Guest Post: "I Pity The Fool:" 5 Tips For Strong & Healthy Knees

by Kennet Waale

When my good friend Kennet Waale offered to provide content for my blog while I was recovering from surgery, I jumped at the opportunity. Here are the delightfully educational fruits of his labor. If nothing else, be sure to watch the videos linked below for Ken's sexy Aussie accent. Heck, you might even learn something along the way. I know I did! Take it away, Ken.

The aim of this post is to provide you with five powerful tips on how you can improve your knee health and stay sane while enjoying your running, cycling, squatting, and sex.

The majority of anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) injuries occur with an anterior migration of the femur relative to the tibia coupled with excess rotation. The posterior cruciate ligament (PCL) is less prone to injury, with the opposite mechanism of that of the ACL.

ACL injuries are often non-contact and are seen when planting your foot where your foot and shin bone are standing still while the femur (politely) decides to keep moving.

Due to the shear fact that it might bore you, I will not outline in detail the typical mechanisms, but you can read more about them in THIS STUDY and find more clinically relevant information HERE.

Feats of Strength Compilation Video

Seeing as I won’t be exercising for a few months following colorectal surgery, I figured I’d go on my hiatus in style with a compilation video of a bunch of my feats of strength.

Watch it below, or here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HG5K6-7rJ08



Special thanks to Ashley Barnas for her sensational videography work, as well as Fusion Fitness Center in Newark, Delaware, for graciously allowing us to use their space.

Stuff That Blew My Mind: Change Edition

In addition to writing about fitness and creating fabulous videos of myself performing feats of strength, I also do a fair bit of reading. When I come across something really good, I feel the need to share. As such, here are two recent blog posts pertaining to *change* that really blew me away (plus a third I wrote myself).

The authors, Jessi Kneeland and Matt Cleary, are terrific trainers and writers. If you enjoy these posts, be sure to 'Like/Follow/Subscribe' to them on social media, as well as dig into their archives!

Confession Time

I have ulcerative colitis.

There, I said it. Do I feel better now? Not really. It doesn't change the fact that I’m scheduled for a proctocolectomy on Friday (surgery to remove my entire large intestine and rectum).

If you’re not familiar with ulcerative colitis, it’s an autoimmune disease that causes inflammation of the large intestine. Symptoms include abdominal pain, bleeding, and frequent trips to the bathroom.

For some, UC is just a slight nuisance. Flare-ups are fairly easily controlled by anti-inflammatory medication and short-term corticosteroids. For others, it can be extremely debilitating, to the point of not being able to leave the house. Those of us whose disease is more severe are forced to endure longer term steroid use, heavy-duty immunosuppressant medications, and in rare cases — if unresponsive to these therapies — even surgery.

10 Reasons You're Not Losing Fat, Especially #10

Frustrated with your lack of success in the fat loss department? Perhaps you're sabotaging yourself by committing one or more of the following offenses.

1. You have no idea what you eat in terms of total calories and macronutrient breakdown (ratio of carbs, protein, and fat).

The first step to fat loss success is writing down what and how much you eat. Just the simple act of logging your food for a few days can be truly eye-opening. If you’re really meticulous, you can actually weigh everything out and record it using a smartphone app.

Podcast Ep. 5: Side Quest Fitness with Robbie Farlow

Robbie Farlow showing off his chesticles.

Side Quest Fitness's Robbie Farlow and I had such a marvelous time chatting on his podcast last week that we decided to get together once again (virtually) for an episode of the Fitness Pollenator Podcast!

In this episode, we discuss all your and my burning questions for Robbie, including

• How Robbie went from theater major to meathead trainer
• Why Robbie started the Side Quest Podcast (the Unofficial Podcast of Fitocracy)
• What Fitocracy is
• Robbie's favorite Side Quest Podcast guest
• Robbie's biggest training influences
• The connection between fitness and marriage
• And much, much more!

(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AhgolMLU72k)

For just the audio version of this podcast, click here.

In case you missed my interview with Robbie for his podcast, you can listen to it out here:

http://www.sidequestfitness.com/podcast/2015/3/29/interview-with-travis-pollen

I also recommend subscribing to the Side Quest Podcast on iTunes here so you can listen to the great new guests he has on every week!

T-Nation: The 3 Essential Workout Methods for Muscle

Since Brad Schoenfeld published his 2010 review paper on the three mechanisms of muscle growth, oodles of articles have been written on the subject.

Despite this fact, none to date had clearly and systematically described exactly how to preferentially target each mechanism for compounds lifts like squats, deadlifts, bench press, pull-ups, etc.

Until now, that is.

In our new article for T-Nation, Bret Contreras and I break down which variation of the lifts to perform and how to manipulate training variables like sets, reps, tempo, and rest in order to build the most muscle scientifically possible.

Here’s the link:

https://www.t-nation.com/training/3-essential-workout-methods-for-muscle

In response to the article, my friend and physical therapist Chris Leib did a great video demonstration showing how to utilize these techniques through loaded carry, kettlebell, and mace training: