Sean Hyson

The life of a fitness editor is a busy one, and my lack of frequent posting as of late is evidence of it. But while I’ve been away, I’ve been picking up a few tidbits of information. Here are some things that have crossed my consciousness lately—some of them fitness related, some of them... well, whatever.

If you’re a good lifter, you may be a lousy skiier. At least at first. That was my experience. I took a ski lesson in Park City, Utah, last week. I had never skied before (even on the water), so it was like learning to walk, or ride a bike, for the first time to me. One thing my instructor kept repeating was to turn my heels out and pull my knees in when I wanted to slow down. If you squat—deep, and heavy—you know this is the opposite of the position you want to be in when lifting. It felt VERY weird letting my legs almost collapse inward. The instructor said, “skiiing is very counterintuitive.” So is lifting. Like anything else, technique comes first and must be drilled until it feels right. Until it’s natural.

You call a Navy SEAL a Navy SEAL and a Marine a Marine. Only Army guys are “soldiers”. SEALS and Marines actually get pissed if you call them soldiers (fortunately, I didn’t learn this the hard way).

Keurig coffee makers brew coffee in under a minute. You only get one cup at a time, so I guess it takes slightly more than two minutes to make two cups—pretty big time saver if you ask me.

Fat burning’s fast-food window

Altra makes a line of “zero drop” sneakers that might split the difference between typical running shoes and the minimalist models like the Vibram Five Fingers. They offer some shock absorption but don’t raise your heel up (there’s no “drop” to the sole of the shoe). Unlike any other shoe I’ve seen, the toe box doesn’t taper off—it gets wider. Your toes are allowed to spread out as they would if you were barefoot. I ran a bit in them last weekend and it felt pretty good.

According to my friend Kiefer, of Carb-Backloading fame, whey protein has properties that extend to the medicinal. It can actually act as a more powerful antioxidant than fruits and vegetables! Whey boosts levels of a certain amino acid that hunts down free radicals and kills them like the mangy scoundrels they are. There will be more on this in my interview with Kiefer, which will appear on muscleandfitness.com very soon. Everyone, EVEN THOSE WHO CARE NOTHING ABOUT BUILDING MUSCLE, should supplement with whey protein for its health benefits.

You should not do cardio, especially the long-distance, moderate-intensity kind, right after lifting. This idea has been around for a while but I finally committed to it after a colleague turned me on to this article. Endurance training basically turns off the chemical signal to build muscle. You can seriously impair the results of a lifting session by running for a half-hour aferward.

Joe Pesci was friends with Tommy DeVito, singer and guitarist for The Four Seasons, when the group was still young and struggling. He is depicted briefly in the Broadway play, Jersey Boys, which I just saw (it was good). When Pesci starred in Goodfellas, which he ultimately won an Oscar for, he played a real-life mob character whose last name had to be changed. Pesci suggested re-naming him “Tommy DeVito” and it stuck.

”Make that coffee to go!”

Also, the real gangster Pesci played, Tommy DeSimone, was, unlike Pesci, quite muscular and tall. Henry Hill himself said that Pesci’s portrayal of Tommy was “95% accurate”. The difference in their builds was the only major thing that set the two apart!