Season of the playful penguins from Oyonale

I finally found justification and backing for my long-time temperatural preferences.

Cool down – you may live longer

11:20 03 November 2006
NewScientist.com news service
Roxanne Khamsi

The refrigerator is used to lengthen the life of your food, and a new study suggests a similar principle could prolong your life, too.

was not able to reproduce an achievement I had attained 2 years ago, as well as 3 years ago. Although I did my best in this years’s Mr. Fitness competition, another participant, who is also a tough competitor, did brilliantly. Fortunately he is a friend, which by all means makes me happy for him.

Although I was expecting to have won the mini triathlon — that which was completed this morning — overall, I am expecting to finish in a repsectable second place. Well done, Mike Coogan. You deserve the big trophy this year. I will still have my memories of some older and more successful endeavours…

HAT a relief! I am finally through with the most dreadful stage of this year’s Mr. Fitness competition. Not only did I complete it, but I am also in a good position to have finished in first position, at least for that one event that is the 10 kilometer run on a treadmill. My time was 39 minutes and 18 seconds. The next stage (as well as last among a total of 10) is a mini-triathlon.

IET is a tricky thing. It’s harder to commit to it than it is to decide to get it started. I still believe in controlling one’s diet by supervising ‘fridge inventories’. It’s essentially done by abstaining from buying undesirable foods or sharing food with others too openly. Shared fridges are a disaster, speaking from experience, as you are no longer restricted to a narrow range of foods (variety is good on the other hand). I find that avoiding the temptation at the stage of purchase leads to a more balanced diet at the end of the day. This expands beyond the ‘realms’ of the fridge. Also dried and long-enduring foods fit this argument. Even sugary drinks and alcohol.

A random photo taken at the gym which I have gone
to for the past 4.5 years (captured in July 2005)

ODAY at the health club, I finally received some more results from the Mr. Fitness competition. I did very well at the fourth stage (among ten) compared to the other nine contestants. I shoulder-pressed 110 kilograms (1 repetition maximum, on a Scott Machine), giving me 2ⁿ place and leaving me in joint in 1^st overall, on par with another competitor. This weight happens to be precisely 150% of what I was able to benchpress, excluding the weight of the bar.

The sounds of a high-pitch whisper

F you have a minute to spare, have a look at this on-line high-frequency hearing test. I cannot sense 18,000 Hz, but I’m fine at 17,000.

This test reminds me of yet another test, which I took a long time ago: a geekery test.

Update: In a different test, if I set the volume at maximum, I can hear 21 KHz, so I very much doubt the results of my previous test. At moderate volume levels, I can still cope with 19 KHz and maybe even 20 KHz. I am not sure what the baseline is, so I have not calibrated the volume on my headset.

My days of innocence

have never, in my entire life, not even after 10+ years of persistent training, attempted to find out how much weight I can benchpress. I am referring to a proper trial under good conditions and just one repetition, at maximum capacity. Perhaps I feared find this outing because of the possibility of injuries (particularly if the spine is permitted to bend). And yet, the curse has just been lifted, so to speak.

Today at the Health Club we undertook the second stage of the Mr. Fitness contest (I fortunately won the first stage). This time, for a change, the task was to benchpress the most weight just once, on a Scott Machine. Arms had to hover over the chest and the grip could be relatively wide if necessary. The back needed to stay tight on the bench. I started by securing a weight of 150KG (we get 3 attempts/goals in total), plus the bar which weighs about 5 KG. I then attempted 160KG successfully and finally I did 165KG, at which point it became hard. I could probably benchpress more, but I ran out of attempts (the third must be last). I later tried 170KG (175 including the bar, which bent under the heavy load), but I mistakenly allowed my arms go too low (below 90 degrees on the elbow), which botched it. I am still extremely pleased with this achievement.