Lifting notes 8/14/2026

Today was a lifting day.

I got to the gym and started my maintenance routine.

Just for yucks, I set up my phone to record video just before my third set at 205 pounds. It was mostly blocked by the plates on the end of the bar but that kind of thing happens on the first attempt.

After the set, I looked down and saw blood seeping down my shin into my sock. 

I had made the tiniest change to how I was lifting. I moved where I was gripping the bar about 1-1/2" (40mm)  farther from the centerline with both my right and left hand. I had widened my stance to match.

That resulted in the knurled part of the bar gliding up the front of my lower-legs rather than the smooth part of the bar. I already had some scuff-marks on my left leg and the knurling was enough to strip off the scab.

I ended my lifting session a little bit short. Instead of four sets at 205, I stopped after three sets. I sopped up the leakage dribbling down the front of my shin and soaking into my sock and double-washed the bar with the quaternary ammonium impregnated wet-wipes the gym provides. Not that I have any communicable diseases, but the other gym goers cannot know that. 

I really like how the slightly wider stance feels. I will be wearing compression socks in the future to protect my shins.

Nuns and dementia and exceeding expectations

In 1986, a large, longitudinal study was started where approximately 700 Roman Catholic nuns were tracked as they aged. Convents are considered prime research subjects because many of the confounding variables that complicate these kinds of studies (like drinking, smoking, irregular sleep, diet, poor preventative care) are very muted. 

The convent archives were "mined" for prior histories, including samples of the nun's journals and early writing (to provide baseline cognitive ability assessments).

The nuns consented to having autopsies done after they died.

One of the nuns was 101 years-old when she died. She remained "as sharp as a tack" right up until the day she died. Her autopsy revealed that her brain was a total wreck of amyloid plaques and tangles. It was a junk-yard of neural tissue. By all conventional understandings of dementia, she should have been a drooling vegetable. 

And she was not the only one. Many of the nuns grossly exceeded expectations physicians would have predicted if they only looked at biopsies of their brain tissue.

One of the questions Mrs ERJ's friend asked was "What kinds of prescription drugs were they taking?".

Darned good question! I wish I had an answer. My impression is that most of those nuns were able to avoid many of the life-style induced, chronic conditions that result in rest-of-your-lifetime statin, metformin, diuretics, SSRI type prescriptions.