From Jon: Each Sunday thePTDC publishes a list of the top articles from around the web in 5 different categories: bodybuilding, general health, fat loss, strength training, and nutrition.
We scan the net, but if you'd like to submit your article for consideration, please send it to [email protected].
Our Choice for the Article of the Week
Let's Keep It Real About Our Bodies -- Lauren Fleshman
We don't usually scour Runner's World for our picks of the week -- but this piece was floating around social media all week, including on several weight-training-focused pages. The reason? Because Lauren Fleshman hits on something here with which many female athletes -- runners and strength trainers alike -- can relate. After seeing her body on the runway in a rare meeting between fashion and athletics, Fleshman felt the schism between what she saw in that photo and what she saw in her body in every day life: "I spent my teenage years looking at fantasy photos like that and feeling inadequate. And now it was my body in that photo."
Reconciling the "fantasy" body from that photo with the way her body normally looks lead her to create a social media campaign, #keepingitreal, designed to allow real people with real bodies to post real images of what those bodies look like on the daily -- hopefully, as Fleshman notes, to "redefine beauty." Though this obviously started with women in athletics, the impact this can have on our female clients, some of whom aspire to be like athletes such as Fleshman, could be significant.
Bodybuilding
Mind-Muscle Connection: Fact or BS? -- Bret Contreras, T-Nation (our choice for Bodybuilding article of the week)
The Ideal Threesome, And How to Get It: Interview with a Jacked Dude -- Joy Victoria with Steve Kleva
5 Exercises for Upper-Back Strength -- Dan Blewett, T-Nation
Master the Floor Press -- Eric Bach, T-Nation
General Health
67 Tips on Happiness, Fulfillment & Life - Jason Ferruggia (Our choice for General Health article of the week)
On Overcoming Resistance -- Pat Flynn
Is Posture Important? -- Justin Kompf
The Motivation Secret -- Charles Staley, T-Nation
Why You Shouldn't Work Out When You're Sick -- Eric C. Stevens, Breaking Muscle
Fat Loss
The Truth About Sensa -- Spencer Nadolsky, BurntheFatBlog.com (Our choice for Fat Loss article of the week)
Evidence-Based Guide to Weight Loss -- Eirik Garnas
Why the Traditional Approach to Weight Loss Comes Up Short -- Eirik Garnas
Confessions of a Duchess of Nutrition -- Staci Jackson, Mark Fisher Fitness
Strength Training
Foot Position in the Squat: A Sports Medicine Perspective -- Seth Larson, Lift Big Eat Big (Our choice for Strength Training article of the week)
Strength Training 101: How much weight should I be lifting? -- Staci, Nerd Fitness
Four More Exercises Your Child Wants to Do -- Sheena Leedham, Elitefts
Two Components to Deadlifting Success -- Tony Gentilcore
5 Back Squat Hacks -- Greg Robins
Nutrition
Enhacing the Performance of the Athlete Part 1 (as published in the Townsend Letter Dec 2013) -- Keoni & Jade Teta (Our choice for Nutrition article of the week)
Why I Don't Advocate Balls-Out Cheat Meals -- Jill Coleman
Is your Vitamin D supplement helping or hurting you? -- Bryan Walsh, Precision Nutrition