Today’s obligatory fitness post is on close-grip pull downs. They’re for the back. If you do them once in a while your back will be happy. Tonight for example, I did them (with a few other back exercises and some tricep stuff) and my back said to me “Hey Turtle …thanks for doing those! I haven’t felt a good pump like that for a while. Let’s do them again next time …huh?!” I didn’t reply back to my back however, as I didn’t want to draw too much attention in the gym. Gym guys are usually pretty tolerant to people doing weird things while working out, but carrying on a conversation with yourself (and not having a bluetooth earpiece attached) is grounds for some awkward glances, and I don’t need awkward glances. Or not any more than usual that is.
More to the point though, close-grip pull downs (the shapefit.com guys call them v-bar pull downs) target the mid-back area, and using a closer grip means working more of the inner muscles. Wider grip targets the outer muscles (the guy in the gif is using an even wider v-bar than I was). It’s good to go somewhat heavy with these too, and when bringing the bar down try to bring it right to the chest. The amount of time needed to bring it down should be the same on the return, and doing these somewhat slower with good control is key. Also, try not to let your arms do too much of the work. They do some work of course, but if you concentrate on pulling from your mid-back then you’ll actually use that area in the movement. But of course you’re thinking when doing all your exercises anyway, right :)
I had a great workout tonight! I think I’ve been lazy this Winter and kinda lapsed into combining my cardio and weight training more or less into the same block; that is, I’ve been doing them together to save time. After the run this morning I ate crap but didn’t really do anything else for the rest of the day, so when I got to the gym I was suddenly refreshed and everything just felt good. The body responded well with the break from the run. I’ve been doing my cardio either just before or just after my workouts all season and I should of known better. They do affect each other and place a greater drain on the reserves depending on the effort you put into them. Maybe now that the weather is cooperating more, I can better keep them apart. Here’s hoping. It was chest and bi’s today btw; incline dumbells (of which I easily pushed out 5 reps with 75 lb weights), pec-tec machine and flat flys for chest as well as cable curls, standing dumbells and some unknown curl machine for the bi’s. Now all’s I need to finish off the day is a good sleep.
“Syrian security forces have opened fire on anti-government protesters near the city of Daraa, killing at least 20 people, residents have told Al Jazeera“ …although we shouldn’t expect coalition forces to fly to anyone’s rescue however. Syria is a friend afterall, and it’s not like their president dresses all funny-looking and stuff. Sigh. *big sigh!* But such is the interconnected, modern world I suppose. Most of the grief has to come from the suddenness of it all I’d think …on one hand we’re becoming a giant collective while on the other we’re individual cultures and communities. And the process of it is still new and in development. But yet fair should be fair, and hopefully we’ll recognize our shared, natural desires for justice while admitting to those same natural desires for power. In a perfect world that is.
In other good news I’ve been doing some light running! The knee is still a little glitchy on corners and when I try to plant hard or do sudden movements, but it’s not a constant ache anymore, which is a great thing. I have been doing the regular ‘weights’ even though the knee was sore for the past few weeks, but now I can finally not worry about how I’m standing when I pick something up …or how I’m going to put it down for that matter. The worst part of the day seems to be the morning – for both the knee and lower neck. I still have sharp pains that shoot through my mid-upper back especially when I raise my arms into funny positions; if you can call putting on a t-shirt a funny position that is. But like I say it’s just the mornings, and as the day goes on I pick up steam. Luckily almost all of my workouts happen at night.
Image from wikipedia.org
I’m planning a little sojourn out to Tisdale again next week. Spring break is happening around town and that’s my cue for less work with the Man …so I’ll use that break to head out East for a bit. Maybe my niece picked my up my chocolate bar that I asked for when they went down to the Daytona 500 last month. Mmmmm …butterfinger. Lol – I’ll take anything though, I’m not that picky. I also had to do one of those ‘fun’eral things a few days ago …sad, of course, but nice to see people too. But I guess that’s what those occasions are ultimately about; bringing people together. Sure someone has died or someone else has found love, but weddings and funerals are primarily about bringing people together …and deaths or unions are just a convenient way of getting that to happen. Parties work too of course, but it’s a lot easier to find an excuse to not attend a party than it is to not attend a funeral or wedding. Party planners take note ;)
Now I must get out of bed. I must eat. I must stretch. I must pick up some pre-ordered dutch candies. I must (maybe) see a movie and eat some popcorn in the mid-afternoon while the snow and grey that is still Winter makes its plodding retreat.
After a little late afternoon nap I procrastinated around the house till close to 9pm when I decided I better drag myself to the gym before I skip yet another day. It was back and tri’s …and things went surprisingly well. Back was all machine stuff (a horizontal wide-grip seated pull, a close grip pull-down and some behind the neck pull-downs as well) and tri’s were standing rope pull downs, close-grip flat barbell press and behind the head dumb bell extensions (two hands). The latter are somewhat of a power move when it comes to triceps. Good for building mass because they isolate the tri better than others and you can bump the weight up and cheat a little easier if you want to target different parts of the muscle by not dropping down as low. Here’s a youtube video giving a nice demo ….just excuse the testosterone.
The other added bonus for the workout was that I actually had some good food the other night. That helps (especially for a guy like me who doesn’t always eat the best) in replenishing those ‘stores’ that you need when you’re tasked by heavier weights. The body responded though …so I was happy. Probably more happy because my mood going down there wasn’t the most positive – and it’s a great feeling when a good workout surprises you and changes your mindset like that. I think a lot of people fail to consider the wonderful stress-relieving byproduct of activity at times. They’ll get focused on the physical results and pass over the mental. So yeah, I’m glad I went even though I had to drag myself out at such a late hour.
The food the other day though was courtesy of an AR wedding gig. On a Sunday you ask? Yep …strangely. It was one of those weddings that I knew from the start wasn’t going to be the most easy going. How was I so perceptive? Lol, easy: If you’re ever on a gig and the guy who hired you comes over to give you a ‘pep talk’ before you start …well, that’s pretty much the kiss of death. I had a guy do that to me (when I was the band leader) and all I could think was “Hey buddy …you know what we do and we’re gonna do what we do so why the hell are you stressing me about doing some other thing that YOU have in your head. Prick.” Or something like that. Anyway, after the groom telling us to give ‘all the energy we’ve got’ and then bride-zilla stressing over the speech order and the band starting time I figured I may as well drink my wine a little faster -lol. Strangely, and it always seems to be the case, when other people in the band I’m with start to get nervous or antsy it always loosens me up. I know …weird. Especially when I’m only a hired gun. I think I just don’t like others feeling down, so I’ll do my best to bring the moods up. The ‘energy’ as some might say. Of course I’m an energy black-hole most times …so I guess I feel it’s my job to give back -lol.
But yeah, I ate pretty much all of the living animal food groups …bird, fish and beast. I also got to try some caviar too. It’s crap btw. It’s like fish …times two. The wine was good though. The vodka I passed on. The wild rice thingy was really great. Desserts sucked. Late night snacks kinda sucked. Lol, but the night turned out, eventually, to be pretty good for all involved. People danced, people drank, people fell down, Groomsmen complained that they booked the hall till 1am and should be allowed to do what they want until then and the Bridesmaids went along with the Groomsmen because they have to. Just another perfect union of love!
*note to self …be more positive or you’ll never get married* *note to self …work on getting a chick first* *note to self …don’t refer to them as chicks you idiot* ;)
I mentioned the experimental drug Qnexa in a post a while back, and it seems it may be poised to gain FDA approval in 2011. Shares rose on the good news, but what caught my attention in the article was that during the trials they found that… “Two-year data showed patients taking the highest dose of the drug lost an average of 26 pounds, or 11.4 percent of their body weight. Patients taking a placebo had a weight loss of 10.4 percent.“ What’s remarkable about this is that people on the placebo lost just under 24lbs …which means the difference in the actual weight of a 200lbs + person on the drug and someone on the placebo was around 2lbs. Two pounds …that’s it! With such a small effect on weight loss why would there be such a clamor in the stock pending possible (and probable) FDA approval?
Well, I can only guess that aside from two pounds of weight loss in a two hundred pound plus person, the big hunch is that people will swoon to this new wonder drug. With proper marketing the public will go wild over a scientifically proven ‘cure’ to lose weight that doesn’t require them to actually change their lifestyle. You can sit and eat and then sit some more and magically pop a few pills to have that weight fall off you like the ice cream on a slice of warm apple pie. Heck, you may as well eat the entire pie ..you’ve got some magic pills after all ;)
But I can see how drug companies might become ‘evil’ entities in the eyes of the public. Consider the cost and time expenditure to get that drug to market, the placing of information in the ‘right light’ when it comes to presentation, the huge investment (and pressure) on behalf of share holders, the money spent on research and development, the hand-shaking with the proper people in the proper places and all the support groups and personnel you have to bring along for the ride. It’s a big investment and it cost a tonne of money to even get off the ground. So you can expect when it comes to a small, rogue report on some safety aspect of the product, that the company is going to stifle, belittle or even ‘cover up’ those remarks. It has to. There’s a lot riding on its success and the potential for loss can be huge.
Welcome to yet another long over-due obligatory fitness post chalked full of fitnessy goodness for all to enjoy. Why #149.9 you ask? Well, that happened to be the number on the scale I stepped on before I began my outing. Yep, it seems I’ve gone from a little piggy to a little skinny piggy again. A ‘girly-man‘ might be a more suiting title. Anyway, I blame it on the recent decision to cut out sugars (yet again ….but in moderation) and eat more fruity type things. To be honest I’m just splitting hairs anyway; it’s not until I actually reach 160 that I’ve done anything exciting. Or 140!
I managed to hit the gym at my least favorite time of day (just after supper) and was relegated to the Universal and other various resistance type machines. I did get some free-weights in, but only by sneaking my scrawny little self into a spot on the floor where I wasn’t much of an obstacle for the ‘manly-men’ in attendance. Again, it wasn’t that bad I suppose, but compared to going at 8:30-9pm when you almost get free reign of things, it was not so good. So, in keeping with the promised diagram of sorts, here’s an incline machine that works your upper chest.
The author discusses the idea of simplifying a data collection so that it represents something tangible to the user. In this case the users are companies/management and to get his point across he relies on a consumer product in the form of an Android application that tracks your workout stats. What I found interesting is this idea of simplifying. For example, in the old days of fitness past you might come to some conclusions on your training pace by recognizing the signs and signals from your body; breathing rate, stride, energy output (sweat) or even through the twinges and pains in your legs or the tightness in your chest. As training became more serious you’d measure out your run and time yourself, perhaps even monitoring your heart rate at certain points to see if your pace was on track. Accomplishing this was simple; you’d need a watch, a measured distance and some basic knowledge of your body’s specific cardio training rates.
This basic knowledge helped by doing more than just giving you the results you came to expect; it also provided you with a deeper understanding of how your body works, allowing you to transfer those newfound skills into other areas of fitness and physical health. You became the brain of your body …you knew what you could and couldn’t do as well as what you needed and didn’t need to do to achieve your goals. Fast-forward to the Android app in question and the appeal of a simple ‘2 pears‘ sort of sums up our current and basic understanding of fitness: Nothing! With all the technology that goes into making our life easier we’ve inadvertently passed up on that which we need more than ever; a more complete and thorough understanding. We’ve allowed technology to take over the need for actually knowing what it was we were doing. In our desire to be cutting edge we’ve cut ourselves out. You can argue that our task and goals are the same, but I would suggest the residual benefits of knowing the underlying process are far more important. To the untrained novice a simple ’2 pears’ is not only convenient and appealing but also keeps that person dependant on this product to make any sense of their accomplishments. It seems we’ve sacrificed knowledge for the perception of knowledge …or something like that.
I think that’s what I want to say.
I read this blog from time to time and the author presents interesting views on things that I just don’t consider in the course of my life – his post today, although not at all related to my rant, was just something that inspired my wayward thoughts. Check out Occam’s Razor by Avinish Kaushik when you have some time.
I’ve never really had any knee problems before. There was one episode a few years back where one of the two knees I have swelled up for no apparent reason …I never figured out the cause but it subsided after a week and things were all good. Last Wednesday though, I twisted on it a bit and felt a little ‘tinge’ of sorts. I didn’t give it much thought and was kinda waiting for it to ‘click’ or work itself out or something, but that didn’t happen …but it was really no big concern. The next day I did some leg presses at the gym, Friday my 25min. run, Saturday was kinda uneventful and then this morning I went out in the rain (scampering about the river valley trails with camera in hand) and had to limp home. That sucked.
Anyway it’s swollen now, and I think this goes to tell me that hills/stairs are far worse on knees than anything else you do. It’s not swollen as bad as it was before (if it’s even the same knee?) but I suppose I have to be nice to it for a while. I’m not usually nice to knees …but this time around I’ll have to use some common sense. I did take it with me to the gym tonight though (it had no choice) but as it was upper body stuff it didn’t really complain.
I guess Mr. Magic Bag is going to see some freezer tonight.
I thought the knee bone was connceted to the foot bone? Image from eorthopod.com
I did a 35+ minute jaunt this morning and couldn’t believe the mood it put me in. I usually don’t get in too many morning runs because of working for the man and all, but seeing as I was to gorge on an Easter feast this afternoon, I figured I may as well head out for some sort of activity before I bogged myself down. The sky just looks so much bluer. In the day/afternoon things get kinda bleached out, but this morning, particularly around the city center with the sky as a backdrop to the ‘skyscrapers’ that are Edmonton, it was simply vivid.
