Posts by cnichols2000

"As the nature of our culture has changed, our relationship with physical activity has changed along with it. We previously were physically strong as a function of our continued existence in a simple physical world. We were adapted to this existence well, since we had no other choice. Those whose strength was adequate to the task of staying alive continued doing so. This shaped our basic physiology, and that of all our vertebrate associates on the bushy little tree of life. It remains with us today. The relatively recent innovation known as the Division of Labor is not so remote that our genetic composition has had time to adapt again. Since most of us now have been freed from the necessity of personally obtaining our subsistence, physical activity is regarded as optional. Indeed it is, from the standpoint of immediate necessity, but the reality of millions of years of adaptation to a ruggedly physical existence will not just go away because desks were invented.

"Like it or not, we remain the possessors of potentially strong muscle, bone, sinew, and nerve, and these hard-won commodities demand our attention. They were too long in the making to just be ignored, and we do so at our peril. They are the very components of our existence, the quality of which now depends on our conscious, directed effort at giving them the stimulus they need to stay in the condition that is normal to them. Exercise is that stimulus.

"Over and above any considerations of performance for sports, exercise is the stimulus that returns our bodies to the conditions for which they were designed. Humans are not physically normal in the absence of hard physical effort. Exercise is not a thing we do to fix a problem - it is a thing we must do anyway, a thing without which there will always be problems. Exercise is the thing we must do to replicate the conditions under which our physiology was — and still is - adapted, the conditions under which we are physically normal. In other words, exercise is substitute cave-man activity, the thing we need to make our bodies, and in fact our minds, normal in the 21st century. And merely normal, for most worthwhile humans, is not good enough."

Mark Rippetoe, Starting Strength

Well, 5BX was designed for the Royal Canadian Air Force to help keep their pilots in shape when they were stationed out in the middle of BFE without access to a gym, and who wants to go running outside in Canada? There's polar bears and yetis all over the damn place. I know, I was at Niagara Falls a few weeks back and saw a couple. True story.

Anyway, yeah, actual running is far more of a workout than running in place, but if running in place is all you can do, it's better than nothing.

Nthing the recommendation to follow a program. Any of the New Rules of Lifting series has several programs to follow, (I think) 6-12 weeks in length. You'll definitely feel your strength progressing, and even if you're bored while lifting, in the back of your mind you'll know you only have to do this for another 5-11 weeks. Then give yourself a few months without lifting, rinse, repeat.

I wouldn't worry about it overmuch. If your HRM asks for your weight, it probably is pretty accurate, regardless of your resting heart rate (RHR). If you gain cardiovascular fitness, your RHR will drop, but if your weight is unchanged, you'd still need to get your HR up to 175-180 to get the same workout.

What changes is the percent of your heart rate reserve. For example, your RHR is 85, and I'll assume that your HRmlss (the fastest your heart can go without excessive fatigue building up in your limbs) is 195, so your reserve is 195 - 85 = 110. Then let's say you wanted to train at 80% of your heart rate reserve, so 110 * 0.80 = 88, add your RHR, and voila, you should be training at a heart rate of 173. Which is where you're training anyway.

Bottom line, it's a tool. It's easy to get deep into the numbers while losing sight of the fact that it's only there to help guide your training. Yes, you burn a higher percentage of fat if you limit your heart rate to 65%, but at 85% you burn about the same total amount of fat AND you get better cardiovascular conditioning. So exercise as hard as you can, and ignore the machine's beeping at you to slow down (unless you're specifically limiting your performance for recovery or what have you).

The OP already does cardio ("basketball on Mondays").

Eat whatever, whenever. You know what works for you and what doesn't. With that in mind, here are my guidelines:

• Eat minimally processed foods, avoid preservatives when possible, don't eat stuff that makes me feel like crap later (e.g. McDonald's).
• Always eat protein & carbs within half an hour after training (chocolate milk, banana, cottage cheese & fruit).
• Eat at least 3 hours before training (exception for long sessions: eat 10-30 min before and every 30-45 minutes throughout).
• Keep good food and plenty of water nearby. I keep fruit, nuts, whey powder at my desk, and I keep plenty of soup in the freezer (I make big batches of split pea and brown rice, or beef barley). 

Sample day: swim before work, eggs & cheese grits & apple at 9:00, optional snack around 11:30 (peanut butter & raisins), ride 12:00-1:00, 16 oz chocolate milk at 1:10, chicken & avocado at 2:00, almonds & apricots at 4:00, spaghetti & meatballs & salad at 5:30, peanut butter on toast at 9:30.

Original Post by spoiled_candy:

When a mother says that 'the only thing she has to look forward to is her coffee'  I read that as she is frustrated with something in her life.
Please do something nice for your mom today, even if it is only a hug and an I love you. 

Operant conditioning would suggest that rewarding this behavior makes it likely to recur. I understand parental angst, but the fact remains that assaulting someone for dirtying a coffeepot is a disproportionate reaction.

Would it be okay for the daughter to scream at her mother for this scenario? Then why does the mother get a pass?

Original Post by sfechter:

First of all im not your dear and second of all I am the case and oh I dunno the last 25 people I watched streching last night at the gym that happen to be there because they dont injur therselves working out cold lol.

So have fun reading your articles and im not spending all my time trying to be "RIGHT' I seem to be spending all my time trying to get the message across to all of you that "THINK" they can tell people they are wrong, this is a form about support and advise based on personal experience and maybe "some" research. So giving advise on my personal experience being an athlete is not WRONG!

Theres an article that a doctor wrote on getting AIDS sitting on a toilet seat! OMG it must be true right cause a doctor wrote and well hes got credentials cause hes a certified doctor lol and its a published article! lol really!!!!!! so maybe my attitude is justified to all the rocket scientists out there!

I've been a product design engineer for about 15 years. I've designed wire that needed to hold insulation integrity for 15 minutes while being exposed to a 2000°F flame and severe vibration, with a nichrome strip wrapped around the wire under tension (to simulate an engine on fire in an aircraft in flight). I've designed a hydraulic component that sees some use in xenon thrusters (satellite station-keeping, usually). My MSME focused on thermo/fluids, and I spent a lot of time analyzing various compressible fluid situations such as might be found in hypersonic vehicles.

So in a sense, I am a rocket scientist. And as such, my professional opinion is that your attitude sucks.

And, yeah, advising people to do things that increase their chances of injury without offering a corresponding benefit is pretty much wrong.

Not a problem. You don't gain fitness overnight, you won't lose it in a week. Mentally, it might be good for you to go out once or twice during the week for 15-20 minutes, just so it's not such a shock to get back into once you're back in the real world. Worst case, you repeat week 7.

Original Post by weirdfish:

If you're not quite ready to progress to 20s, then execute the reps with the 15s with perfect form instead.  Push them MUCH slower than you think you should...

Disagree. Move the weights faster; it will increase the amount of force being generated. Better yet, microload or switch to a barbell.