JB

Feel your pain. I'm 6'5. The amount of dirty looks I've got on public transport because it looks like I'm intentionally moving my legs to cover the seat next to me to stop someone from sitting next me, when I actually can't fit my legs in any other way!

Repetition of "interestingly" - oops.

Back to training and a bit of a geeky post! I've mentioned the push/pull ratio a number of times on here and its relation to shoulder health. I really became aware of it from reading some stuff by Joe Defranco. I was listening to his podcast last week where he discussed the issue and he provided a very easy assessment to check for imbalances. Simply stand up straight, totally relaxed. Look down at your hands and note their position in relation to your torso. If they fall naturally at your sides then everything is fine. However, if they fall in front of you, particularly if your thumbs are facing each other, then you are internally rotated and need to do less pressing/more pulling. You will notice loads of bros at the gym with their hands right in front of their legs because they only work the mirror muscles and have tight pecs and a weak upper back. I did the test and the results differed depending on the time of day, ranging from fine to slightly internally rotated first thing in the morning. My pull/push ratio is higher than 2:1 so I was surprised but Defranco pointed out that most daily and sporting activities are performed anteriorly and they all contribute to the balance. I've added even more band pull-aparts and YWT holds into my training to try and fix it and have noticed a difference already. Interestingly, he pointed out that pulldowns and pull-ups, despite their names, don't contribute towards the pulling total as they are internal rotators. If anything, they increase the need to do more horizontal pulling. Interestingly, it's common to notice an increase in pushing strength after focusing on upper back for a while. I've certainly noticed the difference and managed to hit 150kg for 6 this week. I've also developed a bit of a "shelf" on my upper back this year which is cool .

I bought the salted caramel last time and thought it tasted really bland... Just like drinking beige-coloured water. But then I've suspected for a while that there might be something up with my taste buds! Cookies and cream flavour tastes like I'm drinking pure sweetener. Gross. Whey is actually a really good source of protein but the main reason I get it is convenience and cost. It saves me buying and making another meal and I can stir it into my Greek yoghurt in the mornings to make it taste good!

MyProtein flavours seem to have really gone down hill this past year or so. They always taste really "chemically" to me and leave a bit of a nasty after taste. Their chocolate flavours have almost no taste to them anymore. My girlfriend bought the Cinnamon Danish flavour and it tastes like shit. It's like a gingerbread flavour shake [emoji13].

Ah man I wish I could be in a surplus with 2650 calories - I'd save so much money on food! Then again it does give me a little bit more room for fitting the good stuff in .

This. Absolutely spot-on. I'm not a fan of the typical bulk/cut approach. Unless you're an extreme "hard gainer", an unassisted lifter won't generally see much benefit in going beyond 10-15% above maintenance. For example, my maintenance level is 3600kcal and I rarely go above 4000 per day. A bit of extra body fat is unavoidable but too many guys think that they need to be crushing 5000+ calories a day for their gainzzz and end up getting tubby. The leaner you can stay whilst in a surplus, the easier it is to build muscle. I believe it's to do with insulin sensitivity. The "rebound" phase after a diet is always when I look and feel my best!

WTF! That is an insanely broad remit eh. Can't be too many experienced PR professionals/PAs/housekeepers/fashion designers/app builders out there.

Viral videos initially posted to show the world what a great **** person you are. For example, I've seen loads of people 'liking' and 'sharing' a video recently of some Californian guy talking about how he was accepting his son who chose a Little Mermaid doll from the toy shop. That's all well and good but if he was such a top dude then surely he wouldn't feel the need to post a video telling everyone how awesome he is? The fact he did makes him a rocket polisher IMO.

Hmm see I read that as suggesting that people who didn't like it or accuse it of being pretentious either didn't get it or weren't smart enough to appreciate it (apologies if I've misinterpreted). FWIW, I think its pretentiousness, attempts at being a bit "deeper", whatever you want to call it, had all the subtlety and smarts of the fighting robots you mentioned. The convoluted mess of a plot was a conscious attempt at making it seem smarter than it was IMO. And some of the dialogue was as stupid as it comes. Most intelligent people obviously love genuinely smart TV shows and movies. Unfortunately, this didn't do a very good job of being a smart show and that's what made it pretentious. And is one of the main reasons why I didn't like it .

Just finished Fargo. I love the film so I was a bit nervous about this... Needn't have been. Thought it was excellent.

You gotta pay the troll toll to get into the boy's hole.

Thought Sinclair was looking really in the second half so far. Would much rather have seen Gabby off.

Whatever accent it was meant to be, there are times when it's hilariously bad. Like Tom Hardy's attempt at Welsh in Locke.

Regardless of the intentions behind it, hanging someone out to dry like that and saying in public that someone is "naive" and essentially not very good at their job is a really, really shitty thing to do at a human level (especially when it looks as though he's got it wrong). Mourinho is becoming more and more of a horrible word removed by the season.

Ok, I'm officially a sad word removed now: Just typed her name into YouTube. American is her actual accent. Anyway, this is probably the lamest/most pointless conversation either of us have ever had... Let's just move on and agree that I'm right .

In my experience, you won't realise the benefit of a good warm-up until you've been doing it for a couple of weeks at least. And from what I've heard from older lifters, you're likely to appreciate it even more in 10-20 years. I'm not sure many people realise quite how "locked up" or tight they become, particularly when following a bodybuilding-type routine. If you're aiming to maintain/improve athleticism, in addition to muscle and strength, then I'd say a solid warm-up and post-workout stretch is pretty important. I don't follow these to a tee but Joe Defranco's Simple 6 and Agile 8/Limber 11 are very effective. I stretch my hip flexors and hamstrings and do ankle mobility drills a couple of times every day (pretty much).

Alright, settle down - I'm only messing. It doesn't matter what accent she's doing (not that it's massively discernible from Spanish anyway) - whatever it is it's not very good.

Haha I can't believe you bothered to look that up! I'd be interested to hear to her "real" voice because that certainly sounds like a put-on Spanish accent to me... The scene where she's in the kitchen with Ani and says "How do you know Ray?" had all three of us watching here laughing. Even rewound it to listen to it again because it was so funny. One good thing about this season was that it passed the six laugh test!

Last episode was a lot better than what preceded it. But it was still a 5/10 at best. Provided answers to questions I wasn't bothered about. The central murder mystery was an absolute joke. And the random Mexican drug gang. Couple of good moments from Farrell, though and Vaughan was actually pretty good in this one at times. Another couple of big laughs as well. The barmaid's "Spanish" accent was hilarious! Glad it's over so I don't have to keep watching in the hope that it might get better. The writer seems to have totally disappeared up his own arse.

Literally every prediction I saw in the media had us down to lose this one. Very satisfying response!

Perfect time of year/weather for an away day to Bournemouth, regardless of the result! I'd be tempted to go to the beach rather than the game if I was making the trip!

Not that I think you're suggesting this at all, but I don't think it's shit because I can't follow it. I get what's going on (for the most part. I think). It's just a painfully dull story told really badly whilst raising unintentional laughs with some of the worst dialogue that I can recall. It just doesn't seem like a story worth telling or one that the viewer can care about. I carry on watching because each week I assume that it has to improve. But it doesn't. It's a tedious waste of time. In my opinion, of course. I'm glad it's nearly finished.

Marginally. But not by enough. It's still shit so you're not missing anything.

Fair play, each to their own and all that but I'm finding it difficult to empathise with the opinion that this is anything other than convoluted, poorly-written, boring, pretentious nonsense!