We are a commune of inquiring, skeptical, politically centrist, capitalist, anglophile, traditionalist New England Yankee humans, humanoids, and animals with many interests beyond and above politics. Each of us has had a high-school education (or GED), but all had ADD so didn't pay attention very well, especially the dogs. Each one of us does "try my best to be just like I am," and none of us enjoys working for others, including for Maggie, from whom we receive neither a nickel nor a dime. Freedom from nags, cranks, government, do-gooders, control-freaks and idiots is all that we ask for.
Doctors like to put numbers on things, including things like your body composition. Your body composition matters for dozens of things, from diabetes and heart disease to arthritis, to general fitness of course.
Calculated BMI is a poor measure for many reasons. As mentioned yesterday, caliper measures are quite accurate. It only takes a minute, and is often done by the nurse with general physical exams. Here's how to measure your body fat correctly.
Get a thorough physical exam every two or three years, 5 years tops.
Preventive medicine is expensive and, they say, not cost-effective but my life is not a statistic to me.I schedule it every 2 or 3 years. It's annoying and inconvenient, and leads to all sorts of annoying and inconvenient tests to make sure nothing (detectable) bad is going on anywhere. Do it in memory of my dear brother-in-law Uncle Bob, a very fit, skinny, strong athlete who dropped dead last year at age 59 on a treadmill. Avoided doctors for 30 years like an old-time Yankee. He would be alive today, still climbing the White Mountains, if anybody had known his cardiovascular situation. Never had any symptoms, and could run and climb like a monster. I remember our last run together on Cape Cod a couple of years ago. No way I could keep up.
My own doc admitted to me that he himself had not had a thorough physical for 6 years. Whatever. He's a serious athlete and presumably knows his body. He found a lump on me (harmless lipoma) and asked me if I had noticed it. "Nope," I replied. "I am not in the habit of caressing my body."
The only complaint I could come up with for him is my waking up between 1 and 2 in the morning with trouble getting back to sleep. Not to pee, just waking up with a head full of vivid memories and some sad or dark thoughts. Plus a little heartburn sometimes, especially with late suppers. He gave me some sleep meds which I have not used. Also, my darn traumatic right shoulder arthritis from sport accidents, which I do not plan to do anything about anytime soon (shoulder replacement? Not today, thank you, even though it makes handling a shotgun painful and awkward).
I do whatever he tells me to do because he will fire any patient who will not. He has a waiting list for new patients, like an exclusive club.
Besides the routine exam, he made me endure three separate sets of blood drawings, 2 full-body CAT scans (one with and one without contrast), Echo stress test, breathing test, Colonoscopy and Endoscopy, a Urologist consultation, and an Oncology consultation (cuz I had a sarcoma sliced out 15 years ago). That is called a thorough check-up but I put up with it all, somehow.
I am healthy and strong enough (passed his strength test - deadlifts by age and weight), with below-average body fat by caliper measure. Below-average body fat feels good because "average" is pudgy. Other than well-controlled blood pressure and triglycerides, I am good for now. Readers know I have a serious daily exercise regimen for what it's worth. Could get killed by a falling crane tomorrow.
Some students say colleges not doing enough to combat coronavirus-fueled racism."In classes, people won't want to sit next to them. If they're coughing, everyone stares at them," a student said of his peers of Asian descent.
4:1 Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil.
4:2 He fasted forty days and forty nights, and afterwards he was famished.
4:3 The tempter came and said to him, "If you are the Son of God, command these stones to become loaves of bread."
4:4 But he answered, "It is written, 'One does not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.'"
4:5 Then the devil took him to the holy city and placed him on the pinnacle of the temple,
4:6 saying to him, "If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down; for it is written, 'He will command his angels concerning you,' and 'On their hands they will bear you up, so that you will not dash your foot against a stone.'"
4:7 Jesus said to him, "Again it is written, 'Do not put the Lord your God to the test.'"
4:8 Again, the devil took him to a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their splendor;
4:9 and he said to him, "All these I will give you, if you will fall down and worship me."
4:10 Jesus said to him, "Away with you, Satan! for it is written, 'Worship the Lord your God, and serve only him.'"
4:11 Then the devil left him, and suddenly angels came and waited on him.
It would be unusual to feel muscle "burn" during powerlifts. It is common with high-rep, lower weight exercises like high-rep tricep press-downs, high-rep curls, sprints, and the like.
(We've discussed high-rep vs low-rep weight exercises in the past here, but the bottom line seems to be high-rep (10-20), lower weight for small muscle groups (eg calves, arms, etc) and high weight, lower reps (less than 10) for powerlifts.) That might be an overgeneralization, but no high reps with powerlifts, please.
Our readers know that the goal in strength training is to achieve a level of controlled muscle damage - microtears in the the involved muscles. The repair and recovery from those microtears is what builds muscle function. The burn doesn't mean that you are doing that. DOMS (explained in the link) means that you might have. Longer-lasting pain means you are probably doing something wrong.
In the cockpit on an Airbus A350 flight, Munich to Tokyo. The first class food looks actually edible. I've watched so many of these that I sometimes pretend I am flying when I'm driving a car.
These guys talk quite a bit about their training. The crew speak a bit about their jobs too. They seem to like their work.
Out of the mud two strangers came And caught me splitting wood in the yard, And one of them put me off my aim By hailing cheerily "Hit them hard!" I knew pretty well why he had dropped behind And let the other go on a way. I knew pretty well what he had in mind: He wanted to take my job for pay.
Good blocks of oak it was I split, As large around as the chopping block; And every piece I squarely hit Fell splinterless as a cloven rock. The blows that a life of self-control Spares to strike for the common good, That day, giving a loose my soul, I spent on the unimportant wood.
The sun was warm but the wind was chill. You know how it is with an April day When the sun is out and the wind is still, You're one month on in the middle of May. But if you so much as dare to speak, A cloud comes over the sunlit arch, A wind comes off a frozen peak, And you're two months back in the middle of March.
A bluebird comes tenderly up to alight And turns to the wind to unruffle a plume, His song so pitched as not to excite A single flower as yet to bloom. It is snowing a flake; and he half knew Winter was only playing possum. Except in color he isn't blue, But he wouldn't advise a thing to blossom.
The water for which we may have to look In summertime with a witching wand, In every wheelrut's now a brook, In every print of a hoof a pond. Be glad of water, but don't forget The lurking frost in the earth beneath That will steal forth after the sun is set And show on the water its crystal teeth.
The time when most I loved my task The two must make me love it more By coming with what they came to ask. You'd think I never had felt before The weight of an ax-head poised aloft, The grip of earth on outspread feet, The life of muscles rocking soft And smooth and moist in vernal heat.
Out of the wood two hulking tramps (From sleeping God knows where last night, But not long since in the lumber camps). They thought all chopping was theirs of right. Men of the woods and lumberjacks, They judged me by their appropriate tool. Except as a fellow handled an ax They had no way of knowing a fool.
Nothing on either side was said. They knew they had but to stay their stay And all their logic would fill my head: As that I had no right to play With what was another man's work for gain. My right might be love but theirs was need. And where the two exist in twain Theirs was the better right--agreed.
But yield who will to their separation, My object in living is to unite My avocation and my vocation As my two eyes make one in sight. Only where love and need are one, And the work is play for mortal stakes, Is the deed ever really done For Heaven and the future's sakes
Scott's podcast today, with Scott stoned. He's a better talker stoned than 99.9% of people cold sober.
Virus panic is making a lot of adults act insane. The stock market, though, makes sense in its own crazy way because of supply chains, etc., and it always overreacts anyway. Good buying opportunity, as I see it.
With all the news hype, I wonder what our readers think about this phenomenon whether the news hype aspect, the medical aspect, or the panic.
In global terms the coronavirus epidemic has reduced trust in One World institutions even further than they have fallen already. The bat from Wuhan that trashed the tourism trade, sank the cruise ship industry, cancelled myriad events, crippled global supply chains and upended politics is the single most dramatic example of the Butterfly Effect in history.
Pretty good advice for Liberal Arts students. A quote:
What follows is advice I would offer to any student with the good fortune to study such a course. You enjoy a remarkable opportunity—afforded inside what Oakeshott called “the interim,” a sunny recess between the sheltered world of childhood and adolescence, and the onerous responsibilities of adulthood—to enjoy without distraction an induction into a great inheritance. It is unlikely you will get it again. I hope the thoughts I have assembled here will help you make the most of your experience. They are not exhaustive and they are not gospel. You can judge their value for yourself as you pursue your studies.
Many if not most fitness buffs workout first thing in the morning. I feel it's the best way to start the day right, and to get it out of the way before work and everything else.
A cup of coffee with some sugar for instant energy is all that is needed for weights and calisthenics assuming your daily nutrition is correct for your weight and fitness goals.
For morning exercisers, a banana before HIIT will not be much help because it takes a while for fruit sugars and carbs to be digested and available. Hours. The banana will just sit in your stomach. Sugar, on the other hand, is quickly available.
Our pal in Colorado sends these: "The landscape shot shows my view from where I am standing. Look closely at a tree in the middle of the scene. Now look at the image with my lens zoomed way out into the tele range. Not bad, eh?"
I was asked for a list of some good HIIT cardiac stressors. The theory, likely correct, is that these anaerobic or borderline-anaerobic stressors build heart muscle and heart vasculature such that physical endurance and energy are improved, along with the chance of surviving one's first or second heart attack.
Here's a partial list of good ones for interval exertions (30-60 seconds, 60-120 seconds slow between):
- Speed jump rope - Mountain-climbers - Rower sprints - Treadmill running sprints - Swim sprints - Stairmaster sprints - Step-ups with hand weights - Box jumps - Heavy ball throws and smashes - Combat bike sprints - Sled pushes and pulls - Ski Erg sprints
I think it's best to do a mix of these to prevent adaptation and efficiency.
Powerlifts also are good heart stressors as we all can tell from the dizziness after a few reps of heavy, but I am not convinced that it's enough to do the job. A reminder to women that, after menopause, heart disease quickly catches up to that of men.
Why is there any matter in the universe at all? 
Americans Are Avoiding Corona Beer Amid Coronavirus Outbreak,
Two Tramps in Mud Time
I was asked for a list of some good HIIT cardiac stressors. The theory, likely correct, is that these anaerobic or borderline-anaerobic stressors build heart muscle and heart vasculature such that physical endurance and energy are improved, along with the chance of surviving one's first or second heart attack.