Below is a recipe for cooking heart that a good friend forwarded to me.  The meal is set up for eating deer heart, this recipe can used to eat beef heart, bison heart or any other larger animal heart for that matter.  Eating organs from animals is highly recommended for optimal nutrition.  Not only does the heart taste great, it provides large amounts of protein, good fats and plenty of minerals.  I highly recommend giving heart a try.  It is very similar to roast beef.

First, devein the heart and rinse.  Boil for ~30-45 minutes or so. Meanwhile, boil and mash a potato with a ton of butter, and mix in parsely, salt, and pepper.  Also, fry bacon, chop it up, and add it to the mashed potatoes.  Next,  fry a red onion, red pepper, and garlic in the bacon fat and olive oil, mash it all up, then add it to the mashed potatoes.

Stuff the heart as best you can and put the extra mashed potato mix in the oven as well. Bake at 375 for 45min or so until there was a nice crust on top. Pull it out, cut in half, and cover it with mozzarella cheese.

Clearly, this is a great meal, especially following a brutal workout.  Again, I highly recommend using organ meats following a workout and for good health in general.

Recently, not much new music has been pumping at the Garage.  The past few days, there hasn’t be any music playing.  Just grunting, sweating and metal weights clanging.  Everyone goes through up and down cycles with music and this is definitely a down cycle.  For a brief recommendation for something heavy, loud/noise…check out Dan Deacon’s “Spiderman of the Rings.”  Not many people will like this as it is basically noise rock.

Check out the videos page for the new videos on football training and conditioning and the baseball video.   Shortly, I will be uploading a video to show how anyone can make Kefir…it will be used to supplement my article on kefir.

Here is an article used to instill fear in the general public to shy us all away from the great rewards found within raw milk.  http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/29244189/

The headline should truly read: “Raw Milk Builds Super Immunity to Food Borne Pathogens!!!”

This is quite an amusing story.  Once again, the “bacteria phobes” came to the forefront screaming about bacteria laden milk.  The ironic part behind all of this is that no consumers got sick.  No one was infected and nothing bad happened!!!  If only the rest of America and the world had the immunity levels of the consumers who drink raw milk from Swiss Villa Dairy.  No one even knew there was potential bacteria because no one was getting sick…the paranoid government had to chime in with further infringement upon liberties to scare people away from this farm.

It is time we WAKE UP!!! Bacteria is our friend.  The longer the list of “bacteria pathogens” gets, the more evident our weak societal immune system becomes.  As people drink more sterile foods, the more bugs the government adds to the list in fear of potential illness.

This is enough of a reason to drink raw milk and focus on whole, real foods!!!  These foods are grown in diverse environments and thus themselves are bio-diverse, enzyme rich and unprocessed.

If you are in the Reading area, head to the Reading Farmers Market for raw Swiss milk or head to the nutrition listing for more information.

Since Richard Nixon declared his war on cancer, the entire world has spent trillions of dollars on cancer research. In 1900, the odds of getting cancer were 1 in 30. By the 1970’s, that number was down to 1 in 6, the 1980’s saw it at 1 in 5, 1 in 4 in the 1990’s, 1995 was 1 in 3 and by 2000 that number eerily creeped down to 1 in 2. Why is this? Currently in the US, the average person consumes over 100+ pounds of sugar a year, 300 cans of soda and 18 pounds of candy. Sugar is a direct cause of cancer.

Here in the US, we spend more on health care than any other country in the world yet continue to be misinformed and continue to have significant health problems. Obesity has continued to rise, cancer rates have risen and heart disease has risen. In 2008, a Florida medical commission concluded that prescription drugs kill nearly 300 percent more people than illegal narcotics, yet we continue to put faith in the “healthcare” system. What has led to this problem?

Well, there are a multitude of answers but in brief, most of these problems are environmental/soil issues and processing issues in regards to food. What is regarded as healthcare? Doctors, prescriptions, drugs, physical therapy…very rarely is the fitness industry put under this umbrella. Proper nutrition and exercise are the most important factors in overall health.

What is never considered a part of health care but is the best medicine for our existence? Food!! That’s right, food needs to be viewed as the purest form of medicine and health care that this country can offer its citizens. The way we get food is from plants or animals. The plant absorbs minerals from the soil, digests them and turns them into minerals that the human body is able to digest. The same goes for animals. They eat plants that humans are unable to consume, turn the vitamins and minerals into digestible goodness which then leads to our health. The healthier the soil, the healthier the plants and animals become and thus human beings become healthier.

Avoid any processed foods as these foods have become denatured. Avoid foods laden with additives or preservatives. Eat foods that are grown in an effective, healthy environment from healthy, sustainable soils. That will dramatically improve the human immune system and overall health status.

Eating healthy, whole foods is essential not only for a high performance athlete but for optimal overall health and survival.

I know plenty of athletes out there that have had trouble building up their hamstrings. Personally, I have maxed out every leg curl machine I have been on but know my hamstrings are still weak. The leg curl machines always seemed ineffective and easy to accomplish. Well, for once in a blue moon I was actually correct. I came across “hamstring pulls” about 3.5 years ago when watching “Freak Training” a football training video. Since that day, I always knew when I started my gym that these pulls would be part of my sprint training and any other sport focused on relative strength and hamstring health. This move is extraordinarily difficult but very efficient.

The problem that confronted me was having a comfortable piece of equipment to use. I bent a few metal pieces and even had partners hold me down but none of these were very comfortable. Recently, I decided to contact Ross Enamait of www.Rosstraining.com to get information on building a hamstring pull device. He forwarded me some information. At that point I decided to contact the official Garage Strength carpenter, Tim Hahn.
Tim reviewed the points and then decided to utilize his firm understanding of vectors. He came up with the piece of equipment below. It is cheap, easy to use and extremely hard to master. The directions are as follows:

It is 4′ long and about 33″ wide

Plans:
Materials: long decking screws, 2 8′ 2×4s, sheet of plywood, thicker piece of wood for plank for feet (or use leftover plywood)
1. Cut a piece of plywood at a length of 4′ (this is factory width) and then cut the desired width…we used 31 in.
2. Cut an 8′ 2×4 in half so u have 2 4′ pieces.
3. Screw the 4′ 2×4 along the 4′ sides of the plywood. Make sure that the 2×4 is upright… screwed on the 2″ side.
4. Place the piece of wood used by your feet at the desired angle and then screw it into the upright 2×4s
5. Cut a piece of 2×4 to screw to the upright part of the angled plank for stability and strength.
6. Repeat on the other side
7. Finished!

The product should look like a triangle on the one side of the of the piece of plywood. This can be used for hamstring pulls and if you put it up higher, you can use it for glutes and lower back exercises. It is a very versatile piece of equipment and great for training a hard to attack area.

Hamstring Pull Equipment