Reviews, Health, and Other Stuff

Welcome

Welcome to my ever-evolving blog. It started out as a blog on Beachbody workouts and products, mainly when I was a Beachbody coach. I no longer coach, not because I don't believe in Beachbody's programs (I subscribe to Beachbody on Demand and use their workouts every day), I am just not a salesperson and hated that aspect of it. I am more than willing to answer questions about my experiences with their products and the various workouts, and I feel freer to do so without the appearance of giving a biased review of something.

I have also started adding reviews for various things I have purchased like movies, books, CDs, and other products. This was brought about by a fight with Amazon in which all of my reviews were removed over a completely bullshit allegation that I posted a review that violated their terms of service. After going back and forth with the morons in the community-reviews department (even after they admitted that my posts did not violate their guidelines) they restored my account (which took them six months to do), but I have been posting my reviews on my blog to have them preserved in case something like that happens again. And here, I will post uncensored reviews so I will swear from time to time and post reviews that may be longer than Amazon's character limit. Everything I post here on any topic or product is my personal opinion, and I take no compensation for any product reviews I post. I am a member of Amazon's vine program and because I get those products for free, I keep those reviews on Amazon only, but everything I have purchased with my own money, whether from Amazon or some other store/website/outlet, I will post here.

I also plan to do some longer blog posts on various topics, such as how to learn physics, how to get through calculus, and longer reviews of workout programs as I do them. Basically, whatever strikes me as interesting at the time. As you can see if you navigate around the blog, I had many years in between postings. During that time I was going back to school to get an engineering degree, and learning material that I avoided my first time through college was a different experience and one that gave me a lot of insight into how to do well in those classes, which I will try to impart here for those who are looking to get a science or engineering degree.

Sunday, February 4, 2024

Workout Update: T25/Lift-4/645 Corrective and Foam Rolling- Day 13

For Day 13 I did the two recovery routines from Lift 4. I did not do upper body foam rolling from 645, mainly due to time constraints. I had to run some errands that went a bit longer than I expected and so by the time I could work out I just wanted to do the two and get to bed.

Friday, February 2, 2024

DVD/Movie Review: The 40-Year-Old Virgin

The 40-Year-Old Virgin is a 2005 movie that is one of the "Appatowverse" comedies (written and directed by Judd Apatow) starring Steve Carell (who also co-wrote the movie), Paul Rudd, Catherine Kenner, Elizabeth Banks, Leslie Mann, Jane Lynch, and Seth Rogan. In the movie, Carrell plays a 40-year-old introvert who works at the fictional equivalent of Best Buy and has given up on trying to date or have sex. His coworkers find out he is a virgin and try to get him laid, giving him advice on how to meet and talk to women.

If you generally do not enjoy Apatow's brand of humor, you will not like this movie. For those that do, you will find yourself laughing a lot. Yes, Carell does a great job in the lead role, but it is really all the supporting characters that really make the movie work as well as it does. The movie does have some raunchy comedy in it, but it is not really over the top. Unlike some of what passes for comedy these days, the movie does have a lot of smart humor in it along with the raunch humor. Although the movie does not take itself too seriously, there is a point to it and it ends up being pretty wholesome. That said, it is definitely not appropriate for very young kids. Chances are, if you enjoyed movies like Superbad, Forgetting Sarah Marshall, and Knocked Up, you will like this one too.

Workout Update: T25/Lift-4/645 Corrective and Foam Rolling- Day 12

Day 12 was lower-focus in T25 and Legs in Lift 4, which because it is week 2 meant HIIT. So, essentially you are doing two very similar HIIT workouts. The morning T25 workout was definitely easier than the evening Lift 4 workout, but I was able to do more unmodified exercises in each one of them. So hopefully, I will keep progressing.

Thursday, February 1, 2024

Workout Update: T25/Lift-4/645 Corrective and Foam Rolling- Day 11

Day 11 was T25 cardio and Shoulders in Lift 4.

I really noticed that I could do the unmodified exercises much longer in both workouts today than I was doing last week. I did modify all of the squat jumps in Lift 4, but that is mainly because my left knee was a little sore and I did not want to overdo it, especially since the T25 workouts are high-impact if you do not modify.

Workout Update: T25/Lift-4/645 Corrective and Foam Rolling- Day 10

Day 10 was the two recovery routines from Lift 4, and the Speed 1.0 workout from T25. Today, I flipped the order so I did the Lift 4 workouts in the morning and the T25 workout in the evening.

In Speed 1.0 you do about 9 HIIT exercises for 1 minute (or 30 seconds on each side where applicable) and then you do a stretch for 30 seconds in between each HIIT exercise. So, essentially, the format is HIIT, stretch, HIIT stretch, etc. So, you are doing an interval workout with the stretching being the recovery portion. Then, once you are in the last 10 minutes, you do all of the HIIT exercises, back to back and then you end with a slower exercise to bring your heart rate down, and then you get the 3-minute cooldown.