I think the proper verb is "train" not "learn."
I think the proper verb is "fantasize".
Is this really that hard? I haven't tried the hanging version but I can do the straight L with my arms supported on the arms of a chair [or parallel bars or whatever] -- I presume the core body strength required is similar? [and I am in crap shape]
Is being beautiful really that hard? I get catcalls and compliments and told how gorgeous I am and that I should be a model wherever I go. (And I'm ordinary looking.)
The L is only pretty hard (and slightly harder from a hang), but the V is on another level of difficulty entirely, not just because of the strength required, but also the flexibility. Adding weight is just obnoxious.
I think it's exactly the "hanging version" that's the catch.
Your way let's you cheat and push off the chair arms.
Fuck, I'm 50+ and do an L with weights and no support. (Always dumbbells or weight ankle/wrist bracelets...10 lbs). I guess the kids feel no pain and the old feel nothing but pain.
If I understand what you are talking about.
When I was dating a guy with little kids, they were constantly showing off their flexibility and leap and gamboling technique. "Why don't adults climb fast?" they'd ask, and similar obnoxious "I weigh fifty pounds" questions. My only consolation was that I could run faster and carry heavy loads (like fifty-pound childbodies that wore themselves out leaping and gamboling).
My only consolation was that I could
snap their skinny necks like twigs.
Yeah well those stupid kids don't get to spend weeks working on stupid papers in the computer lab, like I do.
I am actually a ridiculous looking person. Potbelly and calves I can't get both hands around. I don't know the names, but the thigh muscle that hurts when I do a standing L feels as big as my upper arm...or something. There is something else, a tendon?, along the inside to the knee that gets ropish.
It's the little doggies, who can pull 300 lbs, and the muddy trails marked "difficult" (30 degrees or steeper) I do a few times a month with them pulling hardafter dillers.
Not one comment asking Ogged why he is ogling little boys?
There is something else, a tendon?, along the inside to the knee that gets ropish.
A tumor?
Admit it Ogged: you're just fat and out of shape. Get yourself down to under a hundred pounds and then you can show those little kids who's boss.
Not one comment asking Ogged why he is ogling little boys?
Why should we need to ask?
Eww - Ogg's moderation policy is taking a new turn.
re: 10 the 'crap shape' remark wasn't false modesty, I really am in crap shape. That's precisely why I was curious about how hard it can be.
You know, Tannar, if the "crap shape" remark was false modesty, the denial that it was false modesty might also be false modesty. There is no sign for sincerity. You lose.
the denial that it was false modesty might also be false modesty
That's a move only in logical space, not in this language game.
Just work your way up with straight leg lifts lying on a bench. You can also get used to increased resistance with a kind of "standing sit up" using a lat pull down station or a high cable attachment. Face away with something like a tricep rope or strap that you can pull around your neck so your hands are held against the front of your chest, and bend over as far as you can go.
Since nobody's using this thread for anything else anyway, and "getting into shape" is kind of the meta-topic, I return to the great swimsuit debate to report that I finally decided on a new suit myself, and bought one of these. Also, some of these. I will report back on the success of these experiments after regular morning swimming resumes.
bought one of these
Well, at least I now know what man wears boyshorts.
Hey, I didn't get the lacey ones...
Wow, those mesh suits definitely showcase the package.
As far as swim trunks for serious swimmers go, as opposed to loungey board shorts, I think those look pretty cute.
The pool is in a college gym. I'll take all the help I can get.
Actually, the size/cut is my general preference, and I was really curious to try the whole dragsuit thing. And if it's not obvious, the goggles are prescription-on-the-cheap. Real prescription goggles cost a fortune, but I'm tired of not being able to see the clock.
No contact lenses, although I'm going to try again to get fitted. My last try a couple of years ago put me off of them for a while.
I only wear mine when I swim, which works pretty well.
37. was it because of dry eyes? try the acuvue oasys; i really like them.
Michael, I've had a really hard time with the new contacts that are supposed to let your eyes breathe, like the Oasys and whatever other kind they keep giving me. They itch like hell and feel like they're scratching my eye up. Does that go away?
Combination of dry eyes and astigmatism, requiring a perfect fit so they don't rotate into the wrong position and then stick there. I've heard about the new dry-eye ones, which is why I was thinking of giving them another try.
I'm always afraid of wearing contacts when I swim; somehow I'm sure they'll float out of my eye and get lost in the pool or some shit.
Also, Cerebrocrat, those trunks are awesome.
yep, just tried the hanging L off the bannisters at the top of my stairs. Not difficult, even though I am what the Americans call "a fat cunt". McG is correct again.
Does that mean your back was braced against the wall? I can't tell how much difference that would make. Where I do these, my back is not braced. (Although I should add that they might well be easy, I don't have particularly strong abs.)
I can do the L with the dip bar chair thingy very easily, but I found at the gym today that it's much more difficult with a straight arm hang. I think it doesn't allow you to use your back to help if you do it from a hang.
Nope, hanging between two parallel bars. I'll just go upstairs and see how many times I can repeat it, although I have just had a rather delicious late lunch.
By the way, I attended the Philharmonic in my pinstripes, it turned out, as I had a late meeting that couldn't be dodged. However, our party had one spare ticket, so we gave it to a promenader who was literally wearing shorts and a t-shirt!
yep, just tried the hanging L off the bannisters at the top of my stairs.
If your butt reaches the ground, you're not really doing it.
4, although it got me in the shoulders before the tum. We're talking about raising the feet, toes pointed, to a 90 degree angle, counting one-two-three, putting them back down, yeh?
41:
Combination of dry eyes and astigmatism, requiring a perfect fit so they don't rotate into the wrong position and then stick there.
Hm. I was fitted (and refitted) for new contacts a few months ago, and while the eye doctor was more than willing to keep on trying through 3 or 4 different types, we never discussed it in quite these terms.
The lenses I've wound up with begin to bother me after a couple of weeks, so I'm going through new pairs more quickly than I should. The "stuck in the wrong position," "scratchy" thing sounds familiar.
Fact it, Ogged, you're pathetic. And the Brits are superior.
our party had one spare ticket, so we gave it to a promenader who was literally wearing shorts and a t-shirt!
See, I support this; the man/woman clearly didn't know *in advance* that they were going to have a ticket, so there's nothing wrong with their looking like they just wandered in off the street--they did.
#50: no, he had a ticket (specifically a "promenade" ticket to the standing section of the Albert Hall), but not a ticket for some of the spiffy stalls seats where I was. Until my mate John gave him one. The tutting noises were fabulous.
The tutting noises were fabulous.
See? You'd all be terribly disappointed if we didn't tut.
So, Dsquared, I take it from this that the interbank credit crisis is easing? And aren't you glad you don't work for BarCap?
Although, really, charity towards the unwashed masses really *is* such an important part of noblesse oblige that it was seriously bad form for people to tut. You ought really to have made your dependent's status clear, to shield him from the disapproval of his betters.
re: 50
On the British veldt we have much more need for our core body muscles. They are needed for cringing properly before our social superiors and properly driving the boot into our sniveling underlings.
Since about 2005...or maybe even earlier...jokes about relative UK/US degrees of social stratification have really lost their wallop.
#52: actually nobody tutted. I made that up to make you happy.
#53: hmm I am more worried about the "my clients losing money crisis", which continues to rage, and I fear my chin-stroking sermons about Walter Bagehot are getting a bit old. At least all of my deals have now definitively collapsed in a way that can't realistically be blamed on me, so I am able to see Tess more than one night in five.
#55: thinking about it, the muscles involved are exactly the ones needed for dinghy racing.
Since about 2005
It's been happening since maybe 1973.
Dinghy racing; well, I've just got back from the weird cocktail of rich retiredness/rich-farmer fuckery/old-fashioned working class holiday tackiness that is the southwest coast, and you're right to say that this is what we ought to be doing in evolutionary terms. That and riding huge motorcycles.
Anyway, I'm glad that it's not you who came up with the bright idea of an investment fund that lends on 20 year terms with money it has to roll over every 90 days.
dinghy racing
Now that's a sport. Skippering a start in a crowded field with a properly set line is as exhilarating as anything I know -- keeping track of your opponents, the wind, your distance from the line, guns going off, boats passing within inches of each other, competing skippers shouting "right of way" with varying degrees of veracity ... damn.
And it's good for the abs.
I've got to get the boat out of the shed next summer.
actually nobody tutted. I made that up to make you happy.
Aww, I love you too.
my ancestors learned to be nice to Americans, on the veldt, as they foraged for chewing gum and nylons.
...and you've been struggling to overcome your evolutionary heritage every day of your life. Dsquared? Nice?
ahhh that's evolutionary psychology for you. I have a good dinner in me and am in the mood to be magnanimous. No I cannot lend anyone a tenner.
49: If your contacts correct an astigmatism, you'd certainly notice a problem with sticking before 2 weeks (more like, the end of the 1st day). The fit makes a big difference here. As for dry eyes, I recently learned that artificial tears are not the same thing as rewetting drops, and for contact problems, the latter are better for the job. I'm irritated with my last eye doc for letting me spend all that money on artificial tears.
I'll send you some nylons in the mail, D2.
66: Okay, from this I gather that my problem is not quite what you describe.
My discussions with the eye doctor did have to do with fit, with eye shape (among other things); I have a notably convex eyeball, apparently. We corrected for this repeatedly, such that the lenses I now have are huge and very thin, to cover a large portion of the eye. Works marvelously for about 3 weeks.
I really don't know.
For AWB: your iltchy scratchy eye thing, no, you should insist that your eye doc refit you. There are a million types and shapes of contact lenses out there these days. You should be walking away from the eye doc not knowing that you're wearing contact lenses.
Cerebrocrat:
Go back to the doctor for another try at contacts. Swimming is so much easier with contacts than prescription goggles.
Good luck with the swimming.
68: I'm really happy with Acuvue 2. I know they say the new kind are a lot healthier for the eye, but I figure until they make some innovations in comfort, I'm sticking with what I like. The market must respond to my recalcitrance!
I'm really happy with Acuvue 2
Yup, I also prefer these to the new ones. Contact lens review sites (yes, they exist) are full of people saying the new ones are really uncomfortable.
And I doff my hat to the abs of the British Islanders.
shit. wish I hadn't already spent the money on the prescription goggles.
Acuvue 2
I wear these swimming with goggles. I even wear them playing water polo without goggles. If I squint, I can see a little underwater.
I wear daily disposables, that way I don't care any longer about the possibility of losing one when swimming. Not that I ever have.
I have a new set of those daily disposables myself, for comfort and extra ease of switching between glasses and contacts as the whim takes me -- with the 2-week disposables, I lose track of when I should be starting a new pair. I like them, but it's a little unfortunate that they only have one option for base curve, because I think it doesn't quite suit me. My old Acuvue 2s had a BC of 8.3, which I think my eye doctor and I settled on as more comfortable for me than whatever the standard was. These only come in 8.6. I have no idea what those numbers mean, though.
Daily disposables are unfortunately not available in toric flavors yet. I don't know why I never seriously considered contacts + goggles, though... maybe imagining the frustration of chasing after lost lenses in the pool water, the sting of trying to put chlorine-soaked lenses back in my eye, etc? Though it's not like I've had many lenses come out just walking around.
any advice on effective seals for the ear canal?
(not harbor seals, though--they smell too much like herring).
when i swim regularly, i get weird goop coming out of my ears.
wish i could do something about it, as swimming good, goop bad.
Get your ears irrigated, Mr. Grody, then there won't be so much wax in them.
Huh, I've never felt a need to swim with earplugs, but weird goop coming out of my ears would probably heighten my interest. I take it you've tried the regular old wax-blob swimming earplugs, and they don't do the trick?
When I get water in my ears, I just shake my head to the side. If it persists, I use a q-tip very lightly to soak the water.
But, I've never had an ear goop problem. I generally think ear plugs are a bad thing.
Goop is probably not endless, right? Once the chlorine purges your goop, does it come back in full force the next time?
cerebrocrat--when I did vision therapy, I was able to get rid of some astigmatism and switch back to B&L lenses. Unfortunately, you have to maintain the exercises.
You also need to make sure to wear your reading glasses--both regular ones and the ones you wear over contacts. Mine had prisms which helped a bit with the strabismus too. Otherwise I tend to suppress the vision in my right eye.
I need new glasses. I hate going to the optometrist whom I saw when I was last in Boston to get refitted for contacts and having to say that my glasses broke, and I haven't replaced them and have just been wearing my contacts. I don't want the lecture.
I thought astigmatism was due to your cornea being wonky shaped. I'm genuinely curious. How do the exercises improve astigmatism?
It's hard to explain.
Astigmatism is due to the shape of your cornea, but only a small part of vision is about the actual lens. A lot of it is processing by the brain and you can retrain that.
What I had may not have been true astigmatism. Before doing the vision therapy, I saw better with the toric lenses, but the Busch and Lomb ones were lighter and more comfortable.
Anyway, google "vision therapy" and "behavioral optometry" to get an overview.