I might touch this up and make it into an academic quality paper. Then I can use it in job interviews as a writing sample as part of my job interview presentation. But for now I will just keep it casual. It is 100% accurate but I am not going to page for page source hunt.

When in a gym (provided you have been going, evil eye to you know who) you see others running around with lifting belts. At some places like Home Depot you see the stock people in them as well.

                                                                                         

Do weight belts work and how? Yes they do work, here is how. Look at the lumbar spine cut away picture at the top. We humans walk upright, and need our spine to give support yet be flexible to absorb shock, while also able to provide range of motion so we do not walk like robots. The spine as you know is many disks stacked on top of each other, with a spongy disk in between each to provide cushioning. The only real support your spine has are muscles the erector spinae and the transversospinalis groups. Think of your spine as a bunch of stacked soup cans held together with rubber bands.  The figure 12 picture shows how this looks.

When you wear a weight belt it will compress the fluids and tissues in your abdominal cavity together giving increased support the the lower spine. This relieves the Erector muscles of much of their burden as the fluid pressure hold the spine in place.

This can work against you while trying to reach fitness goals. People who wear a lifting belt all the time during resistance exercise deny the erector group stimulus to adapt to. The rest of the skeletal muscle adapts and become stronger, but the erector and other spinal muscles remain in an less or even de-conditioned state. This creates a dangerous imbalance vastly increasing the changes of injury. 

The proper times to wear a lifting belt is. 1-when a power athlete is in a peaking phase and is training an 3 Rep-max range or higher. 2-When athlete is doing conditioning that requires heavy repeated lower spinal loading while near an exhaustive state. The exhausted spinal muscles could relax and cause a disk to herniate. 3-When the athlete is recovering from low back injury. The belt will keep the disks and muscle in proper alignment for healing, while client does no spine loading exercises. Once the low back is recovered sufficiently the athlete may return to spinal loading exercise under the supervision of a doctor or physical therapist.

Athletes and exercisers must be trained to self monitor loads on the body to decrease the chances of injury. Everyday life and many athletic events do not have people wearing weight belts, so the law of specificity says to decrease injury, allow the spinal muscle to exercise and adapt along with the target muscle groups.

Ace intro:
"Jessica kicks off her summer series of videos with exercises to effectively train and strengthen the abdominal muscles. Adding the bicycle maneuver, vertical leg crunch, plank, prone walk out and stability ball pull-in to your exercise program will have you feeling good and looking great.

Video Contents -- 2:17 length
0:18 -- Bicycle Maneuver
0:55 -- Vertical Leg Crunch
1:10 -- Forearm Plank
1:40 - Prone Walkout
1:47 - Stability Ball Pull-in "

My commentary:
The road noise is unaccaptable for a professional demonstration by a large organization like ACE, I would expect it from garage guys work out, not someone I pay money to make these videos. However the movements are correct and those are excellent ab exercises for deconditioned people. You can use them to warm up, and/or part of cool down. I use elbow to knee "air bike" warm up in the morning. I would skip plank for reverse hyper extension to warm up the low back.

The best part of this video is how he demonstrated the lying elbow to knee/air bike, that was pretty much perfect. My research shows this to be a big bang for buck exercise.

Honesty is such a lonely word every one is so untrue, honesty is hardly ever heard and it’s mostly what I need from you…..Billy Joel

I am sure most of us here know that honesty is a two way street.  Not just in the sense of you give it and you get it. I am meaning building an atmosphere where it is just the norm, not big lectures on it, not drama about it, people are just honest because it builds on it’s-self and we have a good thing going.

Supervisors and parents are the start of the atmosphere on honesty. There are two roads one can take. This will show what I mean by honesty being a two-way exchange.

Work scenario, Martha a young junior associate gave the wrong quotes to the Smith firm during the presentation. She caught the mistake as soon as she returns to the office. She approaches you and admits how she underbid horribly by confusing Smith with another account. 

Do you contact Smith has soon as possible explain the situation, and renegotiate the contract with Martha involved to help correct her error?  Do you see it as a one time learning mistake, or do you accept responsibility that maybe you pushed Martha too soon?

Or do you hit the fan, dress down Martha as the stupidest, most incompetent, blonde bitch Barbie doll to ever walk into your office, and offer her a dunce hat, with a flashing light.

Well if you do the latter congratulations, you just lost that person. No she may not walk right then, but her heart is out the door. You will never see her best effort again, she will never ever come to you again with any problem. Good managers have the reputation as someone with everyone else’s problems. Why, because your coworker trust you to solve them, and protect their dignity.  So Martha will be taking her services elsewhere, enjoy seeing her smiling face on the cover of fortune 500, and you did not get any of those commissions.

Now a more important scenario, eight year old Jimmy runs in and tells you he hit a baseball through Mr. Jones window.

So what do you do? Well Jimmy need to learn respect and responsibility. You grab him by the hair, take your belt and beat Jimmy’s ass as long and as hard as you can.  It is tradition, right? You were beaten and you are fine, right? Kids need self-discipline, right?  He will never forget this lesson I bet.

Congratulations, you are damn right!  He will never forget this lesson. You just lost your child, way to go.  Your child is human and does not want to be beaten, but guess what, the odds of not getting beat are much better not being open and honest with you. Why? Simply because telling you the truth guarantees a beating, lying and hiding gives a chance of no beating, any smart kid will choose to try and not get a beating.  So now your child does not trust you enough to tell you about a broken window, your child will defiantly not trust you with anything important, like sex, drugs, guns, and other growing up issues. Congratulation parent of the year, take a bow.  The boy who cried wolf concept works in reverse too. Your child might do things to get a beating to get your attention but that is a separate issue.

No you are not your child’s best buddy that is just as bad. Yes, responsibility must be accepted, the child must correct the situation, and yes you will guide them. Normal life mistakes can be fixed with out abuse or belittling.  You have a prime learning opportunity here. You can review money and how it works, you can review how nice or not nice Mr. Jones was about it and doing the right thing is in spite of others. Apology and thank you letters?

With older kids you can even show how windows attach to houses. You could play CSI with your kid and calculate the air speed velocity the ball came off the bat to fly that far to shatter a window in that pattern.  Your job is to help a kids become an emotionally mature person that can face life, set the example necessary.  Condoms are convenient, children are not.

If you want to be in charge of people the first qualified person must be you.  Collaborative leadership is not weak appeasement. Excellent leaders give a framework that all those around you can follow, they are someone people come to for all types of advice.  If you are so narrow minded as to only lead by the stick, you will find the captains chair too much for you. Your best people will leave you for those who lead by the carrot. To be apart of something special, be someone special.

Part one here:  http://direwolfghost.multiply.com/journal/item/32

My two favorite Democrats are happy that Hillary finally stepped aside and Obama is going to be the nominee.  Becky is really hoping Obama picks Richards as VP. Especially since news about that one guy writing pedophile books. On the other side she hopes McCain picks Romney, because, well we live in Idaho, McCain is guaranteed four electoral votes, Ron Paul and his 25% is the only one that can mess up McCain out here.

Our big state election will be between Larry LaRocco (D) and Lt Gov Jim Risch (R) for the “retiring” senator Craig. Making Michael Crapo (cray-poe) our Sr Senator. Unless Crapo steals money or has sex with someone other than his wife, that is one of the safest seats in the nation. Republicans want him in important committees as he will be there until he dies.

The other election of interest is for congressional 1, we live in district 2 and I tell my wife that, but she loves to hate this guy.  District 1 runs from the Nevada line North through Owyhee County, all of Canyon County and western Ada county (Meridian), and the panhandle to the Canadian border. We are three to five miles east of the cut off in district two Congressman Simpson of Idaho Falls is our rep.

 

The individual pictured above makes my wife’s skin crawl.  He got elected (by only 1300 votes) in spite of fellow Republican house speaker calling him an idiot on the news. Congressman Bill Sali actually said on the state house floor that breast cancer is caused by abortions, to a breast cancer survivor. Becky is so pro choice don't even debate it around her, but pay for your own. On Sali’s wiki article some anonymous poster keeps referencing to some non-academic reviewed web site article claiming there is indeed a correlation between abortion and breast cancer. One day that is there, next day gone, then back again. It would be entertaining except for the fact Sali actually believes that breast cancer is really caused by abortions. That is just beyond ridiculous, there is no real evidence of that at all, and to insult women like that, to insult common sense, to insult the office.

My lovely wife in all her Democratic glory (me smiling affectionately, smiles) strongly supports Child Health Insurance Program “CHIP.” Wifey supports the free breakfast and lunch program for school kids, a federal program. Supplemental income for child/day care for low income, so they can work. She supports universal health care that is her really big issue for being pro Obama, his plan is similar to the Germans. (I made no jokes about concentration camp health care, see I am a good husband, smile) Of course Sali has not supported rural schools, and it is no mystery how he votes on the previously mentioned issues. She could deal with him if he was a regular Republican, (she thinks highly of Kempthorn) but her description of Sali starts with fat ass f-ing prick, and gets worse. Oh no wait that is stupid, fat ass f-ing prick. Sorry got it mixed up, grin.  (But we are in district two dear.)

I wonder if my son is Democrat because most teachers are?  Democrats run the teachers union (don’t argue with me my love you know this to be true). 

My spouse and I agree where it counts. She is the hardest working person I have ever met. She is also very unselfish, very loyal, and lives to spend time with family.  She is strongly pro science but accepts intelligence to the universe. Man is God’s image, man uses tools and science why wouldn’t God?  

 

She wonders why those south of the border can come here and take jobs and are rewarded for it, have babies and get citizenship and more F-ing welfare. That money is for her children and their future, go build you own future. (yeah tell those fools baby woo hoo!) Her grandmother had to learn English to pass citizenship tests (Norwegian). She wonders why can’t the people at the fast food place speak clear English, the fuzzy drive through speaker is bad enough without some thick accent or mental case unable to say burrito.

 

She is fighting the school on uniforms and forced bilingual education. Supports vouchers because it looks as if our daughter will be in private school because of those policies. 

 

I know Republican women say “Once you go GOP you will forever love me” but I am content with my blue chick in a red state. Conservative Democrat, grass roots work ethic, and family values feminist, I will take her any day of the week. (No I am not saying that because I am in the dog house, grin) (She might come out with "My life with a Libertarian, can't you people unite? or My Agnostic Dyslexic Husband Questions the Existance of Dog)

A near always asked question by new exercisers is what should I do first my cardio or my resistance training. Like all experts I will answer with the positive and absolute statement of "it depends." MUHAHAHAHAHAHA!

Actually it pretty set in stone depending on your goals. In freshman level classes you learn the SAID principle. Specific Adaptation to Implied Demands. Simply means you body will adapt to exactly what you do, no more than it has to. Knowing this we can plan how to include exercises that give you the most bang for buck as they say.

Most my clients are seniors or the obese. To maximize weight loss, and regain lost physical functioning, I insist on doing resistance first. Here is why. Once warmed up your body will be most capable of doing what you do first, meaning better output potential, the ability to work out a bit harder.  Ability to work harder means more adaptations. Building a pound of muscle is 35 calories used perday even if you sit on your duff! They used to tell differently, they used to say do cardio first. Now that we know more that is not the case.  Can you lose weight doing 30 mins cardio at 60% heart rate followed by 3 sets of ten resistance? Yes you can, but....

Second reason is for weight loss, doing your resistance first delete your glycogen reserves, your carbs, the sugar in your blood. So when you go on to do your cardio next, your body must use more fat as fuel and attempt to conserve carbs. Your post exercise burn. EPOC Post Exercise Oxygen Consumption will be higher. That is like free fat loss after your work out. Think of it as interest earned on your workout investment. Your body soon learns it will need to be more active, and will attempt to save carbs to work out, carbs are the preferred fuel over fats or protein. So while just going about your day, you are burning fat, more fat than those lazy bones that do not work out.

Athletes need to do the focus of the day first while having fresh legs to get the most out of the work out, and to be fresh to avoid injury. Like where I am training for distance I run first then do resistance MWF, and an abdominal circuit T-TH. I need to get used to high output at the end of the race with depleted blood glucose. I am not really an athlete, but you get the picture. Where a football player (NFL type) would do explosive sprints or lifts on days opposite of skill drills. A five mile run is pointless, and asking for injury.

Typical work out

10 mins warm up circuit jumping jacks, elbow to knee, free hand squats, stair steps, ect ect ect

resistance exercises like off the floor lifts, lunges, overhead presses, bench or cable presses, pull up or lat pulls, about 20 mins

30 mins cardio of what ever gets you going

10 mins stretching to cool down. (no, we also no longer stretch before working out, this is found to weaken the muscle before it ever works, causes micro tears before activity)

I am the early to bed and early to rise person at my house. One thing I do enjoy, the quiet, noone else cluttering my mind with their thoughts and question.. :)  My own time belongs to me, and is not all about somebody else, as most of one's day is.  I love (most) people, but I recharge when alone.  Some mood music and cool wolf pictures.

At first I was thinking 'Thanks a "heck" of a a lot CBS, as if enough people don't already have an excuse to not exercise, you come out with this!"

But it is true, many trainers are totally incompetent. One of my past supervisors was beyond incompetent, and took it to a new level.

Regulation is not the answer. Look at all the law suits filed against doctors. Clients need to follow the buyer beware rule. Know if their traienr has a degree and is certified by a real agency. No gym I know will hire someone from Expert Rating, sheez!

When I go back to school, and if I go for a masters in Health/Fitness I think a decent thesis project just popped into my head.

With endurance athletes whose events last more than a hour part of the strategy is not just keeping them hydrated, but keeping their electrolytes in balance. You can become toxic from water if your electrolytes get out of balance. So when sweating for prolonged time, you lose the sodium.

When a doctor counsels a hypertensive patient one of the first things to cut back on is sodium.  Switch to the dash diet, medication, ect ect.

They just released a study where conditioned people and untrained people both ate a cheese burger, fries and soda. Their blood lipids for the first hour was not pretty. But within 90 minutes the conditioned folks had normal blood profiles again, while it took over two hours for the untrained people to return to normal blood profiles. So a similar study already exists. SO on second thought I will probably stay with my original plan.

I am considering a study on sleep apnea. People with disturbed sleep patterns are typically overweight or obese.  I hypothesise that even six weeks of very moderate exercise will improve sleep patterns. That alone will add to life span and life quality.

At home workouts with no equipment, home of the famous/infamous prison work out bunch.