The window to my world

If you live in the Mentor, Ohio area and looking for a place to get into shape then checkout The Gorilla Pit. The Pit has some great coaches, Ty Phillips and Jay Ashman are just a couple of people at the Pt that will work with you to develop a fitness plan to meet your goals.

I’ve been following their programming on Facebook and their website and like what I see. I know where I wold be training if I lived in the area, The Gorilla Pit.

I got an early Birthday gift last month, a Nook from Barnes and Noble. So far I love the Nook. My reading time has increased because of it, mainly I find it easier to read in various places then a traditional book or magazine. I’ll out forth the pros and cons as I see them.

Pros

• Light weight
• No problem not charging it for a week even with 3G/Wi-Fi enabled.
• Uses the ePub open book format, no vendor lock-in as you have with the Kindle
• Plenty of books available.

Cons

• Could use a better way to organize your books, such as by genre
• e-Book prices can still be high
• Magazine prices for the e-readers tend to be higher then a regular subscription.

The last two cons apply to all e-book readers, so not just a knock against the Nook. I know people that have the Kindle and love them, but I prefer the open format of the Nook. No problems getting books from Barnes and Noble, Borders, etc.

In my opinion, if you are a reader an e-book device is worth the money with the Nook being worth a serious look.

Robb Wolf over has posted a video over on his blog that provides an introduction to his upcoming book The Paleo Solution: The Original Human Diet. The book can be pre-ordered on both Amazon’s and Barnes and Noble’s websites.

The video provides a good overview on what the book is about, and why Wolf did some things the way he did in the book. I’m looking forward to release and will be reading it as soon as I get my hands on a copy. Watch for a review of the book shortly after that happens.

If you haven’t heard, over a dozen high school football payers from Oregon were sent to the emergency room. Looking at the situation the cause is pretty obvious, the coach is a moron and should be fired. Why do I say that? Take a look at how the kids were training:

“The players cycled through 30 seconds each of chair dips and push-ups, then repeated, decreasing the time of each cycle until they reached five-second intervals, then stopping to spot a partner. It was unclear how many times the cycle was repeated, although players said that by the end of the drill, which lasted longer than 20 minutes, their sweat had pooled into small puddles on the ground.

If a player wasn’t working hard enough, or was slacking off, everyone would have to reset and do the exercises again, Cordie said. Players got no water until after the workouts. No one was allowed to leave until everyone was done, he said. “

Now this was done in a  room that was at a temperature of around 115 degrees. This is just a giant recipe for disaster, which could have ended in the death of some of the kids. A coach (Kearin in this case) doing something like this with all the knowledge we have on proper training is inexcusable.

What is even worse is some of the school officials trying to point the finger at creatine monohydrate, a safe supplement. The reason for this was the presence of creatine in the blood work of the students. Well duh, when talking about rhabdomyolysis or compartment syndrome this should be expected.

Tracy Anderson is personal fitness trainer and founder of the Tracy Anderson Method. Her workout routine is what I would spastic movements. Jump around frail your arms and legs, and charge people lots of money to do her method. Her claim to fame is having famous clients such as Madonna (who has since dropped Tracy)  and Gwyneth Paltrow, who has been diagnosed with osteopenia.

If anyone with even a basic knowledge of exercise and diet listens to Anderson they quickly come to the conclusion she doesn’t know what she is talking about. How would one come to such a conclusion? Easy when she says things such as:

• Women shouldn’t life more then 3 pounds to avoid getting bulky
• Using the treadmill without varying your routine (as in jump around in it as if you were having a seizure) will make you bulky
• Prescribing diets that range in the 800 calories range

Brain St. Pierre has a nice blog post going a little more into Tracy Anderson and her health thoughts.

Now if Anderson was just following her own advice, I wouldn’t mind as much. The problem is Anderson is marketing her program and too many women follow her looking to get into shape. Doesn’t help with Anderson stating she has helped women lose 9 inches in 10 workouts (starvation is good for losing weight, especially muscle). I won’t say anything about these ladies, they are trying to get into shape and think they found the magic way to do so. I place the blame on Anderson.

Ladies, if you want to get into shape, here are some basic tips:

• Eat real food, veggies, lean meat, some fruit and some nuts. Avoid sugar and even consider avoiding grains. Eat enough to support your activity level. Plenty of places on the Internet that can give you advice. I would suggest the Nutrition forum at the Crossfit site for asking advice.
• Do some resistance training, i.e. lift some weights. Unless you have some really strange medical condition you will not get bulky.
• Do some short, high intensity cardio work. Think high intensity type of training. 2 or 3 different exercises done at high rate for a short period of time.
• Get plenty of sleep

I usually suggest people check out “The Primal Blueprint” by Mark Sisson, great introduction to health. Robb Wolf has “The Paleo Solution” coming out this fall, should be a good introduction book too.

Darrelle Revis of the New York Jets has so far failed to report to camp? Why you may ask? the usual reason: Greed.

Revis wants to be the highest paid cornerback in the NFL. Nothing wrong with that but what is wrong is failing to honor your contract. Revis is under contract with the Jets and wants a new one. Players do this often and I think it is wrong in all cases to not honor your contract. You can ask for it to be re-done but if the club says no then honor the contract and move on after it expires.

Having helped more than one person with computer issues after their system became infected with a virus, malware, or spyware, I’m giving my thoughts on what steps you can take to help protect your system.

First, make sure you have an anti-virus program installed and keep it up to date. For Windows systems I prefer Microsoft Security Essentials (MSE). It may not have a lot of features that power users are seeking, but for a good anti-virus program that is easy enough for anyone to use, it is right up there.

Next I like to have an on-demand malware/spyware scanner handy. The one I reach for is Malwarebytes. Like MSE it is easy to install, updated frequently, and does a good job.

The last line of defense I like using is OpenDNS. With OpenDNS you replace the DNS servers from your Internet Service Provider (ISP) with ones from OpenDNS. This one does take a bit to setup, but the instructions are pretty easy to follow. Create an account, setup the the type of sites you want to block and you’ll stop many threats from entering your system.

The best part of the above solutions? They are all free. So what are you waiting for?

The following are some of my thoughts and observations from hanging around the gym. Nothing I write here should be considered professional advice but rather just my rambling opinion.

1. After many hours of watching people attempt it, you can’t do a proper squat in a Smith Machine.
2. Have a plan when going to the gym.
3. It’s a squat rack, not a rack for holding the barbell so you can do arm curls.
4. Ask yourself from time to time, “what is the exact purpose of the exercise I am doing”? If you don’t know the answer to the question, stop doing the exercise.
5. Spending 30 minutes on the treadmill, then 30 on a bike, then 20 on the elliptical machine, what the hell do you think you are doing? Working different muscles isn’t the answer.
6. If you aren’t getting your thighs to at least parallel when squatting, don’t fool yourself on how much you can squat .
7. Along those same lines, unless you have a specific for not doing so, full range of motion when doing resistance exercises. Doesn’t matter if it is a push-up or a dead lift, full range of motion.
8. If using a barbell, put the weights back where they belong after you are finished lifting. Your mom isn’t here to clean up after you and if you are trying to impress people with how much you are doing quarter-squats with, we aren’t impressed.
9. Don’t mock other people in the gym. If someone is doing an exercise that you know 100% is wrong, then offer advice. If they refuse then shrug your shoulders and go away.

Dennis Hopper passed away yesterday and on my Facebook page I mentioned drinking Pabst Blue Ribbon (PBR) in his memory. Now a couple of people mentioned some unflattering things about PBR, not catching the reference to Hopper’s role as Frank Booth in Blue Velvet where he delivers a classic line.

I know PBR isn’t known as the greatest beer in the world, I prefer a good ale, especially an IPA. But if you been working out in the hot sun and want an ice cold beer to cool off with I’ll grab a PBR over my favorite IPA. There is the right brew for the right occasion and with the right occasion that could be a PBR. Besides trying to cool off, a tribute to Dennis Hopper is the right occasion for a PBR.

Funny how they don’t say that about President Obama, If you been following President Obama there should be no doubt in the unbiased mind that he is in way over his head.

Now this isn’t saying he is stupid, a common line liberals would toss at President Bush, but rather his lack of experience is exposed for the world to see. And trust me, the world sees it. One just has to look at the actions of many governments, both allies and enemies to see this.

Peggy Noonan has an article out called He Was Supposed to Be Competent. Give it a read. Many people, myself included would have said He Was Supposed to Be Competent? We would have been surprised if he had shown competence.