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Daniel of Doulogos Name:Daniel
Home: Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada
About Me: I used to believe that evolution was reasonable, that homosexuality was genetic, and that people became Christians because they couldn't deal with the 'reality' that this life was all there was. I used to believe, that if there was a heaven - I could get there by being good - and I used to think I was more or less a good person. I was wrong on all counts. One day I finally had my eyes opened and I saw that I was not going to go to heaven, but that I was certainly going to suffer the wrath of God for all my sin. I saw myself as a treasonous rebel at heart - I hated God for creating me just to send me to Hell - and I was wretched beyond my own comprehension. Into this spiritual vacuum Jesus Christ came and he opened my understanding - delivering me from God's wrath into God's grace. I was "saved" as an adult, and now my life is hid in Christ. I am by no means sinless, but by God's grace I am a repenting believer - a born again Christian.
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Daniel's posts are almost always pastoral and God centered. I appreciate and am challenged by them frequently. He has a great sense of humor as well.
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His posts are either funny or challenging. He is very friendly and nice.
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[He has] good posts, both the serious like this one, and the humorous like yesterday. [He is] the reason that I have restrained myself from making Canadian jokes in my posts.
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Daniel, nicely done and much more original than Frank the Turk.
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There are some people who are smart, deep, or funny. There are not very many people that are all 3. Daniel is one of those people. His opinion, insight and humor have kept me coming back to his blog since I first visited earlier this year.
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Monday, August 24, 2009
They're Not Programmers!
There is an exercise program called "100 pushups" which basically takes anyone from wherever they happen to be at (fitness wise) and through cumulative increases brings them from wherever they happen to be to the place where they can do 100 cumulative pushups.

There is an iPhone app for it too. Which is how I came to be writing this on this fine morning. My extremely sedentary job doesn't lend itself to anything other than early heart attack, obesity, and atrophied muscles, though it does keep my complexion a nauseating fish-belly white. That's right, I am a computer programmer, and my little girlie arms are not what they used to be.

Now, to be fair, I used to do an hundred pushups each morning - four sets of 25. But that was when I was training in a martial art, and frankly, that was a few years back. I have been more or less without exercise - except for a daily 20 mile ride on my bike - for the past five years. But cycling doesn't give the arms a very good work out, and as such I found it difficult to do more than 15 pushups in a row.

So I picked up this app and determined to slowly work my way back to super strength - or at least, near super strength.

You start off by doing as many pushups as you can in a row - which is supposed to set the baseline. So I did. I did 14 in fact, but felt that if I really, really wanted to, I could have squeezed another one in there. So I entered in 15 as my base. I didn't read the instructions really, so I sort of messed up my start. the first day I was supposed to do the initial test, then wait a day, then after that day of rest start the program. But I clicked on ahead, and started the program early. Okay fine. It tells me to do ten pushups.

I figure my 14 that I just did was good enough, so I clicked through. Rest for 60 seconds. Okay... Resting. Now do 12 pushups. Okay......eleveeeeeeeeeee<grunt>eeen, .... huff, huff, Tweeeelllllveeee. Rest another 60 seconds. Arms definitely feeling the burn... Beep Beep Beep - huh? 60 sconds already? But I am still wiped from the ... okay,, must do, what? eight? Sure, no problem... one, twooo, threee, ouch, fouuuuuur, ......GAH! ...... seveeeeeeeeeeeeeeen, hufhufhuf... eiiiight. Sixty second timer going.... what's next... arms on fire... TWELVE??? Are they insane? Twelve? Where did that come from? twenty seconds left... the clock is giving me stresss.... BEEP BEEP BEEP, okay... here goes... twelve... gonna start right now... right now.. here we go... one, two, three, ff-ff..... rest a bit... four, five, ... is my breath really that loud? six,... ... ten.. I can't do this....must... go... on... eleeveeeeeeeeeen... arggghhh..... grit teeth for... power...surge..... not working.... twelve... ouch... I am spent... BEEP BEEP BEEP - what? Seven more? my arms don't work any more? ONE, TWO, SPLAT!

At that point my arms stopped working. They literally gave out.

I decided that it was probably foolhardy to try and do the day when I had clearly spent myself on the first fourteen. So I took the day of rest, and on the day after that I hunkered down for some serious push up action.

First up, 15 pushups.

then 12, then 10, then 14, then 4.. I didn't make it. The last set was too much.

I decided that my understanding of the word "gradual" was radically different than the applications understanding...and so I decided to restart the program "properly", except that I would put in a lower value of initial pushups, and thereby ensure a more humane and gradual progression.

That was last week. The first day was a cake walk. Doing like, I don't remember, 6, 4, 4, 6, and 4 or something on day one, then like 8, 6, 8, 6, 6 on day two. Then 9, 11, 11, 8, 9 on Day three... with a day of rest in between each.. By the third day I figured I had found my stride. I could finish the course, and not without grimacing. But the slope in three days didn't promise anything nice for week two.

Well this morning I just barely managed to do the 10, 12, 8, 10, 11 that the program called me to do. I am talking, arms flapping like a chicken on the last set - which isn't exactly the manly posture I was going for. Nevertheless, I am looking ahead to Wednesday's routine, and see that my last set is 13, and I am already cringing.

All of which leads me to believe that the writers of this program, apparently haven't taken into consideration the rapid atrophy of the computer programmer's musculature. Clearly there are some square jawed gorilla-men out there who presume that everyone on the program is taking steroids, or is perhaps half-gorilla.

I was going to post on Jeremiah 7:8-10 today - even wrote up the post, but it needs some work yet. So I tossed this out because it was on my mind too.

Labels: ,

posted by Daniel @ 7:46 AM  
6 Comments:
  • At 11:15 AM, August 24, 2009, Blogger Daniel said…

    My arms are still feeling the acidic burn...

     
  • At 11:47 AM, August 24, 2009, Blogger Jim said…

    cool idea...does this app have a website as well, for us without the latest tech gadgets.

     
  • At 11:57 AM, August 24, 2009, Blogger Daniel said…

    It does - hundredpushups.com

     
  • At 12:19 PM, August 24, 2009, Blogger David said…

    Back in the old days, before computers and iPhones and something called "apps," folks just layed around getting fat and weak. Most, in fact, could hardly move. Nothing ever got done, because few had the strength to do it. Thank God for technology!

     
  • At 12:33 PM, August 24, 2009, Blogger Neil said…

    Reading this made my muscles hurt.

     
  • At 2:14 PM, August 24, 2009, Blogger Daniel said…

    I had been hoping that technology would provide some way to build muscles by eating a pill.

    You know how everyone who starts to work out sheepishly says that they don't want to get huge or anything, they just want to get toned.

    I say, hogwash. I would love to get stacked by doing a minimal amount of work. Sadly however, in order to get ripped one must work like a dog, like a dog! The sad fact seems to be that unless your muscles complain, you probably aren't working out hard enough to see any gain. I am resigned to the thought that an hundred pushups will only come after much punishment.

     
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