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Cryogenic therapy (cold therapy) and saunas (heat therapy) have risen in use for workout recovery and overall health.
Alistair Overeem is a legendary UFC fighter with a long career of championships in kickboxing, grappling and MMA. I ran across a video of him working with Wim Hof, aka: The Iceman who has done some amazing things in resisting freezing cold that would kill any other man. The camaraderie of being half Dutch probably had something to do with it.
Side note, I tried a 20 minute ice bath last month (tip: you need at least 3 bags of ice for a standard bathtub, more than I had). The insufficient amount of ice had melted, so the water didn’t stay as cold as it could. I shivered but not the whole time. Afterwards I felt fine, moving pretty slow due to cold muscles. Otherwise I was great. I think there’s something to it. He says the trick, among other things, is to not shiver, and stay mentally calm. As it turns out, shivering is a lousy way of generating heat, and Wim’s method is much more efficient if you can learn it.
This is not a brand new video, a few years old. Youtube popped it up on my feed. I had seen many Wim Hof videos already and had not seen this one!
For all you normal people who would rather survive than die cold, see my updated post on how to deal with an ice-cold garage gym.
I don’t know of any hex bar with rotating sleeves. I don’t get it. If you’re curious, Bells of Steel sells what is probably the only one.
Other than the sleeves, it has a built-in jack to greatly assist loading plates, and the open-frame design to allow freedom of forward leg movement opens up the potential exercises to farmer’s carries and lunges. Those features might make it worth a try over other normal hex bars that haven’t changed in design for fifteen years.
Rogue has been doing an e-coat finish, or electrically applied coating, as an optional coating for their top selling bars: The Ohio Bar, Ohio Deadlift Bar, Ohio Power Bar, and Bella Bar. It’s more environmentally friendly to do than any of the other bar coatings.
Realistically, switching to this for some bars might have already saved a few people cancer from the chemical vapors involved in producing or applying the other coatings. I don’t know.
Be sure to tell people how you’ve saved lives. It’s like Crossfit. You can’t do it without letting everyone you meet know, or what’s the point?
I updated my post on fold-back wall-mounted squat racks with Rep’s beefy 3×3 version. In one way it’s even better than Rogue’s: It has laser-cut numbering on the rack uprights. Excellent touch to make sure you’re using the same holes for things like J-cups, safety arms or a monolift.
No early January post is complete without acknowledging the cliche New Years goals we start dreaming up (and sharing on FB to try to rope friends into our motivation program).
Take a second to enjoy this funny post from Tony Gentilcore on New Years goals, with some serious advice on staying focused and not beating yourself up just because you have off days…
I don’t beat myself up for thinking the negative thoughts.
Again, it’s normal.
You do it, I do it, I suspect Tom Brady does it, we all do it.
I’ll allow the thoughts to happen, to ruminate for several seconds, but then I’ll set the re-frame, turn the page, and complete my set/workout.
The mind-trick works.
https://tonygentilcore.com/2020/01/my-half-hearted-attempt-at-helping-you-succeed-with-your-health-and-fitness-resolutions-in-2020/