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Extremely frivolous stuff, but there's a fun debate going down over on Aella's twitter about personal hygiene. In short, as a true empiricist, she measures lots of stuff about her daily routine (iirc, using an app called Daylio), and recently revealed her stats for 2023. What is causing a kerfuffle is not the number of days she had sex (63), took Adderall (126), or escorted (6), but the number of times she showered, namely 37 [sic].
Aella insists she doesn't smell (and says she's consulted with others to confirm this), but I think that's a very relative statement; some people seem to have a high baseline tolerance for stank of various kinds, to the point that even strong odours don't register to them as stank, while others like myself are very smell sensitive; at the risk of TMI, my wife was amused that I could tell when our kids in their diaper days had done a pee, because I could always smell it almost immediately even when she had no idea. Back in my online dating days, there were several dates I simply couldn't follow up on because the person I was with had bad personal hygiene. I'm not talking about a mild healthy body odour here, but when you're having sex doggy-style and get hit by bad ass-stench it's an instant boner kill. And I'll be honest, I've had a crush on Aella for ages; she's a very attractive nerdy woman, and as a sexually confident and charismatic female Rationalist, she is a very horny unicorn among horses. But I've got to say, learning that specific factoid about her life had a similar effect on my idle long-distance lust as an F150's tires do on a small rodent (not that she should care, of course - just putting it out there).
That said, I am a bit of ablutomaniac - I shower and/or bathe 2-3 times a day. I don't think it's a hygiene thing per se. I shower when I get up because it helps me feel awake and ready for the day; I often have a shower or bath in the late afternoon/early evening after a workout because it feels great to soak sore muscles; and I sometimes shower just before bed, because I find it really nice to get into a bed with clean, fresh-smelling sheets having just come out of the shower smelling clean and fresh myself. I also routinely use (carefully chosen, subtle) cologne on my body as well as both fabric conditioner and scent booster when washing my clothes.
Anyway, Aella's feed is pretty funny right now, to the point that she's holding polls about showering, and I was curious what folks here think about it. Obviously me and Aella are at different ends of the ablutic spectrum, but what's a healthy normal number of times to shower/bathe per day? How much of it is down to personal preference?
The more I digest the shower thing the stranger it is to me. Does she never exercise to a sweat? The people quiting shampoo at least makes sense as it's a relatively new invention but humans have been bathing forever.
In the same post she said she only exercised 22 times in the entire year (lol), so I guess that's not a problem.
My gym was closed for 2 weeks during the winter and I thought I was going to lose my mind, how can people live like that?
Believe it or not, not everyone enjoys exercise. 😉 I personally actively dislike it, and find it only mildly preferable to being slapped in the face.
Same. I have never ever felt like exercise was even the least bit enjoyable, and I've tried to enjoy it. I've spent long amounts of time trying to get past that initial painful hump and into the addiction phase everyone tells me will happen. It's never happened. In fact I don't even really believe people anymore when they say it's enjoyable. I assume it's some mix of bragging and them conflating the effects of exercise with the feeling they get after exercising. Or maybe masochism.
My relationship with exercise has been a bit masochistic. I got pretty damned fit in my 20's, although never model ripped. I enjoyed the feeling of self determination in reshaping my body. I also greatly enjoyed my new physical capacities. I was working out all the time, did martial arts for 10 years, was teaching and competing. The soreness and stiffness was fleeting and didn't bother me.
Once my 30's rolled around, I was just sore and stiff all the damned time. I didn't enjoy sparring hardly at all like I used to, since every twist or deep bruise took for god damned ever to heal. I scaled way back, and eventually quit when I had a family.
These days I mostly just do kettlebell workouts. One day is 5 sets of 5 70lb turkish get ups. The other day is 5 sets of 30 70lb kettlebell swings. Usually I throw in a lot of crunches, pushups or military presses too. Once I discovered turkish get ups, no other exercise makes me feel as all over strong as them.
Closing in on 40 and I've aged a fair bit better than most of my peers. Still have a good build, even if my belly button is a bit deeper than it used to be. It's not a problem for me to be outside doing yardwork or repairs all weekend. I can mostly keep up with my 3 year old. I still find myself getting sore from time to time, but mostly when I neglect to drink enough water or have a recovery protein shake after a workout. I've achieved a good enough steady state that keeps me from going to seed, at least for now.
How do you program TGUs? Everyone recommends them, I never get anything out of them, just curious if you have any tips?
I want to love them, but just don't.
I just do 5 sets of 5 with the heaviest weight I can do. Which at the moment is 70#. I try to get them in 2 or 3 times a week. I rest as long as I need to between sets.
My wife also complains that she gets nothing out of them, but she does them with 25#. IMHO, they only become beneficial once you are doing them with a heavy enough weight that it challenges you at every stage of the exercise. It should be a weight heavy enough that you feel worked from the tips of your fingers maintaining the grip to the tips of your toes anchored to the floor. Your shoulders should burn by the 5th rep from the maintained tension. Your core should be solid as it remains rigid while you push yourself into the one armed position. Your glutes should strain up from the kneeling position.
I've committed to TGU's for about 10 years or so, and have worked my way up to doing them with 88# on occasion. They have essentially set the strength floor for every part of my body. All the little stabilizing muscles machines ignore.
Contrasted with my wife, who dabbles in them occasionally with low weights, there is always a weak point keeping her from experiences the full benefits. Maybe her shoulder can only handle 25# of TGUs, while her core and glutes could probably have handled 50#. Or her back is all fucked and can only handle 15# at certain parts of the exercise. This results in reps done sloppily as many parts of her body can get away with poor form, with little actual improvement on the weak muscles.
TGUs for me are very much a case of "Go big or go home". There is a possibly apocryphal story about how if you wanted to be a strongman back in the early 1900's, they'd just teach you the TGU and tell you not to come back until you could do it with 100#. I don't know if that story is true, but it's my guiding light in doing them.
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