The key is to maintain intensity without getting delayed by injury. It is difficult for me to restrain myself from testing my strength, so I tend to put on too much weight and exert too intensely. This is good for building muscle, but can be bad for injury prevention.
So, in order of precedence, muscle growth is below injury prevention. You can't grow if you are injured. What are the best ways of avoiding injury while still exerting at an intensity that stimulates muscle growth? Warm up, stretch, and cool down.
I warm up, but I do not stretch much at the gym, and I rarely cool down. For me, I think it is critically important to stretch before high-intensity sets.
Tuesday, July 22, 2008
Friday, July 18, 2008
Workforce Boredom Index
The graduates most likely to be bored at work, according to profession
1 Administrative/secretarial
2 Manufacturing
3 Sales
4 Marketing/advertising
5 IT/telecommunications
6 Science research/development
7 Media
8 Law
9 Engineering
10 Banking/finance
11 Human resources
12 Accountancy
13 Hospitality/travel
14 Healthcare
15 Teaching
· Results from a new survey by the Training and Development Agency for Schools
Thursday July 27, 2006
EducationGuardian.co.uk
1 Administrative/secretarial
2 Manufacturing
3 Sales
4 Marketing/advertising
5 IT/telecommunications
6 Science research/development
7 Media
8 Law
9 Engineering
10 Banking/finance
11 Human resources
12 Accountancy
13 Hospitality/travel
14 Healthcare
15 Teaching
· Results from a new survey by the Training and Development Agency for Schools
Thursday July 27, 2006
EducationGuardian.co.uk
Non-mircrotrauma
Ouch.
Warm up sets are very important.
As is realigning or popping out-of-place joints, especially in the neck and back, before heavy sets.
Yesterday, although I warmed up with five minutes of rowing, I did not remember to stretch-pop my upper back into proper alignment before doing lat pull downs. As a result, I am extremely tender in my upper back/spine.
A great site for exercises (and diagnosing pain) is www.exrx.net. Based on the information here, my pain appears to be right where the rhomboid attaches to the C7 vertebrae.
image source: http://www.exrx.net/Muscles/Rhomboids.html
Warm up sets are very important.
As is realigning or popping out-of-place joints, especially in the neck and back, before heavy sets.
Yesterday, although I warmed up with five minutes of rowing, I did not remember to stretch-pop my upper back into proper alignment before doing lat pull downs. As a result, I am extremely tender in my upper back/spine.
A great site for exercises (and diagnosing pain) is www.exrx.net. Based on the information here, my pain appears to be right where the rhomboid attaches to the C7 vertebrae.
image source: http://www.exrx.net/Muscles/Rhomboids.html
Thursday, July 17, 2008
Trauma Plan
I have little faith in real life as a scientific laboratory that generates predictable, reliable results. Which is why, despite the plethora of training plans, I think the simplest is the best for me.
The simplest plan is to workout all major muscle groups every other day (or three days per week) with three sets of 10 to 12 reps.
Other approaches include HIT, HST, German Volume, and Periodization.
• HIT is basically always do reps to failure with loads that cause failure with less than 10 reps.
• HST is HIT with only one set.
• German volume is a bunch of set with high reps, but not going to failure.
• Periodization is a cyclic blend of these approaches.
There is also Beginners Luck - doing anything regularly will result in gains for a while.
There are lots of variable – percent of maximum load for a given number of reps, number of reps, number of sets, frequency, whether or not to go to failure, variations in variables, consistency in variables, rest after low intensity, rest after high intensity, rest after high volume, protein intake, caloric intake, timing of calories, etc.
Fundamentally, growth is hormonal. Weight training is a way to cause your hormones to be tweaked in such a way that muscle growth occurs. A partial list of hormonal variables include:
• Hepatocyte growth factor (HGF)
• Fibroblast growth factor (FGF)
• Insulin-like growth factor-I and –II (IGFs)
• Human growth hormone (HGH)
• Testosterone
• Myostatin inhibitors
With a gene that inhibits myostatin, you could be like this whippet:
The simplest plan is to workout all major muscle groups every other day (or three days per week) with three sets of 10 to 12 reps.
Other approaches include HIT, HST, German Volume, and Periodization.
• HIT is basically always do reps to failure with loads that cause failure with less than 10 reps.
• HST is HIT with only one set.
• German volume is a bunch of set with high reps, but not going to failure.
• Periodization is a cyclic blend of these approaches.
There is also Beginners Luck - doing anything regularly will result in gains for a while.
There are lots of variable – percent of maximum load for a given number of reps, number of reps, number of sets, frequency, whether or not to go to failure, variations in variables, consistency in variables, rest after low intensity, rest after high intensity, rest after high volume, protein intake, caloric intake, timing of calories, etc.
Fundamentally, growth is hormonal. Weight training is a way to cause your hormones to be tweaked in such a way that muscle growth occurs. A partial list of hormonal variables include:
• Hepatocyte growth factor (HGF)
• Fibroblast growth factor (FGF)
• Insulin-like growth factor-I and –II (IGFs)
• Human growth hormone (HGH)
• Testosterone
• Myostatin inhibitors
With a gene that inhibits myostatin, you could be like this whippet:
Satellite Cells
When muscle cells undergo injury, quiescent satellite cells are released from beneath the basement membrane. They become activated and re-enter the cell cycle. These dividing cells are known as the "transit amplifying pool" before undergoing myogenic differentiation to form new (post-mitotic) myotubes. There is also evidence suggesting that these cells are capable of fusing with existing myofibres to facilitate growth and repair.
Text Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Satellite_cell
Image Source: http://www.sfn-manitoba.ca/profiles/anderson/muscles.jpg
Tuesday, July 15, 2008
Reform
Mountain biking has lost it's edge for me. I ride, I train, I enjoy it to some extent, but it is nothing new. After a couple years of riding pretty consistently and intensely, I am faster and stronger, but less excited. We won our division again in the Summer Solstice 24-hr race. I didn't really care and wasn't surprised. Nonetheless, it took me more than a week to feel fresh again.
Scratching my head and wondering, it occurred to me that I enjoy lifting weights but have been too embarrassed to be so vain as to bodybuild. The feeling I get from a workout is better than the feeling I get from spinning (my form of training during the week for mountain biking). I'd rather workout with weights than spin, and, like putting money in the bank, I should have something to show for it after a while.
This goes with a philosophy first expressed to me by Hector Zubiate, "When in doubt, go for the money." Many jobs and many workouts are very similar. There is a whole industry of self-help books feeding on this vagueness. Thousands of books claim to have the answer for finding just the right job for you - as if we were put on this Earth to do our part in the working economy.
Exercise should keep you healthy and be fun. Work should gain you money and be fun. Work should also have a long-term plan, as should exercise. My exercise plan, right now, is, like most things in my life, vague - as is my career plan...
My vague exercise plan is to follow a three-days per week, full body, routine. Each exercise is basic and compound (versus auxiliary and isolated) focusing on my quads, hams, back, chest, triceps, biceps, shoulders and abs.
To vary things up (although I have not done this yet) I will do three week cycles - 15 reps/set one week, 10 reps/set on the second week, and 5 reps/set on the third week. I am also supposed to start each week with 15 percent less than my 15, 10, or 5 rep maximum weights.
This is my third week of 8 to 10 reps per set. I find it hard to have enough faith in this little system to actually reduce my weights and vary the number of reps. I also do not really know what my 15, 10, and 5 rep maximums are for all of the various exercises. I should record this information, but I find this too pretentious... Get over it, eh?
Approximate 10 rep maximums:
Quads - leg press (400 pounds (max of machine))
- squat (it is a new exercise, so I am starting at 135 lbs - easy)
Hams - curls (140 lbs)
- dead lifts (new exercise, 135 lbs)
back - pull up (220 lbs)
- row (150 lbs)
chest - machine bench (250 lbs)
- free bench (205 lbs)
triceps - cable pull down (150 lbs (machine max))
- dips (have not done weighted dips yet)
biceps - curl (50 lbs dumb bells)
shoulders - inclined press (shoulders, triceps, chest?) (65 lbs dumb bells)
- lateral raises (easy 25 lbs - afraid of damaging shoulder)
Abs - machine crunch (180 lbs)
Scratching my head and wondering, it occurred to me that I enjoy lifting weights but have been too embarrassed to be so vain as to bodybuild. The feeling I get from a workout is better than the feeling I get from spinning (my form of training during the week for mountain biking). I'd rather workout with weights than spin, and, like putting money in the bank, I should have something to show for it after a while.
This goes with a philosophy first expressed to me by Hector Zubiate, "When in doubt, go for the money." Many jobs and many workouts are very similar. There is a whole industry of self-help books feeding on this vagueness. Thousands of books claim to have the answer for finding just the right job for you - as if we were put on this Earth to do our part in the working economy.
Exercise should keep you healthy and be fun. Work should gain you money and be fun. Work should also have a long-term plan, as should exercise. My exercise plan, right now, is, like most things in my life, vague - as is my career plan...
My vague exercise plan is to follow a three-days per week, full body, routine. Each exercise is basic and compound (versus auxiliary and isolated) focusing on my quads, hams, back, chest, triceps, biceps, shoulders and abs.
To vary things up (although I have not done this yet) I will do three week cycles - 15 reps/set one week, 10 reps/set on the second week, and 5 reps/set on the third week. I am also supposed to start each week with 15 percent less than my 15, 10, or 5 rep maximum weights.
This is my third week of 8 to 10 reps per set. I find it hard to have enough faith in this little system to actually reduce my weights and vary the number of reps. I also do not really know what my 15, 10, and 5 rep maximums are for all of the various exercises. I should record this information, but I find this too pretentious... Get over it, eh?
Approximate 10 rep maximums:
Quads - leg press (400 pounds (max of machine))
- squat (it is a new exercise, so I am starting at 135 lbs - easy)
Hams - curls (140 lbs)
- dead lifts (new exercise, 135 lbs)
back - pull up (220 lbs)
- row (150 lbs)
chest - machine bench (250 lbs)
- free bench (205 lbs)
triceps - cable pull down (150 lbs (machine max))
- dips (have not done weighted dips yet)
biceps - curl (50 lbs dumb bells)
shoulders - inclined press (shoulders, triceps, chest?) (65 lbs dumb bells)
- lateral raises (easy 25 lbs - afraid of damaging shoulder)
Abs - machine crunch (180 lbs)
My Favorite Ways to Over-Train
1. Jump right in with full, maximum intensity training
2. Hit the gym after dinner, an hour or so before bed time
3. Dehydrate before, during and after working out
4. Rehydrate just before going to bed - wake up every hour for fluid exchange
5. Do not eat much after your workout
6. Go to bed on an empty stomach
7. Stay hungry throughout the day
8. Do physical labor in the heat on your rest days
9. Drink lots of coffee
10. Sleep less than 8 hours a night
Drink lots of coffee
Drink lots of coffee
Drink lots of coffee
2. Hit the gym after dinner, an hour or so before bed time
3. Dehydrate before, during and after working out
4. Rehydrate just before going to bed - wake up every hour for fluid exchange
5. Do not eat much after your workout
6. Go to bed on an empty stomach
7. Stay hungry throughout the day
8. Do physical labor in the heat on your rest days
9. Drink lots of coffee
10. Sleep less than 8 hours a night
Drink lots of coffee
Drink lots of coffee
Drink lots of coffee
Tuesday, July 8, 2008
Chastity
My favorite quote from Straw Dogs so far:
"Secularism is like chastity, a condition defined by what it denies." (p 126)
The point being that atheism/secularism is just another, more austere, spin on the Christian passion for truth.
This plays into my growing conviction that the truth, while intellectually challenging, is probably less profound that a game of chess or the matrix algebra used for computer graphics.
My new religion, for as long as the interest holds (there ain't much to it at this point), is summarized by an adolescent phrase I used 10 or 15 years ago, "Use your delusion." (This can be changed to "user delusion", "user illusion", etc. I probably took this from Guns and Roses.)
"Secularism is like chastity, a condition defined by what it denies." (p 126)
The point being that atheism/secularism is just another, more austere, spin on the Christian passion for truth.
This plays into my growing conviction that the truth, while intellectually challenging, is probably less profound that a game of chess or the matrix algebra used for computer graphics.
My new religion, for as long as the interest holds (there ain't much to it at this point), is summarized by an adolescent phrase I used 10 or 15 years ago, "Use your delusion." (This can be changed to "user delusion", "user illusion", etc. I probably took this from Guns and Roses.)
Wednesday, July 2, 2008
more of the same
The issues of the day concern morality, progress, purpose, and a philosophy of life.
I think it is a false myth that humans are moral. Moral are like laws – cultural constructions that depend on a stable society for enforcement. When the social stability degenerates, morals, like other luxuries, become things of a different time and place.
The idea of social progress is another false myth. Like a workaholic, society becomes exhausted as it strives to reach higher levels. In a few regions certain indicators may seem to scream progress, however many less obvious aspects of these society are strung out, worn thin, and unsustainable. In most regions of the Earth, people are extremely poor, uneducated, and without health care. I see no reason to think these people will be better off in 50 years.
The purpose of every other animal on Earth is to reproduce. Humans, like a Windows operating system starting up, require a very long time to be ready to achieve this purpose. The reason it takes so long is also like a Windows operating system – we have too many applications built on archaic (and buggy) code, competing (inefficiently) for limited resources.
If we cannot honestly delude ourselves with pride in morality, social progress, or purpose, what can we use to fill this philosophical void? How do we come to terms with an increasingly undeniable amoral and nihilistic existence?
What should be the role of a philosophy of life? How should it affect our day-to-day living, our lifestyles, our careers, our general attitudes, our actions, and our life accomplishments? Does a philosophy of life need to be sustainable or universal applicable? Or is it simply a legalistic justification for what we feel?
I think philosophy is simply a justification. It is little more than an intellectual exercise. It may guide our behavior occasionally, but only rarely and weakly. Usually we guided more by a desire to be nice, agreeable, attractive, and accepted. Moreover, we tend to focus these desires on people we perceive to have social authority. When authorities come into conflict, people frequently die and morals, philosophies, etc are set aside. We are social animals, not philosophical animals.
I think it is a false myth that humans are moral. Moral are like laws – cultural constructions that depend on a stable society for enforcement. When the social stability degenerates, morals, like other luxuries, become things of a different time and place.
The idea of social progress is another false myth. Like a workaholic, society becomes exhausted as it strives to reach higher levels. In a few regions certain indicators may seem to scream progress, however many less obvious aspects of these society are strung out, worn thin, and unsustainable. In most regions of the Earth, people are extremely poor, uneducated, and without health care. I see no reason to think these people will be better off in 50 years.
The purpose of every other animal on Earth is to reproduce. Humans, like a Windows operating system starting up, require a very long time to be ready to achieve this purpose. The reason it takes so long is also like a Windows operating system – we have too many applications built on archaic (and buggy) code, competing (inefficiently) for limited resources.
If we cannot honestly delude ourselves with pride in morality, social progress, or purpose, what can we use to fill this philosophical void? How do we come to terms with an increasingly undeniable amoral and nihilistic existence?
What should be the role of a philosophy of life? How should it affect our day-to-day living, our lifestyles, our careers, our general attitudes, our actions, and our life accomplishments? Does a philosophy of life need to be sustainable or universal applicable? Or is it simply a legalistic justification for what we feel?
I think philosophy is simply a justification. It is little more than an intellectual exercise. It may guide our behavior occasionally, but only rarely and weakly. Usually we guided more by a desire to be nice, agreeable, attractive, and accepted. Moreover, we tend to focus these desires on people we perceive to have social authority. When authorities come into conflict, people frequently die and morals, philosophies, etc are set aside. We are social animals, not philosophical animals.
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