Exercising: A reality check (infographic)

My attempt at making an information-free infographic. All numbers are made-up, imagined or worse - "felt".

When I had first stopped making excuses for not working out, I confess my expectations were rather rosy. I had both underestimated the neglect I had heaped upon my person over time, and had easily overestimated the turnaround time required to undo said neglect.

I had heard about the 30-day rule, and figured that would be the least I owed myself. But what the rule does not tell you is that there are legitimate reasons to quit exercising within that period. Legitimate because your body vehemently disagrees with the need for exercise and tends to protest rather persuasively. Getting through the first 30 days is like trying to impress a teenager. If you get so much as an imperceptible nod, you can call that a resounding success.

The second source of perpetual disappointment was the weighing scale. It first inched up, then decided it liked the higher perch and refused to come down. Yeah I felt better, but that was no measure of success. It is as if one came to work for the satisfaction and not the money. Maybe the analogy is not perfect, but you get the point.

But as they say, there is a silver lining to every cloud of misery that is exercising. Mine was that I got to make an infographic. And for once, I did not have to bother with collecting information for it.

Courtside!

A week ago, I got to watch an NBA game courtside. And when I say courtside, I mean right up against the playing surface, close enough that a trip and fall could mean bad news for me. While there may be more proof if someone had recorded the game, the image on the left is the closest I have (click to enlarge). That is a screen grab from the game summary, showing the back of the head of yours truly. Granted the game wasn't that great, but I learnt things from the experience that make it truly memorable.

The biggest was that all the players looked surprisingly human. It must have been the distance and the angle, because you could see the tense walk, the relaxed stroll, and the rush after a score, writ large on their faces. And most surprisingly for me, the relief when they pass the ball on to the star on the team. You can actually sense the difference between the confident play by the star and the "hot potato" passes that get to him. I had always imagined that the commentators made it up - never realized the body language could be so loud.

Everyone, and i mean everyone, wipes their shoes before coming on. There is an unobtrusive pad tucked behind the column where everyone - the stars, the kids, the cheerleaders, the performers, and the corporate honchos - has to wipe their shoes before entering the arena. And the side effect of this obsessive cleanliness is the familiar squeak-squeak of shoes on wood.

If you are ever scheduled to do anything during a big game, prepared to never be ready for it. Say you are a playing a one-on-one with another guy in a sumo suit. One second you are walking through the entrance and the next thing you know, a mascot is flying in the air towards you to knock you on your behind. Or say you are scheduled to show up on television and wave while the voice in the air talks about something you represent. One minute you have a guy in a suit chatting inanities with you, telling you stand just so and face that way. And the next you know there is a blinding light on your face and a camera from halfway across the stadium zooms in on your pores. Talk about deer in a headlight.

Down on the court, in spite of all the din in the stadium, the players can actually hear each other and the coach. The fans makes it difficult, but it is not half as bad as the television makes it feel. And when you can hear each other, guess what else works - heckling. When you are sitting that close, and yell someone's name out - it is pretty hard for them not to turn in response.

The players wear enormous shoes. With no innuendo, if you leave your foot stretched too far out, it is only a matter of time before a throw-in results in your toes being squished out from under you.

And last but not the least, staring at cheerleaders is uncomfortable when you are close enough for them to look right back at you. Gawking is best accomplished via the Jumbo Tron. Moreover they all wear too much makeup.

Run Forest, Run!

Human muscles are made up of two types of fibers - called slow twitch (Type I, and fast twitch (Type II) muscle fibers. Both set of fibers work exactly as they sound. Slow twitch fibers are slow - but they can work for long periods. They do this by burning fuel aerobically, with enough oxygen. Since the process is inherently slow, it is not nice to expect slow twitch fibers to be quick.

The exact opposite are fast twitch fibers. Fast twitch fibers deliver speed, by quickly burning whatever fuel it can find even without oxygen - anaerobically. The problem is anaerobic fuel burning is not sustainable. So the fast twitchies, they a good to get you going but do not last long.

I had known this instinctively for a while because I had, for all intents, no slow twitch fibers in my muscles. I had always been able to do the sprint - the 100m. I was second fastest in school. But increase the length to 200m, I was fourth fastest. Anything beyond that, I was not interested.

So, I had resigned myself to never being able to pound the treadmill. Then I came across that pink image up top (click to expand). This is a version of the couch to 5k program. And the best part is it works! I am currently in week 6, having run continuously for 21 minutes last week. Which for someone who can barely do 400m is unbelievable.

TED, of course, takes it to a new level. Apparently what I am doing is not unbelievable, merely something that all of us are inherently capable of. A friend sent across this timely TED video. Enjoy.

Quaint Wooden Puzzles

There are very few advantages to being dragged to a T.J.Maxx for a post-holiday shopping spree. The last time, however, was an exception. There is apparently a whole class of puzzles out there that is wooden, three-dimensional and works without the need for any controller. Siam Mandalay, is the company in question that makes these fun wooden puzzles. I picked up a box of 6 such puzzles, when we should have been rug shopping.

Among the easiest of the lot is the Cube puzzle. It is basically a three dimensional Tetris, that involves dropping pre-built pieces into a 3x3 cube. A similar puzzle is called the Radius. Deceptively difficult, it involves assembling four parts built from cylindrical arcs, into a 4 unit high cylinder.

Things started to get more interesting with the next puzzle - Hidden Passage. Made up of 12 pieces, it is a complex interlocking cube, that involves sliding pieces back and forth to disassemble and assemble. Similarly there is the other puzzle called Shooting Star. Made up of 6 identical pieces, it is both a challenge to disassemble (you have to believe you are not going to wreck it by trying) and a greater challenge just to visualize prior to putting it together.

Then the two (as yet) unsolved pieces. Lock it Up is wooden prison for a tiny wooden sphere. The other puzzle is, for some reason, called Newton's Comet. Bearing scant resemblance to the original, it instead looks like square version of the shooting star that feels so fragile that anything you do to it, could destroy it.

I know that the word "Genius" is generally abused. The puzzle maker, for one, refers to anyone that can solve them as a Genius. Whether they mean it in jest is another question, but whoever first visualized these puzzles, in my opinion, is nothing short of a Spatial Genius. Now how about that trip to T.J.Maxx?