Lee.org

I’ve got a busy week coming up, trying to get into all the classes I need.

Phew!

Last semester at CCSF I was in a circuit training class. They’ve got a nice gym at the Ocean Campus!

I totally loved working out. Just about every time at the gym I pushed myself 100%, grunting and groaning and letting it burn. I worked to muscle failure on most machines most days. It was awesome. The “Growing Old Is Not For Sissies” poster is hanging in the gym. Yes, it inspired me.

I loved working my biceps; boy they get big quick! I hated doing abdominals; the burn feels like knives in my belly. I did them all.

Here is my review of the semester’s workout:

Data is taken from the Fitlinxx system. Every machine has a little Fitlinxx computer that tracks your progress. It’s not a perfect system but it’s pretty good and convenient to tell you what weight you did last time. The Fitlinxx online charts effing suck. It took me 45 minutes of copy-pasting and reformatting to get the data you see below.

————————————————–

All measurements below are “2 sets of 10 reps of nn pounds”. That was my goal at each session. When I had to rest mid-way through a set, I’d tell myself, “Fine, you can take a break, you just have to do one more rep.”

Bicep curl. I never made much progress, going from 80 to 100. But my arms started to look awesome.

Tricep extension. Huge gains! Started at 30 (and huge lactic acid burn the day after) ended at 95!

Chest Press. Great progress. 60 to 120!

Chin Assist. Small gains 130 to 100 (at this rate, I’ll be doing a real chinup in 2 years, meh.

Hip Abduction. 130 to 220. Nice!

Hip Adduction. 70 to 100. Good.

Lateral Raise (trying to build up my shoulder profile) I worked it every time I went to the gym and went from 30 to 90!

Back Extension. 150 to 190. Good.

Leg Press. 155 to 200. Good.

Leg Curl. 50 to 90. Good.

Leg Extension. 85 to 130. Good.

Leg Press. 210 to 210. Bad!

Some exercises not on the Fitlinxx system:
* Lower abdominal hyperextension crunch. Lay way back on a yoga ball and then sit up slowly. I started doing this mid-semester and went from 7 to about 11 reps. It buuuuuurns!

* A Lower back contraption where you lay face down, put your pelvis on the pad, hook your legs on a bar and let your upper body fall forward toward the ground. Then you straighten your back so it looks like you are superman. I started doing this mid-semester and went from 6 to 10 reps.

I’ll definitely sign up for the gym next semester :-)
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Life Fitness Arm Curl Bicep Curl
8/23/2011	1	10	30.00
8/30/2011	1	10	50.00
11/8/2011	1	9	70.00
		2	6	50.00

Life Fitness Pro2 Bicep Curl (pretty much identical to the above machine...
they have 2 bicep curl machines)
9/6/2011	1	9	80.00	
		2	10	65.00	
9/9/2011	1	10	80.00	
		2	10	65.00	
9/13/2011	1	6	80.00	
		2	3	80.00	
9/16/2011	1	10	80.00	
		2	6	80.00	
10/21/2011	1	10	80.00	
		2	6	80.00	
11/14/2011	1	10	95.00	
		2	10	95.00	
12/2/2011	1	10	95.00	
		2	12	80.00	
12/9/2011	1	10	95.00	
		2	10	80.00	
12/16/2011	1	10	95.00	
		2	12	110.00	
12/20/2011	1	8	95.00	

Life Fitness Arm Extension Tricep Extension
8/23/2011	1	11	30.00
		2	10	30.00
9/27/2011	1	10	50.00
		2	14	40.00

Life Fitness Pro2 Tricep Extension
8/26/2011	1	11	40.00
8/30/2011	1	11	50.00
		2	10	50.00
		3	11	50.00
9/6/2011	1	10	65.00
		2	2	40.00
9/13/2011	1	12	80.00
		2	5	80.00
9/20/2011	1	10	80.00
		2	10	80.00
10/21/2011	1	10	80.00
		2	10	65.00
11/1/2011	1	10	95.00
		2	7	80.00
11/14/2011	1	10	95.00
12/2/2011	1	10	80.00
		2	10	80.00
12/9/2011	1	10	80.00
		2	10	95.00
12/16/2011	1	10	95.00
12/20/2011	1	10	95.00
		2	10	95.00

Life Fitness Chest Press
8/30/2011	1	12	60.00	
		2	12	60.00	
10/21/2011	1	10	75.00	
		2	11	90.00	
11/1/2011	1	2	75.00	
		2	10	90.00	
		3	12	90.00	
11/8/2011	1	10	105.00
		2	10	105.00
12/16/2011	1	10	105.00
		2	9	105.00
12/20/2011	1	12	120.00
		2	8	120.00

Life Fitness Pro2 Chest Press
8/26/2011	1	12	55.00
9/6/2011	1	10	70.00
		2	7	70.00
9/9/2011	1	8	70.00
		2	8	70.00
9/20/2011	1	10	85.00
		2	8	85.00
9/27/2011	1	10	85.00
		2	7	85.00

Life Fitness Dip & Chin Assist Narrow Grip Pullup
8/30/2011	1	8	130.00
9/16/2011	1	10	120.00
		2	8	120.00
9/20/2011	1	10	120.00
		2	10	120.00
11/1/2011	1	10	110.00
		2	8	110.00
12/2/2011	1	10	110.00
		2	5	120.00
12/20/2011	1	9	100.00

Life Fitness Hip Abductor (Outer Thigh) Abduction
9/6/2011	1	2	10.00
		2	10	70.00
		3	10	70.00
9/13/2011	1	9	90.00
		2	12	90.00

Life Fitness Pro2 Hip Abduction
9/9/2011	1	10	130.00
		2	10	130.00
9/20/2011	1	12	160.00
		2	11	160.00
10/21/2011	1	10	160.00
		2	11	160.00
11/1/2011	1	10	175.00
		2	10	185.00
11/8/2011	1	10	190.00
		2	10	190.00
12/9/2011	1	10	205.00
		2	10	205.00
12/16/2011	1	10	220.00
		2	10	220.00
12/20/2011	1	10	220.00
		2	10	220.00

Life Fitness Hip Abductor (Inner Thigh) Adduction
8/26/2011	1	12	70.00	
9/6/2011	1	4	75.00	
		2	10	10.00	
		3	10	90.00	
11/1/2011	1	8	90.00	
		2	11	100.00

Life Fitness Lateral Raise
8/23/2011	1	10	30.00
8/30/2011	1	6	30.00
		2	9	10.00
9/6/2011	1	8	40.00
		2	8	40.00
9/9/2011	1	10	40.00
		2	8	40.00
9/13/2011	1	10	47.50
		2	10	47.50
9/20/2011	1	10	60.00
		2	11	60.00
9/27/2011	1	9	70.00
		2	12	70.00
10/21/2011	1	10	62.50
		2	9	70.00
11/1/2011	1	8	62.50
		2	8	70.00
11/8/2011	1	10	70.00
		2	11	70.00
11/14/2011	1	9	77.50
		2	10	77.50
12/2/2011	1	10	77.50
		2	8	77.50
12/9/2011	1	10	85.00
		2	9	85.00
12/16/2011	1	10	90.00
		2	8	82.50

Life Fitness Leg Extension
9/16/2011	1	10	75.00
		2	10	75.00
12/16/2011	1	10	90.00
		2	10	90.00

Life Fitness Back Extension
8/26/2011	1	12	150.00
		2	12	150.00
8/30/2011	1	12	165.00
		2	12	165.00
11/14/2011	1	10	180.00
		2	10	195.00

Life Fitness Leg Press
8/30/2011	1	6	95.00	
		2	12	155.00
		3	11	155.00
		4	10	215.00
9/9/2011	1	14	175.00
		2	13	195.00
9/16/2011	1	10	115.00
		2	12	115.00
10/21/2011	1	10	195.00
		2	13	235.00

Life Fitness Pro2 Leg Curl
9/13/2011	1	10	50.00
		2	9	50.00
9/16/2011	1	10	50.00
		2	10	50.00
9/20/2011	1	10	50.00
		2	11	50.00
9/27/2011	1	10	50.00
		2	10	50.00
11/1/2011	1	10	65.00
		2	8	65.00
11/8/2011	1	11	80.00
		2	10	80.00
12/2/2011	1	1	80.00
12/16/2011	1	10	95.00
		2	10	80.00
12/20/2011	1	3	95.00

Life Fitness Pro2 Leg Extension
9/20/2011	1	12	85.00	
		2	10	85.00	
9/27/2011	1	10	100.00
		2	10	100.00
10/21/2011	1	11	115.00
		2	12	115.00
11/8/2011	1	10	130.00
		2	8	130.00

Life Fitness Pro2 Leg Press
11/1/2011	1	10	170.00
		2	12	210.00
11/8/2011	1	10	210.00
		2	11	230.00
11/14/2011	1	10	230.00
		2	5	230.00
12/2/2011	1	10	210.00
		2	10	210.00
12/9/2011	1	10	210.00
		2	10	210.00
12/20/2011	1	12	210.00
		2	12	210.00

The coolest thing I’ve seen in a while

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JnkMyfQ5YfY

local version:

via Anthony Asterisk and NPR

Update: You should get 3 things out of this post:

1. Cars are dangerous.
2. Motorcycles are 35 times more dangerous than cars per mile driven.
3. There is no riding “safely”. 2/3 of motorcycle deaths are not the motorcyclist’s fault.

So maybe drive a motorcycle as a pleasure-craft or occasional-transportation, but don’t make it your daily vehicle. I love you too much to see you dead like that!

————————————————–

I’ve been thinking about getting rid of my car. I’m going to school so I need to save a bit more; I don’t need my garage for storage any more; so far school has been all accessible by public transit. So I’ve been considering my options.

A friend old me how she loves her motorcycle. She said how it was like a shortcut: you can always find a place to park, they are inexpensive, even insurance is cheap, just $100 per year for her, and they are completely awesome.

I wrote this to her:

I thought about what you said about your motorcycle and how you love it. So I thought I’d give the idea of getting a motorcycle a chance.

And then I read this: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Motorcycle_safety

What got me was in the first paragraph. Mile for mile, a motorcycle is 35 times more fatal than a car. Now I know that cars are very dangerous, some 40,000 Americans are killed every year. Or as I like to say to people, “Hey, did you hear about the big car crash last week where almost a thousand people were killed? Yeah, it really happened! Well, not all at once, but yeah, almost a thousand Americans were killed in car accidents last week. Yes. Really”

It feels like an acceptable risk to be in a car, I mean, you’ve got to get around somehow. But if everyone rode motorcycles instead of cars (yeah, I know, that’s not realistic), then bikes would kill 1.4 million Americans every year! That’s insane! That’s more deaths than the top 3 killers in America: heart disease, cancer, and stroke COMBINED, almost doubling the number of people that die every year.

And what really bugged me is the Wikipedia article talks about studies that say some 2/3 of fatal crashes are where the car smashed into the bike without even veering; neither the rider or driver saw it coming and the rider had no chance to save themselves. Hurumph.

Sorry, but that’s not for me. I want to go the whole 9 yards, but nope.

Rock on,
Lee