Also Mike talked about going to the gym. That was the first order of business for the day. Since I no longer have livestock and am a grain farmer I have had to look for exercise opportunities.  The Mrs and I joined a gym.

I have a fitness tracker, and I am an obsessive goal oriented person. I work out exactly 60 minutes three times a week. One goal is to burn 600 calories in that 60 minutes, not an easy feat. Today I was feeling my oats and managed 748 calories, a new record.

Now, I’m not concerned about the calories but the tracker uses heart rate to estimate calories burned. I am interested in the heart rate. I have genetically high cholesterol numbers and I want to avoid medication. So, the more calories, the higher the heart rate over the 60 minutes. I try to maintain 140 bpm and work up to the high 150s once in a while hitting 160.

I have a new respect for folks who are trying to lose weight. It is a very difficult hour workout for 600-700 calories but if you go to McDonalds you can consume 1000 in a few minutes.

My hat is off to those who manage to shed the pounds.

Any other gym members here ?

This is a wonderful post mcfarmer!

I  thought that I sent you a long response a couple of hours ago but have no idea where it went.

What you are doing with the grand kids is fun and teaches them a great lesson about life/nature!

Is this what you're doing?

How To Raise Monarch Butterflies At Home

https://www.saveourmonarchs.org/how-to-raise-monarch-butterflies-at-home.html

I have a big butterfly bush garden in our backyard for the grandkids. They used to love to touch butterflies when they were real little. Now they catch them for a few seconds if they can and release them.................not so pleasing to the butterflys.

We used to put out blue bird boxes when my kids were young. I knew you could find something else to use that massive mailbox for (-:

“Is this what you're doing?”

That’s  pretty much it. I don’t know what the actual statistics are but from egg to adult is pretty high mortality.  The granddaughter is the best at finding young larvae. Being about three feet she is the right height to look at the undersides of four foot plants.

We have a neighbor that releases hundreds of adults. She even takes them on vacation so as to not have any emerge  while she’s gone.

I don’t know if the effort has any effect but I would hate to see a time without monarchs.

Mcfarmer - Get the book "Younger Next Year".  Written by a doctor and one of his star patients.  The doctor writes the science chapters which are interesting and the patient writes every other chapter with wit and stuff to inspire you.

After reading it you'll be upping your workouts to 6-7 times a week.  And 2 or 3 times a week you hit the weights.

The premise of the doctor (I won't attempt to explain the science - mitochondria) is that you are either growing or decaying.  From 0-20 years of age you are growing.  Even if you sat on a couch all day eating cookies.  From 20-40 you are treading water (neither growth or decay).  From 40 on you are in decay.  BUT !!!  If you send your brain signals that you are growing, you kind of trick your brain into behaving as if you are a younger living being.

I alternate the gym rat workouts with tennis every other day.  

The coach of our national champion powerlifting team (The Pit Barbell Club) used to say that every time you work out, in order to maximize the effort, you need to have "a near death experience". 

This is always how I've trained(well before knowing him).

Unfortunately,  when I was younger I got really strong and over trained. This did a lot of wear and tear damage from excessively  heavy weight lifting and competitive body building(I benched 350 lbs at a weight of 170 at one time).

This is part of the reason for 18 surgeries, including several hernias, with numerous other issues going on. I've lost 3 inches in height from the deteriorating discs in my spine.

However, I still try to have a "near death experience" when I train..............I guess at my age, it wouldn't take much (-: but seriously, I do the strength training 2 times a month(all my tendons can handle without flaring up) and with such intensity that on my more intense routine(there are 2 of them) my muscles are very sore for a week. 

I also do the Jacobs ladder for 30 minutes at least once a week at the highest intensity possible without causing a heart attack.  After all these work outs, I feel great for a couple of days. When it gets longer than that(when I need more recovery time), I feel horrible but my worn down cartilige and frayed tendons require at least several days of recovery.

I seriously think that these intense workouts are adding years to a life that is not destined to make it much past 70.(I'm 63 right now).

Here's a demonstration of the Jacob's Ladder:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JR4vUdJ-JP4

This lady does 300 steps in 3 minutes. Sometimes I'll do short sprints like that but almost always I go between 20-30 minutes at a rate not as intense but the highest intensity that I can maintain for that length of time and do up to 2,000 steps.

I've only had to wait to use this machine 1 time in the 5 years they've had it. Nobody likes to do it.

Mike, never seen such a thing. Reminds me of when I had the cows. This time of year the silage in the silo would freeze and give the unloader problems. Many times I would have to climb the 60 foot ladder four, five or six times each night to do chores.

All this of course in full cold weather gear and caring a pitch fork, pick axe or spud bar.

Then chip frozen silage for a half hour. Many times below zero and sweating.

mcfarmer, now that's productive exercise! 

Getting work done by working out.

Here's the history of the gym that I go to.......which is the oldest gym in the state of Indiana. When I moved here, in 1982, the first thing that I did was look for a gym, assuming that I would want to live close to the gym(since I worked out every day-in fact I didn't miss a work out at one point for more then 10 years straight).

http://thepitbarbellclub.com/history-2/

Then, I realized that my new job as tv meteorologist, across the river(physical location of the tv station) might require that I come in ASAP during severe weather and I should get a place closer to the tv station.

The History of Physical Fitness

https://www.artofmanliness.com/articles/the-history-of-physical-fitness/

A recent World Health Organization report indicates that life expectancy in the U.S. dropped for first time since 1993. The health of modern people is declining, despite highly advanced medical technologies, and in spite of the thriving health and fitness industry. How could that be?

Even though we have tons more devices and information about health and fitness than our ancestors did, we are in worse shape.

A large part of it is motivation. People are simply not as motivated to move their body and get healthy as they were in the past. We live in a society where the inability to operate one’s body in a practical and effective manner is no longer an embarrassing condition.

“A large part of it is motivation. People are simply not as motivated to move their body and get healthy as they were in the past. ”

I blame CO2 levels.

(Appropriate smiley here)

Remember this guy?

Jack LaLanne

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jack_LaLanne

Gov. Schwarzenegger doing his eulogy

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sAgqRqxBtNc

I actually met Arnold in 1975?

He was Mr. Olympia then and mostly known in the bodybuilding world. He was at the Fairlane Mall selling and autographing copies of his book.

There was a line of 200+ people waiting to get his book and autograph. One girl took off her top.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arnold_Schwarzenegger