HIGH-INTENSITY INTERVAL TRAINING

 From Worldometer:

        DAY  USA  WORLD   Brazil    India    South Africa

June     9     1093    4732        1185       246          82

July    22     1205    7128        1293      1120         572

Aug    12     1504     6556       1242       835         130

Sept     3      1094    5886        830     1083         174
            9      1208    6222        1136      1168          82

Oct      8        957    6420         730       967        160

          20       952     6169           662       714       164
          21     1225     6849            571       703         85

          27     1039      7023          530       519         45

Nov     4      1199       8192          276       511         74 

            5      1201      9067          622       704         46

            6      1248      9082          256       576         72

          10      1346      9191           204       511        106 

          11       1479    10178           564       550         60

          

Summary:

• The USA again broke it's all-time high for new cases yesterday with 142,906.  We have also passed the record for hospitalizations.
• The World finally reached five digits, with 10,178 new deaths, plus 618,398 new cases.
• Italy and Mexico had more new deaths than India or Brazil.
• China had 17 new cases and no new deaths.
• Australia had 8 new cases and no new deaths.
• Remember those Scandinavian countries where Sweden decided to keep their economy largely open?
• Norway:  624 new cases and no new deaths
• Denmark:  994 new cases and 3 new deaths
• Sweden:  4296 new cases and 3 new deaths

My life changed around four years ago when I decided to live mostly  only for myself.  I essentially stopped going to funerals.  So I haven't much commented on deaths around me.  Yet, I feel compelled to mention that Jo Ann Noborikawa Fukao on October 28 at the age of 68, one of the receptionists at 15 Craigside, passed away.  She was just the nicest person and knew everyone's name.  Her smile was priceless.  

In 1974 she became Cherry Blossom Queen.  I had two early girlfriends who competed.  My wife's doctor was the Dr. Oishi who married the first Cherry Blossom Queen, Violet Niimi.  He was the personal doctor for my wife so I kind of knew him.  Just around that time, my wife was diagnosed with breast cancer and he just left his wife (Niimi), leaving Hawaii for Arizona after he found that she was into dementia, or something similar.  His brother Robert Oishi, did the surgery on for my wife's breast cancer, and arranged for some experimental chemotherapy.  It worked, for the cancer never returned, and also, she was immune from colds and flus the rest of her life.

Last month I posted on the 7-MINUTE EXERCISE.  I indicated that the more elderly can't just jump around, so if interested, had to do something safer.  Personally, I turned to a cross-trainer.  It's possible that this effort induced my knee crisis this past weekend.

So anyway, I just read about something similar:  high-intensity interval training (HIIT).  The process was similar to mine, as the stationary bike was used.  They indicated that the standard 45 minutes at moderate pace did not work for many because it got tedious.

Organized by the University of British Columbia Okanagan (contact:  Bruce Skolski), volunteers instead were asked to try HIIT:

• Pedal strenuously for one minute, rest for one minute, and repeat ten times.
• Then, they were introduced to super-short intervals, consisting of three repetitions of 20-second, all-out pedaling spurts, with two minutes of rest, and repeating this.
• In either one, the patients said they were not having fun.
• However, as bad as they were, they were tolerable.
• Over time, what happened was the volunteers in the long term threaded these HIIT session into their regular training.
• Doing this creatively kept them engaged.
• THIS IS THE KEY TO HIIT:  INTEGRATE IT WITH ANYTHING YOU WISH.
• If you don't want to exercise for lengthy periods, shorten the timing by going intensive for a tolerable period.

This is exactly what I was doing, combined with high intensity weight exercises mimicking my golf swing.  About my knee?  There are warnings about the danger of strenuous exercising.

Fortunately, I've had three cross-training sessions since that crisis, and I seem to be okay.  My weight is at a 25-year low with that alcohol-vegetable diet tossed into this mix.  The proof to all this exercising will come when I next try to walk on a golf course.  But the combination has worked to control my weight even if I never go golfing again.

Here is what the 15 Craigside wellness center looks like, a large room and a smaller one:

I long ago stopped using a treadmill because I was worried that if I slipped, the fall could be disastrous.  At least with a cross-trainer, you are sitting all the time.  The TV set allows me to watch those news channels, sports programs and Jeopardy.  Alex Trebek, my hero for 36 years.  I kind of wanted to be like him:  smart, yet cool.  There are seven candidates to replace him, but I expect Ken Jennings to be given the first shot.  

Anderson Cooper of CNN is in the mix.  Did you know he has been a celebrity contestant three times?  Son of Gloria Vanderbilt, who was married four times and had affairs with Marlon Brando, Frank Sinatra and Howard Hughes.  She was a possible model for Truman Capote's Holly Golightly in Breakfast at Tiffany's, except that she was rich from birth.  Passed away last year at the age of 95, having squandered most of her wealth, leaving Anderson only $1.5 million.  His older brother long ago committed suicide.

Song #46 will come from:

• Stars and Stripes Forever:  John Phillip Sousa
• Armed Forces Melody

For marching band enthusiasts, here are four hours of the best. While Semper Fidelis, National Emblem March and The Washington Post are prominent,  #1 has to be Stars and Stripes Forever, all composed by March King John Philip Sousa.  SSF was selected by the U.S. Congress in 1987 to be the national march of the USA.  Sousa wrote over 130 marches, 15 operettas, 5 overtures, 11 suites, 24 dances, 28 fantasies and countless other symphonic works.

From Wikipedia:

The Armed Forces Medley, also known as the Armed Forces Salute, is a collection of the official marchpasts/songs of the 6 services of the United States Armed Forces: Army, Marine Corps, Navy, Air Force, Coast Guard, and as of 2020 the Space Force.^[1] The medley is usually played in increasing order of precedence:^[2]

1. Semper Paratus
2. Space Force Song (unnamed)^[3]
3. The U.S. Air Force
4. Anchors Aweigh
5. Marines' Hymn
6. The Army Goes Rolling Along

Did you know that this Medley was originally performed in public during the first National Memorial Day Concert in 1990 on the west lawn of the U.S. Capitol?  

There are several Space Force contenders.  Included is one from Donald Trump by Songify This!

The U.S. Space Force still reports to the U.S. Air Force.  On 4July2020 at the South Lawn of the White House, the Salute for the first time supposedly included the Space Force Hymn.  Here is the full two hour program.  Let me know if you figure out which entry won.  Someday I'll return to include the latest official Armed Forces Medley, which is song #46.

Seems like an empty ending, so let me add another of those entertaining dance re-sequences:

-