My #1 New Year’s resolution - more exercise - has been badly broken already and we haven’t gotten past the first two weeks of the new year.
The typical image of a specifier is an overweight, old coot sitting in front of a computer - that’s me. The only exercise I seem to get is putting out someone else’s fires.
Out of curiosity, what do you do for exercise? …not the what we should be doing tripe but what are you actually doing each day for exercise.
Fencing is my sport. I am currently ranked 6th in the nation in the Men’s over 60 Foil.
I fence at least twice a week with an hour of open practice followed by a 40 minute private lesson on Mondays, Tuesday is small group weight training for a 45 minute class, Thursday repeats Tuesday, Saturday morning is fencing for 3 hours with an advanced class simulating a competition. I also do 20 to 30 minutes on all other off days doing coordination/timing exercises of various types.
I try to schedule a true competition (an all day event lasting about 6 hours) once a month. I have 3 national level competitions a year (moves around the country) where we compete for our national ranking (December, March and National Championships in July).
Some ask, is fencing really exercise? Well, during my typical practice classes I weigh about 3 pounds less at the end than when I start even though I may consume about 32 ounces of water. So, yes.
Still, I would like to loose about 10 pounds.
Some have attributed my success in getting respect from PAs and PMs to my sport. Playing with pointed metal rods may add to that, but I like to think its my friendly disposition and winning smile. But who knows -grin!
William
Thanks, William, for changing my life!
I no longer have to worry about exercising or losing weight-- I’m sweating [not just perspiring] just reading your post [my pulse is up, and Lord only knows where my high blood pressure will peak]
WHEW!!!
Last time I saw you William, you didn’t have 10 pounds to lose. You are, indeed, the exception to all of us other specifiers. Job well done on your competitive success and personnel achievements.
William - Have you found that bringing a sword to a Contractor trailer meeting helps things go your way? I might want to try that.
I often ride a motorcycle to meetings and I have been amazed of the “street cred” this gives me with Contractors.
I live and work in San Francisco and what exercise I get is from walking home from work. I can select a route including anything from a minimum 1.5 mile, 500 foot total elevation gain to 4 miles+ with an aggregate of over 1200 foot elevation gain.
Ralph:
I was going to write a flippant, witty (?) response and bring up “jumping to conclusions,” “weighing in with opinions” and “dodging responsibilities” as exercises but the subject is just too serious to treat like that.
From recent postings, I conclude that many specifiers are exceptionally busy. Perhaps they are overworked. My experience from November and December was one of too much work.
I took off for three days of real vacation just before New Year’s Day. It was refreshing and took only one tank of gasoline. Recreation is supposed to be for re-creation. It is beneficial. I’m looking forward to more “vacating” from work.
What shocks me is to realize how much the lifestyle of a specifier is unhealthy. Sitting at a computer for long stretches is life-threatening when you consider the potential for developing blot clots due to poor circulation in the legs. The sedentary life of an office worker is not healthy for the cardio-vascular system.
So, of course we all exercise to compensate. Well, speaking personally, the mental stress of producing specs under too-short deadlines leaves me in a pile when the project is complete. Comfort food and low-intellect entertainment are easy, expedient choices.
I have also become sensitive to the issue of sleep deprivation. From what I recently read, American teenagers and adults are sleep-deprived by at least an hour per night. During project deadlines, I find getting 3-5 hours sleep too typical. I know some specifiers who still do all-night charettes, with occasional naps. The consequence of this deprivation some studies link to diabetes and the accompanying heart, vision and mobility problems. That’s serious stuff.
I resolve every January 1 to not make resolutions. Nevertheless, I have taken actions to treat my body and mind better the past two weeks and I am finding positive changes.
Up until about 1-1/2 years ago, I ran 2-4 miles most mornings (at least 6 days a week). Then I started coming to work an hour earlier to save time spent in the car (I save an hour a day by traveling before peak rush hour times). So I’ve been struggling to find a consistent time after work when I can get back to at least walking - treadmill in the winter and with luck, outside in daylight hours in clement weather - and eventually back to running. The problem is meetings and appointments that are scheduled for after work - at least 2-3 a month, and stopping on the way home to grocery or other shop - that severly cut down on the consistency. My resolution this year is to find that consistency! It’s tough in the dark in the winter in Wisconsin! I can’t run outside - there’s black ice and wild critters. (Ask me about the time 5 deer exploded from the woods and ran about 5 feet in front of me) So in winter, it’s treadmill and TV; I walk/run to Jeopardy and Wheel of Fortune. C’mon Spring! The key, I think, is to not give up trying; trying for consistency and trying to find the time. Parking as far away from stores as possible and walking helps, too.
John:
When I last saw you [in Vegas IIRC], you were telling me that you were on a new Seefood Diet - you see food and eat it. How is that working out?
Actually, you are quite correct, exercise is a serious topic for persons of advancing experience like the majority of this group which, in almost all cases, involve a change in daily habits as a minimum. I am now fighting diabetes so it is high on my list to address this year. Exercise is one of the most important ways to control high blood sugar. Since I, like you, find it hard to break the mold of long, sedentary hours in front a non-moving box. Just wish someone would invent a spec writing station on a stationary bike or stepper. Steven is on the right track; walking is probably the single best action we can take but it takes an hour away from spec writing.
I have an uncle who walks 12 miles per day. Last we heard from him, he was near Barstow.
I think what needs positive exercise is the muscle between our ears. Seriously, attending the annual SCIP meeting and local and regional gatherings of specifiers help my mental state. And when I’m “up” about who I am and what I do, it’s easier to move in the right direction about diet and exercise.
I walk to the subway ten minutes on each end of my trip, twice a day, a total of maybe 2-1/2 miles. I always take the stairs out of the subway and up to my 4th floor office and my 2nd floor home–maybe the equivalent of 15 to 20 flights a day. And my wife and I walk and subway for nearly all of our entertainment. We counterbalance that by eating plenty of rich restaurant food on a regular basis. This formula seems to have worked so far.
I got a dog. Now that I live in SoCal where I have to drive to the grocery store 1/2 mile away (there’s a bridge with no sidewalk, so I’m not walking there) and I live in an apartment, so I can’t throw the dog out the back door. We walk 4 times a day, for a minimum of 1/2 mile each time (there is a park across the street that is 1/2 mile around) or up to 1-1/2 miles for a couple of those walks. (so generally 2 to 4 miles a day, every day) I also do a series of arm exercises with small weights (10 pounds) in front of the TV every day, usually after work. I also have one of those large balance ball things, and I do curls on that, and drape myself over it backwards to stretch out my back nearly every night. I also started golf last fall and have a series of stretches and weight regimens to keep my arms and back from seizing up.
Like William, I used to fence and even though I had no athletic background, I found that construction was a good background for being aggressive. (I did epee, not foil). that aggravated a long standing hip problem though and after five years, I quit that. I did find though that while a spec writer may be intimidating, a spec writer doing a combat sport scares all kinds of people.
I have found that the more exercise I do, the sharper mentally, and calmer I am at the office.
Steelcase just debuted a “walk-station” that is a workstation connected to a slow (1 to 2 mile per hour) treadmill.
http://www.details-worktools.com/product_details.php?pid=740&gclid=COTqpPmc75ACFQrOiQodWCLa3Q
My dad kept posted over his computer desk the following:
“If a bus station is where a bus stops, and a train station is where a train stops, why is my desk called a workstation?”
Like John, I walk to and from the subway each day, about 2 miles total; and walk up the subway escalator.
I also do 200 crunches/leg lifts each morning (at least when I’m sufficiently motivated).
George: the response to your quote is: a bus station is a platform the bus goes through – the bus stops “for a while” there; a train station is where the train stops momentarily. Some of us are old enough to remember that where the train and bus actually STOP is called the “terminal”.
at least we don’t have work terminals…
I walk about 1.25 miles every day except Sunday, rain or shine (though it doesn’t rain much in Southern California), vertical rise of about 100 feet, plus 132 steps on a street stair. I do the walk first thing in the morning. I follow the sun, the earlier it rises, the earlier I walk. I don’t like the sun in my eyes so I walk just as it gets light.
In addition, my office is downstairs, the rest of my home/office is upstairs, and I go up and down the stairs dozens of times each day to answer the door, eat, take out the trash, and just for fun.
Also, I keep things inconveniently. If I have to staple something, I get up and walk into my workroom to staple it. Ditto, answer the phone; punch holes, and all the other minor office tasks. If something needs filing, or I need something from the files, they are across the room.
So I don’t sit for hours. I’m too restless for that. And it keeps the clots from forming (I hope)
And a few of us are old enough to remember when we had computer “terminals”…
And at a certain age, we don’t like the word “terminal” in any context…
Yeah Anne!
I have actually come across a couple of CSI members that were or are fencers.
One of the problems I have found, and especially as I have talked with others in an active sport at my age is that when it comes to a competitive moment, the mind forgets that the body is no longer 25 years old. One has to be careful of injuries.
Fencing is interesting to consider. It can be a life long activity, and you can start at any age. And you don’t have to go to competitions, many metropolitan areas now have enough and large enough clubs that you can just go for the fun and exercise. But, at the Spring national last year, there was a fellow there that had only been fencing a year, at only his 3rd competition and at his first national level competition. He had a great time, he was 84.
As the boomers age, more things become available. Up to now, the top age group in fencing has been he 60+ group. The world body for fencing just mandated changing the group to 60-69 and opening up a 70+ group. Its expected that this may happen in the next season.
William
William: the bulk of the salle I belonged to in Seattle was made up of attorneys… talk about aggression. I liked it, but the overwhelmingly right-sidedness of the sport (I’m right-handed and right footed) was too hard on my right hip. I went back to cycling, which is more evenly corrosive.
Anne