I do a group fitness classes that sometimes uses heavy weights, sometimes hand weights, sometimes stretchy bands, etc. We do lots of different stuff. Class participants are predominantly women. We once had a woman who left in the middle of her first class (when we were using hand weights...the heaviest of which is 15…

The London Philharmonic Orchestra released two albums of “The Greatest Video Game Music”. Those have been my work soundtracks to block out the chatter and noise which comes with people transitioning back to working in cubeville at least a couple of days a week. I’ve found the very helpful and the music is great.

When I went to college (out of state) I started having a weekly phone call with my parents. Almost 23 year after graduation and moving to another different state, I still talk with my parents on the phone ever week. It’s not often earth shattering stuff. Mom asks about the cats. Dad talks about how his garden is…

I include the name of someone covering for me (easy enough to look up their email as I don’t generally deal with outside customers). I also usually note that “in the case of an extreme emergency I can be contacted via my personal email”. But I don’t put my personal email address in the OOO message. My group lead and…

I’m not sure what you mean by special modifications. I’ve developed some issues with my knees, so I switched to low impact cardio (rowing, biking, the escalator-like stair machine) and generally only do body weight exercises when I have to bend my knees (still do weighted deadlifts...not so much with weighted squats).…

Fortunately my gym gives you a couple of sessions a year (two? three?) for free with one of their trainers to set-up a workout you can do on your own. So I wasn’t paying. And the trainers came up with workouts for me, they just mentioned that they struggled a bit as my goals are different than what a lot of the others…

While not a guy, that’s always been my gym “goals” as well. I want to be able to live the rest of my life and do the things I need to do without a lot of hassle. So I need to be able to wrestle my 8 foot step ladder into the house at 2am because the smoke detector is chirping. I need to be able to quickly walk through…

The other thing that gets me is the articles which say you shouldn’t do a specific exercise because this other one is “more effective”. Well, more effective for what? If you’re doing a longer distance/time cardio session because that’s what helps you clear your head after a stressful work day then, no, a session of…

Yes. I got a band aid on my shoulder with both my doses. The first dose I got a Tazmanian Devil (from Loony Tunes) band aid and it was needed. Apparently I tensed my arm and I bled a bit. It happens about half the time I get a shot. With the second shot I remembered to consciously relax my arm and while I didn’t bleed…

SOME kids at the younger end of the grade do worse. Not all. My sister has a June birthday. I was born in July. We were both among the youngest kids in our classes. Neither of us had major academic issues. We both got into the advanced math track in junior high/high school (she didn’t continue with it, but she’s not a…

One year on my assessment I wrote that I “Created, maintained and expanded a 3-dimensional reference library of historically significant aircraft.” (Bought a bunch of cool die-cast model airplanes and displayed them in my cube). I’ve also listed things that, when translated into real words include: brought in brownies…

The key is to watch a lot of completely non-related videos and train Youtube not to show you those types of videos at all. I get almost no political/conspiracy channels even on my Youtube home page. But mostly I watch videos of geeks building or testing weird things, cute animal videos, videos of birds and squirrels…

When my knees were younger I tried to take up running. I was traveling a lot for work and it seemed like something I could do anywhere without extra equipment and was a good way to maintain and possibly improve my cardiovascular health. Turns out, I don’t like to run. I have never liked to run. I got to the point…

That’s an interesting philosophy. How do you currently feel about burpees? :)

Telling people not to feel emotions; anger, fear, love, etc just doesn’t work. It’s like telling someone not to feel hungry or sleepy. We feel things. And that’s okay. What we can control is how we act when we’re feeling these things. This is the same for kids and adults, although adults are usually (but not always!)…

A friend turned me on the jarred minced garlic (generally packed in either water or olive oil). I use the Aldi brand (much cheaper than the expensive brand his foodie family uses). It keeps forever, doesn’t sprout or dry out and is great in almost everything. Obviously if you need fresh garlic or bigger or smaller…

More data point for flu and COVID vaccines:

As a lady at the gym I honestly don’t care how much you lift. Just please return your equipment to it’s proper place, wipe everything down, don’t hog the equipment especially if you’re not actually using it. And leave me the heck alone!

I admit that I was a bit annoyed that I couldn’t have my Covid vaccine information added to my Yellow Card. It’s nice to have all that information in one location. I know that most Americans don’t have Yellow Cards so it’s understandable. But it’s still annoying.

This doesn’t seem terribly difficult. Being physically fit is kinda like a wheel. Sometimes you’re up. Sometimes you’re down. Sometimes you’re not moving at all. You’re still you and what your fitness level is doesn’t change who you are (or that you have worth and value!). If you’ve been down for a while, of course…