Carrying your water bottle on your head is optional

This photo could be said to demonstrate the connection between weight training and hydration.  Or not, but let’s pretend.  Point is, both are important.

Weight training, among other things, improves our bone density.  If we want to age well, like the youthful-countenanced cherub in the photo, we need to ensure that our bones are strong so we can continue to enjoy our recreational pursuits and also, say, put on our own pants in the morning.  There is nothing quite so disheartening as having to ask for help with things that used to be easy; let’s postpone that as long as possible.

Hydration improves mood.  Feeling cranky?  Try drinking some water.  Cognitive function also improves with proper hydration (For the dehydrated among us, let me rephrase:  we think better with enough water.).  Water helps the body flush out waste products, literally.

Conveniently, when we lift weights, we need to rest to allow our bodies’ energy systems to recharge.  While we do that, we can drink water.

Bottom line for the to-do list:  lift stuff and drink water.

Monday Workout: Up, Down, Hard!

This week, we have a pretty straightforward circuit.  We are working upper and lower body and getting our heart rates up there!  Four rounds!

1 min cardio
squats	20
kb swings	20
bench press	20
mountain climbers	20
pushups	10
pretty princesses	10

Friday Book Report: Intro to Physical Anthropology

As I may have mentioned, I managed, thanks to AP courses, to complete my college education without taking any math or science and very little social science.  However, that stuff turns out to be useful and interesting, perhaps even more so when there are no grades involved.  The family rule on books is that we all have first right of refusal on any book that might be purged from anyone’s personal shelf, which is how I happened to acquire Introduction to Physical Anthropology by Robert Jurmain, Lynn Kilgore, Wenda Trevathan, and Russell L. Ciochon.

I found it more than a little frightening that so much of the text had to be spent on defining and defending the processes of science, articulating the facts that underlie the concept of evolution, and outlining the very real threats posed to our collective survival by climate change.  Apparently, the culture wars have had numerous casualties and our children, on the whole, need to be reminded of or introduced to some basics.

That said, it was fascinating to look at a different kind of fitness.  Evolutionary fitness does not care about how much weight one can lift or how far one can bike.  It cares a little bit about how fast one can run, but only if a predator is involved.  What matters in the larger fitness context is whether or not a creature produces another generation.  Evolutionary history is essentially a series of experiments about how best to produce that next generation in a variety of environmental contexts.

Most of the book concerns the origins of humans, with progressively more ink spent on closer species.  Because the book is about anthropology, the interplay between biology and culture becomes increasingly relevant.  In fact, the authors posit that our culture may have changed more than our biology can handle.

We are creatures like all the other inhabitants of our planet.  We are in the unique position of being able to wreck it all for everyone.  We have a responsibility not to screw it all up.