Category: Uncategorized
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Elvis leg
A short follow-up to my post last week. A couple of days ago I eked out a send of my first outdoor 5.12. It wasn’t the most inspiring climb, and it’s almost certainly a bit soft for the grade, but it’s an experience I’ll remember. The route is defined by a distinct crux down low…
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Injuries, training notes, and deliberate practice
In the late spring I severely sprained my ankle. A little carelessness at an unfamiliar bouldering gym led to a frustratingly avoidable mistake. I hobbled around the first week on crutches, then managed to get by with a limp. Eventually I was able to climb, but only on top rope and only by hopping around…
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projects and projecting
During this month MV and I have decided to embark on a particular project: “benchuary.” Each weekday in February there is a workout posted that we will need to complete. The ultimate aim, as the name implies, is to improve our bench press. I’ll admit: this is far and away the ‘bro-iest’ (jock-iest?) venture I’ve…
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What is Old is New Again
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The Tyranny of ‘Progress’
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treadmills and citizenship
Source An observation by Keally McBride in Punishment and Political Order (2007) popped into my head earlier: The U.S. political and economic systems have been sustained by the ideology linking citizenship and labor. But maintaining this construction is requiring that a significant proportion of our population, particularly black men, be sacrificed. The unemployed are branded…
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crushing the body
Barbara Ehrenreich writes of her experience in the gym during the initial boom of the modern fitness industry: I may not be able to do much about grievous injustice in the world, at least not by myself or in very short order, but I can decide to increase the weight on the leg press machine…
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A Decade of Mass Protest
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fear of falling
A few years ago I became severely ill. Despite being in the best shape of my adult life, I found myself laid out. In pain. Unable to eat properly. Rapidly losing weight. Unable to sleep for more than an hour or two at a time. I couldn’t physically leave my apartment so, whenever I could…
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resistance training
I’m relatively new to resistance training. The stress of finishing graduate school and securing a job took its toll in my late 20s. I threw everything into work. I was overweight, over-caffeinated, drinking too much, sleeping too little, and my nerves and digestive system were constantly on the fritz. For a number reasons, thankfully, I…
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My first post
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authoritarian flow?
Over the last year I’ve populated my nightstand with various books on mental health. A few days ago I picked up a classic: Flow: The psychology of optimal experience by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi. Briefly, Csikszentmihalyi’s aim is to understand “optimal experience” — what the sailor feels when the wind whips through her hair, what the painter…
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newbie gains
MV and I intend to use this blog as a place to write & reflect. Our training plan is simple: post, post, post. Let the gains begin!
Swolitical science 