bounce

[fivemack]

After about a month's hiatus, I managed to get myself back to the gym today after work, and back into what had become my standard pattern - twenty minutes on the stepping machine, ten minutes on the rowing machine since it's so boring a movement that I can stand it no longer, a few dozen sit-ups, and a while spent waving fairly light weights around (traditional up-to-shoulder, ears-to-above-head, and, with straight arms, in the three possible permutations waist-to-in-front-of-eyes, in-front-of-eyes to parallel-with-shoulders, and parallel-with-shoulders to waist).

I've no idea if these are sensible exercises to do if my goal is to be able to hold onto hand-holds on the climbing wall, but I'm sure some of my readers know better.

Then to the pub, to counteract this mild virtue with a hot Thai curry; met up with uisgebeatha, cartesiandaemon and others, and followed them to Emmanuel for a ceilidh. Apparently there are ceilidhs weekly in Cambridge during term-time, which I would have loved to have known earlier, and which atreic would happily have told me several years ago had only I thought to ask; this was the last one of them this term, next is 7th October.

In the afternoon I wandered out of work for an hour and cycled up to Comlab for the Intel Research open day; http://www.intel-research.net/cambridge/research_areas.asp gives some idea of what was presented. The posters had the normal problem of targetting an audience already sure that all its problems would be solved by efficient attachment of InGaAlAs ring oscillators to an epitaxial GaAs base, or adaptive tuning of packet characterisation trees, or the ability to express network specifications in a formal logic denser with extra fonts and multi-directional arrows even than the usual; but I hadn't realised how much I missed talking to enthusiastic grad students, and the multi-disciplinary overload that that kind of cluster of presentations provides.

Comments

[fjm.livejournal.com]

You need to start with the lat pull down, and add in rotator cuff exercises with small weights.

rotator cuff: hold arms out so 90 degree angle at elbow (hands pointing up, palms flat). Rotate from elbow so palms face floor. Repeat holding weights.

[fivemack.livejournal.com]

Thanks for the information. The rotator cuff exercise (practising at my desk, to the intense amusement of my colleagues) makes my shoulder tire quite quickly and emit a variety of quiet clicks and pops, which is probably a sign that it's Good For Me ... the sit-ups used to make my stomach muscles uncomfortable for days after, but practice has made them much less painful.

The lat pull-down is the thing that made my elbows hurt for a week when I tried it last time, which presumably means I was doing it wrong; how far down am I supposed to aim to pull the handles, and should I be sitting with my thighs held down by the padded thigh-holding-down bar when I do this?

[fjm.livejournal.com]

Ok; lat pull down.

Sit with your feet flat and your back leaning back *slightly*. (ignore pads, they are for lifting huge weights) Start with weight fairly light and don't put it up until you feel secure on technique. Puill down so your elbows are making a right angle. Allow to return only half way to full extension. Try to do each movement to a count of three, Concentrate on breahting out when you pull downb as core is really important to this one.

Instead of sit ups do the plank. Kneel in front of large blow up ball. with palms facing upward, place back of arms *(from elbow to palm) on the ball. Push up onto your toes. Pull in stomach as tight as you can while keeping hips about level with shoulders.

[feel like an idiot and fall off]

When you can do this to a count of twenty let me know and I'll give you the next stage. It'sd much more effective than crunches.

[atreic.livejournal.com]

To clarify, (although most things you need to know are on the Round website) the Round meets once a week in termtime, on Thursdays at Wesley church, for dancing to CD music. It's a bit smaller and quieter and more relaxed than a ceilidh, but basically the same thing. Then they organise three or so big ceilidhs a term, usually on Saturdays, details here. Over summer they don't shut down completely, but still dance on Thursdays to cd music in a smaller group,in a location decided by the chat list but that is often someone's garden or Jesus Green. They also often organise trips to big ceilidhs in London, St Albans, etc. ("organise" in as much as they say "there is a ceilidh here, it will cost this much, who wants a space in my car?")

Other things worth knowing about include the Reel Club, who do Scottish stuff instead of English stuff.

PS

[atreic.livejournal.com]

Contra is, IMHO, the best sort of folk dancing ever, and they are still meeting for July and September, being mainly Old Gits instead of students.

[atreic.livejournal.com]

I've heard people (maybe arnhem?) say that powerballs are the way to exercise for climbing; regardless of whether it's true or not they're very portable, a cool geek toy, and at least some people beleave they're good at combating RSI.

[sphyg.livejournal.com]

Walking along the river is much less boring than the gym.

[fivemack.livejournal.com]

That is as maybe (though I find that doing the same walk repeatedly gets reasonably dull reasonably quickly); but walking along the river exercises my legs, which get exercise enough from my cycling habit, whilst my sedentary lifestyle means my arms and torso would waste away if not regularly and copiously refilled with chocolate cake.

[sphyg.livejournal.com]

I recommend dumbells and sit-ups in front of the TV. And there are plenty of other walks around Cambridge.