My Strong Medicine

The adventures of a male nurse navigating through life, staying fit, surviving the journey.

Archive for October, 2010

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Synergy Athletics Shout Out

Posted by Sean on October 31, 2010

I had to take a moment to place a shout out and a huge ‘Way to go brother’ to a fellow Twitter friend and trainer Joe Hashey C.S.C.S. – find him here: @jhashey.

I bumped into Joe on Twitter (surprise) many moons ago. He’s my go-to guy when you need to revitalize your workouts or are looking for some fun and challenging ways to push your limits in the physical fitness arena.

I’ve upped my game many times this past summer thanks to Joe and his kick-a** workout regimen and suggestions over at Synergy Athletics.

He recently had a great article published in the November issue of Men’s Fitness. See below:

Men’s Fitness Go To Workout

A few months ago I was humbled by the editors of Men’s Fitness requesting a program to be featured in their November issue.

I immediately called my mom – a former English teacher – that I had an article coming out in the magazine!  I think she was more excited that I knew how to write over the workout routine! (Despite making mistakes on some site posts, I can still diagram the crap out of a sentence!)

Men’s Fitness has also posted the full routine online.  If you want to slap some muscle on with a classic routing check it out!

=>The FULL Go To Workout Routine <=

charlie hunnam mens fitness cover Mens Fitness Go To Workout

Men’s Fitness Go To Workout : Synergy Athletics – Muscle and Strength Training For Athletes

I was just dumbfounded that I not only read the workout and liked it, but I actually have conversed with the author! The internet is indeed small.

 

By the way, I’m a subscriber. Here’s my own edition:

004

Way to go Joe! Keep up the great work.

P.S. Who said Twitter wasn’t cool?!

Posted in fitness | 1 Comment »

Apple Plinko : Grocery Store Style

Posted by Sean on October 31, 2010

Oh c’mon. Ever watched a game show episode of  The Price is Right? The infamous game Plinko:

Plinkoseason37

Image source: Wikipedia

Well today at the grocery store during our weekly shopping trip I felt like I was on the show playing the game – only I was in the produce section trying to purchase apples.

001

You pick one, which causes a series of plinko-like movements of all the other apples surrounding the one you picked. Sometimes you don’t even actually pick up the darn apple! All you have to do is disturb it’s slumber, just a lil!

At one point I almost gave up picking out my apples! You try and find the ‘least’ bruised and the most ripe if possible.

If you’re not careful you will be hearing ‘Irv, clean-up in produce” (Remember Mr. Mom ?!).

For those of you who have been robbed of the ‘Mr. Mom’ experience- for your viewing pleasure:

Mr. MOM

Am I alone on this one?

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Young Frankenstein

Posted by Sean on October 31, 2010

I am still a huge fan of this odd movie. A classic Gene Wilder movie. The overt humor in this is just awesome.

Amplify’d from bitsandpieces.us

Young Frankenstein outtakes

See more at bitsandpieces.us
 
See this Amp at http://amplify.com/u/eb05

Posted in random | Tagged: | 8 Comments »

Bye Bye Blackberry and Helloh Android!

Posted by Sean on October 30, 2010

IMG00188-20101030-14422010-10-30_14-43-17_995

I am.. *cough* *cough*.. was a die-hard Blackberry user and promoter. I thought RIM & Blackberry were the end-all to be all when it came to mobile devices, PDA’s, portable professionalism and everything cutting edge. I was a Palm user who migrated over to the Blackberry world a couple years ago.

Blackberry was good to me. It suited all my needs for the most part. It played nice with my MS Outlook for the most part. It had applications I used for work, and the phone function was usually only slightly painful.

I even upgraded and took the plunge with the Blackberry Storm and eventually Storm2, and I wasn’t a big fan of touchscreen technology. I was a button-man.

Over the past year or so my Storm2 has slowly but surely nagged and disappointed the heck outta me. Everything from slow-lagging technology, debunk touchscreen capabilities and bogged down procession speeds. The programs I did have worked, but were clunky, and getting any new technology on the phone only amplified the already present ‘father-time’ issues.

I had every intention of getting an upgrade. I was patiently waiting on Verizon and the iPhone to play nice in the sandbox. I can’t say I was an iPhone fan, but I was willing to take the leap of faith based on what I had read, seen with my own two eyes and witness on other colleagues phones. The iPhone is what I needed for the next step in the evolution of my career. I needed a phone that was efficient, clean, effective and cutting edge. The technology out there for me and my career is astounding and quite honestly needed in order to advance your skills and your care.

So I’ve been waiting..

Watching…

Reading…

The dating dance that Verizon and the iPhone were having was quite exhausting. While listening to the rumors from the internet think-tanks and guru’s of all things MAC/Steve Jobs I kept seeing Google’s Android phones popping up on my radar.

I’d quietly review the latest releases. Compare it to my current phone and the potential iPhone. I’d even look at the newest Android phones from current users.

I couldn’t help but notice the overwhelming positivity it gained. I couldn’t find a shred of a drawback to this new-fangled player. The little bit I did hear, was all about the unknown, and newness of the market/devices.

I have seen major shifts in the iPhone following. One minute it’s the greatest device known to mankind, the next minute it is everyone’s nemesis. You have die-hard fans who fall deaf and mute to anything negative about the iPhone, then there are the users who actually dig beneath the surface of the famed device and tell it like it is.

Well, needless to say I got bored and grew tired of the darn iPhone/Verizon saga. I dived into the Android pool and the water is a comfortably warm spa-like atmosphere right now. I purchased a Droid X.

This phone is phenomenal compared to the Blackberry Storm2. Heck, the Storm2 doesn’t even deserve to be on the same table.

There isn’t anything slow about this device. The customization capabilities are ridiculously slick. Oh, and the ease of use is indescribable.

Needless to say – I’m hooked. This phone is like a ‘drug’! I was warned you can lose ‘days’ while playing with this new device.

I’m slowly starting to understand that now.

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Movie Review: Saw 3D – SAVE Your Money

Posted by Sean on October 30, 2010

 

So, we went and saw ‘Saw 3D’. I cannot begin to describe how disappointed we both were, me in particular!

ALERT: POSSIBLE MOVIE SPOILERS – READ AT YOUR OWN RISK

Some facts first:

We have followed the Saw movie series from creation to finish.

We have gone to every premiere weekend

All but one movie was what I would call intriguing.

The latter half of the series was really reaching for a storyline, but still managed to pique my interest each time.

The movies were (mostly) good at attempting ‘scary’ but not trying to overdo the fright-factor with transparent ‘gore’.

All in all we have been fans of the movie series.

With that in mind, I had high hopes for this last installment. Especially since it was touted as the completion of the ‘Saw’ journey. We’ve seen characters come and go. We’ve seen characters die and then pop back up in subsequent movies with the help of the ‘glimpses’ into the past that have applicable ramifications for the current storyline.

I think the whole ‘past vision’ effect is the meat and potatoes of this movie series. It is what kept Jigsaw alive, even when he was clearly dead a couple of movies ago.

So this current movie lost the ‘edge’. The traps weren’t moral tests, they were simply torture traps intended to elicit as much gore as possible. The more blood and ‘guts’ shed apparently boosts movie sales. It detracted so much from the original theme of the movie. But, then again, Jigsaw wasn’t in charge anymore.

**GRR**

Also the storyline circled. It was lacking in suspense and anticipation. I guess the idea for this movie was just kill everyone. No exceptions.

**GRR**

OH! And the movie was in 3D?! We were charged extra for these disposable glasses to enhance our movie experience right? Well, the only 3D we got to see was mostly in the previews. There were less than a handful of ‘something coming at you moments’ that weren’t breath taking in any way. In my humble (yet biased) opinion, the creators of this last movie made the move and started to print it when someone had the brilliant idea to go back and ‘make’ it a 3D movie. Making the movie 3D will of course boost sales!

In the end, this movie was full of bloat, shortcomings and disappointment. From the point of view of an avid SAW movie series fanatic – they really didn’t deliver on their end of the bargain.

A small part of me is glad the series is over now.

In the end, the series became a sell out simply because they didn’t know how to finish what they started.

I hope you save your money folks. I hope you save your money.

Posted in opinion | Tagged: | 1 Comment »

Is Daylight Saving Time Bad For Your Health?

Posted by Sean on October 30, 2010

This was an interesting article with an interesting viewpoint on how health, exercise, safety and wellness can be influenced by increased number of sunlight during waking hours.

The only problem to the postulation is that there is a vast majority of health-going exercisers who are up earlier than the sun to fit in their particular regimen. How is sunlight going to benefit or detract from their lifestyle?
I do however think the sleep-loss, driving difficulties, and possible workplace injuries can and are related to the lack of sunlight. Being ‘in the dark’ has its challenges.
Equating more sunlight to improved health is quite a leap. But then again aren’t most great ideas born from this very concept?

Amplify’d from www.medpagetoday.com

Turning Back the Clocks a Bad Idea, Scholar Says

Daylight saving time ends this weekend in Europe and next weekend in the U.S., but extending it could help couch potatoes get more exercise and might also reduce the incidence of depression, a British social policy scholar argues.

“It must be rare to find a means of vastly improving the health and well-being of nearly everyone in the population; here we have it,” Mayer Hillman, PhD, of the University of Westminster in London, wrote online in BMJ.

“The source of the problem is that on average over the year only one or two of our waking hours in the mornings are spent in darkness whereas nearly half of the 10 to 11 waking hours after midday are in darkness. The critical limiting factor is obviously the onset of dusk.”

He continued, “As most children are restricted from going out after dark, the lighter evenings would enable parents to let them spend more time outdoors. A significant majority of older people impose a curfew on themselves, preventing them from going out after dark, owing to anxiety about assault, and poorer vision and hearing.”

Hillman argued that adding one to two hours of daylight in the evening would more than compensate for the hour lost in the morning. In an e-mail to MedPage Today, he pointed out that, for more than half the year, most people would still be asleep during that hour of extended darkness.

“As far as exercise — less clear — because as we all know, even in the summer many people do not engage in regular exercise. However, it will certainly allow more opportunity to exercise and enhance ability to engage in both social and physical activities,” she wrote.

But he cautioned that putting more daylight into the evening would not necessarily translate into more outdoor exercise, a point made bluntly by another researcher as well.

Hillman’s proposal “assumes that a lack of daylight is somehow a barrier to exercise. I don’t know of any evidence for that,” scoffed Goutham Rao, MD, clinical director of the Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh’s weight management clinic.

“Americans have plenty of opportunity to exercise indoors, where daylight is less of an issue,” Rao said in an e-mail.

Most research has focused on the short-term effects of resetting the clocks. Several studies have found increases in traffic accidents and workplace injuries the Monday after the spring implementation of daylight saving time. Researchers have blamed sleep loss associated with the hour cut from Sunday morning.

He said the benefit would be greatest around the spring and fall equinoxes rather than during high summer when, he acknowledged, “there is already more than adequate daylight and sunlight.”

“The attractions of more ‘accessible’ daylight hours would be appreciated not only after coming home from work and school but also at weekends,” Hillman said.

“If more sunlight equates to more ‘doing” as opposed to reflecting or stopping to simply be, which has traditionally been a piece of the winter experience, will we lose something?”

Read more at www.medpagetoday.com
 
See this Amp at http://amplify.com/u/e911

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If You Don’t Use It–You…

Posted by Sean on October 29, 2010

Chirpee

GETfizzYcaL: Chirpees (Back, Legs, Chest, Triceps, Biceps & Abs)

If you don’t use it, you lose it.

I haven’t done Chirpees in almost 6 weeks, and boy did it show. I got winded quickly, the muscle burn fatigue set in and my lungs were also iced.

Whew.. need to build back my tolerance with those.

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TRON: LEGACY–New Video

Posted by Sean on October 29, 2010

Yep, I’m still talking about it.

Quorra saves Sam

 

Yep, I’m gonna keep talking about it.

I. Am. SO. Psyched.

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged: , | 1 Comment »

I'll Tumblr For Ya

Posted by Sean on October 29, 2010

tumblr

So after visiting, leaving, re-visiting, and leaving it for dead. I’ve decide to use my Tumblr blog again. This time I’m going to try and use it for its community as well as make an attempt at the project365 again.

I’m going to TRY my best to take a picture everyday and see how it goes.

I signed up for the project365 website, but I just didn’t need another website account. I’m already spread too thin. I’ve pretty much given up on my Posterous account since it’s just a reflection of my blog, and I’m using Tumblr for the pictures and sharing blog posts because I’m starting to follow fellow fitness enthusiasts in the Tumblr community.

We’ll see how it develops.

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Is My Higher Education Worth It?

Posted by Sean on October 29, 2010

What is a Masters Degree Worth?
Via: Masters Degree

 

Things that make you go hmm..

Posted in health, random | Tagged: | 3 Comments »

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