What I’ve Learned So Far

That’s what I learned during several hours of frustration yesterday. As I mentioned on Friday, I wanted to spruce up the backend of my blog this weekend — it’s been overdue for updates for, uh, a while — and . . . there went half of my Sunday.

Looking on the bright side, some good things did happen. Among them, (1) I have a couple of extremely thorough manual backups of my blog tucked away in safe places, (2) I know a lot more about upgrading WordPress than I did, and (3) I have a fair idea of what I need to do next, even if I’m unclear about how to do it.

As if I needed convincing, I was also reminded of the generosity of my friends, since no less than four people of strong Nerd-Fu responded to my piteous cries on Twitter with offers to help.

Updates as warranted. Meanwhile, I’ve backed out every change I made yesterday so as not to interrupt your bloggish enjoyment. (At least, I think I backed out everything — please let me know if you run into any glitches.)

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(Photo by Siebren Kwekkeboom, used under a Creative Commons BY-NC-SA license.)

“I wish this was real, only without the wars and bloodshed and stuff.”

Well, yeah. Welcome to the club, kid.

From my trusty @Twalk account, I’ve tweeted 26,000+ times. But this week, that number — which is displayed on my Twitter page and is an easily-checked barometer for how active someone is on Twitter — mysteriously tripled. At this moment, it looks like this:

Don’t I wish.

So, it’s a bug and it’s been logged in Twitter’s bug tracking system. But when I checked on it yesterday, this was the latest word:

UPDATE: 02/02/10 - This bug is a low priority issue because it does not prevent users from fully using Twitter. We do not expect to have this issue fixed in the immediate future for this reason. Please leave a comment below if you are affected by this issue. Thank you!

See, for normal, well-adjusted people, this would be an adequate response. But for the sad, hard-bitten souls who live on Twitter (read: “me”), “fully using Twitter” includes constant — AND ACCURATE — access to The Great Validating Number. I mean, how do I know I really exist without my 26,307 tweets (or whatever the number really is because at this point I don’t KNOW which is why I’m coming a little unGLUED here andhowcouldtheyTHINK . . . )?

*cleansing breaths*

I’m better now. Especially because I read this:

UPDATE: 02/05/10 - A higher number of accounts are affected by this bug than we previously guessed. This problem is now important and have engineers currently working on resolving the improper tweet counts. We expect to have a fix released relatively soon.

They have seen the light. Help is on the way. Meanwhile, the Twitter nation turns its lonely eyes to Tweetstats . . .

Or, rather, you WILL be as you spend hour upon hour of your weekend reading through my extensive archives here. (This is how you spend your weekends, right?)

This weekend I’ll be doing some overdue technical housekeeping on the blog, so you may get some strange results — up to and including a big pile o’ nothing — if you wander in at the right moment.

Tally-ho.

See that beehive? Don’t poke it.

If you know you have a particular weakness, steer away from it.

Examples:

• Recovering alcoholics avoid bars.
• Recovering overeaters stock their fridges and pantries with adequate amounts of healthy food, not cake and soda.
• Writers with an Internet addiction — e.g. John Scalzi — know when to unplug the DSL and just work.
• If you know that a non-essential topic is a sore subject with your friend / family member / boss / colleague / whomever, just don’t bring it up.
• If you’re prone to distraction, turn off your e-mail and your RSS feeds.

I’m sure you could supply me with more examples from your own life (and please do). My point is a simple one, but when I consider my own penchant for, say, online grazing, I think it bears repeating: each day will bring enough trouble of its own, so don’t go looking for more.

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(Photo by Sara Schroeder, used under a CC-Noncommercial license.)

‘Cuz I got things to do. But look, I gave you a pretty picture! Or rather, tropicaLiving gave the world a pretty picture on Flickr, and I found it for you.

What things, you ask? Well, let’s just say that some secrets are worth keeping . . . *MWA-HA-ha-ha-ha-haaaaaah*

(No, really, nothing that dramatic — just work ‘n’ stuff.)

1. Not that I set any specific targets, but it turns out I wrote 75 blog posts — spread across this blog and three others — in January. That’s the most for some time, and it certainly felt better to be in a better writing rhythm.

2. Crap, I’ve got a lot of lingering e-mail and bookmarks and papers to delete. Yes, still.

Given #2 . . . I think that’s all for today. UNLESS you care to amuse me in the comment thread, which would be awesome.

Note the OVERALL leanness of these guys.

Sad, maybe — but true.

If you’re trying to get rid of your love handles, doing more crunches isn’t the answer.

If you want to get rid of the fat on your upper arms, pushups aren’t the answer.

The stair machine won’t take the flab off of your butt extra-fast.

Et cetera.

Overriding points to remember:

• Increased muscle mass makes you better at burning fat in general. This is because a pound of muscle burns more calories 24/7 than a pound of fat. So, all else being equal, if you have more muscle, you’ll burn more calories around the clock. The lesson: adding muscle to your frame should help you reduce bodyfat.
• Once you burn away the fat that’s hiding your abs or your triceps or your glutes, sure, the crunches, pushups, and miles on the stepper will pay off, because the tone and size of the muscle will show through.
• Spot reduction of fat by exercising a given part of the body . . . wait for it . . . DOES NOT OCCUR. Human physiology just doesn’t work that way. We lay down deposits of fat — and take it back off again — based on a variety of factors including nutrition, rest, and genetics. Typically, people put on fat first in their torso and butt (more above the belt for most men, more below the belt for most women), then working out from there toward the extremeties. Note, though, that there’s lots of variation in this.
• If you want to reduce your love handles, work to reduce the overall amount of fat in your body by a balanced plan of exercise, nutrition, and rest.

By all means, do those crunches if you want stronger muscles in your midsection. But don’t be misled about the crunches’ other effects.

(It’s been quite a stream of fitness posts lately, I know; expect a regular mix of programming to resume shortly.)

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(Image by David van der Mark, used under a CC-Share Alike license.)

Good workout today. Details:

Warmup 1 — Spin bike for 5 minutes.
Warmup 2 — Foam roller.

A1 — Dumbbell bent-over rows: 8 x 40# warmup, 8 x 50#, 8 x 55#, 8 x 55#
A2 — Incline dumbbell bench press: 3 x 10 x 60#’s (barely got last set)

B1 — Rotator cuff exercises: bands, Swiss ball against wall
B2 — Barbell squats: 8 x 95# warmup, 3 x 15 x 135#

C1 — Standing barbell military press: 10 x 45#, 10 x 55#, 10 x 65#
C2 — Standing EZ-bar curls: 3 x 10 x 75# (failed on last rep of last set)

D — Box jumps: 3 x 12 @ 18″ box

Finale — Steam room.

The letter groupings indicate that I did those exercises in alternation, i.e. I swapped back and forth between rows and bench press before switching over to rotator cuffs and squats.

A gym trainer and I talked through some variations on the box jump, e.g. doing jumps from a squat position instead of standing tall. For the last set of them, I held a 6# medicine ball in my hands. While I think this is a good challenge for balance, I’m not quite ready for it in terms of my coordination. (No one ever accused my of being highly coordinated.) I landed a little sour on one of the reps in the last set, and tweaked either the vastus medialis or the sartorius above my right knee.

Oh, well — live and learn.

Since it’s the end of January (and does anybody know where January went?), I’m thinking back on what I did this month, what I failed to do, and what I want to do better for February.

• Good things in January: Introduced some Crossfit-style work with box jumps; launched a squat routine; finally started doing Turkish get-ups for shoulder stability; did more work on flexibility.
• Missed opportunities in January: Because I was under the weather for a week-plus in the middle of the month — and because I simply took my eye off the ball — I did just nine workouts during the month. Worse, I did two proper cardio sessions. (Note that I’m not counting short cardio warmups like the one I did today.) Because of the inconsistency, I didn’t (apparently) drop any body fat, and I didn’t stay on the steady weight-and-reps progression for the bench press that I had been on during December.
• Intentions for February: Better consistency, aiming for 20 workouts total in 28 days; much more cardio and closer attention to nutrition, with visible effects in terms of body fat (the picture of Arnold = motivation); continue to work in more aspects of the “300″ workout (context here); resume progression on bench press; establish sound progression in squat and deadlift.

What do you think? And what are YOUR training goals for February?
~

(Image via David van der Mark, used under a CC-Share Alike license.)

If you want to be successful, you will rearrange your priorities, and put your focus where it belongs: on the one thing you want to obtain. Results will follow.

–Dave Tate, powerlifter and fitness entrepreneur

Be advised: the page just linked has foul language, plus a gory picture of a soldier’s arm after it got shredded by a bomb in Afghanistan. If that doesn’t put you off, the story of the soldier’s recovery and return to powerlifting is an inspiring one.

That’s a picture of Tate on the right. His philosophy is uncompromising both because that’s how he’s wired, and because that’s what has worked to make him successful as a strength athlete and a businessman. As he says elsewhere, “I don’t do moderation.”

You can find out more about Tate, and sample from his highly knowledgeable but frequently R-rated observations on strength training and life, via TMuscle, EliteFTS, and the “One Movement” series of weightlifting videos.