It’s instructive to realize that some folks still have to live by the sweat of their brow (and keep smiling) the next time you think your workout is hard. Photo credit: Juliette Lasserre/BIPs/Getty Images

Monday bonus validation and link love: As the Hogans would say, have you been Eugenized yet? I don’t claim to have all the answers be a health and fitness guru, but it’s nice to see that even established health and fitness gurus like Mark Sisson (who writes an awesome blog, BTW) agrees with me. If you read nothing but his Primal Blueprint and followed it, you’d easily outlive everyone you know.

With proper coaching, this should never happen.

Why does stupid stuff (like the “cleans” in the video linked above) happen on a routine basis?  Because you (or your coach) has chosen to emphasize intensity over quality.

Intensity (read: level of effort) is vitally important.  In fact, the main reason most people get absolutely nothing out of their workouts is due to lack of intensity - they simply aren’t working hard enough to stimulate change in their body.

The flip side, of course, is what’s typically true of guys in the gym (and the freshmen in the video) - too much intensity improperly applied. It’s a poor strategy to work with a high level of effort before you develop proper form and technique.

Develop good technique first. There’s plenty of empirical evidence that shows that people who work out hard without first perfecting form have atrocious form, and even when they are taught proper form, quickly revert to atrocious form if not monitored and corrected.

By ensuring you have your form down first, you can:

• Avoid injury.
• Ensure proper exercise of working muscles.
• Maximize exercise efficiency.

Case in point - If you learn how to jump rope with proper technique, one day you’ll be able to work up to doing this:

Welcome. Please bear with me during this transition period.

All of my previous posts and articles can still be found on eugenization.wordpress.com

I hope to have everything transferred over by the end of the week.

To all, I wish you a happy holiday, whatever that holiday may be.

You can either take this day to rest, feed, and be merry with your loved ones, or take a cue from Santa and get a few reps in before tucking into that Figgy Pudding (I know which one I’ll be doing.  Dinner table, here I come):

(Santa Automaton by dugnorth.com)

I know some of you were wondering how I did:

(Sorry Corrie, next time I’ll avoid taking trips to China immediately before a competition.)

Thanks to everyone for all of your support. Currently training hard for October (My sempai Jin has a wicked Uchi Mata - ouch).