Redbird Nation in mourning.

I was all set to watch the Cubs/Cardinals game yesterday. We'd gone to the grocery store early. I was in the kitchen making lunches for the wife and I, when it scrolled across the screen: "Game postponed due to tragic death of Cardinals' reliever Josh Hancock." Instantly I got a lump in my throat. I hadn't seen Hancock pitch that much. I can't say that I know much about him, but he's one of my guys. He's a Cardinal. Now he's gone. It took me back to 2002 when D.K. (Darryl Kile) died, he was beyond one of 'our guys.' I was in shock. The entire city was in mourning. Yesterday, and today it's much the same. The great thing about cardinal fans is the same reaction for a reliever who was just happy to make the big club as for the staff ace.
The post has a series of articles here

Updateness!! aka Pimp my self.

weight: I am down from 216 to 207 after practice. (I weigh after practice to minimize hydration effect)
Height: still pretty short.

Strength/power: Bench is up. I was doing 185+bands for singles, now doing 205+bands for doubles. Squats are improving (better groove, finally have enough flexibility to squat deep with my feet flat..ish on the floor) Hang snatches are still a little weak (115) need to work on dynamic hip flexibility so I can get under the weight. I can pull 135 from hips to eyes, just can't get under it. Over head tire tosses are sailing a minimum of 5 big steps per toss (up from 3). Most everything is better here (if still a little sub-standard).

Endurance: I am up to 5 sled drags the entire length of the hill per session. I feel fitter in the boat, I haven't done much erging, so I don't know the numbers here. I have eight weeks till regionals, and I am going to switch focus for this period, work more on dynamic strength, and getting race fit.

Overall, I'm lighter, stronger, and a bit fitter. I can see my first two segments of my abs before the belt of marshmallow takes over. I'm making progress and progress is good.

Doesn't everyone love mad libs:

Hey! That sure is blurry.. click the box to get a bigger version. Caution may contain dirty words.



What the deuce?

S.J. and I did a little blog swinging. We each took our own bent on our hypothetical (purely fictional) meeting. Did a blog entry and swapped. It's like Rashomon, only nobody died and, without the samurai and stuff. Good times were had by all.

Brought to you by the National Dairy Board..

Not surprising (For a multitude of reasons) This article indicates that protein uptake from drinking milk post-exercise is greater than from Soy. The science is a bit dubious and fairly typical of studies 'sponsored' by various food lobbies . In this instance individuals did a single workout (god knows what they did it just says "a series of exercises with one leg") and then drank either a milk or soy 'beverage' (God knows what, or how much). The amount of protein taken up by their muscles was "measured" (god knows how) I assume they did not use radioactive isotopes and tissue samples to measure the protein uptake. Color me skeptical. So we have this rather dubious methodology, and the conclusion:
"if extended out to 10 weeks the data suggest (but did not show) that gains in muscle mass would be twice as great with milk as with soy,"
While I'm not arguing for soy, it would be easier to get along if the methodologies and the "results" extrapolated from them made any sense at all.

Going off on a rant without reading the full study, is asking for a face full of egg. In this particular case they DID biopsy the vastus lateralis muscles of the subjects. The measurements done were fairly valid.

Many thanks to Mistress Krista for the lesson in research before you rant. I am going to leave this up here for a little while as a retraction, then.. I don't know. Cynicism is not a flattering quality, and I should have completed my research before being so caustic. I have fallen into the trap of the internet loud mouth.. and that's not a good feeling. I really am embarrassed by this. Sorry folks, but I guess I've inadvertently proven my point. Be critical, of researchers, of journalists, and of bloggers. You never know who's having a bad day, and who's not following through on their research.

Gym Jones

Mark Twight goes off as only he can.

In my review of 3oo I mentioned that there was too much body make-up used in parts of the movie. In light of the above rant let me clarify:
In movie making there are times when the lighting has to be set up in such a way that it will either leave the actor's faces covered by shadows, or will wash out the features of their bodies. In most movies this would not be a problem as no one cares if the small creases of their clothes are washed out. In 300 this was a bit trickier as the actors were bare chested. So movie people doing what they do, added make-up to their bodies to make the muscles stand out in those lighting conditions. In my opinion they were a bit heavy handed in those scenes. The scenes in question were the ones where there was heavy overhead lighting (the scenes in the meadows). There is no way in hell that the spartan physiques in 300 were "all make-up and cgi." Those guys busted ass to look that way, and to me it doesn't matter if they did it for 8 weeks, 8 months or 8 years. If I were Mark, I'd whip up a big batch of shut the hell up too.