I do not know if the glibertariat follows the SBF spaces on the interwebs, or to what degree. It is a space chock full of drama, more cliques than highschool girls, arguments, beef, insults and general hi-jinks. Why is that you may ask? Because it is not different than the rest of science. One is hard pressed to find any scientific field that is not rife with this sort of thing. Scientist are not what they ideally should be. Because, well, only human and all that. They are not disinterested searchers of Truth. One thing is that people are naturally biased, they gravitate towards trying to prove things they want to be true. Another is that they need money and prestige and fame and all of those goodies. Furthermore, there are a lot more people that want to make a living this way than there is need for, so they jostle for position in the hierarchy. Most take a criticism of their science as a personal attack and do not want to engage with criticism, examine their bias, correct themselves if wrong. Hell, be grateful if someone points out a mistake, as it gets them closer to the truth. All the things necessary for proper science. And science these days is a shit-show and not getting any better, especially with the government involved. But hey keep them grants a-flowing.
In fitness, it is often even more so, as the main guys are at the same time science communicators and influencers and sell their programs. More people want to make money from being an influencer or online coach, usually both, than there is need. As such, conflict becomes inevitable, and there is additional pressure due to the so-called bro-science contingent, the fitness crew that do not claim the science-based moniker. If we consider that basic fitness is not that complicated, there is some level of desperation to stand out. My program is better than the programs the other one million influencers are peddling is better than hey here’s the stuff known to work for 20 years, do that. This leads to inventing new lifts, new programs, new exercise protocols and so on. They obviously they can’t all be right, especially since they are often contradictory. And while many will bring some results, most not particularly better than others.
Unfortunately for the influencer crowd, the basics work, and they haven’t changed in like 20 to 40 years. So, with a bit of care and a bit of consistency, their services are not needed. I will not say that no new things can be discovered, or that some basic things cannot be done better. Just that it is mostly irrelevant for the average person wanting just to get fit. In the end, it is a marathon, not a sprint, and getting to your long-term max in 5 rather than 7 years does not make a big difference. Keeping your wrist 15 degrees that way or doing some lengthened partial or blood restriction or whatever to gain a minuscule amount of extra muscle is not of much importance. Most people will not become advanced lifters in need of fancy periodization, even if the fancy periodization worked, which is not that certain. Now if one has a geeky interest in it or is a highly dedicated lifter, sure why not. But that is a small population indeed.
The good news is that the program is not the most important part of gains, as long as it is not complete crap. While many may not be quite optimal, they are not disastrously bad either. The key to fitness is like the key to investment: discipline, consistency, time. A good program you do consistently, week by week, year by year, will get you better results than a great program you do inconsistently. For most people who do not want to bother with thinking about a program, they can just buy one from some influencer and do it. They will not have significantly worse outcomes in general. But you can find good ones free as well.There are some caveats. There are exercises and training styles with higher injury risk, and injury and consistency can be at odds. And there are plainly bad exercises, which simply do not create the necessary stimulus. And there is the whole bullshit that is functional fitness. So not all programs are made equal. Especially ones which invent stupid exercises. You do not need to squat on an unstable plane. Coaching can be useful, but only good coaching and it works better in person than online.
Now do not get me wrong. If you can do something more effectively, sure why not. There are probably infinity variations of driving from New York to New Orleans, but some are much faster than others. But obsessing over efficiency can lead people to never get out of New York in the first place. If you can make a program effective, good. But if this constant drive for efficiency makes you loose track of the basics, and get analysis paralysis, then not good. Science based lifting is good within reason, bro science works as well if done right.
So various informal networks formed in the online fitness space. Generally, people who agreed and promoted each other. Brad Schoenfeld was basically the daddy of the young guns, the current generation , the numero uno in fitness science. People like Mike Israetel, Jeff Nippard, Menno Henselmans, Eric Helms, Eric Trexler, Layne Norton etc formed a group sharing the science, and generally avoiding being too critical. Menno started as Bayesian Bodybuilding, trying to incorporate each new piece of data in a Bayesian statistics way. He also had a bit of extra skepticism, it seems to me. And thus, the science marched forward. Though imo a bit too arogant, to sure of itself given the limitations. Enter Lyle McDonald… Who started out as part of the general evidence-based fitness ecosystem but was kicked out as he did not really trust the new science and was rather abrasive expressing it. Lyle is a bit of a gadfly in the community and annoys a lot of people – though to be fair he is rather an asshole in the way he communicates and a bit too sure of himself. And he did a bit too many videos on his channel criticizing others. On the other hand, he is willing to call out the clique that are way too careful about criticism of each other.
Now let us talk about a little bit of the recent drama. Now there are camps of supporters for all involved, but I will present from my point of view: Doctor Mike Israetel got his ass handed to him recently by Solomon Nelson and Lyle McDonald. Mike has a huge following and a business called Renaissance Periodization. While I am not one to care about credentials much, Doctor Mike has always used his credentials to promote himself, so it was relevant when his PhD was proven to be basically dogshit, poorly done and scientifically uninteresting, with a conclusion along the lines of “fit athletes perform better at basketball than unfit athletes” – shocking report midget. The science clique jumped to the defense of Mike, until they slowly walked things back when they realized that yes, his PhD was dogshit. Greg Doucette made 5670 videos about it, but sensible people ignore that. It does not help that Mike claims he is the smartest fitness science guy who ever lived and the fact that he blasted insane amount of gear to get his pro card in bodybuilding and he was not even close. Or in the words of 6 times Mr. Olympia Dorian Yates, a bigger bag of shit is still a bag of shit. Jeff Nippard was one of the main defenders of Mike I. and caught a lot of strays in the process, mainly for designing countless programs and changing the science any time he needed to sell a new program; and some of the programs being basically impossible for many people like doing 5 sets of 6-7 reps on bench at 85% of 1RM.
Now the drama was short lived, but it did reopen points of contention in the finesse space. The debate between volume and
intensity, on a scale from Mike Menzer’s one really really really hard beyond faliure set to 54 sets of quads per week for maximum hypertrophy. Dorian Yates was a friend of Mike Menzer – and a lower volume higher intensity guy – and hence his previous comment on Mike Israetel (who claims a much better physique than Menzer). The debate between training hard, sometimes to failure, and the 3-4 reps in reserve crew. Between minimum effective stimulus and maximum recoverable volume. The stimulus to fatigue debate. Disclaimer: I am more on the lower volume, high intensity side for several reasons, the chief of which is that going to various gyms, in my experience, I see a lot more people who do not train hard enough relative to people who train too hard. Overtraining is not a great issue; fatigue management is not holding people back. Another reason is I believe in being as time efficient as possible, and I think many people do not train because they think it takes too much time. It doesn’t, if all you want to do is be fit enough. More people need to exercise, and a little is better than none. Now I will say I probably do less than optimal volume per week, with lower than optimal rest between sets, because I do not like the gym and do not want to spend too much time in it. I partially try to compensate by intensity. And it works well enough for my purpose, though not in a biggest guy in the gym way.
The New Science says train many sets with 3 reps in reserve. But the average person who thinks they are training to failure probably has a few reps in reserve. Tell them 3-4 reps in reserve and they will be 7 reps in reserve, and get insufficient stimulus. Many people go to the gym to do 16 to 20 sets of junk volume in a workout. As an aside, a while ago at RPE was all the rage instead of RIR – rate of perceived exertion is an ass backwards concept. Someone tells you 3 reps to failure, you now what that means, it is intuitive. The same person says RPE 7, it needs explanation and is unnecessary. Certainly not every set needs to be taken to failure, and the more volume one does the fewer sets should fail. I think no one would not recommend actual failure on heavy squats – needing to bail. But you need to get to failure, or basically 0 reps in reserve without actually failing, occasionally, otherwise you have no idea what it feels like and as such what 3 reps in reserve feel like. And if you do lower volume, fatigue will not be such an issue. Failure means you cannot, gun to head, do another rep, not it gets uncomfortable or burns a little. So 1 to 0 reps in reserve (you finish the last rep but could not do another) would be good for low volume work.
Despite each person’s preferred training style – and many different ones work – I do not oppose bringing a little science in it. But I have to admit I am a bit dubious of some of the findings. The science in fitness, like IMO in nutrition, seems to be rather crap. It is simply too hard to account for all the variables. Many people in various science-based fields do not consider the possibility that most studies are just useless. So looking at more studies or doing literature review or meta-analysis is a bunch of nothing added to nothing equals nothing, a bigger bag of shit. High volume [heh] of science studies in the resistance training area is a fairly new development, comparatively not that much of it has been done historically. Only recently more people are doing science while lifting heavy themselves, bridging the gap between egghead and athlete. While it may be getting better, it seems far from accurate. Mostly because they tend to be short-term studies, and despite reassurances from the scientists, I find it hard to believe their accuracy all that much. The crux of the issue that in 8 to 10 weeks, there is not that much muscle growth, especially in trained populations. And muscle growth is notoriously hard to measure and to distinguish from temporary swelling due to high effort aka a pump, from water and glycogen etc. So if someone tells me that training X got 100 g of quad contractile tissue more than Y over 8 week… did it really? Maybe… but even advanced measures like MRI do not seem all that accurate and I am not sure effects exceed measurement error in many cases. Not to mention the modern PED epidemic muddling everything for the natties out there.
High volume has been much praised by science recently, up to the previously mentioned 54 sets a week. But it was based on very short periods – a few weeks – and it is unlikely to be sustainable both physically and psychologically. And I find it hard to believe some things – as example a group training to almost failure doing: 4 sets heavy squats, 4 sets heavy leg press, 4 sets of leg extensions to failure in each day, 12 sets per day, 4 days each week for a total of 48 heavy sets of quads a week. For a couple of weeks maybe… Long term? I do not see this as achievable or desired by the vast majority of people and do not see the relevance outside fitness science enthusiast. Another one had a 2 week period of 52 sets thusly: twice a week, each session having 9 sets of squats, 9 sets of leg press, 8 sets of leg extensions. 2 RIR with last set to volitional failure. At least 2 minute breaks so in general two hours per session or more. Just quads. Again how long can you do that? What is the injury risk? The wear and tear on joints and tendons. And overall a positive though statistically insignificant trend. You do this and you barely grow a little more than 22 sets, if at all.
To be blunt after 15 sets per muscle group per week, I really do not care. Ain’t nobody got time for that. Hell, 10-12 should be plenty for most. I do follow a bunch of science-based fitness out of pure curiosity, but would not put too much emphasis on it. I do not really plan to change my training style, and at my age I am in maintenance mode anyway. I still occasionally take a glance at Menno Henselmans – though he has been annoyingly clickbaity recently, too eager to Trust the Science, and seems mostly interested in selling his course – or the Stronger by Science lads and will follow a bit of it. Though I find it less and less worth following. Though most may benefit more from Knees Over Toes Guy or someone like that. And I do, I have to confess, occasionally enjoy the drama.
Anyhoo glibbies do you lift all scientific like a pencilneck? Or just horsecock heavy weight in the gym like Eric Bugenhagen aka Rick the Stick aka Doctor Density? How many sets of heavy squats can you do per week (at least 40 I hope)? And would there be interest in more articles by your truly on fitness, as an engineer with a 9-hour desk job plus commute who trains casually and looks a bit DYEL? Comments bellow.
Wait until you get the Crossfit people involved….
They are all in the hospital recovering from back and shoulder surgeries. Turns out form does matter.
As an aside, a while ago at RPE was all the rage instead of RIR – rate of perceived exertion is an ass backwards concept.
I agree.
There is a powerlifting gym I use when I visit the Philly area. The lifters there all used RPE. I remember scratching my head wondering what it was. I looked it up, and said to myself, “Why not instead keep it simple, stupid?”
I think there is a lot of individual variation in what works best, so I suspect that finding a perfect optimum program would require so much individual variation as to be basically impossible (ie you would grow old and die before finding the optimum for you). Especially if you factor in injury risk. Fewer reps/sets with heavier weights works better for me in muscle building, but also loses some advantages in terms of stamina improvement. Now, I just need to get re-motivated. I have been a bum lately.
yes individual variation is also in how much, how heavy but in how to do the lift, there is no such thing as the perfect form for everyone.
Your back, thigh angles in a squat will depend on your own proportions or biomechanics.
Yes, this. Mrs. TOK teaches strength classes, and she gets great results out of people. Watching people lift in person is a game changer. She’s had the experience to pick out flaws in people’s form, and not only correct them, but even change or add exercises to address those problems.
I’ve been rebuilding the habit – not with extensive workouts, but just getting my ass going 5-6 days a week. I’m working on flexibility as much as strength as I think the former is better for my golf game.
flexibility – as in your ability to flex? all you need is a mirror and good biceps.
One is hard pressed to find any scientific field that is not rife with this sort of thing.
Whaaa? I thought SCIENCE! was one big happy nodding consensus.
What is a “SBF space?”
I hate working out. My wife loves it but the kiddos have sapped all her time and energy.
I like work, give me a shovel or an axe and a goal and I’ll be happy. Now that I’m a certified gimp work is a lot harder though.
SBF – science based fitness social media
Thanks Pie.
Beat my upper body looked outside of the year I worked on and off the road on a rock crusher was the 18 months where I spent 6 of on crutches.
If anyone is willing to try the 52 sets in 2 sessions workout, please report back on how it feels.
I do the P90X workouts, although with my ankle and knee injuries, it has been more than a year since I worked out.
I aim for 8 reps, at any exercise, once I can do 9 I add 5 pounds the next time.
If I can’t do 7 then I drop 5 pounds.
I don’t know if it’s science based, but it’s always worked for me.
Great article Pie.
Took me longer than it should have to realize what SBF meant.
I’m retarded too.
We should hang out.
This was a lot of information, but I read it all because it’s something I work with every day. You’re right, the basics are simple, but it does depend on what you want to achieve. General fitness, strength, competition, various sports can all have different training needs. At our gym we have had swimmers, a college pitcher, strong men, a woman who does Highlander Games, powerlifters, and an Olympic BMX rider. I’m still tweaking my routine to optimize it for my sport. Plus gains are in general a lot smaller when you’ve been at this a long time.
There is one science guy you missed, Andy Galpin. He’s been on all the podcasts, and of course he is selling programming. But he has a ton of free videos broken out into 2, 25, an 55 minute versions so you can get a quick overview, down to the nerdy details. His videos on developing programming are great, and I think his findings on volume agree with what you said, mainly that after a certain number of sets per week the difference starts to drop off. https://www.andygalpin.com/
I had a personal trainer write programming for me this summer. Right now I’m taking that information and feeding it into Grok, and that’s been my programming for the last 8 weeks. I test my 1RM’s next week so we’ll see how effective it was.
Thanks for writing, and yes, please write more about this!
Have you changed your routine since the crash?
Only slightly. I’m dealing with vertigo, so I eliminated sit ups and things like that. And I was using boxing for cardio, the impact seems unwise. I tend to feel pretty good in the morning, so I get my workout in at 6am. If I’m having symptoms it’s usually in the evening or after doing something that takes a lot of brain or visual processing. My specialist said this is all fine, I just need to know my limits and stop or take breaks where needed.
I did not list all the science guys, just ones involved in the drama 🙂
To be fair, there are so many. They are all over social media. My wife is constantly commenting on the stupid stuff she comes across.
There is a guy named Eddie Hall who is worth following. He’s an English strongman, a very big guy, and he does parody videos of what the female fitness influencers do.
I know what Eddie is up to since 2015. He makes budgie smugglers work.
https://encrypted-tbn0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcRvW21b4E8LdVf9D8FBJCFFFrbTGcvmdy79pA&s
but the glory days of fitness comedy are gone. Prime BroScienceLife and prime Infinite Elgintensity ..
Now we have Shredded Sports Science
Infinite Elgintensity was good.
Sometimes Shredded Sports Science videos pop in youtube’s recommendations for me. It looks like that guy has only three or four video titles that he cycles through.
You’re right, the basics are simple, but it does depend on what you want to achieve. – yes I was thinking more general fitness / bodybuilding/hypertrophy. Doctor Mike mostly talks bodybuilding.
I am not thinking really good athletes as they can get their own information.
probably Squat University and Knees over Toes guy are good channels to know for injury recovery tips.
At a certain point in life getting out of bed is proof of fitness.
Can you do the things physically that you want to do? Good enough.!
I just dumped a couple 50 lb bags of corn into trash cans, for the birds. Then a wheelbarrow of wood carried into the house. That’s enough activity. Almost lunch time…
More than I could do! 👍
I think the best thing is to not stop moving.
These people agree with you
I used to move a lot but still the bill collectors would catch up to me.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JRlKxnu_E0o
Ted”s, disappointed it wasn’t this.
Is there a lot of government involvement here?
One of us!
One of us!
What does this mean?
You need to win one of a list of approved amateur bodybuilding shows to become a pro body builder. He did testosterone, steroids, growth hormone, probably insulin, the whole package, in large doses to the point he says he took 10 years off his life and best he did was like 5th place in a show he needed to win to become a pro.
From the ded thred. The US has revoked and deported geriatrics who once worked in concentration camps or other Nazi associations. No one complained it “looked bad”.
Deport every illegal in this country and anyone else who has a valid but unexecuted deportation order. Fuck the Democrats trying to score political points with their fake sympathy. Fuck the no borders whatsoever pro invasion idiots. Fuck the concern trolls.
For that matter, revoke and deport the immigration frauds like Omar and that mayor. And the curry commies.
Unfortunately the Dems won’t stop playing the sympathy card, because it works. Because most people don’t have any principles.
Yes, I too remember
OT – Oh wow. RIP. This was over the instant they rotated.
NTSB issues the preliminary report for its ongoing investigation of the Nov. 4 crash of a UPS Boeing MD-11F airplane in Louisville, Kentucky.
https://www.ntsb.gov/investigations/Pages/DCA26MA024.aspx
The engine in the grass next to the runway was a pretty good indication they didn’t have a chance.
So they were beyond Vr when it became apparent there was a problem?
The engine decided to go solo during the rotation.
Thanks. Found the report link on the page. Totally fucked. Wonder if further inspections of the pylons would enough or just retire the entire type now.
It’s interesting that the chunk of wing went with the engine.
The bearing must have been going out for a while, bearings don’t like vibration and lack of full rotation. Get some stationary wear on the bearing and it’s going to act like a little hammer on the surrounding structure it’s bolted too. Bad stuff all around. I’m a little surprised at how small the bearing is as well.
Ya and those aviators tried everything they could from what I saw to keep the bird afloat.
I know some aviation types have said compressor stall on engine #2 sealed the fate, but Im going with hit with debris from engine #1 doing an somersault double backflip dismount.
I saw that OBE, you’re likely right on the #2 engine digesting parts of the wing/pylon/left engine.
Zero way to save it.
The pilots all had a ton of hours in the type too.
During early reporting on the accident, one channel mention that the gyroscopic forces on the engine/pylon are very high when the aircraft rotates on takeoff.
You do not need to squat on an unstable plane.
Unless you are a world cup downhill ski racer.
honestly not even then imo. Squat for strength and practice the sport to get better at it. I doubt unstable plane squatting has much carry over. Then again lots of professional athletes buy into this functional fitness stuff. This is not why they are good, they are good despite this. there are many good ones who do not do this.
Race Gun Nationals, stage 1 had shooting from an unstable plane, from one prone and one non-prone position.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PVMhMlLUUiw
but why
Lookie Mr. “never been in a gunfight in a canoe” over here!
well obviously the point is to sneak up on them in the dark not get in gun fights.
You’ve got to be prepared for every eventuality. Every! Event! Uality!
Applicable. https://funker530.com/video/boat-battle-between-the-brainless
Motivation and discipline are crucial. These days I lack both.
Trying to rectify.
I am firmly in the discipline beats motivation crowd. I have my calendar blocked and get a pop up when I need to go to the gym, motivation is not of the essence.
I’m in the same boat.
I’ve been through the weight training phase, then came Jimmy Fixx and run for your life. I ran ’til I was about 50, I quit when I didn’t have a good place to run.
Then I walked and walked and walked. Finally I was getting tired just doing the routine things. Now reality has set in, I do only those things I can do, which is rather minimal.
Some are also questioning Israetel’s claim at a jujitsu black-belt, but I do not know enough to comment.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZCMLLUZVvAw
When I see somebody like Lindsay Vaughn hop up onto a big balance ball and do squats, I’m blown away. Maybe it’s a circus trick, but it couldn’t possibly make you a WORSE skier.
Not on my best day.
couldn’t possibly make you a WORSE skier. – no. might make you a better skier. but it is not the most efficient use of the time. and adds injury risk even Lindsay.
then again Americans don’t ski good you need to look at European skiers.
True, but not your part of Europe 🙂
There ought to be more. The southern Carpathians have some pretty rugged terrain.
I’m going to disagree with Pie here. We add things like that in our classes sometimes. My wife calls it “sneaky core work”. On a big balance ball, no. But suitcase squats on a Bosu ball, farmers carries with one weight, things like that make your core muscles work while you’re working something else.
suitcase squats on a Bosu ball – agree to disagree I suppose…
Yes, agree to disagree. For us it’s a good time saver for people who are in class for an hour at a time. That way we don’t have to add much specific work for abs and obliques and such.
obliques make your waist look blocky. Not good for modeling.
The Bosu ball is my go to for post surgery physical therapy recovery.
Americans don’t ski good you need to look at European skiers.
okay, Yawn.
——-
Personal note-
After telling myself for literally years I should build a standing desk, I ordered one from Amazon a few weeks ago. I deem it to be helpful. Instead of sitting motionless I can rock and fidget and bounce. I honestly think it’s helping my hips.
*The one I got is a Flexspot, which I had actually heard of, unlike the majority of Amazon random-name-generator sellers.
I was fortunate to have work provide one of these for home:
https://www.steelcase.com/products/height-adjustable-desks/airtouch/
I love it.
I did not know Steelcase was still in business.
Mine is from the early 70s. It’s gray at least.
My past three offices including the current one are all Steelcase.
That’s a table not a desk.
I like my Steelcase chair over the Herman Miller one.
Agreed. I have the Steelcase Amia. Best, most durable chair I ever bought.
I did not buy a Steelcase desk. I do have a 72″ sit/stand desk but it is just a generic Amazon purchase.
I think my office chair is also a Steelcase.
Likely from the 80s.
I have a height adjustable desk at work but never stand.
Same.
Only useful if somebody comes over to my “collaborative” open work space with no other seating. If I need to show what’s on my screen I raise the desk so we can both be at the same level looking at my monitor.
also
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KBpbjFIZojA
I once had a kneeling chair. Maybe with better padding?
I’ve always wanted one of these (minus satin dress).
https://i.pinimg.com/originals/fe/d1/63/fed1637ef1bd51d1ff16e7199704f71f.jpg
That’s the “Kamala” one in the Ikea catalog?
I’ve been using a standing desk for about 15 years. It makes a big difference. I only use it about 1/3-1/2 of the day, but it’s nice to have the change of position. (That’s what she said.)
Our road trip vacation starts tomorrow. Went to Budget to pick up the Luxury car I reserved a prepaid for over a month ago. Did a word for word replay of the Seinfeld rental scene. Drove away in a shitbox VW. Now I have to go back there after work.
“But the reservation keeps the car here. That’s why you have reservations.”
Yes – I even showed them the reservation confirmation I printed out last month – with a picture of the Genesis luxury automobile I paid for.
And the limit of their liability is the fee you paid.
“Sorry sir, I will be happy to refund your payment.”
Part of the reason I only hate big corporations slightly less than big government.
Already stopped using Budget in Newark. We’ve been renting from Sixt when we go there.
Thought Budget would be better in Greenville – very wrong.
did you get the extra insurance?
No. Don’t intend to go far in this piece of shit.
but you can go offroad with the proper insurance
well obviously the point is to sneak up on them in the dark not get in gun fights.
Says the guy who can turn himself into a bat.
most may benefit more from Knees Over Toes Guy
Youtube has gacked up some of his stuff. It actually looks pretty good, but I’m a looooong way from where he is. I try to do some of his stretches.
Today in “Who said you could do that?”
Art and luxury auction house Christie’s has withdrawn the world’s first calculating machine, designed by French mathematician Blaise Pascal in 1642. The decision was announced on Wednesday, after a Paris court suspended the object’s authorization for export, blocking buyers from taking it abroad.
Known as “La Pascaline”, the calculator’s auction was scheduled for Wednesday afternoon.
A group of leading scientists and researchers, including 2021 Nobel physics laureate Giorgio Parisi, asked the administrative court to block La Pascaline’s export, arguing it should be declared a “national treasure” and kept in France.
“Given the provisional nature of this decision and in accordance with the instructions of its client, Christie’s is suspending the sale of La Pascaline,” a Christie’ spokesperson said in a statement to the AFP news agency.
I’m sure those noble scientists just need a little time to raise the funds to outbid any evil foreigners who might want it.
At least the Chinese would be buying intellectual property for once, instead of just stealing it.
Copper Tarot cards coming soon from Shire Post Mint. Might be of interest to at least one Glib:
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/shirepostmint/minted-copper-tarot-coins-with-original-linocut-art-prints
What? It’s not even Crowley’s Thoth deck so no bueno.
I’m a bigger fan of their titanium bullion
https://www.shirepost.com/products/titanium-square-bullion-copy
They would be really cool if they were a trot ounce each. Would make them a little bigger though.
The French mathematician designed each version of this machine for a different type of calculation – decimals, trade, or taxes. This particular model, made for surveyors, measures in feet, inches, and fathoms. The calculator is enclosed in a wooden box decorated with ebony sticks and features eight wheels on top.
Blaise Pascal had planned to produce this machine on a large scale, but the complexity of its manufacturing led to the failure of the idea. As a result, only eight of these machines were designed. Five of them are in French public collections, while two are housed in Germany.
The calculator in question is the eighth of the lot and has been part of a private collection since 1942.
Stolen by a Nazi, no doubt.
You and your property are owned by the state.
The only workout I’ve ever really been able to do consistently, has been Brazilian Jiu Jitsu.
I’d like to add some strength training, but holy shit do the gyms around here ever suck ass. Sometimes I feel like throwing out my couch and installing a squat rack in my living room…
I figured up there would have nice gyms.
I’m stuck with a Planet Fitness down here.
Not saying that good gyms don’t exist at all up here, but there aren’t many near home or work, and the ones that are nearby are generally some combination of crappy, expensive, or extremely crowded. One gets tired of waiting fifteen minutes between exercises for some 18-year-old mushroom top to finish scrolling on his phone and get off one of the two benches.
There’s a Crossfit box right across the street from the office, but I’m not getting involved in that shit again. Not at age 47.
It seems like a decent strength training setup could be had on Amazon for under $500 – rack, flat bench, bar, a small pile of weights…I was joking about installing a power rack in my living room, but maybe I should give it some more thought. Maybe clear some of the unused gun crap out of my spare bedroom…
I know Planet Fitness gets a lot of crap but the one 5 minutes from my house isn’t bad if I go a 5am.
If I go in the evenings it can be a scavenger hunt to find weights, and there’s always one guy that keeps the 25, 30, 35, and 40 pound dumbbells for himself.
I can’t get up that early. I’m a sleep late/stay up late type by default.
My younger brother, who is yoked, just uses Planet Fitness – like Ron, he does it stupid-early (before hoping on the train to go to his Wall St. job) & reports it’s uncrowded at that time w/ plenty of weights available.
#metoo
Otherwise I would have started going again this week, but I didn’t make myself go to sleep early enough.
On the bright side, my knee finally feels normal, so I don’t have an excuse.
A new Planet Fitness opened a mile from my house so I joined in September. It’s big and has wide variety of cardio equipment, free weights, a huge number of machines , TRX, smith machines, you name, they have it. I’m retired and usually go 2x a week around 10:30 AM, it’s never crowded, usually a bunch of older folks like me.
well rate Mikes blackbelt then 🙂 youtube in the comments
Disclaimer – I’m a mediocre, unathletic blue belt who doesn’t compete. So I barely know enough BJJ to get out of my own way. Also, no one should really make a judgement based on observing a single roll.
All that said – Mike is the white guy in the black shorts and rashguard? He’s not rolling with what I would consider a black belt level of skill.
Sorry we haven’t been successful enough to add additional locations.
You should be.
Kevin’s gym is good. I think it’ll be a matter of time before they take over!
We do have a few irons in the fire, so hope you are right DEG! It does sound EvilSheldon would like our place.
I dunno…do you play good music?
Oh Sheldon….
We have a big BlueTooth speaker on a high shelf that you can connect to. First come first serve, play whatever you want, as loud as you want. During classes the coaches play music, but there are plenty of times you’d be there by yourself.
(RPE) rate of perceived exertion is an ass backwards concept.
STEVE AM INTERESTED IN TINY VAMPIRE NEWSLETTER. SAVE HIM FOR LAST.
“The debate between training hard, sometimes to failure, and the 3-4 reps in reserve crew. ”
In my highschool powerlifting days, we did both. IIRC, three sets of weight you could do 10x the first time, heavy enough were subsequent sets would be lower. “Failure” could be outright failure, or the last bench that you could get to the rack.
Other days would be more competition prep, doing heavier reps for 3-5 reps, or test what lifts were doable. All done at The Pit in Evansville, small, very old-timey gym. Coach was a retired cop, and the place was largely folk like that, working men, and ex-cons. That place, damn. That was a helluva place. Unique, in my life.
This was sure to glibbies out. Well done, on every level. *cheers*
RIP Mani of Stone Roses fame. 🙁