Showing posts with label exercise. Show all posts
Showing posts with label exercise. Show all posts

Thursday, June 16, 2011

attack gardening ... cathartic, aerobic, risky, & profane

 
It was 7:50 p.m. and I could finally then hop into the garden to try and get something done. Sun sets at 8-something?

Really wanted to plant these:


How cheerful would that giant face of fuzzy yellow happiness be
in our garden this summer? Deee-lightful.

AND they'd provide afternoon shade to our peppers,
which are still suffering sunstroke since I didn't
harden them off before planting. Wuz outta town. Oh, well. =)

So figured out night before last WHERE to put them.
And had done much of the weeding earlier.
This is a plot where we put some of the detritus
from under our oak tree
for free, home-grown compost.

There was even an eggs in a nest fungus there,
all dried out, but I've never seen one in another plot, so v. cool!

So, did the REST of the weeding of that plot
(v. v. rapidly and with a personal vengence against the dreaded non-native grasses)
and this is the plot now, planted.


 Way too close together so will have to thin a LOT, later.
But, really, how can I plant just 3 seeds? Not possible.

Note aviary wire.

Gophers here meant I started my plots via bastard trenching years ago.

Planted.

Things grew! Yay!

Then, things disappeared.

Fully developed, just about to be fruitful squash plants,
gone in a flash.

Gophers.

So, the NEXT year I:
dug out all the dirt (AGAIN)
lined the plots with chicken wire
put all the dirt back (AGAIN)
and planted seeds.

Things grew. Yay.

Then, things disappeared.

Gophers.

SO, the NEXT year, I:
dug out all the dirt (AGAIN)
pulled out all the chicken wire
lined the plots with aviary wire (smaller holes)
put all the dirt back (AGAIN)
and planted seeds.

Things grew. Yay.

Then, things stayed.

Oh!

So, be it ever so picturesque, we are aviary wire people.

Next plot destined for flowers was 100% crazy tall, 
head bobbing laden-with-seed exotic grasses.

Pulled some of the grass and found chicken wire.

Drat.

So, last night I:
dug out all the dirt
pulled out all the chicken wire


and then it got dark.

Much of this I did with my hands,
1,000 MPH.
Started with shovel, but the plot's very narrow,
then went to garden spade,
then hands.

Hands are the best gardening tools EVER, FYI.

Hands can feel how close the chicken wire is,
ferret out grass root clumps,
detect the amount of moisture in the soil, etc.

Hands are awesome.

Later, I can:
line it with aviary wire
and plant seeds
and watch things grow.




Yay.

xobb

Wednesday, March 9, 2011

adaptation, photography, and mixed martial arts... connected? Today, yes.

 
You'll have to pardon this v. random post, but this amused me.

This morning I wanted to take a photograph of my right fist since it now looks like this, after my first night of mixed martial arts (MMA) fitness class.

Note the thickly muscled wrist... (not!)

When Bear saw my band aids he suggested I wear gloves in class.

I wore gloves in class. =)

I have the knuckles of a desk jockey.

NEVER have fought in my life, was only punching a bag (the big body bag things), and not that hard, but apparently my body is adapted to NO STRESS in the knuckle department.


This is something the body can do which continues to amaze me; adapt to what is asked of it.

I saw a special on MMA and these guys traveled ALL OVER the world to find the biggest gurus in martial arts. One gentleman they studied with, an older, tiny Japanese man, told them they were going to work on toughening up their fists.

Full of enthusiasm, the guys said "Great! How?" 'cause they'd noticed his fists were like rocks.

High Sierra rocks

He said "by punching a rock."

?!?

 (a rock. Note tiny toddler for scale, as if the trees weren't enough...)

They look at each other, then back at him, and realize he isn't kidding.

NERD ASIDE: Repeated stress (weight bearing activities (running, jumping, punching)) makes the bones build up so, in the case of punching, your knuckles/hands become more dense and hard and tough. This study showed female boxers had higher bone density than non-boxing but otherwise similarly lean women (despite super low body fat which can lead to bone density loss).


He took them out to his punching rock (I know, ow!), and he starts slugging it.

And then they have to. Looked TOTALLY unfun.

I was stunned. And it's SO low tech it makes me insane. =)


Want fists of stone? Punch stone.

To become tough, you must BE tough. Kinda deep...

Like how my husband's grandpa had HUGE hands 'cause he'd been a farmer all his life and constantly did really hard work with them. He required a lot of his body, and it responded by getting bigger and tougher. SO COOL!


This amazing photo of farmer hands is from the Christmas River blog.
I e-mailed the author but it bounced back (an aol.com account) so if it's yours and you want it attributed any other way or removed, just yell at me (biobabbler at g mail dot com).


ANY how, in order to share my tiny badge of toughness (one knuckle oozed last night!) that I'm exceedingly proud of, I wanted to take a picture of it for facebook.

Take the photo, that is, via my Nikon D50 using my left hand without the view finder.

The fist picture at the start of this entry is the best of the 12 shots I had to take.

Here are just some of the other attempts...

Complete and total miss. But nice shot of quilt my friend made for my wedding. =)

Nice shot of biobabbler's burly wrist...

Closer view of quilt/couch, TINY smidge of actual target at extreme bottom of frame.

And a flash-washed fraction of my fist, and my livingroom.

=)

So, I guess today's message is,
in MMA as in photography,

If at first you don't succeed,
Try, try again.


(Bear as zen master, on a rock)


And you will grow stronger.


There's another class on Thursday.

I'm TOTALLY there.

=) 

xobb

Sunday, September 12, 2010

the wonder that is the human body...

 
and the human mind that goes along with them.

2 things:

1. This 2 minute video of guys spidermanning an urban area like an obstacle course. Amazing!!


It's called My_Morning_Run.wmv Got it from a friend. Genius!

2. This 11 minute video of the making of a poster (in 2 days) of every pose in the Anusara syllabus. Wiki on Anusara yoga.


Tanutara:  Making of the Anusara Syllabus Poster from Ross Evans on Vimeo.

Just TOTALLY amazing.

Both are completely inspiring.

wow.


Think I'll go vacuum the carpet so I can do some yoga today!

Friday, January 15, 2010

snow is a no go

So, no go snow. Foo.

Friends cannot visit, after all, due to physical phaulter down there (in addition to mine), so apparently I’ll be nursing my ankle, doing pilates/yoga videos, and NOT bringing you marvelous pictures fresh from the Sierra Nevada.

But, I can, over the next few days, post pictures on any of the following themes:

  • Big, crazy fire of 2008 (view from our property, among others, the Yosemite fire in all the papers and national TV)
  • Best bobcat photo
  • Great snake shot
  • Fresh from the East Coast pics (mostly Boston)
  • Mega manzanita
  • Abstract nature shots
  • Hawaii glamour shots
  • Yosemite glamour shots (sky and rocks and water, usual themes)
  • Yellowstone glamour shots
  • Mount Rainier glamour shots
  • Mount Saint Helen shots
  • Cool flower/bug shots
  • Garden rocking hard shots

YOU (my audience of, what, 2?) get to pick. So, whomever comments gets to pick, and if more than one person replies, then I’ll pick the most popular topic (if there is overlap). Or one per day. Something reasonable.

Otherwise, if you say nothing, I’ll just put up what I want. =)

xoxo the biobabbler

Thursday, January 14, 2010

where is the line?

Yeah. So. Was getting psyched about seeing friends (impending visitors chez-nous) and going snowshoeing this weekend. Really psyched.

Because:     I    LOVE    SNOWSHOEING.  Seriously. Guaranteed happy if I’m warm, dry, and snowshoeing. And I almost never go.




So, yesterday doing exercise DVD (that I’ve done before) which involves jumping (an imaginary) rope. My ankle started to hurt a tiny bit. Felt stiff, really. So, I stopped jumping and did squats instead. Fine.

Then, when the exercise was mountain climbers, I thought I’d try them. Ankle still felt stiff. And I thought, well, what about the “walk it off” thing guys do in football? Sometimes that works.

So, kept jumping and then BAM, I felt real pain. Stopped immediately and thought – oh, crap. Snowshoeing! I felt a hot pain in a very small space on my ankle, which reminded me of the pain I felt in my right ankle when I’d apparently chipped the bone.

So, I did the rest, ice, compression, and elevation thing and took Ibu and hoped (and hopped) for the best (e.g., extremely short-term injury).

So my question is, where is the line between pushing yourself during a workout, and overdoing it? Hmmn?

From what I've been reading, strengthening supporting muscles (like calf, ankle, quadriceps, hamstrings) may reduce my risk of future injury, and is an approach I intend to pursue.

Nevertheless, I wish I could actually SEE the line between pushing myself through a tough workout vs. pushing myself too far. I’d be very happy to stay on the good side of it. Really. But, clearly, it evades me.

You?

xo biobabbler