TXP: Rise Above

Words to Live By

This shirt came from my friend Doug at Rise Above Performance Training. Doug has been  a friend and supporter of S/E/E for a long time. He is always positive and ready to share ideas about fitness and physical training. Doug is all about, rising above the fray and helping people. Check out this blog post, where he gives away a free manual of circuit training programs.  Better yet, if you are in the Bay Area, follow these directions and head over to Rise Above and meet Doug in person.

stick me with a spork – I’m done

Doug is also a member of the brotherhood of titanium spork owners. This is the ultimate in high tech silver titanium-ware. Doug has his spork fastened with a tactical lanyard for extra security. Whether you’re at the kitchen table or sitting on the edge of a cliff, you don’t want to risk inadvertently dropping this kind of gear and losing it. Sure his spork helps him eat right, but boys and girls, if you want to grow up to be be big and strong like Doug don’t forget your daily dose of iron.

TXP: JCDFitness

Hot Nights and Cool Shirts

Hot summer nights require a cool t-shirt.  JC Deen of JCDFitness took care of the shirt by sending me this ridiculously comfortable Tee.  The grey heather and light fabric are quite stylish and the whimsical devil horned cupcake on the back makes people smile, while making a point.

Let Them Eat Cake

In keeping with the theme of the night/t-shirt, I ordered a gin & tonic.  E and I split a Greek Salad and a Pizza Margherita.  The salad and pizza were tasty, but when I wanted to be a bit more devilish and order a waffle with ice cream for dessert, I was told there was no more ice cream.  August in Seoul and not enough ice cream…shame on you My Chelsea!

Look Great Naked

Yes, you can drink socially and eat waffles and ice cream and still look great naked.  To find out how, head over to JCDFitness and read Social Drinking on a Fat Loss Diet and How I Eliminated Binge Eating Completely or Eat to Live, Don’t Live to Eat.

Strong is Sexy

Strong is definitely sexy and it doesn’t have to mean big and bulky.  So ladies, please check out these posts by JC: The Muscle Building Guide for Women and I Don’t Want to Get Big and Bulky: Fitness Marketing and its Effect on Women, or JC’s most recent post – Attention Ladies: Here’s PROOF that Lifting Heavy Weights will NOT make you Big and Bulky.

Do Work Son

When JC’s not training clients, putting up great content, or designing killer Tees, he is building gorgeous web sites via his personal design studio ntunemedia.  With this much going on, JC’s no slacker and here he is doing what he does best WORK!

TXP

Thanks to JC for his support of S/E/E and the T-shirt Exchange Project.

Let’s swap shirts.  S/E/E’s TXP has featured people from all over the world.  It’s easy, it’s fun, and you get your very own limited edition 2011 Stretch Exercise Eat t-shirt!  To find out more click here.

TXP: Getting fizzYcal at Yongsan Family Park

The magic of the internet brought four strangers from three different countries together in Seoul, Korea.From left to right, Travis Waters (United States), Ify Osi (Great Britain), James Walbourne (Canada), and Adam Stoffa (United States).

IFY

Ify travelled the longest distance, as he was in Seoul for a quick visit from London.  Ify is the mad genius behind the fizzycal brand and blog.  He brought the t-shirts, coordinated with James, and was kind enough to invite Travis and I along to join the fun.  Ify is a real force of nature.  Battling jet lag and sketchy weather, he was still able to pull off powerful moves like this…

James

James impressed us all with his ability and enthusiasm for bar work.  You should definitely check out his dawalli channel on YouTube. But, much more impressive (to me anyway) was his patience and expert coaching.  Hey, he talked me through my first muscle up, enough said.  Check out this short clip Travis took of James just playing around on one of the lower bars.

Travis

I know Travis had a blast, because he didn’t stop smiling the whole time we were together.  No matter what we worked on, he was enjoying himself: muscle ups, levers, dips, and he was always adding his own personal touch to the day.  Check out these hopping rows as he moves down the bars.

much fun was had by all

James put together this video montage of the day.  He really captured the fun and excitement that we all experienced.  This was a great meet up.  It’s the people that make the difference and this was an amazing day, because of Ify, James, and Travis.

GET THE SHIRT

If you want you’re very own fizzycal shirt, check out the Get Fizzycal page on facebook.  To have your shirt featured as part of the TXP, email me at adam.stoffa@gmail.com and we’ll coordinate an exchange.  If you want your very own SEE t-shirt, they are now available online at Red Bubble.

TXP: Have a Barry Merry Christmas

BJJ at K-1

My friend Barry sent me this shirt from his hometown gym, Team Quest Mixed Martial Arts and Fitness in Redding, California, where he studies Brazilian Jiu Jitsu.  This picture was taken after the K-1 fights here in Seoul. Kickboxing and BJJ a natural pair of opposites.

Barry Working on Technique (Note the T-shirt Under the Gi)

Family and Friends

Barry and I were smoking celebratory cigars at my son’s first birthday, as the presents were being opened, Barry looked at me, smiled, and said, “Welcome to shiny plastic hell.”  Don’t let that line fool you.  Barry’s looking forward to Christmas morning as much or more than his kids.  Not for the shiny plastic stuff, but for the opportunity to be with family and friends, treasures that he never takes for granted.

Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas everyone!  Thanks for supporting the T-Shirt Exchange Project and making 2010 a great year for Stretch Exercise Eat.  Couldn’t have done it without you.  SEE you in 2011!

TXP: Follow Me Straight To The Bar

It’s Friday…Must be time for another edition of SEE’s TXP.

Photo by: Scott Andrew Bird

Straight to the Bar

This time, Scott Bird and I swapped shirts.  Scott makes his online home at Straight to the Bar.  Straight to the Bar is an amazing and free fitness resource.  Since 2004, Scott and his friends have amassed an astonishing amount of content on all things strength.  Go to his site at www.straighttothebar.com and see what it looks like.  You can follow Scott  on  Twitter @scottbird and use the #sbgym hash tag to participate in the weekly twitterchats.  You can also look for Scott on facebook.  Scott is one of the good guys and definitely worth getting to know.

Got Yoke?

The shirt Scott sent me is my go to shirt for the gym.  Its a nice piece of technical gear.  The built in moisture management system keeps me dry and the got yoke logo keeps me motivated.  By the way, if your interested in building up your traps Scott’s article, A Little Yoke Work : 10 Exercises for a Bigger Neck, is a great place to start looking for ideas.  Meanwhile, if you want your very own STTB shirt click here.

Admiral Yi Sun-Sin

Behind me in the photo is the venerable Admiral Yi. Yi led the Korean Navy during the Japanese invasions of 1592-1598.  As the undisputed master of the turtle ship, Yi was victorious in every naval battle in which he commanded (at least 23).

TXP: Greetings From Alaska

This week’s TXP comes from Dawn in Eagle River, Alaska.  Dawn and her three boys are standing under the engine of a C-17 during the Arctic Thunder Air Show at Elmendorf Air Force Base.

By the way, you don’t want to make a C-17 angry.

Speaking of things you don’t want to make angry…

Dawn has her hands full with these three little rascals.  When they aren’t wrangling snakes, the boys are slithering along the ice chasing after pucks.

Which is why Dawn sent me this t-shirt from the Harry J. McDonald Memorial Center.  The Mac Center is where the boys play their hockey.   Talk about a nice home rink…a 38,000-square-foot, 700-seat facility that houses an Olympic-size ice sheet, a community meeting room with a walking/jogging track that runs around the perimeter.

That’s me at Jamsil Baseball Stadium, enjoying the end of the regular season for the Korean Baseball Organization.  The SK Wyverns (my favorite KBO team) battled the LG Twins to a 5-5 draw.  During the regular season if a game is still tied after 12 innings, it goes into the books as a draw.

Thanks to Dawn and her boys for the shirt and participating in the TXP.  Dawn has been a good friend for a long time and a true fan of SEE.  You should check out the other cool people and the t-shirts we have swapped here.  To have your shirt featured as part of the TXP, check out this post for details.

TXP: Mr. Noogles Representing

When I mailed this shirt off to Esham, I had significant doubts that it would actually get to him.  After a prolonged conversation, the postal clerk looked through several manuals, grudgingly concluded that Brunei was in fact a country with a postal service, and thought mail could “theoretically” be posted there.  Receiving this picture of Esham in front of the Sultan Omar Ali Saifuddin Mosque was both a relief and a minor miracle.

If you have a twitter account, you owe it to yourself to follow Esham, as he is one of the most entertaining guys in the twitterverse.  Check him out under his twitter handle – Noogles.  He is so well respected, not only for his sly wit, but also for his generosity in sharing information, links, and videos, that it is entirely appropriate to address him as Mr. Noogles (Note: that beard alone earns him major props!).

Mr. Noogles is not only generous on twitter.  He contributed three t-shirts to the TXP: one from TruFitness Brunei, one featuring a caricature of Richard Milhous Nixon with the self-explanatory caption “dick”, and this shirt featuring everyone’s favorite Master of the Universe, Prince Adam of Eternia, better known as He-Man!

You’re making it hard for me to keep up with the wonderful backgrounds featured in your TXP submissions.  But, I did my best to match Mr. Noogles with a shot of his shirt on the beach at Waikiki with Diamond Head in the background.

Gotta love it, the TXP continues to exceed expectations, connecting people from all around the world with a simple gesture.  Want to swap t-shirts?  Follow this link for more information on the T-shirt X-change Project.

TXP: Claire – Boulder, Colorado

Claire picked gorgeous Guanella Pass as the backdrop for this week’s TXP.

The shirt she sent me is from Boulder Indoor Soccer.  Boulder Indoor Soccer must be a blast, not just because indoor soccer is crazy, but because the folks there were smart enough to build a bar into the complex.  You can get a beer after the game, check out the competition, or kick back with friends.  No wonder Claire, a soccer player herself, enjoys spending time there.

Meanwhile, when she’s not taking shots on goal, Claire is still shooting…pictures with her cell phone and clay pigeons with a shotgun.

Speaking of guns, Claire is the one that tipped me to Sons of Anarchy, the Northern California gun-running outlaw motorcycle club version of Hamlet.  Our mutual admiration for the show and the Opie / Horatio character (maybe I’m reaching here) is why I’m sporting a knit watch cap in the middle of summer.

For more about Claire, you should check out her blog and follow her on twitter.

She’s considering a move to Australia…what do you think give up the Front Range for the Outback?

Another gorgeous backdrop…

To have your shirt featured as part of the TXP, check out this post for details or email me at adam.stoffa@gmail.com, don’t forget to include TXP in the subject line.

TXP: Anna – Melbourne, Australia

The world wide TXP…Anna from Melbourne, Australia sent me this shirt from Australian Kettlebells: Stronger, Leaner, Fitter!

The shirt is impressive, but no where near as impressive as Anna, who runs ultra-marathons for fun and enjoys testing her strength with resistance workouts based on high intensity interval training.  Anna is exceptionally good at pushing herself and shares this passion for pushing limits with her clients at Wild Fitness.  Wild Fitness sessions are not personal training, they are a personal adventure, as Anna enjoys taking clients outside for circuit training, body weight training, high intensity intervals, kettlebell work, resistance bands and utilizing available objects like trees, stairs and the park bench!If that’s too much for you and you would rather develop your artistic side, maybe learn to play the flute or saxophone, Anna can help with that too.  Anna completed her Bachelor of Music Performance on flute at the Victorian College of the Arts in 2003.  She has been teaching flute for 10 years and teaches saxophone too – teaching all age groups at all levels.

I love keeping up with Anna on twitter here and at her personal blog Anna Runs here.  Note, the pictures of Australian scenery that Anna posts from her runs are beautiful.

To have your shirt featured as part of the TXP, check out this post for details.

TXP: Drowsy – Afghanistan

This shirt came to me from a Marine Corps Officer, currently deployed to Afghanistan.  Normally, I do a brief profile of each person that participates in the TXP.  I would love to do one for Drowsy…Trust me you would be impressed.  However, given the nature of his work and the fact that he is deployed, I won’t be offering any pictures or personal details.  Here is to Drowsy’s safe return from Afghanistan and back to his wife…Godspeed…Fair Winds and Following Seas!

If you would like to have your shirt featured as part of the TXP, you should check out this post for more details.