ChristopherClydesdale with a capital AWESOME

Posts by cnichols2000

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Forum	Topic	Date	Replies
Fitness	5k or 10k? RUNNERS, I NEED ADVICE!	Oct 01 2012 13:44 (UTC)	1
Well, adding one mile to your long run per week is certainly doable. Go outside today and run 4 miles. This Saturday, run 5. If you feel okay after 5 miles, you can probably finish 10k. If you have any actual pain during or after your run, stick with the 5k for now.
Fitness	Is studying really exercise???	Oct 01 2012 12:22 (UTC)	2
CC's log discounts metabolic caloric burn during logged activities. So if your daily burn is 1300 (54 kcal/h), and you log 280 kcal in 4 h, the calculator subtracts 4 * 54 = 216 kcal. So your net burn for the day would be 1300 - 216 + 280 = 1364.
Fitness	Pat on the back	Sep 30 2012 13:03 (UTC)	2
Original Post by tweetingtulip: I walk-run too, since I get to the gym after work and I've gotta admit I'm a little tired. But I'm pushing myself to run longer, and I'm getting there slowly. Right now, couldn't do it without MJ screaming in my ears :P :P Once you get to running 30 minutes at a stretch, you'll find out what the runner's high is all about. I know it's weird to think, but there will come a day when running for an hour is no big thing.
The Lounge	Any Doctors/med school students?	Sep 29 2012 07:15 (UTC)	13
Original Post by dbackerfan: I think you would be better served to take the extra physics class - it sure won't hurt. This is my thought as well. You may not need the particular material covered in this class, but med school (and even undergrad for that matter) will throw a tremendous amount of material at you, and you need to be able to quickly absorb it. So a more challenging physics course would help train you for the firehose that is your freshman year in a science curriculum.
Fitness	Body fat testing	Sep 28 2012 23:16 (UTC)	3
Original Post by oldguysrule: I find circumference to be quite ambiguous, actually. Abdomen varies inches, throughout the day (time since eating, bloating, exactly where you measure it etc.). The other big body parts like thighs, and chest depend a lot on exactly where you measure them, so can be problematic as well. Calves and arms are very consistent and easy to measure, but aren't very important in the grand scheme of things. Also, the muscle gain somewhat cancels out the fat loss, making it even harder to tell exactly what you are achieving (if anything at all). The calipers that I linked to above have a spring in them that makes the force reproducible/unambigous (unlike those linked to in the following post#3). For a person that is doing it themselves, they will find a few sites (out of the seven sites commonly used) that are very consistent. There are a couple that you need a partner to help with though (subscapula, and triceps, for instance). Good points, all. Thanks.
The Lounge	Kcal or Cal? a confusing... slightly ironic world.	Sep 28 2012 19:37 (UTC)	2
Original Post by hatamoto: Original Post by cnichols2000: Now, go forward, and spread the light of SCIENCE! By his noodly appendage shall you be blessed. SCIENCE! SCIENCE.
Fitness	speedwork for runners	Sep 28 2012 18:03 (UTC)	10
Map out a couple of routes. Get a few lengths that are close to 400, 800, 1600 m that have clearly defined start/stop points (fire hydrant, telephone pole, road sign). The first few times you go out, play around with pace. Run one length, rest for a minute, run a little faster or slower, and adjust your pace so that it feels just on the far side of uncomfortable. So maybe you'll have 400 m times of 2:01, 1:56, 2:10. Now, if your short distance is actually 460 m, your times will be longer, but the key is that you can track your change over time (since you have clearly marked endpoints). And start timing yourself. Measure out your route, bring a stopwatch, and start keeping a written record. Nothing fancy, just date/time/distance/average pace.
Fitness	Pat on the back	Sep 28 2012 17:02 (UTC)	4
Original Post by tweetingtulip: I want to work myself upto the 6-minute mile eventually. Helluva goal. I started real honest speedwork this spring; run a mile to warm up, then run 4-10 quarter mile repeats at 1:40-1:50, walking a lap in between each one. I'd feel great at the beginning, and just about lousy at the end. The last session was 4 quarters at 102% of maximum, and I came in between 1:29 and 1:32 for each. So I know there's a 6 minute mile somewhere in there. Keep plugging away.
The Lounge	Any Doctors/med school students?	Sep 28 2012 15:11 (UTC)	24
High school guidance counselor. May or may not be helpful, but it's someone to talk to. Local college admissions office. Ask about premed programs. My babysitter took the MCATs twice in the last year and got so-so scores each time. Her biggest hangup was physics. You may or may not be able to do med school. But don't be scared off by the workload or attrition rate. If you can't hack it, or you actively hate the subject matter, or you get all the way to your M.D. and realize you can't stand whiny people and OMG I will not last as a psych, that's okay. You'll find something that is a better fit for you.
The Lounge	Meaning of Life	Sep 28 2012 14:55 (UTC)	8
Original Post by santonacci: We're all slinkys on a treadmill Until we wind up in a star, that is. Which is awesome. The awesome part is that we were once stars. My current understanding of the universe: Big Bang, lots of matter, cooled down and turned into discrete particles. Two kinds, oppositely attractive -> hydrogen. Gravity slowly pulled lots of H2 together, the H2 started to fuse, making helium. The helium eventually fused to lithium, beryllium, on and on up to iron. The early stars ran out of fusion elements, died, and exploded. In the cataclysm of their violent death, fusion of transferritic elements was finally possible. The mere existence of copper, gold, lead, xenon, uranium? Proof that we are not the first. We were once all one being, one singular entity, singing a collective joyous note of life lasting for millions of years, before inexorable gravity pulled us inward, only to result in our final act of defiance to show that not even that fundamental force holds dominion over our spirit. A trillion years from now, the stars will be mostly out, supermassive black holes will populate our universe, drawing everything down. The atoms and energy that made up that star, that make us today, that will make our children's children's children, that will someday reside in a cold gravity well, will slowly disappear from what we know as existence. On that day, we will be reborn. Also, have you ever really looked at your hands?
The Lounge	Kcal or Cal? a confusing... slightly ironic world.	Sep 28 2012 14:23 (UTC)	5
Original Post by hatamoto: Generally, if you see 'kcal', it's from someone with more science exposure that wants to be more precise. Functionally they're equivalent for this context. Represent. A calorie is defined as the amount of energy necessary to heat one gram of water one degree Celsius. A kilocalorie is equal to 1000 calories, and it's the amount of energy necessary to heat 1000 grams of water (or 1 kilogram) one degree Celsius. Human bodies weigh on the order of 1 kg to 100 kg (current maximum is somewhere around 450 kg, if the show title "Half Ton Mom" is to be believed). So kilocalories are a more appropriate unit. However, for whatever reason, some genius said, hey, people are too dumb to understand this, let's say "Calorie" instead of "kilocalorie". Because everybody knows capital letters! And scientific literacy takes another blow. The good news is that whenever you read a nutrition label, the number on there is more than likely in kilocalories. And I've never seen any activity or BMR calculator in any other units. Now, go forward, and spread the light of SCIENCE! By his noodly appendage shall you be blessed.
Fitness	i am happy with my progress	Sep 28 2012 13:52 (UTC)	3
Original Post by kashy: does its coz i m building muscles??? No, it's because your body thinks it's in a famine state, so it's starting to slow your metabolism way down. Keep this caloric deficit and you'll start backsliding. Your progress is great so far. What are your long-term goals? What do you want to be able to do better/faster/stronger?
Fitness	5k struggle	Sep 28 2012 13:49 (UTC)	2
Original Post by aurorasky: Heart Rate Monitor: I've been using it a lot more lately to help me decide when to slow down and speed up. I know if my HR is above 170 I'm going to burn out really fast and not be able to keep running. If I'm in the low 150s, well, I can push harder. Practice has shown me that the 160s is a great place to maintain my pace, get a good calorie burn, and run the whole thing. Seconded. There are days when I'm feeling absolutely drained and can't possibly push the pace any more, and I look down and my HR is 138. And that's enough to get me to run just a bit faster. Then there are days when I'm supposed to be running slow, and I have to use the HRM the other way. Some years back, my 28-year-old brother and I were running the Thanksgiving Day 5 miler, and I caught up to him around the 4 mile mark. I asked what happened, and he said, "Oh, my HR got up to 201 and I couldn't get it back down, so I needed to walk for a few minutes." Damn kids.
Fitness	Body fat testing	Sep 28 2012 13:41 (UTC)	7
Measure body part circumference once a week (neck, chest, abdomen, hips, thigh). Record data. Optional: look for "army body fat calculation". Gives you a rough idea what you've got, but the key thing is that measuring circumference is unambiguous, whereas calipers require some finesse. Also, your actual bodyfat% probably isn't as important as the change you see over time.
Fitness	Pat on the back	Sep 28 2012 13:38 (UTC)	10
(pat) * n, where n is an integer. I wish I could access my old running log. I still remember my first mile; took me about 12 minutes. Incredible feeling, isn't it? May this be the first of a million.
Fitness	Exercise Bikes, any good ones? Good and easy videos	Sep 28 2012 13:34 (UTC)	5
A recumbent bike is more comfortable and supportive, but a spin cycle will get you farther over the long run, and you'll adapt to the seat pretty quickly (and/or your local bike shop can make a recommendation for a different saddle). Look on craigslist or local used sports equipment stores, or even your LBS. People around here just won't shut up about Insanity, P90X, Beachbody, or Gillian Michaels, so I guess those are all good options. The key is to scale everything to your comfort level. You probably can't do a single pullup right now, and P90X has you doing pullups for a minute. But even there, the guy shows you that you can scale it back by using resistance bands. Pushups: do incline, or even wall variants. Even if you go the whole way through P90X doing 10 s of work and 50 s recovery, you're still going to make progress.
The Lounge	Ccat is gone?	Sep 27 2012 15:47 (UTC)	195
Original Post by sayitaintso7: You KNEW that what calcat wrote was not to be taken seriously. I'm not going to catch hepatitis from a fart, but I don't want to be smelling them ALL. THE. TIME. And I'm not going to sniff them out.
Weight Loss	vibtation plates	Sep 26 2012 16:46 (UTC)	2
Hate to say it, armando, but YOU GOT SERVD.
Fitness	Standing- can we log it?	Sep 26 2012 11:56 (UTC)	7
Original Post by tweetingtulip: Original Post by cnichols2000: Original Post by tweetingtulip: I don't choose to light activity like grocery shopping/car driving or anything else. I don't even log housework unless I've done like 2 hours of it and I need to sit. But standing with the load has me sore after I get off the bus, so I thought I might as well make it worth it. evil grin If I sit for the majority of the day, my glutes are hella sore. Does that mean sitting is equivalent to squats? Ahhhhhh man!!! Okay, you know what? Do the math and show me that, for your specific situation, standing for 90 minutes represents a statistically significant caloric burn. Show your work.
Fitness	Standing- can we log it?	Sep 25 2012 18:13 (UTC)	10
Original Post by tweetingtulip: I don't choose to light activity like grocery shopping/car driving or anything else. I don't even log housework unless I've done like 2 hours of it and I need to sit. But standing with the load has me sore after I get off the bus, so I thought I might as well make it worth it. evil grin If I sit for the majority of the day, my glutes are hella sore. Does that mean sitting is equivalent to squats?

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