God or Science?

Posted on July 8, 2011 by Jens Petersen

This post I read tonight sums up how I feel about religion perfectly.

The question: “Does anyone else think that the truth of this universe is more beautiful than religion?”

The answer: “Well I will put it this way: imagine if you found out the Christians were right. Just imagine you died and it all turned out to be true, even the parts that contradict the other parts of it. There is a big space-monkey with a beard who made it all, who made stars so we could look at them, who put dinosaur bones in the ground to test our faith, and so on.

I would be so disappointed, so utterly revolted. The universe turns out to be an idiotic morality play written in fist-grasped crayon, ignorant slavishness turns out to be the only worthy virtue, the slack-jawed jeebus-lickers turn out to be right…at that point, hell would make no difference to me because I would be in hell even if I were not in hell.

The Christian version of reality is just so utterly fucking stupid it would horrify me beyond sanity. So yeah, the truth is infinitely more beautiful.”

Day 19 of 60

Posted on July 8, 2011 by Jens Petersen

Workout: Arms

Like the last Shuttle launching today, I blasted my arms. My tweaked my lower neck waking up (uhhh what?) this morning, so I wanted to avoid back-stressing exercises like standing barbell curls. I opted for single arm dumbell exercises mainly, and it was a fun workout. I also couldn’t resist that rye bread lying around in the kitchen this morning, so having a slice with some jam on it before my workout, as opposed to going in fasted like usual, was awesome. I had endless energy.

BI – Standing dumbell preacher curls: 20 pounds x 8 per arm, non-stop, no break until I couldn’t curl any more. I probably did 8 sets, my last one was 3 painful reps, my biceps were on fire.
TRI – Single arm rope cable extensions: 30 pounds x failure per arm, non-stop, no break until I was down to 3 reps max. Again, more fire.
BI – Seated alternating dumbell curls: 25 pounds non-stop. This single set lasted two songs (5-7 minutes?) and I must have done 40 reps per arm. I only stopped because I was bored — but again, fire fire fire.
TRI – Standing ez-curl cable pushdowns: 95 x 15, really short break, another set, etc until I started crying a little.
BI – Standing ez-curl cable curls: 60 x failure for 3 sets. This time I peed my pants and called for mommy. A crowd is gathering.
TRI – Seated machine triceps, like preacher curls but backwards: Some weight, 8-10 reps, 2 sets. I had enough. Fuck you gravity.

Then I topped it off with forearm curls and grip twists. I had arms a junkie would kill for; veins a popping everywhere.

Paper airplanes

Posted on July 7, 2011 by Jens Petersen

http://i.imgur.com/xh1Q3.jpg

Day 18 of 60

Posted on July 7, 2011 by Jens Petersen

Can you read that upside down? Good. Either I weigh 3.261 pounds or 192.3

Yes, I did work out since the last post, I just forgot to update. Slow and steady beats rapid weight loss, so hovering in the 192′s for the week isn’t bothering me. What’s bothering me is this amazing rye bread that Anita brought home last night. I made a sandwich for Erik for school this morning and it took everything in me not to JUST EAT THE WHOLE DAMN THING slathered in butter, maybe some blueberry jam, or cheese …. I’m fucking drooling here.

Workout: Shoulders

My lower back has been tight all week, so rather than aggravate it with standing shoulder presses (which takes a toll on the entire back when I push heavy) I chose to do mainly sitting delt exercises. They felt great, I never did the sitting Arnold Press delt machine before … and can see why I won’t too often in the future. Free weights always work better. And for shoulders, dumbells rule. After the machine I did solo arm overhead presses, pre-loaded with single arm lateral raises. Holy crap what a burn. Yo momma!

Now I’m sucking down an awesome blueberry and strawberry smoothie with two awesome scoops of whey protein. This is tastier than a cheesecake any day, and my body is soaking up the only carbs I’ll purposely eat for the rest of the day. Enjoy the glucose you lard filled muscles, that’s all you’re getting!

Day 15 of 60

Posted on July 4, 2011 by Jens Petersen

Well 2 pounds either way is negligible, but I’d rather it be down. Still, I did eat a giant lasagna last night (first carb heavy meal in two weeks) so that explains part of it.

Workout: chest and core

Strength and endurance were down which is odd. You’d think the aforementioned pasta meal would have stocked my muscles with spare glycogen. Meh, probably all went straight to my carb starved brain. Anyways, I never expected radical weight loss, I’m still getting loads of protein so I might even be putting on muscle mass during this time.

Also, why is my auto-correction capitalizing Carb? Wtf. Oh well see, WTF should be.

Day 12 of 60

Posted on July 1, 2011 by Jens Petersen

Workout: Arms, Core

Today was killer.

Lying triceps ez-curl extensions + standing ez-curl close-grip curls: 60 x 12 x 4
Cable rope pushdowns + standing cable curls: whatever x 10 x 3
Dumbell 1-arm skullcrushers + concentation curls: 20 x 12 x 3
Wrist curls

Topped off by 10 minutes of core, I was in a hurry so just did planks until I cried, hanging leg raises, etc.

Saturated fat and cardiovascular disease

Posted on June 30, 2011 by Jens Petersen

“A meta-analysis of prospective epidemiologic studies showed that there is no significant evidence for concluding that dietary saturated fat is associated with an increased risk of CHD or CVD. More data are needed to elucidate whether CVD risks are likely to be influenced by the specific nutrients used to replace saturated fat.”

I eat a lot of fat, compared to what most people think you should eat. What I don’t eat is a lot of carbs. I just wanted to post this to show some more proof to the sugar-isn’t-bad, fat-is deniers that they’re wrong. Think about it, for 100 or 200 thousand years, as humans, we’ve been eating mainly meat and fat. Bone marrow, organs, muscles, brain, entire animals, and the occasional nut. Fruits and veggies were rare, especially where we come from (Africa). This current state of food availability is completely unnatural. Cereal and bread? Fruit salads and vegan diets? Are you crazy?

Yes I eat the occasional piece of bread and LOVE IT, holy shit that’s my weakness. I could eat an entire baguette smothered in butter and that’s a gourmet meal.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20071648

Knee and spine

Posted on June 30, 2011 by Jens Petersen

If you’re following my current 60 day workout posts you might wonder when I do legs and lower back.

I can’t, at least not as often as I want. My right knee has been plagued by things since I was 17 and broke it at summer camp one year. I slipped and my patella (kneecap) flung itself to the outside of my knee. Surgery fixed the tendons and pulled out a quarter sized chip that popped off something. About 6 months later I could walk without crutches, thanks to physio, but I never regained my flexibility. I’m stuck with a maximum bend of just over 45 degrees. Oh well, after a year I could ski and bike and run and do everything.

Much grinding and clicking and occasional arthritic pain followed me since then.

In 2007 I went on a canoe trip wayyyy up north on Atlin Lake, BC. One day we left the canoe behind and hiked 40 kms to Llewellyn Glacier. Once up on the glacier we were being really REALLY stupid by walking around on the edge of the breaking face, which was just riddled with crevices, fake crevice covers (thin ice), and the constant sound of rushing melt water just under our feet. We were making our way off, because we realized how fucking stupid we were being up there, when the ground under me disappeared and I fell into a hole. I saved myself by falling chest first a bit, and managed to crawl out of a deep hole. -50 points for being retarded and climbing up there without crampons, rope, or brains.

So during that little spill my knee did a funky pop snap thing, but since our legs were completely numb from the gazillion little stream / rivers crossings we had to endure to get there (ever step into a fresh glacier stream just a few hundred feet from their icy source? I didn’t know water could get that cold without freezing), I didn’t feel much other than “uh oh, wtf was that?”

We hiked 20 km back to camp, fell asleep, sunburned, hungry, and happy that we didn’t run into any grizzlies. We should have. Another reason we’re fucking idiots.

The next morning my knee was swollen badly, and I could hardly walk. Oh well, the rest of the trip was in the canoe. Eventually we were done and drove home to Vancouver, by then my knee was completely fucked. I couldn’t straighten it out, it was locked tight, and I could barely walk.

So, that turned into surgery. I tore the meniscus (little spongy squishy thing that sits between the bones so your parts can slide around properly). Physio and rest fixed it a bit, but its never been the same. Until just a few months ago I was in chronic pain, guzzling Advil and avoiding walks longer than 5 minutes. Yes, that made working out really hard some times.

Finally a few months ago (like a year and a half after surgery) it started to act a little more normal. Knock on wood, but for the last few months I’ve been able to go on long walks, long bike rides, and work out my legs at the gym. I can actually squat, fucking hooooorah.

As for my spine, I have a slight curvature and bulging disc. The x-ray is cool, I look like a snake. So deadlifts are out, which sucks hard.

Day 11 of 60

Posted on June 30, 2011 by Jens Petersen

Workout: Shoulders, Legs

Today I skipped doing standing barbell overhead press, once in awhile you gotta mix things up.

Instead I did..

Dumbell overhead press: 50 x 7 x 4
Single arm dumbell overhead press: 35 x 12 x 3
Machine rear delt flyes: 60 x infinity and beyond, just reps out of hell, 30 second rest, repeat until arms hung limp.
Cable rotations + cable flyes: Three rounds, 10-15 reps, over and over until I cried a little.
Dumbell lateral raises: Using 10 pounds, raised and held until pain. 10-20 seconds per lift, side and front.

The knee was feeling OK, but a few days ago I had a lot of problems, so again I don’t want to aggravate it.

Leg press: 4 plates, 10 reps, 4 sets.
Calf raises: Bodyweight per leg, alternating, reps until legs squishy.

Day 10

Posted on June 29, 2011 by Jens Petersen

Ahh there we go, back on the bandwagon.

Workout: Back

Close grip cable pulldown: 160 x 6 x 4
Yikes, 160 is pushing it, and the 6th rep on the last two sets required a bit of cheating. That’s OK though, just a few weeks ago 135 was killing me.

The rest of my back workout was higher rep, deeper contractions. I had a dream where I was doing face pulls and could really see and feel the scapula muscles getting a better workout that way. So I lightened the load, contracted like a maniac and goddamn that felt good.

Face pulls: lightweight x 20 reps, 2 sets
Seated cable rows, shoulder wide grip: 115 x 15 x 3
Wide grip lat pulldown: 100 x 15 x 3
Close grip pulldowns: 100 x 12 x 2