Tag: exercise

Tony’s Metabolic Rate

January 13th, 2012

I spent $40 today at Yahoo! to measure how many calories my body burns if I were just sitting down. I spent 15 minutes breathing in a tube and out comes a chart of how many calories I burn. It turns out that my body burns 1,872 calories, plus 561 calories with just normal movement everyday, and if I burn 234 calories with exercise, that adds up to 2,667 calories / day. I did this test to understand why I’m snacking everyday and also to understand how much food and exercise I should be doing if I wanted to grow muscles or to loose weight. I highly recommend spending the money to understand your body.
Push Up Thursday, week 2: 200

January 6th, 2011

Listening to Maria Callas starts my 2nd week of push ups. I set a 15 minute timer to do 40 every 15 minutes, but you can spread it out over 24 hours if you wish

9:19 am @ cube +40 40
9:38 am @ cube +40 80 (listening to Handel)
9:53 am @ cube +40 120 (listening to Mozart)
10:15am @ cube +40 160 (listening to Johann Adolf Hasse)
11:39am @ cube +40 200 (listening to Sarah Change The Four Seasons)

—

A few years ago, I started a club in Yahoo to do as many push ups we can in 24 hours.

We started at 100 and each week, we increased it by 100. most members got to 1,000. I got to 2,200 in 24 hours. It is based on a simple concept that if you spread out the exercise to 24 hours, you can accomplish a large number even if you can only do 5 push ups at a time.

Not sure why we stopped, maybe we got to a milestone.

I want to start again this year and get back to 2,000 push ups in 24 hours. Here are my previous posts and the rules.
Push Up Thursday Week 1: 100

December 29th, 2010

A few years ago, I started a club in Yahoo to do as many push ups we can in 24 hours.

We started at 100 and each week, we increased it by 100. most members got to 1,000. I got to 2,200 in 24 hours. It is based on a simple concept that if you spread out the exercise to 24 hours, you can accomplish a large number even if you can only do 5 push ups at a time.

Not sure why we stopped, maybe we got to a milestone.

I want to start again this year and get back to 2,000 push ups in 24 hours

12/29/2010

11:33 +35 35
11:34 +30 75
11:37 +25 100

done

12/30/2010
8:30 +20 20
11:11 +30 50
4:03 +30 80
7:54 +15 95
10:10 +15 110

pull ups
8:40 +5 5
11:10 +5 10
4:04 +5 15
10:12 +5 20

12/31/2010

pull ups
7:30 +5 5

1/05/2011

push up

1:35pm +30 30
Flips and Jumps at Acrosports Gym in San Francico : My First Published And Paid Writing on Yahoo! Contributor Network

December 10th, 2010
Yahoo! bought a company named Associated Content, which was recently changed to Yahoo! Contributor Network. I am the software architect on the backend content management system for Yahoo! Media and actively working with the engineer trying to integrate the great tools from Associated Content into the Yahoo! infrastructure.

In order to truly understand the power of Associated Content, I thought I would be a writer in the network and try to actively participate in the ecosystem in order to understand the positives and negatives of the system.

Here is the published piece of article when I was given the assignment to write about a local gym in San Francisco that is not a chain, like 24 hour Fitness.

I was paid a fixed amount, enough for a latte.

Click on the link to check out the published article: Flips and Jumps at Acrosports Gym in San Francico – http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/6101712/flips_and_jumps_at_acrosports_gym_in.html

* I log in to contributor.yahoo.com, sign up for an account
* Browse through writing assignments
* Claim an assignment
* Write and Submit
* Wait for approval
* Got alerted in a day that it was approved
* Also got an alert that my payment for the piece of writing would arrive in my Paypal account!

This is way cool! Yahoo! Contributor Network connects websites that need content with writers who can write and have domain or local knowledge!

Positives
- For someone like me, who just want to write and get interesting ideas of what to write, the assignment desk is very useful and gets me focused
- I like the deadlines, which also forces me to finish up
- getting paid via paypal is super easy
- signing up is quick and easy
- I get paid up front and also will get paid on a revenue shared basis when my content found via any search engine and gets viewed
Negatives
- not a easy way to browse and get alerted on assignments unless I was targeted
- hard to fix typos later
- hard to refer others when I see an assignment that I’m not a good fit for
More on writing for Yahoo! Contributor Network

—–

This is an ongoing series of writings for me to understand the value of Yahoo! Contributor Network. See other similar posts on the Yahoo! Contributor Network

“The views expressed in this post are mine alone and do not necessarily reflect the views of Yahoo!.
Dreaming About Gymnastics

October 20th, 2005

I had an unusual physical education history in high school. Other people did basketball, football, volleyball in high school. I did gymnastics and badminton. Back in Lowell High, we were free to pick classes and teachers, so I always picked this one gym teacher and she always teaches gymnastics and badminton. In college I again joined the gymnastics class and the badminton club.

Recently I’ve been having dreams of doing gymnastics again.. at 34 years old, I don’t know if my body can handle the twisting, the flipping, the intense stomach muscle pains :-)

Just thinking of doing this simple kip would probably take my stomach muscles one month to get strong enough.. If I don’t break some bones, I think it could be fun again :-)

I like the other sports like basketball, golf, tennis, ping pong, running (love running), but I never dream about doing any of those.
Push Up Contest At Yahoo!

September 22nd, 2005

Over at the Vendor showcase day at Yahoo! they were doing of all things a push up contest. Everyone was getting me on to try it. The record was 201 push ups by a Yahoo! super stud. (Stu Y.) The rule was that you can rest on top or do a downward facing dog.

I topped out at 114 and couldn’t go on. I took 2 breaks, should have taken my time. Stu supposely took 10 breaks. My muscle just couldn’t pump anymore.

This got me excited about another goal to shoot for: 202 consecutive push ups.

Good start to Push Up Thursday

+114 114 12:00pm
+120 234 11:17pm
+100 334 12:09am
+150 484 12:27am
+205 689 12:40am
+80 769 12:57am
+50 819 1:09am
+50 869 7:52am
+50 919 9:04am
+50 969 9:24am
(missed the 24 hour cut off, oh well, on to 1,900)
+50 1019 1:34pm
No pain no gain: it’s time for handstand pushups

June 11th, 2005
My foot has been hurting for the last 2 weeks and I have not been able to run. I’m getting really depressed lately but I couldn’t run to counteract it. I’m trying a new exercise: handstand pushups. Pretty funny that most of the people doing it are kung fu fanatics (which I’m not) I just like to train my body with only my body weight. Much easier to exercise wherever I want to.

See some Y! Images search for handstand pushups

Remember, if you try this at home
1. Make sure you have enough room around you just in case you fall to the side
2. Don’t push yourself too hard, make sure you don’t hurt your shoulders
3. If you can just do one per set, that is fine, do 20 sets and spread them over time
4. Ping me if you want some tips on getting into handstand position, if you are working out in the Yahoo! gym, go into the aerobics room and do your handstands there
5. Wear socks so you don’t make marks on the walls
6. Remember the number of handstand pushups per set doesn’t matter, what matters is how many total you do in a day
Why do I run and do the crazy things I do?

May 19th, 2005
Recently some people have been asking me why the hell did I start running and dress in running shorts all the time? Why did I do the crazy push-ups?

I don’t know why I felt ashamed to admit it before. This is no shame, nothing wrong with what I have.

I’ve been diagnosed with depression in Febuary. Apparently I’ve been depressed ever since I was in middleschool. I’ve seldom been happy, even though there isn’t much going wrong with my life. Moving to America when I was 10 probably didn’t help things. Even though I’ve flourished in this country, it’s still not my home country, I’m still sort of an outsider.

In early March, I read the book Ultramarathon Man: Confessions of an All-Night Runner and something about the author’s love of running, that it’s a sport you do for yourself, you compete with only yourself and your race time, pushing your body to your limits, really jolted something in me.

I started running one early Saturday morning from downtown to Fort Point and after I got to the end, I was not tired at all, it’s all about pacing myself and not run too fast. Later on I found out it was close to 6 miles. And I felt extremely happy. My body was filled with happy chemicals!! Wow, running == happy chemicals.

Scienticfically I think they are called endorphins. I think my brain lacks enough serotonin like normal happy people.

I run in order to squash the depression, I don’t want drugs to supress the depression
I run because I want to see how far I can push my body
I run because when I’m 60 years old, I want to be healthier than when I was 40. (thanks to sam)
I run because I want a strong heart
I run because it makes me happy
I run because I don’t have to drive my car
I run because I’m 3 times faster than all the people walking
I run because San Francisco is 7 miles x 7 miles and I can run to anywhere in the city.
I run because I can run and I don’t get tired
I run because I love to travel and I want to run thru every city I visit

There, I’m done. Depression sucks and I will squash it and run thru it and run over it.

Update:

Just read at 11:12pm: “The ‘runners high’ is said to be experienced by 60-70% of well conditioned runners”
“As you exercise more, you require a higher intensity of exercise in order to produce the same endorphin release” Hmm, that means in order to feel happy, I’ll need to run more and more.

Tag.TonyTam.Running

3 Comments

Latest commentsOldest comments
- Yahoo! User
  
  commented
  
  05/23/2005 02:18 am
  
  I’ve started running too!
  It feels really great. However with my fat butt, I cant manage more than 4 kilometres at a stretch! :(
  BTW how do you get those counter thingies?
- Yahoo! User
  
  commented
  
  05/20/2005 11:36 am
  
  Thanks for the explanation.
- Yahoo! User
  
  commented
  
  05/19/2005 09:31 pm
  
  My comment has several unrelated segments:
  1. It’s brave to admit you’re depressed. I hope you’re able to manage/cure it!
  2. So that’s why people run? I always wondered what people got out of it besides burst aveoli
  3. So you’re one of the people who actually ran the Bay to Breakers! Congrats to you, unlike those beer-drinking cross-dressing freaks I know who walked it. ;)
Run: From Yahoo To (evil) Fry’s

May 18th, 2005

Fry’s is evil, they tempt you with candy when you check out. But sometimes you need to go inside, there’s no way around it.

I needed to buy a SD PCMCIA card reader today before I leave for vacation on Saturday.
So I decided to run over to Fry’s. I wasn’t sure I could make it back so I got cash for
a cab :-)

I really didn’t want to run and was getting tired after the first mile. I was wishing I had a car :-)
After the 2nd mile, my heart settled down and things went a lot better.

Here are the flickr photos from my run to Fry’s. Sunnyvale is not a pretty city, I long for
anything but Sunnyvale.

Running Route
Yahoo! to Mathilda & Maude 1.9 mi
Mathilda & Maude to Maude & Fair Oaks .8 mi
Maude & Fair Oaks to Arques .3 mi
Arques to Fry’s 0.9 mi

Log: 3.9 miles then run back the same way for 7.8 miles
It’s official, I’m crazy: 1,500 push ups in 12 hours

May 10th, 2005

Ok, you knew it would happen one day. I’ve lost my mind. Ever since I started this fitness craze and started doing 500 push ups, 1,000 push ups, you knew the day would come when I would try 1,500.

Well today was it. I just finished 1,500 push ups tonight! When I’ve tried for it on other days, the timing and rhythm just wasn’t right. Today everything went perfectly.

The hardest part was making time to do it and keeping count of how many I did. At work I knocked down 2 set of 150, making it 300. Luckily I was stuck waiting for Caltrain today and was able to knock down 300. I had lots of TV shows recorded so when I got home, I watched TV and finish the remaining 900. (The L Word, Desperate Housewives, CSI NY)