NYTimes article today: “Does Weight Lifting Make a Better Athlete? ” I guess the writers get paid per word, otherwise this would be one word: “Yes!”

Interestingly though, the panacea that Kolata and his “experts” seem to endorse is: 1) Hire a trainer, 2) Do exercises which mimic your sport as exactly as possible.

Wonder what Brian McKenzie would say about this?

I got a little ranty on the comments section:

I feel like anyone that does endurance sports (and that’s what Kolata is talking about in this article, not all “athletes”) has to absolutely do weight training/resistance training.
The idea that we can work one body part or muscle group is absolutely ridiculous. Encouraging people to focus on doing single leg extensions or working calves, hamstrings, and quads in “isolation” is ludicrous. What’s even funnier is a “competetive” triathlete saying that running and cycling are “one-leg-at-a-time activities.” Please show me vido of someone only using “one leg at a time” on a bike or in a run – the muscles in that other leg are absolutely activating through the entire range of motion.

I recommend anyone that wants to be competetive in enduracne sports to check out www.crossfit.com and www.genetic-potential.com. If you want to actually understand the fact that you cannot dramatically increase your anareobic threshold through continued LSD training and absolutely can increase it by working in the oxidative and glycotic energy pathways (explosive olympic movements, power lifting, and HIIT/METCON) then you need to check out these sites.

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Saw somebody recommend this book off the Discussion Boards, wanted it for future reference. The fact that it’s free on Google Books is a nice bonus.

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So these are some information sheets that I’ve found through other CrossFit Affiliates that break out a “Level” to certain skills, weights, times, etc. – basically see how badass you are.

How Fit Are You – Greg Glassman, Apr 03 CFJ

CrossFit Seattle Athletic Skill Levels

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Dr. Raju works at Health and Hospitals Corporation, a New York City public/private non-profit where my girlfriend works. You can read his Op-Ed here concerning recent NYT coverage of diabetes.

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Hopefully many of you know of Dr. Eades Protein Power Life Plan, however he has a blog as well. I especially enjoyed his dissection of Dr. George L. Blackburn’s commentary piece in the new journal Obesity. Fascinating that this supposedly respectable journal (published by the same company that publishes Nature) would choose someone whose current weight reduction scheme is based on surgery.

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Found some interesting sites off of Washingtonian.com, specifically their Open House Blog. Namely there are several sites that will sift through Real Estate Data, I like The Realty Insitute.

Also, I checked out www.apartmenttherapy.com, thought it was a pretty cool interior decorating blog (I can’t believe I just wrote that).

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An interesting post at Small Wars Journal blog that links to an interview by LTC John Nagl and LTC Paul Yingling, both active duty Army.

I took a look at the Armed Forces Journal article by Yingling. Rather stunning that a LTC would have the balls to call out all of the General Officers in the Armed Forces, so bravo just for that. But also he seems to have similar idea, just from a different angle, as MAJ Donal E. Vandergriff. You can take a look at some of his work here. MAJ Vandergriff takes a very hard look at our personnel management system within the Armed Forces and displays, I feel quite well, how systematically broken it is.

Like Col Boyd said, “People fight wars, not machines.” Vandergriff gives us a way to get the right peole in the right place at the right time to fight those wars. Yingling is saying the same thing, just with respect to generalship. Both very insightful individuals.

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So today’s WOD was ‘Fran’ (so fitting for Valentine’s Day)

Three rounds, 21-15- and 9 reps, for time of:
95 pound Thruster
Pull-ups

Time: 5:24, as rx’d (New PR)

Notes: Fran has really been up and down for me lately. See my PR link on the side of the page to check it out for the last 16 months or so, here are my last couple:

21 Jul 07 – 6:01 (Old PR)
17 Oct 07 – 7:43
17 Nov 07 – 7:21
20 Nov 07 – 6:17
18 Dec 07 – 8:24
14 Feb 08 – 5:24 (New PR)

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Congressman Wayne Gilchrest, R-MD, was defeated by MD State Senator Andrew Harris on Tuesday. Congressman Gilchrest was a prior U.S. Marine and one of the very few people in politics whom I have a great deal of respect for.

Semper Fidelis Congressman.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/02/13/AR2008021303820_pf.html

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From the Cato Institute’s Andrew Coulson (link):

During a recent round of visits with print journalists, a newspaper editor told me that she receives between five and ten times as many press releases attacking school choice as she receives in support of it. As a corrective to that lopsided public relations onslaught, she asked if the claims made on behalf of school choice were backed up by solid research, and if so, where that research might be found.

In reality, the vast majority of sound empirical studies comparing competitive education markets to state-run school monopolies give the edge to markets. A few find no significant differences, and only the tiniest percentage find any sort of advantage to government operated schools. Moreover, the superiority of free market education is not limited to higher student achievement, but extends to a variety of positive social effects as well.

What follows is a short list of studies introducing that empirical literature. Since the purpose of this comparison is illustrate differences between traditional state-run schooling and markets of competing private schools, public school choice programs and public charter schools are considered incidentally or not at all. Wherever possible, research summaries are cited so as to make the most efficient use of the reader’s time. The material is organized by topic, and links are provided for studies (or summaries thereof) available on the Internet. The topics covered are:

Relative academic performance of market vs. monopoly schooling

Racial achievement differences in government and independent schools

Graduation rates in independent vs. government schools

Integration in government and private schools

Other Social Effects of Market vs. Monopoly Schooling

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