1)  That since August 2012, six elite athletes, known as "Furman Elite", have been living and training in Greenville as an extension of FU.  Furman Elite is a post-collegiate track club whose primary goal is to send athletes to the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio.

2)  That Doug McGuff, MD, is a doctor, and weight lifter. He owns and operates his own gym, Ultimate Exercise in Seneca, SC, and collaborated in writing Body by Science with John Little, a book promoting the benefits of High Intensity Training.

A few highlights:

3 fundamental variables used at Ultimate Exercise to produce the best results for our clients.

1 - High Intensity-we use a training protocol called "SuperSlow" which involves lifting & lowering the weights over a 10 second time frame.

2 - Brief Workouts- All of our workouts last 20 minutes or less.

3 - Infrequent Workouts-We train our clients very infrequently. During the first few weeks our clients train twice a week. Within 2-3 weeks all of our clients go to once a week training.

Lots of interesting reading.  I read an article entitled "Body by Science - Especially for women" .  This is the last paragraph:

So to any woman out there who is fed up with trying the same thing over and over, I offer this suggestion, instead of getting back on the treadmill “one more time,” try this: Alter your diet so that you eat no grain-based carbohydrate: no flour, no sugar, no bread, no pasta, and no high fructose corn syrup. Then go to the gym and perform a workout of leg press, pulldown, chest press, row and overhead press. Lift slowly and smoothly but with as much effort as possible. Go to complete fatigue, or as close to it as you can tolerate. Work out once, or at most, twice a week. Make sure your workouts last no longer than 20 minutes. Then sit back and watch what happens.

I'd like to read it! I don't know if I could give up my carbs though - I'm a dough girl lol

Frits van Paasschen is standing with his bike on the edge of Central Park. It’s a brisk autumn morning. The city has yet to fully wake, but he’s eager to ride. The CEO of Starwood Hotels & Resorts — best known for brands like Sheraton, Westin, St. Re­gis and W — exercises six days a week, no matter where he is in the world. These are not light work­outs. Van Paasschen, 52, just completed his first Ironman triathlon — 2.4 miles of swimming, 112 miles of cycling and a 26.2­mile run. It took 12 hours and 44 minutes. Since taking over as CEO in September 2007, van Paasschen — who is a vegan — has injected parts of his lifestyle into Starwood’s hotels. He’s changed menus to make them healthier, for in­stance, and made it easier for road warriors to work out.

  His love of fitness started at age 7 while watching the 1968 Mexico City Summer Olympics on TV.

“I thought, ‘OK, I’m go­ing to go out and be in the Olympics,’ and I started running,” van Paasschen said. “I realized after a few years there was no way I was going to go to the Olympics, let alone even compete at a high level. But I also just kind of, I just fell in love with doing it.”  Biking came later, when a junior high school gym teacher on Mercer Is­land, Wash., would take van Paasschen’s class out for long rides at the end of the day.

  Starwood guests can see those influences today.

  Westin hotels lend guests running shoes and clothing. New menus have been crafted around foods thought to improve well­being  and longevity such as green tea, honey, blue­berries and kiwis. And the company’s newest brand, Element, offers bicycles.  “The whole idea is that you’ll feel better after your stay,” van Paasschen said. It doesn’t matter that nearly three times as many guests use Shera­ton’s free lobby comput­ers than use the hotel gym. It’s important that the gym is available. “It strikes me that more people have the intention of working out than not.”