Public communication, web 2.0, and all that

I'm not the most wired person out there, but I think I'm definitely above average. The web presents enormous opportunities to communicate with the general public and connect with people who have specific interests. This is very different from personal, one-on-one conversation, which I discussed in an earlier post. The idea of an interactive, user-defined internet is frequently called "Web 2.0."

I'll discuss some of my personal experiences with Web 2.0. (See Tim O'Reilly's article for an in-depth discussion of what Web 2.0 means.)

• Blogging
  Well, this here is a blog! Blogging is a great way for me to practice writing and expressing myself. If you're a really popular blogger like Tim Ferriss, you can have very lively conversations with your internet audience. No one really talks to me about my blog. Not that I really expect anyone to, given that I write about random topics of personal interest and make no effort to connect with a target audience. But if you want to communicate with people via blogging, you can definitely make that happen. Even if it's on a small scale like sharing infant photos with the family.
  I really like using Blogger because of the tags, anonymity, and free storage space.
  
• Facebook
  I like Facebook a lot. I will frequently double-post on Facebook and Blogger. I post on Facebook to let my friends know about a link I like. It's much less intrusive to do so via Facebook than via email. I also get faster feedback. When people log onto Facebook, they know consciously that they are having fun and blowing time. They are in the mood to respond. Facebook is viral in the sense that when people see one or two comments to a posted link, they themselves feel compelled to join in the discussion. In contrast, email is this awful catch-all for communication. My email is probably sandwiched in between a reminder about a meeting and a message from the boss. I also post on Blogger so that I can have a personal record for myself.
  The main difference between Facebook and other Web2.0 tools is the sophisticated privacy tools on Facebook. So depending on the user, Facebook is not as "open" as other platforms.
  
• Flickr
  Photography is only a minor hobby of mine, so I don't spend too much time on Flickr or not as much time as some people do. I use Flickr pretty much the same way I use Blogger, to keep personal records that happen to be public. The main reason I chose Flickr is the excellent interface for tagging and viewing photos.
  Sometimes I'll get some nice, unexpected comments on my (amateur) photographs. That's the magic of tagging and geotagging on Flickr. It's so easy for people to find photographs of a specific location or specific tag. Two of my photos have been chosen for the Schmap online travel guides. I think it's because I did such a detailed job of tagging my photos. There are probably better photos out there, but mine were easy to find. I'm glad to pitch in my bit to make Web 2.0 the great resource it is. Flickr allows me to explore other people's interests and photographic creativity. Many photos, including mine, are licensed under Creative Commons so they can be re-used for non-profit purposes. I'm not too familiar with the social aspects of Flickr, but it appears there's quite a community there. You can join all sorts of groups. I was asked to submit photo to a Sharpie pen group!
  
• Forums
  I'm a member of the ModSquadHockey forum and I used to hang out a lot in musical forums like Finishing the Chat and BroadwayWorld. Reading forums is a fantastic way to quickly acquire knowledge for a new hobby. I figured out how to pick my own hockey equipment and learned what theatregoers look for when they attend a play or musical. I'm still a member of the hockey forum because I really liked the atmosphere on the board (vigilant administrators are a must) and I periodically answer questions. I try to give back.
  
• Wiki
  Wikis can be interactive but not on the level of blogs, Facebook, Flickr, and forums. The interaction is with the members of the wiki who write and modify the contents of the wiki. My only experience so far is submitting reference cards to the Starting Strength Wiki. I did get a nice note from the Starting Strength Wiki administrator, praising my contribution. I'm interested in doing more with wikis but I haven't gotten around to it yet.

Weightlifting routine - October 2008

I'm making some impressive gains on my major lifts -- squat, deadlift, and bench press. I've been struggling to increase my press. The problem is that there are only 35 and 45 lb bars. I can do 35, but 45 is too much. One idea I'm going to try is putting ankle weights on the 35 lb bar, so I can go up in a smaller increment.

Some notes:

• I got rid of broomstick twists and replaced them with bicycle crunches
  
• I got rid of tricep extensions since triceps are covered in dips
  
• I'm going back to treadmill running as my cardio workout. I'm starting slowly to get my body used to running (15 minutes at 5.0 mph pace), so I don't get stitches all the time. I'm also trying to breathe deeply and inhale/exhale on my left foot.
  
• New notation: "w" means warmup set

Monday: Upper body and cardio
Tuesday: Legs
Wednesday: Core and cardio
Thursday: Upper body and cardio
Friday: Legs

Legs
Squat 3-4w,3x5 [90 lb]
Deadlift 3-4w,3x5 [95 lb]
Hip abduction 3x8 [52 lb]
Hip adduction 3x8 [52 lb]
Rotary hip [50 lb], all four directions, both legs 2x8
Seated calf raises 3x8 [112 lb]
Leg curl 3x8 [34 lb]
Leg raise 3x8 [body weight] or crunches 3x20 [body weight]

Upper body
Bench press 3-4w,3x5 [75 lb]
Press 2w,3x5 [35 lb]
Assisted dips 3x8 [body weight - 57.5 lb]
Barbell curl 3x8 [25 lb]
Barbell wrist curls 3x8 [12 lb]
Barbell reverse wrist curls 3x8 [9 lb]

Core
Pendlay rows 3x8 [45 lb]
Leg raises 3x8 [body weight]
Bicycle crunches 3x10 [body weight]
Back extension 3x8 [body weight + 5 lb]
Dumbbell shrug 3x8 [2 x 10 lb]

Weightlifting routine - September 2008

After reading Starting Strength, I made a number of changes to my workout.

• I'm doing five sets of five reps (5x5) for the heavy full body lifts (e.g. squat, press), so I can focus on learning form.
  
• Pendlay rows are a new exercise I'm using in substitution of the power cleans recommended in Starting Strength.
  
• I dropped pullups and lateral raises from my upper body program. There were too many exercises and I couldn't find a way to do assisted pullups with a full range-of-movement. My gym is not pullup-friendly to short women.
  
• Bicycle crunches are a core exercise, not a leg movement. However, I stuck them with the leg workout so I can get a bit more ab work in.
  
• I'm pretty lazy on the cardio right now -- 30 minutes on the elliptical machine. By lazy, I mean that I could do that workout half asleep. Maybe I should increase the resistance. Another idea is to try the rowing machine. Personally, I find it difficult to do an intense workout on an elliptical or cycling machine if there is no one to push you but yourself.

Monday: Upper body and cardio
Tuesday: Legs
Wednesday: Core and cardio
Thursday: Upper body and cardio
Friday: Legs

Legs
Squat 5x5 [45 lb]
Deadlift 5x5 [35 lb]
Hip abduction 3x8 [36 lb]
Hip adduction 3x8 [36 lb]
Rotary hip [50 lb], all four directions, both legs 2x8
Seated calf raises 3x8 [90 lb]
Leg curl 3x8 [36 lb]
Bicycle crunches 2x10 [body weight]

Upper body
Bench press 5x5 [45 lb]
Press 5x5 [15 lb]
Assisted dips 3x8 [-60 lb]
Tricep extensions with EZ bar 3x8 [20? lb]
Barbell curl 3x8 [25 lb]
Barbell wrist curls 3x8 [9 lb]
Barbell reverse wrist curls 3x8 [6 lb]

Core
Pendlay rows 5x5 [25 lb]
Leg raises 3x8 [body weight]
Broomstick twists 3x8 [body weight]
Back extension 3x8 [body weight]
Dumbbell shrug 3x8 [2 x 7.5 lb]

Rippetoe/Kilgore notes on the press

The Press

Start position
Grip the bar just outside of shoulder width, such that the forearms are vertical. Place your thumbs around the bar with the weight as close to the heel of the hand as possible. Rotate the elbows forward so that they are in front of the bar and pull the shoulders forward so that the bar rests on the deltoid or chest. Your stance should be 10-12 inches between the heels.

Look straight ahead and at the wall. Lift the chest, take a deep breath, and hold it during the entire rep. Lean back slightly.

Movement
Drive the bar over your head. To lockout, straighten your elbows and shrug your shoulders up. As soon as the bar crosses the top of your forehead, move your torso forward under the bar and lockout. At lockout, the bar should be behind the neck.

Key points
Don't let the shoulders slide forward during the movement. Keep the shoulder blades retracted and tight. Keep the bar close to the shoulder at all times. Visualize pushing the bar by your face, scraping the nose. Keep your body in a tight, squeezed column. Squeeze the abs to maintain the tight column.

You can also get this information in a 3" x 5" press quick reference card.

Rippetoe/Kilgore notes on the bench press

The bench press

Start position
Always start with the empty bar for the first set. When you lie down and look ahead, your eyes should be on the foot side of the bar. Use a medium wide grip. Place the bar in the heel of hand, away from the fingers. Wrap your thumbs around the bar. The fingers should be perpendicular to the bar when it is gripped. Lift the chest and pinch the shoulder blades.

The entire foot should be in contact with the floor. The width between the feet should be somewhat wide. The shins should be vertical to the floor, with the legs bent close to a 90 degree angle. Push with the feet horizontally along the bench to support your body and to lift your chest.

Movement
To unrack, push the bar up, locking out at the elbows. With the elbows locked, move the bar out to the position above the nipples. The forearms should be vertical to floor.

Keep the chest high by arching the upper back. The lower back should be in the air. Tighten the neck by holding your head half an inch over the bench. Keep the upper body and shoulders tight as you lower the bar to store elastic energy. Touch the bar to your chest barely, don't bounce. Inhale at the beginning of rep, hold your breath during the rep, and exhale at lockout. Finish the last rep to elbow lockout straight up, *then* rack the bar.

Key points
Keep a tight grip, don't allow the bar to roll in your hands. Your chest should be tight enough that you can't breathe during the rep. Focus your eyes on the ceiling. Use the ceiling as a fixed reference point for the path of the bar.

During the lift, the shoulders should stay in position on the bench, and the forearms should stay vertical to the floor. The angle between the upper arms and torso should stay the same during the movement. Don't shrug the shoulders on lockout.

You can also get this information in a 3" x 5" bench press quick reference card.

Rippetoe/Kilgore notes on the deadlift

The Deadlift

Start position
Take a stance that is vertical jump width. The bar should be placed over the mid-foot, 2-3 inches away from shins. Take a grip just outside the legs so your arms clear your body. Use a double overhand grip if possible. The hands should grip the bar such that the bar is at the place where the fingers join the palm. Bend your knees so the shins touch the bar. Your scapula should be over the bar so that your shoulders are forward of the bar. Arch your lower back and lift the chest. The elbows should be completely straight.

Movement
Squeeze the chest and pull the bar up along the skin of the shins and thighs. Each rep should start from a dead stop. At the top of the pull, lift the chest and pull the shoulders back. At lockout, the hips and knees should be fully extended, shoulders back, and eyes looking straight forward. (But don't exaggerate the shoulder pull and back arching.) As you set the bar down, lift your chest and arch your back.

The going down phase should be faster than the going up phase. Deload on each rep.

Key points
As you go up, the knee angle changes first. The angle of the back with the floor doesn't change until the bar passes the knees.

The back angle depends on your personal body shape. Long torso, short legs give a more vertical back angle and vice versa.

You can also get this information in a 3" x 5" deadlift quick reference card.

Rippetoe/Kilgore notes on the squat

The Squat

Start position
Set the rack height so the bar is at mid-sternum. Stand with your heels shoulder width apart, toes pointed out at 30 degrees. Carry the bar on top of the posterior deltoids ("low bar position"). Hold the bar with a narrow grip (elbows in). Keep the thumbs on top of the bar. The wrists should be in a neutral position. After lifting the bar out of the rack, secure your position by lifting the elbows and lifting the chest simultaneously. Tighten the shoulders and torso.

Movement
While squatting, look down at a spot on floor about six feet in front of you. Squat to full depth (below parallel). The bar should stay centered over the mid-foot. Keep your back arched during the movement.

As you go down, the knees should stay in a parallel line with the feet. Keep your muscles tight so you store elastic energy. That means don't go down too fast. Bounce out of the bottom of the squat by bouncing off the hamstrings and adductors, not the quads. As you go up, drive your butt straight up in air (up, not forward). You are using the hips to drive out from the bottom. The hips and shoulders should rise at same pace.

Key points
The angle of the back in relation to the floor is determined by keeping the weight of the bar centered over the mid-foot. Keep tension on the posterior chain as you squat.

Do not allow the knees to travel forward as you go up. Do not allow the knees to collapse inward at any time. Make all knee travel occur in first half of descent.

You can also get this information in a 3" x 5" squat quick reference card.

Starting Strength by Mark Rippetoe and Lon Kilgore

Many people on the internet have recommended the book Starting Strength by Mark Rippetoe and Lon Kilgore. I recently bought and read the book. It is a beautifully written, carefully researched, and meticulous in all aspects of barbell lifting technique. The book covers the main, full-body lifts including the squat, deadlift, bench press, (overhead) press, and power clean. Starting Strength answers almost any question you can think of including biomechanics, head position while lifting, breathing, equipment, why the lifts in the book are the most efficient for building strength, etc. I wish more people would write books like this, to explain the technical aspects of other sports (for instance, ice skating), but most people probably don't have the brain and if they did, they would rather spend the time coaching and making more money as opposed to publishing a book.

I won't go through the contents of the book (if you're serious at all about weightlifting, you should read it), but I note some surprising and interesting things I learned.

• You bounce off the bottom of the squat by bouncing off your adductors and hamstrings, not your quads. This technique protects your knees.
  
• You ascend from the bottom of the squat by driving your hips (a cue for this is "driving your butt up"). This technique keeps the tension on your hamstrings and also protects your knees.
  
• You use a thumbless grip (thumb on top of bar) in squat to keep your wrist neutral. Up until now, I used a thumbs-around-bar grip. You can get away with the thumbs-around-bar grip for a while, but unless you want to kill your wrist, it won't work for heavier weights. There is absolutely no need to use a thumbs-around-bar grip because you are supporting the bar on the back muscles. Your arms just hold the bar in place.
  
• Hold your breath for entire rep (for the squat and deadlift). Holding your breath extends and protects your spine during heavy lifting.
  
• I had no idea that the press was a good upper-body lift. I hardly ever see anyone do overhead lifts with barbells. Most people use dumbbells.
  
• I learned about the glute-ham raise. Unfortunately, most gyms don't have a glute-ham bench. One can do a glute-ham raise on the floor, but Mark Rippetoe doesn't like it because this so-called "natural" glute-ham raise is basically only the upper-half of the raise done on the glute-ham bench. A raise on the glute-ham bench will involve multiple joints and body parts (half the movement looks like a back extension and the other half is the "natural" glute-ham raise), so Rippetoe thinks it's a better exercise.

I note some supplemental resources to the book. Mark Rippetoe (the man himself!) does a little digital coaching in a Q&A forum at Strength Mill. There is also a nice wiki based on the book called Starting Strength Wiki. It includes the bodybuilding.com forum FAQ on Starting Strength and a collection of short instructional videos, some starring Mark Rippetoe.

Gym update - July 2008

I've successfully kept up my five-day-a-week gym habit for the past six weeks. However, I have made a few adjustments to my routine.

I have a previous knee injury and have been told that squats are bad for your knees. Yet everyone says that squats are probably the number one weightlifting exercise. It's a full body movement, a very natural movement (we squat all the time in our daily lives or we should, instead of relying on our backs), and it works the entire lower body. I've been doing super-slow reps, which I think are bad on my knees. So I've switched to doing my squat reps at a regular pace. The current routine is to do one warmup squat set at 25 lb and then two regular sets at 45 lb (bar).

I also have a previous tendonitis injury (mostly in the wrists). Somewhere around the fourth week of my gym habit, I started feeling pain in my wrists. So I bought gloves with wrist wrap to stabilize my wrists and I watch my form more carefully on upper body exercises, especially bicep curls and benchpressing.

I've eliminate dumbbell flys from my upper body routine and have replaced them with dips. I think that full body movements are better than isolation exercises. Between doing three full upper body exercises -- benchpress, assisted pull-ups, assisted dips -- I work out my chest heavily, so I don't need to do flys. My current routine for assisted dips: Dips 3x8 [-75 lb]. The notation means 3 sets with 8 reps, 75 pounds less than my body weight.

I've increased my weight in a few exercises:
+5 lb, Rotary hip [42.5 lb], all four directions, both legs 2x8
+4 lb, Calf raises 3x8 [79 lb]
+12.5 lb, Back extension 3x8 [50 lb]

I find it really difficult to do a run anytime other than before breakfast. My stomach gets unsettled easily with the bouncing that comes with running. Originally, I had planned to run three times a week, on Monday, Wednesday, and Thursday. I've cut out Thursday now because I have hockey games those nights. Maybe running would be good for my hockey game. I'm not sure.

The streak board

I started a five-day-a-week gym habit about a month ago. To inspire myself, I bought a piece of foam poster board and write a mark for everyday I went to the gym. The idea is to not break the streak. I read about this idea in a Lifehacker post. Apparently, Seinfeld wanted to improve his comedy skills and decided that he should write new jokes everyday. To pressure himself to keep up the habit, he bought a big wall calendar. He would draw a big "X" on each day that he completed his habit. The positive motivation was to make the chain bigger and bigger; the negative motivation was not to break the chain.

I call it the streak, rather than the chain. It really helped for the first three weeks of the habit. I've kind of gotten used to going to the gym now, but on that one slow day of the week when I don't really know, I think of my streak and that helps push me to go to the gym even though I don't feel motivated. I don't want to break the streak!

Here are a couple photos. Notice I don't use the standard tally where you draw four vertical lines and then complete the tally with a diagonal slash across the vertical lines. I use the Chinese method which is to write a 正 character, stroke by stroke. It looks nicer and it's easier to track of where you are when you tally for a long time.


You can see that I've kept up my gym habit for five weeks, the start date being June 17th, 2008. The missing mark in the third week is because the gym was closed on the Fourth of July.

Gym program

My current gym program is the following.

Monday: Legs and Core
Tuesday: Run on treadmill
Wednesday: Upper body and Core
Thursday: Run on treadmill
Friday: Legs and Upper body

Legs
Squat 3x8 [25 lb]
Deadlift 3x8 [25 lb]
Leg curl 3x8 [37.5 lb]
Calf raises 3x8 [75 lb]
Hip abduction 3x8 [25 lb]
Hip adduction 3x8 [25 lb]
Rotary hip [37.5 lb], all four directions, both legs 2x8

Upper body
Bench press 3x8 [45 lb]
Dumbbell flys 3x8 [2 x 5 lb]
Assisted pullups 3x8 [-60 lb]
Tricep pushdowns on cable [setting 4]
Bicep/hammer curl 3x8 [2 x 10 lb]
Dumbbell press 3x8 [2 x 5 lb]
Lateral raise 3x8 [10 lb]
Wrist curls 3x8 [2 x 3 lb]
Reverse wrist curls 3x8 [2 x 3 lb]

Core
Leg raises 3x8 [body weight]
Trunk rotation 3x8 [37.5 lb]
Lateral pull down 3x8 [37.5 lb]
Seated row 3x8 [25 lb]
Back extension 3x8 [37.5 lb]
Dumbbell shrug 3x8 [2 x 7.5 lb]

Bicycle crunch 3x? [body weight]

I always fail on Friday, because I don't want to be in the gym for 2.5 hours lifting both legs and upper body. The current schedule is really hard because I lift for anywhere between 1.5-2 hours on alternate days and run just 15 minutes on the intervening days.

To even things up, I'm changing to the following schedule.

Monday: Upper body and treadmill
Tuesday: Legs and bicycle crunch
Wednesday: Core and treadmill
Thursday: Upper body and treadmill
Friday: Legs and bicycle crunch

By changing from a three-day split to a five-day split, I can do 1.25 hours each day, which will hopefully make for a happier workout!