It's been a few months since my last installment of "Random Fitness Wisdom" and I always enjoy writing these posts.  My inner introvert loves to think deeply, secluded from everyone (a la Harper Lee).  I also feel free to ramble on a few unrelated topics that don't always make for a full post (a la Billy Madison).

A few weeks ago I had a light bulb moment.  You know the type.  When you look at something, do a facepalm, and say "why didn't I think of that before!?"

I'll start by mentioning why it was so important.  Over the past few years I've been struggling to voice a common theme to all my clients. Breathing drills, different cues during exercises, and why we perform those exercises all have a logical explanation.  But I struggled with condensing very complicated explanations down to a simple sentence.  Last week, I found what I was looking for when I was coaching someone on a deadlift. (<----no surprise there, AMIRITE??) 

Here's the light bulb: the biggest lesson I hope to give people is to help them understand and master their center of gravity.  Why?  Because most people - including myself - are losing this battle. 

I'd compare front squats to slowly submerging yourself into an ice bath.  It hurts, it doesn't get better until you're all the way in, and even the thought of it will make you shudder.

Naturally, I decided I needed to master them.  

Nicknamed "The Hunt for Quadzilla," my goal in January 2013 was to front squat 300 pounds.  My squats were terrible and hitting 300 would either A) make me a better coach or B) make me institutionalized.

I'm happy to report that I achieved the former.....but only time will tell with the latter.

In the year 2015 we know a few things:

• Pluto is almost a real planet again
• The Weeknd is Michael Jackson 2.0
• We could all use more push-ups

Wait, what?

Being a realist, I know it takes a special brand of crazy to LOVE push-ups the way I do. And I'm constantly trying to tinker and perfect exercise variations that give the most return on investment.  I've recently fallen in love with this push-up variation that I stole from Eric Cressey.  See here:

A few years ago I read the book “Why Zebras Don’t Get Ulcers” by Robert M. Sapolsky.  Other than the author having a great Polish-sounding name, I read it because it’s all about human stress and recovery.  And it explains why – you guessed it – people get ulcers but (most) animals don’t.  But after 300 pages I came away with one glaring fact: I'm going to die early from chronic stress.

Great bedtime reading, right?

While I’m only half joking, my mistake was not in the decision to read this book.  Instead it was reading it too early in my career.