Kendall's Muscles-Testing and Function is a great place to start. Expensive, yes. Worth it, yes. Quick tip- save $10 and by used. Most often you get an unopened college text from the person who did not pay attention in the first place. Worst case, you get a few margin notes from the previous owner.

First up is the next installment in the Core Performance series Core Performance for Women

The original Core Performance is one of my favorite books. I still recommend it for anyone looking for a book for a sophisticated beginner or an up and coming coach. I think this will be a great book for those who coach females.

Next up are two new books from Adam Campbell and Men's and Women's Health. The Woman's Health Big Book of Exercises

and The Men's Health Big Book of Exercises . Adam has done a great job of raising the bar on these books. The exercises are very current, well described and well illustrated. If you are new to the field and looking for ideas and progressions you'll enjoy either book.

http://www.PaulaOwens.com/powerof4.html

. I've read a couple of nutrition books and have to say that I really enjoyed Power of 4. Like many nutrition books some of the advice is unrealistic but, the book reads easy and has a lot of cutting edge ideas. Paula is definitely not your "skinny runner" type of nutritionist and is, at least in my mind, very accurate with her thoughts. If you have read a lot of the conventional nutrition stuff ( high carb-low fat blah, blah, blah) this book will be a paradigm shift.

Cardio Strength by Robert Dos Remedios

Dos second book is a good follow up up to his highly successful Power Training If you liked Power Training, I'm sure you'll like Cardio Strength Training.

If you got a bunch of gift cards for Christmas, this might be a great way to spend them

As always dont forget to check out the StrengthCoach Podcast at www.strengthcoachpodcast.com. Also, make sure you check www.strengthcoachblog.com. Last but not least, make sure you keep up with www.strengthandconditioningwebinars.com .

Site Notes

Just a reminder, the articles and videos go up over the course of the week. Generally one each day. Only one article mentioned on this email will go up on the day you receive this email.

Also, your credit card statement will show a change from RylanLee.com, not StrengthCoach.com. Hope you enjoy the week.

Why I like it: Here's a sentence I picked out at random: "The big key is that the core is used to stabilize against sagittal plane motions that are attempting to produce rotary force." Out of context, it looks like heavy sledding for those of us who aren't trained in exercise physiology. But in context -- he's describing a core exercise called the push-pull -- it makes perfect sense.

That's the beauty of what Boyle does: He condenses and synthesizes the most important new information emerging from scientific research in the fields of biomechanics and physical therapy, expressing it in a way that makes it accessible to someone with a base of knowledge and college-level reading comprehension, but without dumbing it down. (That's my job.)

This is a substantial book. Boyle explains in detail his joint-by-joint approach to training, as well as his current understanding of injury prevention, rehab, core training, exercise selection, program design, and much more. But it's also a humble book. Boyle writes that he's "becoming famous for changing my mind," and notes that he changes an important aspect of his training protocols on an annual basis.

I give Advances in Functional Training the highest compliment I can possibly offer: I cleared space for it on my main reference bookshelf, putting it alongside McGill's Low Back Disorders, Myers' Anatomy Trains, Siff'sSupertraining, and the NSCA textbook.

Just got my copy of new book. Love it! Excellent job (as I expected). Definitely a "must have" that will become a "go to" text for many.

"Most people are dead at thirty-five, they just walk around for another thirty to forty more years."

The quote was intended to apply to most adults from a nutritional standpoint. I find the point both amusing and accurate from a physical standpoint also. By thirty-five most of the damage is done and without an intensive program of exercise, the damage is difficult to reverse.

The truth is that quality of life begins to deteriorate after thirty for many people due to lack of exercise. Activities that were once simple and normal become increasingly difficult. The sad part is that the deterioration doesn't become readily apparent until the fifties or sixties and at this point, it gets much harder to change. The baby boomers are fueling the personal training business in an attempt to improve not only the length of their life but the quality. However, the time to fight back is right now. Don't wait until you are fifty and try to undo 20 years of damage. One of my favorite quotes is

"the best time to plant a tree was three years ago. The next best time is today".

Don't wait another day to begin an exercise program, start today.

The truth is that obesity, neck pain, back pain, and so many of the debilitating conditions that we suffer from in adulthood are entirely preventable but, the earlier we start the better. Don't make excuses. You only need about 30 minutes three days a week. Try to get 5 minutes of warm-up, 10 minutes of total body strength training and 15 minutes of cardiovascular work.

The bottom line. Don't walk around in a dying body. We would never treat our cars the way we treat our bodies. Imagine never changing the oil, using the cheapest possible gas, and driving until the tires are bald. Unfortunately this is the way we treat our bodies. The only problem is that we can't buy a new body after we ruin the old one. The damage may be irreversible. If the damage is reversible, we need to reverse it with exercise instead of with drugs. Exercise is the most powerful wellness drug on the planet. It's just difficult to take. Try taking a good dose of exercise three times a week and you might be able to throw away the Lipitor and the blood pressure medicine and all the other junk.

The Fascinating Five for 2009

The second comes from Raychelle Elsworth. Raychelle is the Associate Director for Olympic and Team Sports at Texas A+M. The article is entitled Breaking the Glass Ceiling and explores the position of strength and conditioning coach from a female perspective. Video of the Week Video of the week is the TRX Leg Curl. This is another example of a TRX exercise that I did not take seriously enough until I tried it. The fact of the matter is that this is a very difficult progression. If you have not mastered the slideboard leg curl don't evn think about this one.

As always don't forget to check out the StrengthCoach Podcast at www.strengthcoachpodcast.com. Also, make sure you check www.strengthcoachblog.com. Last but not least, make sure you keep up with www.strengthandconditioningwebinars.com . Anthony added 2 new case study webinars. Joe Heiler did one called "Using the SFMA and the FMS with an Elite Level Snowboarder with Bilateral Knee Pain." You can check it out here: http://www.strengthandconditioningwebinars.com/members/186.cfm

Tim Yuhas did a great follow up to his "Preventing ACL Tears" webinar called "Coming Back from and ACLTear." You can check it out at: http://www.strengthandconditioningwebinars.com/members/187.cfm

Site Notes

Just a reminder, the articles and videos go up over the course of the week. Generally one each day. Only one article mentioned on this email will go up on the day you receive this email.

Also, your credit card statement will show a change from RylanLee.com, not StrengthCoach.com. Hope you enjoy the week.

Mike Boyle Strength and Conditioning on YouTube

Equipment- Schwinn AirDyne ( larger fan model)

Workout 20 sec on 10 sec off working to hit level 10 on each interval

Sets and reps- 3 sets of 6 intervals were performed. Each set takes two minutes and fifty seconds. Rest was done by heartrate. We started the next set when we hit 110 BPM. Both of us are over 50 years old. My heartrate maxed out at 172 after the last set. Rest was 1 min after set one, about 2 min after set two. This means we did 18 sprints of 20 sec each in just under 12 min.

I was able to ride 1 mile in each 2:50 second interval. If you have access to an AirDyne, give it a try.

PS- don't ask me how to be this specific on another bike because I don't have one.