"However, the champ often 'took ill' with a pathogen transmitted in oak barrels known to disparately afflict the Irish community."
“Attention, Walmart Shoppers: You Already Have a Prize-Winning Physique For 1900”
Before Buff: Why Were Dad Bods Admired In the Early 1900s?
Ever look at old-time photos showing their era's paragons of manliness? Ever notice how many of those turn-of-the-century sex symbols are proudly repping dad bods? It actually gets stranger: other models from the period look every bit as sculpted and Grecian as Brad Pitt in Troy, but no one seems to care. There's no indication that anyone in 1900--the photographers, the models, or the audiences--preferred the buff guys to the dad bods. What changed?
Double Your Work Capacity By Being Lazy
This little $4 Esbit stove has been a huge winner for me. Dating back to the 1940s, it uses technology and design so simple and un-screw-up-able that I consider it honorarily Russian. And though it's as just a survival stove, if you add a coffee can to screen it from the wind and contain the... Continue Reading →
Reset
What I've been busy with Lean, solid dogs, it's been entirely too long. I've missed you! Since I last posted, I went "operational" on the county Search & Rescue team and started climbing a steep learning curve in any number of training courses--K9 search operations, swift water rescue, rope rescue, emergency medical response--and a handful... Continue Reading →
Girevoy Sport (Pt. 2): The Snatch, “Tsar of Kettlebell Exercises”
In the snatch, if you’re going to last the full 10 minutes, you must spare your grip. How? Use your legs. After you “pull” the bell up, bend at the knees and dip down. That way you won’t have to pull as high. Even more importantly, when you drop the bell back down, rise up... Continue Reading →
Girevoy Sport (Pt. 1): Russian for “What Means This ‘Pain’?”
In Russian, a kettlebell is called a girya. As an adjective, it becomes girevoy. And someone who lifts kettlebells is a girevik. (Provenance of photo unknown.) Russians have been lifting kettlebells for health for a long time. They originally used them as "counterweights ... to weigh out dry goods on market scales. People started throwing them around for... Continue Reading →
Goldilocks Boots
I don't even buy them anymore, I swear. They're breeding and multiplying. After experimenting a lot, I have arrived at some hard-won conclusions about boots for rucking. Great for flat roads and short to medium distances, but nothing hairier than that. As reported earlier, I rejected GORUCK’s own house brand of boots, the MACV-1. Though... Continue Reading →
Town and Country: Seattle Star Course AAR, Pt. 2
Find Part 1 here. This view leaves out our first point, on W. Highland in Queen Anne, due to limitations in the software. Real distance athletes don’t precede a race with dry-heaving and M&Ms. But I am not a real distance athlete. I am a special snowflake. * * * * Not dead yet! Waxy... Continue Reading →
Assembling the Dream Team: Seattle GORUCK Star Course AAR, Pt. 1
I met The Jolly Irishman minutes into my first GORUCK event, at kissing distance. We were all told to pair up: one person would bear walk across the beach and tow the other, who lay supine and clutched him around the neck. I ended up as a “top” with Irish as my “bottom.” Not having... Continue Reading →
Selouyanov on Endurance (Pt. 2): More Russian Sports Science from Dr. Smet
Guest author "Dr. Smet" finishes his insider's tour of the Russian sports science underlying Pavel Tsatsouline's long-awaited endurance training manifesto, The Quick and the Dead. I follow Dr. Smet's blog Girevoy Sport After 40 to read about top-dog Russian coaching and research from a medical scientist who also practices what he reports on. Before we... Continue Reading →