This is just an unstructured post with a bunch of final things than went through my head.
It is a good idea to track progress, notebook or app or whatever. I prefer a small notebook and pen, I like writing it down.
Do not major in the minors, get the main things right.
One of the biggest mistakes in fitness is seeing a big muscular guy and thinking he knows what he is doing. Not always. There is a strong survivor bias. Many people do stupid things, many get injured, you do not notice them. But the bunch who avoid injury and get big are visible. That does not mean their training is optimal or particularly good. Like in many things, genetics matter a lot. It sets a hard limit on results. Many muscular people just have the genetics. The second important factor is discipline and consistency. With those you can get away with a not that great program in time. If your body holds.
Most trainers are bad though they can get some of the basics right and create a reasonable program. Just do not expect them to know how to handle unusual biomechanics or nonathletic people.
Injury can be bad training or just bad luck. It is part of life. Still weightlifting does not have a particularly high injury rate compared to other sports. But it can never be completely avoided if training hard enough. Try to recover and keep lifting, as much as possible. The injury risk of lifting is lower than the injury risk of not lifting imo. Not lifting can get you to wreck your knee slipping or your back picking something up. Just don’t do something completely stupid in the gym that may lead to catastrophic injury.
One of the dumbest things in some areas of modern discourse is unfit people calling fit people shallow or intellectually undeveloped. Similar to leftist calling fitness far right. If it is not your thing, shut up about it. This is just a massive cope. But let’s get into it. This is usually said in the context of seeing body and mind as distinctive and at odds: you can develop one or the other. This is dumb. Your body and brain are one. A healthy fit body leads to a better functioning brain. Being fit helps one think better. There is nothing that prevents one from both lifting and reading – book readin’ being the thing that copium smokers always claim is superior and less shallow. It is just as shallow to neglect your body as your mind. And in the end, it is simply an attempt to excuse laziness or lack of discipline. In a world of excess this is nothing to brag about. Many of the Greek philosophers would be chads these days, lifting wise. Many intellectuals through history engaged in exercise. Many of the saying fit is shallow people are just lazy, they are not really all that knowledgeable, they just binge TV and video games.
While on this topic, I will go further. Some people criticize caring about or training for aesthetics, as if it is wrong. There is nothing wrong with wanting to look your best. An aesthetic physique is good, ackchyually. It may be shallow if it is the only thing or the main thing you care about. But just doing your best to look better is nothing to criticize. I think not trying to look decent is more criticism worthy. Or just let people be. The image you project is part of you. Being reasonably fit, dressing decent, grooming a bit and so on. This are things people should do., when they go in public at least.
In the end if you want to be a fat slob, be a fat slob. But do not try to frame it as a form of virtue or moral superiority. Discipline and self-restraint are good things.
Everyone going to the gym should know and respect gym etiquette. Have clean clothes, gym shoes, wear some deodorant, be clean in general. Just like when hitchhiking the universe, remember your towel. Try to have some situational awareness so that you are not in the way. Know what people are doing around you. Do not go into the area of operation of equipment in use. Put the weights back in their place properly. Let people work in when not to difficult e.g. not too much weight to change or complex individual settings for the machine. Do not sit 5 minutes on equipment on your phone. Do not work just in front of the dumbbell rack, let other people get dumbbells. If you want to film yourself, do it properly should the gym allow; you need to respect people, they do not need to accommodate your filming unless you ask nicely. Filming and selfies should be kept to a minimum. Try to spot people who need it. Do not yell or grunt excessively or inappropriately.
If you are doing supersets or circuits involving several pieces of equipment, do not expect to block all of them or for all to be empty whenever you need them.
Try not to give unsolicited advice, but you can try to give some gentle pointers here and there when someone is doing something terribly wrong.
I hear many people avoid the gym out of fear of being judged. This is nonsense imo. Most people will not judge you. Everyone needed to start at some point. You will not start one the big strong people, but neither did they usually. Do not compare yourself to others, compare yourself to past you and try to improve. If you are not a fitness obsessive or your goal is not to be extremely strong, you will not be like those who are. You do not need to be.
Good to see WebDom got into fitness writing
I was thinking is WebDom muscling in on Pie’s territory?
Try not to give unsolicited advice,
I had someone who saw me using the reverse hyper ask me about it. I was surprised. And so I told him about the machine and how to use it.
I hear many people avoid the gym out of fear of being judged. This is nonsense imo. Most people will not judge you. I judge me. All those gyms seem to have four walls of mirrors and I just keep seeing that awkward blob making a fool of himself whatever direction I look…
Be more stoic about it
Buy a hoodwink!
I am with you, UnCivil.
I’m fit, low impact aerobics is fine for this little guy.
“Do not sit 5 minutes on equipment on your phone.”
Grrr…. People are constantly sitting around on the fly machines at my gym like they’re in a dentist office waiting room.
I try to be understanding about sitting around on the machines. I don’t always know how long it’s gonna take someone to recover for the next set.
Gym selfies, on the other hand, should get you thrown out of the gym face-first through a closed door.
again if it is not a difficult to set up machine let people work in. I have no issue with long breaks just dont hog machines that can be easily used by more than one person in parallel.
Most people will not judge you, but all it takes is one!
In “go after deep pockets” news
https://youtu.be/P-bomah5_-8
Kohberger victims families are suing the university of Washington where he was a graduate student.
For those who dont remember, he murdered 4 students at the University of Idaho. He was a graduate assistant at University of Washington in Criminology.
For the legal minded: how does the University of Washington have a duty to students at the University of Idaho for an employee of theirs who is not acting in his university duties or role in any way?
how does the University of Washington have a duty to students at the University of Idaho for an employee of theirs who is not acting in his university duties or role in any way?
Unless they sent him there knowing that he was homicidal, I don’t know. I’m guessing they knew he was homicidal and slow rolled their response, which gets the ambulance chasers randy.
And the state of Idaho is paying for his room & board for the rest of his natural life thanks to the plea deal.
Or the criminology department taught him to get way with murder? Unsuccessfully, I guess…
Discussing bad and diasapointing shows earlier… there is a good one out there for Game of Thrones fans. A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms.
Starts out small… just the story of 1 guy who is basically living on the edge. Exactly the antidote we have been looking for. Just tell a good story with good characters. I have enjoyed the first 4 episodes.
It has been excellent so far.
I’ve been very pleasantly surprised so far. And the most recent episode didn’t start with a dick or shit scene!
Does it stay small though?
I still recall buying an anime about a school robotics club building one-foot tall robots for a competition, and it turned into a “save the world from vast conspiracy” plot.
I mean, there’s raising the stakes and then there’s raising the stakes.
People in the know say it is saying close to the source material. Whether or not that means it stays small, I don’t know.
kinnath:
From memory, there were only 2-4 published short stories about the characters, with GRRM saying he had “dozens” of stories in mind about them. HBO is already talking double digit seasons, which I think is… optimistic.
The stories that I’ve read do stay about as small as they can, and deal with the major houses at the peripheries of the story.
I am glad to hear that Neph.
Thank you.
I’ve lost interest.
*I had mistaken the original comment for “in the vein of” not “in the same setting as”
for “in the vein of” not “in the same setting as”
In terms of timelines, it sits in between Game of Throne and the prequel House of Dragons. Storywise, there are no massive kingdom-wide war and political games going on.
It’s simply a character study in what Chivalry means.
I understand, but I walked away from whole franchise somewhere in the middle of the flagship series – A serious case of “Why am I still watching this?”
Yes, its a nice find
I did read the novellas.
What is this “HBO”…?
A relic of the past
“Help a Brotha Out”
It is a good idea to track progress, notebook or app or whatever. I prefer a small notebook and pen, I like writing it down.
I use FitNotes. It’s not the most full featured or best app, but it does the fundamentals well enough and is easy to add new exercises to.
Regarding the proficiency curve and being judged, I work out in my basement. I also have a membership to a community gym (I play racquetball). Two thoughts.
1) if I can handle dressing like a dork to play racquetball, you can lift small weights in front of people who aren’t paying attention to you.
2) I don’t have the genetics or the determination to get big, but it took me maybe 6 months of consistent lifting to be at a point where I was ahead of 85 or 90% of the people at my gym in weight and form. That “I look like a pussy” hurdle is short. Oh, and nobody cares. Seriously, nobody cares. Did I mention, nobody cares. Run your race. Let others run their race. If you find yourself in a gym where everybody’s being weird about what you’re lifting, go find a better gym.
Racquetball is fun. I miss playing that back in college.
Oh, and nobody cares. Seriously, nobody cares.
I think the vast majority of people are happy to give you credit for being there and trying.
At a gym I used to go to had a guy who would ride a bike to the point of hyperventilation and leave it and the surrounding area soaked with sweat. It was gross and annoying performance art. I felt like taking a 5lb weight to the back of his head whenever that dipshit walked in.
I be at the gym just working on my Firsting.
And yet you’re always failing.
That explains the smell.
As to fit body and mind, Nietzsche was an avid walker and considered it essential to thinking.
And he went insane, didn’t he?
Or he was insane therefore he went walkabout
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0067959/mediaviewer/rm4186319616
I pace when I’m thinking about Firsting. People find it disconcerting.
I really can’t disagree with any of this. Ya done good, kid.
The only trouble members we have at the gym are the 5 or 6 who stopped their credit cards and owe us money. We have signed contracts, so small claims court it is. We also have a new member, 19 and potentially on the spectrum. He was constantly leaving weights out, leaving crumbs and energy drink cans all over, and tracking salt through the gym even with multiple VERY LARGE signs saying to change into different shoes. Mrs. TOK texted him 3 or 4 times about it, and we haven’t seen him in 2 weeks.
Ya done good, kid. – though webdom is not here in the comments 🙂
Whenever I had issues with a non-paying customer, I would send them a letter saying it is going to collections, and that cleared up the problem 90% of the time. If that didn’t work, I called a collection agency.
If you want to film yourself, do it properly should the gym allow; you need to respect people, they do not need to accommodate your filming unless you ask nicely. Filming and selfies should be kept to a minimum.
You’re more accommodating than me. I’m all for strict bans on tripods and filming in the main gym area. If you want to film in the gym, rent out a group room and do it in there.
strict bans on tripods
I am as the lord made me, stop with your judgements!
https://www.thefirearmblog.com/blog/new-mexico-lawmakers-consider-bans-on-semi-auto-rifles-and-more-44826208
🙄
good thing no glibs plan a move to new mexico
Lever-delayed are a go!
The Budapest – Bucharest Sleeper Train has a Morning Surprise…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Yj-oLufmwk
as someone from Bucharest I would be surprised if the train gets to Bucharest the morning it is supposed to and not the next one over.
I exercise for health, strength, injury prevention, and vanity. My diet is the main thing I need to work on.
Socrates said:
“No citizen has a right to be an amateur in the matter of physical training; it is a shame for a man to grow old without ever seeing the beauty and strength of which his body is capable.”
He also went into battle for the first time at the age of 60.
***
Plato puts the following words in the mouth of Alcibiades:
Furthermore, men, it was worthwhile to behold Socrates when the army retreated in flight from Delium; for I happened to be there on horseback and he was a hoplite. The soldiers were then in rout, and while he and Laches were retreating together, I came upon them by chance. And as soon as I saw them, I at once urged the two of them to take heart, and I said I would not leave them behind.
I had an even finer opportunity to observe Socrates there than I had had at Potidaea, for I was less in fear because I was on horseback. First of all, how much more sensible he was than Laches; and secondly, it was my opinion, Aristophanes (and this point is yours); that walking there just as he does here in Athens, ‘stalking like a pelican, his eyes darting from side to side,’ quietly on the lookout for friends and foes, he made it plain to everyone even at a great distance that if one touches this real man, he will defend himself vigorously. Consequently, he went away safely, both he and his comrade; for when you behave in war as he did, then they just about do not even touch you; instead they pursue those who turn in headlong flight. (Symposium)
***
Just filed my tax return. Turns out most states (mainly the red ones) no longer require proof of health insurance. So Obamacare is dead in that aspect. In the end, all it did was make insurance more expensive and reduce the kinds plans available.
“But just doing your best to look better is nothing to criticize” <– Boom. Underthought-of thing: Cats, birds, primates and plenty more, all spend a considerable amount of time grooming. Sure, keep clean, keep healthy. But there's a primal, sexual bit of it, as well. See also: (esp.) women with hair. It's a clear sign of health. Duh, time's gonna be spent making it look 'good.'
Looking, being physically fit is the much healthier way of accomplishing that, considering one's whole organism. Men and women peacocking "Look at me!" symbols ain't just a human, nor bird, thing.
You're absolutely correct. Other than those who physically can't, or simply don't give a shit, those that mock fitness are upset they don't got it, one way or another.
It's an incredible thing to be petty or jealous about it public. We have a word for it. Ah, yes. Childish. It's fucking childish. People swept up by the prosperous times, likely having access to too much food and are fat/unfit themselves, have the time to complain about how others take care of themselves. I'm glad I'm not exposed to horseshit like that. I don't go to a gym. When I trained, it was run by ex-cops with ex-cons lifting, and everything went smoothly. I miss that gritty gym. (The new ones are so sterile. Without character.) Body weight stuff for me. Chin up bar and bench at bro's, mostly for his oldest.
male birds need swag.
Body weight stuff for me – calisthenics is the favored term these days
The History of Gumbo in New Orleans
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=99yi0FRF4uM
how much protein is in gumbo? can gumbo be made fitness friendly?
for the female glibs
Could The Pill increase your gains? In response to starting a 12-week strength training program, women on oral birth control gained significantly more muscle thickness in 3 out of 7 measured muscles than women off the pill in today’s new study. There were no significant differences in total fat-free mass gains. Arm lean mass increased significantly more in the birth control group, but segmental DXA is not very reliable: in direct contrast, ultrasound showed no significant difference in biceps or triceps growth.
Strength gains didn’t significantly differ between the groups in any of the 12 strength tests, including isometric strength, which normally correlates well with muscle size. This begs the question of whether the differences in muscle size were related to contractile tissue or perhaps swelling.
Another new study found no effect of oral contraceptives on muscle protein synthesis (MPS) in response to exercise. It’s hard to imagine how contractile muscle growth can be affected without any change in MPS. It’s hard to build a brick house without laying any bricks!
Moreover, a recent meta-analysis of 8 studies found no significant effect of birth control pills on gains in size, strength or power from resistance training.
Oooh, WebDom! I clicked on “Fitness” thinking it was a continuation of Pie’s series.
Joy to see you! Eternal thanks to your outstanding work keeping this place aloft, nestled in that squiggle of internet tubes.
(I love you too, Pie. But not that way. Fun, simple, and oddly on-topic: Like Ray Charles using a gal’s wrists to figure out her talent, I’m drawn to collarbones. I think they, and necks, are a great snapshot of someone’s ‘overall health.’ Drac’s right about that. (But I suspect he’s just lazy. Why go for red wings when the neck or wrist is just *there?* Pussy.)
I clicked on “Fitness” thinking it was a continuation of Pie’s series. – so did I 🙂
I like this so much more than Pie’s writings on the subject!
“Most aspects of cognitive functioning improve with exercise of any kind and high-intensity resistance training appears to be particularly potent.
Even young, healthy individuals benefit, but the benefits are extra pronounced in the elderly. A new meta-analysis of 17 studies (RCTs) concluded: “Resistance exercise demonstrates selective positive effects on cognitive function in older adults, with significant improvements observed in overall cognitive function, working memory, spatial memory span, and verbal learning and memory.”
Exercise improves brain functioning by improving blood flow and reducing neuro-inflammation. Emerging research also suggests a more direct effect of muscular contractions, which I’ll cover in tomorrow’s post.
The famous Greek philosopher Plato even recommended we should exercise “for the spirited and philosophical parts of the soul, and only incidentally for the body.”
Interestingly, the improvement in brain functioning seems to quite directly result from muscular contractions, not just improved overall blood flow and reduced inflammation. There is crosstalk between the brain and our muscles during exercise.
Muscles release myokines when contracting. These myokines enter the brain and support the production of brain-derived neurotrophic factors (BDNF), a growth factor protein that keeps the brain healthy, especially the hippocampus, our ‘memory center’.
Some of the muscle-brain crosstalk is epigenetic. Exercise metabolites like lactate and the ketone BHB favorably alter our gene expression.
We’re only just beginning to discover how interconnected our brain is with other bodily systems like our gut and muscular system, but the ancient Greek philosopher Aristotle already said: “A bigger biceps or booty will solve all of life’s problems.” Ok, he didn’t say that, but he did advise “training of the body for the sake of the soul.” I’ll add nothing takes care of the soul like a heavy set of squats.”
good to know
How is it I’m stressed out from work? If I listed what actually happened, I’d sound like a whiny weaking.
I’m just exhausted from dealing with people.
“Not my job”
😐
lift some heavy weights. it helps.
I would much rather come home every day physically exhausted than mentally exhausted. Unfortunately, those physical jobs don’t pay as well.
The smartest thing I ever heard anyone say about work:
You get minimum wage for what you actually do. The rest is for tolerating people and circumstances you don’t like.
UCS’s theme song for today. I’ve already found myself singing it a few times this week:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bjhKTqdxRdo&list=RDbjhKTqdxRdo&start_radio=1
One more thought: if you can afford it a good massage once in a while is good for minor gym aches and pains and getting the muscles ready for more lifting
It’s been almost six weeks since I started exercising at home. It didn’t take too long to get past the OMG I ache phase of starting over again.
I need to get into shape so that I can go to the gym to get into shape.
Bootstrapping.
wear some deodorant
Minor disagreement there. Do people seriously wear deodorant to work out? That seems uncomfortable and since most deodorants will also have a ‘blocking’ effect vis-a-vis perspiration, also very unhealthy. Plus, sweat don’t stink unless you let it ferment for a couple of hours.
Now granted, I just simply don’t wear deodorant period, I just shower daily. Mostly daily. Sometimes.
Yeah, yeah, I know – “Name checks out”
“Chicks dig me, because I rarely wear underwear and when I do it’s usually something unusual. “
Supposedly Steve Jobs never wore deodorant, he claimed that his vegan diet prevented him from smelling. Everyone around him disagrees.
I don’t sweat a ton at the gym (I do when I play hockey). Most of the time we work out first thing in the morning, so I have yesterday’s deodorant on, and it seems to work just fine.
LOL that is the most Steve Jobs anecdote ever.
My sense of smell was seriously eroded during my childhood of being surrounded by dogs and cats. I try sympathize. Loud, thumping sounds incite me to murder.
“We have worm sign.”
Jobs also refused to mount a license plate.
https://abcnews.com/Technology/steve-jobs-car-apple-ceo-license-plates/story?id=14834608
You see, it made him inconspicuous…in his own mind.
Deodorant ≠ antiperspirant.
I knew someone who did as you do, PM. Daily showers plus scent-only deodorant were indeed the keys.