The End of an Era- Nike Frees

The Death of My Beloved Nike Frees

The Day has come and I am extremely sad. Yesterday as I was squatting I realized that the sides of my age-old Nike Frees were giving more than they should be. These shoes have been with me through two knee surgeries and a foot surgery. Over the past 4 years, I have grown to love them. I will still be able to wear them around, but I believe that it'd be best to not wear them to workout any more. (maybe I still can on upper body days)

The replacements-

I am hoping to invest in a nice pair of Vibram Five Fingers in the near future. I have heard so many great things about them and I would like to give them a try. 

These are my feet. 

Until I can get my hands on a pair, I will be using my other pair of Nikes. These aren't Frees and in turn, in my opinion, are nowhere near as good. I like to switch up things so I don't get bored and that is the reason I don't plan on getting another pair of Frees. If the Vibrams don't turn out the way I want. I believe I will most likely search for a pair similar to my old Frees. 

What Are 5 Things That You Have Learned Today?

What Have You Learned Today?

You learn something every day. You may think back on your day and say, “Today seemed pretty ordinary, I must not have learned anything.” This is wrong. If you think about it the right way you will realize that you picked up some tidbit of information that you may have not originally thought was new to you. These can be small, but they’re always there.

There is one reason that I think of things this way and I “blame” it on my mom. When I was in middle school, every day that I saw her after school she would ask me, “So, what did you learn today.” 95% of the time I told her that I hadn’t learned a single thing the whole day. This went on for a long time, with me continuing every day saying that I hadn’t learned anything. After a while I started noticing when I learned something new more often. I would write down at least a few things that I had learned during the day. Most times it was random facts; I have always loved knowing as many random facts as possible, but sometimes it would be simple nuances about somebody that I didn’t know before. Being a stubborn middle school kid, I kept it to myself and kept telling her that I didn’t learn anything. Oops. 

I’m not going to pretend that I do this every day, but I do it often enough. I don’t often write them down like I used to. I feel that I’m at the point that if I just think about the things that I learned in a day, it is good enough for me. I think that doing this has opened my eyes to being able to judge people’s character more easily and realize how often you actually learn something new. If you don’t realize that you are learning, it doesn’t stick in your memory as well. Try to look at the world through a different lens and think back to what you did today and pick out 5 things that you learned today.

5 Things That I Learned Today

1. Subway Has Free WiFi-

Image from Subway.com

               Today I was studying hard for my anatomy lab quiz today (muscles that move the elbow and wrist) and I needed a break from my environment and needed food. Instead of wasting time cooking I took a trip to Subway with my notes and computer in tow. Not knowing whether I could use the internet at Subway I was prepared to go to the Library after I ate. Instead as I was walking in I saw a sign saying “Free WiFi” so I got a sub and camped out for a few hours.

I think I did well on the quiz as well.

2. How to Properly Front Squat-

               During my workout today I decided to front squat. This is something that I haven’t done too often throughout my life and I wasn’t exactly sure how to do it. So I used my observation skills and mimicked someone to the best of my ability, but I felt way too much pressure in my wrists. When I got home I looked up how to front squat better so that next time I can do much better.

              

  Taking a few fingers off the bar when you front squat will relieve the pressure on your wrists.

I read a great article on proper form and how to front squat more at T-Nation Front Squat Tips

3. I know Spanish a LOT Better Now Than the Beginning of the Semester-

               We had an in-class essay today and it went incredibly well. The words just flowed onto my paper without too much effort. This is a pretty nice observation because I would really like to keep improving.

4. I Haven’t Reached a Plateau on my Dead-Lift Yet-

               I was worried that I was about to plateau in Deadlift after having a poor showing during last week’s deadlift day. I was sore for a few days and I probably over-did it a little. Taking the weekend off and feeding my body a little more than usual did great for my recovery and today I set my new Personal Best at 195Kg. I want to keep moving up and be around 215Kg in the next month or so.

5. I Haven’t Been Drinking Enough Water-

               I had been doing so well, for the longest period of time in my life, drinking enough water each and every single day. Just today I realized that the last 2 weeks I have been drinking about ¼ of what I had been drinking. I’m going to blame this on becoming content with drinking water as I felt I needed it, and that it’s harder to drink a lot of water when it’s cold outside. So, as of today, I’m drinking a ton of water again. Yay me!

               Think of one thing that you learned or realized today. If you have time please comment yours below. I would love to read all of your newly found knowledge. If you have a lot of time, list as many as you feel necessary. The more comments, the happier I will be. :)

Today’s Workout-

6x6 Slow on the way down Pull-ups

3x6 then 3x2 then 1x1 Deadlift

3x6 Front Squat

3x6 T-Bar Rows

4x8 Inverted Bodyweight Rows

4x6 Cable Rows

10 Things You Can Do to Be More Productive

10 Things You Can Do to Be More Productive-

            Fitness requires a fine balance between all the separate aspects of your life. Every aspect of your life pulls the others in certain directions either towards or away from being fit. Being able to stay productive is one of the characteristics that make being an overall “fit” individual possible. When it takes you four hours to do a simple task that should have taken one, you lose three hours that could have been spent working on other parts of your fitness (*coughcough working out cough*) Having more time available to you, will also create a less stressful life. Having always been near the top of the unproductive group of the world, by necessity, I have come up with ways that I stay productive.

1. Create a list of things that are productive and a list of things that are unproductive-

           Use this list to determine whether the activity that you are currently participating in is productive or not. If the activity is productive, keep on rocking. If it’s unproductive, determine what you should be doing instead.

2. Give yourself some time for being unproductive-

Set a timer to a certain amount of time while you are doing an unproductive task and make sure you stop when the timer is up.

3. Take breaks-

 Nobody can stay focused and productive forever. If you've been really productive, you deserve to take a break. If you have time and you've been productive for a long period of time, you need a longer break, go workout. It will give you a huge boost of energy and really, I have working out on my list of things I NEED to do anyway. Two birds, one stone.

4. Do Push-ups while working-

While I’m doing homework, I often find myself straining to stay on the productive task. If I force myself to do pushups every 15 minutes that elapse with my homework unfinished, regardless of what I spent the time on, I find that I crank out homework quickly and efficiently without wasting as much time.

5. Try using a White Noise generator-

Simplynoise.com

block outside noise and help keep your mind clutter free. On your computer, I suggest http://simplynoise.com/   3 separate types of noise and an oscillation mode to change it up. My favorite is “brown noise” with the oscillator on.

6. Figure out what certain types of music does to your productivity levels.

 I find that during normal homework, such as prob

lem solving and note-regurgitation, I excel listening to soft soothing music that I am familiar with so I disregard any lyrics. During essay writing, I find myself being much more productive listening to high-paced techno. I’m sure everyone is different, figure out what is best for you.

7. Get rid of cable-  

               All having cable does for you is gives you a reason to waste time. If you have a show you watch, there are other ways to watch shows without cable. Having the ability at all times to flip on the TV and surf and waste time watching shows you don’t even like, is a productivity killer.

8. Take tasks in chunks-

               When you have something you need to do. Cut the task into much smaller mini-tasks. If you think of how much you have to do, it really takes away from your ability to start. If you have 8 smaller things to do, it won’t be as hard to start.

9. Drink More Water-

               If you are dehydrated you will have less energy an

d nobody wants to be productive when they’re tired. Remember that if you are feeling thirsty at all, you are already dehydrated.

10. Lose Yourself-

               Make yourself available to only do your work. If it isn’t necessary for your work turn off the internet. Have someone (hopefully not too evil) change your social media passwords for the period of time you need to work. “Lose” your phone in the other room. The world is full of distractions and the less distractions, the better.

Today's Workout

4x4 Bench Press

4x4 Incline DB press

4x10 Weighted Dips

3x8 DB Flyes

3x8 Skull-Crusher