Interval Training and PACE vs Cardio/Jogging/Aerobics - High Intensity Bursts vs Moderate Intensity Long Runs | Athletics, Health, Fitness

If you're considering training programs to keep your lungs and heart fit and keep yourself lean, jogging/cardio may seem like a good choice (especially for burning fats), however I suggest you consider also these options: interval training and PACE (which seems related). Saves a lot of time and may earn similar or better results.

It's about short training sessions with high-intensity, until you pant and can't continue, with rests for your pulse to calm down (default is 120 bpm), very popular in track-and-field athletics. For example 8 series of 60 or 100 or 200 m runs at very high pace.

Surprisingly at first sight, you may improve your shape more and reduce fat by such short trainings more than running 1 h a day at 10 km/h. PACE is similar, but less demanding, usually less series and you can do any activity, just it should push your pulse and breathing up to the limit, depending on your physical condition at the moment.

According to the research presented in PACE, long-distance running may damage your heart and induce wreckage in the cardiac muscle-tissue (in general there are more marathon runners dead of a heart-attack, than sprinters). To cope with long runs, your body may adapt by reducing pulmonary capacity and making the heart working more efficiently, reducing its energy consumption and maximum power output, and reducing overall muscle mass.

On the other hand, pushing your muscles, lungs and heart to the limit makes them to adapt by extending their capacity, like stretching does - you should stretch until you feel tension/a bit of hurt, otherwise you won't extend your stretching range. Alike, moderate intensity continuous exercises are supportive.

...

I realized I've got my own practical version of interval training/PACE - some activities I like doing when I could, including high intensity in short durations. I suppose it could explain some phenomenons I've been confused of, such as one two years ago: why on a Silent Disco party I could dance and "jump around" at high intensity for hours in the winter - i.e. no cycling for many months; not practiced any crosses/long runs since a decade?; haven't been on any similar dance session since many months. I was working in an office, sometimes walking (usually at fast pace).

The answer could be just "youth" or "genes", but people around me were also young, even younger than me, and I bet they were going to parties many times more often than me, but they couldn't keep my pace at all. No, I didn't have any alcohol or energy drink - just water.

Finally one of the organizers came to cheer me and he said "could you please stop, it's very nice that you've been dancing so hard, but there's another party tomorrow, we have to leave..."

How could you train your heart and lungs easily (my suggestion):

- Run the stairs (yes: run). Don't use the elevator, unless you're very tired already or you live in a skyscraper.
- Practice cycling. It could be short distances (5-10-15 km), but take some hills, do sprints to get breathless - up to 25-30-35-40 km/h - it will force you to take a rest. Don't ride all the time at 18 km/h.
- Carry your bike through stairs.
- When you dance, do some intensive sessions to get out of breath and to have to rest; then dance again - don't shake slowly all the time.
- On a stepper or a stationary bike - ride to the maximum (after a warm-up) to get tired and breathless - you'll be done in a few series in minutes.
- Rope jumping is also fun if you could practice it, and it could increase your pulse instantly.

You could also:

- Watch your pulse in rest and in the sessions.
- Watch the max rate you achieve (but of course, be careful with this and approach step-by-step) .
- How quickly your pulse can go from rest up to 150/180/X/Max and back down? The faster/wider the dynamics, the better trained is your heart.
- Portable devices to check the capacity of your lungs.

Check these for yourself for more info:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Interval_training

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/High-intensity_interval_training

http://www.pacerevolution.com/ - "PACE - The 12-minute fitness revolution"

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The Myth of "Light" Alcohol and Why Social Drinking might be Better than Drinking Alone - Addiction and Confused Conditioning

Light Alcohol?

The equation is simple, servings seem designed to give you roughly equivalent amount of alcohol. Either 50 ml of whiskey or vodka, 200 ml of wine or 500 ml of beer.

There could be light alcohol beverages only if you take smaller servings for their taste, such as a cup (200 ml) of beer or 100 ml of wine.

Some experienced drinkers even say that the "lighter" alcohol in the list - beer - is the "heavier" - giving you the worst hang-over. Maybe because they rarely take just 500 ml... Most drinkers don't stop with the first doze, of course, and are not satisfied with smaller dozes simply because they are addicted to the effect of the alcohol (so they need enough to trigger the effect), they don't just like the taste of the beverage.

Difference between loner and social drinking regarding addiction

However, what's the difference between social drinking and drinking alone and is there a reason social one to be less dangerous? The explanation put below is simple, my focus is mainly on the process of addiction, namely: in order to get addicted to a substance or a stimulus, brain has to be capable to recognize the cause reliably. What if it's confused, miss-conditioned?

Loner drinkers

- Loner drinkers are more likely depressed, have lower self-esteem, they are already in trouble. (It's not always the case, though) Alcohol gives them a bit of relaxation, triggers some dopamine, they get addicted to this and repeat. Also while drinking for the sake of drinking without being engaged in other activities, mind is focused strongly on this and brain can easily recognize the reason for relaxation and the dopamine produced does reinforce those circuits and the subject gets addicted to alcohol drinking.

Social drinkers

- Social drinkers are more likely easy-going, hanging out with friends or seducing women/men(however this is not strictly true either, they may be also depressed ones, who just go to get drunk in public). However, social interactions during drinking may generate oxytocin and dopamine themselves and brain is confused about what is causing the elevation in the mood - the alcohol or the socialization, and I guess it's less likely to fixate only on one of them. Moreover they both may be wrongly conditioned together and the subject would more likely get addicted to going out with friends/socializing, while drinking, which is generally more healthy than loner drinking (unless you're all alcoholics anyway and get drunk to death together).

However, even just socializing may give you the right doze of relaxation and enjoyment - teenagers love hanging out with friends (and this is often listed as "what you love to do" in social network sites) before they discover the "beauty" of getting drunk, when they build a wrong association between socialization, alcohol, relaxation and enjoyment.

You don't need alcohol to socialize, relax and have fun.

Photography taken by: me, T.A.

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Български Хакери (юнаци, съзидателни, MIT Style): Алекс Паталенски, Емил Дочевски, Иво Белчев, Иван Иванов, Георги Боршуков, Тодор Арнаудов и др.

Предстои да излезе моя статия за българските хакери в едно научно-популярно списание, но както научих това което ще излезе ще е едва 60-70% от написаното и часове интервюта са отрязани; "от горе" имаха съвсем различна тяхна си представа за какво да е статията - аз им предложих и исках за съзидателните и истинските, те си знаят за изтърканата история за един тип грозни български кракери, и особено един от тях, от края на 80-те и началото на 90-те, за които няма да споменавам и за които може да научите всичко с едно търсене в гугъл.

Оставен е малко материал за съзидателните, а това което са отрязали може би ще публикувам по мои си канали.

Тая случка ме кара отново да се замисля за събуждане на сп. "Свещеният сметач".

Всичките ми блогове от спирането му на практика са негово продължение, възстановяването на списанието само би вмъкнало "издаването" на статиите в малко по-"официална" форма.

"Свещеният сметач" беше едно от първите и определено най-авангардното електронно списание в българската мрежа, и пак ще бъде, и не само в българската.

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Decline in language-learning skills: lower neuro-plasticity, higher neuro-competition or both?

A little speculation about neuroplasticity. Decline in language learning skills, starting with adolescence is like a rule of thumb, stated to display decline in neuroplasticity - neurons get less and less capable of creating new connections.

They say brain deteriorates with age, loses weight each year. However, I know very energetic 75 - 80 year-old persons with sharp minds, good reflexes (good car drivers) and having excellent memory.

While language learning difference in fluency for the very early "critical" years is obvious, I suspect for the adulthood there's a factor which is underestimated, I'd call it "neuro-competition", it's supposed to be there in the early age either - initially there are not that much competing patterns.

With time brain has too many existing patterns and there are too many activities and goals which brain have to think about (such as you're unable to concentrate on this for long enough), so it's harder to invest enough resources and to justify that new patterns worth replacing the old ones.

Polyglots

If you learn intentionally and systematically many languages, polyglotism may happen to be not that hard that it seems (at least for basic communication level). Languages are grouped in families, common rules are noticed, there is "transfer of learning" between them and after some time new languages are supposed to come easier.

In much simpler form this happens with programming languages - beginners think it's a big deal to know many languages, but the more you learn, the easier you learn new ones.

A funny polyglot :)http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8LJi47Kzvv8&feature=fvw

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Safe Discotheque Tip and Sound Theory

These on the picture are headphones on a "Silent Disco" party, unfortunately very rare here. If you're one of those who would like to go to disco to dance and not to get drunk, and you're not fine with the insane loudness in the discos, then there is a solution:

Pick-up ear-protectors, at best big and bulky ones. :)

A very deep resource on Sound and Hearing:
http://www.santafevisions.com/csf/html/lectures/
(College of Santa Fe Auditory Theory Lectures)

Ако и вие сте един от тези, които искат да ходят на дискотека, за да танцуват, а не да се напият и да ги опушат, и мразят безсмислената гръмовност на звука, решението е в:

Предпазителите за уши: предпазители за уши. :)

Похвалете се, ако го пробвате.

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Santa Claus does Exist - Grow-Down! Or Why Kids are Smarter than the Adults

Photographer's January Love by ~toshko on deviantART

First of all kids love role playing games and they can pretend being a doctor, a mother, a race car driver, a soldier or anything else - because they do have imagination, unlike most of the boring adults.

Santa obviously does exist - it means a man, wearing a funny red coat, usually artificial white beard (you can touch it and pull it down - it really goes down), boots, and usually he poses for a picture around a sack of toys that he gives away to the children who're sitting around him. Santa also appears on funny advertisings... Usually he starts to appear in the winter - it gets cold and your parents tell you to button your jacket, put your little gloves and... Stop eating that icy snow!

Your mummy and the teachers in the kindergarten tell you that you should send him a letter to get the presents you want, and since you cannot write yet (even though you know part of the alphabet or can read), you just tell them and leave to them to send the letter. If you were a good boy or a good girl, Santa will come to your home while you're asleep and will bring the gifts to you.

True!

Santa does actually bring you gifts every Christmas. It doesn't matter whether he's invisible or very fast or he just knows your parents, so they unlock the door when you're asleep so he can come in. Somehow he does his job, and often the presents are just what you want... Of course you know from experience, that if you wish too big presents, he couldn't bring them, because they can't pass through the chimney or the door, or you just can't be such a good child throughout the whole year - after all it's more fun to do crazy stuff all the time than just getting a single present for Christmas, right?!

The force that brings the presents is probably "Santa Claus" and it is only the adults who are concerned how it really happens, while the answer is so simple: - some kind of a magic or something...

All those stories of the adults that Santa lives on the North Pole, his sledge flies pulled by deer is made up by their bad imagination... Adults are always searching for something extraterrestrial or scientific - all that mania about UFO and aliens.

Santa Claus is not an alien. He's not a single one either. There are many Santa Clauses! And not all of them are old like the adults say - some seem even younger than your parents, that's why they have artificial white beard and artificial white hair - in order to make the adults believe, and the adults doesn't even notice it's artificial - they are silly...

Anyway... I think all Santas are absolutely real - you can touch them yourself, can't you?

Grow-down!

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Why Mainstream Media Advertises for Free Facebook and Skype vs ICQ/AIM, MSN, Yahoo! Messenger, Google Talk; MySpace, LinkedIn and many others

Skype stopped working - this was on Bulgarian mainstream media. What a terrible story, millions are crying for the lost of their only connection to the world!

Bulgarian shows of many televisions, including the national state one have their Facebook profiles and Skype accounts, but not others. This is unfair advertisement to technically less educated users and I think that's one of the reason Facebook to mutate that big like a monster at the expense of the other players (besides its convenience and better design, compared to MySpace).

For myself, Skype wasn't top instant messanger, as many past ICQ-system users have noticed, Skype sucked for years, because it lacked offline message sending (still does?). It seemed more resource hungry as well.

Skype was and still is promoted for "free calls and video calls" - but most of the time it's yet another chat-program.

Guys, don't you remember?

Yahoo! got audio and video calls back in 2004 or 2005, MSN did too. Google Talk joined in 2005? or 2006 with audio? - to my records it was smooth at a dial-up-level speeds like about 33-34 Kbps, while Skype sound was interrupting.

There is not only Skype and Facebook - look around! Facebook is "the biggest", partially because users who don't know others existed.

Use "back-up" messengers and you'll be always out of "crises" like that one. Less Skype - more time for something better.

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New Kind of Mathematics, discovered in a TV Game | Нова математика, открита в телевизионна игра (Смях)

What's the sum of all the numbers on the picture?


Телевизия, телевизионни, хазартни, игри, пари, печалби, лотария, смс,гласуване, обаждане, заблуда,Математика, смятане, заблуждаващи, лъжливи, реклами, хубавици, красавици, събиране, изваждане, умножение, деление, tv, game, lucky, hazard, lottery, call, sms, phone

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Leopard (Short Film) - Stop Bike Thieves!

See higher resolution and details at Twenkid Studio's blog.

Part of cutting and most important - the special editing effects: picture in picture and post-production re-framing/cropping (you may not notice it), as well as the animated and static titles are rendered using my custom software Twenkid FX. They couldn't be done without it.

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Who's Who in Science and Engineering 2011-2012? I am!

Yeah - this is a "vanity fair". I guess a good share of the directories are bought by people who're included. Producers probably make a business out of selling diplomas in frames, as well.

So, who cares? They've spotted me somehow, so I'm one of the selected 33545 persons around the world. Cheers!


http://www.marquiswhoswho.com/listees/publications/32-whos-who-in-science-and-engineering-2011-2012

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Researcher's Handbook - Research Methods Knowledge Base, Developmental Psychology, Classics in Psychology | Изследователски методи, Псх. на развитието

Research Methods Knowledge Base - suggested reading for any researcher, especially beginners.

DevPsy.org - various resources and links to other resources on Developmental Psychology and not only.

Classics in the History of Psychology - old texts, some funny such as:

Darwin, Charles. (1877). A biographical sketch of an infant. Mind, 2, 285-294.
Watson, John B. (1907). Studying the mind of animals. The World Today, 12, 421-426. [A rare, early, popular statement of functionalism by the "founder" of behaviourism.]

Well, there are too much.

Generally, if you're searching for the construction of the mind, my suggestion is watching children developing chronologically from the beginning, the more raw data you get - the better. Too much papers may rather waste too much of your time and confuse you. Read abstracts and select wisely which articles to read thoroughly. This will give you wider scope.

Child Development Journal


Психология на развитието, детска психология, бихевиоризъм, изследвания, методология, изследователски, обществеознание, социология, обществени науки, social science, sciences

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