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I've got some fitness stuff on my list; a swiss bar (not ball, bar) and a texas power bar. And rubber floor mats for the deadlifting.

I don't think I'm getting any of them though

paulWTAMU wrote:

any advice on really good humidifiers?

If your furnace is running when you need humidifying (like here in Canada) then a whole-house humidifier on the furnace is the way to go.

For the last two days I've been the only person in my office to actually make it in (there are only 5 of us, 2 of them work remotely most of the time, the other two are wasting vacation days since they don't roll over, and I assume that's why they one of them "called in sick"). I'm getting more done with less distractions - though here I am on TR right now - than I normally do.

I think we've all had days like that. Some of the days I've worked from home (I can be pretty sick and still work damnit, even if they don't want me at the office) have been my most productive!
Fewer distractions and you don't feel like you have to waste time dealing with other people

I have to back up the humidifier, as a fellow texan, I have to use one from about October to March, sometimes April. It really works wonders.

Stuck in the HS auditorium for the daughter's winter concert and the parents jockeying for the best spot from which to video recalls the free-for all in the" taper's seats" at Dead shows.

EDIT: Must be that school administrations are a lot cooler with religious choral music in school than they used to be here in VT. Out of 4 separate choirs and 12 songs, 10 were specifically religious (80/20 Christian/Jewish) with some good old Church Latin and the Israeli national anthem ("Hatikvah') thrown in for kicks. The band side (where my daughter is) stuck with stuff like Charlie Brown and Grinch medleys as well as the hoary old classic "Sleigh Ride". At least the quality level is a vast improvement over middle school.

I've had to make my wife a few whips over the years after she's destroyed the previous one in a rendition of Sleigh Ride. We have a trumpet player in the concert band I play with that can do a far better horse sound at the end than most of the recordings I've heard.

notfred wrote:

I've had to make my wife a few whips over the years after she's destroyed the previous one in a rendition of Sleigh Ride. We have a trumpet player in the concert band I play with that can do a far better horse sound at the end than most of the recordings I've heard.

The whinny was a bit weak, but the whip cracks were played by large popped balloons. As the band teacher explained pre-song it was a tradition in his college band (and he don't look more than 5 years out if that) to come up with creative ways to do the whip snaps without a whip or slap sticks, so he charged his kids with finding same. Knowing the local HS population I'm somewhat surprised that we didn't end up with something like the end of The Who's one and only performance on The Smothers Brothers Show.

3 days of antibiotics for trhe sinus and ear infections and I feel human again I love medicine.

I finally felt good enough to do something physical so I just did a max out on OHP; got 205 Hopefully I'll be up for an actual workout tomorrow too, so I can hit up some deadlifts and a bench workout. Bench'll be a bit shoddy from maxing on OHP today but oh well.

My gosh Paul, get that humidifier NOW. They can really help with sinus/ear infections to help you sleep and get over them a lot quicker. Seriously. Do it.

paulWTAMU wrote:

3 days of antibiotics for trhe sinus and ear infections and I feel human again I love medicine.

I finally felt good enough to do something physical so I just did a max out on OHP; got 205 Hopefully I'll be up for an actual workout tomorrow too, so I can hit up some deadlifts and a bench workout. Bench'll be a bit shoddy from maxing on OHP today but oh well.

What, if any, routine do you follow? I started Ripptoes starting strength a few years ago but had a major case of dick-around-itus. I was 120lbs give or take, I 'm at 160lbs now with a decent body re composition. I'm using a blueprint from Layne Norton (http://www.simplyshredded.com/mega-feat ... -2011.html) Search for "Day 1: Upper Body Power Day" and that is the start of my routine. It's a good mix of power, speed, and hypertrophy exercises. I'm usually crushed and tired as hell by the end of it. Yesterday I had to stop and fore go 2 sets of rack-chins (replacement for lat pulldowns) because my back and arms were so pumped I had no range of motion. Feels good mang. I'm still bulking, I want to hit about 185 then cut the fat to 175 or so. I'm only 5'5" so brick **** it is. I think I'm even more focuses than I was a few years ago as I near the 30 year mark. *gulp*.

steelcity_ballin wrote:

I'm still bulking, I want to hit about 185 then cut the fat to 175 or so. I'm only 5'5" so brick **** it is. I think I'm even more focuses than I was a few years ago as I near the 30 year mark. *gulp*.

Man, that's a bulky 5'5". I'm almost 6' and I weigh about 180. Give or take a few pounds. Lean is where it's at.

I'm 260; my weight loss has hit the skids with the holidays and the kid. I'm hoping to just keep from gaining any, then resume weight loss after the holidays. My waist went up an inch but I've stopped that and now it's holding steady. Weight still fluctates, but of course I'm also adding muscle.

Right now I'm just doing 2 lifts, 3x a week; squats on Tuesday and Sunday and deads on Thursday, 3x8. I alternate OHP and bench press. It's quick, I go all out on those sets and that's it. Some cool down stretching and I'm done and back in. The kid's starting to kinda-sorta settle into a sleep pattern so hopefully by January I will be totally recovered and be able to get more than 5 hours at a stretch. When that happens I plan to add back in dumbbell rows and curls (alternating them) and pull ups and maybe RDLs on squat day and lunges on dead day. It's amazing how much harder a workout is with 1-2 more lifts in it, and right now I just can't recover from it. I'm kind of limited on equipment because I lift at home: squat rack, bar, plates, bench. I also have some old injuries apparently--skull crushers hurt my elbows like a mother, step ups make my left knee swell up like balloon, etc.


I personally have had really good results with 3x8 back in college; I tried the 3x5 from SS for a few months and it didn't work as well for me. Sure I could push heavier weights for reps using 3x5 but it didn't seem to result in as much growth for my maximal strength. With 3x8 I have to drop the weights pretty significantly relative to one rep max (for instance, 145 for OHP for 3x8 vs a 205 max) but I seem to get good results on strength with it.

I plan to buy a humidifier I just haven't yet.

Mayan Calendar Iphone app on sale !! Get it while you can !!

http://www.mayan-calendar.com/phone.html

Only 99¢, whatta bargain !!

The snow is coming. Not terrible yet because it's still like 33F, so it's not sticking to anything but the cars. But my wife has to work until midnight, and her ride home could be rough.

Anybody else got it yet?

I'm in Wichita right now. We got some last night (Wednesday). It wasn't too bad, but it was really windy. About half an inch to an inch all over the city. Could have been worse.

Yeah I think that's basically what we're going to wind up with, a little more. Maybe as much as 2". Loads of wind and plenty of down power lines.

DancinJack wrote:

steelcity_ballin wrote:

I'm still bulking, I want to hit about 185 then cut the fat to 175 or so. I'm only 5'5" so brick **** it is. I think I'm even more focuses than I was a few years ago as I near the 30 year mark. *gulp*.

Man, that's a bulky 5'5". I'm almost 6' and I weigh about 180. Give or take a few pounds. Lean is where it's at.

I've been 'lean' most of my life - I like being strong more! I'm only at about 15% bodyfat right now, mostly because I eat 3000+ calories a day. I could drop that to 10% or better inside of 2 months if I wanted to, but it'd stifle my goals in the short term.Once I fill out to wear I want to be strength and composition/aesthetic-wise, I'll get leaner. Definition is still pretty good at ~15% (Using calipers - I'd love to get a DEXA scan though!).

Paul you should toss in some ass-to-grass squats or you'll have the big upper body/chicken legs thing going! I half-assed my lower body hypertrophy yesterday, legs still feel like jello this morning. I just keep telling myself it'll be worth it

steelcity_ballin wrote:

I've been 'lean' most of my life - I like being strong more! I'm only at about 15% bodyfat right now, mostly because I eat 3000+ calories a day. I could drop that to 10% or better inside of 2 months if I wanted to, but it'd stifle my goals in the short term.Once I fill out to wear I want to be strength and composition/aesthetic-wise, I'll get leaner. Definition is still pretty good at ~15% (Using calipers - I'd love to get a DEXA scan though!).

Paul you should toss in some ass-to-grass squats or you'll have the big upper body/chicken legs thing going! I half-assed my lower body hypertrophy yesterday, legs still feel like jello this morning. I just keep telling myself it'll be worth it

I wouldn't try to drop much more body fat. 10% is pretty low. Losing body fat will come with the muscle growth and a good diet, as I'm sure you know. As long as you're doing some cardio, I wouldn't worry much about body fat at this point. The reason I say that is that unless you're a "elite" athlete there are downsides to having less than 10-15% body fat. I'm sure you have done your research though and know what you're doing.

During high school I was one of those crazy wrestlers that dropped ~15 and even up to 20 pounds in 7-10 days sometimes to make weight. Even then my body fat wasn't over 15%. It was not a pleasant time. FLUIDS FLUIDS FLUIDS.

I squat 2x a week and deadlift once a week...I do high bar ATGs since I don't like low bar very much. It's part of why the weights I use on squats are fairly light. You can't do nearly as much when you go well below parallel.

So, the homeowner roommate is with his folks in another state for the holidays, and after the coldest night of the year, we wake up yesterday morning with the temperature in the house at 66F and dropping. Lo, for the blower motor in the $5k, 10yo Amana furnace is headed toward the great HVAC playground in the sky, and revealed this to us by vaporizing a chunk of PCB on the master control unit's blower relay. There was a miniature Illudium PU-39 Explosive Space Modulator ray blast and everything.

The controller was a standard replacement part, the motor, not so much. Apparently Amana uses a custom mounting flange that doesn't accept universal replacement motors It's supposed to be in today. We shall see.

ludi wrote:

So, the homeowner roommate is with his folks in another state for the holidays, and after the coldest night of the year, we wake up yesterday morning with the temperature in the house at 66F and dropping. Lo, for the blower motor in the $5k, 10yo Amana furnace is headed toward the great HVAC playground in the sky, and revealed this to us by vaporizing a chunk of PCB on the master control unit's blower relay. There was a miniature Illudium PU-39 Explosive Space Modulator ray blast and everything.

The controller was a standard replacement part, the motor, not so much. Apparently Amana uses a custom mounting flange that doesn't accept universal replacement motors It's supposed to be in today. We shall see.

Been there, seen that with our Amana. Fortunately the guy we had come out to repair it had an adapter kit in his truck.

The previous furnace (don't recall the brand) died in fairly spectacular fashion though. The first sign we had of trouble was a loud BOOM that reverberated through all of the heating ducts. Apparently the igniter went bad; only half of the burner was lighting, with the rest of it flashing over after the gas built up, causing a small explosion. The housing of the control unit was melted and resembled something you might see in a Dali painting (though the control unit itself was apparently still functional). We're really lucky it didn't start a fire.

paulWTAMU wrote:

I squat 2x a week and deadlift once a week...I do high bar ATGs since I don't like low bar very much. It's part of why the weights I use on squats are fairly light. You can't do nearly as much when you go well below parallel.

Something that really helped me with depth and stabilization; 2 things: First, when I unrack and begin the downward part of the movement, I shove my knees out. I mean REALLY shove those buggers out. I hadn't been doing that for the last 2+ years and it makes a huge difference. Basically if you just do a body weight squat with no bar, and put your hands together in a classic 'prayer' clasp, then put your elbows between your knees, that's the depth and width of a good squat. It changed how I do squats so much and I really see a change in my posterior chain development. The second thing was a combination of good shoulder/scapular mobility (I was tight and not flexible) along with a mental cue of the bar path. With my spine lined up right and my gaze slightly downward and that cue of the barpath from start to finish my squats just felt so much easier. I used to have a tendency to rock forward over mid-foot pushing the weight with my chest and salves which totally ruins the movement and defeats the purpose. I can't wait to get a powercage and hopefully move some more serious weight, I can't say I feel safe doing that with my current setup - I won't go over 225. With an OHP dwarfing mine, I'm sure you're much more advanced. I just love waxing about this stuff. I hope I'm 85 still squatting 4 plates or more.

for some reason, when I got back into it my upper body got back to where it had been fairly quickly, but my legs are lagging. Part of it is that recovery is harder now that I'm not 22 and part of it, I think, is that I don't have access to as much equipment. When I lifted in college on leg days I'd do squats or deads, extensions, leg curls, and lunges and calf raises and leg press as a finisher. I just don't have the capacity, time, or equipment for that now--no leg curl/ext machine or leg press at home and frankly after doing 3x8 hard on squats or deads, I'm close to finished on legs anyway.

I hope to go back to doing 5/3/1 or a more conventional upper/low split (legs/upper/off/legs/upper/off/off) starting in January since the kid seems to be moving to actually sleeping some at night meaning i'm not just a zombie anymore. I may do legs/upper/off/upper/legs/upper though...I think blowing legs out 2x a week is probably enough and that'd give me 3 days between them. Deads on one, squat on the other, do maybe RDLs, lunges and calves afterwards. Or maybe just do one heavy set of deads after doing squats? 8 deads ought to be good for a workout. s4

One thing I want to get is a swiss bar--do traditional OHP one day then swiss bar bench, then reverse it the other upper body day...and it'd be great for barbell hammer curls and maybe barbell rows (I really prefer neutral grip on most stuff--seems more shoulder friendly).

...aaaannnnnddd heat! Civilization! I really wish the gas-conversion fireplace had a heat exchanger installed.

Oh, well. The tech didn't have any reason to take the old controller or the motor, so now I get to do forensics.

ludi wrote:

Oh, well. The tech didn't have any reason to take the old controller or the motor, so now I get to do forensics.

I'm always tempted. But my wife has (with some justification) accused me of being a borderline hoarder, so I've been trying to control my urges to hang on to broken/obsolete stuff.

just brew it! wrote:

ludi wrote:

Oh, well. The tech didn't have any reason to take the old controller or the motor, so now I get to do forensics.

I'm always tempted. But my wife has (with some justification) accused me of being a borderline hoarder, so I've been trying to control my urges to hang on to broken/obsolete stuff.

Yeah, I won't be keeping it around after disassembly. Still spins freely but it kept tripping the thermal overload, and there is oil on the back of the housing, so the first guess is that the rear bearing started to leak and the oil then burned away some of the winding insulation.

ludi wrote:

just brew it! wrote:

I'm always tempted. But my wife has (with some justification) accused me of being a borderline hoarder, so I've been trying to control my urges to hang on to broken/obsolete stuff.

Yeah, I won't be keeping it around after disassembly. Still spins freely but it kept tripping the thermal overload, and there is oil on the back of the housing, so the first guess is that the rear bearing started to leak and the oil then burned away some of the winding insulation.

My problem is, I would say that ("I just want to take this apart and figure out why it died, or if I can fix it, then I'll toss all the uninteresting bits"), but then it would sit in a pile along with other broken stuff for months, or even years. I've finally started tossing out my hoards of dead PSUs, DVD burners, small electronics/appliances, electric motors, etc...

Saw a pretty girl just a couple hours ago with blue hair, a short skirt, and black boots just below the knee. She was walking into a 7-Eleven. She smelled strongly like vanilla.

Now I just can't kick this craving for CAKE.

Happy Saturday. I'm glad the world didn't end; I would truly miss seeing pretty girls!

Well, it weren't the end of the world generally, but it was the end of this motor's little world. The inner winding loops are burned and shorted like this on both ends:



Bearings are fine, some general dust and grime buildup but not too bad, only thing I can figure is that a 1/2hp motor is a bit undersized relative to the main HVAC stack, which is excessively tall and branchy due to the layout of this townhome.