Chevy350TPI

The next person who accuses me of being on steroids will get severely beat. I'm tired of dealing with this shit ... and have been for the past 10 years.

Stress is a bitch. I felt pretty lethargic for a while and dropped a few pounds. I noticed my workouts turning to shit as well. In my case it was severe high blood pressure. I caught it early and solved the problem right away - I started knocking off stressors one by one until I was 100% ok - HBP is the 'silent killer' See a doctor/walk-in-clinic/something and explain the situation. It could really be anything from extreme stress to a hormone imbalance (either brain or stomach). Keep going with that meal schedule ... even throw in something around 3:00PM - along with your 10:00AM snack, have a handful of chicken wings, a salad, or a cup of rice along with the fruit if possible. Same for the 3:00PM one. I eat more in my 12 hour shift at work than I ever have before in that same time period.

And to think I just watched Deliverance last night on nightshift ....

Producing zinc, lead, copper, gold, silver, bismuth, cadmium, indium, germanium, acids, fertilizers, and a couple others out of rock dug up from mines. Briefly ... the smelter (Kivcet furnace) melts stuff and pours it into blocks. The lead refinery has a 6 day process of refining (anodes/cathodes) ... they remelt it and do their thing to it. The leftovers come into the silver refinery where it is melted and separated into #1 dore slag and black metal. The black metal is granulated and the slag is sent back to the smelter for further refining. The black metal is dumped into burndown furnaces which fumes off bismuth, arsenic, antimony, selenium, thallium, etc. Two more furnaces, the BBOC and TBRC further refine and finally sheets of silver are produced. The silver has some chemical treatment and what is left is black sand. The silver is remelted and further refined and then cast into bars (1000 ounce bars, 72 per day). The black sand is refined and produces gold which is also cast into a r (800-1000 ounces, 1 bar per day). Zinc bars are also produced in a different plant on the property and used in some of the processes in the refinery and the rest sold.

I don't teach during the summer semester ... I take it off to work on my research. I have worked at this job previously, and it was easier to re-hire someone who is already trained to relieve for guys taking holidays. Trust me, I only took it for the money - we're not allowed to take pictures, but this plant is the definition of heavy industry.

I stand over a 2200F furnace containing molten metal for 12 hours of a day wearing 3 ft/s coveralls, thermal long underwear and long sleeve shirt, a respirator, and a molten metal splash jacket ... and it is 109F outside. On the way up to the lunch room, still in the plant but not near the furnaces, the air temperature is 158F. At least I'm not getting shot at.

Don't do anything unless the full range of motion is painless. It just isn't worth risking further damage.

Happy Birthday!

Machines are pieces of shit for the most part. I'm sticking my neck out, but I'll openly say that, in my opinion, they can be very detrimental. Smith machine is an absolute waste of time. Use a squat/power rack. The Smith machine has a time and place ... for beginners learning the motions of very complex movement patterns. RE: Aaron doing more cardio than lifting - good for you. The gym is usually backwards ... females on cardio and males lifting weights. Males should be doing more cardio so we don't die from heart diseases, and females should be lifting heavy weights as the benefits are huge vs. a female who doesn't. RE: Creatine. Drink lots of water. RE: Scott - good work - keep it up! Gym has been limited for me. Someone took time off so I managed to pick up their shift ... although that makes me work 12 days straight and then four off (4x4 shift, 6-6, 2 day/2 night/4 off). I still get there but there isn't any point in doing over 85% 1RM.

To add bulk (hypertrophy) ... you must do a lot of work. 9-12 reps @ 70-80% 1RM for 3-6 sets. Strength ... 6 or less reps @ 85%+ 1RM for 2-6 sets. Endurance ... 25+ reps @ 65% or less 1RM for 2-3 sets. Power (single effort event) ... 1-2 reps @ 80-90% 1RM for 3-5 sets. Power (multiple effort event) ... 3-5 reps @ 75-85% 1RM for 3-5 sets. On this continuum, obviously I have illustrated that a certain RM will produce a certain outcome. However, you must understand that at any given RM, the results are blended. PS: Endurance is not 15+ reps at all ... common myth that gets passed around and believed by the common gym-goer.

Absolutely.

Shoulders, upper back, triceps, and biceps will likely be your focus. Chest and legs shouldn't be neglected. You already have a solid foundation being that you grew up on a farm. I'm somewhat familiar with the sport and the ISSF/NSSF. Right off the bat the front raise is a great shoulder exercise. I don't have much time right now to elaborate unfortunately as my work schedule is absolutely insane at the moment. I'll get back on this as soon as possible.

18-19 here, 20+ would be great In the Mazda ... ~ 45mpg on the highway @ 68-80mph. Running around the city ~ 25-33mpg. I'd be lucky to back out of the driveway and not drop a tank in the bloody Silverados. The IROC is worse. Needless to say, we have both been taking the bikes to work lately. The way I look at it though ... it cost me $125 to fill the truck before gas prices shot way up, now I pay $140 (an extra $15 per tank). If I fill up twice a month, that's an extra $30 per month. Whoop dee f!cking doo ...

Not in any sort of order. 1. Always listen to those with experience. 2. Don't smoke, do drugs, drink, or pick up hitchhikers. 3. You don't have to deal with the shit you take every day from other people. 4. Start saving money as soon as you can ... the earlier you start the better. Begin an RRSP as early as you can and don't touch it. 5. Life is progressive - when you stop learning, you stop moving. Everyone should experience working in heavy industry as well as sitting in a college lecture hall learning ... make well rounded individuals. 6. Ask questions. 7. It's about who you know and what they can do for you. 8. Earn the respect you want. 9. True strength is when you keep moving forward when everyone else would have given up. 10. There is a difference between talking and doing. A lot of people talk ... that's great ... talking and wishful thinking won't get it done. 11. Obstacles are seen once you take your eyes off of the goal. A couple sayings in Italian that were drilled into me from day one ... A chi dai il dito si prende anche il braccio - give them a finger and they'll take an arm. Chi va piano, va sano; chi va sano, va lontano - he who goes softly, goes safely; he who goes safely, goes a long way.

Happy Birthday!

No kidding. You see a lot of police officers and enforcement here not wearing them. Too cool I guess.

Welcome to Beautiful British Columbia. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ymLP608cC2M

We had a little bit of fun today. More pics later.

So ... today I found myself standing with some little white remote control type thing in my hand staring at a TV and bowling. Those little Wii things are nuts.

Very clever, Aaron Anyway, off topic is off topic - I think we have plenty of sections already, if you want to subsection the off topic section too then we may as well rename to OT.com. Cooking, fitness, world news/politics, travel/outdoors, popular media, etc etc would just become too much. In my opinion, and even I am guilty at this point ... we should use this off topic section a little more. The ihop is GREAT for bullshitting, but if we have completely separate discussions (like my cooking question, for example), venture into the main off topic section and create a new thread for all to reply to.

We have a garden and grow most of our vegetables ourselves. Being Italian, we plant far too many tomato plants and wind up giving bags of them away. I'll use them once they are ready to go along with the steak.

Awesome - thanks so very much! I really can't wait to try this out. I will let you know how it goes. Thanks for the beef browning/toast comparison - I get how it is supposed to look now and will cook it in smaller portions versus trying to cook the entire 1.5kg package. I'll use lean ground beef to reduce the grease, even though the grease is removed anyway.

Sean, do you have a very simple chili recipe? I'm going to assume the basics are ground beef, canned tomatos, onion, beans, peppers, seasoning, etc. I've looked online and found a lot - just wondering if you had anything handy or would recommend before I make a weeks worth and find out that it was a bogus online recipe. Only requirement is that it cannot be very spicy ... it needs to sit fairly well in my stomach. I'm looking for basic meals I can cook in advance, place in containers, and have them sit in the fridge until I'm ready to go to work. I need to take advantage of my three breaks during the twleve hour shift. Chili is very easy and it doesn't take much for me to zap it at work, so that is a go. I can cook a chicken breast and warm that up with something on the side as well ... simple meals like that are great.