Middle-age man fitness dividend

Tomorrow begins a new month and, for me, the toughest month of the year in my job. Fortunately, it's Sunday and my sacred rest day to rejuvenate my body, mind and spirit. I need to do a good job of that because Monday begins a full-steam pedal to the metal work intensity that challenges every drop of my work ethic and mental discipline.

Last March I worked 273 hours, but never on Sunday, and that is my plan again this year except that my March 2009 to do list currently pencils in at about 294 hours. I expect to come in at 280 hours at best; hoping that work efficiencies will absorb the difference. Needless to say, squeezing in fitness training becomes extremely difficult so I’ll continue to be guided by my “something is better than nothing” mindset that I wrote about here: Something is better than nothing

Middle-age man “toughness” and physical fitness make it possible for me to endure this demanding workload. For lack of a better term, I call it the middle-age man fitness dividend.

Pax Domini sit semper vobiscum

Upside down

This week I added another exercise to my early morning, 10-minute time-challenged workouts - a 54 second handstand hold with my feet against the wall for balance. The handstand hold is one of the static isometric postures making up my Plan B workout medley that I wrote about here: I'm doing my Plan B workout

My theme of 54 reps or 54 seconds of whatever I’m doing is a good reminder of my middle-age man chronological age. It makes me wonder what my workouts will be like when I’m 90 years young. The 54 seconds is short of my best effort of 1:59 but long enough to wake up my early morning sleepy muscles.

Static isometric postures make my body feel good and are a great way to start the day. The handstand hold gives me a nice contrast and appreciation of the upside world in which I live. So I’ve made a fitness “business decision” to take a pause for the cause and spend a few early morning moments upside down.

Pax Domini sit semper vobiscum

That I won't do

Yesterday was a busy day with little time to think about today’s blogflection topic. Sure, I could throw something together that would be light on creativity and originality and many would never know.

So today’s blogflection is a 50 word rambling that I have standards and that I won’t do.

Pax Domini sit semper vobiscum

What a busy day!

Today is Ash Wednesday and the beginning of Lent, the primary penitential season in the Catholic Church liturgical year, reflecting the forty days Jesus Christ spent in the desert in fasting and prayer. Lent is a time to prepare for Easter by observing a period of fasting, repentance, moderation and spiritual discipline. As a Catholic, I am expected to fast today and that is what I am doing.

Today also begins the Spring 2009 40 Days for Life, a focused pro-life campaign with a vision to access God’s power through prayer, fasting, and peaceful vigil; to seek God’s favor to turn hearts and minds from a culture of death to a culture of life and, thus, bring an end to abortion in America.

Read more about it here and consider getting involved, as I am, if there is a 40 Days for Life in your community: 40 Days for Life

Finally, today is my 31st wedding anniversary. Join me as I reflect on my sacrament of marriage by viewing some yesteryear images from our Saturday evening wedding ceremony at St. Francis Catholic Church, 3 blocks away from where I currently live:



Happy Anniversary

All I can say is what a busy day!

Pax Domini sit semper vobiscum

That darn delete key

All computer users have their own unique stories of lost computer files through their own carelessness or external malicious acts. One of my earliest recollections was umpteen years ago, call it circa 1983. I was preparing a cash flow projection for a client using my first computer, a Radio Shack TRS-80 Model 3 and a pre-Excel spreadsheet program called MultiPlan, with my little boy son sitting on my lap. The bright orange computer on/off button got his attention and curiosity so he pressed it; my computer shut down and I lost a couple hours of work because I had not saved the worksheet. I learned a valuable lesson: save and backup as I go and I have generally been doing it ever since.

Notice that I said generally.

Last Sunday evening, I accidentally deleted two recent Pierini Fitness blogflections while trying to organize my archives by subject titles. Both were not saved elsewhere in a backup file and have basically disappeared into a cyberspace cemetery. I’m still trying to find them but I believe they are gone, gone, gone! One of the deleted blogflections was one that I treasured; the one I recently wrote about how my wife spends half her life losing things and the other half trying to find them.

Life will go on for this middle-age man blogger but I am upset at myself and that darn delete key.

Pax Domini sit semper vobiscum

Graduation from Burpee Academy

Last week was my final week of a 7 week burpee challenge that I wrote about here: No burpees today no food tomorrow

Here’s a day-by-day account of how I did this week with comparison times from the previous week:

Monday
A single set of 54 reps of the standard burpee completed in 4:49 for a new personal record (PR). This effort was faster than the previous Monday’s time of 5:39 that was done at the end of an Olympic lift training day.

Tuesday
A single set of 54 reps of the standard burpee completed in 6:33. I took it easy, sort of like an active recovery day, because I was planning on going at it hard the next day. This effort was definitely slower than the previous Tuesday’s time of 4:58, my previous PR.

Wednesday
A single set of 54 reps of the standard burpee completed in 4:49, the same time as my effort two days earlier. This time was faster than the previous Wednesday’s time of 5:36.

Thursday
A single set of 54 reps of the standard burpee completed in 4:46 for a new PR on my birthday. This effort was faster than the previous Thursday’s time of 5:01.

Friday
Having met my burpee challenge that began on a Monday 7 weeks ago, I made a business decision to take the day off and rest my tired middle-age man knees. The previous Friday, I completed a single set of 54 reps of the standard burpee at the snail’s pace of 7:08, done at the end of an Olympic lift training day. I had made a note in my training journal before I did that set that a leisure pace was planned and that is how I did them but they were still hard to do.

The burpee challenge was tough but I hung in there and didn’t miss a day, although I certainly thought about skipping often as I drove home from work knowing that my daily challenge was waiting for me. I’m feeling pretty good right now about my discipline and perseverance, and my graduation from Burpee Academy.

Pax Domini sit semper vobiscum

Finally Sunday

The past week was tough because I worked hard at my job, slept fewer hours at night and, by the end of the week, had a big sleep deficit. The sleep deficit became very apparent as I crawled out of bed in slow motion Saturday morning at 5:00 a.m. to get an early start at my office for a 6th day of work.

So it’s comforting in knowing that today is Sunday and, as usual, Pierini Fitness is closed so the chief executive blogger can have his well-deserved day of rest to refresh is body, mind and spirit. Visit Pierini Fitness tomorrow for another creative and original blogflection about a topic yet to be determined but guaranteed to be original. Until then, I’m grateful because it's finally Sunday.

Pax Domini sit semper vobiscum

Until death do us part

Last Thursday evening, before the barbeque ribs, steak, salad and dessert during a small family gathering for my birthday, I went to a funeral rosary for a man our family knew about 50 years ago. His family and our family were neighbors and friends until we lost contact with them when we moved to a different city in 1960.

Eduardo “Lalo” Aguirre was called home to God last Saturday at the age of 92 years. I learned of his passing during my morning internet read of the obituaries, one of my middle-age man daily rituals that I wrote about here: Reading the obits

Upon reading of his passing, I had a strong feeling that I needed to attend the rosary. My Mom accompanied me. Mr. Aguirre had two sons that I remember, one of whom was a neighborhood play friend. As is often the case when attending funerals, I did so out of respect but also to satisfy my own curiosity. Would I recognize Mr. Aguirre as he rest in peace in his open casket, or his wife and two sons? Would they recognize my Mom and me and have the memories of my family that we had of them?

As we prayed the Holy Rosary, I learned that Mr. Aguirre was a man who believed in God and his Catholic faith as the rosary is definitely a Catholic form of prayer. Afterwards, various acquaintances and family members gave brief accounts of their memory of Mr. Aguirre, followed by a short video presentation of photos of him at various stages of his long life. There were many clues of what he valued the most: his faith, his family and his moustache. Other than the old black and white photos of him as a young boy, every other photo showed a proud family man with an ever-present and groomed moustache. At the end of the service, I approached his open casket to pay my final respects and noticed his groomed white moustache as he lay ever so peaceful in eternal rest.

Another reason I like to attend funerals is the stark reminders they give that life is precious and our time on earth is limited. Our earthly presence is at the pleasure of God and despite all that we do for our fitness and health, we’ll all get our turn to depart just like Mr. Aguirre. Funerals give me an opportunity to be reminded of those things that really matter the most; it’s not the money we make, the economic wealth we amass, the big shots we know or the places we’ve traveled. It’s much simpler than that as I was reminded by Mr. Aguirre, discovering what both he did and I do value the most - our faith, our family and our moustache – until death do us part.

Pax Domini sit semper vobiscum

Cowboy Eddie

The first book I owned was given to me by my parents when I was about 5 years old. It was a children’s book published by Rand McNally Elf Books titled “Cowboy Eddie”, a story about five year old Eddie’s first day on the Lazy E Ranch that Eddie’s Daddy, or Big Ed had recently bought. Eddie was the happiest boy in the world because he could now learn to be a cowboy.

I’ve managed to hold on to this book over the years but in my neglect and failure to realize the treasures of yesteryear, the book became quite weathered and in very poor condition. A recent conversation with an old book antique dealer motivated me to search for this book on the internet. Low and behold, I found it on e-bay and went a step further and recently purchased it – not just one copy but two!

I discovered that the book I owned was originally published in 1958 and sold for the whopping price of 25 cents. I also learned that an older book with the same title was published in 1950 and sold for the same price. Believing that they were two different stories, I made a business decision to purchase both books. I paid $20.00 for the 1950 book and $9.95 for the 1958 book. I’m still waiting to receive the 1958 book. Yesterday I received the 1950 book and discovered that the story is the same as the 1950 book with the only difference being the book cover. The 1950 book is in excellent condition and I know the 1958 book will be in much better condition that the one I currently own.

Knowing that there’s analysis to be done in every financial transaction, I calculated the rate of return of both books to evaluate their potential future value. Using the original purchase price and how much I paid for each book, the 1950 book increased in value by 7.5 percent per year and the 1958 book increased in value by 7.7 percent per year, both decent rates of return. Assuming that both books continue to increase in value at a similar rate, I asked myself how much they would be worth when I’m 90 years old sitting in a rocking chair watching time go by. The 1950 book will be worth $289.90 and the 1958 book will be worth $134.04. These were good investments and perhaps I should try to buy more.

Until then, every now and then when I want to spend time reflecting on my yesteryear, I’ll go to my personal library and read about Cowboy Eddie.

Pax Domini sit semper vobiscum

My first rerun

A rerun is a re-airing of an episode of a radio or television broadcast or, in the cyberspace world, a rerun of a blog post. I attended a continuing education seminar yesterday and didn’t have time to write my daily blogflection so here’s one of my favorites – a blast from the past: Every man who looks in the mirror sees a 16 year old kid

By the way, I just looked in the mirror and still see a 16 year old kid!

Visit Pierini Fitness tomorrow for another creative and original blogflection about a topic yet to be determined but guaranteed to be original. Until then, know that it had to come sooner or later – my first rerun.

Pax Domini sit semper vobiscum

Calling all middle-age men and women

Last week my wife and I purchased round trip airline tickets from San Francisco to Mexico City for the whopping price of $290 per ticket. We are going on a one week religious pilgrimage to Mexico City the last week of April with Human Life International, a pro-life and pro-family values educational apostolate.

The mission of Pierini Fitness - being the ambassador of middle-age men around the world, advocating their interests and expressing their views of the way life was, the way life is and way life should be – must continue during my absence. Therefore, this is a first call for guest middle-age men and women who can step up to the plate and serve as a guest blogger during my absence.

If you are a middle-age man or woman, please consider volunteering for this very important mission. I’m looking for a different guest blogger for each day of my absence, someone who can deliver a creative and guaranteed to be original blogflection about middle-age man or woman fitness and health, reflective ramblings, or political thought.

Who is a middle-age man or woman? That’s a good question and I answered it here: A middle-age man

Pierini Fitness embraces equal opportunity so middle-age women are encouraged to apply.

Are you interested? Send me an e-mail and I’ll tell you more. Don’t have my e-mail? Post a comment below and I’ll tell you the best way to contact me.

Nervous about the task or doubtful about your writing abilities? No problem because I’ll help you during your journey to the fabulous cyberspace blogflection universe.

Can you handle the challenge? This is my first calling all middle-age men and women.

Pax Domini sit semper vobiscum

Just hanging around

For the past month, I’ve spent about one minute every Monday through Friday morning hanging from the pullup bar in my basement. It’s part of a 10-minute early morning flexibility workout I’ve been doing before going to work. It makes my body feel good and prepares it for the rigors of the sitting I do to make a living.

I grip my pullup bar using a standard width pullup grip (palms away) with my arms fully extended. The one minute I’m hanging is short of my failure point but long enough to give my sleepy muscles an early morning wakeup call. My longest hang time is 2:08 but that was about 1.5 years ago and 10 pounds lighter. I think it’s time again to spend more time hanging and see if I can get close to my personal best. Maybe I’ll start doing that after my burpee challenge ends.

It’s all part of my something is better than nothing training mindset during my busy work season – spending a few early morning moments of solitary confinement in my basement just hanging around.

Pax Domini sit semper vobiscum

Feeling good about the 4:58

Last Friday was the end of week 6 of my burpee challenge that I wrote about here: No burpees today no food tomorrow

Here’s a day-by-day account of how I did this week with comparison times for the previous week:

Monday
A single set of 54 reps of the standard burpee completed in 5:39, done at the end of an Olympic lift training day. This effort was faster than the previous Monday’s time of 6:00.

Tuesday
A single set of 54 reps of the standard burpee completed in 4:58 for a new personal record (PR), done at a neighborhood park on the way home from work. This effort was faster than the previous Tuesday’s time of 5:04.

Wednesday
A single set of 54 reps of the standard burpee completed in 5:36. This effort was faster than the previous Wednesday’ time of 6:06 that was done at the end of an Olympic lift training day.

Thursday
A single set of 54 reps of the standard burpee completed in 5:01. This effort was one second slower than the previous Thursday’s time of 5:00, my previous PR.

Friday
A single set of 54 reps of the standard burpee completed in 7:08, done at the end of an Olympic lift training day. I made a note in my training journal before I did the set that a leisure pace was planned and that is how I did them but they were still hard to do. This effort was considerably slower than my previous Friday’s time of 5:45.

That’s my week 6 burpee challenge status report. Right now I’m feeling good about the 4:58.

Pax Domini sit semper vobiscum

The best is yet to come

A quick read of my blogflections this past week provide few clues to support the Pierini Fitness blog name, or its introductory description of a middle-age man’s cyberspace chronicle of his journey down the superfitness highway in the fast lane. Don’t let my middle-age man ramblings about this and that unrelated to fitness fool you; I’m training, I’m in the fast lane, but I’m not going full throttle right now. As I’ve said before, something is better than nothing and that is how I’m training these days during my busy work season.

This past week I trained on Monday and Friday at my gym. On Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday I trained at home in my basement - a 10 minute very-early morning flexibility workout and an early-evening single set of 54 standard burpees upon returning home from work. One day I went to a local park on the way home and did my burpee set. I also did the early-morning flexibility workout and single set of burpees on Monday and Friday.

But today is Sunday and Pierini Fitness is closed so the chief executive blogger can rest his body, mind and spirit. Come back tomorrow for another creative and original blogflection about a topic yet to be determined but guaranteed to be original. Train hard and smart and remember the best is yet to come.

Pax Domini sit semper vobiscum

But not as sweet as you

Today is Valentine’s Day, the traditional day that lovers express their love for each other by sending Valentine’s cards, flowers, or candies.

St. Valentine is the name of several martyred saints of ancient Rome. The St. Valentine whose feast is on February 14th is Valentine of Rome. He was a Roman priest who suffered martyrdom about 269 AD and is buried on the Via Flaminia north of Rome.

To all my middle-age men brothers in cyberspace, join me in expressing love to the loves of our lives. To the love of my life, this song is for her:

I’m grateful to God for my beautiful and wonderful wife for over 30 years. As I drive home from work today after a long day at the office, looking forward to an evening together with her, I’ll sing, “Roses are red my love, violets are blue, sugar is sweet my love, but not as sweet as you.”

Pax Domini sit semper vobiscum

What's up Doc?

My wife recently bought a big bag of carrots to make carrot juice. A big bag guarantees several rounds of this refreshing beverage that tastes best when chilled in the freezer before drinking. I’ve been taking advantage of our current abundant inventory of this super food by packing 3 to 4 carrots in my brown bag lunch to work every day this week.

It’s interesting that my food consumption at work seems to be a function of the time I have available to eat. Since I’m currently in the thick of my busy work season, eating carrots and fruits for lunch is proving to be a time-efficient trick to tame the office hunger beast residing in my brain and gut. Today, like yesterday, I'll supplement the carrots with a large cucumber. I like cucumbers, sliced and drizzled with a serving of extra virgin olive oil and balsamic vinegar.

There’s an urban legend that says eating large amounts of carrots will improve eyesight. I’ve read that the origin of this legend developed from stories of carrot-eating British gunners in World War II who were able to shoot down German planes in the darkness of night. I’m not eating them for that reason, but I’m game for anything that will improve my middle-age man reading vision.

Eating a big carrot reminds me of the Bugs Bunny rabbit cartoon character. Sometimes in the middle of a carrot feast, I’ll look at myself in the mirror and utter “what’s up Doc?”

Pax Domini sit semper vobiscum

Like a chipmunk harvesting chestnuts

I just read that the number of overweight and obese U.S. military personnel continues to grow like their girth. In 1998, there were 25,652 or 1.6 percent of the entire armed forces diagnosed as overweight; now it is 68,786 or 4.4 percent of the total. This follows the national weight-gaining tendency of the general U.S. population where 20 percent of Americans between ages 18 and 34 years are considered obese.

So while the economy continues to shrink, the girth of many Americans continues to grow. Over half of the U.S. population is overweight or obese and have an increased risk for diabetes, hypertension, heart disease, osteoarthritis, stroke, gallbladder disease, sleep apnea, respiratory problems and even some cancers.

There’s no shortage of daily news warning us about the perils of being overweight and obese. Here’s a sampling of recent news headlines: (1) obese moms are more likely to have babies with birth defects; (2) obesity hurts recovery after colon cancer surgery; (3) obesity may increase risk of diverticulitis; and (4) mom’s obesity tied to higher infant mortality.

The comforts of American life and abundant food have got to be the culprits for this national health dilemma.

What should an overweight or obese American do? The short answer is to eat less and exercise more but that’s too simple and it might work. It may take a serious health scare for an overweight or obese person to hit “rock bottom” and make these healthy lifestyle changes. They must be willing to reprogram the emotional reward system embedded deep in their brain so that healthy eating and exercise feels better than shoving excessive food down their throats to cope with stress and the other emotional pains in their lives.

Until then, they will go about their business self-medicating themselves with excessive food and drink, looking like a chipmunk harvesting chestnuts.

Pax Domini sit simper vobiscum

Don't let the tax tail wag the economic dog

We've all heard the clever expression "don't let the tail wag the dog". It describes a mindset where an item of minor importance dominates a situation; like when income taxes are given more emphasis than economics when making financial decisions. Here are some examples I've heard over the years with my accompanying comments:

"Do you think I should work less so I won't have to pay so much income tax?"

No I do not. Nobody is in the 100% tax bracket so a dollar earned will not cost you a dollar of income tax. Let's say your marginal federal and state income tax rate is 35%, the tax rate you pay on the next dollar of income or the percentage benefit of an additional dollar of deduction.

So if you work less and have $10,000 less income, your income tax savings would be $3,500. In other words, working less and making $10,000 less means $6,500 less in your piggy bank after the taxman is paid.

Work less because you want to have more time to do other things besides work.

"Do you think I should buy new equipment for my business to save income taxes?"

No I do not, again for the same line of reasoning discussed above.

Buy equipment for your business because it's needed for your business to operate efficiently, provide better service to customers, and to be more profitable.

"I own my home free and clear so I don't have home mortgage interest to write off as an income tax deduction. I'm paying too much tax. Do you think I should take out a mortgage so I can have something to write off?"

No I do not, again for the same line of reasoning discussed above. I believe home ownership free and clear of any debt should be the goal for all homeowners as the cash you aren't using to make a monthly loan payment is cash available for investment or some other purpose.

There are many good reasons to take out a home loan such as to make home improvements, finance a new business venture, or make an investment. Take out a home loan for these purposes and not to save income tax.

I remind my clients to be primarily guided by economics when making financial decisions. Once those decisions are made, then look at taxes to see if there is a preferred way to structure a financial transaction to obtain a better income tax result. An example involves real estate. Let's say you have a rental property you own and want to sell to purchase another rental property. A direct sale of this property will result in income tax if sold at a profit. You could sell the property using a delayed exchange provision of the tax law, use the proceeds to acquire the new property and defer (postpone) the income tax until a later date.

Remember, don't let the tax tail wag the economic dog.

Pax Domini sit semper vobiscum

Half empty or half full?

If I were a person easily depressed about economic news, I'd be depressed 24 hours a day and 7 days a week right now. The media continues to report bad economic news around the clock such as the continuing real estate crisis, new failures of financial institutions, rising unemployment and a teetering stock market. But I am not one of those people. God has graced me with measured optimism, and I know I'm not alone.

At this very moment, there are many people who are seizing new opportunities provided by the current state of our depressed economy. Those who are working outside their comfort zones by taking different and perhaps lower-paying jobs, or maybe becoming self-employed to create the employment they have been unable to find as an employee. Those who are investing in the stock market and real estate because there are bargains galore. Many will be far better off from these changes once the bad economy dust settles.

As Sun Tzu, an influential and legendary Chinese author of The Art of War, said, "opportunities multiply as they are seized" . A new generation of financially successful people will emerge from this current economic crisis, some of whom were initially "victims" of the current depressed economy.

It may seem as if I lack empathy for those who have lost their jobs and homes due to the poor economy because I have not yet experienced a similar fate. Therefore, I must guard against this predisposition by including those people in my prayers and thoughts while giving thanks to God for the blessings He has given me.

From the physics class I never took is the law that for every action there is a reaction. I believe this is true with the economy and, unfortunately, one person's crisis is another person's opportunity. Is the glass of water half empty or half full?

Pax Domini sit semper vobiscum

Week 5 burpee challenge status report

Last Friday was the end of week 5 of my burpee challenge. For those who missed my burpee challenge, you can read about it here: No burpees today no food tomorrow

This week I used my heart rate monitor and performed a single set of 54 reps of the standard burpee for all five days. I recorded my starting heart rate (HR), and also my average HR and highest HR expressed as beats per minute (bpm) while performing the set. Based on previous HR training efforts, I believe my maximum HR is 185 bpm. The percentages in parenthesis are in relation to my maximum HR.

It was a good week as I report below in my week 5 burpee challenge status report:

Monday
A single set of 54 reps of the standard burpee completed in 6:00, done at the end of an Olympic lift training day. This effort was slower than my previous Friday effort of 5:27.

Heart rate (HR) stats: starting HR beats per minute (bpm): 115 bpm - average HR of 169 bpm (91%) - highest HR of 179 bpm (97%).

Tuesday
A single set of 54 reps of the standard burpee completed in 5:04 for a new personal best.

Heart rate (HR) stats: starting HR beats per minute (bpm): 112 bpm - average HR of 161 bpm (87%) - highest HR of 171 bpm (92%).

Wednesday
A single set of 54 reps of the standard burpee completed in 6:06, done at the end of an Olympic lift training day.

Heart rate (HR) stats: starting HR beats per minute (bpm): 101 bpm - average HR of 162 bpm (88%) - highest HR of 176 bpm (95%).

Thursday
A single set of 54 reps of the standard burpee, completed in 5:00 for a new personal best.

Heart rate (HR) stats: starting HR beats per minute (bpm): 114 bpm - average HR of 160 bpm (86%) - highest HR of 170 bpm (92%).

Friday
A single set of 54 reps of the standard burpee completed in 5:45. My plan was to treat myself to a slower and comfortable pace so I was surprised that my time wasn't slower.

Heart rate (HR) stats: starting HR beats per minute (bpm): 116 bpm - average HR of 152 bpm (82%) - highest HR of 169 bpm (91%).

This week's effort and HR statistics indicate that my anaerobic conditioning is improving. That's my week 5 burpee challenge status report.

Pax Domini sit semper vobiscum

Lazy Sunday in Sacramento

As usual, Pierini Fitness is closed today. It's Sunday and the chief executive blogger is taking a much needed day of rest for his body, mind and spirit.

The photo is the front entrance of an expensive clothing store in Lucca, Italy, taken in October 2000. My wife noticed the store name while we were across the street buying bread in a bakery. Aftewards, we crossed the street, entered the store and I introduced myself to the store employees. We exchanged business cards and they gave me this pocket-size laminated photo that had a calendar on the back side.

Visit tomorrow for another original blogflection about a topic yet to be determined but guaranteed to be original.

Until then, for me it's just another lazy Sunday in Sacramento.

Pax Domini sit semper vobiscum

I'm so lonesome I could cry

A couple evenings ago my wife shared about a visit she made that day to an extremely lonely person she knows. We also talked about other lonely people we know, many of whom are widows and widowers.

Being lonely is a terrible cross that too many people carry. At this very moment, there are more lonely people than we can imagine or count. They survive being without company, cut off from others, not frequented by human beings, sad from being alone, and carry a feeling of bleakness or desolation. It just doesn't seem fair.

This lonely feeling is so well expressed in "I'm So Lonesome I Could Cry", a song written and recorded by American country music singer-songwriter Hank Williams in 1949.



Join me today in making a special effort to call or visit five people you know who are or might be lonely? And while you are at it, could you encourage five people you know to do the same?

Over 80 people a day read my blogflections on days that I make an extra effort and send them an e-mail. If all of those 80 people make five calls or visits to someone they know who is lonely, and they also ask five family, friends and acquaintances to do the same, we can make a small contribution of putting a twinkle in the eyes and a smile on the face of 2,000 lonesome human beings; so they won't feel like Hank Williams did when he sang the song "I'm So Lonesome I Could Cry".

Pax Domini sit semper vobiscum

Middle-age man motivation

I'm constantly on the hunt for words of wisdom that best capture the feelings and thoughts bouncing around inside my middle-age man mind. Here are three that I've collected in my search:

"He looks young enough and strong enough to be his own son."

While my motivation for fitness and health should be because it's the right thing to do and to give thanks to God for my blessings, there are some vanity factors that enter into the equation as well if I am rigorously honest with myself. The notion of looking young enough and strong enough to be my own son best captures one of my vanities.

"Under pressure we do not rise to the level of our expectations, we fall to the level of our training."

On first impression, I might limit these words of wisdom to a physical fitness context. The mental discipline of hard fitness training does, however, have spillover benefit to the challenges of everyday living being a middle-age man, spouse, father, son, brother, cousin, nephew, uncle, and CPA.

"When I grow up I want to be an old man."

During a recent visit to my Dad's house, I overheard a television commercial for health insurance that began with a scene of middle-age women walking and smiling with a caption in the background that said, "When I grow up I want to be an old woman". In my middle-age man journey, I'm constantly seeking the wisdom of men and women from a generation before me. I've had regular conversations with a couple of 90 years plus young men I know. Their perspective and wisdom about the things in life that matter the most always impress me, and I'm always taking notes when listening to what they have to share. They inspire me to want to be an old man when I grow up.

We are all different and so are the things that motivate us to be our very best. The above words of wisdom are three examples of my middle-age man motivation.

Pax Domini sit semper vobiscum

Funny blogflection postscripts

A couple of my recent blogflections provided some postscript laughs that I'll share with you today, proving once again that there is clever to be had in cleverness and humor to be had in humor.

On January 13th in The day we went our separate way, I wrote about the day I gave away the family television and we (the television and I) went our separate ways. If you didn't read the last sentence of that blogflection, you might have thought I was sharing about a broken relationship with my wife.

Guess what? Four of you did including two clients, one real estate acquaintance and a cyberspace fitness brother, all middle-age men like me. One person expressed sorrow that I went through a divorce and to call him whenever I need to talk. Another person shared that he read my story, it really made him sad, and that we needed to get together for a sandwich. I had a lot of fun and they had a lot of laughs when I told them to go back and read the last sentence. One person said I punked him, a term I hadn't heard in a long time.

Lesson learned: make sure to read the whole story before coming to a conclusion.

On January 29th in Unless I forget, I wrote about how my wife spends half her life losing things and the other half trying to find them. That blogflection generated the most comments ever at Pierini Fitness, giving me comfort in knowing I am not alone in having an absent-minded spouse.

No sooner than my wife found her cell phone did she then misplace it and her keys a couple more times in the following days. The straw that broke the camel's back was last Saturday when I was in a hurry to leave for my morning workout and asked her where she put my car keys because they weren't on the file cabinet where I normally keep them. She had borrowed my car the night before. I had a scowl on my face as I raised my voice like an Army drill sergeant, ordering her that she better find them immediately so I wouldn't be late for my workout.

Guess what? After her frantic efforts to find them to no avail, she asked me if I had them. I reached into my pant pocket and there they were.

Lesson learned: it's just as bad to not know that you have your keys as to not know where they are.

Life is a barrel of laughs as demonstrated by these funny blogflection postscripts.

Pax Domini sit semper vobiscum

Week 4 burpee challenge status report

Last Friday was the end of week 4 of my burpee challenge. I started off with a slower Monday and finished on Friday with a new personal best time for my 54-rep set. For those who missed my burpee challenge, you can read about it here: No burpees today no food tomorrow

The following is my week 4 burpee challenge status report:

Monday
A single set of 54 reps of the standard burpee completed in 6:09, done at the end of an Olympic lift training day. My prior best time was 6:05 on January 22nd.

Tuesday
A single set of 54 reps of the standard burpee completed in 5:34. This was the fastest I've completed the 54-rep set since I started this challenge.

Wednesday
A single set of 54 reps of the standard burpee completed in 5:31. Another good effort and 3 seconds faster than the previous day.

Thursday
A single set of 54 reps of the standard burpee, completed in 5:45, done at the end of an Olympic lift training day. My times are consistently slower on these training days.

Friday
A single set of 54 reps of the standard burpee completed in 5:27. This was my best effort since beginning the burpee challenge.

Next week I'll start using my heart rate monitor to record my average and highest heart rate beats per minute during the 54-rep set as a way of monitoring further improvement in my anaerobic conditioning.

But for now folks, that's my week 4 burpee challenge status report.

Pax Domini sit semper vobiscum

Expressive moving meditation

Expression is an everyday human life activity like eating and sleeping. We all express ourselves differently, choosing mediums that match our personalities. Nothing is more revealing than how we express ourselves through songs, poetry or art. I can't sing or play a musical instrument, but I've discovered the joy of written expression with my daily blogflections here at Pierini Fitness.

A physical medium of expression for me is performing kata in my martial arts training. Kata (literally: "form"), is a Japanese word describing detailed choreographed patterns of movements practiced either solo or in pairs. Kata are used in many traditional Japanese arts such as theater forms like schools of tea ceremony, but are most commonly known in the martial arts such as karate.

Last Saturday morning at the dojo was devoted to kata training and, with my karate brothers and sister, we performed 14 different kata over a span of about 30 minutes. My martial arts training has been erratic lately, so my expressive movements were not as crisp and flowing as the past.

One of the advanced kata we performed was Kanku Dai, a representative kata of Japanese Shotokan karate consisting of 65 movements executed in about 90 seconds, expressing attack and defense movements against eight adversaries. Here is a 2-year old short video of me performing this kata:



I love kata training with all the mental and physical challenges it presents. For me, it is my choice of expressive moving meditation.

Pax Domini sit semper vobiscum

And his wife took a nap

This blogflection was accidentally deleted and is in the process of being restored.

February 1st

Wow! January 2009 has come and gone, and today is the first day of a new month. It's also Sunday so, once again, I'm taking a needed day of rest to refresh and rejuvenate my body, mind and spirit.

Visit Pierini Fitness tomorrow for another blogflection about a topic yet to be determined but guaranteed to be original.

Until then, enjoy your Sunday, February 1st.

Pax Domini sit semper vobiscum