45 minute workout justify eating another 1,000 calories?  Absolutely not, and it’s a losing proposition.

It’s confession time. 

I would like to admit that behind my tough,squatting and deadlifting exterior, I’m really just a big nerd.

What? 

Well, as some of you may know I’ve taken upreading as my biggest hobby (besides throwing around some weights), and I takea lot of pride in trying to become extremely well read.  In fact, Ibelieve I owe it to my clients to spend at least one hour a day readingresearch, tackling various books, and also writing in order to stay up to dateon the industry’s best practices.

For those that know me well, you know that I love some good squats.  In fact, I proclaimed my love for “the king of lower body exercises” in my first blog post.  Thus, I’m always saddened when I see someone squatting incorrectly, or when they claim that “squatting is bad for the knees.”

So today, you’re in for a treat!  Below is my first video on the exercise I love so much, as well as how to fix many of the problems that are often encountered.

Have you noticed how Omega-3 is now in everything?  Seriously.  Eggs, juice, milk, margarine, pasta, bread, and my personal favorite that's just around the corner...ice cream.  I get it, I really do.  If people aren’t getting enough Omega-3’s, from their bad diets, let’s just fortify everyone’s diet so that it's no longer an issue.

Or, you know, people could actually EAT SOME FRIKEN FISH.

As if New England didn't receive enough snow last weekend, I opened my shades this morning, and found what?  Yes, more frikken snow.  Seriously, it's like it's the middle of winter or something.....

Anyway, hope everyone had a great past few days.  While asteroids were falling all over earth during the weekend, I was busy "getting my nerd on" and making my way through a large chunk of reading.  As such, I'm able to share a few articles that I thought would be great for everyone to read.

You may not realize it, but like you, there are times when I have trouble finding motivation to work out.  Yes, it happens to everyone, even those who love (and I do mean, love) to lift heavy things.  But, let's not get crazy, as the number of workouts I've missed over the past year can be counted on a single hand.

So, how do I manage to drag myself into the gym and under a stack of weights even when I'm not feeling "in the mood?"  Here are a few of my tips, and they're all pretty simple.  But believe me, they're not easy.

This time of year is always a bitfunky: it's cold and snowy up here in the Northeast, there's no major sportingevents, and we're about a month away from spring making it's long awaited andtriumphant return.

Thus, it's only natural to start thinking aboutmore awesome things.  A few that come to my mind are: Double Rainbows, or this little guy givingyou an epic speech, an amazing basketball shot, and....the Turkish Get Up.

Wait, what?

If I hadto describe the snow storm that the northeast received over past 24 hours inone word, it would be: epic.  Seriously, it was almost as if the Mayanspredicted this storm.

Anyway, as I'm cooped up for the rest of thenight (and probably weekend) I figured I'd upload a video of one exercise I'verecently really started to enjoy.

Enter: the barbell hip thrust.

As you can probably tell, many of my blog posts arise out of variousconversations I have with clients, coworkers, and the various people I seeeveryday.  Today is no exception, as one of my clients and I spoke abouthow it’s easy to spot someone that’s “stiff” and immobile, but is there ever aproblem with being too flexible?

The answer?  Yes!  Being too flexible isactually a problem, and while it may not be as easy to spot, it can lead youdown a similar path of pain and dysfunction.

I hate sit-ups. I really do.  And, if I haven’t made that clear by now, then you probably don’t know me very well.

So, it must come as no surprise that after I go on my weekly rant about why I hate sit-ups, I often get asked “what do you do to train your core instead?”  While I usually start by having midgets punch me in the stomach, there are a few other things I tend to incorporate.

Not long ago, I was a pitcher in college and thought I knew everything about strength and conditioning.  Oh, how wrong I was.

Since my career change, I’ve often thought back to my high school and college career and how I would have tweaked my own training to be tailored to pitching.  It should go without saying that I know a lot more now than I used to, but by no means am I the “know-it-all” I was before.