Yuumoushin.com (勇猛心)

For the last 4 years, the Crossfit group I joined back in late 2005 (formerly CrossfitNorth, and now known as Level4: Crossfit Seattle) has been running a “12 days of Crossfit” routine right around the holidays. Think of the “12 days of Christmas” song, and keep in mind that as you move up in exercise number, you have to repeat the previous set (s) – by the time you’ve gotten to workout #10, you’ve done workout #9 once, #8 twice, #7 three times, so on and so forth.

The menu set up by Dave goes as follows:

A one hundred yard Sprint

Two Bear-crawls and a one hundred yard Sprint

Three second Handstand, Two Bear-crawls, and a one hundred yard Sprint

Four Clean & jerks, Three second Handstand, Two Bear-crawls, and a one hundred yard Sprint

Five Dive bomber push-ups, Four Clean & jerks, Three second Handstand, Two Bear-crawls, and a one hundred yard Sprint

Six Knees to elbows, Five Dive bomber push-ups, Four Clean & jerks, Three second Handstand, Two Bear-crawls, and a one hundred yard Sprint

Seven Kettlebell swings, Six Knees to elbows, Five Dive bomber push-ups, Four Clean & jerks, Three second Handstand, Two Bear-crawls, and a one hundred yard Sprint

Eight Hanging leg-raise, Seven Kettlebell swings, Six Knees to elbows, Five Dive bomber push-ups, Four Clean & jerks, Three second Handstand, Two Bear-crawls, and a one hundred yard Sprint

Nine Ring-dips, Eight Hanging leg-raise, Seven Kettlebell swings, Six Knees to elbows, Five Dive bomber push-ups, Four Clean & jerks, Three second Handstand, Two Bear-crawls, and a one hundred yard Sprint

Ten Squat-thrusts, Nine Ring-dips, Eight Hanging leg raise, Seven Kettlebell swings, Six Knees to elbows, Five Dive bomber push-ups, Four Clean & jerks, Three second Handstand, Two Bear-crawls, and a one hundred yard Sprint

Eleven Pull-ups, Ten Squat-thrusts, Nine Ring-dips, Eight Hanging leg-raise, Seven Kettlebell swings, Six Knees to elbows, Five Dive bomber push-ups, Four Clean & jerks, Three second Handstand, Two Bear-crawls, and a one hundred yard Sprint

Twelve Rocking pistols, Eleven Pull-ups, Ten Squat-thrusts, Nine Ring-dips, Eight Hanging leg-raise, Seven Kettlebell swings, Six Knees to elbows, Five Dive bomber push-ups, Four Clean & jerks, Three second Handstand, Two Bear-crawls, and a one hundred yard Sprint

I finished in 27:42 – drenched in sweat and pretty stoked.

I’m a video game fan, what can I say… But not to the level of some, for sure. And while I don’t YET have one of the third generation systems, I’m vying to buy for a Wii, once I find one. The thing is, once you’ve played a more advanced system or tried one of the newer PC games, going back to a system like the GC is a bit difficult (it especially doesn’t help that I have a large flat screen TV). Especially with 1st person shooters. And a lot of my friends here in Seattle aren’t all that into 1st person shooters – truth be told, those games loose their “fun” after about an hour or so. Growing up though, there was always a “go to” game for my friends and I. Even if you weren’t a huge gamer, you could always hold your own in a battle of…WORMS~!

This is a console/PC game that creates the same level of fun one finds through board games. A buddy of mine told me about the 3D version a while back, but I didn’t have any luck finding a version at the store. AAah, thank you internet and sites like fatwallet. For those of you who aren’t familiar with Worms, just click the image above for the site.

I was hoping for something a bit more humorous, but the list over at Popular Mechanics is relatively straightforward and their arguments well thought out. See for yourself.

I do have my own take on the list, though. For one, I don’t think the Zune should be on the list, and while the Foleo didn’t pan out as many hoped, wasn’t the general thought amongst the more tech-savvy that the device was a good step in the right direction? I think the Violet Nabaztag is a definite #1. Is that a gadget?? Or even the Iron Man machine, which only came in at #10; even #9 would be better as a “Worst Gadget for 2007.”

Another interesting article from MSNBC.com: What if bad fat isn’t so bad?

The first scientific indictment of saturated fat came in 1953. That’s the year a physiologist named Ancel Keys, Ph.D., published a highly influential paper titled “Atherosclerosis, a Problem in Newer Public Health.” Keys wrote that while the total death rate in the United States was declining, the number of deaths due to heart disease was steadily climbing. And to explain why, he presented a comparison of fat intake and heart disease mortality in six countries: the United States, Canada, Australia, England, Italy, and Japan.

The Americans ate the most fat and had the greatest number of deaths from heart disease; the Japanese ate the least fat and had the fewest deaths from heart disease. The other countries fell neatly in between. The higher the fat intake, according to national diet surveys, the higher the rate of heart disease. And vice versa. Keys called this correlation a “remarkable relationship” and began to publicly hypothesize that consumption of fat causes heart disease. This became known as the diet-heart hypothesis.

One of the biggest fallacies a statistician can make when it comes to the whole correlation/causation relationship. It’s funny how these things escalate over time. In general, there is a misunderstanding about proper nutrition and the way it sits now, at least in the US, it’s all the fat in our diets that’s fattening. Overconsumption on any level… Simple answer to it all: moderation.

It could be that it’s not bad foods that cause heart disease, it’s bad habits. After all, in Volek’s study, participants who followed the low-fat diet — which was high in carbs — also decreased their triglycerides. “The key factor is that they weren’t overeating,” says Volek. “This allowed the carbohydrates to be used for energy rather than converted to fat.” Perhaps this is the most important point of all. If you consistently consume more calories than you burn, and you gain weight, your risk of heart disease will increase — whether you favor eating saturated fats, carbs, or both.

I’ve tried a number of times to get my brother up to Seattle, but there was always something that came up – bad timing really. But it’s finally happened. He flew up yesterday and we’ve been having a blast. Figured I’d share this pic so that the rest of the family can see all is well. Yes mom, we’re getting along. We’re both far too old at this point to “battle” like we used to. Haha.