In the drugstore yesterday, Vicky watched the lady behind the counter make some guy provide ID to buy cough medicine. She then recorded his license number, address, etc. Says she's required to do that now because you can "abuse" cough medicine.
The next guy in line bought his four packs of smokes without having to jump through any hoops.
Depending on your political slant, a "Mommy wants a new president" t-shirt could be perfect. Of course, I guess it's more a gift for the kid than the mom.
Way to mass produce key bird flu drug revealed:
The biggest hope for saving people at the start of a bird flu pandemic, before a vaccine is available, is the antiviral drug Tamiflu - but the drug is hard to make and stocks are limited. That could soon end: a Nobel prize-winning chemist has devised a straightforward method for making Tamiflu, and has not patented it.
Very cool. Of course, the big disasters are never the ones you plan for, so it won't be the bird flu, it'll be an asteroid.
The Freakonomics guys on talent vs. hard work:
[Anders Ericsson and colleagues'] work, compiled in the "Cambridge Handbook of Expertise and Expert Performance," a 900-page academic book that will be published next month, makes a rather startling assertion: the trait we commonly call talent is highly overrated. Or, put another way, expert performers—whether in memory or surgery, ballet or computer programming—are nearly always made, not born. And yes, practice does make perfect. These may be the sort of clichés that parents are fond of whispering to their children. But these particular clichés just happen to be true.
How to cure your asthma or hayfever using hookworm - a practical guide:
Based upon what I read, and what I learned about the hookworm I decided that I was going to try and infest myself with hookworm in an attempt to cure my asthma. I was not willing to wait ten or more years for the drug companies to bring a drug to market. It was obvious to me that hookworm, for a healthy adult with a good diet, are quite benign. This account details my experiences, how I went about it, and the things I have done since infestation to calibrate my level of infestation so that in the end I was able to cure my asthma and hay fever with hookworm. These same techniques are of course applicable to any hookworm infestation, whether you want to control asthma, hay fever, colitis, Crohn's disease or Inflammatory Bowel Disease (IBD).
Amazing. Talk about thinking outside the box. Having had a couple (isolated) bouts with not being able to breathe, I do not envy asthma sufferers. If I couldn't breathe, I'd consider it. The guy even teaches a course.
Wired 14.05: The RFID Hacking Underground:
The coil in Westhues' hand is the antenna for the wallet-sized device he calls a cloner, which is currently shoved up his sleeve. The cloner can elicit, record, and mimic signals from smartcard RFID chips. Westhues takes out the device and, using a USB cable, connects it to his laptop and downloads the data from Van Bokkelen's card for processing. Then, satisfied that he has retrieved the code, Westhues switches the cloner from Record mode to Emit. We head to the locked door.
I like the owner's reaction once it works, muttering, "I always thought this might be a lousy security system."
I'm going to get lots of mileage out of the last few Rival Training posts...
First up, they link to a National Strength and Conditioning Association (NSCA) Performance Training Journal PDF, which prompted me to find their archives. What a gold mine! That ought to keep me in reading material for awhile.
Next, a reference to this Outside Magazine bit on the "glycogen window". It reminded me of this contrarian view from Art De Vany I meant to blog awhile ago:
Note there is some distinction to be drawn between quickly replenishing glycogen for performance reasons vs. not quickly replenishing glycogen to elicit a greater training response. Read the comments too, as they are also quite interesting.
Finally, Eileen's Abs Workout, which looks pretty good. Some notes on the exercises:
Lie on your back, knees bent. Raise your head off the floor until your trunk is at about a 45-degree angle. Twist from side to side rapidly 100 times. (KQ Note- arms crossed over chest is the way I've been doing these and seen them done).
These are Russian Twists (or at least that's one name for them). You can make them harder by clasping your hands together and extending your arms out perpendicular to your body. Even harder by holding a medicine ball in your extended arms. Even harder by doing them on an incline bench and holding your body horizontal.
Do 50 "Rocky Balboas", or twist crunches. One knee bent, other straight, hands behind your head. Reach one elbow towards the opposite knee. Alternate sides. (KQ Note- I prefer hands to ears so you don't pull on your neck. And really try to keep your shoulders down, away from your ears)
"Chinnies" or "bicycle crunches" (although I kinda like "Rocky Balboas"). Important to note that the straight leg does not rest on the ground.
Next, do 50 high-speed bicycles. (KQ Note- on back, arms at side. Lift legs up at 90 degree angle, then lift pelvis up off the ground. Arms can help balance. Move legs in a bicycle-y way!)
I'd be tempted to sub in flutter kicks here, as described by Scrapper:
Lie flat on your back and place your hands underneath your butt. Press the small of your back into the ground and raise your feet 6 inches. The first motion is one leg swinging up until your foot is almost over your crotch then, as it descends, the other leg is on the way up.
Good stuff, a tip o' the hat to the Rival Training gang.
Evil Tines at Smithsonian magazine:
In the 11th century, a Byzantine princess ate her sweetmeats with a forbidden object: a two-tined gold fork. At the time, the Church so opposed forks that after she succumbed to the plague, a Franciscan theologian called her untimely death "a just punishment from God."
That's fair.
Here's the short version: if you are any kind of athlete (except pure endurance athlete, like a marathoner), you need (need!) to buy one of Ross Enamait's books. Go with Infinite Intensity if you want to work weights into the mix, or his new one, Never Gymless if you want to go (mostly) equipment-free. Absorb what he teaches, put in the work (and boy, do I mean work), and you'll reap tremendous benefits in strength, power, speed, and endurance. Now, the long version...
Never Gymless is the third book I've bought from Ross. I previously reviewed The Underground Guide to Warrior Fitness and Infinite Intensity. It's going to be difficult to bring anything new to the discussion, as Never Gymless is essentially a combination of those two books, bringing the emphasis on bodyweight exercises from TUGTWF (which has been discontinued, as Never Gymless supercedes it) and program creation from Infinite Intensity.
The book is fantastic. You can't go wrong with either it, or Infinite Intensity. The primary difference is in the training methods presented: Infinite Intensity includes bodyweight exercises, but also lots of dumbell exercises. There are no dumbells in Never Gymless. It's all bodyweight exercises, but there's no doubt from reading the book (and watching Ross's videos) that you can get very strong with bodyweight exercise alone (Ross does include additional material on intensifying certain exercises with resistance bands). The book goes way beyond being a mere catalog of exercises though. Perhaps I can give you a good sense of it by going through the table of contents with some thoughts and a few short excerpts (page numbers in parens):
"I am constantly trying new things in a never-ending quest to improve my abilities and the abilities of those individuals I train. Rather than revising The Underground Guide for a fourth time, I wanted to start from scratch. I felt the need to create a true one-stop resource for training methods that require little or no equipment."
"Whether you use bodyweight exercise, weights, or sandbags, each modality is simply a means to an end. The end is the development of a complete athlete. There have been world champion fighters who swore by bodyweight exercise, while others thrived in the weight room. What does this tell us? The obvious answer is that several roads can lead towards the developmentt of an elite athlete. With a regular dose of hard work and a properly designed program, you can use almost any modality to enhance your physical perparation. This book will outline a bodyweight driven path."
No quote here: just the section headings: Variety; Long Term Development; Purpose Driven Training; and Training for Specific Qualities. Great chapter, loved learning about intensity and recovery, training multiple strength qualities like maximal strength vs. explosive strength vs. strength endurance, etc. All the pieces, with conditioning, that need to be assembled into a plan.
26 pages on pulling exercises: pull-ups, muscle-ups, one-arm varieties, progressions for beginners to advanced athletes. You wouldn't think there'd be that much to say on this subject, but it's all good, no filler.
See above, but for pushing exercises. So many interesting varieties, and again, the progressions are great. Probably one of the best things about the book. Lots of creative uses of cinderblocks and tow straps as well.
See above again, but for the lower body.
These really seem worth including in any fitness plan, especially when you consider the short time commitment to produce what sound like excellent returns: "Another study examined the effect of weight training and explosive isometrics (together) on martial arts kicks and palm strikes. The experimental group working with weights and explosive isometrics realized significant increases in both peak force and speed. This study confirmed that speed can be enhanced by supplementing your martial arts training with strength work and explosive isometrics (Olsen, P.D & Hopkins, W.G, 1999). Fortunately, after reading this text, you can use bodyweight exercise in place of weight training. Therefore, you can produce noticable improvements in kicking and punching speed without equipment."
One of the things I loved about Infinite Intensity was what it did for my core strength. More good stuff here in Never Gymless. "Exercises such as the crunch and sit-up do in fact offer some benefits, but clearly not enough. These exercises fail to address many of the movement patterns assoiated with the core. Primary movements of the core include extension, flexion, lateral flexion, rotation, and stabilization." Creative equipment hacks here, including powerful-looking resistance band movements, and some killer homemade double-wheel exercises.
As usual, thankfully, Ross's conditioning workouts are again from hell (in a good way), emphasizing high speed, high intensity, and high fatigue. Love the "enhanced interval training" and "integrated circuit training" descriptions.
The nutrition chapter is fascinating, and marks the biggest departure from The Underground Guide. That book talked a great deal about supplementation, while this book focuses on eating natural and healthy. Quite a few well-deserved slams against the food industry to go with tons of common-sense advice. One gets the impression this chapter could have been expanded into it's own book. I'm definitely going to have to check out some of Ross's sources for further reading.
Ah, like in Infinite Intensity, program design is the heart of this book. The individual pieces are great, but it's how to put them together into a program that will take you to higher levels of athleticism that Ross really wants to teach.
"My training philosophy is one that integrates several methods, all with the goal of creating an athlete who is always ready for whatever life or competition may throw at him. Unfortunately, many training plans fail to comply with this simple concept. Rather than training for multifaceted development, individual attributes are developed separately. For example, an athlete may develop maximal strength for several weeks. He then shifts his emphasis towards explosive strength. After serveral weeks of explosive strength training, he shifts gears yet again, this time towards strength endurance. While working on this attribute, the improvements in maximal strength, which were developed several weeks earlier, are all but lost. Explosive strength also fades as the athlete dedicates all of his time towards strength endurance. As one attribute improves, previously developed attributes gradually decline."
I've never liked the "peaking for one event" model of periodization I'd come to associate with the term, and love Ross's "always ready" approach to periodization. For me, this alone made Infinite Intensity worth the price of admission, and I'm happy to see the ideas reiterated here. Like Infinite Intensity, this book includes a sample 50-day plan, but Ross emphasizes again and again that you must tailor the plan to your needs. I think the sample plan in Never Gymless forces you to put a bit more thought into this as an individual, and that's a good thing.
Rather than discuss this, check out Ross's online FAQ (which includes how to pronounce his name :-). It's not the same FAQ as in the book.
An excellent reading list.
I count 136 different exercises listed here.
Well, another Enamait product, another rave. Sorry for being a broken record, but I simply feel the man puts out the best fitness books on the market.
P.S. I realized I've been presenting buying Infinite Intensity or Never Gymless as an either/or proposition. Personally, I'm happy to have both, as I plan on liberally borrowing from each when I design my next 50-day plan.
Should the Internet have slow lanes and fast lanes, with companies paying to get on the fast lanes? From Why You Should Care About Network Neutrality by Tim Wu:
In trying to figure out who's right, let's forget about the Internet and look at KFC. The fast-food chain discriminates. It has an exclusive deal with Pepsi, and that seems fine to pretty much everyone. Now, let's think about the nation's highways. How would you feel if I-95 announced an exclusive deal with General Motors to provide a special "rush-hour" lane for GM cars only? That seems intuitively wrong. But what, if anything, is the difference between KFC and I-95? And which is a better model for the Internet?
I've lately fallen in love with old typewriter fonts. Here are two of my favorites:
The header is Depot, the body is Asha.