This year marks the first time in probably over 10 years that I finished all my holiday shopping more than 2 days before Christmas!  Hopefully you did too!  But if you still have gifts to buy to people around you who are either athletes, a coaches or just fitness enthusiasts, here’s a couple of ideas that you might want to consider.

- Show and Go

This might be the perfect gift for anyone who doesn’t have access to a good coach or trainer, or anyone who doesn’t want to spend hours writing his own programs and going through trial and error to find what works.  Eric Cressey has done an outstanding job with this product, and he’s basically eliminating the guessing work one needs to go through when building his own training programs.  Show and Go is a proven system that has been put to the test by many before Eric actually launched the product.  It provides you with 16 weeks of programs that guarantee you the results you’re looking for.  The whole Endeavor staff has been on the Show and Go system for the last 10 weeks, and we’ve ALL made tremendous gains in both size and strength!  Click HERE to get your copy now!

- HockeyStrengthandConditioning.com

This is a great gift idea for anyone involved in hockey training; whether it’s for a player or a coach, a membership to HockeyStrengthandConditioning.com is a gift that will help them get better.  Some of the brightest minds in hockey training are behind that website; names like Mike Boyle (Boston University), Sean Skahan (Anaheim Ducks), Mike Potenza (San Jose Sharks), Darryl Nelson (USA Hockey) and Endeavor’s own Kevin Neeld are all contributing to the website to help develop better hockey players.  For less than 10$/month (less than 100$/year if you pay all at once), a membership to this site will guide any hockey player in the right direction when it comes to his training.  What’s even cooler is that you have the option of signing up and getting a 30 day trial for only $1!  If you’re not satisfied with the content (which won’t happen trust me!) you can just cancel you subscription.  Click HERE to get the 30 day trial.

- The Precision Nutrition System

With the new year coming up, for all these people making fat loss related resolutions, the Precision Nutrition System is definitely the ideal present to guide them through their lifestyle and nutritional changes that will lead them to their results.  The Precision Nutrition System includes everything you need to help you make necessary changes in your eating habits in order to get results; everything from cookbooks to online support through the Precision Nutrition website, everything is included.  The price is currently down from $147 to $97 for the whole system, so order now!

So if you need a last minute gift for the athlete or fitness enthusiast in your life, one of these should be a perfect fit.

On a side note, as I’ve mentioned last week I’m working on a couple different projects.  One of them is related to my website and my readers; stay tuned next week for a special announcement as well as a thank you gift for my readers who have been following my work!

For those of you who don’t know Brian St. Pierre, he is a sports nutritionist and strength coach.  He just returned to Grad School to pursue his Master’s degree in nutrition.  He actually left his job at Cressey Performance, with Eric Cressey, where he worked for the past couple of years.  Throughout his career, Brian has been a nutrition consultant and strength coach for a wide variety of athletes of all levels.  Brian is a very smart guy with a lot of knowledge from whom I learned a lot of things by reading his blog on a regular basis and most recently from working with him to improve my diet.  That being said, here are 3 things I learned from him.

1. Organic dairy products are far superior to their conventional counterparts.  The quality of conventional dairy products is actually pretty bad.  You need to consider these facts about dairy:

• Cows are milked almost year round (compared to only 6 weeks after birth about 100 years ago) which compromise their immune system and the quality of milk is greatly diminished.  It also increases the pregnancy-triggered estrogens in milk which is associated with the growth of many tumors as well as prostate and breast cancer.
• Cows, who are herbivorous animals, are fed with corn and other cheap grains which leads to stomach acidity, which in turn leads to infectious bacteria and E. coli in cows.  That situation then forces the dairy producers to stuff cows with antibiotics.
• Casein, a protein found in milk, is suspected to be linked to different forms of cancer namely thyroid cancer and prostate cancer.

That being said, it is easy to conclude that the way dairies are produced nowadays is less than optimal to a good diet.  That is why, if you still want to consume dairies, you should definitely make the switch to organic products as the cows are raised more naturally, milked a lot less, fed with food actually suited for herbivorous and not stuffed with hormones and antibiotics. 

While we’re at it, why don’t you make the switch to whole milk as studies have shown that low-fat milk was associated with larger waist circumference, while whole milk was associated with smaller waist circumference.  For more info on that subject, make sure to check out Brian’s post on conventional dairy on his website.

2. Make the switch to sprouted grains.  This would apply to flour-containing products like bread, wraps and the like.  Sprouted grain products are generally less processed than traditional whole-grain products and contain less preservatives.  The benefits of sprouted grains over whole-grain don’t stop there; they’re also more nutrient-dense with more vitamins and minerals, their content in fibers is higher and they contain more protein.  Ezekiel products are totally awesome if you want to make the witch as they have a lot of variety in their products and they’re absolutely delicious!

3.  A drink combining protein and simple carbs (read: sugar) post-workout might not be the best option.  This might come as a shocker to most of you, and I have to say that I was very surprised to learn that myself.  I learned that from Brian while he was working with me to help me improve my diet.  I was actually taking a protein + simple carbs drink after every single training session, and apparently that was not optimal.  

You may not agree with that, but at least take this information into consideration.  It is true that protein and carbs are necessary to improve recovery, but there is actually no evidence out there that proves that a protein and simple carbs drink is more efficient at replenishing your glycogen stores and improving your recovery than a whole food meal containing both of these nutrients would.  It really surprised me, as I’ve always been led to believe that a faster digesting protein and carbs drink would be more efficient at helping recovery.  But if you take a closer look a recent research, you’ll find nothing supporting that. 

Having that kind of drink post-workout is actually not bad; just be aware that it is not better.  Knowing that, what would be optimal post-workout: taking a protein and simple carbs drink that is virtually nutrient-empty or having a whole food meal that will provide you with fibers and tons of vitamins and minerals? 

I still think that simple carbs have their place in sport nutrition; taking simple carbs before and/or during workout (depending on the intensity of the workout) could be very beneficial as it will provide you with rapidly available energy.

To learn more about Brian, make sure you check out his blog as he has a ton of valuable information that he shares with his audience.  And if you feel like your diet needs improvement, please note that Brian is available through on-line consultation.  Just visit Brian’s website for more details.

I usually want to put original content on my website, but for today’s post I am just gonna simply put up 2 very interesting links you should definitely check out.

1. This is an interview my colleague Kevin Neeld did with me last week that he posted on his website.  He asks me questions mainly on hockey development, but also on supplements and the personal training business versus the strength and conditioning business.  When Kevin sent me his questions, I just answered them right away without asking myself any questions.  But when I re-read it when it went on his website last Friday I was proud of the way it turned out; I realized that there is a lot of valuable information, especially on the development of hockey players at different levels, that is definitely worth the read.  If you haven’t already checked it out, you can right now by clicking HERE.

2. The second one is a blog post written by Brian St. Pierre on conventional dairy products.  I read that post just last week and to say it was an eye-opener for me would be an understatement.  Brian presents some shocking facts about how dairy products are handled and produced.  This is a MUST READ for anyone concerned about their nutrition.  Since reading it last week, I am truly reconsidering my dairy intake on a daily basis and might just cut the majority of it from my diet sooner than later. make sure you check it out HERE.