Petranek Fitness - Andy

Tillman the Skateboarding Bull Dog

Yes - this is for real. And it's definitely worth watching - my brother-in-law, Glen, sent me this video since he has a bull dog, and I thought to myself, "Great... another dumb animal video." But it's not... I mean, it is, but it's not dumb at all - it's pretty amazing - and fun! I only have 2 questions: 1. How did Tillman learn how to do that?, and 2. How bad do the wheels on the skateboard look after he gets done chewing on them?

Wingsuit “flying”

This is simply unbelievable. The ability of human beings to literally "do the impossible" should come as no surprise because as history teaches us, human beings have literally been doing the impossible over and over and over again since the dawn of time. It's a video like this that truly inspires me and gets my adrenaline pumping!

Why every guy should buy their girlfriend Wii Fit.

Not sure exactly why, but this video just cracked me up! It's about time video game makers made interactive games that get people up off their asses!

Virtuosity

I've never seen anything this difficult and amazing made to look so damn effortless. Virtuosity can be basic, fundamental movements done with absolute perfection, as well as more difficult things. To these guys, the difficult movements are fundamental. (and no, I'm NOT a fan of their golden bodies, or their banana hammocks!)

FINALLY - a GREAT Radio station in Los Angeles!

If you're anything like me, you've scanned the dial over and over again looking for a decent station in Los Angeles... and there just isn't one to be found. In spite of all the other options for music in my car - my cd player, and my iPod - I'd much rather listen to the radio. A few years ago there was an exception - I think it was 103.1... but for the most part, LA has been void of decent music on the free airways - at least since I've been here since 1994.

A few weeks ago, I was driving home from the gym, and I looked up at a video billboard - you know, one of those that changes every 10 seconds... and there was an ad for a new station - 100.3. Funny, at the time, I couldn't even remember my tuner stopping at that frequency, but low and behold, there it was.

It's been about 3 weeks now, and the radio in my car hasn't changed stations once! The new station is 100.3 - The Sound, and it is FANTASTIC! Check it out!

Speed Flying

Came across this video today... speed flying is a combination of skiing, para-gliding and base jumping... check out the video from the Eiger!

http://www.acro-base.com/fr/imgs/galerie/video/videos/eiger06/eiger06.mov

Water - Bottled or Filtered?

I've gone round and round with this question for years... which is better, and which should I drink? There are a few things about bottled water that I personally can't stand... in fact, its what had me go out and spend $1,500 on a drinking fountain at the gym - the trash and the price. Did you know that Americans throw out 2.5 MILLION bottles every HOUR? That's 60 million every day and 21,900,000,000 per year (that number seems unreasonably high to me, but even if it were 1/4 of that, it's still way too many). YIKES! I'm not a big environmentalist, but holy cow - imagine the size of that mountain of bottles (click here for some more disturbing statistics.) It's a joke - don't be wasteful, foolish or lazy... get one, two or even 3 bottles that are reusable (my personal favorite is my SIGG aluminum bottle), fill them up with water, drink it, and when you're finished, rinse them out and re-use! I've had the same 3 water bottles for the past 4 years... and none are even close to wearing out.

And what about the price? $2.00 for 16oz of bottled water? And the AVERAGE person should drink a minimum 64 oz per day... so $8+ per day on water? Even 5 gallon jugs delivered from Sparkletts or Arrowhead... those are at least $10 for 5 gallons, which is much better, but still, who's got the money to literally piss it away?

I'll be the first one to say that I'm not a big fan of "free" municipal drinking water. If the chlorine isn't bad enough, you get reports like this that talks about pharmaceuticals in water supplies - yuck! So if you don't want to pollute, spend your hard earned money on water, and don't want to drink foul tasting chlorinated water that contains trace amounts of pharmaceuticals, what are you supposed to do?

I've done a bunch of research on water filters over the years and I've got some good news and bad news. First the bad... there doesn't seem to be any agreed upon answer or standard for filtering. Most of the information I found was from people who are either selling filters or are connected to people selling them. Not exactly credible sources. But after reading many of the web sites that these modern day snake oil salesmen, there are two types that stand out.

Reverse Osmosis (also called RO) water filters operate by allowing water to move across a permeable membrane, filtering pretty much everything out of the water. The result is water that is devoid of everything that you would naturally find in it, namely, salts and minerals. The quality of the water is close to that of distilled water, a process that involves converting the water to steam (as steam, water can't hold any of the minerals or impurities it does in it's liquid state) and then re-condensing it. The problem with reverse osmosis is that an RO system is expensive to purchase and install, it is a fairly large system (it doesn't fit neatly on or under your sink). It also takes time to make the water - it's a slow process which means it needs a storage tank of purified water and when this is empty, you're SOL. Even with this drawback, RO systems are probably the best out there for completely eliminating impurities in your drinking water. Finally, it takes regular maintenance to ensure it is working properly.

But another type that I more recently stumbled upon and purchased thus far has been great for me. Whether it is actually doing what it's manufacturer says it will is a totally different story. I haven't sent my influent or effluent out for analysis, so I really don't know for sure, but from everything I've read on their web site and the quality of the product that I received, it seems good to me. What I'm talking about is a ceramic water filter made by Royal Doulton (http://doultonusa.com). Prior to this, I had been using an activated carbon filter - good for eliminating the chlorine smell, but that's about it. According to Doulton's literature on their site, their ceramic filters remove particles down to less than 0.01 microns. This is a much tighter filter than activated carbon (usually 1.0 micron filtering), they require little or no maintenance, they are small (sit right on your countertop or under the sink), and relatively inexpensive - mine cost $210 with tax and shipping. Granted, every 18 months or 1,000 gallons I have to spend another $69 to replace the ceramic filter, this is nothing compared to the cost of bottled water or reverse osmosis.

Do the research yourself if you want, but I'm sticking with my Doulton ceramic filter, refilling my plastic and aluminum bottles daily, and drinking between 96 and 128 oz of water every day.

Sick & Miserable

Ugh - 102 fever yesterday, 103 today... no matter what I do I can't get comfortable... chills, hot, cold, headache... one thing I can do is watch videos on YouTube... here's a very cool one - don't try this at home, Wilkinson!

I love stuff like this!

How many is enough?

I was sitting on my favorite bathroom chair a few months ago and as I skimmed through the pages of a magazine, I realized that I had already read it. Grabbing another out of my magazine rack, saw that this one too, I had already read. After going through two or three others with the same result, I just gave up and dove in to re-reading one that looked a bit more compelling... and the strangest thing happened...

I found a whole bunch of stuff that sounded brand new to me. New information, new tips, new articles... yet it was all still strangely familiar. I took my time going through that issue over my next several trips to the john - and found a whole bunch of great "new" stuff. Over the next several weeks, I slowly went through the other "old" magazines in my rack... and I found the same thing - everything seemed "new" and fresh - as if it were a brand new issue I had just received that month!

Since then, I've been thinking about it - and have decided that discovering new material in old magazines could be for one of a few reasons... 1. I never really read the magazine in the first place, just looked at the pictures, and skimmed the headlines, 2. I read the magazine but didn't retain any of what I read, 3. I only looked at the cover - and thought I had read it. As I think more about it, I'm having the troubling feeling that it's most likely option #2... which probably means that I've lost so many brain cells doing crossfit, that I no longer have any short term or long term memory. But on the bright side (I tend to be a "glass is half full" guy anyway), I can save a bunch of money by canceling all my subscriptions... Reading, re-reading, and re-re-reading the ones I already have seems to be just as enjoyable and satisfying as getting new ones each month!