A couple sites worth your attention - Nutrition and Strength Training

by Mike

Now that most of the interesting stuff on De Vany's site is now behind a pay wall, so...not much going on there. Here's our review of the cool stuff you missed. Haven't seen the DVD, so I can't comment on that, but instead of sitting through eight hours of that, I might just wait for the book. In the mean time, there's a ton of great information out there, ready for you to discover.

There's always the great debate of, "should you just go pay $30 for a book or is it more worthwhile to spend tens of hours of your time trying to piece the same information together on Web sites of varying quality?

The answer, of course, depends on where you fall in the money vs. time spectrum, but here's a listing of a few sites that I keep in my RSS aggregator, or otherwise visit every now and then just to see what's up.

Testosterone Nation: T-Nation is a sprawling site with articles on strength training, conditioning and nutrition focused on bodybuilders, power lifters, mixed martial artists and "guys who want to look good naked." The articles range in specificity from, high-level "take my word for it - this stuff works" to getting pretty in-depth with the science. The only downside to the prolific nature of the site is that there are a lot of articles that repeat themselves, especially when you've been reading it for a couple of years.

The search tool is atrocious and you can get lost in the archives while you review minutae of hand positioning for any lift you can think of, signing up for their forum will get you the "weekly dose" email that summarizes what's gone on during the past week. The guys on the forum are pretty helpful with questions if you have any.

Mark's Daily Apple is a fun site with a similar mindset to what De Vany and the Evoutionary Fitness folks have. Mark's a little more accessible than De Vany and has a variety of articles covering exercise, green/less-toxic living and more. These articles are generally interesting or good overviews, but his best articles are his nutrition articles which spotlight certain foods and provide recipes or recipe ideas.

Nutrition Facts is probably the most in-depth database of nutritional information. On top of good info, they have lots of colorful graphs and charts of varying utility.

Exrx.net is the most comprehensive collection of exercises that I've yet seen. It also probably has the worst navigaiton of any site that I've yet seen. While there is lots of information on workout construction, rehab and etc., the list of muscle groups and exercises to work those (as well as what exercises work which muscles) are where the real value of this site is. You'll probably want to start on this page and go from there.

Five MMA Matches You Need To See

by Mike

Selected to give newcomers to the sport a good basis for understanding of what Mixed Martial Arts are all about - both in a historical contest as well as the modern landscape. There are a great deal more excellent fights out there, but this will definitely be a preview of the best MMA has to offer.

5. Wanderlei Silva vs. Chuck Liddell - UFC 79

I'm hard-pressed to imagine a bigger fight - Pride's resident boogeyman vs. the UFC's own Iceman. This fight was supposed to have occurred in 2003 when Liddell was invited to participate in the Pride Middleweight Grand Prix, but was stopped in the semifinals by Quinton "Rampage" Jackson. Had this fight occurred then, or even in 2006, it would have been the biggest fight of all time. As it was, each man came off of two tough losses but showed up for this match with the intensity that made them famous. A classic styles-make-fights showdown, both fighters acquitted themselves perfectly in fifteen minutes of a fight that was always one punch away from ending.

When watching, do yourself a favor and turn the sound off - you'll see that the fight was a lot closer than the announcers would have you believe.

4. Fedor Emelianenko vs. Tim Sylvia Affliction: Banned

Not so much a Pride vs. UFC event (like Silva/Liddell) but a fight to shut up the fans who had been complaining that neither man had faced serious competition for years prior (although Sylvia had lost two of his last three matches). The ease with which the Fedor disposed of Sylvia proved that Fedor was, and is still the greatest fighter ever.

3. Kazushi Sakuraba vs. Royce Gracie - Pride Grand Prix 2000

At an hour-and-a-half long, this is not necessarily one of the most exciting fights ever. Sakuraba single-handedly ended the dominance of the Gracie family in MMA and in a symbolic gesture, the Brazilian family sent their favorite son to fight the greatest Japanese fighter ever. This fight represented a changing of the guard of sorts - whereas the best fighters had nearly always been jiu-jitsu players, Sakuraba showed that there was room not only for the venerable Catch style but well-rounded fighters as well.

Sakuraba shaking Helio's hand at the end of the match is one of the greatest moments in MMA history.

2. Stephen Bonnar vs. Forrest Griffin - The Ultimate Fighter 1 Finale

Previous matches have been fan's dreams-come-true and exciting for the casual observer and technician alike, but for the overall sport of MMA, no fight was more important than the fight between Stephen Bonnar and Forrest Griffin. Without getting to the brilliant marketing plan that was The Ultimate Fighter, many people had a vested interest in seeing these two fight. And though it wasn't the most technical fight and one that barely hit the ground, the three rounds of this showed the heart that goes into becoming a MMA fighter.

1. All of UFC 1

It may be a cop-out to list the entire event, but this is where it all started - Big guys fighting small guys, small guys kicking big guys' teeth across the octagon and Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu winning it all. When you've gotten through the rest of the fights, you'll see just how far the sport has progressed since it's beginning.