A Social Media Break

We took a big social media break. We took half a year off of social media. We farmed out a couple of posts but stayed away. And, it was scary at first. If a tree falls in a forest and no one does a post about it, was it even there? But more on that another time. Suffice to say, we learnt a few things in our time of self-reflection:

• Stay off social media and stay healthy: it’s not possible to be in business and not be on social media, but we need to find a different way of doing things going forward. We don’t want politics and religion. We don’t want to be a part of a tribe or a mob or a concerned group of citizens. We still like the writing and the editing and helping trainers and coaches get noticed for all the right reasons thing that we do. That’s our happy place.
• 10 years is a lifetime in the fitness industry: we had a lot of time to go over the past on Breaking Muscle and look to the future — this our tenth year anniversary. Fitness is faddish, fickle, and fashionable but it is also essential. Age has changed the pros we started out with. The ones who were in their 20s have experience and wisdom, if they stayed in the game, and the ones who were in their 30s and above have mellowed out mostly and changed course to adapt to their own aging. Most of the pros from 10 years ago might not recognize their industry today, dominated as it by social media influencers.
• Technology will replace us all: there’s a lot of things happening to make remote coaching easier, better, and more effective. The pandemic certainly helped the tech companies get more established and helped them grow their markets. It’s just the beginning. Consumers are embracing technology as much as they are itching to get back to the gym normality.

So, back to fresh content — we never actually stopped posting while we abstained from social media — because we’re all starting to come out of a long pandemic hibernation in some way or another.

Plantar Fasciitis. We’re going to take a wild guess and predict that a lot of pent up energy is going to result in a lot of predictable pain and recovery as people rush back to the gym. It’s inevitable and plantar fasciitis is one of those things that just hits so many people, including the best athletes. And, we can talk about CrossFit again — at least before it becomes an alpha dog version of Orange Theory under its new corporate masters — that means taking a look at those ripped and shredded palms that come with bar work.

Podcasts. Our resident podcast host, Tom MacCormick, has been busy fighting gremlins in our remote podcasting recording service and home schooling during a pandemic. But he has also been signing up and talking to some pretty amazing thought leaders in muscle building. There’s hours and hours of pure knowledge, and it never gets old. Check out the Six Pack of Knowledge on all your favorite podcast apps: iTunes, Spotify, YouTube, Stitcher, PlayerFM, PodBean.

Making Stand on Stance. Dr. Chris Holder is back with a burst of energetic sagacity. He’s got a few pieces up these last few weeks. Check out his page because the man knows what he is talking about whether it is athletics versus aesthetics or the midline rule to simplify your stance.

If you had enough of reading our stuff, here’s stuff from other parts of the interwebs that we recommend:

• He is one of the best writers in the strength and conditioning world. Jamie Lee, aka Jamie Chaos, may be eccentric but we don’t know him personally to say so, but there is no doubting his ability to suck you into his writing and take you on an exhausting journey of discovery and pleasure. If you don’t know Jamie, check out Quickie History: Friedrich Jahn, “Der Turnvater,” Invents Modern Gymnastics (and Starts the Bodybuilding Movement) Because F*** Napoleon, That’s Why and become an instant fan
• Research made simple. Chris Beardsley summarizes research on strength and conditioning and he does it in a no-nonsense, simple, easy-on-the-eyes kind of a way. There are quite a few research study trackers and pontiffs out there, but Beardsley’s work is more accessible than most because he writes well, doesn’t nerd out too much, and his presentation skills are up there, too. You can support Beardsley on Patreon and read his articles here.
• CrossFit for people who don’t care about CrossFit. Games competitor Josh Bridges, 5-time champion Matt Fraser, and CrossFit media producer Sevan Matossian have a podcast and you can watch clips on YouTube. The great thing about these guys riffing on subjects in and around CrossFit is that it’s good for the haters and it’s good for the addicts. If you thought that people talking about CrossFit stuff could never be entertaining then we say give these clips a try. You don’t get the sense that these guys drank the Kool Aid but Matossian didn’t come out of a New York Times article on CrossFit’s male management looking too good.