This Past Week (2/21-2/26)

Alright alright alright y'all. So I have 20 minutes left in my shift at work and I'm really not trying to read anymore so I'll give you all an update of what has happened this past week, or at least whatever I can fit in during the remainder of my shift.

So yeah, this past week was my deload week for my lifting. I'm on a cycle of three weeks hard, one week deload where I use 70% of my weights that I was using in the previous week. (FYI, look for an article from me about deloading and its benefits in the next few months). Anyways, these deload weeks have been vital in allowing me to continue to lift for incredibly long periods of time without getting burned out. If you're not deloading in your current training regimen, I would highly suggest deloading every four to six weeks.

This deload week in particular was incredibly crucial because we've hit the point in the basketball season where you wake up sore every morning regardless of how much you stretch and ice the night before. In light of this, being able to take it easy for a minute in the weight room was a gift. I'm definitely ready to start lifting heavy again come Sunday though.

I was also able to start up this blog on Tuesday, which I'm still trying to figure out exactly how I want it formatted but am incredibly pumped about it nonetheless.

By far the biggest surprise of the week was that I had a new article published on EliteFTS.com on Tuesday. It was surprising in that the last article of mine they featured they e-mailed me the morning it was posted. This time I found out by seeing that the hits to my website had gone waaaaayy up in the last 24 hours, so I checked where they were coming from and saw it was EliteFTS. I checked the site, and sure enough my article was up. By the way, they finally e-mailed me yesterday to let me know it would be up haha.

This week was also really busy for me because I had a ton of one-time sessions this week, where I would walk people through programs that I had written for them, on top of my regular sessions. I got to work with the Williams Rugby team, which was an awesome experience because it was a large group of guys and they were all really excited to hit the weights. I love being around that type of energy.

New YouTube videos were added to the Exercise Index on my website as well, and there will be more going up in the next few days. Ummmm...yeah I think that pretty much wraps up my week. Now I need to start writing the next mesocycle of my training program (S.E.L.F. Made Simple) and work on the newest edition of "The Source", which will hopefully being going out some time this upcoming week!

Finally, my girlfriend ran her fastest time of the year today and is going to be really pissed if I don't give her a shout out. Congrats!! Haha I'm out.

Get big or die tryin'.

Raw Milk

Okay so for the past 10 days I have been drinking raw milk. Personally, I love. it. It tastes great and it's health benefits are astounding, especially compared to regular milk. Like I said in the intro to the page, this is a subject that I'm not incredibly familiar on but am learning about. Here's a very basic, partially ignorant, description of raw milk: it is milk that has not been pasteurized or homogenized so all of the enzymes and bacteria that are naturally in milk, and supposed to be in milk, are in the milk. These bacteria boost our immune systems and keep us healthy and the enzymes allow our bodies to function as they were intended to. For instance, people who are lactose intolerant don't do well with milk or milk products because their bodies are unable to produce the lactase enzyme. However, this enzyme that is destroyed in regular milk during pasteurization is naturally found in raw milk and therefore most people who are lactose intolerant are able to handle raw milk and raw milk products very well. For athletes, especially those who strength train and/or are trying to put on muscle, the enzymes in the milk are incredible in boosting protein synthesis and adding mass. This is where my shaky knowledge of raw milk ends, but there are others out there who are much more informed. For instance, Sean Croxton of Underground Wellness constantly talks about raw milk in his weekly radio show as well as his youtube videos. Here's one of Sean's earlier videos about raw milk:

This is just one source of information out there. There is a whole other side to the raw milk story, which Sean talks about in his video, about the increasing struggle to be able to purchase raw milk. I won't talk about that here because I am completely ignorant on this subject, but nonetheless it is something to think about.

Get big or die tryin'.