over 85 k

Mar31-80, April 1-510 total 85,091
weight 200.5 bf%22
calories left to burn 42740


"The difference between the impossible and the possible lies in a man's determination." -- Tommy Lasorda

Below is an article from the Desmoine Register. It looks like Ted Skup is getting lots of press across the U.S. Good for him. Got to say I like his horizontal treadmill idea. Well I have been doing the poor man's creatine for a couple of days now. Each day I am eating 2 -5 tablespoons of peanut butter. Would have thought this was pretty gross a few weeks ago. I tablespoon or two staves off hunger for a couple of hours-so I suppose it is doing not a bad job of helping me to keep the overall calorie count down on some days-lets face on some other days I just plain blow it. Overall I am trying to get my protein intake up a bit. So far the tanita bodyfat scale is not showing that it is making a huge difference. However it is a little early to concede that the poor man's creatine is not working. I would like to call it the thinking man's creatine-cause it is pretty cheap compared to creatine-however it is hard to imagine a guy cramming tablespoons of peanut butter as "thinking man".

http://www.desmoinesregister.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080331/LIFE02/803310320/-1/SPORTS0803
Drop and give me 20.Or 10.Five, maybe?Love 'em or hate 'em, the push-up - that old-school workout staple - is the latest fitness buzz.It seems everyone is dropping to the ground to prove their push-up prowess - from hosts of CBS's "The Early Show" facing off to National Public Radio's Alex Chadwick grunting through his 30 push-ups on-air.
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Many Americans can't perform the exercise that engages the whole body, including core, arms and legs, the New York Times reported earlier this month. The Times dubbed the push-up "the ultimate barometer of fitness."Author Ted Skup, who has done more than 10 million push-ups during the last 25 years, is taking the buzz a step further: He wants to start a "push-up revolution" with his recently published book, "Death, Taxes & Push-Ups.""I'm making it into a lifestyle instead of a warm-up exercise," said Skup, who has worked in the oil industry for almost 40 years. "This is an all-inclusive exercise that works for everyone. It's the best exercise you can do that's working your whole body."
Skup said he wants to do for push-ups what the late Jim Fixx, jogging enthusiast and author of "The Complete Book of Running," did for jogging.Skup not only touts the gospel of push-ups but also takes on what he says is a $35 billion fitness industry that's misleading people with infomercials and supplements."People are kind of going back to the old days of doing exercises at home simply because of economics or time management," said Skup, 56. "It's kind of like the Porsche of exercises - there's no substitute."
Craig Pope has been doing push-ups for years. He does roughly 200 push-ups a day, in addition to his gym workouts."Actually, I love them," said Pope 31, of Urbandale. "It's a good upper-body workout ... and you can do a lot by changing your hand positions."Push-ups were the first exercise Pope did when he first started working out. He was inspired by football player Herschel Walker, who, according to media reports, did approximately 1,500 push-ups daily as part of his fitness regimen.
Pope, who started out doing about 50 push-ups a day, said he likes their convenience and portability. "The days I don't work out, I do push-ups."Mark Lowe, a triathlete, does about 220 to 330 push-ups weekly.Lowe, 42, of West Des Moines, likes the fact that he can go out for a run "and just rip off a quick set of push-ups.""I think it's one of the best core exercises you can do," along with pull-ups and dips, he said.According to the American College of Sports Medicine, a woman age 20 to 29 who does 14 push-ups earns an "fair" rating; a man of the same age must do 21. Women do the "modified" version, with their knees on the ground.
The push-up can be a simple way to measure muscular endurance and upper-body strength, exercise professionals say. It also can be the first step to beginning a regular resistance training program, which is woefully lacking in Americans' fitness regimes.But they stop short of touting it as "the ultimate barometer of fitness.""One of the nice things about the push-up is you're using your own body weight," said Amy Fletcher, Health Iowa fitness specialist at the University of Iowa. Health Iowa is the educational branch of the university's student health service.
"You're in that (plank) position, you're contracting your shoulders, your deltoids, you're contracting your upper back and your abdominals, as well as your thighs and calves because that's where your feet are connecting with the ground."But, "We know that fitness is multidimensional."Total fitness includes muscle endurance, as well as cardiovascular endurance, strength and flexibility, said Ken Mobily, a professor of leisure studies at the University of Iowa whose speciality is recreation therapy.
"This has always been a conundrum of physical education, health: Is there a single measure that one can use that can give a crude estimate of health and fitness?" said Mobily, who mainly works with older adults. "The answer is probably no."However, push-ups are probably a good barometer of strength and endurance for healthy adults younger than 30, Mobily said.But for many, push-ups are risky because people tend to hold their breath while lifting a lot of weight. He said that can cause a dangerous increase of pressure in the chest, which may cause problems with heart function.
A quick, safe test, Mobily said, would be measuring grip strength, which requires using an instrument called a hand dynamometer.The ability of older people to perform push-ups properly also can indicate how well they deal with the challenges of aging, including safely breaking a fall, the Times story added.A recent study shows that 21 percent of adults participate in strength training at least twice a week, as recommended by the American College of Sports Medicine.
Strength training, in general, is imperative in helping people in daily activities - carrying groceries and grandchildren, not tripping over curbs, climbing the stairs and even reaching the top shelf. That, Mobily said, is functional strength."We definitely need a lot of improvement in strength fitness in our society," said Kent Adams, director of the exercise physiology lab at California State University at Monterey Bay. "I think the push-ups are great, but I would recommend ... to start lifting weights. Strength is very important to successful aging."
It's particularly critical for older people, Mobily said, who lose the lower-extremity strength needed to prevent trips and falls.