What people talk about before they die

I read this article on CNN the other day titled "What people talk about before they die." Ok, just so you don't think this is click bait, the answer is "mostly they talk about their families." This reminded me of something I thought about after my Mother died. Growing up I missed my Grandma Jensen, and Grandma & Grandpa Riding since they died while I was in elementary school and our families miss them very much, but they probably miss us just as much as we miss them. I know how much my Mom loves her grandchildren so I know she will miss them dearly. In the LDS faith we have a different perspective on death and the afterlife. It never occurred to me growing up that our family and friends that have died probably miss us too.

Me and Mom chatting about my pretty flowers with Dave being goofy at our wedding.

My Presidential Election Experience

I made a YouTube video about my experience volunteering with the Evan McMullin Presidential campaign. It was awesome! I loved meeting so many amazing people and learning about how a campaign works. Here's the link. 

Lecture Series: Overtraining Syndrome

Overtraining Syndrome has in the past been called; burnout, staleness, failure adaptation, underrecovery, training stress syndrome, and chronic fatigue. European College of Sport Science Overtraining Syndrome Position Statement main points to remember are to avoid the combination of excessive overload plus inadequate recovery and identification of initiating events or triggers. There is a fine line between maintaining peak performance and overtraining, so it is important to know your body’s limits. With overtraining syndrome there is an increased risk of stress fractures and tendinitis.

The more common symptoms of overtraining syndrome in aerobic sports are fatigue, depression, bradycardia, and loss of motivation. The more common symptoms in anaerobic sports are insomnia, irritability, agitation, tachycardia, hypertension, and restlessness. Other possible symptoms are anorexia, weight loss, lack of mental concentration, heavy/sore/stiff muscles, anxiety, and awakening unrefreshed.

Overtraining can affect your performance with early fatigue, increase heart rate with less effort, decrease strength, endurance, speed, coordination, and aerobic capacity, and delayed recovery. Some of the generic physiological symptoms are persistent fatigue, chronic muscle soreness, loss of appetite, excessive weight loss, excess loss of body fat, irregular menses, increased resting heart rate, increased overuse injuries, difficulty sleeping, and frequent colds or infections. Some of the generic psychological symptoms are irritation/anger, depression, difficulty concentrating, increased sensitivity to emotional stress, loss of competitive drive, and loss of enthusiasm. All the physiological and psychological symptoms are similar to eating disorder symptoms; therefore, be careful diagnosing an eating disorder without ruling out overtraining syndrome.

To take a quick tangent, the psychological reaction to injury is described by the Kübler-Ross model aka Five Stages of Grief, which are denial/disbelief, anger, bargaining, depression, acceptance. As a Certified Athletic Trainer I have seen athletes and dancers go through all five stages for any type of injury. How long they stay in each stage is up to them. I worked at a high school in Texas when a football play tore is ACL. It was sad to watch this Senior miss the rest of the football season and his high school career for an injury. I watched him go through the first 4 stages with difficulty, but I never saw him reach the acceptance stage.

There can be a normal, overreaction, and underraction emotional reaction for anyone when injured or overtraining syndrome. The outward sign normal emotional reaction is weakness, trembling, nausea, vomiting, perspiration, diarrhea, fear, anxiety, and heart pounding. The overreaction can be manifested with excessive talking, argumentative, inappropriate jokes, and hyperactivity. And the underraction would be depression, little talking, emotionless, confusion, and failure to respond to questions. The emotional first aid to the normal reaction would be to be calm/reassuring and avoid pity. The first aid to the overreaction is to allow them to vent emotions and avoid telling them they are acting abnormally. And the care for someone with an underraction is to be empathetic, encourage talking to express feelings, avoid being abrupt, and avoid pity.

Let’s talk about overtraining syndrome prevention and treatment, remember everyone responds differently. Make sure to rest and put in your schedule vacations and breaks. This is difficult for dancers since there is no pre/in/post season, it is mostly year round. A topic rarely mentioned in dance is periodization (I will discuss this in a future blog post). A high school dancer can have team practice before school, dance class in school, then technique classes at the studio after school, plus add in performances. With this crazy schedule and not taking Thanksgiving, Christmas, Spring break, or Summer off can lead to overtraining. When resting physically for a dancer that could mean only doing conditioning with the team or on days with no or short rehearsals. Also decrease intensity and volume or bike instead of run. During breaks or days off can be active recovery days. Active recovery is when you do something other than dance, but is fun. I know dancers who hike, which also helps mentally being in the mountains. I’m sure you have seen professional athletes play golf or a sport other than their own.

Another prevention and treatment topic is having good nutrition and hydration. Something I have noticed is that dancers forget to take snack/food breaks on long rehearsal days. Don’t forget to relax mentally by removing stress, meditate, massage, and possibly see a sports psychologist. An important treatment is identifying the factors that led to overtraining syndrome and correct them. Total recovery from overtraining can take several weeks/months, but if it does come back after returning to dance, then you didn’t solve the problem in the first place. It might be necessary to see a sports psychologist to help return to activity, especially identifying trigger factors and coping mechanisms.

John 8:14

I have to admit I have not been very good with my scripture study habits for a while for various reasons. But I was reading from my leftover goals of underlining everything in the New Testament (NT) in red that Jesus actually said. Too bad the authors didn’t use quotation marks or this would be easier. As a Mormon we use the King James Version (KJV) of the English Bible, other languages use other versions. Many years ago I saw another version of the Bible that printed Jesus words in red & I thought that would make it easier to read the NT if I knew what he actually said. So I am finally in John and I was reading chapter 8 verse 14 when the phrase “for I know whence I came, and whither I go” in the middle of the scripture really was drawn to me.

KJV John 8:14 Jesus answered and said unto them, Though I bear record of myself, yet my record is true: for I know whence I came, and whither I go; but ye cannot tell whence I come, and whither I go.

I looked up in the Bible Hub what other versions said about John 8:14.  

New International Version

Jesus answered, "Even if I testify on my own behalf, my testimony is valid, for I know where I came from and where I am going. But you have no idea where I come from or where I am going.

New Living Translation

Jesus told them, "These claims are valid even though I make them about myself. For I know where I came from and where I am going, but you don't know this about me.

English Standard Version

Jesus answered, “Even if I do bear witness about myself, my testimony is true, for I know where I came from and where I am going, but you do not know where I come from or where I am going.

Berean Study Bible

Jesus replied, "Even if I testify about Myself, My testimony is valid, because I know where I came from and where I am going. But you do not know where I came from or where I am going.

Berean Literal Bible

Jesus answered and said to them, "Even if I am bearing witness concerning Myself, My testimony is true, because I know from where I came and where I am going. But you do not know from where I come or where I am going.

New American Standard Bible

Jesus answered and said to them, "Even if I testify about Myself, My testimony is true, for I know where I came from and where I am going; but you do not know where I come from or where I am going.

Holman Christian Standard Bible

"Even if I testify about Myself," Jesus replied, "My testimony is valid, because I know where I came from and where I'm going. But you don't know where I come from or where I'm going.

International Standard Version

Jesus answered them, "Even though I'm testifying about myself, my testimony is valid because I know where I've come from and where I'm going. But you don't know where I come from or where I'm going.

NET Bible

Jesus answered, "Even if I testify about myself, my testimony is true, because I know where I came from and where I am going. But you people do not know where I came from or where I am going.

New Heart English Bible

Jesus answered them, "Even if I testify about myself, my testimony is true, for I know where I came from, and where I am going; but you do not know where I came from, or where I am going.

Aramaic Bible in Plain English

Yeshua answered and said to them, “Even if I testify about myself, my testimony is true, because I know from where I have come and where I am going, but you do not know from where I have come and where I am going.”

GOD'S WORD® Translation

Jesus replied to them, "Even if I testify on my own behalf, my testimony is true because I know where I came from and where I'm going. However, you don't know where I came from or where I'm going.

New American Standard 1977

Jesus answered and said to them, “Even if I bear witness of Myself, My witness is true; for I know where I came from, and where I am going; but you do not know where I come from, or where I am going.

Jubilee Bible 2000

Jesus answered and said unto them, Though I bear witness of myself, my witness is true, for I know from where I came and where I go; but ye do not know where I came from and where I go.

King James 2000 Bible

Jesus answered and said unto them, Though I bear record of myself, yet my record is true: for I know from where I came, and where I go; but you cannot tell from where I come, and where I go.

American King James Version

Jesus answered and said to them, Though I bear record of myself, yet my record is true: for I know from where I came, and where I go; but you cannot tell from where I come, and where I go.

American Standard Version

Jesus answered and said unto them, Even if I bear witness of myself, my witness is true; for I know whence I came, and whither I go; but ye know not whence I come, or whither I go.

Douay-Rheims Bible

Jesus answered, and said to them: Although I give testimony of myself, my testimony is true: for I know whence I came, and whither I go: but you know not whence I come, or whither I go.

Darby Bible Translation

Jesus answered and said to them, Even if I bear witness concerning myself, my witness is true, because I know whence I came and whither I go: but ye know not whence I come and whither I go.

English Revised Version

Jesus answered and said unto them, Even if I bear witness of myself, my witness is true; for I know whence I came, and whither I go; but ye know not whence I come, or whither I go.

Webster's Bible Translation

Jesus answered and said to them, Though I testify concerning myself, yet my testimony is true: for I know whence I came, and whither I go; but ye cannot tell whence I come, and whither I go.

Weymouth New Testament

"Even if I am giving testimony about myself," replied Jesus, "my testimony is true; for I know where I came from and where I am going, but you know neither of these two things.

World English Bible

Jesus answered them, "Even if I testify about myself, my testimony is true, for I know where I came from, and where I am going; but you don't know where I came from, or where I am going.

Young's Literal Translation

Jesus answered and said to them, 'And if I testify of myself -- my testimony is true, because I have known whence I came, and whither I go, and ye -- ye have not known whence I come, or whither I go.

So let’s stack the phrase versions next to each other:

for I know whence I came, and whither I go

for I know where I came from and where I am going

For I know where I came from and where I am going

for I know where I came from and where I am going

because I know where I came from and where I am going

because I know from where I came and where I am going

for I know where I came from and where I am going

because I know where I came from and where I'm going

because I know where I've come from and where I'm going

because I know where I came from and where I am going

for I know where I came from, and where I am going

because I know from where I have come and where I am going

because I know where I came from and where I'm going

for I know where I came from, and where I am going

for I know from where I came and where I go

for I know from where I came, and where I go

for I know from where I came, and where I go

for I know whence I came, and whither I go

for I know whence I came, and whither I go

because I know whence I came and whither I go

for I know whence I came, and whither I go

for I know whence I came, and whither I go

for I know where I came from and where I am going

for I know where I came from, and where I am going

because I have known whence I came, and whither I go

The top phrase is the KJV, so it’s interesting to see how similar and different the 25 different versions are. There are 16 for and 9 because; 19 I know, 5 I know from, and 1 I have known; 7 whence, 18 where; 23 I, 1 I have, and 1 I’ve; 23 came, 2 come; 7 and whither I, 10 from and where I am, 2 and where I am, 3 from and where I'm, and 3 and where I; and 10 go, 15 going. I am not a linguist expert, so if you want to compare past/present tense go talk to your high school English teacher. I will say that I do like reading the KJV because it was written in Early Modern English so some words have different meanings back then compared to now so it forces me to learn something new and it's interesting to see the evolution of a word or phrase. I did look up which is the most commonly read version of the Bible, which is KJV, and which is the most commonly sold version of the Bible, which is the New International Version. 

Lecture Series: Cardio improvement with a CrossFit WOD

Since I started CrossFit two years ago it has helped my idea of what and how to improve my cardio. The example I would give when I teach about cardio, let's use ballroom since that is my PhD specialty, one round of a DanceSport competition is 10 minutes long. Therefore, your cardio training should be a minimum of 10 minutes. Ideally you should know what your heart rate is during competition that way you know what intensity level you should train at. I have a favorite WOD (workout of the day) and I made a YouTube video of it as a sample. I am also of the opinion that if you are teaching something you should be able to do it, even if it isn't pretty.

10 minute AMRAP
10 kettlebell swing (53/35)
10 box jumps (24/20)
10 wall balls (20/14)

or 

10 RFT
10 kettlebell swing (53/35)
10 box jumps (24/20)
10 wall balls (20/14)
optional: rest 30 seconds to 1 minute between rounds

The weights in parentheses next to kettlebell swing and wall ball are the typical prescribed weight in CrossFit and the number next to box jump is the prescribed height of the box in inches you should jump on. The first number is for men and the second is for women. It's better to work your way up to those weights. On the RFT WOD I added a optional rest to simulate a ballroom competition round. One thing to add about the kettlebells, I prefer (as you saw in the YouTube video) to do American swings which means you start with the bell facing the floor and end at eye level, whereas with Russian swings you end with the bell facing the sky. 
AMRAP=As many repetitions as possible 
RFT=Rounds for time

These are my three favorite movements in CrossFit, not only because I can actually do them, but also they are full body movements. You will be surprised at how hard they make you work. In CrossFit there is a lifting movement called the thruster, which is basically a wall ball but with a barbell instead of a ball, thus you can lift more weight than a ball.