Today's episode covers:

• Flat tyres 
• Trigger points again
• Muscle Activation again
• Stretching - and how to achieve the side split safely

Bicycle Radio NZ - Monday, June 11th 2012 (episode 12) (right click to save)

I don't have time to add links but you can try searching for:

"stretching scientifically" "tom kurz" "trigger points" "neurological facilitation" "muscle activation techniques" "crossfit" "10 minute squat - YouTube" "sock dock" "maffetone"

Absolutely, Radically, Incredible, Life Changing Links (so says Sam)!

During the course of my Internet, life I have come across a number of websites that have made a huge difference to my life and my thinking.  I thought that I would be nice enough to share these with the world.  Following is a brief description and a link to the websites that have made a radical difference in my life.  If I’ve forgotten any, I will likely update this post to keep them all in the one place.

Creativity and Self Improvement Links (Including productivity resources)
http://www.ted.com/ Fantastic videos on all manner of creativity and innovation, often with a technology focus.  Check our Sir Ken Robinson’s talk on how schools can kill creativity.

http://www.fourhourworkweek.com/blog/ The blog of Tim Ferriss.  Here you will find all manner of interesting ideas to improve (hack) your life.  Tim has spent most of his adult life experimenting with ways to improve efficiency in life in order to maximise personal gain from minimal input of effort.  Some topics include: weight-loss, muscle gain, learning languages in mere hours, and much more

http://www.wikipedia.org/ Source of much useful and interesting information

http://www.google.co.nz/ Self explanatory.  The entire suite of google software is incredibly useful and integrates nicely with other google components.  Productivity and efficiency is easily found via google “stuff”.  Fantastic google “stuff” includes:  Google Translate, Google Mail (gmail), Google Docs, Google Maps, YouTube, and more lately I’ve been using Google Reader to make one super blog.  Also, Blogger, of course (this site) for making my various blogs.

http://www.facebook.com/ Social networking in a very powerful and integrated way.  Also fantastic for building communities of people for marketing or just to share interests.

Physical Development and Health Links (Including parkour and martial arts)
http://stadion.com/ Stadion publishers.  Here’s their blurb: No-Nonsense Authority on Stretching and Flexibility, Mental Toughness, Strength, Speed, Power, Jumping Ability, Endurance, Coordination, Agility, and Technique for All Sports and Martial Arts, Sports Injuries, and Sports Nutrition

http://www.nzparkour.co.nz/ New Zealand’s online parkour community that I’ve been heavily involved in for the last four years.  

Christian Links
http://www.str.org/site/PageServer Stand to Reason, Equipping Christian Ambassadors with Knowledge, Wisdom, and Character.

http://carm.org/ Christian Apologetics and Research Ministry.  Matt Slick started up this website, full of answers for Christians who encounter challenges to the Christian faith.  Rational and reasonable answers to non-christian cult groups, atheists, and more.  This was particularly useful to me in my early walk.  

http://www.desiringgod.org/ The ministry of John Piper.  Many, many online resources and links to other reliable Christian sites.
http://www.e-sword.net/ Free bible study software. Fantastic and very powerful. This, or something like it, should be in every Christian's arsenal of bible study tools.

And...
Some sites that I’m experimenting with and can see the potential of:  Stumbleupon, Delicious.

I’m reconsidering using Twitter again as a bit of an experiment also.  I’m quite interested in developing myself as a writer.  The biggest obstacle in doing this is developing an audience in a moral way (non-spamming and non-annoying: subscribe, rate, embed!!!).  The best way to do this is to give something of value to that audience while in return getting their support and readership.  It can’t be done without building a positive community that passes around the “good stuff” by word of mouth (or the electronic equivalents, e.g. stumbleupon).  That is what has prompted the use of many of these websites, i.e. a way of getting the word out to people who might have an interest in what I have to offer.  Like-minded people who enjoy my take on life.

This will be an evolving page, so check back from time to time, recommend it to others who might find this useful, and please suggest any web sites or web tools that you think I might like to check out and/or add.

Thank you, and have a great week!

Sam

“Old” Age and Physical Training

Today I’ve been pondering why older people (60+) training seems less common than younger age groups.  There are a lot of possible reasons that I’ve heard, but what it seems to come down to is a lack of time, determination, and education about how the body responds to exercise.  I’ll list a few common reasons that older folk tend not to train, and I will then proceed to “teach my grandmother to suck eggs” and show that almost none of these reasons can be used to justify a lack of physical training.

Some reasons why older people do not train (either much, or at all)

1. It is too hard on their bodies - it hurts to train and it takes a long time to recover.
2. My joints cannot handle the training load like they used to.
3. I’m afraid that I will hurt myself now that I am old.
4. I’m too busy.
5. I’ve never really exercised in my life, so why start now when I’m already old?
6. I wouldn’t know where to start.

I’m almost certain you will have heard several of these from friends or relatives.  I’ve even heard a number of them from people in their early thirties!

What we now have to consider is the few older athletes that continue exercising regularly, and who maintain good physical health, well into “old age”.  Are they genetic freaks who can do this without trying?  Or is there something that they do which anyone can tap into?  If we believe 64 year old Sylvester Stallone, it takes “scientific ways with new equipment” to keep in shape, and you have to constantly battle pain and a loss of flexibility associated with age.

Let’s look at some responses to these reasons:
Is it really too hard on older bodies to train?  The obvious answer is: NO!  Like anything, you must train within your ability.  There is no point in trying to run a marathon or lift 200kg if you haven’t trained for it.  After the kids leave home, a lot of older people find that they are left with a life of routines that were adapted around their kids and almost none of their time went to maintaining exercise routines or developing physical fitness.  The biggest hurdle to overcome is finding out what you are capable of, and accepting that it will be much lower because of years of inactivity.  It can be a real hit to the pride to have to start small and slow, and the longer you delay the lower you will have to start.  The good news is that as long as you can heal from wounds and put on weight, you are pretty much physically capable of developing your muscles and improving your joint health and flexibility.  Recovery time may be long, but as long as you can recover you are still in the game.

It may be true that your joints are weak, but this is normal for anyone of any age if they have not worked out or eaten the right nutrients to maintain good joint health.  Of course, some people will have diseases such as arthritis, but for goodness sake get it diagnosed by a doctor instead of carrying on using it as an excuse not to exercise.  Once you know what your ailments are and the limitations they cause, you can then design your exercise routine to get around them.  If your hands are too sore to hold weights then you can use your lower body more.  Creative thinking of determined minds should be able to come up with a solution.

Fear, a busy life, bad habits, etc. are all things that need to be overcome by everyone at any level of physical ability.  These should never be insurmountable obstacles.  Too many reasons come down to a lack of self discipline and mental toughness, both of which can be developed at any age.  Even an old dog can learn tricks with enough determination and the right resources.

Which brings me to the last objection: education.  If you don’t know enough to start training then just ask someone.  Eventually you will come across a person who can direct you to videos, books, and people that can guide you.  I don’t know a more comprehensive source of information than www.stadion.com where the main man, Tom Kurz (over 50) often demonstrates the principles that his books contain.  You can see an example of Tom at age 50 demonstrating how to maintain his splits, clearly showing that most people have a very wrong notion about what older bodies are capable of:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eGjEeChs4tk

I have seen a video on YouTube of a 60+ year old woman performing parkour movements.  I worked with an amazing gentleman who ran a marathon on his first day of retirement.  I’ve seen ancient martial arts gurus holding their own against young whipper-snappers.

“Old” age is no excuse, just another obstacle to overcome.