This time of year is always a bit funky: it's cold and snowy up here in the Northeast, there's no major sporting events, and we're about a month away from spring making it's long awaited and triumphant return.

Thus, it's only natural to start thinking about more awesome things.  A few that come to my mind are: Double Rainbows, or this little guy giving you an epic speech, an amazing basketball shot, and....the Turkish Get Up.

Wait, what?

In the words of Jerry Seinfeld, "What's the deal with foam rolling?"

If you've been around a gym the past few years, you've probably seen foam rollers and wondered a) what they're used for, b) are they effective, or c) are they part of some secret ninja training apparatus?  

Well, for those that "roll" regularly, this post will simply be preaching to the choir.  However, for those of you that are new to foam rolling (or, like the 24 year old Alex, think it's a waste of time), then this post is especially for you.

As if New England didn't receive enough snow last weekend, I opened my shades this morning, and found what?  Yes, more frikken snow.  Seriously, it's like it's the middle of winter or something.....

Anyway, hope everyone had a great past few days.  While asteroids were falling all over earth during the weekend, I was busy "getting my nerd on" and making my way through a large chunk of reading.  As such, I'm able to share a few articles that I thought would be great for everyone to read.

As it's Valentine's Day and love is in the air, I wanted to focus on something that hasn't received much love over the past few years....carbohydrates.

While I think it started with the Atkins diet, as well as the discovery that the entire "low fat" diet actually caused more disease than it prevented (yes, it's true), it's now pretty trendy to say that you are "low carb" or have gone "Paleo."

Don't get me wrong, people that switch to the Paleo diet do lose weight.  But is the war on carbs even necessary?  Nope.  And crediting weight loss to a lack of grains or carbs is actually setting us back in our own nutrition.

Today I wanted to talk about the difference between the words "training" and "workout."  While the difference between the two may seem trivial to you, these phrases could not be any different to the strength and conditioning nerd that resides deep inside my soul.

But, before I delve into the larger topic of distinguishing between the two words, it's important to talk about goals.  Yes, those pesky little things that are the reasons you go to the gym in the first place.  Below are some of the more common goals that many of my clients have, which I might add are all terrific and perfectly reasonable: