muscles are beef
(copied from xanga)
Today I went to Kevin's workout place, Crossfit, out in Rockville. He claims it's harder than the Academy, and I believe him. Apparently they're well-known for being viciously tough, and I was imagining Olympic athletes doing double back handsprings. I fully expected to get served, Tianjin style with thick pain sauce.
I walked in with Kevin into this converted garage, about as big as a classroom trailer, a little wider. There were only 3 guys doin' the workout and 2 trainers, not including me, both pretty big. Kevin was the smallest of the three but built Asian men are deceptive like that. The equipment was simple - a stack of lifting bars and weights, a few combo bike/press machines on the far wall, some PVC and mats, I think. On the long wall there was a pipe welded scaffold with rings hanging off it, and some blocks to reach the pipes. The first thing I had to do was sign a waiver saying that this was really hard exercise and if my heart breaks or I tear a back muscle it's my own dumb fault.
After a warmup of two laps around the building, we did some more or less standard stretches. The assistant trainer, Nick, with a Chinese character on his right arm (谦, nice) , showed me the weirder stretches. They call the hip flexor stretch the Samson, and have this lower back stretch called the 'sexy' stretch. It's poorly named, especially considering that no girls were there. Let's just say I will stick to the exercise ball if I want to stretch my lower back.
The workout was 10 reps of 10 ring dips, 10 pullups. Ring dips are when you lock your arms so your body's suspended in a straight line (a gymnastics pose) and then just lower yourself straight down. Since just staying on the rings was challenging, I did jumping ring dips, where you jump into a straight ring hold for half a second. They're not even dips. It's like the difference between ramen and risotto.
Now I can do one and a half pullups normally before I putz out. One and a half is less than 10 x 10 in any base, so they brought out two elastic bands. One of them the "Big Bertha", a massive rubber band about 5 feet around unstretched and 3 inches wide. While I was standing on the block with one leg, resting, the other leg would get pulled up by the elastic into uncomfy positions any which way. I was too tired to put my weight on it, so I just stood like a mangled chicken. They also cut my reps to 5, after they saw I was not in my element. (I wore my USA math olympics shirt to be kind of clear about that, but I don't think that got through)
The jumping ring dips weren't hard - I got a few good poses (I think there's a real gymnastics word for it). The first ten pullups, bands assisted, were not too bad. But by the second one I was splitting up the 10 pullups into 5 and 5, then 3s. I took maybe a minute break in between each set of pullups. Somewhere along the way I used the restroom, where I noticed (a) my soccer shorts string was about to fall out and (b) the shorts themselves were inside out, and they're not reversibles. Er, way to make a solid impression there John.
My arms felt like they were falling asleep, but Nick assured me they were just tired. I definitely felt the "alright, we're all full of acid and checkin' out" part of the muscles, but also the tingly "ooh, my whole nerve got pinched and now I'm getting fuzzy signals". Maybe there was a new feeling, the "I'm going to spaz if you make me do more because I don't have O2 left". I felt all that with the muscles, but of course I had to keep going. Nick made me.
I went 21:20 for the halved and handicapped workout, which was not bad for a total newbie, I was politely told. Kevin finished his 10 reps (100 pullups) in 23:35, and whupped the other bigger guys by at least 3 minutes. He told me later that towards the end of the reps everyone was doing reps of 1 pullup, which I hadn't noticed because my focus of vision had narrowed to the size of a tomato during the workout. He also claimed that these strength-building workouts were nothing compared to the cardio ones. I'm going to stick to the local club for a while. No elastic band could hold me in.
About two hours later, I'm still feeling decidedly weak in the upper arms and chest. I don't hate life yet though - that happens tommorow when I wake up.
But before the workout I was reading a chapter on the motor neural system and also a NY Times article on new drugs that might fool muscles into thinking they've exercised; in clinical studies, one of the drugs helped mice build endurance without exercise. Now, I know a little more than the average bear about how the brain directs motor commands, and how motor neurons recruit chemicals to contract.
But all that head knowledge was nearly useless when I was exercising. I didn't think about it at all. It didn't help me one bit while doing pullups do know that calcium in the sarcoplasmic reticulum of the muscle cells of my biceps are released by voltage-gated channels at the end of the motor end-plate (which is in turn triggered by a local depolarizing signal initiated by ACh-gated channels at the post-synaptic site of the neuromuscular junction), all to activate muscle contractions along with ATP via the actomyosin complex. (Sorry for the geeking out, but I think it's really rad). If studying about muscles actually built muscle and made you fit, gyms would have a section just for Men's Fitness magazines and I would never get in the pool.
I feel like there is a huge difference between knowing something is true and making that useful in everyday life. I'd really like to jumpstart the process of gaining experience, but it seems that the only good way is training with peers and people who are already there, like Nick was. I forgot to mention that Nick's time was about 18 minutes, and the head trainer, who worked with the other three dudes, was 9:31. I don't know about you, but I can run a mile in 9:30, and then collapse. Doing 100 pullups, 100 dips in 9:31 is like he just ate a cold cut sub - effortless.
I hope that this idea works well in grad school too because my experience in research isn't that high anymore, and I'm nervous about rotations turning out poorly. Experience seems to have an expiration date. I don't think I'm going to work with Itti, as great as he is with video games and high-level attention models, but maye Mel instead, because I seem to have better chemistry with him (based on maybe 2 minutes of interaction, true.). But now someone told me that Itti is just more awesome, so I'm talking to him now (hopefully, since I just sent him an e-mail)
Today I went to Kevin's workout place, Crossfit, out in Rockville. He claims it's harder than the Academy, and I believe him. Apparently they're well-known for being viciously tough, and I was imagining Olympic athletes doing double back handsprings. I fully expected to get served, Tianjin style with thick pain sauce.
I walked in with Kevin into this converted garage, about as big as a classroom trailer, a little wider. There were only 3 guys doin' the workout and 2 trainers, not including me, both pretty big. Kevin was the smallest of the three but built Asian men are deceptive like that. The equipment was simple - a stack of lifting bars and weights, a few combo bike/press machines on the far wall, some PVC and mats, I think. On the long wall there was a pipe welded scaffold with rings hanging off it, and some blocks to reach the pipes. The first thing I had to do was sign a waiver saying that this was really hard exercise and if my heart breaks or I tear a back muscle it's my own dumb fault.
After a warmup of two laps around the building, we did some more or less standard stretches. The assistant trainer, Nick, with a Chinese character on his right arm (谦, nice) , showed me the weirder stretches. They call the hip flexor stretch the Samson, and have this lower back stretch called the 'sexy' stretch. It's poorly named, especially considering that no girls were there. Let's just say I will stick to the exercise ball if I want to stretch my lower back.
The workout was 10 reps of 10 ring dips, 10 pullups. Ring dips are when you lock your arms so your body's suspended in a straight line (a gymnastics pose) and then just lower yourself straight down. Since just staying on the rings was challenging, I did jumping ring dips, where you jump into a straight ring hold for half a second. They're not even dips. It's like the difference between ramen and risotto.
Now I can do one and a half pullups normally before I putz out. One and a half is less than 10 x 10 in any base, so they brought out two elastic bands. One of them the "Big Bertha", a massive rubber band about 5 feet around unstretched and 3 inches wide. While I was standing on the block with one leg, resting, the other leg would get pulled up by the elastic into uncomfy positions any which way. I was too tired to put my weight on it, so I just stood like a mangled chicken. They also cut my reps to 5, after they saw I was not in my element. (I wore my USA math olympics shirt to be kind of clear about that, but I don't think that got through)
The jumping ring dips weren't hard - I got a few good poses (I think there's a real gymnastics word for it). The first ten pullups, bands assisted, were not too bad. But by the second one I was splitting up the 10 pullups into 5 and 5, then 3s. I took maybe a minute break in between each set of pullups. Somewhere along the way I used the restroom, where I noticed (a) my soccer shorts string was about to fall out and (b) the shorts themselves were inside out, and they're not reversibles. Er, way to make a solid impression there John.
My arms felt like they were falling asleep, but Nick assured me they were just tired. I definitely felt the "alright, we're all full of acid and checkin' out" part of the muscles, but also the tingly "ooh, my whole nerve got pinched and now I'm getting fuzzy signals". Maybe there was a new feeling, the "I'm going to spaz if you make me do more because I don't have O2 left". I felt all that with the muscles, but of course I had to keep going. Nick made me.
I went 21:20 for the halved and handicapped workout, which was not bad for a total newbie, I was politely told. Kevin finished his 10 reps (100 pullups) in 23:35, and whupped the other bigger guys by at least 3 minutes. He told me later that towards the end of the reps everyone was doing reps of 1 pullup, which I hadn't noticed because my focus of vision had narrowed to the size of a tomato during the workout. He also claimed that these strength-building workouts were nothing compared to the cardio ones. I'm going to stick to the local club for a while. No elastic band could hold me in.
About two hours later, I'm still feeling decidedly weak in the upper arms and chest. I don't hate life yet though - that happens tommorow when I wake up.
But before the workout I was reading a chapter on the motor neural system and also a NY Times article on new drugs that might fool muscles into thinking they've exercised; in clinical studies, one of the drugs helped mice build endurance without exercise. Now, I know a little more than the average bear about how the brain directs motor commands, and how motor neurons recruit chemicals to contract.
But all that head knowledge was nearly useless when I was exercising. I didn't think about it at all. It didn't help me one bit while doing pullups do know that calcium in the sarcoplasmic reticulum of the muscle cells of my biceps are released by voltage-gated channels at the end of the motor end-plate (which is in turn triggered by a local depolarizing signal initiated by ACh-gated channels at the post-synaptic site of the neuromuscular junction), all to activate muscle contractions along with ATP via the actomyosin complex. (Sorry for the geeking out, but I think it's really rad). If studying about muscles actually built muscle and made you fit, gyms would have a section just for Men's Fitness magazines and I would never get in the pool.
I feel like there is a huge difference between knowing something is true and making that useful in everyday life. I'd really like to jumpstart the process of gaining experience, but it seems that the only good way is training with peers and people who are already there, like Nick was. I forgot to mention that Nick's time was about 18 minutes, and the head trainer, who worked with the other three dudes, was 9:31. I don't know about you, but I can run a mile in 9:30, and then collapse. Doing 100 pullups, 100 dips in 9:31 is like he just ate a cold cut sub - effortless.
I hope that this idea works well in grad school too because my experience in research isn't that high anymore, and I'm nervous about rotations turning out poorly. Experience seems to have an expiration date. I don't think I'm going to work with Itti, as great as he is with video games and high-level attention models, but maye Mel instead, because I seem to have better chemistry with him (based on maybe 2 minutes of interaction, true.). But now someone told me that Itti is just more awesome, so I'm talking to him now (hopefully, since I just sent him an e-mail)