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I heard of some exercise regimen that relied all on body-weight stuff.... HIIT or FIIT or something like that.

What was it?

HIIT is High Intensity Interval Training. It's what a lot of professional athletes use.

It's essentially about pushing your body to it's limits in 30 second intervals with really quick breaks for 7 minutes straight. The science I've seen behind it claims it's the equivalent of 30 or 60 minutes of training.

It's not a fad thing, again as pros use it, but I'd definitely do research before going full bore.

I know it's something I'd be very interested in getting into and have a few apps, but it's probably smart to work into it at our age.

I'm currently on a health kick again and my oldest daughter is my slave driver. She's actually watching what I eat while she gets to enjoy Easter candy. Ha!

Our exercise bike recently broke, so I'm currently shopping for a good home rowing machine that isn't shit, but also won't cost me four figures. Back when I was a member at Vic Tanny's they had one with a screen where you were racing other boating crews. Pixel graphics, but it kept me interested. I'd go with another bike, but I don't want to ride for an hour and just have jacked legs. My legs are fucking big enough. I want a total body workout/cardio. Rowing does that.

I'm trying to avoid magnetic resistance. They seem to have the same setting, and they either break quickly or the toughest setting is a hill you surpass rather quickly. Ditto for avoiding hydraulics. They tend to heat up and offer less resistance. I'm leaning towards the water resistance rowers.

I wish beyond wish I could afford one of those infinite lap pools.

GORDON wrote: I wish beyond wish I could afford one of those infinite lap pools.

I keep daydreaming of those too.

TheCatt wrote:

GORDON wrote: I wish beyond wish I could afford one of those infinite lap pools.

I keep daydreaming of those too.

I'd get one and then the first day I'd be swimming on my back patio and an old woman I've never seen before will get in for her water aerobics class.

Endless Pool models start at $28,400 with a swim current.

Sigh.

GORDON wrote:

TheCatt wrote:

GORDON wrote: I wish beyond wish I could afford one of those infinite lap pools.

I keep daydreaming of those too.

I'd get one and then the first day I'd be swimming on my back patio and an old woman I've never seen before will get in for her water aerobics class.

lol

Riddle me this:

One of those cheap $200 redneck blister swimming pools, 10 foot diameter.

A comfortable belt around your waist to which you affix an elastic strap.

Tie the other end of the strap to a nearby tree, so it holds you generally stationary in the middle of the pool as you do the front crawl.

Is there any reason that wouldn't work? Is it important to have water flowing by your body as you swim laps?

I've seen/heard of people doing this in regular pools. You'd probably need 2.5' of water I'd guess for a stroke. Maybe 3'.

GORDON wrote: Is it important to have water flowing by your body as you swim laps?

No. You'll still be getting the resistance of moving water. But your stroke won't feel the same (the water won't flow around you, may make breathing different, etc)

Picturing it, I could see wave-action being an issue. Even passing someone in the next lane, I often end up with a mouthful of water when I turn my head to breath. In a small pool, you're never outswimming your own wake.

But now I'm considering it.

12' diameter pool, swim slightly off-center, and start a whirlpool action as you swim, which moves water past your body and reduces wave action. Bam.

I assumed there would be youtube videos showing why this won't work, but i can't find anything pro or con

Bam. Looks like it can be done.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IjH4ggGSQds

Granted, that "small" pool is a 25,000 gallon or bigger pool, not a backyard pool. But for the cost of an inflatable pool + bungee, it's worth a try.

I suddenly realized my mother has an in-ground pool, a quarter-mile bikeride away.

I know where I'll be spending my summer.

I'm putting my heavy bag to good use right now.

Still want the rower though.

Found a rower at Best Buy. A Hydrow, which is a Peleton, but a rower instead of a bike.

The problem is the price tag is $2K. I could get it for free, thanks to my Best Buy Rewards, and still have enough leftover to get the Oculus Quest. So it's really not that big a deal, but it's still $2K. Plus, it's $38/month for their live and recorded sessions, which seem to be a massive factor in their sales pitch. There are apparently over 50 rivers already loaded, leaderboards, and recorded/interactive classes.

Ergatta has entered the market as well for the same price, but cheaper monthly fees. Their machine looks cooler and uses water resistance instead of electromagnetic, but the monitor is smaller, I'm not sure it's as comfortable, and their $21/mo price tag seems to give far less content and no interactive classes. UPDATE: I just learned the Ergatta one is just Waterrower's product with the monitor stuck onto it. That seems shitty.

Echelon has a cheaper one, but you need your own iPad and they're not highly reviewed...I think?

In related news, you can no longer use rewards to buy gift cards at Best Buy. My work buys me everything I need, so unless I need a TV, I have nothing to spend my points on, so...

Leisher wrote: Found a rower at Best Buy. A Hydrow, which is a Peleton, but a rower instead of a bike.

Those look pretty cool. Their HQ is in the same office as my work up in Cambridge.

Leisher wrote: The problem is the price tag is $2K.

Whoa. Figures.

Leisher wrote: I could get it for free, thanks to my Best Buy Rewards

Holy fuck. How much do you spend there?

Before I found out I had a cracked vertebra, I was looking at Waterrower, I think.

TheCatt wrote: Holy fuck. How much do you spend there?

As one of their employees said to me on a recent purchase, "You know you could buy all these through a business account and they'll ship them to you." I replied, "I could do that and then you guys don't get the sale and your store comes one step closer to closing." His boss, standing right there, said, "Yeah, so why don't you shut up?" - That's a true story of my being there in January buying 15 Surface Books.

Apparently, I'm a whale (Vegas term for high rollers) for their store and there are a few of us. I asked that manager when I bought the 15 SBs how that affected his store and he said they wouldn't need to show up for two months if they didn't want to.

We're a Dell shop for laptops, desktops, servers, monitors, and MS software. Our backbone was all Cisco, but we're transitioning it to Meraki. (Same company, but vastly different equipment.) Everything else has always been up for grabs. When I got there 15 years ago I started using CDW. I was familiar with them and had good experiences. However, they started swapping reps on me every few weeks. Swapping reps isn't a huge deal, but they aren't all going to be great, you have to break down the business with each one, and it makes it tough for me to remember who I deal with. So PC Connection stole their business from me thanks to a very persistent rep who is still my friend to this day. However, once she left their company, we got a rep who used to cold call me non-stop even after I asked her not to, and she would constantly say "arrrrr" like a pirate. I'm not making this up. See, she was BIG into pirates and even celebrating national pirate day or some shit. I could deal with the pirate thing, but couldn't deal with the bad customer service, so we went back to CDW. They kept doing the rep switch on me though, so I toyed around with other companies like B2B and such.

Eventually, I realized I could get all the stuff from Best Buy for the same cost or cheaper, support local stores/jobs (a big deal with my company), and earn myself some points. The Best Buy is right on my way home, so it's win-win-win.

I still buy some items through CDW when it's more convenient or they're odd things like fiber to ethernet converters.

Back to the rowers, I've eliminated the Errata and added Waterrower instead. I've got more research to do before I pick one.

Leisher wrote: Eventually, I realized I could get all the stuff from Best Buy for the same cost or cheaper, support local stores/jobs (a big deal with my company), and earn myself some points. The Best Buy is right on my way home, so it's win-win-win.

Nice.