When I was in grad school in Regina I went to Las Vegas for a guys trip. This was the first time I had been to Las Vegas and we went to see Andrew Dice Clay.If you're familiar with ADC this isn't someone to check out on YouTube with the kids around. And while my life and tastes have changed since that show, I'll admit that I did have fun.And there was one point in the show where ADC was commenting how everyone in the crowd was looking good and appeared ready to go out and have some fun. Except for one guy.ADC pointed out one guy in the crowd and said 'You're wearing beige? You're in Las Vegas. You can be anyone you want. You can do whatever you want (within reason). And whatever happens in Las Vegas...'This poor guy. He wasn't looking to heckle the comic or draw attention but ADC was sure giving it to him.At one point, ADC comes back to this guy and says 'You know who wears beige? People on safari! People who are looking to blend in with their surroundings. People who don't want to stand out. And you're wearing beige in Las Vegas?'So besides reminiscing about Las Vegas and stand-ups why share this with you?It's because ADC had a point.And that was to stay away from the middle.Here's what I mean by staying away from the middle.Having the best health, fitness and performance means making daily choices. And when we choose we should be choosing all the way for the good staff and avoiding the bad stuff (as much as possible).For example, if we're talking about getting enough sleep for recovery we should get 8 hours every night. Preferably more of these hours should occur before midnight. Once in a while we might take...

Today was a great morning. Why? Because when I was at the gym for a couple of sessions the gym was hopping.And I don't mean the cardio side of the gym which is normally busy but the weight room side. This brings a smile to my face as it makes me feel the message is starting to get out there to the masses that intense resistance-based workouts is the way to go for weight loss, sports performance or general fitness. Period.While part of the crowd had to do with it being a Monday morning in January it was still encouraging to see a shift in training approaches taking place.So what about the rest of the people there? Why are there still so many cardio kings & queens? Well part of it is mis-information and believing that cardio will yield the best return on their investment. But part of it has to do with intimidation. Or not knowing what load to use.You see many people would rather go to the gym and feel productive by walking/running on the treadmill than to venture over to the weight room side and feel lost.So how can you feel confident and safe when selecting your weights for your training session? Here are 4 rules.Rule #1 On Selecting the Correct Weight - Consider the muscles doing the workIf the first thing you can answer is what part of the body you will be working or what movements you will be performing you will do a better job at choosing the correct weight. For examplen if you were performing a squatting exercise you will be able to handle a heavier load than an exercise for the triceps. Duh, right?You'd be surprised though to see the number of people that use the same dumbbell to squat with and then go straight into a...