Too busy to work out?

If you are, check this athlete out:

More about Rohan Murphy is available on wikipedia.  One snippet that caught my eye was that he won bronze at 2006 IPC World Powerlifting by lifting 127.5 kgs, and he's all of 56 kilos!

I'll probably never gain that kind of upper body strength, but may I be damned if I don't even put in the effort to get fitter.

On Fitness Goals

People (usually the overweight ones hitting the gym for the first time) often set themselves a goal that goes like,

I need to lose 5 kilos in the next month.

Instead, how about setting a goal such as:

I am going to hit the gym 20 times in the next month.

Isn't setting an effort-based-goal (the number of times to hit the gym) better than an end-result-goal (the targeted weight loss)?  I think so, and here's why:

• Control: Your achievement of the goal is pretty much under your control.  You know what you need to do in order to hit the gym 5 times this week (reduce the time you spend at office, cancel that dinner, etc.), but you can never really control all the variables it takes to hit your weight loss target, which for all you know, may be completely unrealistic. 
• Testing your commitment: We've all heard stories of  people who take up a fitness program only to give up within a few short weeks (months if they're lucky) simply because they were unable to meet their "target".  The usual suspect for such a discontinuation is their lack of commitment to their fitness program.  Setting a goal around the effort one is willing to put in helps you test how committed you really are.
• Course-Correction: You'll know early enough if you're taking any short-cuts and can take corrective action. If you find that all of your gym sessions are lasting less than 15 mins, you know you're not being true to your objective. But with the weight loss goal, it gets more complicated.  Just because you lose 1kg in one week does not mean you're on-track to meeting your weight loss objective.
• Sustainability: The goals around effort are more sustainable.  It's realistic and sustainable (but probably not easy) to extend the goal to say, I'll hit the gym 20 times per month for the next 12 months.  Try doing that with the weight loss goal.  
• Fine-tuning: It's also easier to fine-tune the goal statement around your effort:
  I will hit the gym 20 times in the next month to have 15 weight training and 5 cardio sessions.
  But it's almost funny to hear someone say,
  I will lose 5 kgs, of which 4 kgs should be body fat, 0.5 kg water, and 0.5 kg lean muscle.
  Perhaps expert body builders can set themselves goal statements like this, but then the keyword is "expert".

I believe that the goals around weight loss / fat loss / body tone should be set up after one has set up a sustainable fitness program.  So before you set yourself goals around end-results, do set up realistic goals that will help you enjoy and stay committed to your fitness program.  Without that, achieving your end-results will simply not feel rewarding enough, and definitely not fun! 

Would love to hear what others have to say.

But walking is the best exercise!

This is my third attempt with weight training, and at 10 months, my longest attempt so far. And I'm glad of the progress I have made this time: I certainly don't feel like a beginner any more - I can talk the gobbledygook of GH and leptin levels, and the differences between a stiff-legged deadlift and a Romanian deadlift :)  But I'm also not an expert - there have been plenty of occasions where I have overtrained, and experienced soreness for days.

The typical beginner (and I could count myself as one when I started) encounters many problems when starting out with bodybuilding - there isn't adequate time to devote to the activity, form is always an issue, minor injuries keep occurring, the list goes on and on.  Beyond these, an issue that pops up is that one's support structure (friends, family, etc.) is not always supportive of an individual's weight training.  Even my doctor said, "You don't need weight training, cardiovascular endurance should be more than adequate."  Another common comment I keep hearing is "Walking should be enough.  It's the best exercise!"

Walking is the best exercise - Really? Best for what? Can one set a goal saying "I'll walk till the strength in my shoulders improves"? How does walking help improve the flexibility of the neck?

I'm not trying to make fun of walkers or cardiovascular exercises.  In fact, I enjoy both running and cycling  - I don't run very regularly, but I love doing a 25 klick cycle ride as often as I can. But doing a cardiovascular activity in isolation can do the body a lot more harm than good.  Let me elaborate:

• Running long distances hurts the knees [google for the phrase "joggers' knee" - it will flood your browser with a zillion results] - Seasoned runners know they have to complement their running with specific exercises for the glutes, hamstrings, and the back, in addition to the pre-run stretches
• Cycling is a great exercise, but can take a toll on the back.  It's unnatural for the body to be crouched down for long periods, and this leads to muscle fatigue.  Ultracycling.com lays out some resistance training tips for cyclists (and swimmers).  Even Lance Armstrong's training program mentions a few points on weight training - I would assume this includes hyperextension exercises for the back.

Now, walking may not be as intensive as running or cycling, so the wear & tear takes longer to appear, but as I sarcastically mentioned earlier, it can not help the body parts that it doesn't work out: walking can not help improve upper body strength and flexibility.  

So, here's my opinion: it helps the body more if a cardiovascular activity is done as part of a more comprehensive fitness program that ensures:

• Coverage of as many muscle groups as possible
• Increase in strength of muscles and joints
• Increase in flexibility of the overall body
• Endurance [the cardio will probably take care of that]

Now, body building isn't the only option to meet the above criteria. Other options include calisthenics, yoga, and pilates, to name a few.  So, pick one, and give your body the full-fledged fitness regimen it deserves. And please don't let others brainwash you by saying, "Exercise X is the best exercise."

Workout lessons (learned the hard way)

Some lessons I've learned while weight training, especially in the last few months:

• The back and legs have the largest largest muscle groups in the body, and working them out (even for a short duration) not only strengthens these muscles, but also affects the body's overall physiology. More experienced weight trainers refer to this effect as the GH boost.  Lesson: If one can work out for only two days a week, it should be for the back and legs, instead of the chest, biceps, shoulders, etc. [but one should work out more often to include them as well]
• If the body is excessively sore after working out, it helps to feed on some carbs. Carbs do aid in recovery, and can help get back to the gym the next day. Of course, it helps if the carbs are not made of refined sugars :-)
• Compound exercises work out more muscle groups than isolation exercises, and a lot of them end up hitting the core muscles.  Again, if stuck for time, compound exercises are the way to go.

gmap pedometer

If you're interested in trying cycling or running, check out gmap pedometer at http://gmap-pedometer.com/ It allows you to mark the routes you've taken on google maps interface.  And yes, you can save routes for posterity.  If only I could get symbian phone to work with this :(

In other news, I did a 41K ride last weekend, around the Bannerghatt National Park.  I now know how hilly Bangalore really is :)

The Pain Killer Cycle

• Wake up with a terribly sore neck
• Take pain killers
• Feel drowsy from the pain killers
• Cancel whatever appointments you have
• Fall asleep
• Wake up with more soreness in the neck :(

How many pain killer cycles can one handle?

FastTrack gone offtrack with its advertising?

Radio One was recently airing some advertising for FastTrack’s new Army Collection. They were inviting women to send in jingles that go with a marching tune, and played a sample jingle on air. Here are the lyrics to that sample:

Get up and leave
if he tries to kiss your hand
He’s a one-girl man;
He ain’t a one-night stand

Corollary: if one comes across a girl wearing a Fast Track army watch, can one presume she is looking for a one-night-stand?

Jokes apart, why would FastTrack want to restrict their customer base to an ultra-liberal crowd instead of having mass appeal to the entire 18-25 age group, irrespective of how conservative/liberal they are, irrespective of what their preferences in relationships are? Does their advertising tactic make sense for a consumer products' company?

A thought on Friday, the 13th

Doesn't the 14th of Feb impose an unnecessary, unwarranted, and artificial deadline on a Work-In-Progress situation?

Work update

I've joined Adea Technologies (www.adea.com) more than a month back. Yeah, I used to work here earlier too. Familiar people, familiar work, let's see how this stint goes.

Ghajini: lost opportunity

Take a look at the ingredients: a weird case of short term memory loss, a dedicated actor who’s chiseled himself for this role, and pretty good direction – one would have expected so much more from Ghajini.

Of course I am biased by Memento, and I’m glad that Ghajini wasn’t a copy. But the story could’ve been made so much more complex and thrilling. Instead, they chose a fairly simple story line in which no serious complications arise out of Sanjay’s anterograde amnesia. He seems to have a system that works fairly well: except when his enemies ruin it for him. And then it follows the traditional good-guy-gets-rid-of-bad-guy.

Well, here’s the thing about Sanjay’s condition. He could have felt the rage of losing his girlfriend every 15 minutes, or whenever he saw himself in the mirror. But there’s only one scene which shows that, but it’s for the benefit of advancing the story – it doesn’t add much to Sanjay’s character. Why didn’t the director repeat that scene a few times, so that the character’s condition could be more ingrained in the viewer’s head?

Why doesn't the movie explore Sanjay's psyche, and have him narrate the thoughts that are running in his head? The man would be under such tremendous confusion trying to figure out what’s happening around him – why not unleash that confusion on to the audience?

Why does the story, instead of making it bigger with the endless possibilities of anterograde amnesia, choose to talk about the courtship between a millionaire and an aspiring model? Couldn’t all that material have been saved for a different yuppy movie?

I’m glad I watched Ghajini, and I did like the movie. But I guess I had my hopes up way too high.

Faith

Faithful : unfaithful : faithless :: love : hate : indifference

came up with this one when listening to Doolin Dalton

Quick retorts by single blokes

Married people, please move on. This post is not for you.

Single folk, especially those under immense pressure from their families to jump into something that you don’t want to contemplate right now, please stand by… we may be able to help each other out.

Given that I have had a lot of time on my hands (see previous post), I decided to call my parents over to Hyderabad. And since I knew I was going to be home pretty much all the time, I asked them to come over on an extended stay. Exactly five hours before my parents arrived, it hit me that I could have a repeat of all the conversations I have had with them about marriage and how I’m not particularly thrilled by the idea of arranged marriages.

My scared self wishes to put together a collection of well-reasoned retorts that are sure to terminate any such conversation around arranged marriages, in favour of the single bloke. If you can add on to this list that I’m putting together, you would be helping out more than one poor soul:

• Parents: We would like you to get married to someone all of us are comfortable with
  Single bloke: Are you thinking of my car?
• Parents: What’s wrong with an arranged marriage?
  Single bloke: You cannot arrange a marriage; you can only arrange a wedding. Ergo …
• Parents: We’ve found a lovely girl for you
  Single bloke: I’ve found a red apple for you
• Parents: Even your friend X was OK with an arranged marriage. Why was it OK with him?
  Single bloke: Information Asymmetry? -- raise your eyebrows as you say this
  
• Parents: Do you know how many good offers you have been getting?
  Single bloke: A good offer in a bad system still counts as a bad offer
• Parents: Don’t you want a wife who can cook?
  Single bloke: You know, I bought this microwave oven last month and I still haven’t figured out how it works…
  

Some career news

I’ve quit my job of over a year. Nothing went wrong, but nothing went seriously right either. As of now, I’m in the market looking for a job. Actually not just yet – I plan to take some time off to think about myself, life, and everything that comes with it. Perhaps in a few weeks I’ll freak out about unemployment, and get serious about the third draft of my resume. In the meantime, Chi has more time to dedicate to his blog :-)

I'm only human
I seek what I love
I chase what I seek
I may affront what I chase
'Tis a chance I have to take

Noble

There is the language that we read, and then there's language that we speak. The two are completely different animals: often, we come across words that we read but never use.

What if we could speak the way our favourite authors write? Would that show what our true character really is? If I used the word "noble" in a conversation, does that truly mean what I was describing was indeed noble?