Time is a key aspect of most fitness routines. While our rowing maching and elliptical have built-in timers, I have to keep time on my own when doing other things. Unfortunately, that’s often easier said than done…
From the monthly archives:
July 2008
One of my main goals recently has been to never skip more than one day in a row without doing some sort of exercise. Unfortunately, life sometimes gets in the way, and I’m not always able to achieve that.
Well, it’s official… According to a recent report from the CDC, the obesity rate (i.e., the fraction of population with a BMI of 30 or more) in the United States has increased to 25.6%. This report makes the nationwide push to reduce obesity rates to less than 15% by 2010 almost laughable.
I recently ran across the Army Physical Fitness Test (APFT), which is a test that all soldiers in the Army (including Reserves and National Guard) have to pass twice a year. The APFT is made up of three components (pushups, situps, and running) and performance standards vary by sex, age, and enlistment status.
Over the past couple of weeks, I’ve started doing my pushups at work. I’m in the lucky position of: (1) not having to dress up for work, and (2) having a private office. The benefits of these midday pushups are twofold.
That’s a bit of an odd title, I know, but I’m not sure how else to word it. Given the recent fascination with pushups, I got to wondering about how much weight you’re actually moving when you do a pushup.
Over the weekend, I got to thinking about what my biggest vices are when it comes to staying healthy. All in all, I’d have to say that my number one weakness is eating out at lunch time. For whatever reason, I really enjoy escaping the office and grabbing some lunch.
Friday afternoon, I decided to head upstairs for a nice Independence Day row. I did my usual 5 minute warmup (light rowing, roughly 1 km) and then got off the erg to stretch. Unfortunately, I got distracted (by what I can’t recall) and ended up jumping back on without actually stretching.
As I noted earlier in the week, I experienced a setback in the 100 pushup challenge when I passed the Week 2 exhaustion test, but failed on Day 1 of Week 3. I think a couple of things factored into my failure.
As many of you are aware, we were on vacation last week, returning this past Sunday. Upon our return, I promptly fired up the DSL modem and checked in on things. Unfortunately, an hour or so later my wife reported that our Skype phone, her e-mail, and the web weren’t working.