Miscellaneous Miscellany Monday: Tron Legacy, New or Used, and a Little Anatomy.
1. Not like this is going to be a surprise to anyone, but I saw Tron Legacy at the IMAX 3D theater yesterday:
What will come as a surprise is that I wasn’t that impressed. Don’t get me wrong, the 3D graphics were epic. Not quite Avatar-level epicness, but epic nonetheless. And, of course, any movie that features the music of Daft Punk gets a high-five in my book. It was definitely a techno fest.
All that said – and I know this defeats the whole point of the movie. I wasn’t expecting to walk in and see The Shawshank Redemption – the character development, writing, and storyline overall were pretty sub-par.
But then this chick showed up about 1/3 into the movie, and all was good in the world.
A+ x infinity.
2. All this week (and running into the next), my good friend Cassandra Forsythe is featuring the Fit Pregnancy Interview Series over on her website. All told, she interviewed nine women who stayed extremely active during their pregnancies. SPOILER ALERT: just because you’re pregnant doesn’t mean you can’t train (hard), and it definitely doesn’t give you free-reign to “eat for two.”
As someone who has trained several women through their pregnancies, I think this is an absolutely fantastic resource. Check out the first two interviews HERE and HERE.
3. Here’s a tip for all you new trainers out there. When it comes to functional anatomy, it goes without saying that it’s important to recognize and understand insertions, origins, and actions of the muscles. With regards to the latter, though, it’s beneficial to try to think a little more outside the box. Lets use the biceps and triceps as an example. If you read any anatomy book you’ll inevitably find that, for all intents and purposes, the biceps flex the elbow (bending the arm) and the triceps extend it (straightening the arm).
What many fail to recognize or address, however, is the eccentric action of a muscle. I mean, what happens when you perform a standard chin-up? How does the arm extend or straighten? It’s certainly not the triceps coming into play.
In all actuality, the biceps are ECCENTRICALLY resisting elbow extension to control the movement. Likewise, think about the hamstrings. While most will think their main action is knee flexion and hip extension (and they are), they also ECCENTRICALLY resist knee extension while sprinting.
Again, it’s not just about flexion/extension, adduction/abduction, medial/lateral rotation, etc. It’s not always as black and white as that. You also need to think about eccentric stress as well.
4. Okay, the time has come for me to think about getting a new car. Full disclosure: I currently drive a 2002 Hyundai Elantra. It’s been a reliable car for me throughout the years, but lately it feels like I’m taking it in every 4-6 weeks to get something fixed or replaced. I guess that’s to be expected when you have well over 160,000 miles on a car.
Anyways, I’ve always been under the impression that buying a brand spankin new car is, for lack of a better term, retarded. When you consider excise tax, sales tax, and the fact that it depreciates as soon as you drive it off the lot, it certainly makes sense. That being said, many dealerships are practically giving away new cars, and there’s really no inherent advantage to buying a used one in terms of saving $1000.
So, here’s my question(s) to you:
– Should I look into buying new or used?
– Should I stick with the Elantra or go with a Honda Civic? Dollar for dollar, you get more with an Elantra in terms of amenties (and the warranty is sick: 5 years, 100,000 miles). However, Civic is pretty much the gold standard these days, and I know they’re a superb car with little or no maintenance involved. A little help??????
