Some evangelists for CrossFit like to talk about the benefits of “functional fitness.” Personally, I see some value in training people how to properly lift heavy weights… but other than that, there’s just strength and skill.
I’ve experienced that first-hand: I did CrossFit for a year, and now I’ve been doing SuperSlow for nearly two years. I’ve seen that I can stack bales of hay, haul 50 pound bags of feed, and ride my very strong half-draft horse just as well doing SuperSlow as I did with CrossFit. Or rather, I can do it better because I’m not nursing a strained rotator cuff or unbearably sore from my workouts.
Recently, I experienced another revealing test of the power of SuperSlow. Until mid-March, I’d not skied or snowboarded all season. At first, the snow was terrible, so I was enjoying riding my horse, rather than hitting the slopes. Later, once the snow came, I was trapped at home with construction workers, supervising a slew of house repairs. I barely managed to escape the house for my weekly SuperSlow appointment; I couldn’t possibly manage to abandon ship for a whole day.
As a result, I skied and snowboarded for the first time in a full year at SnowCon 2013 in mid-March. (Yes, I was rusty!) Then, here’s what I did:
- Monday: Ski for two hours in powder
- Tuesday: Snowboard for five hours
- Wednesday: Snowboard for five hours
- Thursday: Ski for five hours
I’m a high intermediate/low expert skier, but I’m not experienced in powder. So the two hours on Monday were far more difficult for me than two hours on groomed runs would have been. Also, I’m still a beginner snowboarder, so that requires even more effort from me than skiing.
Guess what? I was mildly sore after Monday, but that gradually disappeared. I was tired after those five hour days, but I was never dangerous: my muscles were responding with full strength to the commands of my brain.
To my mind, that’s genuine functional fitness!
And guess what? Four of the five people in that picture do SuperSlow!
P.S. If you’re a local and you decide to try my SuperSlow gym in south Denver, please tell them that I referred you!
What is an “assault weapon?” Do people “need” to own such a gun? Is there a basis for government regulation to restrict or ban (for non-police civilians) their manufacture, sale, or possession? This talk covers the basic history of “assault weapons” and “high-capacity” magazines–along with the moral and political considerations surrounding them.
Many people view their lives as driven by luck, such that they seek to maximize their good luck and minimize their bad luck. This view of luck, however, is based on a faulty understanding of the nature of luck and its role in human life. This lecture will unpack some common wrong views of luck, then present a rational alternative. We will see that people often shortchange themselves by accepting false views of luck — and that we can enjoy more success in their endeavors by adopting a more rational, purposeful approach.
Hydraulic fracturing (frac’ing) is a widely discussed and frequently misunderstood term in the news today. In this lecture you will learn what frac’ing is, how it is done, the many benefits it offers, and the facts and science to dispel the many popular myths about its use in the oil industry. This is a technology that is critical to our everyday life, and one that everyone should better understand.
As the ObamaCare health law is phased in, patients will be increasingly subjected to government controls dictating what care they can receive and when. Fortunately, many doctors are responding by moving into various type of “concierge medicine” and “direct pay” practices where they can still treat patients according to their own best judgment relatively free from such government constraints. This talk will discuss the rapidly growing field of concierge medicine, the various concierge models, why many patients can benefit from it, how to evaluate a concierge practice, and how and why patients can help defend the morality of concierge medicine.
