Monthly Archives: October 2014

Gym Etiquette

The gym can tend to be a bit of an intimidating place for novices; it makes complete sense, though. It’s like when you go over a friend’s house for the first time and you don’t know how exactly to act around their parents or family. It feels a little bit like you’re tip toeing around broken glass. In order to help absolve this feeling, I have set out to teach you some basic gym etiquette so that you can be respectful of the gym. The gym is a shrine to many, and it is important that one keeps it in it’s right order.

This is one of the most important parts of gym etiquette. Never, and I mean never, curl in the squat rack. It may seem harmless, but the point of the squat rack is for people to do SQUATS not to curl. If you ever find yourself curling in the squat rack, I promise that you will receive a lot of dirty looks.

This is possibly one of the most annoying things that can happen in the gym. People in the gym should not be giving you advice and you should not be giving them advice unless they ask for it or if they are about to do something wrong and hurt themselves. As someone who has been in this situation multiple times, I cannot stress how annoying it is when people go out of their way in the gym to tell you about how you should be doing things their way in the gym. Unless you are a licensed personal trainer, you should not be giving people unwarranted fitness advice.

Another one of the most annoying things in the gym is when people are constantly dropping the weights. When you drop weights, it reflects poorly on you. Dropping the weights gives the impression that either you don’t respect the weights or you weren’t strong enough to lift the weights in the first place. The only two situations where it is completely acceptable to drop the weights is either when you’re deadlifting or if you are doing Olympic lifts with rubber weights. For those two, it is actually safest if you drop the weights on the way down, but do keep in mind that as basic courtesy, you should not let the weights bounce more than once.

I cannot tell you how frustrating it is for people like me who call the gym their home when people make an absolute mess of the weights. Some people put the weights they used back in the wrong place, while others don’t even put the weights back at all. Not only is this annoying, but it can be dangerous to have dumbbells lying on the floor where people might not notice them.

Don’t be that guy. Don’t be on your phone at the gym. Be at the gym to be at the gym. If you don’t take your workout seriously, then other people won’t take you seriously.

How to Get Your Workout Habits to Stick

Many people who get into fitness have on common problem: it is extremely difficult to stay in your routine. Every few weeks, you might have a moment where you decide that you want to start taking things much more seriously, but the revelations of that moment hardly seem to stick around long enough to keep you going.

Motivation is what makes good people great, but it is so hard to keep that type of motivation going. We have all been there. It is important to constantly think about WHY you started working out. Whether it be to look good in clothes, get the beach body you’re looking for, or to just feel better about yourself, you need to constantly remind yourself with that goal. When you know you should go to the gym, but you really don’t want to, just take time to think about why you started. Personally, a great motivation for me is to follow a bunch of fitness motivation accounts on instagram. They make me feel jealous of other people for how much they have achieved, but then I remind myself that with the right dedication, I can get there too.

In college, it is often hard to find time to work out. We all have busy schedules. A vital part to keeping your workout routine is to mark it on your calendar when you’ll go to the gym. Work around your schedule and find free time when you know you could be going to the gym. When you’re sitting around your dorm during this time wondering what to do, your first move should be to look at your calendar. Have it be a physical calendar. Have it be something that you can track. Mark down the days that you make it to the gym and the days that you don’t. Just seeing this can often be enough to make you want to better yourself.

Work out at the time of day that works best for you. Some days the time that you planned out just doesn’t work out. Even if it doesn’t, that doesn’t mean that you should entirely give up. Find more time to work out and actually do it. Even if it isn’t as much time as you usually like to spend working out, even half of your usual workout is better than doing nothing.

Thinking about possibly working out later? Put your work out clothes on right now. I’m talking RIGHT NOW. As soon as you’re already in your clothes, you’re already half way to the gym. Even if you still have a bunch of errands to run, you’ll be doing them ready to do the hardest part of your day: taking the first step out of the door to go to the gym. Dress ready and you will start to feel ready. Take away your excuses one step at a time and eventually there will be none left.

Bullying

I. Introductory Paragraph

A: Hook: Bullying is an issues that occurs in all animals that has been around for millennia.

B: Bullying has evolved throughout the past 16 years. With innovation in technology, bullies have developed new methods and their impact has gotten worse and worse. The backlash from the communities affected by bullies have been drastic.

C:

Topic: Bullies have adapted new harmful methods throughout the times.

Purpose: It is important to analyze the problems at the root of the causes of bullying.

Subtopic #1: The evolution of bullying has made it harder and harder for victims to cope with being targets.

Subtopic #2: Evolving legislation has attempted to combat the dangerously evolving culture of bullying.

Subtopic #3: Problematically, people have begun to take a more incriminating approach to bullying rather than adapting methods to cure the hurtful mindsets that bullies have.

II: Body Paragraph (Develop Subtopic #1)

A. Topic: With new developments in how we conduct our social lives, bullies have found new battlegrounds where they may attack their victims.

B. Supporting Detail: Bullies nowadays have more methods to bully, such as through social media.

C. Supporting Detail: Bullying through social media is something that many victims feel as if they have no way to escape.

D. Supporting Detail: Through social media, bullies have the opportunities to do the cruelest they can to a person: ruin their reputation.

E. Concluding or transitional: Thankfully, bullying through social media is something than can be tracked and proven through hard evidence in order to stop bullies in their tracks before they cause their victims to make decisions that they can never take back.

III: Body Paragraph (Develop Subtopic #2)

A. Topic: Lawmakers have done their best to establish legislation to curb bullying, but the amount of legislation actually passed to combat bullying is embarrassingly inadequate.

B. Supporting detail: Surprisingly, it was not until the year 1999 that the first state, Georgia, actually passed any anti-bullying laws.

C. Supporting detail: “North Dakota was greatly praised for the law they passed in 2011, not only defining bullying but outlining preventative measures for public schools to take”

D. Supporting detail: New Jersey is the leading state of all in taking preventative measures towards bullying by passing the strictest laws around that ensure that schools prevent bullying.

E. Concluding or transitional: Although it is good progress for states to establish strict laws against bullying, these actions of good intention have negative consequences.

IV Body Paragraph (Develop Subtopic #3)

A. Topic: Bullying is an issue that needs to be neutralized as well as possible, but the measures being taken are ineffective long term measure to solve the problem.

B. Supporting detail: Bullying has recently been criminalized, yet children really do not recognize the activity as criminal.

C. Supporting detail: Bullies should be forced into counseling, not into a jail cell

D. Supporting detail: “We don’t want to make criminals out of these children. We need to treat them as kids, and we need to discipline them, but we do not need to make criminal charges against them.”

E. Concluding or transitional: With the right treatment of the issue, bullies can be helped so that we will no longer have to worry about them having victims.

V. Conclusion Paragraph

A. Summary of main points: Social media platforms have made victims much easier targets, but luckily that at least means that it’s easier for bullies to be caught in the act so that they may be stopped. New pieces of legislation have aided greatly in making sure that bullies are being punished for their acts, but it is likely that the problem is not being solved in the most effective way. Bullies do not have to be bullies their whole lives, and we have to teach them that.

B. Bullies are an issue that has been around for forever, but through our efforts, we can only hope to diminish their impact on their innocent victims.

C. Stopping bullies is about being more than an innocent bystander. Together, we can take action in order to save people from the physical and emotional harm that bullies cause.

TED Talks

Adichie used many great techniques of rhetoric in her TED talk. Adichie gave her TED talk in order to clarify common misconceptions on race for the civilized world. Adichie talked with a great deal of disappointment in her voice. She made it clear that what she has seen in today’s world is not right in her mind, nor should it be consider to be right in our minds.

Adichie utilized many techniques in order to involve the audience, while still making them reflect on themselves. The jokes that Adichie told made the audience much more comfortable with her, which is vital as she is addressing a very sensitive topic. No one wants to feel racist, but we all have some sort of prejudice in our minds against people who are different, whether it be something that we outwardly show or be it something that we keep within ourselves.

Something that appealed to me was Adichie’s use of paradoxes in order to emphasize the lack of logic in the prejudices that we carry. A paradox may be defined as a “figure that employs an apparent contradiction which, nonetheless, evokes some measure of truth.” (American Rhetoric.) Adichie used the strong power of these paradoxes in order to, in a non-aggressive way, show the error in our prejudices.

But Adichie is not without fault herself. She admits that, even as a person who has to live dealing with prejudice, she has some prejudices herself. This empathy is comforting to people who may have felt as if Adichie was talking in an accusatory manner. It is human nature to have prejudices. A prejudice is a “preconceived opinion that is not based on reason or actual experience.” (Google Source.) The problem with preconceived opinions is the fact that, by our very own nature, it is our tendency to hold on to our first impression of something, though we may have never really had any real experience with it. The hardest thing in our world today is to see people for who they are, regardless of who you may have preconceived them to be. This is Adichie’s goal for us. Her goal is to open our minds.

Why College Students Need Yoga

Yoga is “a Hindu spiritual and ascetic discipline, a part of which, including breath control, simple meditation, and the adoption of specific bodily postures, is widely practiced for health and relaxation.” (Google definition.) Every college student should consider doing yoga. There are numerous benefits of doing yoga. If you don’t at least give yoga a shot, then you’re missing out.

College students are the #1 most stressed demographic of people in the United States today (Source.) We all know the stress that comes with being a college student, whether that stress is because we have way too much work to do or if we don’t have any work to do and we feel like we should. Before I came to college, people told me the greatest thing about college is the extreme amount of free time that you have. What I have found, is that free time is some of the busiest time of my day. Trying to juggle everything in our every day lives comes with a great amount of stress. Yoga has been shown to be able to greatly benefit the three main aspects of ourselves that are the most often affected by our stress: our body, mind and breathing. This is actually what yoga means. Yoga is Sanskrit for “union” because yoga unites these three things.

 

Yoga may seem intimidating to a beginner. A beginner may believe that he/she won’t be able to reap all of the benefits of yoga. I can tell you by experience that this is in all aspects wrong. I started doing yoga because my mom always talked it up to my brother and me, so we decided to sign up for a four session beginner class of heated yoga. At first it was difficult to get my muscles used to the motions. The first few times that you go through the movements, you begin to feel sore, but as the class progresses, that soreness is cleared from your mind. I would say that one of the greatest things about yoga is the amazing natural high you get from it. After a good class, you feel as if you are floating on a cloud. That is what I live for.

 

“Research suggests yoga affects how you perform in the classroom. It improves listening skills, enhances focus and concentration skills, and improves all-around awareness. Additionally, studies show that students who regularly partake in yoga are generally happier and more sociable, qualities that lend themselves to a better classroom environment.” (U.S. News Health.) If you are like me, then you know the struggle of trying to stay concentrated through a lecture. You may be staring at the professor and watching his/her lips move, but nothing is processing. The increased concentration and focus that comes from yoga is a nice way to patch this problem without having to look for alternative solutions.

Overall, yoga is a great way to improve your health. There are very few excuses to not do yoga. The great thing about yoga is that it is where all excuses dissolve and nothing else matters.

Rhetorical Analysis Outline

For my rhetorical analysis, I will be analyzing George Bush’s 9/11 Address to the Nation.

The context of this speech is very well known throughout the world. On September 11th, 2001, terrorists hijacked airplanes and crashed two into the World Trade Center and one into the Pentagon, while one was brought down by a passenger who thwarted the terrorist’s attempt. This act of terror resonated to ears around the world and people from all walks of life banded together to support each other.  This is the greatest tragedy our nation has ever seen.

The speech invoked a great sense of nationalism and family within our nation. Everyone seemed to be affected in some way by the attack, so we all shared some sense of fear, anger, and sadness. Bush appealed to commonplaces with phrases such as “our fellow citizens,” “The victims were in airplanes or in their offices: secretaries, business men and women, military and federal workers, moms and dads, friends and neighbors,” and “America and our friends and allies join with all those who want peace and security in the world, and we stand together.”

The falling man.

The speech attempts to instruct a world of people who will stand together, American citizens and our allies, in order to help us recover from this event. Additionally, the speech attempts to convince people why they should support the war on terror.

Frozen Moment.

The speech seeks to create an identity of the American people as a strong, supportive group who will stand together through anything and who can survive any struggle. This is connected to what is what is seen to be good and desirable because nationalism and love for one’s neighbors is essential to the strength of a nation. The speech reinforces the support in the current power relation of the strength and resolve of the American people.

The kairos of this speech is something that was very controversial. As Bush delivered the speech on September 14th, some were angered while others understood. The people who were angered were angered because they thought that our president should know how to react to any situation and be there as our leader to support us. People who understood saw that no one knew how to react to the situation, so it is important that Bush took sufficient time to give a sufficient response to the situation.

Sex and Health

There are numerous reason why people have sex. Sex is not only fun, but it is incredibly good for you. Of course it is natural human instinct to want to have sex, but there are other benefits to it other than reproduction (although most times that’s preferred not to happen.) In this post, we will explore some of the benefits that sex has that you wouldn’t think of.

Firstly, sex is amazing for your immune system. “Researchers at Wilkes University in Pennsylvania found that college students who had sex once or twice a week had higher levels of  antibodies compared to students who had sex less often.” (web.md source.) So if you don’t want to get sick, make sure you spend a healthy amount of time in the sack.

Additionally, sex will lower your blood pressure, so instead of using the usual solutions, use the most fun solution. “One landmark study found that sexual intercourse specifically (not masturbation) lowered systolic blood pressure.”-Joseph J. Pinzone, MD. Systolic blood pressure is the first number on your blood pressure test.

A great reason to be having sex is that sex counts as exercise. Sex is a great cardiovascular exercise, and it also utilizes many muscles that you aren’t used to using. Sex actually burns 5 calories a minute, which comes out to 300 calories an hour (depending on the intensity.) So, a great way to stay in shape, as an addition to your normal work out regimen, make sure that you’re spending enough time doing the deed. We all know it’s more fun than the treadmill.

Furthermore, sex is actually amazing for your heart. It is beneficial in multiple different ways. To start off, we all know that a better blood pressure level and exercise are good for you heart, but there are other, more hidden, benefits to having sex. Sex is a great way to keep your estrogen and testosterone levels in balance. Either of the two levels getting too low is how one may end up with osteoporosis or even heart disease. “During one study, men who had sex at least twice a week were half as likely to die of heart disease as men who had sex rarely.” (web.md source.)

One great thing about sex is that it is an amazing pain killer that works much better than most over the counter medicines. A headache should never be an excuse to not have sex, as sex is often likely to be a cure to a headache. Orgasms tend to block out pain as they release a hormone that significantly raises your pain threshold.

In addition to all of these things, sex is a great way to both relieve stress. After an orgasm, the hormone prolactin is released. Prolactin is a hormone which is responsible for feelings of relaxation and sleepiness. In the case of stress reduction, any physical contact with someone else has been proven to relieve stress, whether it be an embrace or sex. Sex and intimacy can improve your self-esteem as well as happiness. So don’t feel like sex is a naughty and bad thing, because sex is good for you.

Ads for Rhetorical Analysis

There are many different ads that I am considering using for my rhetorical analysis. Below are a few.

 

“It’s not happening here, but it is happening now.”

This ad was very moving to me when I saw it. A lot of factors play into why the rhetoric of this piece is so strong. For starters, the kairos of the ad is blatant when the ad states that “It’s not happening here, but it is happening now.” This ad calls attention to the atrocities that are happening in the world at this very moment. The ad appeals very strongly to pathos, as the subject pictured in the image is a cute, lost looking kid, who appears to have absolutely no idea why he has a gun in his hand. This appeals to the idea of a loss of innocence, which is likely to strike right at home for a lot of people. This ad also appeals to ethos in how it uses the glass in the image to make it appear as if the kid actually is there, which reinforces the idea of just how real this problem is in today’s world.

“Sleepiness is stronger than you. Don’t drive sleepy.”

This is a very eerie advertisement which discourages driving while you are overtired. The advertisement appeals to pathos because of the car on the upper eye lid which is approaching the family on the bottom lid as the eye closes more and more. People can see what the sad outcome would be if the eye was ever to fully close. This appeals to logos because people know that it is almost impossible to fight sleep when one is overtired and dangerous things can come out of that. The ad appeals to ethos because most people know of many accidents that have happened before because someone fell asleep at the wheel. There is not much of an appeal to kairos here, as this is an ongoing problem that needs to be prevented, but can never be fully solved.

Why You Shouldn’t Skip Leg Day

There is a terrible epidemic that is taking over the world of bodybuilding, and that epidemic is BLS, or Bambi Leg Syndrome. You can easily see this all over the place. There is a huge amount of guys who have massive torsos, but have extremely small, frail-looking legs. The reason for this is many men care only about the appearance of their torso as it’s the most noticeable part of a man’s appearance and it is the part of the body that is most attractive to most women. The problem is, some guys end up working out to a point where their bodies are so disproportionate that it’s just laughable to look at.

Bro whose bros let him skip leg day.

Personally, I used to skip leg day all of the time. Every guy who skips legs day has his own personal excuse. We either someone find that we have “too much work to do” or “we really need to clean the house” or something along the likes, but in reality, we usually end up just on the couch ignoring our legs. I recently escaped this mindset. I’ve never hated leg day while I was at the gym, but rather I never had anyone to motivate me to actually do a leg day. Joining powerlifting has been a great help to fix that. Every day that I go in, we do both squats and deadlift to pair along with the bench press torso work out. I can say for sure that doing legs feels like it pays off instantly. Unlike some other muscle groups, leg workouts are ones that you can fight through and get that last rep and then get it one more time. It makes you feel powerful. Personally, my legs are still rather small, but they’re getting stronger quickly. That’s the greatest thing about legs. You can up the weight every day, whereas with torso work outs it takes weeks to see any gains.

Leg day doesn’t only mean squats. To find a great leg training guide, check here.

There are various benefits to training legs. For one, training your legs gives you a much stronger base. A common comparison is an oak tree. An oak tree could not stand with its heavy branches if it had a thin trunk. Your body is the same way. Training legs gives you an incredible amount of core strength. Therefore, doing leg work outs leads to greatly improved posture. Leg workouts are also vital to immense calorie consumption and a great increase in growth hormone levels. Leg workouts can significantly increase the amount of testosterone in your body. Testosterone is a hormone that is essential to gaining lean muscle mass and increasing bone density. Along with all that, leg exercises is a great way to increase your libido. So, if you want to improve your sex life, never skip leg day. With increased testosterone levels and stronger legs, you will find yourself to be much more satisfied and confident in your performance.