Sunday, July 26. 2015
I am no expert, so take with two grains of salt - it is just what I have learned. This is regarding maintaining recreational fitness, ie "Ordinary Fitness for Life" - not serious athletic training or serious muscle-building.
Below average = "weak." Nobody, male or female, wants to be weak or below average. Average is good for a starting target or even an endpoint (Average fitness is my personal endpoint). This isn't about body-building but just about maintaining good, versatile functionality in youth, or later despite aging. These things are not a complete fitness program by any means, just a few rough indices of average American decent fitness because they involve so much of one's physicality.
- Fitness entails, requires, not being fat. Nobody needs a silly BMI to know when they have unpleasant and unnecessary flab. You can feel it with your hands. Lard slows us down with everything in life because our hearts are forced to pump blood though it when we have other things to do. It's dietary.
- An average fit woman can expect to deadlift 100 percent of her body weight. Average fit males can deadlift roughly 150 percent of their body weight.
- Barbell squats for leg and core strength are roughly the same as above. (For me now, three sets of 25 deep squats without weights is challenging, and torture with plain kettlebells or clasping a heavy ball. I like to do squats combined with light dumbbell military lifts. A full-body engagement but not stressful enough for my fitness trainer who considers it an exercise for nursing homes. I doubt that I will ever get to dumbell squats, but who knows? I may die first.)
- The average fit male should eventually be able to bench press 1 x body weight for a solid set - or at least once. Average fit female can press around 80-100 lbs. They say it's good for boob-fitness too.
- For push-ups, the average fit male can do 25-40. The average fit female can do 20-25 knee-push-ups. (Many exercise trainers feel knee pushups for women are worthless). Push-ups are about muscle endurance, not so much strength. Lots of people do them as part of their morning or bedtime rituals. (I have trouble doing them due to an old right shoulder injury - once body surfing, and again skiing, and then I totally destroyed it for good doing flies. Every middle-aged person has a handicap or two if they have lived life off the chair or sofa, but it's no reason to give up on vigor)
- An average fit person can run a mile in ten minutes or less without dying.
- Elbow Planks - A core exercise. Fit men and women can do 2 minutes or more. My boss puts weight plates on my back to save time. Sheesh. More weight, dude. I can do it. Why not just jump on my back? Sweat drips. I alternate with push-up-style planks and sometimes with one-handed planks.
Physical conditioning is humbling for the middle-aged. Age, joint issues, and body type alter things, eg short people with short arms have shorter and thus larger muscles and can naturally bench more than lanky people - and often average people over 55 need lowered expectations.
In the end, I guess you use good form, do what you can do, and build up from there without obsessing about the numbers as long as they improve. As I said, conditioning is not all resistance, but without rigorous muscle work you can't do all of the other exercises to the max, or all of life as vigorously as one might like. The goal is to maximize ordinary life and your ordinary recreational sports. I assume most of our interested readers do some sports, but perhaps not. Exercise is for life utility. If your day job is physical, lucky you. All of our day jobs were physical a generation or two or three ago, females included.
Your views and opinions welcome -
2 Samuel 11:1-15
11:1 In the spring of the year, the time when kings go out to battle, David sent Joab with his officers and all Israel with him; they ravaged the Ammonites, and besieged Rabbah. But David remained at Jerusalem.
11:2 It happened, late one afternoon, when David rose from his couch and was walking about on the roof of the king's house, that he saw from the roof a woman bathing; the woman was very beautiful.
11:3 David sent someone to inquire about the woman. It was reported, "This is Bathsheba daughter of Eliam, the wife of Uriah the Hittite."
11:4 So David sent messengers to get her, and she came to him, and he lay with her. (Now she was purifying herself after her period.) Then she returned to her house.
11:5 The woman conceived; and she sent and told David, "I am pregnant."
11:6 So David sent word to Joab, "Send me Uriah the Hittite." And Joab sent Uriah to David.
11:7 When Uriah came to him, David asked how Joab and the people fared, and how the war was going.
11:8 Then David said to Uriah, "Go down to your house, and wash your feet." Uriah went out of the king's house, and there followed him a present from the king.
11:9 But Uriah slept at the entrance of the king's house with all the servants of his lord, and did not go down to his house.
11:10 When they told David, "Uriah did not go down to his house," David said to Uriah, "You have just come from a journey. Why did you not go down to your house?"
11:11 Uriah said to David, "The ark and Israel and Judah remain in booths; and my lord Joab and the servants of my lord are camping in the open field; shall I then go to my house, to eat and to drink, and to lie with my wife? As you live, and as your soul lives, I will not do such a thing."
11:12 Then David said to Uriah, "Remain here today also, and tomorrow I will send you back." So Uriah remained in Jerusalem that day. On the next day,
11:13 David invited him to eat and drink in his presence and made him drunk; and in the evening he went out to lie on his couch with the servants of his lord, but he did not go down to his house.
11:14 In the morning David wrote a letter to Joab, and sent it by the hand of Uriah.
11:15 In the letter he wrote, "Set Uriah in the forefront of the hardest fighting, and then draw back from him, so that he may be struck down and die."
Saturday, July 25. 2015
 From The New York Times Gets It Wrong about Genetic Engineering:
...with the exception of wild berries, wild game, wild mushrooms, and most fish and shellfish, everything in American diets is derived from organisms that have been genetically improved in some way.
Most foods have little resemblance to their natural origins. They have been domesticated and are "unnatural." Human genius defeating a cruel nature.
"We’re interested in the color, shape and sizes of the vegetables from 400 years ago, compared to modern cultivars of the same vegetables..."
A book I'd like to read: Maize for the Gods: Unearthing the 9,000-Year History of Corn
Wild maize is a grass, with the fruit/seed about an inch long. Were it not for those ancient Central American genetic engineers, we'd have neither grits nor polenta.
Photo is teosintas, ancestor of domestic maize
 In Praise of the Benjamin Button Babes
We Are Told Jazz Jennings Is a Girl, yet Boys Aren’t Biting
Rutgers Professor: White People Are “The Face Of The Oppressor”
All the Illegals Get to Stay
Anthem to buy Cigna — and then there were three: 7 key points
Colorado Nuns Appeal Birth Control Ruling to Supreme Court
IRS Should Avoid Bias Risk in Auditing Nonprofits, GAO Finds
New York Times alters Clinton email story
HILLARY PUTS ‘FUN CAMPS’ ASIDE TO PROPOSE ‘CARING CORPS.’
Sheesh. She should run on the Fun Camps thing. A winning issue.
Hillary Promises Pizza And Free Stuff, But Still Can’t Attract Any Young People To Her Cause
Why Scott Walker is so dangerous
Walker is not anti-union. He is anti-government employee unions. So was FDR. The real reason he is dangerous is because he rides a Harley, while Hillary! can't drive a car.
Italians Finally Rise Up Against ‘Migrants’ - Slow-motion but steady invasion of Europe by Africa and the Middle East gets some pushback.
From Foe to Frenemy - Why the United States is Courting Vietnam
Hungary expects to complete Serbian border fence by November
Get Ready, Japan: Russia Has Its Own Island-Buildup Project
Amnesty protests 'staggering execution spree' in Iran
Mission to Purge Syria of Chemical Weapons Comes Up Short
The Myth of Iran's Peaceful Nuclear Program
The President’s Preferred Bad Deal
Salman Rushdie on Islam: 'We have learned the wrong lessons'
We Are Told Jazz Jennings Is a Girl, yet Boys Aren’t Biting - See more at: http://moonbattery.com/?p=61094#sthash.L7S0XnqV.dpuf
A sonnet from Rime in vita e morte di Madonna Laura.
Era il giorno ch'al sol si scoloraro
per la pietà del suo factore i rai,
quando ì fui preso, et non me ne guardai,
chè i bè vostr'occhi, donna, mi legaro.
Tempo non mi parea da far riparo
contra colpi d'Amor: però m'andai
secur, senza sospetto; onde i miei guai
nel commune dolor s'incominciaro.
Trovommi Amor del tutto disarmato
et aperta la via per gli occhi al core,
che di lagrime son fatti uscio et varco:
Però al mio parer non li fu honore
ferir me de saetta in quello stato,
a voi armata non mostrar pur l'arco.
It was the day the sun's ray had turned pale
with pity for the suffering of his Maker
when I was caught, and I put up no fight,
my lady, for your lovely eyes had bound me.
It seemed no time to be on guard against
Love's blows; therefore, I went my way
secure and fearless - so all my misfortunes
began in midst of universal woe.
Love found me all disarmed and found the way
was clear to reach my heart down through the eyes
which have become the halls and doors of tears.
It seems to me it did him little honour
to wound me with his arrow in my state
and to you, armed, not show his bow at all.
Remember my post about my inherited rusty 70-lb. 120 year-old cast iron lawn chairs? Well, here are two of them now, after disassembling (had to cut some bolts), sand-blasting, rust-proof and powder-coating with their historic black/green, and then reassembled with new non-rust bolts. All these precious things need now are waterproof seat cushions.
In direct sun, there is a greenish cast but in shade or lower light they appear black. Except for a little old rust pitting, they look almost brand new. You can now read on the underside that they were made in Bridgeport.
Besides rusting to bits, another reason why these sorts of things are so scarce is because of iron-collection drives during WW1.
Friday, July 24. 2015
Wellfleet. I'd like to be there today. Wouldn't you?
Thursday, July 23. 2015
Despite all of her visits to every part of Italy, Mrs. BD concedes that the best Italian food she has had is at Scarpetta, one of the spots she goes to with friends when she goes to see theater and dance. She has some real foodie pals.
Scarpetta. Give it a try. As a matter of fact, she is taking a BD daughter to dinner there tonight after the new Annie Baker play. (They are Annie Baker fans after loving Flick a while ago.) She says their pastas are amazing but our advice is to always skip pasta in good Italian restaurants. Why dine on starch, when there are so many other better flavors in antipasti and secondi?
I'll make exceptions for Pappardelle al Funghi with wild mushrooms, or Fois Gras Ravioli with Black Truffle.
Looking back, thus far, for Italian, we have also recommended Barbetta, Giovanni, Macelleria, - and Bar Eolo for genuine Sicilian. Only Barbetta is a jacket and tie joint, but for Giovanni a jacket is appropriate.
Wednesday, July 22. 2015
 Reader brought up the topic. I've seen patches of what we called Huckleberries growing on field edges in New England. Never tried to eat one and never heard of people picking them. Next time I see some, I'll try them before the grouse get them.
There are several plants around the country which people term Huckleberries.
At some point, Huckleberry became a term of affection.
Wiki on Huckleberries
Where Do Huckleberries Grow?
Tuesday, July 21. 2015
Here. It's blueberry season now in the northeast, for a few weeks.
Monday, July 20. 2015
Caramoor in Westchester County, NY, is a year-round treat but most fun for their outdoor summer concerts. Like Tanglewood, really, but without the Great Lawn. For classical music, they get the worldwide best and it's an elegant venue. Their Beethoven Violin Concerto yesterday was dynamite. Always loved that piece, but who doesn't?
For a cool long-weekend spot for outdoor activities (and it is cooler in those mountains, but not far north of NYC) - Mohonk Mountain House. This venerable place was a favorite getaway of my Grandpa. Some of my kidlings were there this weekend, sent me this pic from a stroll (or horse) around their multi-thousand-acre property:
 I have kayaked in ponds, lakes, marshes, on the Hudson River (upstream is a bitch), in the Caribbean, and out in big salt water over the years. Except on quiet ponds, it's a good workout to go a few miles, especially in wavy gravy and wind. I have never done white water but yesterday we had to deal with lots of wake from cigarette boats, ferries, etc. Fun.
Kayaks have almost entirely replaced canoes for water recreation. Even Old Town Canoe makes kayaks. It's a good thing for older folks with bad knees or lower back issues because it's all upper body - torso, shoulders, arms.
I realized yesterday when Mrs. BD and I did a couple of miles in a good sea chop that I never even watched an instructional video. Thus, a kayak post. I realize that I have been trying to strong-arm the craft instead of using my entire body to move it. Also, I was not making "the box."
My Mom loved to kayak the upper Connecticut River, the Housatonic, and the Cape Cod lakes and marshes in her 80s. A pip, as I have said before. Like me, she did not know the word "relax." The old-time Yankees never sat down except for a cocktail, and the old gal weighed the same at 80 as at 25. Energetic and a small appetite, like her kids.
Proper Technique for Paddling a Kayak
How to Sit
Kayaking-Basic Paddling Techniques
Kayaking For Fitness
3 Golden Rules of Recreational Kayaking
How to Kayak : How to Not Capsize your Kayak
How to Roll a Kayak
Sea Kayak Self Rescue - The Ladder
This is fun: My First Big Shark from the Kayak
More fun: What not to do when you fall out of a kayak
Search Youtube - there are tons of videos
Sunday, July 19. 2015
What Open Marriage Taught One Man About Feminism
I am not sure I believe this story, but who knows? Is it permitted to say that he does not sound very manly?
 This sounds like a fine summer party dish from the grill, despite all the annoying greens in it.
I do like Thai flavors. Thai Grilled Pork and Vegetable Salad with Spicy Peanut Dressing
I am still on my routine with my trainer 3 mornings per week. Am I getting stronger? There is no doubt. More tired? Certainly. Fat loss is just a bonus. Posture? Better. As I have said, during my hour with him he works me to a pulp. Am I growing older? Afraid so, but I want to be able to kick ass all the way down. Is Mrs. BD interested in my new fitness? Ask her.
My current "days off" from him now entail some of the following: a set of various types of crunches, 50-100 calf lifts, 20 pushups, 2 sets of dumbell presses, 2 sets of dumbbell rows, a set of light deadlifts, and as many squats+weights combined with lighter military presses as I can do, to the breaking point. All interspersed with max intensity 4-10 minute elliptical, rowing, and bike "rest breaks" so the whole damn thing is cardio-plus - no return to resting pulse. Maybe pound some medicine balls. Max 30-second breaks between most except heavy lifts. This is just enough to keep my body "awake" for my next ordeal with my master. That's it.
I try to pack that light workout into less than an hour, early in the morning, but some I have to do at home when I have a break. I will not do heavy barbell benches without a spotter because I am not that strong or experienced - but I can bench double from where I began. My goal is to bench my weight 10 times but I may never get there. My favorite weight exercise? Dead lifts. We call it "bending over and picking things up." I call lunges with heavy hands (kettle balls) "the Costo walk."
And you wonder why I am tired all day. Does it feel good? Yes it does. Do I enjoy lunges with heavy hands? Nope. Does he make me do them? Yup. Low carbs? Yup.
By the end of the summer, I think I'll be ready to drop down to twice/week with my boss and to follow his instructions on my own. It's a friendly small gym, cheap, zero glitz, no Lululemon etc. - and you are allowed to grunt. Roughly half men and half women, ages 25-85 and ranging from great shape to terrible shape. I am sort-of in the middle. It's about fitness and conditioning, not body-building. No anorectics there either.
On Sundays, I just do church and yard and housework or maybe something Mrs. wants to do. Kayak, sail, or go to NYC. It is all an interesting adventure. As a sedentary worker, I am at war with Father Time. Why not? I think we'll kayak and swim today, not for exercise but just for fun.
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Psalm 23
23:1 The LORD is my shepherd, I shall not want.
23:2 He makes me lie down in green pastures; he leads me beside still waters;
23:3 he restores my soul. He leads me in right paths for his name's sake.
23:4 Even though I walk through the darkest valley, I fear no evil; for you are with me; your rod and your staff-- they comfort me.
23:5 You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies; you anoint my head with oil; my cup overflows.
23:6 Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life, and I shall dwell in the house of the LORD my whole life long.
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