High Tech Workouts

At the beginning of January I decided to monitor my workout progress a little more closely (I've been working out pretty steadily since April 2006). One of my workout partners has a background in kinesiology and he brought over his old college texts, notes and labs. We took our anthropometric measurement (weight, height, width/girth/depth of chest, hips, shoulders, knees, elbows, ankles, wrists, calves thighs, gluts, etc). We also adopted the workout software I talked about in detail in a previous post and we found the correct testing protocols for maximums and established our baselines. The baselines are simply 5 reps of each exercise at the absolute maximum weight we can do with proper form. We record this as well as putting it in the software. After a month, I can report the following:

(All anthropometric measures are cold measurements)

Some of the significant strength gains are partly due to coming back after 2 months off, and muscle memory kicking back in. Still, the gains are significantly far enough past my prior maxes that its significant progress, so the software designed workout program DOES work (Fitness Buddy).

Telemetry

After a month of this I began to wonder if there was a way to fine tune my workout. Part of the problem with strength training is that it can neglect cardio in the process of seeking max lifting gains - I did not want to neglect my cardio.

I have an exercise bike with a computer and a pulse feedback system so I started doing 30 minutes of biking prior to my workout. This gave me some good instant heart rate data, keeping my heart rate in an aerobic zone between 132 and 142 which is where I need to be at to make gains at my supposed age/gender/weight. But it didn't give me feedback during my weight workout.

I read an article in Men's Health regarding new research that indicates that weight workouts that were thought previously to be low in cardio intensity could actually be 71% higher than originally thought - and with some tuning, you can combine a strength workout with cardio with a few simple modifications.

Being a hard data kinda guy, I decided I needed more info on my own body, so I got a Suunto ANT heart belt and PC POD unit. Gotta love eBay - $119USD (Running room wanted $295CAD for the package).

And this is the belt you put around your chest:

Basically it feeds your heart rate back to your PC, live, as you exercise. The system comes with analytic software which is cutting edge stuff. It basically lets you do analysis on your heart rate, VO2 max and respiration and other measures (some extrapolations are made based on age, experience, exercise type, weight etc) and can give you significant feedback about your performance, and most importantly, whether your training is effective or not. Not too long ago you needed an entire exercise lab to get this kind of data. Not anymore, its available at the consumer level and the quality is very high based on the literature I've reviewed.

The key to the analysis is an output called EPOC - Excess Post Exercise Oxygen Consumption. Suunto basically contracted with a research company called Firstbeat Technologies, which has been pioneering this research and turning it into consumer level products. Its still all very scientific and you have to really eggout to understand it all, but EPOC is basically a measure of the quantity of exercise induced disturbance of the body's homeostasis. What does that mean? EPOC analysis can tell you if you are staying in a beneficial workout zone. The zones work like this:

1.0-1.9 Minor Training Effect
2.0-2.9 Maintaining Training Effect
3.0-3.0 Improving Training Effect
4.0-4.9 Highly Improved Training Effect
5.0 Overreaching

One of the pitsfalls of significant training can be overtraining - work too hard you damage your body such that it doesn't fully repair itself before the next workout. It also doesn't disturb your body's homeostatic state in a productive way - hence no training benefit. Train too little or without enough intensity and you minimize the training effect and waste your time. Just like Goldilocks, somewhere 'in between' is the zone you want -the zone of maximum benefit.

Next, finding that zone.

My First Workout - Disappointment

My first workout with this system yielded disappointing results. While I am making good strength and physiometric gains as evidenced by my anthropometric measurements (thanks to Fitness Buddy - if you do weight training, you MUST get this program), my cardio on this workout sucked:

I didn't get past level 1, even though I put in a terrific effort on my workout from a strength perspective. You can even see the dips where I rested too long and allowed my heart rate to stay too low to receive a cardio benefit.

My Second Workout - Holy Shit Batman

Looking at the data I could see my core problem was my heart rate was not staying in the beneficial zone long enough. So I did a couple simple things to my workout. I minimized my rest between sets and exercises and I watched my heart rate live and made a conscious effort not to allow it to go below 140 for any significant length of time. There were places where this was unavoidable - some exercises required freeweights that need setup and I had to spend time there. Prior to my workout I put on some Tae Bo wraps and went to town on a punching bag we installed in my basement - forcing my heart rate up - so when I saw my heart rate go down, I hit the bag and brought my heart rate up to above 160-170 for at least 30 seconds at a time and then hit the next exercise. That short time on the bag had an effect and kept my heart rate up during the weight part of the cardio - doubling my benefit - strength and cardio workout all in one.

With this approach the results were astonishing. First off, I felt the most unbelievable pump I've ever had on a workout. My body literally pulsed. Secondly when I analyzed the data, I was shocked to see this:

So according to the analysis, my 47 minute workout exceeded the benefit of my 76 minute workout substantially. Less time spent, but spent more strategically for maximum benefit.

Those who have worked out before will probably understand this on an intuitive level, but this is all new to me, and to see the training effect demonstrated and backed up by biotelemetric data and analysis in an quantifiable and immediate manner is pretty amazing. The fact that the workout result is quantifiable is an awesome benefit for someone like me who likes to see independent analysis to backup theory. Using this method, I can consciously and with design target my workout activity for a very specific end result.

Canadian Winter Weather

There is a funny saying about Canadian weather that goes like this "If you don't like the weather, wait five minutes, it will change." I was driving out to a sporting event this weekend, early in the morning. The outside temperature was about -13. For some reason we had fog just before daybreak, and as the fog was burned off, everthing was left in a frozen coating of ice crystals. It was like in the Spiderman comic books I read as a kid when Mr. Freeze shot everything with his ice gun.

The photos failed to capture to sparkling, almost diamond like coating, but they are spectacular never the less.

Enjoy.

Wolfpack Annual Awards Dinner 2006

Corporal Dozer receives his promotion - way to go guys!

Another year has past and the big night arrives. Awards are handed out, guys are promoted and a lot of food and drink is consumed. My only regret is that I couldn't stay past 1am.

This year the good people at the Legion allowed us to use their facilities in Mississauga. We did a potluck for the food, and used the Legion bar (drank them dry of a lot of stuff actually) and had a fabulous time. Claymore did a tribute to Robby Burns with "An Ode to Haggis", which was nothing less than a stunning performance, and a piper from the Legion came over and gave us a couple of bagfuls of notes to go with it. All of this was done off the cuff with no rehearsals.

Before I get lynched, I've posted the pictures. This year Morbius got a Rebel XT and is snapping away as well, so the pictures here are both his and mine. I've posted the EXIF data for the photos. When you see the XT, he took those and when you see the 20D, those are mine. There are about 230 photos that I chose out of about 450. Enjoy.

Paul Martin, you're FIRED.

I've been trying to articulate to many of my friends who are not firearms owners, hunters or sports shooters, just why Paul Martin's gun ban is not only wrong, but does not solve the gun violence Toronto is experiencing.

The liberals have been in power for 12 years. Over their watch, the gun violence in Toronto has become more blatant and brash. The gun has become the primary gang tool for intimidation and control by force. A shooting is dramatic, and it makes for good press, so regardless of the statistics to the contrary, gun violence is on the minds of every Canadian every time a shooting in Toronto is reported in the media. So after 12 years and on the eve of an election, Paul Martin and his liberal party have suddenly had an epiphany! Guns are the problem! Well, let us consider that the guns are not going off by themselves randomly. A gun doesn't take a stroll by itself and decide to go off while aiming at innocent people. There is actually a shooter called a "cri-min-al" who is employing that gun as a tool to ply his trade. What about that criminal? Why isn't Paul Martin "banning" criminals? Why aren't those who use guns in crimes called to account for their actions and put away for a long time to protect the public from their violence??? Why are your rights to be safe as a citizen in this country second to a criminal's rights? Mayor Miller is partially right, my right to be safe trumps other rights. But it should not trump the property rights of law biding Canadians. Mayor Millers' right to be safe should trump the rights of a violent criminal to be allowed to walk the streets!

Systematically over 12 years, the Chretien, and now Paul Martin Liberals, have IGNORED the core cause of societal violence and have allowed youth at risk programs, programs aimed to support lower income single mothers to cope, to go underfunded and mostly eliminated. The Liberals over their 12 years have also allowed violent criminals to stay out of incarceration and to mix in with the general Canadian population. My right as a citizen to be safe has been trumped by Paul Martin's willingness to allow violent offenders to have more rights than ME. What does that say about Paul Martin's true ethics and morals? Why don't you ask yourself that question Mr. Miller? Mr. Miller needs to switch his brain on and think about what he is supporting. Its a sad day when the Mayor of Canada's largest city acts like the sheep he's leading.

Who is responsible for this violence? Paul Martin says hand gun owners and MORE control and an outright ban will solve the problem. Has it in the past? Paul Martin and the Liberals have spent an unprecedented amount of YOUR money registering and controlling law biding citizens and their firearms for the better part of a decade now. Has this strategy worked? Clearly NO. What is even more of an indictment is if you took the 2 billion dollars for the firearms registry and added it to the money the liberal party has STOLEN from the Canadian people (the money we KNOW about, but don't worry, every day we are finding more liberals with no ethics who are stealing Canadian taxpayers money) and he instead, funded the police, the courts, the Federal penal infrastructure and put in place federal laws with double digit minimum sentences to give police and the courts what they need to put away violent offenders, gun violence in Toronto would be impacted. If he funded social programs that rescue impoverished youth from the streets, and from the clutches of gang leaders and drug dealers, the gun violence would have no criminal element from which to commit these crimes in the first place.

Why has Mr. Martin suddenly found religion again in gun control? Very simply he thinks Canadians are stupid and will not look at his record. His record has all but ignored the violence of criminals throughout the past 12 year liberal 'mandate'. His and his party's solution has and does not work. The liberal party's 12 year strategy to combat violent crime is a complete failure. He and his party have had, and squandered, the time and the financial resources of an entire NATION, with no positive effect in reducing or eliminating this criminal violence. And he has the unmitigated GALL to come back to the Canadian people after this 12 year record and ask them for another 4 years of the same ineptitude and lack of understanding and vision of the problem. My god, the man has balls the size of watermelons.

In short, if you vote liberal, you're voting for a party that has officially identified thieves within it (scandal after scandal) yet asks you to trust it. You'd be voting for a party that has led this country to believe that gun control in the form of a registry will stop violent criminals - it has not. You'd be voting for a party that offers politically opportunistic, knee-jerk ill thought out policy decision making on-the-fly during elections (helicopters & the rescinding of the GST anyone?). You'd be voting for a party with the most horrendous track record when it comes to dealing with violent criminals in the courts. You'd be voting for a party that wants you to believe you should fear law biding citizens who enjoy a sport called shooting and that somehow by restricting their rights and seizing their property it will stop gun violence in Toronto. In short, Paul Martin's proposition is the most asinine, intellectually bankrupt policy anyone could come up with to respond to the gun violence problems faced in Toronto.

Don't be fooled. Paul Martin hasn't changed one bit, he just wants your vote so he can stay in power and continue to deny allegations of wrongdoing for minister after minister after minister. It seems that the only thing Paul Martin has successfully done over the years is DEFEND CRIMINALS. I want a Prime Minister running my country, not a defense lawyer, who, incidently has been complicit, as finance minister and prime minister, with his party and governments financial wrongdoing. He himself said prior to the Gomery inquiry that HE is responsible for his government and his party. Well Mr. Martin, we finally have something we can agree on. Polish off your resume and find another job because you're fired.

Scouting All Sections Basic, November 2005

left to right: Claude Lascelle, Phil Stevens and Ed Murray look on while their star Cub pupils completely butcher a Grand Howl. Note to self: More practice required. Click on the image for more pictures.

I can't believe I am still awake to post this... I got back from doing Scouts Canada Cub Basic from an all sections basic held at Camp Borden this weekend. I've had the privledge of doing Beaver basic last year at Camp Wildman and much of the same Service Team plus a few new welcome faces, which did a spectacular job again this year.

--> Explanation Starts
For those of you who don't know what I am talking about, Scouts Canada offers its leaders basic and advanced courses for its Beavers, Cubs and Scouts programs. The basic course is held over a single weekend and is very intensive - it packs your brain with so many ideas and so much enthusiasm for the programme that you come out a babbling idiot for the first 24 hours afterwards. Then your brain has time to chew on it and it re-instate your sanity - well, what you had to begin with anyways.
<--- Explanation Ends

I took along the camera much to many a person's horror and happily snapped away as I could get away from my activities or training for a few minutes. Unfortunately most of my shots are of the cub section since I was in that section, but there are a few shots of other sections when I snuck away for a few minutes. Also on day 2, one of my collegues from 1st Tottenham took one of my little cameras into the Beaver basic with him and got some shots from there.

There are about 200 shots in total. For those visiting my photoblog from that weekend, these are scaled down for easy viewing. If you wish the originals in full size I can burn you a CD if you email me. Ed Murray also has a copy off all these so if you're in his neck of the woods, you can also get them from him. Each shot is between 4mb and 8mb, so in the interests of saving online space, I haven't made them downloadable.

Also while there was a photo release form signed for the event, posting them here might not have been contemplated by those in the photos. In the interests of respecting those who don't wish these photos to be accessed by the general public the album is password protected. The username is "scouts" (all lowercase) and the password is the first 4 letters of the name of the building the weekend was held in. If you still can't figure it out, email me, I'll verify I am talking to an attendee and email you back the password. Sorry for the inconvenience.

ADSC Pistol Poker

Hmmm... Nope. (And he's the vice president of the club!)

Pistol Poker is a game where you set up a deck of cards on a board and shoot the cards from about 25 feet away. You then make a hand with what you hit and winner takes the pot. It is a truly humbling experience. Of course, I didn't win, but three friends I brought with me to the club won (using my gun! - perhaps I should get a kickback?).

All in all it was a fun day and raised some money for the club. After the game we went out for lunch and then went to our rifle range and did some shooting there.

At the range I had the opportunity to try some rounds I made up using the new RCBS powder thrower. This little gem is a computerized power measure and throwing device for reload (making your own bullets). Prior to this I had worked really hard to make consistent rounds and walked through my manufacturing process and I could only get accuracy to about 1 inch at 100 yards. I felt I was a better shot than that and the only variable I could spot in the equation was the accuracy of the charge I was throwing (my rounds tended to be low or high but my windage was fine - an indication of bullet or powder weight inaccuracies) so I spent some dough and got this gizmo. Well it paid off! Without sweating I was able to do this:

That's at 100 yards. So, sometimes it ISN'T me.

Now I just have to adjust the scope and I am about where I want to be to start practicing at 200 yards.

Well, that about sums up my weekend - basically a lot of fun!

Radio Controlled Car Fun!

Radio Controlled Cars are fast and a challenge to photograph.

Today I was invited to a friend's radio controlled car track. Always up for a challenge, I grabbed the Canon EOS 20D and headed out to see if I could actually get any decent pictures. I now understand the appeal of sports photography! Its fast, dynamic and dramatic - anyways, these are some choice edits from the 200 or so pictures I took. Enjoy.