Looking for Icons

I was looking for inspirational posters. I can't afford the few I find, but even those are severely limited.

I'm something of a Marilyn Monroe fan. I wasn't until I found some really old b&w photos of her in a thrift store like 25 years ago, sans makeup. She was so beautiful and photogenic that for the first time I truly understood what photographers saw in her. I had never been fond of her overcommercialized publicity stuff, but these b&w pics (on a beach in a sweater) genuinely had that "inner beauty shining through" quality, and I was in awe at the Woman As A Work Of Art. Alas I had no money at the time, and by the time I went back to the store, the prints were gone.

While looking for bodybuilding pics, I came across this one. Neat pic don't you think. Not like she was remotely a bodybuilder, but it's not like her average photo.

Meanwhile, I wasn't able to find any particularly inspiring female good-body photos, aside from overmuscled masculine looking women in bikinis, and non-muscled women in posters that look like porn flick outtakes. Aside from not actually wanting to be quite that buff, I mean ever, plus my lack of interest in the T&A of the meatmarket silicone chicks, I also would like a room that doesn't make every visitor think I'm a lesbian or something. I'll never get laid if I frighten any man I bring home.

I could find only little things here and there. A couple worthy of my attitude. If it were combined with a good pic it'd be an awesome poster.

Meanwhile back at the ranch tract home in nowhere Oklahoma, I've been feeling like a total sloth, since I'm not working out.

My exercise bike is in pieces waiting to be fixed. Dad and I couldn't find the problem but we ruled out the brake/pulley/flywheel part. I'm suspecting it is something to do with the thing that talks to the control panel and runs the pulley belt through it. You can spin the flywheel with ease, but if you try to push the pedals it's hard as hell. He took pics, hopefully tech support can help.

My weight lifting is on hiatus until Monday when my new plan starts. Now that I went through all the options to see what I could do, I have removed the duplicate target exercises, so there's just one for each specific muscle, and broken it up into a different body part(s) each day, with each body part only being worked once a week. That way I can work it to failure... maybe a couple workout points in that one day.

I'm really not sure what is best on this. I read the internet and I swear every imaginable possible combination of lifting vs. resting is stated as the best or most ideal. It's got nearly as many different interpretations as the bible. Lift on a muscle more than once a week and you overtrain, oh, doom! Don't do it and you undertrain, you pansies aren't serious! Work out twice a day, many 'serious' bodybuilders do.

But wait, there's more. You need carbs. Protein. Creatine. Nair. (No, wait, that wasn't in there.) You gotta eat 5 times. Six times. Six and wake up twice a night to supplement. It's gotta be fast-absorbing whey protein. No, long-absorbing caseine protein. No, "real food" protein and lean like white meat chicken. No, instant after a workout. No, before the workout! No, it really should be in the middle of it if it's more than 20 minutes. No, you don't need carbs for an insulin response, just protein. Yes, you absolutely need carbs right after lifting. No. Yes! Maybe. Where's my Nair?

You get the idea.

Update: OK, this at above/left is a pretty beautiful pic, not quite what I had in mind, but deserves mention. Martha Laber is her name. Unnamed (as usual) at right is another nice pic-poster, of a man.

The last couple days I've spent a lot of time thinking about how I can make my weights room into something that is really cool, cool to be in and work in. Something that'll make that corner of my house, feng shui = 'wealth', really rock.

Maybe a few floor length cheap wal-mart mirrors put side by side across the wall. A few cool posters, I hope. I want an alternative softer light in there. You get the idea. A real sanctuary of sorts.

So far it's the cleanest room of the house regularly, which with a kid is a big deal of course, and that alone makes it nice to be in.

I'll leave you with one of my heroes, who considering his race and need for speed was built pretty darn well:

Bruce Lee