First Gym Characters Post

This is the First Gym Characters post

First Fitness and Sports Post

This is the first fitness and sports post

Arthritis Sufferers Can Get By

I never gave anybody slack when at my athletic peak. If you were able to exercise, I reasoned you should give it your all. Now that I’m riddled with shoulder and severe hip arthritis, my attitude has changed. What a wimp! No longer able to do sprints, I am forced to the StairMaster and stationary bike for cardio-vascular conditioning. When I feel guilty for being hard on seniors when I was arthritis free I’ll try the jump-rope, but can only last for ten intermittent minutes. No one should give me any slack either, but I’m still getting by. My hope is that I’ll be six feet under before I ever have artificial limbs.

My breathing difficulties as a result of my service on 9/11/2001 and twenty years in the fire department have stabilized, and when I use the the stair-stepper and bike, I push to 70-80% maximum heart rate once a week, if possible. Intensity is everything, so I continue to set goals. Interval work and pitting myself against another nearby gym member assists me in my progressions. Thirty to forty minutes of cardio is a must before I attempt resistive exercise after stretching.

Compound moves are out with heavy weights and I’m more of a machine guy to deal with the pain, but my physique remains status quo and my range of motion has increased, if anything. Sometimes I dread the gym, but understand that my mood and joints will be rigid if I don’t make the required appearance. I’m praying science comes up with a non-invasive cure for arthritis, but for now I’m certain there are no vitamins you can ingest to regenerate your cartilage.

My remedy is to give myself no slack and continue a steady routine at the gym three to four times a week. I’ve found that Aleve works best for me to tolerate the increasing pain. There are always alternatives to modification of the exercises you are most comfortable with. I’ll be writing more on specific routines you can do for maximum results if an arthritic sufferer. For now, keep up the hard work and “never say die.”

The Absolute Jump Rope Workout

The beauty of jumping rope is that you can do it everywhere. Using this simple and easy-to-pack cardio piece should be an essential for your regimen, if you don’t get bored with it. As a professional boxer, I used the rope almost daily, but even as a kid I developed a fondness for making a piece of twang sing. In my twenty years as a fitness class instructor, it was the hour I dreaded teaching most because it was non-stop effort. This exercise encompasses the entire body and will help you attain that lean muscular athletic physique we all desire.

I am going to describe how I taught my class, and hope you can find some success and fun with it. Shake out the body by throwing lefts and rights while you bob and weave and slip imaginary punches. Move around like you’re evading and stalking an imaginary opponent. Think of somebody you dislike if that helps. Throw left-right hook, and duck and jab. Keep the shakeout going until you break a sweat, and then stretch your entire physique. Add some push-ups during the warm-up, which should be five minutes minimum.

Grab your rope (I recommend you buy the Reilly rope with the weighted handles …. PoweRope Jump Rope or Lifeline Heavy Weighted Speed Jump Rope …. which is available for purchase via ) and begin skipping in place. Skip for ten seconds and punch for ten seconds. Move after you throw a combination because your opponent will never remain stationary (free advice). After five minutes of this action stretch the calves, because they will be tight, and we are ready to begin.

We will skip for three minutes, which is about the length of a song (essential to have upbeat music) and move in and out and side to side while skipping. After the three minutes, we pick up the rope and hold it tight in both hands above the head. Twist your torso as far as your body permits to the left and right. This really hits the obliques and works the shoulders and abdominals. After a minute we begin a shuffle skip (think Ali shuffle with the rope) for three minutes, then lay the rope on the floor in a U-shape. For a minute you move around the rope, like a fighter, and throw punching combinations (left-right hook, uppercut right hook, double left hook, right hook, etc.) Be creative, it’s your workout.

The next round of skipping is a jumping jack and cross the leg jumping jack while skipping the rope. Following this, you will hold the rope tight overhead and bend side to side to once again work your core strength. After a minute it will be another three of skipping while jumping side to side. The routine gets more difficult because after putting the rope on the floor, you will jump in and out of the rope on both sides as high as you can. When sixty seconds is finished, we begin three minutes of shuffle skips while doubling them up. Sixty seconds of wide grip push-ups follow, and then three minutes of double jumping jack skipping, both straight legged and crossed. One minute of leg-raises come next, and we finish with three minutes of sprint skip intervals (fast as you can, for three minutes skip for thirty seconds and slow for thirty). Once again, for three minutes we will hold the rope tight over our head and bend to the floor and jump as high as you can.

The cool down consists of one round of shadow boxing and finish with abdominal work and stretching. As you progress with your routine and gain strength and stamina, you can add stagger skipping to the different varieties listed above:

1. Two-legged skip
2. Running skip
3. Crossover skip (jumping jack crossing legs)
4. Double hop
5. Stagger skips
6. Shuffle skip

Self Named Buzz Bissinger Disses Jimmer Fredette

I was never able to make it big in sports, but gave it my best shot. After signing a contract with the N.Y. Giants in 1978, I was let go in the pre-season. My professional boxing career ended up with a winning ledger, but I never fought a main event. The injuries and aches continue to linger, but I can’t complain. A lot of individuals are worse off than I am. What ticks me off the most in this world is the non-athlete commenting on those who commit themselves to excellence.

This brings me to Pulitzer Prize winner, Harry Gerard Bissinger. This was the name given him by his parents, but he decided to change it to “Buzz” for some reason only he can explain. I googled his athletic career, but found nothing of significance. He may have been a baseball card collector like Keith Olbermann, but there wasn’t any mention of athletic competition. His article got my attention because he states that Jimmer Fredette is popular as a basketball player because he is white. This coming from a man who never trained seriously for athletic competition and has never faced Jimmer Fredette on the hardwood. The fact this kid has sweated and trained passionately countless hours to hone his skill and be the best he can be had no standing with “Buzz.” For a man who claims to judge individuals by the content of their character to bring up the skin color of a fantastic athlete is horrendous. Bissinger digs deeper into Fredette’s skin by saying he is only 6′2″ and doesn’t have the quickness or penetration to make it in the N.B.A. He lambasts Brigham Young’s best by claiming his three point attempts are nothing but heaves.

The “Daily Beast” writer also unleashed on CBS announcer, Bill Raftery, for commending Fredette’s play, calling it gibberish white man’s rap. Bissinger demands an “A” for the big words he musters for his gibberish, err, I mean columns. The only compliment he bestows on Jimmer is that he is a “thick necked Tea Party poster boy.” I’m investigating if he said this to Jimmer Fredette in person. A little free advice for you “BUZZ,” never say something about anyone unless you would say it to that individual in the flesh. The prize winner continues with impunity, and declares that announcers all give Jimmer the stereotypical white attributes of toughness and fearlessness. All good athletes have those attributes to go with strength, courage and desire, Big Bad Buzz.

Jimmer Fredette doesn’t know race, Bissinger. He is an individual who has put in sacrifices a non-athlete like yourself could never imagine. Blood, sweat, tears, aches and pain that make a jealous writer who never got chosen for a pick-up game undeservedly degrade him in print.

I’ve got news for you. Every athlete in the world is demeaned by your writings. The very people you castigate could write just as well as yourself, but chose a different path. You’ve predicted Fredette will sit the bench in the N.B.A. We shall see, and I’m certain he doesn’t care about what you think. My prediction is that very athlete in the N.B.A. would be a better writer than Buzz Dissinger, if they chose that path. They prove their worth through action, rather than trash talk!

You Can’t Read And Workout

I’m going to give some free advice in this article. If you are serious about getting results you can be proud of from your exercise program, refrain from reading a magazine while engaged in raising your heart rate to 60-90 percent of maximum. The simplest method to find your heart rate is to subtract your age from 220. Multiply that by whatever percentage you want to work at, and you’re ready to roll. I like to immediately bring my heart rate up to maximum and then level off to 75%. This was ideal for firefighters, since you have a job where your heart rate goes from 60 to 190 in a matter of seconds.

What upsets me is observing gym members walk on the treadmill, use the Stairmaster or any other piece of cardio equipment while reading. It is impossible to achieve any benefits from this type of cardiovascular exercise because you can’t concentrate on your fitness level. If you are doing even sixty percent of maximum, you cannot read script legibly and your perspiration will stain the material. I defer from using headphones to listen to music because that gets in the way if you are performing at 80 to 90 percent of maximum.

The most amazing thing I see and hear is when an individual is barely walking on the treadmill as they read, and then boast to anyone who will listen that they did a one hour workout. If you don’t perspire, you haven’t worked out, is the way I see it. Please don’t fool yourself and fantasize a magnificent body if you read and exercise simultaneously. As with anything else in life, you only get what you put into it.

When you go to the gym, leave the headphones and magazines at home and strive to be the best you can be. Focus and attack the task at hand and your results will materialize. If not, you will become a “PUD,” and that is the last thing you want to be!