31.10.07
Posted in Crossfit Workout & Exercises, General Colin McNulty Stuff at 8:32 am by Colin McNulty
One of the defining features of Crossfit training for me, is its variety. Not just in the scores of different discrete exercises, but in the myriad ways they can be put together. Changing just one of the 4 (say) Crossfit exercises you are doing as part of a routine, can fundamentally alter the impact of that Crossfit workout on your body. It’s also variable depending on the individual too.
Swapping 20 Crossfit ball slams for a 400m run for example, whilst ostensibly they are both predominantly leg exercises, for me the run would tire me much more than the ball slams would. But for someone else, they may find the running the easier exercise. (If there is such a thing as an “easy” Crossfit exercise!)
It’s no surprise then, that different people prefer different Crossfit workouts. Typically you prefer what you’re good at, which brings me nicely to yesterdays workout at Crossfit Manchester
1 Clean
1 Push Press
1 Push Jerk
1 Split Jerk
This was done as a single complex set, without putting the bar down between the exercises. The idea was to work up to a maximum weight. This Crossfit workout is right up my street. Heavy weights, Olympic lifting, technically complex exercises, and plenty of rest, lol !
I won’t bore you with the gory details, but I managed 80kg (176 lbs) as a complete set, and got the clean and Push Press at 85kg (my body weight and a 20kg increase in Personal Best for the Push Press!) however I was getting tired and I dumped the 85kg Push Jerk, which was a shame as I could and should have got it.
Not withstanding the failure at the end, I thoroughly enjoyed this workout. It played to all my strengths and engaged the brain as each exercise requires concentration and focus to get right. I also got to throw lots of weight over my head, and whilst that gets pretty scary very quickly, there’s something very primordially satisfying about it! All I have to do now, is convince the Crossfit Manchester coaches to let me do it again. 
Permalink
29.10.07
Posted in General Colin McNulty Stuff at 9:52 am by Colin McNulty
There are 2 points of view about Aromatherapy Massage: one that the powerful essensial oils are mystically attuned to your energy pathways and that massage allows their healing properties to seep into the skin, and hence you derive benefit. The other is that it’s a load of hocus pocus, and it’s just a massage that smells nice.
Well there is a very good reason why you should send your loved one to have an Aromatherapy Massage and that’s cos they like it! Whether you beleive in it or not, I highly recommend splashing out the dosh and sending off your significant other (male or female) and getting them pampered for an hour and a half of nice smelling, possibly envigorating, Aromatherapy Massage.
Permalink
26.10.07
Posted in General Colin McNulty Stuff at 8:50 am by Colin McNulty
Bonfire night is coming up and I’ve been chatting to a mate about fireworks and the like and we decided to try our hand at making black powder (gun powder to use the more common laymans term).
Actually, it’s always been a whistful dream of mine to make fireworks when I retire. I did some serious investigation of it last year, joined a few forums, read up a bit and discovered that the laws in the UK pretty much prohibit this as a home hobby. Apart from it being hard to get the ingredients, it’s an extremely unsafe hobby and I don’t have the facilities to manufacture and store the ingredients and gun powder (also known as black powder) safely.
That’s not to say that it’s illegal, even in this day and age, would you believe it is actual perfectly legal to make gun powder at home? It’s covered by the Manufacture and Storage of Explosive Regulations 2005. The relevent section is: Part 3, Section 9 which carries the title “Explosives not to be manufactured without a licence“.
However paragraph 2 details some exceptions to the requirement to have a license. It states you do not need a license for:
(a) the manufacture of explosives for the purpose of laboratory analysis, testing, demonstration or experimentation (but not for practical use or sale) where the total quantity of explosives being manufactured at any time does not exceed 100 grams
There you have it, you are perfectly entitled to manufacture black powder at home “for experimentation” without a license, providing you don’t make more than 100g at a time. Slightly tedious maybe, but I guess the line has to be drawn somewhere.
Having established I’m perfectly legally entitled to make some, let’s crack on with what and how exactly. First off, what’s the different between black powder, gun powder and flash powder?
Black Powder and Gun Powder are essentially the same thing and is defined in the legislation nicely as:
an intimate mixture, with or without sulphur, of charcoal or other carbon with potassium nitrate or sodium nitrate, whether the mixture is in meal, granular, compressed or pelletised form
Flash Powder is made completely differently and comprises potassium perchlorate and aluminum powder, usually 70% potassium percholorate and 30% aluminium powder.
Getting back to Black Powder, the ideal ratios of engredients are 75% potassium nitrate (also known as KNO3), 15% charcoal and 10% sulphur. 3 elements are key to the quality of the final gunpowder:
- The purity of the ingredients.
- How fine the ingredients are (course is bad).
- How well the ingredients are mixed.
Of course there’s the small part of where to source the ingredients from, using for the most part household ingredients, which is something I will deal with in part 2.
Permalink
19.10.07
Posted in General Colin McNulty Stuff at 10:04 pm by Colin McNulty
With Bonfire night coming up, I’ve been teaching my daughter the meaning of it all. In a nutshell: Guy Fawkes was a Catholic terrorist, who plotted to blow up Houses of Parliament and King James I, the Protestant King of England, on November 5th 1605.
They were caught when someone tipped off a Catholic Member of Parliament, Lord Monteagle (probably his brother in law, Francis Tresham) and the letter of warning was handed in. A search of Parliament discovered Guy Fawkes with 20 barrels of hidden gun powder.
The story became public knowledge and fell into folk law with the Guy Fawkes poem: Remember Remember, the fifth of November:
Remember, remember the Fifth of November,
the Gunpowder Treason and Plot,
I see no reason why Gunpowder Treason should ever be forgot.
Guy Fawkes, t’was his intent to blow up King and Parliament.
Three score barrels were laid below to prove old England’s overthrow;
By God’s mercy he was catch’d with a dark lantern and lighted match.
Holloa boys, holloa boys, let the bells ring.
Holloa boys, holloa boys, God save the King!
Hip hip hoorah!
However there is a second verse, one that is totally unsuitable for this Politically Correct society in which we live. To understand it, you must consider the religious battle between Protestants and the Catholics which has been going on for centuries. Anyway, here it is, I’ll let you decide:
A penny loaf to feed the Pope
A farthing o’ cheese to choke him.
A pint of beer to rinse it down.
A faggot of sticks to burn him.
Burn him in a tub of tar.
Burn him like a blazing star.
Burn his body from his head.
Then we’ll say ol’ Pope is dead.
Hip hip hoorah!
Hip hip hoorah hoorah!
Severe isn’t it? So what do you think, do you believe that the children of today should be taught such a politically incorrect poem? What’s takes the priority here: historical accuracy, or censoring religious intolerance?
Comment and let me know if you think I should teach this 2nd verse to my daughter or not?
Permalink
Posted in Crossfit Workout & Exercises, General Colin McNulty Stuff at 9:55 am by Colin McNulty
Wednesday at Crossfit was the Olympic Weightlifting Snatch – which is basically picking the bar off the ground and flinging it over your head in one movement, like this monster 202.5 kg Snatch!
I actually changed my schedule to make it in for this workout as I’ve been eager to beat my personal best 65kg snatch which has stood for 3 months now. It was all going very well and I felt confident and strong and honestly expected to get at least 70kg, right up until I failed my first 65kg attempt. Then it just fell apart, too much thinking and my head got in the way.
3 attempts at 65kg and I couldn’t do it, gah! It’s the most annoying thing not to be able to do at least what I’ve done before, especially when I know I’m stronger now and have better form. Ho hum.
Permalink
12.10.07
Posted in General Colin McNulty Stuff at 9:56 am by Colin McNulty
This is one of the best parody vids I’ve seen in a while:
This short video is just infectious:
These guys rig up a Wii in a Movie Theatre (cinema for us Brits), awesome!
Wii-diculous – Playing the Wii in a Movie Theater
Permalink
11.10.07
Posted in General Colin McNulty Stuff at 7:31 pm by Colin McNulty
Last week, I offered to take a look at an email newsletter that a friend on mine sent out to his customer base, which got a terrible response, to see if I could spot anything that looked like it could be improved. I thought it worthy of posting up here as an example of what not to do, and compare it to a professionally produced email. Here’s the starting text of his email:
Here we are again..
Just like you, I am always looking for a super way to make money from Internet Marketing. Looking for an easy way in which I won’t have to work 14 hour days.
Well I bought “Get Google PPC Ads Free” a couple nights ago, and I read it all in one day. Lots of info, 124 pages of good explanations of a surprising system that promises to achieve my goal of making life easier.
From my first reading of this well written ebook, I understand the basic principles of the plan. I was surprised at the simplicity of the “Secret” and especially of the extra options provided.
All in all, I feel compelled to put you aware of this opportunity. You know I don’t bother you daily with every little product that comes out, like so many others do. I only offer what I consider to be the good stuff. So read this little note, take a look at the explanation, from the link below, and make your own decision…
And now my feedback:
> Here we are again..
My very first thought was: “Yes, here we go again, another spam email !” I would say this was a bad starting sentence. You need to say something here that grabs the readers attention. E.g. An email that was advertising a lottery syndicate scheme could start with: “I’ve won the lottery 3 times in the last 4 weeks, how have you done?”
> Just like you, I am always looking for a super way to make money from Internet Marketing. Looking for an easy way in which I won’t have to work 14 hour days.
I see what you are trying to do with “Just like you”, it’s important to appear on their side, however the theme of this paragraph is wrong. You should not be talking about “always looking”, you should be talking about “I finally found the easy step by step solution.”.
People are lazy, they want their problems solved and answers on a plate without having to do any work. This paragraph doesn’t instil the confidence that you are an authority that should be listened to, if you are “Just like you” and they are not making any money on the internet, why should your opinion be better than theirs? However, if you *used to be* like them, but have now finally cracked the secret… that’s a different matter.
> Well I bought “Get Google PPC Ads Free” a couple nights ago, and I read it all in one day. Lots of info, 124 pages of good explanations of a surprising system that promises to achieve my goal of making life easier.
Don’t say you bought it, you are immediately letting go the knowledge that they will have to spend money, but you’ve not sold the benefits yet. Big turn off. I understand why you quoted the number of pages, but that’s not selling the benefits, this will only put off people who don’t have the time to spend reading 124 pages of content. Also, there are a million e-books out there that “promise to achieve”, you need to sell this from the perspective of actually achieving based on following the books advice, which of course is hard if you haven’t!
> I understand the basic principles of the plan.
The implication here is that you didn’t understand the advanced bits! Oh dear, it must be too complicated or poorly explained…. See my point?
Now compare this to the opening paragraph of this email newsletter:
This may come as a SHOCK to you, but after all these years with Google selling pay-per-click advertising, a New York medical doctor comes forward and admits that he’s never paid for any of his now more than $87 million in otherwise paid-for advertising.
Let’s analyse the starting sentence:
“This may come as a SHOCK to you” - I’m about to learn something exciting (builds interest)
“after all these years” - this is a tried and tested system (builds credibility)
“a New York medical doctor ” - clearly an intelligent, educated and reputable man (builds authority).
“comes forward and admits ” - he’s reluctantly revealing a secret (builds interest)
“he’s never paid for any ” - he’s getting something for free. Hey, that’s what I want! (everyone likes free right?)
“more than $87 million ” - OMG, that’s huge, this must be an incredible system. He said I would be shocked, and he was right! (builds interest)
See how every single part of that opening sentence is designed to get you to want to read the rest?
Now compare that to the original starting sentence: “Here we are again..” It’s worlds apart.
Copyrighting is a tricky art and it can take all day to hand craft a single email. However this time and effort is definitely worth it when trying to get your message across.
Permalink
01.10.07
Posted in General Colin McNulty Stuff, The Zone Diet Blog at 7:25 pm by Colin McNulty
It was bound to happen eventually, and it did in September: I stopped losing weight!
For the last few months on the zone diet, my fat loss / weight loss has diminished to 1% body fat per month. In September it stopped completely and I am still 18% body fat percentage and 13st 10 (192 lbs / 87kg) with a waist of 37″ (at the widest point). This is completely my own fault as I’ve cheated horendously again.
The irony is it’s the fact that the Zone Diet is soooo effective, that has caused my weightloss to stall. Because if it wasn’t so easy to stay on, and so easy to lose weight on, I wouldn’t have been complacent enough to cheat so much! However, I’m determined to get back on track, and like all well intentioned dieters, it starts tomorrow…. well the day after actually, but that’s another story.
Starting 3rd Oct I’m back to the more strict regime of counting blocks properly. That means weighing and measuring all ingredients and noting their zone diet block numbers, and making sure I’m balanced. I know that breakfast and lunch are normally ok, although I have had a lot of pre-bought smoothies for breakfast, and the Glycemic Index of these is not what it could be, so they will have to be scaled back.
No, it’s the evenings that are my downfall, still too much wine, chocolate and ice cream to regularly of an evening. That’s what’s got to stop. However, I am still on track for my ultimate goal: to reach 15% body fat by Feb 2008, so 4 months and 3% to lose. And now I’ve been convinced to try the Fish Oil Supplements, things should move along even faster.
Permalink