Several years ago I did some cadaver work as part of my undergraduate degree. It gave me new insight into things my body does, things I feel, how things work (or don’t). I learned that the places where muscles attach to your bone are called insertions. I think one end is the origin, and the other is the insertion? I can’t remember for sure.

Technically, the muscle doesn’t attach right to the bone. There’s some fascia in-between. I would imagine that if your muscle rips free of its insertion point, it would probably peel the fascia off of the bone along the way. The area between the bone and the fascia would fill with blood, and the end result would be something of a mess. That fascia is part of the bone healing process. When a bone breaks, the fascia in the area fills with blood, it congeals, goes through some phases of regeneration, and in the end you get new bone. Would you get some bone in-between if the fascia were ripped off at the insertion point?

You might wonder what inspired this train of thought. In an effort to regain my upper body strength from the days when I was swimming three to four times a week, I’ve been doing some calisthenics every morning. Using the weights I found abandoned in the basement of the building, I’ve started doing some bicep curls. I can feel the inerstions (or origins?) of the biceps on my forearms, and they feel a little stressed. Amanda suggested that I give it a rest until they feel better, and now that I think about it, I’m inclined to agree. I don’t want the above scenario to take place, certainly.

The days that you see a small number, like two or three minutes, under Exercise in the stats, I’ve only done calisthenics. When I run, I only put my 2-mile run time, but don’t include the calisthenics. In the interest of holding some sort of consistent measuring practice, I’m going to stop counting the calisthenics and such, and only post my run time. The calisthenics are neither aerobic in nature, nor really time-related. Therefore, any time that you see posted henceforth should be aerobic exercise of some kind. Days with 00:00 posted I will still have done the push-ups and so on.

And here are the stats for today:

This little stats project has made me much more conscious of my coffee drinking. I think I’m on my way to kicking the habit, or at least reducing it. I’m not actually sure that I want to stop using caffeine (yes using — it sounds so dirty, doesn’t it?). It seems like a little bit to start the day is enough. I’m getting half-cups and so on by brewing quarter-caffeinated coffee. I blend store-bought half-caff with decaf and, voila! Quarter-caff.

I’m going to read a bit more of Upton Sinclair’s, The Jungle and then it’s off to bedfordshire with me.