Stuff I Use

I’m not really big into gimmicks, performance enhancing products, supplements, and other crap. I’m more or less a “less is more” sort of guy. That said, I’ve encountered quite a few products that are either the pinnacle of their kind, or have otherwise helped or changed my life in a positive way. I’m not listing these in any particular order, I’m just adding them as they come to mind. I generally don’t believe in the efficacy or sense in many commonplace things or beliefs. In fact I subscribe to the Ricky Roma Law of Contrary Public Opinion: “If everyone thinks one thing, I say bet the other way“.

What I do believe in are simple things to enhance our lives, workouts, and recoveries in basic ways. I believe in having good, quality things. It’s better to buy an expensive jump rope than break and buy more cheap ones. It’s better to maintain your body now than to pay more to try and fix it down the road. Here’s an ever-expanding list of things I use that help me achieve that goal for myself.

Note that the links to the products are through various affiliate programs through Amazon, etc. So if you buy something, I get a little kickback. So buy something!

Vibram FiveFingers Shoes

Vibram FiveFingers

These shoes are the greatest things that could ever happen to your feet. Numerous research papers have exposed the fraud that is the modern shoe industry, and Vibram has bucked the trend by providing a product that works in harmony with the way that our feet are meant to work. Out of the several models, I prefer the KSO models for working out. and the Sprint or Classic for everyday wear. The durability is excellent, I have put my pair of black KSOs through hell for over a year, including six months of heavy Crossfitting, and they are just now getting to the point where they need replacing. I can’t recommend these highly enough. If you buy these, your life will change for the better, I promise! If you’re hesitating because they look funny, then come on, grow up. After all, you go out in public with that face of yours!

Buddy Lee Hyperformance Jump Rope

If you want to advance your skills in jumping rope beyond a basic level, you’re going to need to upgrade from piece of crap you use right now, to the Aston-Martin DB-9 of jump ropes, the Aero Speed Hyperformance Jump Rope. Basically, you’ll never use a jump rope better, or even as good as this one. At some point, the jump rope will be a limiting factor in the development of fitness-enhancing activities such as double-unders and crossovers, and limit the amount of speed you can obtain when jumping rope. This can cause you to hit a plateau with a normal rope fairly quickly. The Aerospeed is the rope to get once you’ve started revealing the limitations of your equipment. Once you get one, you will never again be able to use a regular rope!

Trigger Point Performance Products

Trigger Point Therapy Kit

It’s Iron Palm Training for your muscles! This is the self-massage kit used by many of the world’s top athletes engaged in some of the most grueling and punishing physical tasks possible, from Crossfit to Ironman Triathlons, to Ultramarathons, this is the recovery tool of choice for them. Having used their tools for several months, I can say that they absolutely make a difference in recovery and overall wellness. Proper recovery is a cornerstone of healthy living, and the TriggerPoint kits are now firmly entrenched in my life. As martial artists, we have a proclivity towards muscle aches of all sorts, and this kit will help especially well with some of the most pervasive ones: legs! My personal recommendation is for the “Hip and Lower Back Kit“, which offers the greatest bang for the buck – it has the most tools for the most possible fascia manipulations. It comes with a slightly different How-To DVD than the “Total Body Package“, which is more oriented toward runners. At any rate, check out their online store for their full line of products! As a bonus, Trigger Point is an Austin-based company, and their employees are dedicated athletes as well.

Triggerpoint GRiD Roller

The Trigger Point GRiD Roller

This is the new hotness among foam rollers! I first used it during an “Active Recovery Week” at Crossfit, and immediately knew I had to have one. Unfortunately it was in beta testing at the time, and I had to wait a few long months to get one! There are other foam rollers out there, but none offer the unique combination of features that the Grid Roller does. I love this thing for rolling out my back, and as a slightly less-painful method of doing standard TriggerPoint exercises. When paired with one of the above Trigger Point kits, I feel that you have a great combination of tools for letting exercise help you more than it hurts.

Vitamin K2, Vitamin D3, Omega-3 Fish Oils

The only three must-have supplements

This is another fantastic product. With such a confusing array of sports and wellness supplements out there, it is difficult to discern truth from falsehood. There are countless articles hyping up the next miracle supplement or energy drink or snake oil. In my mind, any supplementation is worthless if one has not already established a solid foundation of good dietary and exercise habits. I have seen so many of my friends and colleagues fall into the trap of spending tons of money on supplemental nutrition while neglecting that which really matters: The primary fuel we put in our bodies.

The same people who spend one hundred or more dollars per month on vitamins and supplements will without a thought “save money” (I’m talking to you, standard American diet eaters ) or “be healthy” (I’m talking to you, vegetarians and vegans) by feeding themselves energy-dense and nutrient sparse foods (grains, carbohydrates). One’s primary avenue for obtaining sufficient vitamins and minerals, then, should be a balanced, excellent diet, leaving supplements for just that: supplementation.

From this perspective then, what supplements should we consider our first line of defense to give us the best opportunity to live healthy, well rounded lives? In my opinion, it is those nutrients that have been identified as having a significant place in the proper function of our bodies, that have a historical precedent of being present in adequate amounts in our lives throughout human history, and have since become less available due to the way that modern society has changed our diet and activities. In my mind, there are three primary “must-have” supplements: Vitamin D3, Vitamin K2, and the Omega-3 fatty acids EPA and DHA.

Vitamin D3

This is the so-called sunlight vitamin, produced on our skin after exposure to sunlight. Modern society has kept us indoors, leaving the majority of the population with a deficiency of this vital nutrient. I leave it to Richard Nikoley over at Free The Animal to put you in the know in several different ways. There’s no need to reinvent the wheel when Richard has invented it better than I could at this point! I personally use the NOW gel-caps of D3. Buy some here.

Vitamin K2

Brief description coming soon, but buy some here.

Omega-3 Fatty Acids