Pressure on the carotid artery....

Olympic weightlifting coach Bob Takano used to talk about one of the dangers of a loaded bar resting too high on the neck during a Clean catch. The dangers involved the weight of the bar pressing against the carotid artery and cutting off blood circulation.....too much pressure for a period of time and we could get something like this.



This is the first time I have actually seen this happen.....yikes!

Walking the walk in this field.....

Just some random thoughts about experts in this field. The fitness and conditioning world is filled with tons and tons of 'experts'....it really is tough to filter through and find out who is legit and who isn't. My Friend Alwyn Cosgrove made the analogy comparing a fitness expert and a black belt martial artist. I really like this comparison! If you are a legit black belt you will surely be able to stand the test of your expertise, same goes for being a legit fitness expert right? Anyone can say that they are an expert or that they are a blackbelt and the reality is that, for the most part, you will never get called out on it. People will usually take your word for it right? The true test is getting called out on it and walking the walk. 'Fake' fitness experts get exposed when you find that they don't actually train folks, they don't get results, or they don't really make a living in this field. 'Fake' blackbelts probably end up getting their ass kicked.

Here is legendary strength and conditioning "expert" Chuck Berry at work on the USC campus

Power Training Bonus Offer.... FINAL DAYS!

The sales of the special offer I have had for my book have gone MUCH better than I expected! I am actually to the point where I only have a few books left to sell along with the other bonuses. Take advantage of this offer as I will no longer offer it once all of the books are gone! The offer includes:

- A Signed copy of Power Training ($20 value)
-Coach dos.com t-shirt ($20 value)
- Advanced 12-week 'Cardio Strength training' program to go along with your PT workouts ($50 value)
-Free shipping in the U.S.A. ($10 value...extra $10 for locations outside the U.S.A.)

Order your Power Training Bonus Package TODAY! Power Training Special Offer !

Awesome pics by Embry Rucker!

It never ceases to amaze me how good some people are at their chosen crafts. During the writing of my feature article in the Dec. 2007 Men's Health issue (The New Rules of Strength) I not only got to meet a great writer in Joe Kita but also an extrordinary photographer by the name of Embry Rucker. Embry and his assistant drove up to Santa Clarita to spend most of the day shooting photos for this article. It was about 105+ degrees that day and they were in the gym with me and my basketball players, in the weightroom with me and 80+ football players, and outside in the sweltering heat taking shot after shot! Well, Embry ended-up getting some great shots for the article but many of the ones that didn't make the Men's Health article were fantastic. These are from Embry's blog....make sure to check it out as he has some great photos posted both there and on his website @ http://www.embryrucker.com/ .

From Embry's Blog on Oct. 30, 2007.....
the cougars of coach Dos
*I went up to 'College of the Canyons' for Men's Health last month to shoot Coach Dos AKA Robert Dos Remedios, & some of his athletes.... it was a thousand degrees & these guys worked there asses off...
Posted by embry_rucker at 7:39 PM

"The New Rules of Strength"

Well, I had the great fortune to have a feature article written about me and my book called "The New Rules of Strength" in this month's Men's Health (Dec. 2007). It was a great experience as I got to meet and hang out with a great writer by the name of Joe Kita. Joe is a great guy and a hell of a writer having written several best selling books including Another Shot: How I Relived My Life in Less Than a Year which helped land him a visit to the Oprah Winfrey show! Now most of us know that once you get to the Oprah show, you've pretty much arrived at whatever it is that you do!

Anyway, it was a tremendous honor to have an article written about me by such a great writer.....here it is!

http://www.menshealth.com/cda/article.do?site=MensHealth&channel=fitness&category=fitness.tips&conitem=f5a7dd1c3d006110VgnVCM10000013281eac____&page=1

Internet Trainers Part DEUX!

Ugh! Here we go again.... so a while back a trainer from Canada decided to email a good friend of mine to tell him that he was too skinny and too fat to give training advice and that multiple bouts of fighting cancer was no excuse for his physical state. Being the person that I am, I emailed this trainer and basically asked him if he was A) psychotic B) stupid or C) a little of both. It turns out that he was a lot of both. I was forwarded his blog from a couple of months after and the guy calls me out by name as 'randomly' emailing him one day to tell him that he had a chicken-neck and birth-giving hips (okay, okay so I did throw a few jabs at him...) and that I said something about celebrity trainers not knowing anything. First off, I would NEVER email someone for no reason and say something like that. Secondly, I never actually called him a celebrity trainer since I don't believe that training one of the Olsen Twins would actually classify you as a trainer. I mean, how would one of those sessions go? "Hey Ashley/Mary Kate, eat this sandwich and don't move around too much....gotta get ready for swimsuit season". Anyway, I digress, the thing that this really comes down to is the whole idea of throwing stones when you live in a glass house. I mean, are you really going to call someone out on his physique while you have an incredibly awkward one yourself? (and DIDN'T have to go through 2 massive bouts of chemo...) This is why I think there is actually something not right with this guy....he goes out of his way to email someone to tell him that cancer is no big deal (and at the same time also talked smack about Valerie Waters, a REAL celebrity trainer who actually knows what she's doing) in the process. Why? I would normally say that there is some other underlying issue but there isn't....this dude is just a jackass....there's a lot of them out there folks. Welcome to the World Wide Web!!!!

Damn you Mike Boyle..Damn you to HELL!

Okay, so many of you know that Mike Boyle has taken his existing website that was chock-full of great articles, info, forums etc. and made it into a pay site. So what has the response been like? Well, for me, my first reaction was "It's about time". So many of us have used Mike's information, cited his articles, prodded him for information in the past...for FREE. Why would anyone scoff at the fact that Mike has finally decided that his information is now actually worth $?! Believe it or not people have scoffed....and boy do they continue to scoff. Well, I think that this is actually Mike Boyle's fault! Yup, I said it....Mike has spoiled all of us into believing that great, sound, effective training advice is something that you get for FREE. Damn you Mike! Damn YOU!

Okay, seriously, let's analyze this shall we? I believe that the cost for a subscription to www.strengthcoach.com is $67 ....A YEAR. Yeah guys....$67 a year....$5.58 per month.... $.18 per day. Damn you Boyle! What do you think we're all made out of money or something?! Where the hell am I gonna come up with frickin $.18 per day?! If I spend that $.18 cents on Mike's stupid website how will I afford my $4.25 Starbucks iced cafe latte (soy of course) each weekday morning? Yeah, the latte that costs me $4.25 each day...$93 each month....and $1122 each year?! Oh wait! What about that $1.19 pack of gum I get every week?? That strengthcoach.com membership might mean that I might have to give up my $62 yearly gum allowance.

Okay the sarcasm is getting to me. Bottom line.....I went onto strengthcoach.com the other day (for the first time) just to explore. Within about 30 min. I had printed 3 training spreadsheets, wrote about 4 pages of notes, and got two new exercises that I implemented THAT DAY. Hmmm, would that be worth $.18 for that day? What was that worth to me in terms of $? Well, I have paid over $300 to attend a conference and got MUCH less usable info than that. You can't even put a price on something like this...to be able to get info that is usable right now is incredible. Even to find a little way to tweak an exercise so that you can now implement it with your athletes/clients is invaluable. Sure we can all say that we can search and find free stuff all over the 'www' for free but that is really hit and miss. I have read comments from folks that have said that they can just email professionals in this field and get the answers to all of their questions for free. Really? I get about 20-30 emails per day from people all over the world (who don't know me) asking me for advice, information, programs etc. and I couldn't possibly spend the time to answer and help everyone individually (at least in any sort of detail). I wonder who these 'professionals' are that have all day to answer questions from people they don't know on the Internet? Sure, I have a great circle of friends in this industry that I can rely on for answers to my questions but I don't believe that just anyone who emails these guys would get the same answers as me. Does that make sense?

Maybe it's just me.....I love to learn new stuff, I enjoy reading about how others train their athletes/clients, I don't mind spending money.....hell, I spend more the $67 a week on beer alone and lastly for those who scoff at paying $.18 a day for a surplus of information (that is so large that you couldn't possibly read through it all) I have a couple of thoughts....

#1 You should probably go get a job.
#2 If you are training people for a living, you might want to change jobs as you aren't doing it very well (if you can't afford $.18 a day).
#3 You are probably one of those guys who already knows it all so you wouldn't be reading this blog anyway.



Peace out! DOS

P.S BTW, I am almost out of books so my MH Power Training Special Offer is just about to end (so do someone up for Christmas will ya?!)