Straight Up Coffee

I love coffee. Every morning, as the first sip of dark, rich liquid touches my lips, it sends a stream of happiness down my spine! I am not talking about the drinks some call coffee . The ones that are all sugar and milk masking the coffee taste. In my opinion, all of those drinks ruin coffee. They do have their avid followers, I just don't happen to be one. This post is not about my disdain for all of the frozen concoctions fattening up our society, but rather this is about the freshness and flavor of coffee.

Many people were raised with the scent of Maxwell House or Folgers floating through the kitchen every morning. Ground coffee that comes in a can. Who knew those grounds were once fresh roasted coffee before it was ground and put into a can, shelved until it was sold at the local grocery story - sold as coffee, even though it should be labeled as stale. Unlike stale bread which rapidly becomes dramatically inedible, stale coffee can be drunk and enjoyed. But what a difference a few days make! An absolutely fresh coffee, a day or two out of the roaster, explodes with perfume, an evanescent aroma that seems to resonate in the nervous system and vibrate around the head like a sort of coffee aura. The aftertaste of a truly fresh coffee can ring on the palate for an entire morning: the taste of a weak-old coffee will vanish in a few minutes.

Coffee is best about a day after it has been roasted. Once past that moment a rapid and relentless deterioration in flavor sets in as the protective envelope of carbon dioxide gas dissipates, allowing oxygen to penetrate the bean and stale the delicate flavor oils. There is nothing technology can do to stop this process even though many companies claim to freeze dry, or seal the coffee container to preserve its freshness. (The frustrations of false advertising) For someone who genuinely loves coffee, the bouquet of optimally fresh beans is without doubt the most tangible reasons to buy fresh roasted beans from a local roaster or roast coffee at home.

Reasonably fresh coffee can be purchased at specialty stores if the roasting is done on the premises or close by, but with the growth of mammoth regional and national specialty-coffee chains beans may be roasted hundreds or even thousands of miles from the store where you finally buy them. Coffee from these specialty chains will be infinitely better and fresher than the preground stuff that comes in cans and bricks, but it won't/can't be as fresh as the coffee from a local roaster or even the coffee you could be roasting in your home! (Home roasting? That is a whole different post so stay tuned.)

Let's hear it for freshly roasted coffee! Once you go fresh, you will never go back, I promise!

Now that's what I call a steak

When in Italy, do as Italians do, right? That is exactly what we did. While in Florence, we were on the hunt for Bistecca alla Fiorentina. Many in the English-speaking world would call this a Porterhouse and wonder what the fuss is about. And they'd be right in most cases; though Bistecca alla Fiorentina, Florentine-Style Steak, is featured prominently on the menus of almost all the restaurants in Florence, finding a good one isn't at all easy. But we found an excellent little family owned restaurant that serves a steak that was heaven on earth, delightfully rich, rare meat so tender it could be cut with a spoon. This was honestly the best steak I have ever eaten!

Much of the secret is the breed of cattle, Chianina beef are the huge white oxen raised in the Val di Chiana, near Arezzo. Chianina are one of the oldest breeds of cattle, originating in the Chiana Valley in Italy, the breed dates back to the time of Roman Empire. They are the largest breed in size, bulls generally standing 6 feet tall and weighing up to 3,836 lbs. The cows stand at 5 feet or so and weighing in at up to 2,400 lbs. Their meats are both tender and flavorful, and because of the size reached by the animals the steaks can easily exceed 6 pound.

Between 6 adult primal/paleo meat lovers, we polished off a 2 kilo bistecca. And this is all that was left.

to butterfly?

Pull-ups are something we strive to excel at and we work hard to get a great kipping pull-up. For those who have mastered the kip, what is next? Yep, that is right, once you have a good kipping pull-up you can look at working on butterfly pull-ups. Why the butterfly? Well for one, all the insane Fran times are done using butterfly pull-ups. And in general, it is yet another fun thing to practice and conquer.

Here is a great video explaining the butterfly pull-up! It is about time for me to start learning how to butterfly, is anyone with me? (Other than all of you who have already mastered the butterfly that is. The top of that list is Ryan C. Kudos to him, he rock the butterfly now!)

for ellie

Health Effects of Processed Meats Versus Unprocessed Red Meats from Harvard SPH on Vimeo.

who named it snatch?

My quest still continues to discover that mastermind behind naming the lift snatch. Will I ever find out? I don't know, but I won't give up trying. Just as I will continue to work on getting stronger, faster and fitter. There is always room for improvement in all aspects of our lives whether it is personal, professional or physical. Continue to strive hard in life and you will reap the rewards. If I research deep enough, will I find the answer that is alluding me about the snatch? Only time and effort will tell. Until then, enjoy watching these women kick some snatch and clean & jerk butt. It is amazing how fast they are.....oh, to one day lift like them.

Power of Positivity

Isn't she adorable? What can we learn from her? I believe in the power of positive thinking. And if we gave ourselves a little pep talk every morning, our day might be better. Monday's may seem less daunting, the sun might shine a little brighter, and we might approach each day with a bigger skip in our step. I know I could use a little positive pep talk every morning. How about you?

Mobility anyone?

I have posted some words from Mark Sisson that he puts out in his daily blog. This one was posted today and I thought it was good enough to share. Mobility is important, especially in the ankles and wrists. Read on and enjoy and hopefully learn a bit or two.

The Importance of Wrist and Ankle Mobility posted by Mark Sisson 5/13

How mobile are your wrists and ankles? They’re the primary hinges for our two major sets of extremities – hands and feet – and yet they often go neglected. They’re two of the most common sites of debilitating pain and acute injury, and yet people do little else to correct the problem than tightening the high tops, strapping on some constrictive sleeves, or avoiding activity altogether. All those “solutions” miss the point entirely, in my opinion. Rather than fix the root issue, they skirt it and apply expensive band aids. If you know anything about how I approach other issues of health and wellness, you can guess that I’m not satisfied with the band aid approach to wrist and ankle mobility. We can do a whole lot better than that.

Wrists

The importance of wrist mobility is pretty self-evident – the things are literally built for flexion, extension, adduction, and abduction. Imagine how utterly useless our ability to grasp and grab things would be without a properly greased wrist hinge. It’d be like amputating your forearms and replacing them with those grabby arm things. Who wants that? They’re good for picking up trash, or maybe goosing buxom waitresses if you’re a dirty old man (or lustful robot with an eye for sentient beings), but for living, breathing humans interested in performing a wide range of activities that require active, mobile wrists, they won’t cut it. You need adequate wrist mobility, whether you work a keyboard for a living (carpal tunnel syndrome), catch barbells in the rack position, throw projectiles, cradle infants or small animals, examine books and magazines in book stores, use coffee mugs with handles, play darts professionally or recreationally, regularly direct others to “talk to the hand,” drink cocktails with a raised pinky, wave goodbye (especially if you employ the “royal wave”), play Ultimate Frisbee, or shoot hoops (with good follow through). If you plan on giving awesome high fives or becoming a dominant arm wrestler, you absolutely need mobile wrists.

Seriously, though, adequate wrist mobility is important for everyday life and intense exercise alike.

Ankles

Most people have fairly mobile wrists because almost everyone uses their wrists on a regular basis. They can usually use some extra mobility, especially when engaged in intensive exercise, but they can get along fine in normal, everyday mundane life. Ankles are different. Whether from disuse or misuse, most people suffer from poor ankle mobility, which typically manifests as a lack of dorsiflexion. In case you aren’t aware, dorsiflexion refers to movement that decreases the angle between the top of the foot and the shin; plantarflexion is movement that increases the angle. Plantarflexion is generally not an issue for most people, but lack of dorsiflexion is common, especially among shoe-wearers. Wearing shoes with raised heels forces plantarflexion and reduces the dorsiflexion requirements, and habitual shoe-wearers might find their natural dorsiflexion lacking in bare feet or minimal footwear. When the ankles are stiff, the knees overcompensate. Something’s got to bend, after all, and if you can’t mobilize your ankles, the stress of motion will simply move onto the next possible joint – just like tight hips can lead to lower back (and knee, for that matter) pain.

Poor dorsiflexion reduces the ability to squat at or below parallel, whether you’re just resting on your haunches in a Grok squat or squatting with some weight on your back. Oftentimes, people with tight ankles are unable to break parallel without shifting the weight to the toes and raising their heels. Raising the heel and keeping the toes on the ground to achieve dorsiflexion place massive shearing stress on the anterior portion of your knee, while keeping your heels on the ground distributes stress evenly, as it should be. Ideally, you should be able to squat deep while keeping your toes off the ground. (Don’t make that a habit, especially with a significant amount of weight. Just use it to check ankle mobility.) Either way, the more dorsiflexion you’re able to achieve, the lower you’ll be able to squat and avoid shearing stress on your knees. Power lifters will often wear weight-lifting shoes with elevated heels specifically designed to increase squat depth, but they’re hitting loads most recreational lifters will never reach. For the average active individual, relying on weight-lifting shoes (or any shoe, really) to make up for poor ankle dorsiflexion will only compound the problem.

Reduced ankle mobility also reduces your ability to engage the posterior chain. If you’re squatting with poor dorsiflexion, with most of the weight resting on your toes, the movement is going to be all quads, with minimal glute and hamstring action. This is arguably “good” for bodybuilders looking for massive quads, but bad for anyone else interested in overall strength, joint health, muscular balance, and general fitness functionality. Athletes need to be able to produce the most power in the safest, most efficient way possible, and that can really only be done by pushing off with the heel and engaging the hamstrings and glutes – and those things simply don’t happen without adequate ankle mobility and good dorsiflexion.

If you can’t achieve good dorsiflexion via the ankles, your body will get it from someplace else, and that means knee, hip, and even lower back overcompensations. Injuries will mount, too, probably in that order. Your knees undergo anterior stress, your hips will strain, and your lumbar spine will round.

Poor dorsiflexion negatively affects your ability to generate power while sprinting, too. When sprinting, you should land with a dorsiflexed ankle ready to immediately push off, as Michael Stember mentioned in his PrimalCon lecture. That way there’s no downtime, no need to go from plantarflexion to dorsiflexion. Reducing “time on ground” increases speed and energy efficiency while minimizing the chance of injury.

It’s clear that both wrist and ankle mobility are important for proper function in sport and everyday life. If either is compromised, especially the ankles, the rest of your joints will make up the difference. In a survival situation, this makes sense. It’ll keep you alive in the short-term. In the long term, though, regularly performing movements with the wrong joints will catch up with you. Tomorrow, I’ll discuss a few simple ways to improve wrist and ankle mobility so that you can take care of any issues you have before they become serious problems with lifelong reverberations.

Congratulations for making it to the end! For that you deserve a treat. Try this out for size -

http://dobianchi.com/2006/12/11/bistecca-fiorentina-at-la-buca-dellorafo/