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.

[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.

[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.