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Thanks for letting me work out last night! I really appreciate it. I was beginning to get depressed being away from the gym for a few days. If I am in NYC again I will stop in.

Nice rest day WOD
Back Squats
225×3
225×3
235×3
245×2
245×1(failed 2nd rep)
255×1
started fatiguing so did the last 4 sets of singles at 225
Pulls
70×3, 88×2(failed 3rd attempt), 75×3,
75×2, 80×2,
80×1, 94F, 88×1, 80×1, 88F
Not feeling it this morning.

Brendan,
It seems to me that if handstands alone could improve handstand pushups then standing alone could improve squats. Of course, if one never stands, standing would be a sure first step to improved squatting. (And since most people don’t do handstands, this is a basic first step to handstand pushups.) But I think that in both cases, the basic stationary skill is necessary but not sufficient for improving the related exercise performance.

“An alcohol soaked Ecstasy binge at the PlayBoy Mansion”. As far as I can recall, a plate of spaghetti never got me in that much trouble. And I’m guessing “refined” isn’t the main factor in that analogy.
Agree 100% with the marksdailapple post on our increasingly sanitized environment. Thankfully this phenomenon hasn’t hit Europe yet, at least not in the same crazy proportions as here. But like widespread obesity and the latest Grey’s Anatomy season, it might just be a matter of time.

Tyler, So noted.

Here’s a complement to the article about sanitation.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/30/dining/30curious.html?_r=2&oref=slogin&oref=slogin

Survival after the apocalypse:
http://www.aldenteblog.com/2008/01/cheeseburger-in.html

In the interest of cross-concept pollenation, I’d like to suggest that people check out some of the postings on this All Japanese All The Time site that I found. The author, a young guy living in Japan, has an immersion approach to learning and doing things that might seem somewhat familiar to us here. There are many good posts on the site and lots of information, but since this particular page is huge, I just wanted to relay a highlights to give a sample of his themes. Some of these ideas could come right off of our message boards if the language references were changed to mentions of exercise techniques or levels of ability.
—————————-
So, like I said, we need to calm down. Calm down, and accept being noobs. It’s OK. Everyone who starts is a noob, including Chinese babies: their Chinese sucks :). And we need to hurry up. Stop wasting time, and just hurry up and get down to work. The reason we don’t know the language(s) we want to know yet is that we didn’t work hard enough (if at all) in the past. The past is the past, we can’t change it. But we can change the future. And all it takes is one small payment in the present. Everyone who ever learned a language to fluency busted tail to do it: everyone. Whether they knew they were busting tail or not is immaterial, tail was busted. Accept that. Accept that you suck now and that tail needs to be busted. But…but…also accept that your tail-busting will be handsomely rewarded with fluency. You WILL get there. You WILL get fluent. IF you work now, IF you do just this one small thing, IF you take one step in the right direction — that’s all you need to do, take one step, rinse, repeat — then you’ll get there. You just will.
…
Think of your work as water and your ignorance as a jagged rock — you need to pour water on that rock to smooth it out. The good news is that it won’t take geological time to erode the rock of ignorance, but it will take a lot of water, and so you need to keep pouring. It may not look like anything’s happening, but it is. Just focus on pouring, keep the water moving.
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http://www.alljapaneseallthetime.com/blog/category/attitudestechniques

you absolutely can’t squat if you can’t stand, and you absolutely can’t do a HSPU if you can’t do a handstand. So yes, getting a rock solid handstand will certainly help at one aspect of a handstand pushup.
But I actually came to post this:
A big study suggests that exercise significantly slows aging. Previously known effects: Exercise prevents heart disease, diabetes, and cancer. New finding: It also slows the shortening of telomeres, which mark biological (not necessarily chronological) age. Data: 1) Counting by telomeres, moderate exercisers were 4 to 6 years younger than non-exercisers. 2) Heavy exercisers were 9 years younger. 3) Even among twins (who share genes and birthdays), heavy exercisers were 4 years younger. Theories: 1) Exercise reduces “oxidative stress” on cells. 2) It reduces inflammation. 3) It reduces psychological stress. Critiques: 1) Biological susceptibility to faster aging may cause lack of exercise, instead of the other way around. 2) Or the two variables may be joint products of some other factor. Rebuttal: The study ruled out such alternate factors. Old futuristic advice: Take these pills, and you’ll live 10 years longer. New old-fashioned advice: Stop relying on pills, and get off your duff.
http://www.slate.com/id/2182930/

This has been a very existential kind of day here on the blog. Marisela, is there some astrological reason for this? Wait a minute, I’d rather not know.

kouvenhowen
wow I didn’t know that about the age factor.
just kidding,
jacinto

That’s funny; I learned about telomeres and their affect on biological aging a few weeks ago. Now I understand a lil bit more about them.