Review of scooby

In this entry I'll offer a review of a site I stumbled across when looking up fitness information about a year or two ago. The URL for that site is www.scoobysworkshop.com.

I was pleasantly surprised when I found this site--mainly because the author of the site and I share similar fitness philosophies. The author of that site goes by the nickname "scooby," by the way, thus the title of this entry.

Scooby demonstrates bench press

It was refreshing to find scooby's site because, unlike the vast majority of fitness sites on the internet, he's not trying to sell you anything. Rather, he advises against buying expensive equipment and/or instructional material, encouraging readers to buy just a few used weights. His workouts are designed to be performed in a home setting, so gym memberships are likewise not promoted by him.

What's more, scooby even provides a wealth of material, including instructional videos, all for free. I would definitely advise anyone interested in starting a fitness regime to check his site. Even rank beginners can find useful material there--he's not at all elitist in his approach.

And he's not an amateur either. By his own admission, he's been lifting weights for 30 years--another reason I felt a kinship with him; he's pretty close to my age. His fitness pursuits all these years seem to have focused mainly on bodybuilding.

Which will clue you in to the aspect of his site that I find not so helpful. As you will know if you've read other entries in this blog, I'm not really interested in developing bigger muscles--"bulking up" as they call it in some circles. For one thing, I don't think there's a whole lot bulking I could do at 51 years of age, even if I wanted to. But then there's the fact that I wasn't interested in developing a bodybuilder's physique even in my younger years when it would have been feasible.

For my taste, there's too much emphasis on scooby's site on things like gaining muscle mass and reducing body fat--both obsessions for those who go in for bodybuilding. That said, he does have a good deal of information that can be helpful to those such as myself who are not pursuing a bodybuilder's physique. It just takes some ferreting around to find it.

For example he's got some good nutrition information and even recipes. And his videos give good demonstrations of proper form for various exercises. Scooby also provides a review of P90X which happens to agree pretty substantially with my own review written a couple of years ago.

So, all in all, scooby's site is a net positive. Anyone interested in fitness is bound to benefit from having a look. So, go check him out!

On the fitness front, we decided to take a week off this week. We're moving from one apartment to another so we're getting exercise from that. And we just give ourselves a break from time to time during the year. This is one of those times.

Blood pressure update

I need to offer an update on my blood pressure issue--high blood pressure readings having been a major factor in the development of my current exercise regime and in the institution of this blog. But before getting to that matter, I'll need to address another health issue that I've suspected might be related to the increased blood pressure--insomnia--as well as a new medication I've been taking in response to that issue. Follow me?

I finally decided to see a specialist this past summer about my insomnia issue, i.e., a doctor who specializes in sleep disorders. I described my problem and what I'd done so far about it--mainly, that I'd used zolpidem with limited success. She decided to offer a new medication; Lyrica.

Long story short, Lyrica has been fairly effective in resolving the insomnia issues. It's not the "silver bullet" by any means. I still have difficult nights on occasion. But it is the most effective sleep aid I've tried to date, and compared to life without Lyrica, the old "night and day" adage applies: I am sleeping much, much, better.

No more rising after only 3 or 4 hours in bed because I can't get back to sleep after having awoken for the 10th time. No, on almost any night I take the Pregabalin (Lyrica) I am in bed for at least 7 hours. I may not sleep as deeply as I should, and may still wake up a few times during the course of the night, but I don't have much problem falling back to sleep when that happens. So, the quality of sleep I'm getting has improved markedly over the past few months.

Now, back to the blood pressure issue. I'm no longer taking blood pressure readings with any regularity, as anyone who's looked at my blog entries on this subject over the last 9 months or so will know. But I do still get measurements taken when I have a doctor's visit or some medical procedure. And I stopped taking some time over the course of the summer when we were doing a lot of biking, the medication (hydrochlorothiazide) I'd been given for high blood pressure. I've taken that only a few times over the last several months.

The last few times my blood pressure has been measured, it's been pretty close to normal--systolic from about 122-132 and diastolic in the lower 80's. And that's a great relief, i.e., to be heading into winter, when my blood pressure usually goes up, with blood pressure pretty close to normal despite being off hydrochlorothiazide.

I hope what's happening here is that my supposition that chronic insomnia was causing my blood pressure to rise is correct, and that the Lyrica, which has greatly increased my quality/quantity of sleep, is what's brought this about. While I don't like the idea of taking Lyrica long-term, it seems at the moment the lesser of two evils: it might keep my blood pressure in check while allowing me to go off hydrochlorothiazide.

I remain on the lookout for alternative sleep aids. But that's a subject for a future entry.