Sono in vacanza

There's a lot of darn good content here at Pierini Fitness if this chief executive blogger must say so himself.  Middle-aged man reflections about living and dying, gracefully aging and trying to live a good and honest life.

Not to mention good middle-aged man diet, fitness and health stuff too.

So enjoy any of the almost 900 blogflections in the archives until I resume adding new content here in early August.  There's something here for everyone, even if you've read some of all of them before.

Enjoy this brief summertime rerun season, starting now, because this middle-aged man says, "Sono in vacanza."

Pax Domini sit semper vobiscum

Now go flaunt yours!

This chief executive blogger continues being busy with his work and preparing for an upcoming vacation.  So he's short on his world-renowned blogflections here at Pierini Fitness.  

I suppose you can say, "the cyberspace cat has got his blogflection tongue."

But while I may be short on both written and oral reflections about life in my middle-aged man fast lane, there's always time for me to engage in one of my favorite pastimes - flaunting my middle-aged man roar.  Click below and listen up.

It always feel good when I flaunt my middle-aged man roar.  

Now go flaunt yours!

Pax Domini sit semper vobiscum

Real bloggers have day jobs

I remember years ago a good karate friend of mine, who was a high school teacher in his day job, had this unbridled passion for music.  He played several instruments but the fiddle, I believe, was his favorite.  He was part of a couple ensembles that performed here and there, sometimes for pocket change and other times free and for the pure joy of participating in his musical passion. 

Anyway, I remember he had this bumper sticker on his truck that read “Real musicians have day jobs!”  He’s recently retired and now I’m sure, since he’s a real musician, his musical pursuits will be his new day job.  I wish him well as he enters a new and exciting chapter in his middle-aged man life.

Well real bloggers are no different.   This chief executive blogger has a rather full plate of work to do this month with his day job.  Consequently, his delivery of the world-renowned middle-aged man reflections appearing here at Pierini Fitness may be slow and/or delayed this week, and possibly this month, because real bloggers have day jobs.

Pax Domini sit semper vobiscum

Mangia mangia!

Earlier this year, a couple paesani researchers in the terra dei miei antenati concluded that their “comparative analysis of data from two different Mediterranean populations supports that pasta intake is negatively associated with both indexes of obesity status and prevalence of overweight and obesity.”

Translation please for us middle-aged men meatheads!

According to one internet news article, “Eating pasta is not fattening and actually decreases the chances of becoming obese, a new Italian study has found.”

Researchers added in their discussion how their results are in agreement with a prior study examining food and nutrient intakes in association with the body mass index of American middle-aged adults.  That prior study reported that pasta intake among other food groups was negatively associated with body mass index. 

Moreover, they added, evidence from Greek islands supports a favorable role of carbohydrate intake on central and general obesity.

So what is this middle-aged man’s “of first impression response” to this news?

Mangia mangia!

Pax Domini sit semper vobiscum

Do as you’ve done

So I’m about one month back on the fitness saddle after having some time off that turned out to be longer than expected.  Happens every now and then typically when life gets in the way of regularly-scheduled fitness workouts that are seldom missed.

Well in my time-out, as can be expected, I experienced some fitness erosion.  Happens every now and then because, as this middle-aged man constantly reminds himself, he’s only as good as his last workout.

But when that day came when I was ready to saddle up and jump on my fitness pony, I had to ask myself what would I do.

I knew I was nowhere near the peak conditioning earlier before my time-out began.  I also knew that whatever I did, my fitness training had to match my fitness personality.

So I did what I’ve done in the past when trying to get motivated to resume fitness training.  I reviewed my past training journals noting not only what was my last workout but also what I had done in the past year.  What a treasure chest of fitness training information I’ve accumulated over the years.

After some pondering, I made a “business decision” to pick one of my favorite workouts, one that I would regularly do about every week to 10 days.  It’s one of my anaerobic conditioning measuring stick workouts, a single kettlebell complex called the Power 5 that I perform using a 20-kilogram kettlebell.

Here’s a video of me performing a round of it almost two years ago:  

Except this time, I knew I had to tailor this workout to recognize my current conditioning.  I did this by modifying the number of rounds completed and how much recovery time I allowed myself between rounds.

After this workout, as I was huffing and puffing to regain my composure, I was reminded by my effort that there’s no need to reinvent my fitness training wheel.  It also reminded me that only my fitness conditioning had changed during my time out and not my fitness personality.  Again, my fitness training has got to match my fitness personality if I’m to stick with a good fitness training program.

So, therefore, I was reminded as so should you when jumping back on the fitness saddle, it’s best to do as you’ve done.

Pax Domini sit semper vobiscum.

Middle-aged men cognoscenti

In  this middle-aged man’s gracefully aging journey, he has tried almost every conceivable “this and that” in chasing good fitness and health. 

He has explored and experimented with many diets and fitness training methods.

He has expended painstaking efforts to capture details about his good fitness and health efforts. 

He has taken these details and summarized them to create information that can best be described as vast and of tremendous personal archival benefit.  This allows him to know what works and what doesn’t work for him. 

He then tries to share this information here at Pierini Fitness for your benefit; to stimulate your thinking, give you perhaps a new idea, and encourage you to do the same in your own gracefully aging journey.  He hopes that you occasionally stumble across something that is of real value to you. 

What has emerged from his efforts is a middle-aged man who enjoys good fitness and health, not in a boisterous and prideful way, but rather with gratefulness, humility and the wisdom to know that whatever he has today can easily be gone tomorrow.

Do know that all he shares here are his original reflections.  He may refer to recent fitness and health research done by others.  He may also refer to recent news articles; not to cut and paste and present them as his own, but rather to refer to them and then present his middle-aged man take on things, oftentimes presented with his patented and unique “rough around the edges” way of expressing himself.

Plagiarism is absolutely forbidden at Pierini Fitness and this chief executive blogger believes those who practice it are, fakes, phonies and “sinners”.

Visit Pierini Fitness often for my very best middle-aged man reflections about living and dying, gracefully aging and trying to live a good and honest life.  There’s good middle-aged man, diet, fitness and health stuff here too. 

Visit often, read all that is here, and become part of the middle-aged men cognoscenti.

Pax Domini sit semper vobiscum

Middle-aged man macho accent

I recently read an interesting article about a woman from Texas who woke up from jaw surgery last December and now speaks with a foreign accent.  She suffers from what experts call Foreign Accent Syndrome (FAS).  Apparently there have only been about 100 documented cases of FAS which was first described over 100 years ago.

FAS is a rare case in which someone afflicted with it suddenly wakes up one day speaking with a Southern twang or perhaps a British accent.  In the case of this Texas woman, she now “suffers” from speaking with a British accent.

I learned from reading this article how this syndrome usually develops after neurological damage such as a stroke and this causes the rhythm and tone of a person’s speech to suddenly change.  Experts warn us that any change in speech, such as an accent change, can be the first sign of a stroke and someone experiencing this needs to be immediately evaluated by a doctor.

FAS can be brought on by psychological reasons such as anxiety, depression or emotional trauma even if there's no physiological damage to the brain as in the case of a stroke.

Perhaps the psychological perils of being a middle-aged man can cause a similar condition in which we one day wake up from a deep sleep and ask our wives, in an older-version of Rocky Balboa vocal expression, “Yo honey, what’s for breakfast?”

If this happens, chances are we have what this middle-aged man expert calls MAMMA or middle-aged man macho accent.

Pax Domini sit semper vobiscum

Buy our doctor a burger

About three months ago, a news article published by ProPublica reported how doctors who receive payments from the medical industry do indeed tend to prescribe drugs differently than their colleagues who don’t.  And the more money they receive, on average, the more brand-name medications they prescribe.

ProPublica describes itself as an independent, nonprofit newsroom that produces investigative journalism in the public interest.

Now, a recent article published last week by the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) reported the results of a recent research study that aligns with what ProPublica previously reported. 

This JAMA-published study concluded that medical doctors who were “wined and dined” by a pharmaceutical industry company ended up subsequently prescribing a higher proportion of that company’s drugs than their peers who were not wined and dined.

Apparently, the more meals they received, the greater share of those drugs they tended to prescribe compared to other prescription drugs in the same category.

JAMA is a peer-reviewed medical journal published by the American Medical Association, the largest association of physicians and medical students in the United States.

So the ProPublica finding busts the doctor with his hand in the cookie jar while his big-brother named JAMA confirms that his little brother did it. 

Well for us middle-aged men trying to get quality medical care, we may sometimes walk away frustrated from a doctor’s office visit. 

Perhaps there’s some innovative and outside-the-box medicine that we want our doctor to give us but with his hands tied by health insurance-driven constraints, we’re sent our merry way with less-than-prime-time medical care and perhaps a generic prescription to help alleviate the pain. 

Or perhaps there's a new medical procedure we learn of that seems perfect for us based on our independent and responsible research; but our dear doctors says no because he may not personally know about it.    

Maybe we need to take a lesson from them rascals at the pharmaceutical industry. 

Maybe we need to buy our doctor a burger.

Pax Domini sit semper vobiscum

A fitness frugalminimalist

Father of Pierini Fitness - a circa
 1957 fitness frugalminimalist

What’s the difference between being a fitness frugalist and a fitness minimalist?

A frugalist is someone who practices frugalism by being frugal.  Frugal may be defined as practicing economy such as in the spending of money or the use of material resources.  Frugal is that which is simple or costing little, meager or inexpensive. 

A fitness frugalist focuses on eliminating fitness expenses that are not necessary.

So a fitness frugalist may belong to a “no frills gyms” rather than one having many bells and whistles.  

In the case of a train-at-home fitness dude, the fitness frugalist may have anywhere from a simple to a vast inventory of fitness equipment and gadgets inexpensively self-constructed, or purchased second-hand at garage sales or thrift stores instead of from high-end bricks and mortar retail stores or internet websites.

A minimalist is someone who practices minimalism.  A minimalist focuses on eliminating complexity that comes from possessing many things and instead prefers to have no more than what is “needed”.  Of course what is needed is in the eyes of the beholder.

A fitness minimalist focuses on having simplicity in their fitness pursuits. 

So a fitness minimalist may not belong to a gym or own any fitness equipment.  A run in the neighborhood park and performing bodyweight-only exercises such as calisthenics is how they may do their fitness training. Or they may own a few items of fitness equipment and gadgets rather than many; they may or may not be expensive.

So what am I - a fitness frugalist or a fitness minimalist?

At this chapter in my middle-aged man life, I’m striving to be a fitness frugalminimist.

Pax Domini sit semper vobiscum

Middle-aged man abstract mindset

Grandpa's middle-aged man mindset - by Pierini Fitness IV - May 2016

Composing original middle-aged man reflections appearing here at Pierini Fitness requires an ability to think deeply and reflectively with an abstract mindset.

One mindset commentator notes that as you develop your abstract mind, new horizons open with a bird’s eye view of life and the world.  You no longer remain stuck inside being a prisoner of your thoughts, feelings and environments.

This commentator claims that one in an abstract mindset will not sit on the fence watching others achieving their goals while doubting themselves but, instead, will soar like an eagle able to see the overall picture with clear vision and total understanding.

Sounds good to me which, by the way, has always been my cerebral paradigm.

How does this chief executive blogger cultivate his abstract mindset?  Well he now has a new tool in his toolbox to do so. 

It’s a little grandson’s first artistic creation recently painted by him last month at the ripe age of 22 months.  This artistic treasure is now framed and hanging on the wall at home available to help cultivate my middle-aged man abstract mindset.

Pax Domini sit semper vobiscum

Life is brief and precious

A first-grade class photo reminder that life is brief and precious

About one year ago I gave a copy of my book "Every man who looks in a mirror sees a 16-year-old kid" to my banker.  It was a token of friendship gift to a fellow middle-aged man.  I suggested he only read one reflection a day, put the book down after reading it, and then spend the rest of the day pondering what had just been read. 

He saved the book for a vacation, disregarded my one a day suggestion, and burned through it in a couple hours while catching up on his long-overdue suntan sitting at the beach in Santa Cruz, California.  I had a chance to chat with him upon his return and he gave me some feedback about my book.  One comment was one I had not heard before. 

He commented how my book had too much to say about death and dying.

To which I replied that was because at this chapter of my life, death and dying comes up more often than other life events.  “I’m more likely to attend a funeral than a baby shower”, or something like that, was my reply.

And isn’t that true for most of us at this middle-aged man point in our lives?

Well this year is not even half over yet and more evidence of this truth stares at me.  As I stare back in reflection, I fondly recall the pleasant memories I have of three people who recently passed away. Two were personal friends and the other was a very famous athlete who I did not personally know. 

Father Patrick Lee was a Catholic priest friend my wife and I got to know well from our pro-life activities.  He passed away earlier this year.

He was a gentle giant in our Sacramento pro-life community and could regularly be found at the sidewalk in front of local abortion centers praying in a peaceful and prayerful way for those women entering for an abortion; for them to choose life for their unborn child rather than an abortion.  

Only God knows how many more precious children are living today because of Father Lee’s peaceful prayerful ministry evangelizing and witnessing the sanctity of life.

I'm forever grateful to Father Lee for visiting my father during his last remaining days of life and delivering to him the sacraments of anointing of the sick, confession and holy communion.  He was also the priest for my father's requiem mass and funeral. 

Father Patrick Lee taught me much about how life is brief and precious.

Tommy Kono, America's greatest Olympic weightlifter, also recently passed away.  He became a good friend of mine coincidentally after my efforts about 9 years ago to reunite my Dad and him.  They were weightlifting buddies in the early 1950’s and trained at the Sacramento YMCA. 

Mr. Kono stayed as a guest in my home the first year we met.  Each year thereafter, we would also spend quality time together during his annual visits to Sacramento to visit his brother and attend an Olympic weightlifting competition named in his honor and held at the high school he attended while growing up in Sacramento.

One thing I remember about Mr. Kono was his humility and sage wise elder-perspective of having been there and done it.  He so graciously shared all that he had to offer and was never in a rush when talking to a young lifter or when asked to have a photo taken of him and the person asking for this favor. 

I witnessed his graceful aging and it actually crossed my mind when I saw him last August 2015 that it might be the last time.  I was right because he passed away about 8 months later.

Tommy Kono taught me much about how life is brief and precious.

All middle-aged men of my decade vintage will forever have many memories, while growing up, of Muhammad Ali who also recently passed away.    

I remember the first time I learned of him when he was the reigning heavyweight boxing champion and more commonly known as Cassius Clay.  I was at the Sacramento Judo Club about to begin an evening workout when someone shared that Ali had just knocked out Sonny Liston in the first round with a "mysterious karate" punch. 

This would be the beginning of my following his boxing career.  Ali defended his heavyweight boxing championship several times in matches that could often be viewed "for free" on television.  His post-fight interview encounters with Wide World of Sports' sportscaster Howard Cosell were fun to watch.

I remember Ali’s first fight with Joe Frazier when I was a high school student and then a few years later, his amazing victory over George Foreman during which he patented his famous “rope a dope” technique, using it to exhaust and then knock out the bigger, stronger and younger Foreman.

It was hard to view this great athlete's physical decline in his later years due to Parkinson's disease but he did so with dignity and witness to the beauty of life despite its challenges and imperfections.  

Muhammad Ali taught me much about how life is brief and precious.

I recently read an article on the business magazine Forbes’ website that inspired me to write today's blogflection.  This article was an interview of a physician who shared her perspective of death and dying.

Of the many wisdom points I got from reading it is how this physician, who has witnessed lots of deaths, shared “I’ve seen death done well. And I’ve seen it done poorly.”

She also shared about one lesson learned from her experiences which, coincidentally, is the same lesson I learned from Father Patrick Lee, Tommy Kono and Muhammad Ali.

What is this lesson she learned?  

How life is brief and precious.

Pax Domini sit semper vobiscum

Caro diario

Regularly-scheduled timeouts are good and necessary for those engaging in creative activities such as blogging.  All artisans and workers must eventually take a sabbatical or vacation to rest and rejuvenate from the toils of pursuing their passions.

This is what the chief executive blogger of Pierini Fitness did during a four month leave of absence from his cyberspace blog.  

What I discovered is that, while in rest, a real blogger in hibernation nonetheless has an omnipresent, growing and uncontrollable desire to get back on the blogging saddle.  

A real blogger must regularly practice their vocation of cyberspace expression regardless if anyone is reading.  A generation or two ago, and even now, people did this by regularly adding to their dear diary using paper and pen.    

I’m a made in America middle-aged man cyberspace version of Italian Nanni Moretti who directed the movie “Caro Diario” while playing himself in a dry and satirical look at life.  

Moretti used the experience of traveling on his motor-scooter while cruising with his friend around a set of remote islands in search of peace to finish his new film.  And along his way, he consulted doctor after doctor to cure his annoying rash.  The movie was a humorous look at his life and those around him.

And this is what Pierini Fitness is to me.  A place where I share my middle-aged man reflections about living and dying, gracefully aging and trying to live a good and honest life. 

This Pierini Fitness blog is my cyberspace motor-scooter, those few middle-age man brethren souls who sometimes frequent are my “friends” cruising with me around a set of cyberspace remote blogflection islands in search of peace to finish what will hopefully be a life well lived. 

And in my journey, I may consult with others by reading their take on life as posted in comments and in private e-mails to cure me of this annoying middle-aged man rash I have of being rebellious and rough around the edges.

Today is a new day of life for me and it feels good to be back on the blogging saddle with my caro diaro.

Pax Domini sit semper vobiscum

Leave without pay

So where has Pierini Fitness been these days?

That's a fair question and one deserving of an answer.

Well he caught this flu thing, at least he thinks.  There were a couple bad days but afterwards, there were many days of a lingering cough that just wouldn't go away.

And this episode wrecked havoc on my 2016 burpee challenge proving once again that life is full of surprises and one must be flexible and adapt for best results and the least frustration.

I missed 19 days of fitness training but am now slowly jumping back on my training saddle.

Giddyup!

One of my famous sayings is how I'm only as good as my last workout.  This whole 19-day downtime experience has given me new anecdotal evidence of how true is this statement.

But I'll be back; been there and done it before and know the drill.  Patience and persistence is required.

So yes now I'm back on the saddle but this is the time of the year when I'm extremely busy with my work.  And there are some other "irons in my fire" that are keeping me very occupied so that my Monday through Friday blogflection production will take a necessary and big time out.

It's not what I want but it's what it'll be.

This time out will allow me to focus on accomplishing some big stuff going on in my life right now. 

How long before I'm back to the way I want it to be?  Let's say by the end of May and, God willing, perhaps sooner.

Yes Pierini Fitness sports fan, this chief executive blogger is taking leave without pay.

Pax Domini sit semper vobiscum

Middle-aged man flat on his back

Every now and then a middle-aged man gets sick.  It’s been a while for me so it was my turn. 

Yesterday, all day, I was a middle-aged man flat on his back.

Pax Domini sit semper vobiscum

Is making my heart jittery

Today's blogflection at Pierini Fitness is brief because this middle-aged man is under the weather; again!  

Stuff happens and sometimes relapse is part of this stuff.  I hope to be back on the saddle in a day or two.

But allow me to share, again, about another health-related research study.

So the latest one is about recent research concluding that drinking caffeinated beverages – such as this middle-aged man’s very strong single cup of morning coffee – is unlikely to make your and my heart jittery. 

Researchers used heart rate monitors on people included in this study and found no difference in heart rate activities regardless of caffeine intake. 

The next time I’m riled up about this and that, I’ll find comfort in knowing it’s not my morning strong cup of coffee that is making my heart jittery.

Pax Domini sit semper vobiscum

This middle-aged man will ignore

The latest health news is about how government advisors now recommend that all adults should be regularly screened for depression.

Yes, you read this right, all adults and that includes all middle-aged men.

Further details can be found at the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force website.

This recommendation is one this middle-aged man will ignore.

Pax Domini sit semper vobiscum

2016 burpee challenge report #2

Two weeks ago this day I shared my first 2016 burpee challenge report.  For those not familiar, this challenge is to complete 100 burpees a day every Monday through Friday for a total of 35 days of 100 burpees starting on January 1^st.

My last report shared my best time thus far of 12:59 that I did the day earlier.  That workout effort consisted of 20 rounds of 5 burpees performed by starting a new round every 39 seconds.

Throughout this challenge, I’ve tried my best to have variety in how I get my 100 burpees completed and it’s paying off because I continue to slowly lower by time from the day this challenge began on January 1^st.

My best time since the 2016 burpee challenge report #1 was on last Friday when I completed my 100 burpees in 12:03.  That day I got the job done by completing 20 rounds of 5 burpees every 37 seconds. 

Equally as important as the time improvement is my perfect attendance every Monday through Friday this month thus far.  There have been a few days where I felt like “playing hooky”.

I’ll share at least two more updates like this one but for right now Pierini Fitness sports fans, this is my 2016 burpee challenge report #2.

Pax Domini sit semper vobiscum