One Word - NASTIA
posted by Tyler Duckworth on Monday, December 29, 2008 0 Comments | Leave a Comment
Core Techniques
posted by Tyler Duckworth on Thursday, November 06, 2008 Some of the most exciting exercises out there, are the ones you don't even need a gym to do! With that being said, I'd like to introduce some Core Training Techniques to strengthen your core and allow yourself that six-pack you've always dreamed of. We'll start out with some simple planks and iso-metric holds, and build our way to more complicated movements and positions.
A great place to start is with the "High Plank". In this position, remember to keep your elbows and shoulders and wrists in alignment. A gentle but consistent slope will be created in this position. Remember, at no point in this position should their be an "droopy" areas, that is to suggest that any area in the lumbar region of your back that isn't completely engaged will put incredible pressure on your lower back, and this is NOT a good thing. Keep it straight, as if a ball could easily roll from your shoulder down to your ankle. Keep your shoulders relaxed and not elevated. Hold this position for at least 60 seconds. If you find yourself shaking, that means the stability in your core could use some work! Don't worry, we're all in the same boat! Shake it Baby, Shake!
Pushing your hips directly up, the next position after the high plank is the old yoga stalwart, Downward Dog. This is a great way to loosen up your shoulders while stretching out your lower back. In this position you'll also notice the lengthening of your hamstrings and calves. Take time to push your left and right heel into the mat or floor to really take advantage of this stretch.
Bringing your hips back towards the floor, keep your upper torso upright, using your shoulders and triceps to stabilize this hold. This position, known as the cobra, will allow for a fantastic stretch all throughout your abdominal region, as well as your lower back. Be deliberate and controlled in your movement back towards the mat.
From Cobra, slowly push your body back, dropping your knees to the mat and allowing for strong stretch throughout your lower back. This will also allow for your shoulders to take a break and relax. Let go of all tension and focus on bringing your focus back to breath control.
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Tufts Swimming Stretch
posted by Tyler Duckworth on Wednesday, November 05, 2008
The first stretch in our series is the Butterfly position. In this position I would like you to remember to keep your back completely neutral, lengthening your spine, while pushing your knees towards the mat, opening up your hip-flexors. Feel free to anchor your hands around your ankles to help create tension and stability.
After rolling back and forth a good 10 times, shoot your legs forward, creating a 90 degree angle with your body. Keep your back in the neutral position and hold your arms directly above your head, aligning all the joints (wrist, elbow, shoulder). Hold this position for 60 seconds. Notice the tension this position places on your hamstrings. Keep your feet in a flexed position to maximize the stretch for your lower extremities.
Immediately after the butterfly position, you will need to bring your legs up to the Tuck position. Here, remember to round your shoulders and back (especially your lats). Try not to elevate your shoulders, keeping your upper shoulder complex loose. This position is important in opening up your shoulders, lats, triceps, traps and rhomboids. A necessity for swimmers looking to add to their flexibility.
Adding on to the tuck position, you will now begin to roll back and forth keeping your core completely engaged and tight. Remember to keep your back rounded and mitigate all movement through displacing tension in your core.
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After rolling back and forth 10 times, shoot your legs forward and hold your arms directly over your head aligning your wrist with your elbow and shoulder. This position will create a 90 angle. Hold this position for 60 seconds. Notice the stretch throughout your hamstring and calves. Remember to keep the spine in a neutral position, as upright as possible!
From this 90 degree angle, bring your arms forward, falling into a front pike stretch. Our goal here is to touch the top of your toes and bring them towards your forehead. Don't necessarily yank them forwards, rather allow the lengthening of your hamstring and spine in this position. Do not lock your knees, instead keep a soft tension throughout the entire length of your legs.
In the last position of this stretch series, straddle your legs out. Focus on trying to extend your legs as wide as possible opening up your hamstrings and calves. If possible, extend your arms as wide as possible, with the goal of actually reaching both feet with your hands. Hold this position for 30-60 seconds.
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On the Way - Beijing 2008
posted by Tyler Duckworth on Wednesday, August 06, 2008
The Journey Begins
I figured that my twenties would turn out slightly different than my present situation. Don't get me wrong, after spending thirteen hours dismantling wheat thins slowly in my mouth, in an attempt to feed the boredom of the plane ride, I could definitely think of a worse situation. I could be spending the summer selling boxes of Wheat Thins at the local cornerstore, or even worse, working at the local factory that actually bakes and distributes the Wheat Thins. On second thought, this is a pretty sweet gig.
This whole mess started about twenty-one hours ago. Having slept nary a wink the night before, due mainly to indigestion, my nervousness about my trip began to settle in and ultimately, enough was enough. Gas is one problem, flying across the world is QUITE another. I threw my covers off my bed with a dramatic, and surprisingly high-pitched grunt.
I mistakenly thought that a good education would afford me certain luxuries in life, mainly the ability to go to movies and chic bars with other professional ivy educated friends, maybe a weekend at the Vineyard from time to time each summer and my god, at least "Business Class" accommodations on all domestic and international flights.
My reluctance to go into finance or any other profession after college, suitable to support such a pipe dream, had reared its ugly head as I approached the ticket counter at Boston's Logan Airport. At 5:00 am in the morning. The ticket agent seemed chipper as I told her proudly,
"Yes, I'll be flying from Boston to Beijing today... I mean tomorrow, well, I mean, today AND tomorrow... you know what... you get it don't you...?!"
She wryly smiled at me. Embarrassed and clearly under caffeinated, I headed towards the closest eatery to grab a diet coke to wake up the senses. After making it through security, I burned a good hour thumbing through the essentials, as I like to call 'em, you know, PEOPLE, ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY and of course, HELLO!.
The trip to O'Hare from Boston was actually painless, if one was able to ignore the orphanage of screaming children three rows ahead of me. Failed Planned Parenthood policies aside, I was preparing for BEIJING 20008 and no amount of crying or crackers were going to ruin my trip.
As the mass of people began to cluster around the gate in Chicago, preparing for the non-stop flight across the world to Beijing, I noticed something very odd. People were lining up in order without being pushy or crass. People were even making eye-contact with each other and, gasp, SMILING!
Within five minutes of walking into the gate, I had made friends with the Mother of one of the U.S. Springboard divers, a sprinter from Barbados and caught the eye of a hunky German weightlifter. All bound for Beijing, there was a palpable energy at that gate, which was quite different than at C22 across the corridor where blurry-eyed passengers were lining up to fly to Sarasota with the lifelessness of a Soviet gulag prisoner. Ahhhh, things were QUITE different on this end of the isle.
Were were all going to Beijing, we were all going to THE OLYMPICS.....
I've taken long flights before, all filled with their own set of anxieties. When I flew to Sao Paolo, I sat white-knuckled the entire time over the Andes, replaying images from that TERRIBLE cannibal movie, "ALIVE" about the Chilean rugby team. Once we had finally passed over the Amazon, and my bottle of Xanax empty, I was able to relax and enjoy the colorful farmland of Brazil. Even the flight from Heathrow to LAX wasn't that bad. Though, on that flight, the movie projector was broken, giving us two options each more grisly than that other... Syndicated episodes of "Everyone Loves Raymond" or "BRATZ: The Movie!"
No, see, this was MY Olympic flight, and I just knew it would be amazing. The funny thing about traveling abroad is the sense of community and closeness you inevitably feel when you come across someone that knows someone you know. The proverbial game of "seven-degrees" is basically a way for nervous travelers to ignore the fact that they are currently suspended 10,000 feet above the Arctic in a steal megalith flying at the speed of sound. Not scary at all!
I sat next to a kindly couple from Chicago, who, it turns out, have a son who swam for Williams College, a rival of my alma mater, Tufts University. We talked race strategy, advantages of Division III vs. Division I, and whether or not it is a requirement for liberal arts students to chronically wear ugly "CROC" shoes around New England.
Synchronicity truly became evident when we realized that we were both friends, once removed, from former Entertainment Tonight anchor, Leeza Gibbons. This, my friends, is what we call and the Chinese both call.... DESTINY
Approaching Beijing on the flight plan map seen on the projector, I suddenly realized just how damn BIG Siberia truly is; not just on a map either. I liken it to driving the Florida panhandle. Once you pass from Georgia into Florida, eager road tripping "Spring Breakers" usually break into song upon realizing they've FINALLY reached Florida. Around nine hours later, and sill no closer to Ft. Lauderdale, they slowly realize how beguiling that popular Mercator Projection map from elementary school can be. Siberia is the same way, only colder and less interesting to look at out the window.
Besides some icy mountains in the distance and the expansive taiga forests, there seems to be little else out there other than a couple communist ghosts and some run down Soviet irrigation systems...
Tomorrow the adventure continues with more stories from the road!!! 1 Comments | Leave a Comment
Khorkina2.0
posted by Tyler Duckworth on Tuesday, March 18, 2008 I would say something snarky, however, I totally have been caught doing this by family members and roommates before, so, rock it out boy! Lovely flexibility for a big dude. Gotta admit.
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Priceless....
posted by Tyler Duckworth on Friday, February 22, 2008 1 Comments | Leave a Comment
बक्तुं बेबी
posted by Tyler Duckworth on Thursday, January 10, 2008 Decided to do a somewhat serious blog, as I think I came across something really cool. I'm finally able to articulate my theory. Here it goes...based on something I came across today.
The Baktun, is an important unit of measurement, like a "year" or a "month" in the Mayan Long Form Calendar. The Baktun stands for 144,000 days.
2012 marks the end of the Baktun. No big deal, right?
Ever heard of the "144,000"? The twelve tribes of Israel who will enter the kingdom of heaven upon armageddon. Its a verse in the Book of Revelations Well, the Mormons and Jehovah's witnesses take this quite literally, and believe only 144,000 will inherit god's kingdom and go to heaven.
Revelation 7:3-8
" saying: "Do not harm the earth or the sea or the trees, until after we have sealed the servants of God on their foreheads." And I heard the number of the sealed, a hundred and forty-four thousand, sealed from every tribe of the sons of Israel:
12,000 from the tribe of Judah were sealed,
12,000 from the tribe of Reuben,
12,000 from the tribe of Gad,
12,000 from the tribe of Asher,
12,000 from the tribe of Naphtali,
12,000 from the tribe of Manasseh,
12,000 from the tribe of Simeon,
12,000 from the tribe of Levi,
12,000 from the tribe of Issachar,
12,000 from the tribe of Zebulun,
12,000 from the tribe of Joseph,
12,000 from the tribe of Benjamin were sealed.
"
Revelation 14:1
" Then I looked, and behold, on Mount Zion stood the Lamb, and with him 144,000 who had his name and his Father's name written on their foreheads. "
Revelation 14:3-5
" And they were singing a new song before the throne and before the four living creatures and before the elders. No one could learn that song except the 144,000 who had been redeemed from the earth. For it is these who have not defiled themselves with women, for they are virgins. It is these who follow the Lamb wherever he goes. These have been redeemed from mankind as firstfruits for God and the Lamb, 5 and in their mouth no lie was found, for they are blameless.
What if there is a symbolic link between 144,000 and armageddon and the Mayan Calendar. Get it?! I'm trying to see if anyone has come across this "coincidence" before.
Moreover, this supports my theory that a lost civilization left remnants of an ancient knowledge throughout pockets of surviving humanity (lake Titicaca region, Nile-Egypt, Sumeria, Sub-Continental India and China) and that that lost knowledge has survived as religious myth and legend.
Why else are these crazy christians obsessed with the number 144,000, if not for the fact that its actually hidden knowledge of the end of this precessional cycle, and possibly humanity! 4 Comments | Leave a Comment
हन्कोक्कियन ठोरी
posted by Tyler Duckworth on Wednesday, December 19, 2007 Much has been made, in my immediate group of friends, about my obsession with an event that took place around 13,000 years ago. I'm not going to get into it too much right now, as I'd like to simply present some evidence that SOMETHING happened.
As for the title of this blog post, well, I can't say much other than my blogger site seems to be off a bit. It translates everything into Thai. Why? don't know, but enjoy it while it lasts I guess.
It was meant to read, "Hancockian Theory", after Graham Hancock, a journalist/historian who I follow quite closely. He's dedicated to investigating whether or not there is evidence of a lost civilization, pre-dating dynastic Egypt.
However, that is beyond the scope of this blog post. In the meantime, enjoy this salacious bit of Mammoth-sized Gossip!
Mammoth Mystery
Dec. 18, 2007 -- About 34,000 years ago, a herd of mammoths found themselves at the wrong place at the wrong time. Analysis of seven tusks, purchased from a Canadian fossils vendor, show the ancient beasts were blasted by an exploding meteor.
"The only reasonable explanation is that a meteor exploded somewhere near where these animals were standing," Richard Firestone, a nuclear analytical chemist at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory said at the American Geophysical Union conference in San Francisco.
Scientists aren't sure if the animals died from their wounds, although the populations of several ice-age beasts decreased dramatically at about the same time of the suspected meteor strike. At least one creature, a bison, did survive, as its skull shows bone grew in after a fragment embedded, Firestone said.
"It was certainly a bad day," he said.
An amateur scientist, Allen West, got the idea to look at fossils for meteorite fragments in an attempt to find evidence of what wiped out the Clovis people of North America, as well as several large mammals, about 13,000 years ago.
After sifting through thousands of tusks at a Phoenix, Ariz., fossil show, he found one with a burnt hole in it and tested it with a magnet, as many meteors contain iron.
The magnet stuck. West bought the tusk for $200 and asked to look through the company's warehouse, which contained another 15,000 fossils. He found more evidence of micrometeorite impacts in a batch of tusks from eastern Siberia.
Some of the tusks had hundreds of tiny holes, made by burning fragments of the exploded meteor. The punctures all face the same direction, consistent with a blast from the sky. 0 Comments | Leave a Comment
More Digital Love
posted by Tyler Duckworth on Monday, December 03, 2007 So, thought I'd give you some Khorkina, since you guys have been so good to me. But not any old "khorkina" footage. I'm gonna give you the GOOD stuff. We're talking beam routines, stuck dismounts, you name it. Enjoy! Don't say I never gave you anything
A little Zamo, because hey, when life hands you lemons, you make Zamolodchikova.
One more, just for fun...
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Putin's Pride - #5 - The Great Khorkina
posted by Tyler Duckworth on Monday, December 03, 2007
With Putin's recent "Victory" I thought I'd treat you guys out there with some gems from the ol' Soviet Union. That is to say, that, hey, sham elections aside, (oh, he's going there) these are some GREAT floor routines, all performed by our favorite former soviet gymnasts.
On a more serious note, I was told by a friend, who shall remain nameless for the time being, but is actually the Godfather to Khorkina's child. Basically, he's the Godfather of gymnastics really. Think about it. You can't be anyone- unless it involves Sveta...I digress.
So, as the story goes, The Goddess: Khorkina is thinking about running for office. Hmmmm. How'd you like Sveta serving in YOUR legislative Duma? Huh! So, only time will tell. However, if history is any consolaton, we know that Khorkina usually gets what she wants. Watch out Vladimir. She's hungry for POWER! (much like her tumbling in this piece- ZINGGGGGGGGA!) 0 Comments | Leave a Comment
