Archive for August, 2005
Good Old Fashioned Fitness
Alright, gang. I heard you. I’ll stick to one blog and write about whatever frosts my cookies, and I’ll let you discerning people choose what to read and what to yawn about. Fair? Let’s talk about pushups.
I just read a great article about pushups being a much better exercise than bench pressing. Why? Because it does more things. It moves your bodyweight up and down (up to 70% of your bodyweight), but it also strengthens your core muscles. Remember, it’s just like doing a plank, only you’re moving yourself up and down, too. But why do pushups at all? We do lots of things in fitness that we’re not exactly sure why we’re doing it. Here are some thoughts about why pushups matter.
First, pushups work your pectoral muscles, which are fairly big muscles. For those of you doing exercises to lose weight and burn fat, the bigger your muscles, the more tuned your fat-burning machine is. Second, pushups tone and shape your chest. For guys, this means no unsightly man boobs. For ladies, this means helping raise the twins to a somewhat more firm and ensconced position. Third, pushups give one strength for pushing. Pushing what? A ball, if you like any of the ball sports. A jogging stroller. Whatever.
So, if you’re all jazzed about doing pushups, let’s talk about a few variations on the theme.
Standard Pushups
The classic. Get down on the ground with your feet together, and your hands about shoulder width apart. Keep your body straight and stiff, and push your body off the ground. When you are coming down, look up and forward (as if you’re Superman flying) and try to touch your chest to the floor. This is a proper, deep push-up. Try for 10. When you can do 15 or 20, don’t bother. Add these others to the mix after rest periods.
Wide Grip Pushups
Put your hands further than shoulder width apart and do the same push-up. This will strengthen your chest a little more and your arms a little less. Getting another 10 of these after a set of standard pushups is great.
Stability Ball Pushups
This can go two ways. Try doing a pushup with your hands resting on a swiss ball. These work your core like mad. Do 10 of these and you’re doing good. Then, turn around and put your legs up on the ball and your hands on the ground and do 10 decline pushups. Oof.
Triceps Pushup
And while I’m beating you up anyhow… Pushups work your triceps anyhow. These KILL your triceps, in the good sense. Try putting your hands much closer together underneath you, and doing the same push-up. If you can’t do even one of these (and these are killers), at least do the “from up to down” part of these pushups a dozen times, to give yourself some extra burn on your triceps.
I’ll write a few more posts about good old fashioned fitness. I just canceled my gym membership (in the near term), and that’s because I think I can mix it up a lot more without focusing on the metal going up and down. I’ll share what I’m doing, and hopefully, you can get something out of it, too.
What do you think?
Linux Distributions
In my Design, Usability and Technology blog, I’m writing about a new Linux distribution I’m in the process of downloading. Click HERE for the full story.
In my Fitness & Nutrition blog, I left a micro post saying that I’ve laid out the plan, and just like Fig says, I’m doing it. Click HERE for the full story.
How about you? Are you finding this new format annoying? Do you like the segregation of posts? Or is it just more diverse feeds to read?
Fatso
Posted in my Fitness and Nutrition blog:
The excessive hours at work and my own personal lack of follow through have led me to throw on 10 or so pounds. Yep, I’m back up 10. I don’t feel sorry for myself. I don’t feel horrified. I’m not even sitting around wondering what happened. I can tell you what happened. I moved my focus. I started viewing another facet of my life. But, I need to jump back in.
Click HERE for the entire post.
Design&Usability: Integrated Computing
Over at my design, usability and technology blog, I’m talking about the following:
I’m still taken with this “computing for a bigger human integration” thing.
Click HEREfor the entire post.
Well Then
For those of you who are here for the personal life thing, we went for the ultrasound today. The first one. The one where you figure things out. You ever look at one of those things? I couldn’t figure out a thing. I saw labels, and still couldn’t figure it out. It said leg, leg, bum. I couldn’t tell.. you know what? It looked like the kid was sitting on a photocopier taking snaps of privates.
Turns out the kid has business. It’s a boy.
Social Computing
Technology Review had a great (very long) article in their August issue about social machines. It’s basically saying that we’re using all the recent innovations of distributed systems and mobile computing to stay much more attached to a real-time social fabric that extends beyond shouting distance. I really like the article on lots of levels, and it struck a nerve with what I’m doing here. I’m just not sure where to go with what I’m thinking about.
The basic idea: I want to encourage collaborative communication and community threading on topics I’m interested in.
Because my interests go all over the place, I think this means that I should split my blogs and keep tighter focus such that I’ll draw the right collaborators to the right areas. What I mean is this: I’ll probably use chrisbrogan.com to be the home base and most general of my sites. I’ll use it as the preview for the targeted blogs, as well as a set of social “tags” for all the folks who might want to contact me or stay in touch with my day to day. chrisbrogan.com will stay the place to touch base on what’s new and improved with me. Then, I’ll target my posts for one of three separate blogs and you can choose to read one or all of them. That way, if you’re here to talk about fitness and nutrition, you don’t have to read about wireless computing, and that kind of thing.
I’ll drill down into the following three areas on my topic-specific blogs:
*fitness and nutrition
*self-improvement and leadership
*design,usability, and technology
I’ll probably experiment with a few other collaboration styles, too. I am interested in things like wikis, site tagging, RSS reading, etc. I’m certain to much with that as I go along. Stay tuned.
Your thoughts and feedback are appreciated, as always.
Production. Results. Execution
All the good intentions in the world don’t matter.
If I could beg you to do this, please just stop and reread the last sentence. Read it and take one complete breath. Done? Good.
I was hit smack in the face with this realization on my ride to work this morning.* It doesn’t matter all the good motions in different directions. It doesn’t matter that I’m HOPING to go out and get more fit. It doesn’t matter that I am doing 100 things I think might help my company.
What is the output? What have I done that shows something? Where’s the product?
Can I beg you to pause on this part a moment, too?
There are even damned quotes about this thing: The road to hell is paved with good intentions. We’ve heard it, right? Well, there’s a reason for every cliche out there.
Intentions are not enough. If you WANT to do something, who gives a flying? You have to take actions. You have to build a discipline of getting things done. Without results, you just have intentions.
(It is terrifying and sad how much of my life is measured in good intentions).
Does this resonate?
*I’m listening to (and reading, depending on where I am) the book Execution by Larry Bossidy and Ram Charan. It’s one of those “smack you in the face” books, and not particularly soft and touchy-feely like what I’ve been reading. I recommend the book and the audio. Use your library.
Tenacity
Evidently, my tenacity paid off. I’ve been hired into my new role as Senior Applications Engineer. I more-or-less wrote my own job description, and I love the new role. What do I do? I wrote my own mission statement, too: I’m here to help.
That means I help people (inside and outside the corporation) use our systems and applications. It means I teach, I draw, I write “stories.” It means I suggest usability and design improvements. It means a lot of fingers into a lot of pies. (Mmmm, pie).
But how did I get the role?
The take-home for anyone looking to improve their lot in life is this: make yourself useful. Volunteer. Do whatever you can. Take on challenging assignments. If people aren’t giving you such assignments, make up your own. Just keep the following three thoughts in mind:
*Can I do this?
*Can I do this and still do my day job?
*Am I doing this for the good of my organization (and not just me)?
Being useful means you have to have some kind of skill or ability that someone else needs. Don’t have any? Then learn, dammit. I am the library’s biggest fan, and I’m sure the librarians either hate me or appreciate just how much I make use of their system. I read voraciously. I study new things. I poke my nose in where it doesn’t belong. Why? Because, if I’m doing it with my three guiding points in mind, then I’m hopefully doing something to advance my organization’s goals.
Tenacity is sister to follow-through. I am NOT particularly well known for follow-through. That in mind, I make a real effort to make up for my failings. I think that’s what really paid off the most. With a few stumbling blocks along the way, I was able to deliver everything I signed up to deliver.
Don’t seek permission. Don’t wait around for someone to realize how amazing you are. Take steps to make things go the way you want them to go. And deliver something. It’s great to have lots of ideas, and want to be helpful. It’s way better that you actually get your hands dirty and help out.
But, like everything in life, everything in moderation. It’s great to be involved in lots of things, but this can tax your goals to do a few things very well. Focus on the wildly important. That’s a good way to set your course. Is what you’re trying to accomplish wildly important to yourself and to your organization.
Who else has found their way into a great role through their own sweat and hard work? Who’s done it with their fitness? Brag a little. Tell me about it, would you?
Running Schedule
SD, over at Scott’s Running, has a great concept for setting up his week of running training. In fact, I like it more than *gasp* Hal Higdon’s layout. I told him that if he just threw a mileage progression against it, people would follow his plan instead of Hal’s. : )
Habit
Do you know why habits are better than goals and plans and dreams and wishes? Because things are habits when you do them without even THINKING about them. That’s why Covey named the book that. He called them 7 HABITS because you’re supposed to practice them so often and so consistently that you do them without thinking. Our minds are built to handle this.
Ever drive home and forget to pay attention? You just show up somewhere and think, “Wow, I don’t really remember the details of getting here.” On smaller levels, there are lots of things our body does that way. You never really think about tying your shoes, and yet, robots have the WORST time doing that one thing.
With this in mind, I am going to commit to picking a few habits at a time to ingrain into my person. There are some self-improvements that I’ll work on at their basest level, until I don’t even think about them. They’ll just be the status quo.
I’ll start with some for my dietary habits, as those seem to have suffered lately. I’ll make a few rules and work them long enough that they become habits. One will be to resume the divided plate analogy.
Jorge Cruise used to tell folks in 8 Minutes in the Morning for Real Shapes and Real Sizes to take a standard 9″ dinner plate. Cut it in half, and then half again on one side. Use 1/2 the plate for veggies. Use 1/4 the plate for protein. Use 1/4 for carbs. Add a tablespoon of a good fat per meal, and that is the easiest meal plan to follow. He’s updated it a little for his new book (which I haven’t read). It now looks like this:
Well, I guess I understand the new picture, and the edit is to show us what typical proper portions should be. But, the analogy is weird, because I don’t really want to eat a Rubix Cube. But whatever. (Used without permission. No ownership implied).
I’ll try this for my first commitment to a habit. I’ll report back.
Have you built new habits into your lifestyle? What were they? How’d you get them to stick?
