Random Thoughts

1) Just read this article, and go straight to the part about treadmill running. If you're too lazy, basically the gist is that treadmill exercises exacerbate quad dominance due to the fact that the glute+hamstring portion of walking/running is taken over by the treadmill.

It's making me rethink about including treadmills in my non-lifting days. Maybe a better thing to do would be walking around in shopping malls (the jogging track in UPM is a boring choice) instead of walking on the treadmill, as my gym doesn't have a running track. Another part is warming-up, which I usually start off with a 5 minute-walk on the treadmill. The gym also lacks a good jump rope, which I like doing. Maybe I'll just do 50 jumping jacks, which I hope will get the heart and body temperature running before my dynamic stretches.

2) Another thing that bugs my mind is why does Fernando Torres always get hit with hamstring injuries. Usually hamstring injuries are a sign that it's overcompensating for weak glutes. So I tried to compare him with another footballer who likes to run but rarely gets injured, and never in my memory injured his hamstring, Cristiano Ronaldo.

I googled up pictures of both, to compare each other's butts. Unfortunately, Fernando Torres is not someone who has his backside taken often without his football shorts. You can't judge it really well because they're loose. What I wanted to see was ideally his butt should be more/at least equal in development as his hamstrings. This is what you get with Ronaldo. With Torres, you could see that his hamstrings are pretty big, but there are no pics representative of his glutes. So that's only 50% of the equation.

If I get a good pic of Torres' backside then I'll post up the pics to compare them. Until then, I won't lest I want people to think of me as gay.

3) Why does Yao Ming always get injured with overuse injuries? Let's compare him and Shaq, who doesn't:

Yao Ming - 2.29 m, 140 kg

Shaq - 2.16 m, 147 kg

Shaq is heavier, and he's shorter. That would mean that he's experiencing more pressure on his body, assuming that foot size is proportional to height. My thinking is that maybe Yao Ming is doing too much conditioning work. Everyone knows that Yao Ming is much more conditioned than Shaq. Shaq is is well known for his deconditioned state during his last years in Lakerland and Miami. Maybe in this case, being deconditioned is an advantage, because it reduces the total pounding on his body, with the disadvantage of being, well fatter.

In that case, Dwight Howard might want to make sure he keeps his body in his current shape and not increase too much muscle mass; he's more conditioned than both (google him up and compare) and has a pretty good body as well (120 kg at 2.11 cm). If he increases his muscle mass in this offseason, he might need more breaks during future seasons.

BMI has been derided as inaccurate as a fitness indicator with the advent of body fat percentage and the better reliability of body part measurements (does this look fat to you? 1.75 m, 113 kg, BMI 37% with body fat always below 10%). But for athletes, BMI might serve as a good indicator for how much stress you can handle per time, especially running stress.

4) Naruto has taken longer than Dragonball Z, with less plot. C'mon, let's end it already before it's spoiled.