Through Flu and Poo

After getting sick with what felt like the flu I had to give up the push-up regimen as per a doctor's recommendation(I was crazy exhausted 24/7 x.x). And as of yesterday I discovered two leaking capacitors on my desktop motherboard(I'll be putting together a new machine in a few months, this build is going on eight years ha). I've de-soldered the popped caps and ordered new ones, so until the 25th I'm on my work laptop. It's a shame because I just installed fedora 20 on the desktop and spent an hour just playing around with the mandelbrot wallpaper generator.

The good news is I found some nice guides for body weight fitness. See here. The idea is to use your body weight for strength training instead of weights(although weights can't hurt). It's a great idea, and a lot of the exercises are progressive, which makes things more interesting(at least for me). It makes great sense, rather than doing 30 elevated push-ups eight times a day like I did before, I'm pushing myself towards one-handed push-ups through harder and harder exercises with less sets at lower reps.

A push-up progression goes something like this;

Let's say you want to learn how to do one-handed push-ups. Jumping right into one-handed push-ups would be crazy, you probably wouldn't be able to do one, and when you finally learn how, your form would probably be terrible.

Instead you focus on regular push-ups until you can comfortably do 25 or 30 reps. You don't have to do eight sets a day, but obviously the more sets you perform the faster you'll progress ;)

After a couple weeks of focusing on proper technique(flexed butt and abs, straight back) with a set or two every day or every other day you'll feel that it's less of a challenge, so you progress to diamond push-ups, again focusing on proper technique to that you're not straining your shoulders.Your rep count will drop, and you'll work on getting it back up to 25-30.

Once you're comfortably doing 25-30 diamond push-ups you can progress to elevated diamond push-ups. These are the same, but with your feet up on a chair or even a desk, off the ground by at least several feet. Every new progression will lower your rep count, challenging you to bring it back up.

Once your bring the rep count back up, you can progress to where I'm at now, which is archer push-ups(This was kind of a big leap). These are pretty challenging for me, and I'm currently at eight reps on each arm. There are lots of variations to all these progression exercises, but in my mind these archer push-ups are the last step before one-handed push-ups with proper form. It's super important to stop if your form breaks at all. Technique, technique, technique!

There's tons of great progression exercises, they're all about crazy core stability and give a crazy pump. I'll be focusing on the progressing to the full planche, handstands, eventually 90 degree push-ups, the L-sit, and eventually the V-sit, as seen below.

The beauty of all of this is how creative I can get with absolutely no gym equipment. If you're at all interested, the first link I have in this post is a good starting point.

I'm also going to give leangains a shot to help lower my body fat% and stay lean. This is just a neat intermittent fasting routine. The guide explains that for males, ideally you want to fast for 16 hours a day, and limit eating to those eight remaining hours. I'll experiment with my timeline, but I'm going to start with eating from 10am to 6pm, then not eating again until 10am the next day.

There's going to be tons of calorie counting and constant adaptation, but hey that's what life's about! May the gods of consistency and accountability be upon me ha.

The Form, It's All in the Form

Well I've been sticking to 240 push-ups a day and I've been neglecting a post about stretching like crazy. The good news is I found a slight variation to my push-ups that puts less strain on my traps. If I keep my eyes forward during my set, it almost feels easier on my traps. I'll have to do this continuously for a week or two to see if it makes a huge difference.

So far I've been doing tons of head rolls to keep my neck and traps loose. Desk work really doesn't help but hey could be worse!

I've noticed that my triceps are starting to look a little developed, making my biceps look small by comparison. I looked around for a stand alone pull up bar I could buy, but the cheapest ones are over $300. I figured for that kind of money I could take some welding classes and just bring in some pipes to open shop and make my own power tower; a custom pull-up bar with the added bonus of a new skill under my belt.

It's late and I'm feeling energized for no reason. The hardest part about these push-ups is remembering to do them. Yeah eight sets throughout the whole day isn't that much but I've gotten into the habit of leaving four sets until the last couple hours of the day. No bueno.

From 30 to 30

I've stayed at 30 push-ups a day but there's definitely some tightening in my traps. I had to have a break day where I did only three sets, and I had another cheat day this week where I only did five sets.

I did pick up the little 'perfect push-up' rotational platforms from my buddy who never used, they should help ease the constant strain on my wrists. I was surprised to discover that these little puppies make push-ups a lot more challenging, even without rotating the hands. It might have something to do with how much lower I can get my body with them. Or it may be the additional dexterity required to stabilize on them since they're basically bars on wheel bearings.

Anyway, I won't be increasing my rep count to 35 just yet as I feel 30 is still a challenge. I'm sure I could do it but I'd rather get my stretches down first to keep the tense traps under control. My arms definitely feel and look bigger, and I'm noticing some tiny gains on my chest. If I keep it up I'm guessing it'll be more noticeable after say, 16 weeks. Every now and then I feel some soreness in my pecs but that's a good sign! My posture is definitely improving and my shoulder cuffs feel much more secure. Years of desk work and competitive swimming wore them down and made them pretty loose (lol).

The main issue I'm having is the tight muscles. They feel extra tight after each set, which leads me to believe the push-ups are the main cause. I'll have to focus more on stretches, and I'll share a post probably tomorrow detailing the stretches I'm trying to focus on(mainly trap stretches). Although my yoga friend explained that if I stretch all the muscles around the traps, they'll naturally relax as well. I should really take the time to stretch in the mornings and evenings... maybe I'll start tonight.

So far I can't complain. I still look healthy, I'm making small gains, and haven't even thrown in sit-ups or pull-ups yet. Who knew that simplifying down to one compound exercise could be enough to get in shape. I'm sure if I committed to two hour gym trips and supplements I'd get pretty beefy, but my aim is efficiency and economy. So far I've spent nothing monetarily on my workout and I get to split up the sets throughout the day. Each set takes less than a minute, and I enjoy a little pump every now and then.

That's all for the push-up update.

From 25 to 30

It's been exactly a week since my post on the push-up routine I've started. Today(or yesterday I guess) I started doing eight sets of 30 instead of sets of 25. This puts my daily push-up count at 240.

At the start of the routine last week 25 push-ups in a row was quite challenging, but by Monday and Tuesday of this week it was a piece of cake. I'm starting to like the pump. It's a great anxiety buster and helps me focus at work.

I haven't noticed many gains yet, although this is only the start of week 2 into the routine.

What I have noticed is that my shoulders tend to sit wider rather than slouch, and my posture is more upright. My arms are a little bigger from the constant pump, but I haven't noticed anything on the pecs (this is probably from too much shoulder activation). Putting my feet up on something all the time feels like it puts some stress on my trapezius muscles, they've been tighter than normal. I've asked a yoga friend to show me some stretches later this week that I can perform daily to keep myself loose. I already have a theracane if it comes to having to push out any knots.

I took some pictures today. When I decide this project is over I'll have some photos to study.

I'm also considering putting sit-ups into the mix, and possibly making a super set of sit-ups and push-ups in the morning, to knock out two or three of the eight sets for the day in one sitting, alternating between the two exercises.

I've also changed my diet to exclude any processed sugar and minimized my meat intake to two times a week. I don't want to overwhelm myself with a strict diet so I'm starting with some simple rules. They should be easy to stick to. The diet idea is also a big money saver, I'll hardly be eating out at all. The diet is mainly to reduce my body fat % and to clear my skin of any acne.

Overall so far I'm feeling more alert and more calm. I'm able to control my emotions much better and I feel generally better and more upbeat throughout the day.

That's all for now.

Pushup Routines

Since I've decided to quit the gym I've been mulling over different push-up routines I can stick to that won't interfere with my daily life.

Thoughts on push-ups:

I've done the 'Evil Russian' push-up challenge three times, which consists of two weeks of hardcore push-up action. The Evil Russian challenge works like this;

First you do as many push-ups as you can in one go without stopping. Let's say you perform 30 push-ups, this is considered your 100%.

For the next week you'll perform a percentage of this total at different frequencies. At the start of the second week you take another 'test' to do as many push-ups as you can, then for the rest of the week perform a percentage of that max.

Then you're done!

WEEK 1

RI - Relative Intensity (Percentage of your max test)
SF - Set Frequency (How often to perform the set)

Mon: 100% test, relative intensity (RI) 30% Set frequency (SF) 60 min (So here you've done your max which is for example 30, and for the rest of the day you'll do 30% of 30 every 60 minutes. About 10 push-ups an hour.)

Tues: RI 50% SF 60 min (This day you would do 50% of 30 every 60 min. 15 push-ups every hour.)

Wed: RI 60% SF 45 min (30*0.6=18 push-ups every 45 min)

Thurs: RI 25% SF 60 min (30*0.25=7.5 push-ups every hour)

Fri: RI 45% SF 30 min

Sat: RI 40% SF 60 min

Sun: RI 20% SF 90 min

You get the idea. On Monday of this second week you'll definitely be able to perform more push-ups in one shot. My 100% usually doubles at this point, and by the third week I can do close to 100 push-ups without stopping.

WEEK 2

Mon: 100% test RI 35% SF 45 min

Tues: RI 55% SF 20 min

Wed: RI 30% SF 15 min

Thurs: RI 65% SF 60 min

Fri: RI 35% SF 45 min

Sat: RI 45% SF 60 min

Sun: RI 25% SF 120 min

This routine is great for building up some back, shoulder, arm, and chest muscles. It's also scales fairly well, meaning if you can only perform 10 push-ups to start, or if you perform 100, the program will still work. The problem is it can be extremely inconvenient to stay on track when at work or almost anywhere!

You're allowed to skip a set if you make up for it later, but look at Wednesday of the second week, push-ups every 15 minutes!

Go to a movie and you'll have to make up tons of push-ups. Another downside is once you're done with this program, the muscles can deteriorate just as fast as they came. There's no real structure in place to maintain what was gained and if you try to create your own you'll have to maintain similar numbers.

I'm going to develop a routine that's a nice balance between intensity and frequency that I can perform indefinitely. I want it to be flexible in case I go out of town or am busy for most of the day.

I always try to have my feet at least three feet off the ground to demand more from the upper pecs and shoulders. So far I've been doing five sets of 20 push-ups for a total of 100 push-ups a day.

Today I'm moving that total to 200. It's obvious that increasing the number of reps in a set will mean less sets, and less sets is less annoying! Today I'm trying eight sets of 25 for the 200 total. This is only three more sets than I've been doing and only five more push-ups per set. I'll be increasing the number of reps in a set every week or so, and I'll probably be delving into technique on here when I have the time.

I'm expecting obstacles once I hit 500 push-ups a day. Probably in the form of muscle fatigue, joint pain(although my shoulder cuffs feel stronger since I started), and tight muscles if I don't stretch enough. Btw Simonster's workout was definitely an inspiration for this experiment,

Quitting the Gym

I've decided to quit the gym. I'm 23 and in good health. It takes virtually no effort for me to stay in healthy shape, so why should I pay $90 a month just to use some fancy equipment? I have no idea!

I joined the fancy gym over a year ago but began seriously working out about 4 months ago. I was 180 pounds, and decided I would make the leap to 200. At 6'2'' 180 pounds is kind of scrawny in my mind. Taking some protein shakes and vitamin supplements I worked out a little over an hour a day, 6 days a week for four months. I also did cardio three times a week as a 5-7k run or swimming 3000-5000 meters. I was reading about proper exercises, bulking vs cutting, all that jazz. Anyway I think I move between 10 and 18 percent body fat depending on how active I am. It was a great daily ritual but needless to say it took up a lot of time, and the number of showers my god. Three out of five days a week I was taking three showers a day! I put on the 20 pounds of muscle, and now rest at 205lbs. I was spending $90 a month for the gym, and close to $200 on protein shakes and vitamins. Yikes right?

I've decided to see if I can not only maintain but continue to make gains without supplements AND the gym entirely. The annual savings would be over $3000. AM I CRAZY!? MAYBE! I think it's possible.

I started a couple days ago and I've decided to replace the expensive gym procedure with some simple exercises. For now I'll just be doing pushups daily. I was doing about 60 pushups a day when I started, now I'm at 100. This doesn't even compare to a hard one hour workout, but I plan to move this number up as high as I comfortably can. I'll add more exercises(situps, pullups) and maybe some cardio to keep the body fat percentage under control.

It's not a very complicated strategy, but I'm confident that it can work. If I ever start slipping I can just join the gym again, right?

Back in Action... maybe

Well I've decided to start writing posts again, let's see how long I keep at it this time ;)

I wanted this to be a professional blog, with oxford grammar and technical topics, but my interests change frequently. I'm in a constant state of discovery, and I usually feel too humbled to assert myself as a publisher(ha) on any one topic. Maybe that's all normal.

Time seems more valuable each day. Between two jobs I can hardly find time to really probe my curiosities. I do have time for some though ;) I'm lucky enough to be working for a small ISP that allows for a late afternoon/evening work shift. My mornings are completely free, so I've passed my Series 56 and saved up some initial capital to start day trading. I went live early last week and I can't believe how eye opening this process has been.

It's late so I'll be keeping this short. I'm obviously a little nooblet when it comes to trading, but I was expecting daily number crunching and mind boggling formulas that would force me into deep calculations. The Series 56 was somewhat technical, more about the numbering of regulations than anything else.

From the bit I've read in a Mark Douglas book called 'The Disciplined Trader' I've realized the markets give a trader so much freedom, so much control over his own destiny, that the main reason for failure is not always the lack of direction, but the lack of perseverance to focus on that direction, the very root of which are subjects that I can relate to anything in life.

What I'm reading and learning to be the foundation of any successful trader is attitude, expectation, personal philosophy; things that I didn't expect to be learning at all. The book is covering simple topics about objectivity and discipline, with interesting points. For instance the markets are a reflection of yourself. The market does not show pity, it doesn't listen to you, you can't control it(at least not for long), and it's continuous. The only thing you can control is yourself and what you do. The successful trader has unlimited freedom and understands he is completely accountable.

The book refers to the market as a river, with participants making up the waves. There's a small group that consistently profit from the market, and these are individuals that know exactly what they're doing and why, they are the highest points on a wave in the middle is everyone else trying to stay as close to these people as possible, being lower and lower points on a wave going outwards from the middle with the lowest point of the wave being the trader last to jump in and out, the clueless trader.

I've always been interested in how we think and why we think the way we do, and this book brings that deduction to trading. The main idea being that once you surpass your own limitations, you'll be able to identify these limitations as a movement in the market (Easier said than done!)

There's also so many emotions that come into play in a trade. To actually analyze what these emotions are and why they come up has changed my trading style already. I'm starting to understand how a sloppy entrance into a trade can snowball into not only a bad trade, but a bad habit, and eventually a hole in my wallet. Big losses become 'psychological damage' which manifests fear. Fear being the one thing that paralyzes a poet or an artist from expressing himself through his craft. I've only read a small piece of the book but I'll have to pick a topic like fear or greed and cover them one at a time. I should probably finish at least one book first ha. Anyway that's enough for tonight!

The Spotlight on High Frequency Trading

Michael Lewis, had a segment on 60 minutes(watch the link, seriously) to discuss the topic of his new book, "Flash Boys: A Wall Street Revolt". Lewis was a bond salesman in the '80s and '90s, which was the subject of one of his first notable works, "Liar's Poker". He's also written "Moneyball" and "The Big Short", among other works. The first line in his 60 minute segment was;

"Stock Market's rigged." BAM!

It's not this line that's exciting, it's that there's someone who has decided to do something about it. Brad Katsuyama started IEX, an exchange that's actually focusing on creating a fair marketplace, which is extremely refreshing to see from an intermediary.

The 60 minute spot scratches the surface, but in short, HFT(High Frequency Traders) in the market receive market order data from investors before it's reflected on the exchange, then act on those orders, again before it's reflected on the exchange. This happens SO FAST that the ordinary investor's order isn't completely filled with traditional routing, effectively frontrunning the investor. The biggest players in the game have price data before the exchanges do. The solution Brad Katsuyama and company came up with is clever; staggering their routing, so that the order is sent to the furthest exchange first, and the closest exchange last. All these orders come to their destination exchanges within one or two milliseconds of each other, cutting out the frontrunner.

Here's a clip from CNBC with William O'Brien(President of Global Markets at BATS), Michael Lewis, and Brad Katsuyama hashing it out.


O'Brien is shocked that anyone would vilify ANYTHING about the industry. Haven't we seen this card played before? Yes, because the financial industry has repeatedly shown itself to be the pinnacle of virtue and ethics! Yes, of course! How dare ANYONE claim there's frontrunning! ...with empirical data... and testable ideas... that any trader can verify for themselves...

Doesn't this emotional outburst show your cards more than it hides them? You claim to be upset because you think Lewis and Katsuyama are scaring people away from the market and attempting to gain traction for IEX, but I see no crashes... I see record highs... An ordinary investor is ATTRACTED to the market when whistle blowers like this come to light. This kind of unveiling takes power from those that have no divine right to it. This is EXACTLY what the market needs to restore investor confidence.

Turns out O'Brien was lying anyway.

I have yet to read the book, but I've ordered it.

"You're not really providing liquidity if you're not taking market risk." - Lewis

Bitcoin Crash and the Alternatives...

After hitting a great high of $1242 back in November on the Mt Gox exchange, Bitcoin has recently taken a plunge down to $220. The majority of this huge loss occurred just recently in early February. The price steadily dropped from $900 to the $220 price point in just 16 days!
Click on the image below to see a screenshot, or better yet just visit the widget yourself here(use the scroll wheel of your mouse to zoom in and out, time frame options can be found in the bottom left.)
The Mt Gox exchange, formally one of the largest Bitcoin exchanges in the world, has even halted withdrawals. Ironically this recent run on their exchange seems to be stemming from failed USD withdrawals. Users wait weeks after requesting their money, only to see the transaction fail. Some users report that even a repeat attempt fails. This problem of inconsistent payouts coupled with vague "we're working on it" responses from Mt Gox could be eroding the very trust they need for the exchange to function. The exchange seems to constantly be tackling some giant issue, from delayed account creation, to DDOS attacks, to a 30% payout success rate.

If you're at all interested, this coinwatch blog has some more detailed info on the crash.
It's sad to see such low volume being pumped through the exchange nowadays, and it's not uncommon to see a $20 spread. Hopefully the exchange can regain some traction and finally make a noticeable dent in their technical issues(of which they've been having for a suspiciously long time). The bigger concern seems to be the lack of feedback from Mt Gox. There's just no sense of damage control coming from them, as if this is completely normal.
Granted, this is a completely unregulated, extremely volatile market based on a currency that doesn't tangibly exist...
When you've swallowed that, bitstamp is showing a price of double that of Mt Gox, currently sitting at $615 while Mt Gox at $300. Since this currency is meant for easy transfer, what's to stop a purchase on Mt Gox, a transfer to Bitstamp, then a sell off? AKA arbitrage. What stops most arbitrage is simply that some exchanges do not accept deposits or withdrawals in USD.
In the meantime there are plenty of Litecoin derivative cryptocurrencies that have popped up and become reasonably profitable as a form of triangular arbitrage. For instance dogecoin, has absolutely no mining limit. This is a currency that can be created at will, has a mining difficulty just like bitcoin, but absolutely no limit on the amount that can be mined. This is a completely intangible currency that can be converted to USD, without limit on creation. It'll be interesting to see if/when the doge market becomes extremely saturated. Would this force the value down? What's currently keeping the value up?
Fascinating stuff!