Saturday Night Bardelli Style

Under smoke filled skies we played Scrabble all afternoon and until almost midnight last night. There was a lot of laughter and clowning around. It took me back to my childhood and young adulthood as my family was very big into Scrabble. My dad, mom. aunt Gayle, and cousin Jim were hardcore Scrabble players. Many of my other family members were pretty dedicated too. We spent many late evenings playing into the night and sometimes had two boards up and two games going when there were more than five players. (Scrabble is for two to four players but we often played with five). And my Daddy would make a huge pot of his fabulous spaghetti and we'd make pigs of ourselves. We lived in the San Francisco Bay Area and relatives would come all the way from Los Angeles and Sacramento for those spaghetti feeds and Scrabble tournaments. Those were the days!

Unfortunately my mom, dad, and aunt Gayle and others have passed and most of my other Scrabble compadres are living too far away. The last time my brother visited, he and my nephew played with us into the night and boy, did we reminisce. He has many fond memories of those times also.

We took a lot of photos last night and some video footage of our kittens playing with a Linux screen saver. I have to upload and edit it. They kept watching the screen saver and swatting the monitor screen. We didn't have dinner (homemade pizza) until after 11 pm.

Jerry always helps Bruno play as we're teaching him Scrabble skills and Bruno won three games yesterday. Jerry says "I'm beating myself at Scrabble."

I slept in Saturday morning until 10:30 am. I had been up late Friday night with ice packs on my front right side and back trying to calm down my colitis. It seems to have helped although the pain isn't completely gone. Oddly enough, I'm down to 120 pounds (minus two pounds) and body fat 22 percent (about the same). I tend to eat less when I have a flare up but it's likely water loss.

The book on the table I was reading between Scrabble plays is "Eating For Life" by Bill Phillips of Body For Life fame. I found a near new copy at our FISH Thrift shop for $5.00 and as I successfully did BFL back in 2000 I snapped it up. I'm bookmarking it a lot and will review it soon. It seems to be an excellent approach to lose body fat, gain muscle, and get fit.

Now excuse me, I have another Scrabble marathon to attend.

Photos of Scrabble and those smoky skies...

Workouts Postponed On Account Of Weather, Smoke, and Colitis

The Heat Is On...












It's just too hot to exercise! I know because in July of 1996 I got heat exhaustion while riding my horse in exactly the same hot 100 plus degrees July weather. I actually blacked out sitting in the saddle but my mare brought me back to the barn safely.

And we still have a lot of smoke in the air from a fire in the Plumas National forest. The smoke is awful and makes our throats, eyes, and nose burn (didn't I just write this a few weeks ago?!) Poor Bruno looked like he had conjunctivitis a few days ago but it cleared up.

Never mind my freaking colitis flare is killing me too. I'm laying low until this heat breaks and the smoke clears.









Click To Enlarge - 99 degrees today, 101 tomorrow, 102 Thursday, 98 Friday. Sheesh.

Links:

Heat Illness - Heat Exhaustion, Safety Tips for Exercising in Hot Weather

By Elizabeth Quinn, About.com

Updated: April 12, 2008

Signs of Heat Exhaustion Signs & Symptoms of Heat Exhaustion Often Begin Suddenly.
Heat Exhaustion Heat Illness Heat Stroke Heat Stress Hot Weather Work
Athletes are especially prone to heat illness such as heat stroke and heat exhaustion, especially if they are unfamiliar with the warning signs. Heat illness can be life threatening if not taken seriously. Most serious heat illness in athletes can be prevented by following these basic guidelines and heeding the warning signs and symptoms. Read more.

The Best Way To Work Out In Hot Weather

Hot weather puts a strain on all of us regardless of our activity.

Dehydration, heat exhaustion and heat stroke are more likely to occur when the humidity is above 70 percent and the heat is above 70 degrees.

This is because the heat and humidity interfere with our bodies own natural cooling processes.

Doing your daily work out in hot weather puts additional stress on our cardiovascular system. Read more.

Understanding hot weather and its dangers

Blistering summer heat waves can be not only extremely uncomfortable, but even deadly, as Europe learned during the summer of 2003.

History shows that heat waves are deadliest in large cities that rarely experience hot weather, with the elderly and those in poor health in the greatest danger.

In recent years, scientists have learned that a day's highest temperature is not the best measure of the danger of heat waves. Unrelenting heat that doesn't allow people to rest at night is responsible for the deaths of many elderly and ill people.

Recognition of this danger led the U.S. National Weather Service to begin using a new mean heat index.

Heat, humidity add up to danger

The elderly and ill aren't the only people that heat kills. It also kills healthy young people, usually because they do not recognize the dangers of exercising in hot weather, especially hot, humid weather.
When heat and humidity combine to slow evaporation of sweat from the body, outdoor exercise becomes dangerous even for those in good shape.

Key rules for coping with heat are to drink plenty of water to avoid dehydration and to slow down and cool off when feeling fatigued, a headache, a high pulse rate or shallow breathing. Overheating can cause serious, even life-threatening conditions such as heat stroke.

Dangers of heat include: Read More

How to Protect Your Family from the Health Effects of Smoke

-Pay attention to local air quality reports and stay alert to any news coverage or health warnings related to smoke.

-Use common sense. If it looks smoky outside, it's probably not a good time to mow the lawn or go for a run. And it's probably not a good time for your children to play outdoors.

-If you are advised to stay indoors, take steps to keep indoor air as clean as possible. Keep your windows and doors closed — unless it's extremely hot outside.
Read more.

ProForm Biovibe Update - I'm In Love

My ProForm BioVibe from box to set up.



























































Proform Biovibe Update & Damn That Smoke!

My ProForm Biovibe arrived a little over a month ago but I haven’t had a chance to really put it to it’s paces until this week. I’m here to say this machine rocks.

Normally after a break from weight lifting I come back stronger. I have years of workout log books to prove it. I almost always start a new bodybuilding phase lifting heavier after letting my body take a recuperative break of one to six weeks depending on the situation.

On Monday’s Back and Chest Day I did all five sets of push ups on the machine. I felt more muscle recruitment than my push ups performed on the Bosu, uSurf, and GoFit Disc combined. The next day my chest was more sore than usual (more than my last 10 set workout!) and even my biceps were sore despite not doing biceps the day before (other than the usual recruitment from a chest and back workout).

Yesterday on Leg Day I did all five of my sets of 15 to 25 reps per exercise of squats, lunges, side lunges, and three way calf raises (15 reps per angle) on it and I could tell a difference right away. Particularly on Leg Day it took less sets and reps to get a burn. My calves are tough customers and it’s hard to get them to burn. I have done as many as 10 sets of 60 reps each of 3 different angled exercises (toes straight, toes pointed in, toes pointed out) and I don’t hit a burn until toward the end. I almost didn’t get through all of my pool aerobics workout a few hours after my resistance training. My legs were killing me!

Forget DOMS (delayed onset muscle soreness), I had AIMS (almost immediate muscle soreness). I just coined that phase but it describes my results of immediate soreness well. As Bruno would say, “Cool!” (Can you tell I’m a member of the “No pain, no gain” camp?)

And on this fine morning I’m toast. I’m having trouble walking because my calves, quads, glutes, and hamstrings are sore as hell. Hey, yippee, muscles were superlatively stimulated and with proper nutrition and rest they should grow. (I slept 10 hours last night).

Today’s workout – ha, ha, ha, like I’ll get a decent one – will be about one hour of pool aerobics. I’ve got to do something to get rid of some of the lactic acid in my muscles even if I don’t burn a lot of calories. The catch is the horrid smoke enveloping our valley. The smoke from the recent California fires has blown into our usually pristine blue skies and remote Stagecoach looks like a bad day in LA. The smoke is so thick you can no longer see our mountains nor beautiful blue sky. And the smoke is irritating our eyes, noses, sinuses, throats, and lungs.

Our usually blue skies...in Winter and Summer.
























And yesterday's smoked filled sky...























I digress. (Cough, cough. Rubs itchy eyes and nose).

If you can afford it I highly recommend buying a whole body vibration machine and incorporating it into your resistance program. Make sure to check your choice of products goes at least as high as 50 hertz. The high vibration in conjunction with resistance training increases muscle stimulation. (Please note, just standing on one of these machines doesn’t do much. You must actually perform resistance exercises like squats, lunges, calf raises, push ups, ab crunches, and weighted exercises like back rows, bicep curls and shoulder raises with dumbbells, and so forth while on the machine).

And it’s fun to turn the machine on when a few kittens / cats are sitting on the platform. After confusion as to why the earth is shaking they bale.

The premise behind performing resistance training on a platform that vibrates is wonderfully explained in Iron Man magazine’s article “Good Vibrations”

The some of the research behind it is here:

Whole Body Vibration Wiki

What is Whole Body Vibration Therapy?

Clinical studies have shown that whole body vibration - WBV - substantially improves muscle strength, performance and flexibility. It has also been proven to enhance blood and lymph circulation, which is critical in regenerating damaged tissues. WBV is also being utilized to assist the circulatory system's ability to deliver vital nutrients and hormones throughout the body.

Research on Whole Body Vibration Here various research articles are listed with links.

Our Swimming Pool Workout Videos Are Coming…