TopJLax

Squatting is awesome. Fact. See gains in your squat and there's a good chance your other lifts will seem easier as well. As well as providing functional strength to your legs, it works a myriad of other areas, from your abdominals to your lower back. Now most people will back squat, with the bar resting on their upper back/traps, but there are a number of other ways to squat which change up the direction of force required for the lift, and can be used to prevent injury and reduce stress on the back (as back squats tend to load a fair amount of weight onto the spine).

Some videos after the jump.

A helmet's journey 12/13/2010

Above is a shot that makes me truely sad. Look at that Riddell helmet ruining what otherwise would have been a great action shot. Bulky, massive, aesthetically disturbing. However, after the jump is a great video which follows the new helmets that Notre Dame will be rocking next year, from the Cascade factory to the players....

Gameday, Gameday, Gameday 12/11/2010

Oh it's gameday people. Get excited. Sorry if your game got cancelled, but it's lax-o-clock up in the Gamma Gamma Frat House. To celebrate this there are an assorted few pump up vids/tunes after the jump....

Boom.

The MLL Championships - Undersubscribed content 12/08/2010

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Okay, so I was doing my whole 'browsing through lacrosse clips on Youtube pre-gym session' thing, and I stumbled across these highlight packages, put together by Major League Lacrosse, of the semi finals and the final of this year's championships. They're great quality, have decent soundtracks and feature some sweet lax. What's not to love?

This is surely just another example of the failure to promote the game by the MLL, which should have circulated the videos far more widely, but instead they were sitting on Youtube with well under 1,000 views-a-piece. It would have taken just a quick bit of SEO knowledge to bump them up any search list but the failure of the MLL to learn from past mistakes is still holding them back. As someone who works in this field, the MLL's inability to join the 21st century is a frustrating thing to watch, especially considering the quality of product that they have on offer.

However, enough MLL bashing, enjoy these three great videos...

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Surfing, Super Slow Mo and HD 12/07/2010

Check out this video of a surfer captured in HD after the jump. It is really, really amazing...

How's your nutrition? 12/07/2010

"You can't out-train a crappy diet..."

If you only take away one thing from this post, let it be the above phrase. Not only is it true, it is probably the aspect of training that is most ignored or misunderstood. From personal experience I can tell you that, for a long time, I was under the impression that as long as I gave it my all in the gym I could ignore my dietary needs and still see a general increase in my athleticism and strength. Oh young Coach Dave, how wrong you were.

Deadlift Sunday - A staple of any routine 12/05/2010

Any vaguely respectable lifting plan should have deadlifting in it. It is a lift that is unavoidably useful and should take centre stage in your program. After the jump is a fantastic article that i've taken from t-nation.com which contains 12 big tips to improve your deadlifting, along with a few other links for some more in depth reading. It's a bit of a mega-bomb of an article, but have some patience, do some work and get better, get stronger.

Blake Griffin: The NBA's Rookie Of The Year 2011 12/02/2010

Blake Griffin is a monster. A no. 1 draft pick in 2009, Griffin spent the 09-10 season out with a stress fracture in his left knee, which makes his rookie season so far even more impressive. A 6'10", 250lb freak of nature who has the ability to dunk and hang with the best of them, I am not the only person eagerly awaiting the NBA 2011 Slam Dunk contest. Here are his highlights of the season so far. Enjoy and marvel.

Get Angry People... 12/01/2010

"When you don't wear your name on your jersey you have to find other ways to make people remember it"

After the jump are my top 3 pump-up videos that get me ready to lift at the moment. If you're having one of those days where you're struggling to justify hitting the gym, have a ganders at these bad-boys....