...and the winner is...

Oh, hey, remember this? Guess I should probably announce a winner, right?

First, thanks to everyone who participated. We got a lot of great entries and we'll be using a whole bunch of them in our programming. Get ready for a whole lot of fun new drills in the coming year :)

But, in the end, there can be only one, and the One is Sylvia Toth with her entry of "Bravely Bold Sir Robin" which took the cake due to its clever use of alliteration and due to the fact that I spent way too many hours as a child skipping about singing that song.

So, one Fifth Ape shirt to Sylvia for a job well done. If you're interested, you can get your very own Fifth Ape shirt right here.

Let's keep this party going, ya? If you think of a clever and appropriate name for a flow drill/HIIT drill, send it our way. Use anything and everything for inspiration - movie quotes, internet memes, pure originals, etc. If it meets our stringent criteria (i.e. puts us on the floor in a fetal position due to laughter) we'll use it and send you a shirt. Not bad, huh? In celebration of Sylvia and the perpetuation of the naming contest, please enjoy the best thing ever:

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

A great man

November 9th was the birthday of one of my great heroes, Carl Sagan. When I think about the origins of my journey down the path of, well, whatever the hell it is that I'm doing now, it doesn't begin with Bruce Lee, David Belle, George Hebert, Loren Cordain, Frank Forencich or Erwan Le Corre. It begins with Carl Sagan and Cosmos. No man before or since, in my opinion, had Sagan's remarkable ability to convey the pure wonder of science and how vital our understanding of the world is to our survival. To anyone who feels that science is an anathema to mystery and romanticism, all you need to do is read or listen to Carl Sagan to understand the exquisite beauty of seeking to understand our universe.

I've been appealing to the Paleo community recently to tell a bigger story - a story that casts our evolutionary perspective on life in an optimistic, forward thinking context and escapes the silly diet/exercise pigeonholing that currently plagues the movement. Leave it to Carl Sagan to simply and beautifully speak the exact message I've been struggling with for months:

...and one more:

If you haven't read any Carl Sagan, or seen Cosmos, I cannot recommend enough that you do so. He was a truly great man.

***

I tend to get a little emotional whenever reading/listening to Carl Sagan, so before I start weeping all over my keyboard, let's change the subject to something else. May I direct your attention to a brand new page on the website? Behold, our new testimonials page! Thanks to everyone who has sent in feedback thus far - I am grateful for and humbled by your kind words and positive feedback. Fifth Ape is a labor of love for me - it's certainly not a big money-maker, but that's okay. I do it because it makes my soul sing. Hearing about all the ways your lives have benefited from learning how to move is better than the biggest Wall St. bonus check in the world.

If you'd like to write up a testimonial, please email it to us and we'll put it up along with the others! Check out the page and please "like" it, tweet it, +1 it, etc.

Tuxedo + barefoot > cancer

Remember Bob Ewing? He's the guy who ran the Marine Corps Marathon last year barefoot to raise awareness for the Bone Marrow Registry?

Well, he's back at it this year. Not only is he running the marathon barefoot, he's also wearing a tuxedo. Check this out:

Bob has teamed up with an excellent charity, Swab a Cheek Save a Life to raise money and find a donor match for Amit Gupta.

Bob makes his run tomorrow morning. I think it would be super awesome if all of you gave him your support. While you're at it, I hope you join me in registering with the Bone Marrow Foundation.  It takes a minute of your time and you could save a life.  Here's how to help:

Site: http://www.dcbarefootrun.com/

Donate: http://bit.ly/mYB8p2

Join Registry: http://www.marrow.org/JOIN/index.html