Fiverr: Awesome Website
Fiverr is a website where anyone can post what they'll do for five bucks. I've known about the site for some time now, but haven't actually done much with it until recently. As many of you know, I've quit my full-time IT job to work as a personal trainer, baseball coach, and self-employed web developer/programmer. Much of my work in all three areas involves paying attention to SEO, marketing on a low budget, and writing a lot of content - even for the gym that I work at!
Fiverr has a lot of people who are willing to do above-average SEO-related work or content generation for just five bucks. Automated submissions to hundreds of site databases, creating linkwheels, writing 200-500 word articles for you, spinning your articles for submission to article archives, creating backlinks, and so forth!
Definitely worth your time to check out if you're a self-employed businessman. And if you're not, they have plenty of people willing to do your homework or be your personal assistant, too!
Important Things: Training
The most important things I've done with regards to my own training are:
- Buying a pair of good weightlifting shoes from VS Athletics
- Getting on a good training program - Starting Strength, in my case
- Buying a high quality weightlifting belt from APT
- Learning about self-myofascial release with foam rollers and baseballs
New Business Cards!
At the risk of sounding like Christian Bale from American Psycho, I love business cards. I have some crappy stock ones for my baseball training business in Seattle and I just received some sweet new glossy ones for my personal training business at Experience Fitness.
There's something awesome about having a card that sums up a part of your life and makes for easy contact going forward. I know everyone is going digital, but despite my love for web development, data analysis, and technology in general, I'm still an old-fashioned guy in a lot of respects.
Food Substitutions: Chipotle
Many of my friends love Chipotle and the large burritos that come with it. Who doesn't? Sadly, for those dieting or watching their caloric intake for various reasons, these delectable items often can't be consumed. A steak burrito with pinto beans, sour cream, cheese, lettuce, rice, and tomato salsa comes to 975 calories!
Yikes!
Fortunately, there are options. I suggest getting hard tacos - my typical order is the steak tacos with corn salsa, fajita vegetables, and cheese. It comes to 570 calories with 44 grams of protein - approximately 24% of my daily alloted calories and 19% of my target protein intake for the day. Not bad!
Baseball Layoff
Due to the inclement weather over the past week, a few of my baseball games have been canceled. Combined with the light schedule of this week, it leaves me with a rare stretch where I don't have more than one game in a week. This is sad, because I love to play tons of baseball from July-August (it gets a bit old towards September) when the weather is beautiful. I've been compensating by taking a bunch of batting practice and working out more, but it's not the same.
Fall league is just around the corner while one of my summer leagues is wrapping up. Can't believe the off-season is nearly upon us! It's bittersweet, I think; the offseason represents the end of baseball for a few months, but gives me a much-needed opportunity to train very hard for the next season and to improve my strength metrics. I plan on cutting weight to about 210 lbs by then, and I'd like to have a double bodyweight back squat, a bodyweight bench press, and a 500 lb. deadlift by the end of the offseason.
Is it doable? Only time will tell, I suppose.
Diagnosing and Correcting Anterior Pelvic Tilt (APT)
I wrote this article for distribution at Experience Fitness, the Seattle-based gym that I conduct personal training at. I figured I'd share it with my readers as well, since there's some good information in there for everyone.
Anterior Pelvic Tilt (APT) is a serious ailment that affects nearly everyone with a desk job. We spend all day sitting in an uncomfortable chair, slouched forward with our head posture out in front of our shoulders, and we do this for hours! We then go to the gym and hit the treadmill and do a few arm curls and call it a wash.
No! Jogging for 20 minutes can’t prevent or eliminate these structural changes that happen to your body when you use poor posture while sitting down:
APT vs. Neutral Pelvis
What are the symptoms of APT?
- “Fallen arches” in the feet
- Excessive extension in the cervical (neck) area
- Forward head posture
- Lower back pain
Before you head off to a chiropractor or swallow more ibuprofen, you should take a good hard look in the mirror and see if you suffer from some form of excessive APT. Chances are pretty good that you do. How can you correct APT in the gym?
- Legs/Core: Dumbbell lunges with a long stride (can add a twist if desired, too)
- Abs: Front and side planks
- Glutes: Glute bridges
Try these exercises to help correct your APT and to get your posture back where it needs to be. While slouching is the nature of desk work, try to get up from your chair once per hour for 5 minutes and do some unweighted lunges. Move around! You’ll notice the major differences in just a few weeks.
Must-Have Software: Dropbox
Dropbox - Free Online Backup/Sync
I can't believe I've waited this long to sign up for Dropbox. Dropbox is, simply put, amazing. 2 GB of free online storage that is ridiculously easy to setup. All you do is install a client on your computer, save files to this special folder, and it's automatically uploaded and synchronized across all computers that the client is installed on.
Can't install the client? No problem. Just log into the simple interface online and get the files that way.
iPhone support? Yep.
Sign up today. I'm kicking myself for not doing it sooner.
(disclaimer: I do get 250 MB for everyone that uses my referral link. Doesn't cost you anything.)
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