Chevy350TPI

As the others have mentioned, the cable systems are great for specific things. You can purchase multi-use attachments that allow you to do squats with the unit you posted, and so on. Nothing beats buying the gym pass and heading there to do free-weight exercises, though. As for the cardio ... you mentioned your knees bug you, so you are definitely on the right track by selecting an elliptical. As Mark mentioned, check out the classifieds - people are always trying to get rid of something. You already have a head start in terms of bettering your body - you eat really well! I can give you some exercises that you can take with you on the road if you like. 10-15 minutes in the comfort of your hotel room is all it really takes.

Finally submitted the summer courses I am going to teach. It will be nice having smaller class sizes, that is for sure.

But in all reality, a store could charge up to $2500 and still sell that product. Is it worth $1000? Yes. Does it consist of $1000 worth of parts? No. Juse like the GM crap I own. Pay $45,000+ for $2500 worth of parts.

I can almost complete a quality, full body workout on one of those dual cable machines. To be completely honest, 1k is pretty steep for that setup. A system like that should be priced around $650-$900.

That's too bad I guess that is to be expected, though.

Ext. or crew? IIRC, ext. ... ?

Likewise ... he would have handed me cash on the spot. No doubt about that.

Today I will give everything I have, what I keep inside I will lose forever. Get to the gym and train. The gym is where you are going to learn to be your best. Life hurts. Training hurts. Loneliness hurts. Change hurts. You need all of them to grow. So commit to a new lifestyle, commit to being healthy. It is a lifelong journey. You don't need to spend seven days a week training. Half an hour three or four days a week is enough. You'll get addicted after that anyway. You are either in or out. There is no in between. If you're not 100% in, get out now. You will stuggle and you will progress. That's all there is to it.

I am educated to teach you how to be more active and take the smartest and safest path to a healthy lifestyle. I am not a psychologist, medical doctor, or dietician. I can help inspire you, but I cannot cure you. I can give you a foundation, but I cannot make you happier, thinner, or perfect. I can educate you, but I cannot do the work for you. I can challenge you and encourage you, but I cannot prevent natural bumps along the road. I can help you through the process, but I cannot gurantee that it will make it any easier. I can believe in you, but you have to believe in yourself. I can hope you become active for the rest of your life, but only you can make the choice to be active. I can make you stronger, but I cannot make you indestructible. I can hope that you are successful, but you have to believe that success is possible. I know that you can make it happen, but only you can open yourself up to the reality of a healthy lifestyle and allow yourself to aspire. This is my passion, my purpose, and my life. You must commit to living the life that I know is possible for you. Just a little something for those looking for a little motivation. More to come on the psyche aspect later.

I picked up a Seagate a week ago as well

Why? His diet likely ready includes more protein than his body is able to use. He should be focussing on repleting his glycogen stores by ingesting carbohydrates (both high and low GI). Milk and a banana would be fine. Chocolate milk is great post workout.

Just branded my water bottle with an SSA sticker.

The Pump product has R-ALA in it which is nice to see, along with your typical stimulants, caffeine and green tea extract. It has arginine in it as well, obviously. I did a three week trial of this and simply found the typical response - increased energy. The creatine in it may increase strength and lead to water retention, even at the ~3g dosage. $32 for 30 packets is not a terrible price considering Universal has issued a pretty complete product here. Are you taking it right now? How are you responding to it? Have you tried any other pre-workout products before?

Story time. I'm guessing it involves her inability to drive/park her SUV/van. I'm hoping she was hot, had 38DD's and you have pictures.

You do not sound like an idiot! They are all good questions. You do not need supplements at all! Your diet and modifications to it are more than sufficient to provide you with the required nutrition. Basic pre- and post- workout meals (solid, natural, no shakes) are optimal, in fact. How long would you like to spend in the gym? You can put some very intense workouts together for time periods lasting 15-30 minutes for sure. I am a big fan of quick, to-the-point workouts. No garbage ... just functional stuff that has good transferability into daily life. I think I should address quick workout ideas first and then touch on nutrition. Maybe throw up a few examples of some brief workouts.

You will want to aim to replenish carbohydrates. More on this later ... I'm teaching a course until 8PM this evening. I will substitute a weight gainer/meal replacement shake post-workout if I do not have the time for solid food. Careful on the excess protein intake as it could be converted and stored as fat. You are definitely a special case regarding this 9PM post-workout nutrition, wanting to lose weight, and packing everything in so close to bed.

I am forced to use Office '07 on campus ... as well as the shitty MS Exchange web client.

I still haven't completely figured out pivot tables and charts yet in '07 ... because I don't know where half the shit disappeared to.

Typing formulae into Word '07 is starting to piss me off.

Static stretching is not all bad! Static stretching has its time and place. You are damaging the tissue aiming to lengthen the muscle. Static stretching prior to workouts is not the way to approach a warm up. It shuts your nervous system down ... thus one of the best times to perform static stretching is prior to bed. Static post-workout is fine, but there are better alternatives (DYNAMIC stretching). By static stretching before a workout, you are really hindering your performance. You are essentially putting your muscles to sleep. You want to get blood flowing to the muscles - static stretching prevents blood from flowing to the muscles. Remember, we are talking about holding the stretch for 30 seconds here ... 5 seconds in each position won't cause problems. If you have a strength coach that is telling you to perform static stretching prior to a workout, they have not read any stretching literature in the past while, simply do not care, or have very little idea surrounding the idea of a warm up and how the human body works/responds. I will get more into the details soon once I find time to type up something on the other types of stretching.

If it is motivation you need, I can provide that. I would definitely be up for daily posts reflecting on my experience of training that day and to provide some sort of wisdom/guidance/motivation. I am sure I could find time to do an article once a week or so for sure. There is more to being healthy that "working out" and lifting weights. You need a balanced wheel - emotional, physical, psychoogical, spiritual, etc. I can offer help to the guys on here who don't want to go to the gym - bodyweight exercises in the comfort of your own home and maybe some modifications to the current diet. If you are willing to go to the gym and don't have much time, I can have you in and out in 20 minutes and if you want I can have you toss your cookies at some point during that 20 minutes. The components of fitness are strength, power, agility, muscular endurance, cardiovascular endurance, flexibility, and balance. I listed seven ... not just "strength" ... Remember - you can't fire a cannon from a canoe. I should stop before I go all night.

We have a ton of forums here already I am an advocate for health and wellness, but I'm not sure if a separate section it would attract enough attention. I would use it though ... and I would include pieces from my dissertation as well as actual lecture notes.

I have been on Autotrader a lot this evening looking for a used BMW or the like that is well priced. I will be trading in the .ca for .com shortly as at least vehicles are priced well down there.

I put a work order in for a Logitech Z-5500 set. It was changed to a purchase order a couple days later. Later that same day the IT guys came with the box and set it all up. It was in the system so I figured it didn't hurt to get one.

Juke Box Hero just finished. On to Baba O'Riley.