The Pittsburgh Nationals;

First of all i would like to apologize for my absence from posting entries to my blog, i had a family emergency to attend to and was not only unable to post new entries to my blog, but i was also unable to attend the pittsburgh nationals with ted! So after over two hard training years, i was unable to see ted place fifth in his first national show and only his second show that he has ever competed in, in his life! From what i was told, the competition was fierce, as we expected, but ted managed to hold his own and come in with a top five finish against some pretty impressive competition. Almost, if not all, of the competitors ted competed against that night had at least some form of national experience, some even had a national title to their credit! To the amazement of all onlookers, ted was the smallest yet hardest and most shredded on the stage and now we have decided to train hard for two more years and try to go after a pro-card!
As soon as i can get my hands on some pictures that were taken that night, i will post them, post haste. Now that things have settled down on the homefront, i will get back to updating my blog on a semi- weekly basis, if time allows, i will post entries even more frequently. As of monday, july 31st, 2006, ted and i will be getting back together to begin training again, ted took a week off to recover from the show and he deserved it, i even took a few days off myself after the twelve weeks of competition training. As you know i dieted down as well and maybe not as severe as ted, i still managed to get myself quite shredded amd vascular. Nonetheless, We will start hitting the iron over at the muscle mill in milltown and slowly get back into our heavy training phase and try to pack on even more quailty mass to ted's frame over the next two years and go into the 2008 national show bigger and better than ever!

Recommended reading;

Within my library of training and nutritional books, i have found one to be invaluable in helping me understand the names of the muscles and their placement on the body. This book is called"Strength Training Anatomy" by Frederic Delavier. Not only does it contain detailed anatomy charts but it also gives you some of the more common and well scientifically documented exercises to use regarding that bodypart.
I place a high level of stress on the fact that if you know where that muscle is and how it is suppossed to look and feel, then there is a much better chance that you will be able to work on that muscle more efficiently in the gym. Now i know not everyone has the time or patience to sit down and stare at the book for hours memorizing the names of the over several hundred muscles of the body. However, we all have the time to sit down to get acquainted with the more popular muscles and the not so popular ones enough so that you will be able to draw upon that experience when it is called for in the gym, therefore saving you time in the gym in the long run and seeing more accomplishment as well. Now tell me, who doesn't have time for a little more muscle and a little less time spent in the gym?
Not only does knowing where the muscle is good for training but also the fact that when those muscles do decide to show themselves you will be able to identify them on your body. Whenever the larger muscles have been brought to the point of development where you are going to need to work on the smaller ones, you will know how to train the complementary muscles as well. This ascends across all levels of training as well as across all spectrums of training goals, from the baseball pitcher trying to gain strength for his fastball to the tennis player looking to strengthen their backhand, this book will not only show you where the muscles are located but also a comprehensive training approach as well.

More pictures;

Believe it or not, these pictures are already several weeks old and ted is much tighter than these pictures show. I cannot wait to post the pictures of him close to contest time, i know i sound like a broken record, but the changes are dramatic and happening on a semi weekly basis. If anyone would like a copy of any of the pics that i post please contact me through my e-mail and i will forward the request to the photographer, just leave a way for me to contact you.

Children and television;

My wife and i do not have children and we do not plan on having any in the future, but you cannot deny the fact that children are a crucial part of all of our worlds and they will someday grow and be the leaders of our country. I have been an uncle since i was fifteen and i currently have seven wonderful nieces and nephews.
A lot of attention has been given to the topic of children and obesity as of late in the news and on the internet, as well as the causes of this trend. Diet, of course, is one very important aspect as is the lack of activity. Which brings me to this weeks entry topic.
According to the american academy of pediatrics(AAP), kids in the united states watch about 4 hours a day of television, even though the AAP guidelines recommend that children older than 2 should watch no more than 1 to 2 hours a day of quality programming. Although television does have some advantages for children, the bad outweighs the good, in my opinion.
Research has shown that children who consistently spend more than four hours per day watching television are more likely to be overweight.
It is even obvious to me just looking around my neighborhood that children are not out playing as they once were when i was young. The internet was not around and television was not equipped with twenty four hours a day of cartoon channels as they are now a days.
I know in this crazy world that we live in i barely have enough time in the day to get done what i need to get done, much less if i had children, but that doesn't excuse parents from being able to instill good habits of eating as well as activity oriented time after school activities. Please keep in mind that whatever you do today will effect you children's lives for a very long time to come, so the positive habits that you practice with them now will help them grow to be healthy well adjusted adults. The internet is full of amazing tips to help with your quest to be healthy as well as to help your children become healthy as well. The fore mentioned AAP article can be found in its entirety by logging on to kidshealth.org.
Just don't forget the fact that whatever you do with your children today will impact not only their lives but the lives of those generations to come!