KNOWLEDGE IS POWER

Last time the SOFLETE HQ Crew was in Ouagadougou,there was a coup (say that ten times fast). Looks like things were a little hot there yesterday as well. When you're traveling in the developing world, make sure that your hotel is setup with some degree of security and ask for an internal room off the street if possible. And remember, It's always a good idea to stay alert.  

Americans vision of strength and fitness shifted in the late 1970s. When guys like ArnoldSchwarzenegger and Lou Ferrigno began appearing in films and on television, what we thought about strength training became about one thing: size.

The nascent world of health and fitness soon shifted focus, with sheer mass -- as opposed to all-around health and fitness -- being the arbiter of men’s health. Magazines likeMuscle and Fitness, Shape UpandStrength & Health began pushing pictures of guys built like comic book heroes, their oiled muscles rippling off the page, and the supplement industry suddenly exploded with men looking for mass.

The public safety and military worlds soon fell right in line. Cops worked toward having a “physical presence,” firemen wanted to impress the soccer moms at the grocery store, and military guys wanted to look like the G.I. Joe cartoons they grew up watching.

This trend continued on through the 1980s, with the ubiquity of shredded Gold’s Gym shirts and the legendary Muscle Beach acting as the benchmark for what was and what wasn’t defined as “fitness.” We watched American Gladiators and ate our Wheaties in hopes that we too might curl those massive, octagonical dumbbells, our crewcuts and biceps glistening in the sun.

It wasn’t until the mid-to-late 90s that we began to see a shift in our values and focuses, a shift that continues to manifest today in the idea that fitness and strength doesn’t necessarily mean being the biggest and most physically imposing.

And while mass and size are fine if aesthetics are your main goal, or if you’re a naturally large human, science would argue that you don’t need size to see massive gains in strength.

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When I told my Chinese colleagues and students that my wife and I were headed to Sichuan for a short getaway in the dead of winter, they seethed with envy. While still not a top destination for foreigners, the province has long held an almost mythical significance within Chinese.

We train a lot with picking heavy stuff up and putting it down. This is the core of what external resistance training relies on. What is missing here is the functional accessory work that comes from pushing or pulling a weight across a plane.

This is where a weight sled comes in. Put a stack of 45s on a weight sled and you now have yourself a good time.

Unfortunately this is a tool that a lot of gyms don’t have. In order to get a decent one, you will likely fork out $250 or more. So, we decided to create a way to cheaply build a sled you can use without breaking the bank. The following build cost $92, all materials bought new. You could probably bring that cost down to around $50 but cutting a few items out, which will be highlighted in the instructions.

Lately I have been able to work on and develop my recovery protocols. They’ve become a huge part and success factor in not just my training but my overall life, providing emotional and even mental resets. This isn’t something that happened over night; believe it or not, it has take almost a full year of really sticking to these recovery protocols after every workout to see the maximum recovery results.

The great thing about these recovery tips is that they are not adding more things to your day. The trainers and programmers  at SOFLETE are simply helping you create more time in you day with better workout results and a better recovery. Wondering why this is? Think about how fast you are going from when you wake up to when you go to bed. At times it seems like you don’t even remember what you did that morning! Now that isn’t a good thing.

In a world full of nutritionist bloggers, Instagram health experts, and a booming weight loss industry estimated to be worth over $60 billion, why are Americans more obese they have ever been?

While it is widely recognized that seeking expert coaches in the fitness world is beneficial for physical training, why aren’t individuals seeking out experts when it comes to nutrition? Why aren’t we looking toward the pros to coach us through adapting healthy eating patterns designed to help them reach their goals?

Most people seek out a cure-all for obesity but this complex issue stems from many different factors, making the idea of finding a single solution an impossibility.

For most of the world, Africa is truly the forgotten land. On a vast continent that spans both sides of the equator and is host to a dizzying variety of ecosystems, cultures, religions, and wildlife, being forgotten by much of the rest of the world is perhaps one of the only universal commonalities among it’s people.

The police culture has historically been diametrically opposed to the concept of its members being fit.

While it’s not that police agencies or individual officers aren't enthusiastic about working out, or that agencies don’t want their officers being fit, quite the contrary, it is the officers’ lifestyle that can prove to be a detriment to sustained fitness. Certain aspects of police fitness have been getting better in the past few years based on general public knowledge of health and exercise; newer members have grown up in the age of instant fitness “knowledge” available on the internet.

Unfortunately, there will always be some things about the police culture that will probably be detrimental to your workout routine, regardless of how educated those in law enforcement become.

Touching down in Almaty International Airport late on a cool, autumn evening, the first thing that struck me was the impossibly wide, round hats of the airport security guards. The second thing that caught my attention was the distinctive, unfamiliar look of the local workers: Their hazel eyes and high cheekbones reminded me that I had indeed arrived in a country very different from other parts of Asia I had been to, a blank slate in my mind ripe for exploration.