Physical Subculture

After some serious heavy jerks, try this so-far-unnamed combo:

A) Barbell rollout/deadlifts
B) Turkish get ups
C) Burpees

Like so: 10 reps of A, 3 reps per side of B, 10 reps of C. The 8 reps of A, still 3 reps per side of B, 8 reps of C. Follow the obvious pattern down to 1 rep of A, still 3 reps of B, 1 rep of C.

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Law Prof Larry, a Bodytriber who doubles as a professor at McGeorge Law School, spends about 5 months a year teaching at some law school in New York every year as well. These are generous times for the otherwise stingy Larry, and he bestows his worldly possessions upon us less-fortunate, if only for a leased period of time while he is away. Currently Larry’s altruism is allowing me to kill the planet slower by keeping Rosencrantz, my ‘86 Land Cruiser (9 MPG), parked while I zip around in a 2007 Prius (about 35-45 MPG, sometimes more), complete with rear view camera whenever I decide to back up, and a 5-disc CD changer that was packed with some of the most gawd-awful music to ever see laser technology.

The camera freaks me out, since I believe it lies, but I’m learning to attach a recorder to the camera, so I can back up into parks and alleyways at night and capture footage of naughty going-ons. Maybe catch a drug dealer or two, maybe get some dirt on a local politician, all while driving in reverse.

But the CD changer had to be cleansed. In this process I learned two important lessons. The first is a new understanding of bass-thumpers. Ya know… the guys who feel it is their birth-given right to let everyone in the neighborhood hear the big-boom of whatever phat beat they’re listening to. Well now I get it. After about 3 blocks of being sunk low into the front seat, slowly bouncing my head while one arm rests with little commitment on the steering wheel, I realized that good hip hop has to be loud, and the body simply understands its place within the music; that of the ‘cool slunk.’ This is no small task in a Prius, but somehow I was believing that there could be ‘power to the people ’cause the people want peace,’ and that everybody within a 2-block radius should embrace it. This was a conditioned response that even a old white guy like myself will obey when it comes to, as the kids say, those fly beats (well, they used to say it).

Lesson number two was yet another conditioned response, but of a different outcome. Well, that’s not entirely true. I can’t completely blame the music for this, and I might have to admit that I am simply a fast driver. It wasn’t JUST the Hatebreed CD that dropped the average miles-per-gallon of the Prius to around 15. No one warned me that this half-bionic turtle car can cruise in the triple digits without too much effort (or at least ridiculously QUIET effort).

By the way… I’m sending out a big Fuck Off to Hatebreed, or at least someone in their camp, for an email I got from YouTube telling me that one of my videos, watched by maybe a couple hundred people, is being suspended due to copyright infringement. ARE YOU SERIOUS?? I’d expect that from, say, Metallica. Or perhaps if I was charging a penny for every time someone watched said video. YouTube, not to blame at all, actually is prepared for such issues, and offers a small library of free songs that they will happily attach to the video instead. So I chose a drastically less exciting Nine Inch Nails song and now have to wrestle with the dilemma of whether to burn all my Hatebreed discs or not (but they make such great driving music).

Well, I’m vowing to drive less anyway. Anyone care to join me? I was doing well until the 4-wheel stealth egg showed up. It’s an odd irony that I’m driving more yet feeling I’m doing my part for Mother Earth, since, after all, it IS a Prius.

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We’re a gym slightly divided. Not in a horrible way, not in a election year sort of way. Rather we’ve got the powerlifters ramping up for our upcoming February, 2009 APA meet, and our weightlifters are snatching away for whatever relatively local meet comes up in the first few months of 2009 (I’m told that Butch Curry, of Lift ’til Ya Die fame, is currently working hard on posting the PWA 2009 schedule). The strength sport bug has hit many a new lifter, and it is pretty exciting around here.

Speaking of competition, two Bodytribers will be fighting in the very near future (not against each other). Ryan Rich and Joe Vea, both fighting for devastation Company, have upcoming challenges within the next few weeks. And we’re all going to be hanging out at Empire tonight for a shindig called White Out. Although an apropos name for a democratic presidential celebration party (as in “got the white out… finally”), it is a premiere of a snowboarding movie, and somehow Devco and Bodytribe are part of the festivities. The Empire scares me, as I think it secretly does all of our small crew this evening. Our whole table will be a fish-out-of-water scenario, so look for the half a dozen folks cowering against the wall looking at the ground. Notice the Bodytribe/Devco banner. That will be us.