nfolkert
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nfolkert

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Feats Completed
- The Feralicious Challenge:
- 9.) Squats!
- 5.) Push Ups!
- 4.) Cardio, Unplugged
- 1.) General Exercise
- 7.) Pull Ups
- 6.) Sit Ups
- 8.) Dips!
- 2.) Eat Wild
- D.I.Y. Feral!
- 3.) Ritual and Rhythm
See all feats for The Feralicious Challenge
- Social Workout Challenge: New Years Edition:
- Home Workout
- The One Thousands
- Sleep Log
- Plant Friendly
- Stand Up
- D.I.Y. Feat
- Jan Plan Plus
- Sun Salutes
- Home Food
- Go Fish
See all feats for Social Workout Challenge: New Years Edition
- Emergency Holiday Challenge:
- Last Run
- Family Oriented
- Walking on Christmas
See all feats for Emergency Holiday Challenge
- Eat. Sweat. Blog.:
- Smoothiest
- Brown Bagger
- SW-e-AT
- Juice fast
- Lo-gloo
- Unsweetened
- Localvore
- Flog
- Brightly Colored
- Raw food day
See all feats for Eat. Sweat. Blog.
- Other Feats:
- Cartwheel
- Alt.Healthy.Fast
- Plank Personal
- Hula Hoop
- Sleep Discipline Six-by-Six-Thirty
- Bench Your Weight
- Wheel Pose
- Juggle
- Sing
- Jump Rope - One Minute with Five Crossies
- Pushups
- Half Mile Swim
- Mile Run
- 2009 Feats of Summer 50 Workout Challenge
- Group Fitness Class Sampler
- Chinups
- Headstand
- Situps
- Free Throws
- Handstand by 20
See all feats
I just did 60 more minutes of Weightlifting, Circuit Training & CrossFit!
I just did 60 more minutes of Weightlifting, Circuit Training & CrossFit!
I just did 30 more minutes of Weightlifting, Circuit Training & CrossFit!
I just did 20 more minutes of Weightlifting, Circuit Training & CrossFit!
I just did 40 more minutes of Weightlifting, Circuit Training & CrossFit!
I just did 40 more minutes of Weightlifting, Circuit Training & CrossFit!
I just did 60 more minutes of Weightlifting, Circuit Training & CrossFit!
I just did 60 more minutes of Yoga, Meditation, Chanting!
I just did 50 more minutes of Weightlifting, Circuit Training & CrossFit!
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Workout
Long Time No Blog
Hey Social Workout! Sorry it's been so long since I last blogged. I've been diligently logging my workout minutes, but between my move, my wedding planning, and my other summer responsibilities (such as being captain of our charity kickball team), I haven't had the focus to maintain my exercise journaling.
Place:
Crunch - Park Slope
Workout
An Update
Without specific feats to complete or required blogs to write, I've been quietly logging my minutes this month. I was a little discouraged for a while because of a neck injury, followed by some legal issues I had to attend to, but now I'm back at the gym and starting to readjust to heavy lifting in the mornings.
Place:
Crunch - Park Slope
Workout
Warehouse Parties, Hoop Tricks, Barefoot Walks, and Pulled Traps
With princessmichelle out-of-state for the weekend, I was responsible for my own fitness plan. Because we'd been to the gym Thursday evening, I missed my usual Friday morning workout.
Workout
Exercise in Absentia
I began the Million Minute Month challenge from San Francisco, where I was visiting for work. I managed a modest start, getting in weightlifting workouts most mornings and jog or long walks around town, and I even discovered a hitherto unknown 24 Hour Fitness near Fisherman's Wharf that was much more convenient to my North Beach hostel than the Crunch on Polk Street.
Place:
Crunch - Park Slope
Workout
The Mayor of Park Slope Crunch Redux
While this morning's workout was performed in the morning-after haze of Passover wine, it was not a complete wash, as I finally regained mayorship of Crunch Park Slope -- which I'd considered but rejected as a DIY feat idea -- on the final day of the Feralicious challenge.
Place:
Crunch - Park Slope
Workout
Extension
Today's workout was brutal on my upper body extension muscles -- pecs, delts, and tris. I went to maximum on close-grip decline press, and did many sets to failure on lateral raises and triceps extensions. For my core I did saxon side bends and dumbbell side bends. I decided to give my calves and legs a rest today, but I'll be back to working them tomorrow.
Place:
Crunch - Park Slope
Workout
Feral Finish
After my twentieth two-minute set of jump rope between weights this morning, I was starting to think that my finale was not very feralicious. Just because the weather in Brooklyn was getting me down was no reason I should be bored silly by repeatedly hopping over a rope in the empty yoga studio at Crunch while staring at myself bouncing in the mirror.
Place:
Crunch - Park Slope
Workout
Leg Day
Today was a leg heavy day, pairing calf raises with leg presses up to my max on both (well above my max on the leg presses, actually -- once I got above 500 pounds I started doing partials instead). I also did seated military presses, pullover presses, and bent-over rows.
Place:
Crunch - Park Slope
Workout
Short Run
Was going to do a lap around the park today, but I missed my chance and ended up doing a run out to the Scooter Bottega instead, where my scooter was being inspected. It's only about two miles or so, so I'm guessing I'll end up doing something else tonight, or conserving my energy for something big tomorrow.
Workout
Forgotten Workout from Yesterday
Yesterday I completed my cardio sprints, but I still have some regular cardio to do. I have not recorded any of it on my feat page because I'm afraid of entering numbers in the wrong units and accidentally prematurely accompli-ing it. I also weightlifted: bench press to max followed by partial bench press, barbell shrugs, biceps curls and triceps pushdowns.
Place:
Crunch - Park Slope
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The user hasn't yet posted any reviews.
Yikes! A million minutes is a lot of minutes. If we averaged 67 workouts a day for the last 31 days, even at 60 minutes a workout we only have about 125,000 minutes. We'll need to get some friends to join the challenge if we want to increase that by 700%. Two weeks to recruit, people! Either that or we have to start working out eight hours a day! I guess I could be down for that, too. :)
Posted in response to: The Challenge Is Over, Long Live the Challenge
on 12 years 15 weeks ago by nfolkert
Hey, I post a workout every time I work out. You need a better way to account for us meathead idiots who hit the gym more than once a day.
Posted in response to: The Most Feralicous
on 12 years 15 weeks ago by nfolkert
You are right. I sometimes recycle the same workout clothes all week. But then, I'm usually just lifting weights.
Posted in response to: Emily Wishes She Were a Lady GaGa Backup Dancer
on 12 years 15 weeks ago by nfolkert
I wonder what you would look like with very short hair. It might be worth trying it out, just for ease of jump roping.
Posted in response to: Gym Workout With Jump Rope
on 12 years 15 weeks ago by nfolkert
Looks like it works if I break it up. See the comments I added on the original post.
Posted in response to: Two Down (or is that three??)
on 12 years 15 weeks ago by nfolkert
Looks like it all goes through if I break it up. Who knew?
Posted in response to: Achieving a Pull Up - "It's all in your head"
on 12 years 15 weeks ago by nfolkert
3: Again, most of what I've seen on this point is from various weightlifting sites. e.g.:
http://www.bodybuilding.com/fun/goulet4.htm
http://www.sportsnutritionguide.net/other-articles/the_body_building_wei...
In the academic research, I also found some support for these claims:
http://bjsportmed.com/content/early/2008/11/03/bjsm.2008.051417.abstract
There are also more speculative but interesting claims related to eccentric contractions such as those of Tim Ferriss and the Colorado Experiment. See:
http://www.fourhourworkweek.com/blog/2007/04/29/from-geek-to-freak-how-i...
http://www.bodybuildingfanatic.com/coloradoexperiment.htm
Posted in response to: Achieving a Pull Up - "It's all in your head"
on 12 years 15 weeks ago by nfolkert
2: Most of the stuff I've seen on this point is from weightlifting sites and forums. e.g.:
http://www.gain-weight-muscle-fast.com/rep-ranges.html
http://wiki.answers.com/Q/How_does_muscle_develop
Aspects of these claims do seem to be supported by academic research:
http://www.springerlink.com/content/t96qmxyaa7x7le0c/
Posted in response to: Achieving a Pull Up - "It's all in your head"
on 12 years 15 weeks ago by nfolkert
1: The work most people cite on this point is "Neural Adaptation to Resistance Training" by Digby Sales of McMasters in Canada (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/3057313). It is not available for free online, so I haven't read anything but the abstract. It's reproduced in the book "Strength and Power in Sport" (http://books.google.com/books?id=qScBYCPbWkcC), which I want to check out sometime. Other promising papers on the subject:
http://www.springerlink.com/content/46q5w4vlvq8k46m0
http://www.ismni.org/jmni/pdf/16/14AAGAARD.pdf (free)
http://ep.physoc.org/content/74/3/233.full.pdf (free)
Lots of websites also reiterate the claim. e.g.:
http://www.corexcel.com/courses3/html/body_exercise_physiology_page8.html
http://www.exercisebiology.com/index.php/site/articles/why_you_should_no...
Posted in response to: Achieving a Pull Up - "It's all in your head"
on 12 years 15 weeks ago by nfolkert
Mr. Mohawk wants citations. As noted in the caveat, my knowledge in this area is entirely taken from internet research, so the quality of sources can be quite suspect.
There are three parts to my theory:
- There is a neural adaptation component to strength that precedes significant muscular hypertrophy
- Training at or near your 1RM is the best way to achieve rapid neural adaptation
- Including a focus on the eccentric contraction part of the movement improves strength gains
My post was largely repeated from memory, so I had to do a quick survey of internet sites and papers from google scholar, many of which I'd seen before but some of which were new to me, that support these points. Obviously this process is highly selective, so keep that in mind. Here is what I found for each of the above points:
Posted in response to: Achieving a Pull Up - "It's all in your head"
on 12 years 15 weeks ago by nfolkert
Something very strange is going on. I am trying to post some citations as per Mr. Mohawk's request, but SW has not let me post either directly or by comment. I'll try breaking it up into multiple comments here.
Posted in response to: Achieving a Pull Up - "It's all in your head"
on 12 years 15 weeks ago by nfolkert
I've tried posting as both a comment and as a general post, but both are failing for me right now. I'll try again in a bit.
Posted in response to: Two Down (or is that three??)
on 12 years 15 weeks ago by nfolkert
I'll add some links in a comment on the original article. It'll be a minute...
Posted in response to: Two Down (or is that three??)
on 12 years 15 weeks ago by nfolkert
Someone should open a naked gym. I bet they have them in Europe.
Posted in response to: naked gym?
on 12 years 15 weeks ago by nfolkert
Cumin is quite possibly my favorite spice. Maybe after salt. Either way, I feel it is grossly under-appreciated. If I ever motivate to eat my vegetables any manner other than raw, I'll see if I can't replicate.
Posted in response to: Beets and Tomatoes with Cumin
on 12 years 15 weeks ago by nfolkert
Woo hoo!
Posted in response to: I did a DIP! A real DIP! An actual, non-weight-assisted DIP!!!!!!
on 12 years 16 weeks ago by nfolkert
I usually don't stretch or do a light warm up unless I'm very stiff, in which case I probably wouldn't be hitting whatever exercise I'm thinking about too hard anyway. Maybe I'll do one set at around 50% ORM, but typically I'll start in the 75-80% and then add weight incrementally depending on how muscular I'm feeling. As a rule of thumb, I start 10-20 pounds lower than the highest set I was able to achieve 5 reps, and then proceed upward, doing a couple sets at 5 reps, and then moving into the range where I can't do 5.
Posted in response to: Very brief workout post
on 12 years 16 weeks ago by nfolkert
Hey, I'm not going to do your work for you!
Some sites on the web suggest that significant muscular hypertrophy cannot happen until after full neural adaptation. Hypertrophy is thought to be a response to damage to muscle fibers caused by resistance training. It would follow, then, that if you have not achieved full neural adaptation, you would not be significantly damaging your muscles.
That said, one could point to contrary evidence to this theory in that we get plenty sore doing many reps at a low load, especially when just starting out a new exercise routine. So either that soreness is caused by something else (or perhaps a different kind of muscle damage), or something else is going on here. Either way, I wouldn't get too discouraged after just the first day, and if you're not sore at all, go and do some more, and try to keep pushing that max up.
Posted in response to: Am I stronger than this?
on 12 years 16 weeks ago by nfolkert
@Llaves Based on my limited experience I'd say, unfortunately, no. Though it has power lifting gear, it is primarily a CrossFit gym, which, based on my similarly limited exposure to CrossFit, does not seem to attract old-school over-testosteronated muscleheads, but rather more well-rounded athletes. So it's probably not going to be quite as '70s as you'd hope.
Posted in response to: Brooklyn Barbell Club
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on 12 years 12 weeks ago by nfolkert