My warm ups start with some loosening up the neck, shoulders and upper back through range of motion movement. Then activate the multifidus muscles at various places along the spine, ensure the wrists are moving, do some arm swings.

Now I’m ready to warm up, I do some dynamic stretching. Stand on one leg and open the hip joint by rotating the other leg five times clockwise, then anti-clockwise. Repeat for the other leg. Then, place the base of the foot against the knee and open the shoulders in the same manner, first clockwise, then rotate the wrists, then reverse the wrist and then the shoulders again. Five reps for each position, both sides.

I follow this up with leg swings, trying to build up to full range of motion for the hamstrings and for the adductors/abductors with the help of the rig to hold on to.

Find a tennis ball and roll it under both feet to ensure the bones of the foot are moving smoothly and the ankles have good mobility.

Next, place an exercise mat down and lie face down on it, fitting the same ball between the base of the thigh and the mat, and perform twelve leg curls. Move the ball up towards the base of the pelvis and repeat. Switch legs and do another twelve. There’s a pattern of symmetry let’s assume we’ll maintain it going forward.

The ball stuff is done, but I stay on the ground and push up into cobra pose with a focus on stretching out the lower back while being mindful of the wrists, shoulders and my breathing. From cobra pose transition into an extended puppy pose and feel the stretch and activation of the glutes. Hold that for 30 seconds, and then repeat the transition and cobra pose.

Swapping from front to back, I use a foam roller under my calf/ankle in several places and then place downwards pressure on the leg with my free calf, and then mobilise my ankle. This helps release tension in the ankle, calf and hamstring. Then move the foam roller up and roll out both hamstrings/ITB. Then, lying back, stretch the hamstring by lifting the leg with a bent knee and then straighten and bend ten times.

Abdominal massage is good, so once the legs are flat again try to find any tightness and tension in the abdominal muscles and gently push/pull to mobilise the abdominal muscles and the organs they’re protecting. Follow this up with some deep breathing to open up the chest and release more tension. Breath in for seven seconds, hold for eight, and then release for nine. For efficiency I will combine this with some shoulder extension where I bring both arm back behind my head until they touch the ground, breath, then bring them back by my sides.

Still on the ground, I curl up about six times with a focus on moving vertebrae by vertebrae through the movement, and returning back to the starting position in a slow, controlled manner.

Next it’s good to massage the tension in the lower jaw and this can be combined with also mobilising the larynx. Gently move the larynx side to side while I probe my jaw and simultaneously stick my tongue out and move it up and down ten times, then left to right ten times. The tongue is part of a long muscle chain that reaches all the way down to your feet.

Then I finish the ground stuff by activating my glutes and lifting up into a bridge for 30 seconds. Finally, a few dead bug repetitions while being mindful of the balance of each leg and using my core muscles to extend and retract the leg.

At last I am done with the floor, and the warm up can really get going. Stand up straight and bend to the side as far as possible, hold for ten seconds and then slowly return to standing. Repeat on the other side, and do this multiple times while trying to increase the hold time and the range of motion.

Then, grab some light dumbbells and perform ten reps per leg of walking lunges with the dumbbells in a rack position. Follow this up with some band work to pronate the wrists under load with a green band and then the black one. Use the same bands for shoulder dislocates. Ten reps for both.

The next set simply varies the previous. Stand with feet flat and arch the back into extension slowly until you reach the range of motion, hold for ten seconds and then move back to the starting position. Then curl forward with knees straight, bending downward until you are touching the ground in front of your toes. Again hold for ten to twenty seconds and then move back up. Do five of these in each direction. Then, repeat the walking lunges with a slightly heavier weight, and then return to the bands and use resistance for wrist supination, followed by some pull aparts. Use one, two, three, four then five seconds for the first five pull aparts on both the eccentric and concentric parts of the movement, then reverse it for the last five sets.

Then I use a cable machine to further warm up my shoulders with a shrug into a one arm row. Ensure the traps are relaxed and the back is doing all the work. Superset this warm up with some cable work for the chest, taking the handle from behind and bringing it in front of the body by extending the arm and rotating so the palm ends up facing upward. Use the one, two, three, four, five pattern again for the cable work.

Super set the cable work with a return to the floor. I do a glute bridge, then activate one glute and push through the foot and rotate in the opposite direction while extending the arm to essentially slap the ground behind my head. I repeat this ten times per side, and then do a set of lying leg raises or more dead bugs depending on how tight my back is feeling.

Repeat the cables/glute bridge routine two or three times.

Now it’s finally time for me to do the exercise! I start with an empty bar, or for squats, go body-weight, and ensure the movement is working for eight repetitions. Then I slowly build up the weight in 10 to 20 kg increments (depending on the exercise until I reach my goal weight which is usually whatever I can comfortably do for five rounds of seven to eight reps.

If you follow this warm up plan five days a week like I do you will probably only injure yourself about four times a year in the gym.

The biggest difference between present day and the eighteenth century is probably just the sheer volume of humans on the planet. In 1776 the population of the planet was less than 10% of 2024. When I read about history what stands out most is how connected to each other everybody was.

Cook's Third Voyage around the world started with a mission to return Omai, an orphan of an inter-island war in Tahiti, back to his island. Omai spent two years in London, met the king, working on his goals of bringing gunpowder back to his home, and being a card playing socialite. Eventually he was put on to the ship with Cook by none other than the guy who invented the sandwich.

To get back to Tahiti, Cook and Omai visited Tenerife, South Africa, Antarctic Islands, Tasmania, and New Zealand. It was the fifth time Cook sailed a bunch of wood and nails into New Zealand... I've been there about ten times but only by plane.

Omai actually made it back to his home island, and according to the books, even managed to win a battle against the Bora Borans with his English armour and his gunpowder. He died a few years later, and Hampton Sides - author of A Wide Wide Sea - gave me the impression that he found this sort of tragic, that his time in England before being left in the Pacific was a negative thing. I felt the opposite. How many common humans lived their whole life in one place compared to those adventures. Cook made it to Hawaii, Oregon, Canada, Alaska, Russia and then - unfortunately for him - back to Hawaii again. That was just one of his voyages. Truly incredible what humans could do with the technology they had, both Europeans in ships and Polynesians carrying pigs and dogs across the sea in canoes. It is a big world and a small one. There's not a lot left to discover, but I'm still keen to explore it. Even more after reading that book.

Spring 2024 started with many leftover quiz night cupcakes and pizza slices, and a crisp Sunday morning. Irises were in bloom. Jumpers were worn. A lot happened in the following three months that led to a barefoot walk on the beach last Saturday night as the sun showed no interest in the horizon despite it being well after 7pm.

Tomato plants have grown, exams were passed, pub trivia was won, wellness benefits were spent on putt putt and bouldering. Blinds and shutters have been installed in preparation for the Summer 24-25 playlist. We walked on the beach.

I visited Alligator Gorge, Watson's Bay, and Melbourne twice. I saw the milky way and a miniature horse. Hats and shorts replaced heated gloves and puffer jackets. I witnessed another AFL Grand Final that I'll probably forget. I made a lot of sandwiches seasoned with Gaganis italian herb mix, plus quite a few pizzas. We walked on the beach some more.

I bought a new computer and monitor. I settled into my new job. I rode my bike to a brewery, and then caught the new train line back. Vanessa beat me in arcade basketball many times. I did a lot of gym and I saw Chihuly in the Garden. Nash swam in West Lakes. We walked on the beach.

I took many photos of flowers and birds. And Nash. And sunsets at the beach.

I lost two teeth. I went to Christmas Carols. I wrote a bunch of code. I listened to a lot of music. Over 5000 unique songs, 80+ a day. That's not counting the times when I dug up old mixes for the speaker in the gym, or when I put on Anjunadeep mixes for focused software development, or when Vanessa was DJ in the car on the way to the beach.

It was a good Spring.

I had two wisdom teeth removed today. This is perhaps another chapter in the saga on my dentist addiction I've been feeding since 2019.

I foresee a few smoothies extra in the coming days. I also had a smoothie this morning right before I had to fast for six hours. Perhaps this was a precursor to my loss of wisdom. By 11am I was starving, and I also made the mistake of calling ANZ and being stuck on hold for 45 minutes listening to static infused easy listening, and using that hold time to bash my metaphorical head against the wall trying to pass a Super Badge.

The pain was pretty bad. Way worse than the teeth.

In 2014 this dog and this expensive, high power pet vacuum came into my life and today the dog won.

Also in 2014 I signed up for my OzBargain account, leading me to a free dinner and dessert with random OzBargain people plus Chow this evening. The pineapple pork ribs and brownie made up for only getting one stamp on my loyalty card when I bought two coffees at the bakery this morning.

Rounding out a pretty full day, I was also a participant who helped complete the Speakeasy escape room with fifteen minutes to spare. Technically this proficiency may have actually made it less good value for money.