CEO’s Blog

Over the last few years, I’ve been frustrated. No matter how much I worked out, it seemed like I was always getting out of breath before everybody else.

I’m on a few city rec sports leagues, and I’d always be the first one to have to take a break during basketball games. I’d listen to other guys complain about being tired and out of breath too, but not at the same level as me… and some of them never worked out.

When working out with weights, I’d almost feel like throwing up after each hard set. I’d get a little dizzy. I still pushed through, but it was tough.

So I finally researched it online and found others talking about the same breathing problems, and found articles about deviated septums.

I then remembered the time I was at a golf driving range with a friend a few years ago. I was standing about 10 feet from him, and he said "watch this!", you know, like people say right before doing something really stupid. I turned and looked at him, and he swung as hard as he could. The ball went directly sideways at 100 mph and hit me square in the nose. My nose bled like it was a hose that was turned on full blast. Argh!

It was sore for awhile after that, but it seemed like it healed perfectly. I never saw a doctor about it.

So what’s a deviated septum? Well, I think this picture pretty much explains it. The septum is the middle, hard part of the nose, and when it leans to one side, and it can make it harder to breathe out of BOTH sides:

Deviated Septum

I went to talk to an Ear/Nose/Throat doctor and he confirmed that I had a deviated septum. What a relief! I wasn’t going crazy. I booked my surgery that day.

I won’t lie. The surgery SUCKED. Well, the surgery process itself was painless (they knocked me out and then pumped me full of pain meds… mmm…), but the week afterwards was not fun. I had these big tubes up my nose, going all the way down my throat for draining. I couldn’t smell anything, couldn’t easily eat or drink, couldn’t really move around and definitely couldn’t exercise, and couldn’t breathe very well. Sleeping was almost impossible. I didn’t really have a lot of pain in my nose, but those big freakin’ tubes in my nose really made life MISERABLE. I had to keep them in for over a week… the longest week of my life.

Post-Surgery

Once they removed the tubes, I felt like a new man. Wow! I could breathe!

Now I am breathing much better and enjoying my workouts again. I’m not exactly an endurance athlete, but I can play basketball without feeling like I am about to die. I’m hitting new lifting records and I overall just FEEL better.

So if you feel the same, do some research and see if you might have the same problem.

How many companies have a Director Of Marketing that looks like this?

John Shumate

He knows about fitness and lives it everyday. That’s one of the reasons we wanted him to join the Bodybuilding.com team… he knows what you want and need for your bodybuilding and fitness goals. He’s dedicated to helping you through our marketing and branding.

Check out his latest BodyBlog entries to learn more about John:

John Shumate’s BodyBlog

The latest issue of our employee newsletter is out!

http://www.bodybuilding.com/fun/newsletter.htm

It hasn’t "officially" launched, so there may be some minor bugs, but check it out!

http://reviews.bodybuilding.com

We’ve been collecting reviews through BodySpace profiles for awhile, so we already have nearly 10,000 reviews available.

This is just Reviews version 1. Version 2 coming in a few weeks.

Regardless of your views on evolution, the field of evolutionary psychology is pretty compelling. Basically, evolutionary psychology tries to explain WHY we do a lot of the things we do as humans. So much of it makes perfect sense.

For example, it makes sense that we developed the fear emotion. If by an accident of genetic mutation, a few of our ancestors developed a sense of fear that warned them when they were in a bad situation (like when they were about to get eaten by a tiger), they would be more likely to survive and pass on those genes.

We’re Born With The Fear Response… Thankfully

Even something that seems as unexplainable as altruism (doing things for others at the expense of doing things for yourself) has a possible explanation in evolutionary psychology. Why would it be good to care about others? Wouldn’t it be better for survival if you horded all of your food and took care of YOURSELF first in every possible way?

The explanation is that people who are altruistic are more likely to get along with others in a tribe. If you are a selfish jerk, you’ll be kicked out of the tribe and then you’ll have to fend for yourself (finding food, fighting predators) which means you’ll probably not survive to pass on your genes. If you care for others, they’ll take care of you and help to keep you well-fed and safe.

That’s all well and good and makes sense to me.

But then something happened that made me question everything I knew…

One day I was laying in bed, barely awake, when I heard that familiar gurgling sound. My mother-in-law’s dog was staying at our house, and was near my bed. He was obviously about to throw up his Beggin Strips, and started heaving and heaving, like dog’s do. After about ten convulsions, I heard him puke right on our bedroom floor.

Oh Awesome! I Get To Clean Up Dog Puke Now!

UGH! That’s just what I wanted to do this morning… clean up dog puke.

But then he did me a favor. Like many dogs, he started to happily eat his steamy pile of bile and half digested dog food.

I think we all know why we vomit. We ate something that could possibly kill us (poison, virus, etc.) so our body wants to GET IT OUT FAST. We don’t choose to throw up. Thankfully, our bodies just do it. If we didn’t automatically vomit, we’d probably die in many cases (and wouldn’t pass on our genes).

So why would a dog puke up something that is possibly deadly poison, and then naturally EAT IT AGAIN. That makes absolutey no sense.

How did those genes get naturally selected? Or maybe it’s just an error, since dogs naturally want to eat things that smell good, and so stupidly, those "eat food to survive" genes are harmful in this one situation?

I just don’t get it. I’m going to do a lot of research into dog puke at my house and try to figure it out. (Yeah, right!)

Last weekend I saw the new movie, Burn After Reading. I love Coen brothers movies (Fargo, No Country For Old Men), and this movie was pretty great too.

This movie is centered around a few employees of a small gym. Each person that works at the gym is not exactly portrayed as an Einstein. In fact, Brad Pitt plays a personal trainer that is a complete idiot, even though he’s full of energy and enthusiasm for life. He’s lovable, but in a child-like way.

Brad Pitt As A Personal Trainer In Burn After Reading

That got me thinking… why does the media portray personal trainers and bodybuilders as idiots? It seems to be common knowledge that muscle-bound jocks are morons and personal trainers spend their entire day flexing in the mirror like Hanz And Franz.

Hanz And Franz Are Going To Pump… YOU UP!

I know this isn’t true. If anything, science shows that people that workout and are fit are actually smarter and more creative than the average person. Countless studies show that cardiovascular exercise and a healthy diet makes you more intelligent by actually changing your brain. Bodybuilding teaches you discipline, goal setting, and focus. These are all qualities that a “smart” person has. To really get in shape you have to understand physiology, exercise techniques, nutrition, supplements and a thousand other theories and details. Have you seen how thick Arnold’s Encyclopedia Of Bodybuilding is?

But then I saw this sign in my gym today, and I had to wonder about at least one person that worked there…

Proofreading Four Whole Words Is Hard Work!

What do you think? Why do trainers and bodybuilders have a bad reputation in the media?

I’m a big Nine Inch Nails fan. HUGE.

At his last few concerts, I’ve noticed that he’s really bulked up and wearing a lot of sleeveless shirts to show it off.

BEFORE

AFTER

We’re trying to get ahold of him for an interview to find out how he did it and what his workout/diet/supplement program is, but we can’t find any way to contact him. Somebody reading this has to be able to help! E-mail me! (Click the "Send E-mail" link on the left side of this page.)

Trent, if you are reading this, your fans deserve to know! Help them to live healthier too. It’s working for you!

One of the number one things that people pray for is health. They pray for somebody that is sick to get better. I do it too.

But aren’t we ultimately responsible for our own health and longevity? If we make ourselves sick (smoking, eating too many fattening foods, drinking too much alcohol), is it right to pray to God to make us all better and fix the damage that we did to ourselves?

I know I’m on a touchy subject here, but I couldn’t help but think about this when I was at church yesterday. In my church, they have a little coffee stand where people can get coffee and snacks before the service. I was getting some coffee when I noticed all of the cookies, candies, and snacks that they were selling. Some cell phone pics:

Candy trail mix and cookies (full of sugar and saturated fat)

Gummy worms and chocolate covered coffee beans (full of sugar and saturated fat)

Free muffins (full of saturated fat and sugar)

There were no healthy food choices.

I’ve been going to church all of my life, and I can’t remember a church that was focused on healthy eating and exercise. In fact, almost all of them focused on fattening foods during get togethers.

So, is it right to ask God to keep us healthy as we chow down on sugar and saturated fat at the same time?

On that note, why do we consider it a nice thing to bring cookies or cakes to a new neighbor? Would we bring them and their kids a pack of cigarettes? Or a small dose of poison?

Trust me, I’m nowhere near perfect with my diet. I wish I could tell you that all I eat is tofu and raw vegetables. I do try my best to avoid the bad stuff though. I think about this even more now that I have children that I have to care for.

What about your church?

I saw this on a bench in the MEN’S locker room this morning.

Each year a local business group ranks the top 75 private companies in Idaho. It’s called the Idaho Private 75. We’ve been moving up the list each year, and I’m proud to announce that based on our 2007 revenue, we moved from #43 to #28!  Since we’ve grown 45% this year, we are sure to move up on next year’s list once again!

Congratulations to all of our amazing employees and partners! And a big thank you to our loyal customers! We’re proud to be growing for you.