[SB 211] Testing Myo Reps, another huge loss in music
I’m Matt, and welcome to Steady Beats. If you like to walk for a better life, and also like Dire Straits’ “Walk of Life,” you just might like this newsletter.
Fitness Beats: Compress your lift with Myo Reps
Two things to keep in mind on our midlife fitness journey:
You’ll never have it all figured out.
The “experts” don’t have it all figured out, either.
So, try stuff. Safely.
Which is why I liked this suggestion from fitness pro Dan Go, on using Myo Reps to compress lifting time:
Pick a load you can perform 5-12 reps with. This works best with machines and low-risk exercises.
Go to 1-2 reps before failure. You can judge this by how slow the tempo becomes at the latter reps.
After you're done with your set stop lifting. Take 3 to 10 deep breaths and then keep going for 2-5 short mini sets of 2-4 reps. Make sure to stop 1-2 reps before failure.
I tried Myo Reps this week with the leg press machine and a set of one-arm dumbbell shoulder presses.
The leg press set looked like this:
One set of 14 reps x 360 lbs
Breathe, count to ten
4 additional reps x 360 lbs
Breathe, count to ten
4 additional reps x 360 lbs
You might wonder: Did this set, to use a scientific term, suck?
Yes. Quite a bit.
But it was also over with pretty quickly. And that’s the point. Myo Reps (allegedly) get you the muscle stimulus you need faster than stretching out the work over three or four traditional sets.
I also tried Myo Reps with the aforementioned single-arm dumbbell shoulder set on Sunday morning:
One set of ten reps x 40 lb
Breathe, count to ten
4 additional reps x 40 lbs
Breathe, count to ten
4 additional reps x 40 lbs
Then repeat for the other arm.
If you’re interested in why this compression may be just as effective as traditional sets, Dan shared an article from Borge Fagerli, the creator of the system, that goes in-depth on the practice and the science.
While I won’t abandon my usual lifting pattern for Myo Reps, I think they have their place in both my regular program and especially when traveling, when time and heavier weights are often both in short supply.
Try stuff! Safely.
Music Beats: Another Giant Falls
As you get older, do you find yourself retreating more into the pop culture of your youth?
I am.
A lot of it is comfort food, for sure. But also it’s harder for me to identify with modern pop culture. I want my movies and music to entertain and inspire. To make me laugh or get me thinking.
So much of modern pop culture seems intent on lecturing first and then tries to wrap that up in a translucent and flimsy wrapper that tries to resemble story and entertainment.
Thanks to the Internet, it’s easy to retreat into the go-to songs and shows of our past. To create a digital cocoon of the fun and familiar.
And yet, even as we grasp it digitally, the real thing increasingly slips through our fingers.
A little more each month.
A lot more each year.
Jimmy Buffett passed away this week.
I’ve seen him in concert at least a dozen times, in three different states—though admittedly not once in the last dozen years.
Here’s a photo from a concert tailgate so long ago that I had hair:
The parking lot scene at a Buffett show can only be compared to a high-intensity college football tailgate—though one adorned in the most garish tropical fare imaginable—which is probably why I loved it so much in the 90s and 00s.
And as sad as Jimmy’s passing is, it was great to hear from friends this week that share memories of his music. Maybe we once sat on the grassy hill at a summertime concert. Or we were perched in the corner booth of some cold and dingy bar, deep in a February night, playing Buffett songs on a juke box—a futile offering to the distant Gods of Spring.
Great memories splayed over a fun soundtrack.
Kudos to Pine Knob, the concert venue in Michigan where the best Buffett concert memories reside for myself and a group of friends, for a proper salute:
We are losing so many of these entertainers, each loss another reminder of the impermanence of everything. As we watch our musical superheroes fall, what chance do we stand? We know the answers, and hate the reminders.
But I’m grateful for the digital world that lets us recall the work of these legends. The old music breathes new life into so many fun memories, memories we pack up and keep with us for however many more Trips Around The Sun we get to enjoy.
Fins up, everyone.
Thank you for reading.
Let’s keep the Steady Beats going. 💚
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