Nextraction Energy Corp. (TSX VENTURE:NE) announces that it has entered into an amending agreement to extend the principal repayment of its non-revolving term loan facility (the "Loan Facility") with Tallinn Capital Mezzanine Limited Partnership ("Tallinn"). Tallinn has agreed to waive monthly net sales production minimum requirement and minimum current ratio requirements which the Company had been in default of until September 30, 2013. Furthermore, subject to the debentures proposed to be offered pursuant to the Company's recently announced proposed short form prospectus offering (the "Offering") being subordinated and postponed to the Loan Facility on terms acceptable to Tallinn, the successful completion of the Offering and the Company not otherwise being in default under the Loan Facility, Tallinn has also agreed to waive requirements to repay the Loan Facility from proceeds of the Offering beyond the first $2 million of the principal amount owing under the Loan Facility on the earlier of September 30, 2013 or the closing of the Offering.
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MIT researchers reveal how the brain keeps eyes on the prizePublic release date: 4-Aug-2013 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Kimberly Allen allenkc@mit.edu 617-253-2702 Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Researchers reveal how the brain remains focused on long-term goals
Cambridge-- As anyone who has traveled with young children knows, maintaining focus on distant goals can be a challenge. A new study from MIT suggests how the brain achieves this task, and indicates that the neurotransmitter dopamine may signal the value of long-term rewards. The findings may also explain why patients with Parkinson's disease in which dopamine signaling is impaired often have difficulty in sustaining motivation to finish tasks.
The work is described this week in the journal Nature.
Previous studies have linked dopamine to rewards, and have shown that dopamine neurons show brief bursts of activity when animals receive an unexpected reward. These dopamine signals are believed to be important for reinforcement learning, the process by which an animal learns to perform actions that lead to reward.
Taking the long view
In most studies, that reward has been delivered within a few seconds. In real life, though, gratification is not always immediate: Animals must often travel in search of food, and must maintain motivation for a distant goal while also responding to more immediate cues. The same is true for humans: A driver on a long road trip must remain focused on reaching a final destination while also reacting to traffic, stopping for snacks, and entertaining children in the back seat.
The MIT team, led by Institute Professor Ann Graybiel who is also an investigator at MIT's McGovern Institute for Brain Research decided to study how dopamine changes during a maze task approximating work for delayed gratification. The researchers trained rats to navigate a maze to reach a reward. During each trial a rat would hear a tone instructing it to turn either right or left at an intersection to find a chocolate milk reward.
Rather than simply measuring the activity of dopamine-containing neurons, the MIT researchers wanted to measure how much dopamine was released in the striatum, a brain structure known to be important in reinforcement learning. They teamed up with Paul Phillips of the University of Washington, who has developed a technology called fast-scan cyclic voltammetry (FSCV) in which tiny, implanted, carbon-fiber electrodes allow continuous measurements of dopamine concentration based on its electrochemical fingerprint.
"We adapted the FSCV method so that we could measure dopamine at up to four different sites in the brain simultaneously, as animals moved freely through the maze," explains first author Mark Howe, a former graduate student with Graybiel who is now a postdoc in the Department of Neurobiology at Northwestern University. "Each probe measures the concentration of extracellular dopamine within a tiny volume of brain tissue, and probably reflects the activity of thousands of nerve terminals."
Gradual increase in dopamine
From previous work, the researchers expected that they might see pulses of dopamine released at different times in the trial, "but in fact we found something much more surprising," Graybiel says: The level of dopamine increased steadily throughout each trial, peaking as the animal approached its goal as if in anticipation of a reward.
The rats' behavior varied from trial to trial some runs were faster than others, and sometimes the animals would stop briefly but the dopamine signal did not vary with running speed or trial duration. Nor did it depend on the probability of getting a reward, something that had been suggested by previous studies.
"Instead, the dopamine signal seems to reflect how far away the rat is from its goal," Graybiel explains. "The closer it gets, the stronger the signal becomes." The researchers also found that the size of the signal was related to the size of the expected reward: When rats were trained to anticipate a larger gulp of chocolate milk, the dopamine signal rose more steeply to a higher final concentration.
In some trials the T-shaped maze was extended to a more complex shape, requiring animals to run further and to make extra turns before reaching a reward. During these trials, the dopamine signal ramped up more gradually, eventually reaching the same level as in the shorter maze. "It's as if the animal were adjusting its expectations, knowing that it had further to go," Graybiel says.
An 'internal guidance system'
"This means that dopamine levels could be used to help an animal make choices on the way to the goal and to estimate the distance to the goal," says Terrence Sejnowski of the Salk Institute, a computational neuroscientist who is familiar with the findings but who was not involved with the study. "This 'internal guidance system' could also be useful for humans, who also have to make choices along the way to what may be a distant goal."
One question that Graybiel hopes to examine in future research is how the signal arises within the brain. Rats and other animals form cognitive maps of their spatial environment, with so-called "place cells" that are active when the animal is in a specific location. "As our rats run the maze repeatedly," she says, "we suspect they learn to associate each point in the maze with its distance from the reward that they experienced on previous runs."
As for the relevance of this research to humans, Graybiel says, "I'd be shocked if something similar were not happening in our own brains." It's known that Parkinson's patients, in whom dopamine signaling is impaired, often appear to be apathetic, and have difficulty in sustaining motivation to complete a long task. "Maybe that's because they can't produce this slow ramping dopamine signal," Graybiel says.
###
Patrick Tierney at MIT and Stefan Sandberg at the University of Washington also contributed to the study, which was funded by the National Institutes of Health, the National Parkinson Foundation, the CHDI Foundation, the Sydney family and Mark Gorenberg.
Written by The McGovern Institute
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AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
MIT researchers reveal how the brain keeps eyes on the prizePublic release date: 4-Aug-2013 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Kimberly Allen allenkc@mit.edu 617-253-2702 Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Researchers reveal how the brain remains focused on long-term goals
Cambridge-- As anyone who has traveled with young children knows, maintaining focus on distant goals can be a challenge. A new study from MIT suggests how the brain achieves this task, and indicates that the neurotransmitter dopamine may signal the value of long-term rewards. The findings may also explain why patients with Parkinson's disease in which dopamine signaling is impaired often have difficulty in sustaining motivation to finish tasks.
The work is described this week in the journal Nature.
Previous studies have linked dopamine to rewards, and have shown that dopamine neurons show brief bursts of activity when animals receive an unexpected reward. These dopamine signals are believed to be important for reinforcement learning, the process by which an animal learns to perform actions that lead to reward.
Taking the long view
In most studies, that reward has been delivered within a few seconds. In real life, though, gratification is not always immediate: Animals must often travel in search of food, and must maintain motivation for a distant goal while also responding to more immediate cues. The same is true for humans: A driver on a long road trip must remain focused on reaching a final destination while also reacting to traffic, stopping for snacks, and entertaining children in the back seat.
The MIT team, led by Institute Professor Ann Graybiel who is also an investigator at MIT's McGovern Institute for Brain Research decided to study how dopamine changes during a maze task approximating work for delayed gratification. The researchers trained rats to navigate a maze to reach a reward. During each trial a rat would hear a tone instructing it to turn either right or left at an intersection to find a chocolate milk reward.
Rather than simply measuring the activity of dopamine-containing neurons, the MIT researchers wanted to measure how much dopamine was released in the striatum, a brain structure known to be important in reinforcement learning. They teamed up with Paul Phillips of the University of Washington, who has developed a technology called fast-scan cyclic voltammetry (FSCV) in which tiny, implanted, carbon-fiber electrodes allow continuous measurements of dopamine concentration based on its electrochemical fingerprint.
"We adapted the FSCV method so that we could measure dopamine at up to four different sites in the brain simultaneously, as animals moved freely through the maze," explains first author Mark Howe, a former graduate student with Graybiel who is now a postdoc in the Department of Neurobiology at Northwestern University. "Each probe measures the concentration of extracellular dopamine within a tiny volume of brain tissue, and probably reflects the activity of thousands of nerve terminals."
Gradual increase in dopamine
From previous work, the researchers expected that they might see pulses of dopamine released at different times in the trial, "but in fact we found something much more surprising," Graybiel says: The level of dopamine increased steadily throughout each trial, peaking as the animal approached its goal as if in anticipation of a reward.
The rats' behavior varied from trial to trial some runs were faster than others, and sometimes the animals would stop briefly but the dopamine signal did not vary with running speed or trial duration. Nor did it depend on the probability of getting a reward, something that had been suggested by previous studies.
"Instead, the dopamine signal seems to reflect how far away the rat is from its goal," Graybiel explains. "The closer it gets, the stronger the signal becomes." The researchers also found that the size of the signal was related to the size of the expected reward: When rats were trained to anticipate a larger gulp of chocolate milk, the dopamine signal rose more steeply to a higher final concentration.
In some trials the T-shaped maze was extended to a more complex shape, requiring animals to run further and to make extra turns before reaching a reward. During these trials, the dopamine signal ramped up more gradually, eventually reaching the same level as in the shorter maze. "It's as if the animal were adjusting its expectations, knowing that it had further to go," Graybiel says.
An 'internal guidance system'
"This means that dopamine levels could be used to help an animal make choices on the way to the goal and to estimate the distance to the goal," says Terrence Sejnowski of the Salk Institute, a computational neuroscientist who is familiar with the findings but who was not involved with the study. "This 'internal guidance system' could also be useful for humans, who also have to make choices along the way to what may be a distant goal."
One question that Graybiel hopes to examine in future research is how the signal arises within the brain. Rats and other animals form cognitive maps of their spatial environment, with so-called "place cells" that are active when the animal is in a specific location. "As our rats run the maze repeatedly," she says, "we suspect they learn to associate each point in the maze with its distance from the reward that they experienced on previous runs."
As for the relevance of this research to humans, Graybiel says, "I'd be shocked if something similar were not happening in our own brains." It's known that Parkinson's patients, in whom dopamine signaling is impaired, often appear to be apathetic, and have difficulty in sustaining motivation to complete a long task. "Maybe that's because they can't produce this slow ramping dopamine signal," Graybiel says.
###
Patrick Tierney at MIT and Stefan Sandberg at the University of Washington also contributed to the study, which was funded by the National Institutes of Health, the National Parkinson Foundation, the CHDI Foundation, the Sydney family and Mark Gorenberg.
Written by The McGovern Institute
[ | E-mail | Share ]
?
AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
Boston Red Sox majority owner John Henry watches a baseball game between the Red Sox and Arizona Diamondbacks during the second inning at Fenway Park in Boston, Friday, Aug. 2, 2013. (AP Photo/Charles Krupa)
Boston Red Sox majority owner John Henry watches a baseball game between the Red Sox and Arizona Diamondbacks during the second inning at Fenway Park in Boston, Friday, Aug. 2, 2013. (AP Photo/Charles Krupa)
BOSTON (AP) ? John W. Henry took a backward ballclub in a dilapidated park and transformed it into a two-time World Series champion that is one of baseball's model franchises.
As the owner of The Boston Globe, he will try to turn around a newspaper that ? like many other major metro dailies ? is shedding staff, subscribers and advertisers as it makes the transition into the Internet age.
Henry agreed to buy the Globe along with the Worcester Telegram & Gazette and the Boston Metro for $70 million, a fraction of the $1.1 billion The New York Times Co. paid 20 years ago. Henry apparently made this deal without his Red Sox partners, though he said in a statement that more information will soon be available "concerning those joining me in this community commitment and effort."
The son of southern Illinois soybean farmers now worth an estimated $1.5 billion, Henry was a minority owner of the New York Yankees and the sole owner of the Florida Marlins when he led a group that bought the Red Sox for $660 million in 2002. (The original group included The New York Times, which sold the last of its 17.5 percent ownership last year.)
They soon set out to preserve Fenway Park while taking a wrecking ball to most everything else that had mired the franchise in failure for more than eight decades.
Henry, who made his money by taking a mathematical approach to the commodities markets, brought a similar method to the baseball diamond, hiring the statistically savvy Theo Epstein, then 28 years-old, as the youngest general manager in baseball history. They hired statistical pioneer Bill James as a consultant, putting the Red Sox at the forefront of the revolution that had just begun to take hold in front offices long dominated by old-time and hidebound scouting types.
But, perhaps more importantly, the new owners turned what had long been a stagnant family business into a revenue spigot.
They took NESN, which had been almost exclusively an outlet for Red Sox and Boston Bruins games, into a full-fledged sports network. (Not every effort ? like the sports-themed dating show "Sox Appeal" ? was a success.) And they spent more than $285 million turning the once-doomed Fenway Park into a modern ? well, as modern as a 100-year-old ballpark can be, anyway ? sporting venue.
With seats above the Green Monster and a roof deck in right field, a high-tech scoreboard and new concourses and concessions, Fenway sold out 820 consecutive games ? by official count, anyway ? the longest such streak in professional sports history. Thousands more file through the turnstiles 12 months a year, paying up to $16 just to see the park when it is empty.
Though fans sometimes chafed at the team's new businesslike approach, the initiatives helped pay for a player payroll that grew from $75.5 million in 2000 to more than $130 million by 2004. That year, the Red Sox won the World Series for the first time in 86 years, ending one of the longest title droughts in sports.
They won again three years later.
Henry was also a different kind of owner than Bostonians had grown accustomed to.
While most owners of the local franchises had treated their teams like family fiefdoms or corporate cash registers ? or both ? Henry engaged with fans, chatting with them on Internet message boards (he would also became an early adopter on Twitter). He spent less time in his luxury box and more in his dugout-side seats, and was once seen running the bases on the Fenway diamond with the woman who is now his wife.
And Henry kept looking beyond baseball.
Through a sister company, the Red Sox owners bought into NASCAR as co-owners of Roush Fenway Racing; soccer, by purchasing the Liverpool FC of the English Premier League; and basketball, through a sponsorship deal with LeBron James. Their business offshoot, known as New England Sports Ventures, has also dabbled in marketing for college sports and professional golf.
In buying a newspaper, Henry enters an industry in turmoil and joins a progression of publishers who have tried to figure out how to balance the free-flowing information of the internet with the costs of quality journalism.
While providing no clues, Henry vowed to try.
"The Boston Globe's award-winning journalism as well as its rich history and tradition of excellence have established it as one of the most well-respected media companies in the country," he said in his statement. "This is a thriving, dynamic region that needs a strong, sustainable Boston Globe playing an integral role in the community's long-term future."
___
Follow Jimmy Golen on Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/jgolen.
June Jones is an established coach and when he left Hawaii for SMU big things were expected. After a disastrous 1-11 start the Mustangs have played .500 or better each season since, participating in bowl games the last 4 seasons ? winning 3.
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SMU Mustangs Coach: June Jones 2012 Record: 7-6 Odds of winning BCS Championship: +2000 (Field) Odds From Betonline
Now they are leaving Conference USA for the experiment that is the American Athletic Conference. A stellar introductory season is not expected given the state of the program though.
As Jones is an ?offense guy? Hawaii and SMU have generally been very good on that side of the ball especially throwing it. Last year they dropped off dramatically in that area not even ranking in the top half of teams nationally in that category.
The defense actually wound up carrying them, especially in their bowl victory over a good Fresno State team, but you can bet Jones will be working hard to get things back on track offensively this season.
It just might be a struggle even for a noted offensive mind like him.
Check out our in-house Handicapper!!! Buy Razor Ray?s College Picks in 2013!
Senior QB Garrett Gilbert is a classic transfer story. He wasn?t going to be the guy at Texas so he transferred to a place where he could play and improve his NFL stock after being highly touted as a recruit. SMU seemed like a great fit for him but last year he just wasn?t as efficient throwing the ball as you would expect from a QB in Jones? system.
He completed just 53% of his passes with only a 15/15 TD/INT ratio. If he is not better than the Mustangs are sunk because the quality of defenses in their new league should be higher than what they are used to.
It would be helpful if the Mustangs had a solid ground game but that seems unlikely given that Zach Line(another transfer), the second leading rusher in program history (behind Eric Dickerson) has graduated.
Also not helping is that the line returns just 2 starters . They are trying to replace Line with another Longhorns castoff in RB Traylon Shead who played a year in junior college before matriculating to SMU.
Shead has looked good on the practice field but will need to produce in games in the fall.
Surprise, last year SMU had the third best scoring defense in C-USA and was #1 in the conference against the run.
On the flip side they were #11/#109 against the pass which is why it is a bit of a mixed bag that all the starters returning from the unit are in the back seven. Teams from the former Big East are generally pretty balanced on offense so SMU will have to find some linemen that can stuff the run and hope that experience will help a secondary that was torched at times last season.
C-USA was a passing league so those numbers could be a little inflated ? maybe.
2013-14 Record Projection: 3-9
Unfortunately I think this is going to be a down year for SMU.
The defense is likely to take a big step back this season and I am not sure the offense is ready to pick up the slack. QB Gilbert would need to have a super efficient season and I am just not sure he has it in him.
He does have a couple of starting wideouts returning but it might not be enough if the ground game doesn?t produce. Also not helping matters is a tough schedule. The non-conference is probably a 1-3 deal with games against Texas Tech and @Texas A&M and @TCU (plus a visit by Montana State). Even if they can split those there are at most three victories in their AAC slate as they have some tough home and road games and will be facing some unfamiliar opponents.
It doesn?t look very promising right now and this is probably a team to forget when it comes to wagering.
2013 Mustangs Schedule
AUG 30 ? Texas Tech SEP 7 ? Montana State SEP 21 ? @Texas A&M SEP 28 ? @TCU OCT 5 ? Rutgers OCT 19 ? @Memphis OCT 26 ? Temple NOV 9 ? @Cincinnati NOV 16 ? Connecticut NOV 23 ? @South Florida NOV 29 ? @Houston DEC 7 ? UCF
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Discovery In Nebraska, university and school districts build formula for better math education
Support from local foundations spurs growth at an innovative NSF-funded partnership working to close the math achievement gap
August 2, 2013
It took Paula Jakopovic more than a decade of public education before she experienced her "spark:" before math "came alive," before she learned to explore and collaborate and discuss the subject oft-maligned by students and teachers alike.
But once that math spark hit, Jakopovic had one thought. "I want to do that. I want to do that for kids." And even: "I want to do that for teachers someday."
As an elementary mathematics coach in Omaha Public Schools, Jakopovic now works to trigger similar sparks for her colleagues and students. Her job--and the lessons leading to it--stem from an innovative partnership between the University of Nebraska-Lincoln (UNL) and some of the state's largest school districts.
Long funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF), the partnership encompasses three projects of NSF's Math and Science Partnership (MSP) program and the Robert Noyce Teacher Scholarship program: NebraskaMATH, Math in the Middle and NebraskaNOYCE. Together, they have allowed hundreds of Nebraska teachers to earn advanced degrees in mathematics education, supported dozens more as they work in high-needs schools and prompted the growth of a cadre of master teachers. The partnership is built on the idea that better math teachers make better math students.
A recent funding boost could help the partnership produce more of both. In July, Omaha-based Lozier Foundation and the Sherwood Foundation announced a $5.5 million grant to support a three-year NebraskaMATH Omaha Public Schools Teacher Leader Academy. It will allow more than 200 teachers in the Omaha district to take graduate coursework in mathematics education. Omaha is Nebraska's largest district. More than 70 percent of the students are ethnic minorities and receive free and reduced lunch.
The grant "gives us a real opportunity to make a big difference," said Jim Lewis, director of UNL's Center for Science, Mathematics and Computer Education, which houses NebraskaMATH and the other initiatives. "I'm just honored that there are public-minded citizens in Omaha willing to make this major commitment," he said. "I think that NSF funding made it possible to develop and refine these programs...to do the research that offers reasons to believe that these things make a difference, in the lives of students as well as teachers."
A mathematician by training, Lewis began working with his education faculty colleagues nearly a decade ago, crafting Math in the Middle: a master's degree program for middle school mathematics teachers in Lincoln and rural Nebraska districts. Over the years, that project evolved and intertwined with other NSF grants. Now, UNL and partner schools work together on K-12 math teacher development, plus support for science, technology, engineering and math majors and professionals to become secondary math teachers in high-needs schools.
"We not only want to provide professional development and graduate education," Lewis said. "We want to take the very best and give them opportunities to be a part of the instructional faculty," creating talented teachers who become leaders in their schools and share knowledge with others.
This is the approach Jakopovic now takes in her own school. The Math in the Middle classes she took were intense and sometimes frustrating, she said, but they helped her become a better teacher.
"It gave me a lot of perspective on kids that struggle through math."
NebraskaMATH and its partner initiatives have crafted a "wonderful partnership," said Joan Prival, program director for the MSP and Noyce programs at NSF. By linking the university and school districts, as well as new math teachers and seasoned ones, "They are building this strong and enduring community--mathematics teachers, school administrators, and higher education mathematics and mathematics education faculty--focused on positive experiences and outcomes for students."
Measuring the effectiveness of the projects is ongoing. But in Lincoln, where multiple teachers have now received advanced degrees, "It's changing the conversation in elementary schools," Lewis said.
"I think this has grown in ways that I didn't anticipate," said Ruth Heaton, a UNL professor of teaching, learning and teacher education who has worked with Lewis on these projects since 2004. Heaton expected the program to focus simply on people becoming better classroom teachers. Instead, she found teachers eager not only to learn, but also to work towards a master's degree. Or beyond: Half of the original class of Noyce scholars are pursuing doctorates.
Yet what makes Heaton proudest is something far less tangible. "I think the piece that I feel best about is the way in which we've helped teachers...see what they're capable of. We've helped teachers see that they can reason and think about mathematics. And we've done the same thing for children."
Investigators
Ira?Papick
Ruth?Heaton
Wendy?Smith
David?Fowler
Thomas?McGowan
Carolyn?Edwards
Stephen?Swidler
Barbara?Jacobson
Douglas?Kauffman
W. J. 'Jim'?Lewis
Related Institutions/Organizations
University of Nebraska-Lincoln
Locations
Nebraska
Related Programs
Math and Science Partnership
Robert Noyce Teacher Scholarship Program
Related Awards
#0831835?Nebraska Math #0412502?Math in the Middle Institute Partnership #1035268?NebraskaNOYCE: NSF Mathematics Teaching and Master Teaching Fellows Program
Total Grants
$18,135,407
Related Websites NebraskaMATH: http://scimath.unl.edu/nebraskamath/index.php
Hi to all the Fitness and Feta fanatics out there!? I am a loyal F and F reader from its inception and one of Athena?s good gym friends, Ashley.
As a disclaimer, I have no formal training in anything fitness related (I am a Speech-Language Pathologist according to my degrees), but I have made fitness a regular part of my life since around 2005.? However, I didn?t get started in my absolute FAVORITE part of fitness, strength training, until about 2008.? That year I was a senior in college at UMass Amherst and looking to take some ?fun? classes for credit.? I found a strength training class in the Five-College Consortium at Hampshire College (right up the street) and signed right up! (side note: I also took SCUBA for credit that year ? man do I miss being in college!).? In that class I learned about many different strength machines as well as how to properly use free weights, and I have been using them ever since!? More recently (since around April), I decided I really wanted to challenge myself and go for much heavier weights with bigger, full body movements (deadlifts, squats, pull ups, etc).? This is the journey I will be discussing today?
I have never had any personal training before, but I decided that if I was going to lift heavier, I wanted to make sure my form was correct and I wasn?t going to injure myself.? I decided that getting some proper coaching would be worth the money, at least initially, until I got my form down.? I decided to find a Strength and Conditioning Coach rather than a Personal Trainer.? This link gives a pretty good breakdown of one versus the other.? While they are very similar, I decided a Strength and Conditioning Coach would be better for me since I wanted to focus more on strength training, movement patterns, and injury prevention.? I was referred by a friend to Coach Tad Sayce at Sayco Performance, and I have been seeing him once a week since April.? Tad has helped me improve my movement patterns, increase my flexibility, and increase my overall strength.? He has written me programs to follow while at the facility with him as well as programs to follow when I am training without him during the rest of the week.? Whenever I have pain in certain areas or something doesn?t feel right, he helps me figure out what?s causing the problem, fix it, and re-writes my program if necessary.? These are a few of the exercises I?ve been working on consistently with him:
Deadlift
I have done a few variations of deadlifts ? trap bar deadlifts, single leg deadlifts, and sumo deadlifts (pictured below).? Deadlifts work a bunch of muscles, but mostly the hamstrings and glutes.? I loooooove deadlifts! They are dangerous because if not done properly, you could hurt your lower back (and probably other areas as well).
Chin Ups
Usually chin-ups are done with an underhand grip, while pull-ups are done with an overhand grip.? In the picture below, I am doing them with a neutral grip, which is kind of in-between, but chin-ups are generally the easier of the two exercises, so that?s what I am starting with.? Chin-ups are a great upper body workout because they work your biceps, shoulders, back, and core.? Chin-ups have been the bane of my existence for a while because it is an exercise that I simply can?t do unassisted YET.? Strength ability, like anything else, varies widely from person to person and my good friend Addie said to me a few weeks ago ?You encouraged me to try doing chin ups, but I can only do a few.?? Well, I have been working my butt off on them since April and I can?t do any yet!? Pictured below, I am using a resistance band, so I will continue working my way to less resistance until I don?t need anything!? You bet your tushy I will brag for a while on Facebook when that happens, complete with picture and video.
Squats
With Tad, I have been working on goblet squats and front squats (pictured below).? Squats are a great full body exercise, but they mainly work the quads.? I had never done front squats before, and I have learned a lot about technique and squat movement from Tad.? In the picture, you?ll see that I have a wider stance and my toes are pointing outwards a bit.? Because of my hip movement patterns, this allows me to get more depth (squat lower).? I also learned that I was leaning a bit too far forward in my squats, so you?ll see in the picture that my back is pretty straight.
Push Ups
I had always done push-ups on the ground, but I realized I was ?cheating? and not going as far down as I should, so I have been doing incline push ups with Tad to improve my form.? Push-ups are another great upper body exercise because they work your core, chest, back, shoulders, and triceps.? If you elevate your hand placement (as seen in my picture) on a barbell, bench, step, etc, it makes the push-up easier.? Placing your hands on the ground would make it a regular push-up, and elevating your feet would make it harder. Additionally, you can change your hand placement to work different muscles (wider, narrower, etc).
I enjoy strength training because I would rather focus on adding more weight to my barbells than the number on the scale.? Also, there is no better feeling than being the bad-ass chick with all the men in the weight room.
Amber Rogers at GoKaleo.com just did a great 3-part series on Taming the Weight Room if you want more information on how to get started with strength training.? I highly recommend hiring a Personal Trainer or Strength and Conditioning Coach to show you the ropes and proper form, but I understand that?s not financially reasonable for a lot of people.? I would recommend doing some more reading on the exercises you want to start and start with very light weight (or just bodyweight!) until you really get the form down!
Good luck and don?t give up!
Thank you, Ashley, for your guest post!? You know I always love hearing about your new strength training adventures.
Let?s chat ? Do you strength train with heavier weight?? Have you ever used a personal trainer or a strength and conditioning coach before?
If you were a die-hard Kickstarter supporter of OUYA, you might have had your feelings hurt to know the Android console was actually available for retail before you got yours in the mail. It looks like OUYA founder and CEO Julie Uhrman is certainly aware of that (along with a few other teething problems) as she has just sent out an email with the above image, offering all Kickstarter supporters a $13.37 credit to its Discover store. While that may not solve all of OUYA's issues, at least early adopters will feel better about it after a hearty round of You Don't Know Jack.
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Public release date: 4-Aug-2013
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