Boo

Three months of freedom! Good work Abby.

Congratulations Wantsit.

Congratulations there, uh...who were we talking about again? I forgot. Just kidding. Congratulations Linda. You've built a rock-solid quit for yourself and are helping show the way for others. Just keep doing what you're doing and that epic lido deck celebration will be here before you know it.

Welcome aboard Steveo. Good call on giving up the smokes.

I can't believe that umpire ejected Shane Carle for hitting Hoskins with a pitch. I'm not defending Carle because he plays for Atlanta, but at this point I don't have any confidence that anyone out of the Braves bullpen can hit anything intentionally. Hey Crash, do you have a message for the Braves pitching staff?

A single teardrop rolled down my cheek when I read that.

Good job D1. Keep on keeping on.

Spot on! Drink plenty of water...It is one of the best things you can do for yourself.

What am I doing right now? Bitching and moaning about the Atlanta Braves bullpen.

The game has changed. The game has also largely stayed the same. May the traditions that make baseball great live on. Most of my collection is Braves memorabilia. I do have an autographed Bruce Sutter card from the 1982 season when he helped lead the Cardinals to a World Series crown. I got the autograph a few years later when Sutter was playing for Atlanta.

You pick up a heavy object or objects and carry them a certain distance. Farmer's Walks can be performed with dumbbells, kettlebells, trap bars, or any of a wide variety of strongman implements. It is a dead simple exercise. It is also the most efficient strength training move. I would also argue that it is the most most effective strength training move, with all due respect to the Deadlift and Squat. Regardless of what one is training for, the Farmer's Walk will deliver results. Those training for raw strength and muscle mass will benefit from Farmer's Walks. Those training for hypertrophy will find that the time-under-tension combined with the heavy weights will deliver better muscle growth results than any other lift. Farmer's Walks will increase your physical work capacity in a way that will carry over into everything else physical that you do. Throw in the fact that Farmer's Walks are great for core and postural strength as well as coordination and athleticism and you've got yourself one great exercise. Here is a brief tutorial video I found on YouTube...

Strength work this morning: Front Squats, Romanian Deadlifts, Overhead Press, Weighted Pull-Ups, and Farmer's Walks. Did a bit of cardio: 15 minutes of jump rope. And finished up with 10 minutes of mobility work. Basic stuff...Same song, different verse.

We're less than 24 hours from the first pitch...Opening Day is almost here! Truly one of the great days of the year. Play ball!

I agree with that statement 100%, but Whispers gets credit for that one.

I'm always preaching "keep it simple" in regards to quitting smoking. Same goes for getting healthy. Stop dieting. Start eating right. Nutritional sustenance is vital. So, let's not demonize eating. Instead, let's start eating real food again. Cut out any processed garbage and replace it with real food. Diets are temporary. New habits are built to last. Even with healthy foods, keep track of what you are eating and how many calories you are consuming daily for a while. Tracking is boring and frankly a bit of a pain in the ass. Tracking is also vital to mapping out your fitness journey. You don't need to track forever, just until you have a firm grasp of what you are doing right and where there is room for improvement. GET PLENTY OF REST AND QUALITY SLEEP! I'm not yelling at you, I just felt the need to drive home that point for myself. Good sleep, or a lack thereof, will affect every aspect of your life. I'm good at getting plenty of sleep except for when I'm not. Oddly enough, sleep is the health and fitness issue I have struggled with the most. I do very good for a while, then I start to slide back into my old habits. Enough about me...It may seem counterintuitive that sleeping more is vital in the process of losing weight and getting healthy. I'm starting to ramble and getting dangerously close to referencing "the research"...just take my word for it and get some sleep. Exercise, that's that thing meatheads like Boo do when they grunt and pick up heavy things or run in the woods until their lungs are burning and their legs feel like jelly...right? It can be. It can also be just walking around. Maybe doing some chores. I recently saw something on TV featuring some ladies who are professional dancers and noticed that they all had very nice physiques (I wasn't gawking, it was research). Point is: anything you do that requires some level of physical exertion can be counted as exercise. You don't need to run a marathon next week, just build the habit of moving around more and making steady progress. Of course, the most important thing one can do to get healthy...Farmer's Walks!!!! Just kidding, my love of that particular exercise has become a running joke in the health and fitness sub-forum. Although....

Congratulations DizzyD. "Hell Week" is in the rearview and freedom is straight ahead.

Great job Parsley. Congratulations.

Great job MLMR. Congratulations on 7 months of freedom. Could be a language barrier. Or...it could be that things get weird in the socializing sub-forum from time-to-time. Jump in anytime you like, you're among friends here.

Absolutely. Regardless of how many supporters or detractors surround you, the choice to smoke or not is yours and yours alone. Quitting smoking is a commitment to yourself. That being said, there's no reason you can't hop on the Quit Train and enjoy the ride with others who have been or are on the same journey that you are. You'll meet some good folks and might even have a laugh or two.

I don't have a clue if this will work or not, but the dancing sausage is in high demand... He's still there, he just doesn't dance like he used to. That tends to happen with age.

Congratulations on the new addition to the family Nancy. That is a cute dog.

I've been listening to a lot of banjo music the last couple of days. I mean seriously...how good are the SteelDrivers! Tight bluegrass outfit with Chris Stapleton on vocals... And I go back to this video on a regular basis. With all the overproduced music out there, it's refreshing to watch Seth and Scott Avett making great music with just a banjo and an acoustic guitar.

Used this morning's workout to prime the climbing and backpacking muscles as I have a full weekend in the mountains planned. Strength work: Front Squats, Romanian Deadlifts, Pull-Ups, High-Boy Rows, and Farmer's Walks. Finished up with an extended mobility session with some extra work on the shoulders and hips. Have a good weekend everybody.