Five exercises I like - Part 1

This is the first of 5 parts.

Over the years I have tried many movements and exercises. Some felt like a waste of time. Others helped me add on pounds and absolute strength (thereby making me look muscular than my 165 lbs) while at the same time keeping me light on my feet (like I was when I was a 100 lb kid). Here are five movements that I seem to have settled on now. They get done on a regular basis although not in each and every training session.

The Front Squat


Feet positioning: whatever keeps you stable.

If you don't or can't squat, you don't know squat about human kinetics. The squat gives you an accurate idea of your capacity to do hard work. If you have flexibility issues, the squat again will let you know exactly how much inflexiblity you have in a particular spot. It aids greatly in digestion/elimination and will help strengthen the inner abdominal wall. The squat will also allow you to develop and maintain the proper strength balance between the quads (front of the thighs) and the hamstrings (the back of the thighs). Your hamstrings should be roughly 66% stronger than your quads. Most people (even some pro athletes) have an imbalance! For instance, if you have a quad/ham imbalance, then you will develop a lot of soreness in your quads after a session of running. The worst case scenario: your knees won't track correctly leading to a host of other serious issues. I know that the strength ratio between my quads and hamstrings is finally up to par now because I never develop any soreness in my quads after a hard session of sprinting.


An alternative grip like this is easy on the joints.

Although the back squat was the foundation of my earlier training years, these days I primarily concentrate on the front squat. I feel the effort put into the front squat translates well into my choice of certain recreational activities, namely snowboarding and simply showing off my legs in the beach. The squat is also the main reason why I don't bother with "cardio". Just squat 25 times with your bodyweight and tell me if your heart isn't going like a steam engine.

You can do this at home with perhaps a backpack loaded with books strapped to your chest (instead of your back). You could also hold a sack loaded with sand to your chest (more challenging because the sand tends to shift).

(Acceptable substitute) The Overhead Squat


The Overhead Squat demands total concentration. Hah! You thought I was going to suggest an easier substitute, didn't you? Remember this: the easier an exercise, the less benefit you will derive from it.

While the overhead squat does not tax the leg musculature as much as the back or front squat, it does allow you to develop a stupendous amount of rotational balance plus the endurance necessary to hold a heavy object overhead for time and distance. Additionally if you have flexibility issues of the shoulders and/or a weak lower back, that will become evident right away during this exercise. I do overheads maybe once every 5 weeks or so.

Again you could hold a sack of sand or a loaded backpack above you.

Between Rockport and hard bodies

Rockport, MA.

So I was out in Rockport last Saturday. I took the 2.15 commuter train and returned by the 7.30. The weather was awesome. The (young) people looked good. I was one of very few people in the entire town who wasn't white. I thought that I had stopped thinking on such terms a long time ago. Actually I have. But I must have been quite a standout (from the number of people who stared at me) that I couldn't help think on those terms, even if only briefly. Anyway, other than me, I noticed a black family and an Indian family. The latter comprising of the usual married couple with a bawling kid and another guy (looked like kin) who looked like he couldn't wait to get married. On a side note, I have seen his demeanor before. He was probably finding all the skin around him a major distraction and needed release from...a guaranteed traditional source :)


Testing the Olympus C-5000 that had been rusting for a while: My calves are now about 1/2 inch bigger from all that sprinting this year and I showed my legs off (with glee) while in Rockport.

So back to Rockport...on the beach, yeah, I was definitely the only non-white person. I noticed what looked like a couple of Chinese kids but they were clothed (so we can "discount" them). But a lot of the young white women there looked pretty vanilla. From the way they kept casting glances over my way, I gathered that they've probably never attended school with anyone non-white. I enjoyed the attention. There was one girl that I noticed on Beach street shortly after arriving in town. She was probably 19 or 20 years old with a flawless body in a not too radical bikini. I casually took my sunglasses off and gave her an appreciative (not lascivious) down and up and then let myself briefly linger on her eyes. I imagined myself at the Museum of Fine Arts back in Boston appraising one of those female Greek statues. I noticed a twitch below her right eye as she walked past me. I realized later, rather refreshingly, that she hadn't been wearing sunglasses.

By the way, they had a shop there that promised good Austrian style, apple strudel but I came away unimpressed. I did dine at the Beach Street Bistro which looked more like fine dining inside (outside it looked like a rickety shack). Man, that roast pork was good after a long afternoon! Did I mention I bought a painting...of boats out in Gloucester harbor by a local artist? Between the strudel, dinner and sunbathing, I managed to finish reading the wonderful The Millionaire Next Door. I will post a review of that book one of these days.

When I left town roughly 4 hours later, I spotted Ms.Flawless amongst the 100 other bikinis strutting their stuff between the beach and Beach street. My heart skipped a beat.

Four and then some

Two or three days a week, I have a big breakfast at the Country Kitchen in Weymouth, a couple of miles from my office. This morning as I was settling down to my usual 3 scrambled eggs, 4 slices of bacon (done soft, Irish style) and wheat toast, I noticed a group of four people in one of the tables. Normal. Now these folks were clearly in their eighties. As the minutes wore on, I began to notice a lot of enthusiasm and involvement in their chatting. Were they strangers who had met only 4 days earlier? Or have they been neighbors for the past 4 years? Or have they been friends for the past 40 years?

Having come off several first dates in the past few months where the attention span of my dates had been miniscule, and disparate attempts on my part to start a conversation with utter strangers, I was starting to find the camaraderie amongst these folks infectious. I had to fight back an urge to get up, walk over, introduce myself and steal some of their moment. Instead I finished my meal, took one last look at them and left.

Note: With this posting, sarcasm week officially closes.

30 year old camera!

Ken Rockwell made this picture with a 30 year old film camera. Amazing!

Just check out some more stunning pictures Ken has made from this ancient model camera.

This is another reason why I am amused when people insist on having the latest model of any device to do "things" better (I know. My blog has been dripping with sarcasm all week).

I suppose if the intention is to just have the latest (and maybe show it off), that might be okay. I mean, I show off my muscles, my attitude, etc. all the time :)

Bride fined for wedding day fight

A bride arrested on her wedding day for fighting with her husband while still in her dress has been fined by a court.

That guy is a loser. No self-respecting man would put up with that kind of behavior from a female (or anyone else for that matter).

Rowling's tears at Potter book death

Original BBC article:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/2998198.stm

I have never read a Harry Potter book or watched any of the movies. I find something wholesomely buffoonish about the whole concept. It is beneath me. So when I read that JK Rowling cried about an important character she killed off, it only evokes guffaws from me.


JK Rowling. In my opinion, her boobs definitely carry more weight than her writing.

But I still like certain children's books such as The Book of Brownies and The Adventures of Dunno and his Friends...probably because I read them as a kid and so have continued to carry a certain fondness for them.

It wasn't a blast

So I was over at the Museum of Fine Arts (MFA) last evening. David and I were supposed to attend a get together of sorts for singles. The moment I walked into the Old Masters paintings gallery, where the party was being held, I knew I wasn't going to like the atmosphere.

I had been expecting quiet socialization, champagne and an intelligent discussion of art. Instead it looked like another meat market with loud music. There were women who were only half-clad in clothing. I have no problems with that. But this wasn't sensual or seductive clothing. It was flat out obscene type of clothing and it didn't quite gel with the general demeanor of the MFA. If it weren't for the phenomenal paintings on the wall, I would have left earlier. To be fair, some women were dressed tastefully. In that sense, the older women there (the ones in their 40s and 50s) actually appealed to me more so than the 20 somethings. Something to do with bearing and poise, I guess. And no one seemed to be really looking at the paintings. But it was good to see Allen there. I hadn't hung out with him in a while.

It was getting late and I had had a bit of hard training at the gym earlier in the day. It was time to hit the pillow while the rest of them were just starting to hit the bottle everywhere else. So after hanging out for about an hour, I left the Old Masters gallery to briefly enjoy some of the nearby European art galleries before heading home.

The MFA has what it calls "Winesdays" on the last Wednesday of the month in the summer. I will try the one this month and see if it is more to my...taste. Now off to Portsmouth in a couple of hours. Its going to be a slightly rainy day, I think. But I am not the one to care about little inconveniences like that :)