MartinVegartin

Have you had the causes of the pains diagnosed? At various times I have had pain in my lower back, right shoulder, left forearm and both knees. I give up some exercises for a few months or a few years. I try variations - feet turned different ways, different grips, different angles. Or I do bodyweight or lighter versions to keep blood flowing to the damaged areas. Some people find eccentric movements helpful for some problems in the short-term - mainly tendon problems, I think. I never had any shoulder pain when doing dumbbell overhead presses but doing handstand presses feels different in the shoulder and upper back area. Perhaps you could try those or handstand shoulder extensions - where you keep your arms straight but shrug your shoulders up and down. Have you tried a press up movement that is like a planche press up - but with your feet on the ground? Your arms are at a differnt angle - closer to your waist - and it's harder to do than normal press ups. Good luck.

Well, as others have said, be the best example you can be and try to be the kind of person others would want to emulate. Be fit and strong, cheerful, interested and interesting. There's not much more you can do that you haven't already done. But don't give up. Good luck!

Well done and good luck! Don't work too hard. Work is unnatural.

Someone sent me this: ----------- Taken from the Viva newsletter......... Tell Tesco to go vegan! Juliet Gellatley of Viva! met with Tesco this summer to discuss their provision for vegans. Tesco stated that they are interested in trialling new vegan products but expressed concern that people are not asking them for lists of vegan foods or 'demanding' more vegan products. Whether you are vegan or not wouldn't it be wonderful to have major food outlets supplying more delicious vegan foods that help save animals and the planet! Please write to their Customer Services NOW! They want to hear what you'd like them to stock, and/or what you'd like them to 'veganise'. Or you may want a list of the vegan foods they already stock. You can contact them at: Email:[email protected] By phone: 0845 7225533, 8am to 11pm Monday to Friday, 9am to 8pm Saturday and 10am to 6pm Sunday By Post Tesco Customer Service PO Box 73 Baird Avenue Dryburgh Industrial Estate Dundee DD1 9NF

Yes, it is evil.

I saw this elsewhere: PETA Selfridges Foie Gras Demo (Sat October 3) Come participate in a fun, one-of-a-kind demonstration on Saturday, 3 October, to urge Selfridges to stop selling foie gras. The demonstration will take place outside Selfridges at 400 Oxford Street at 11 am and last for 30 minutes. However, we will meet in a location close to (but not in front of) Selfridges at 9:45 am sharp to talk through the event. Our goal is to get 100 compassionate people out for this eye-catching demonstration. Each participant will be given a duck mask to represent the ducks and geese who are used to make the fois gras sold at Selfridges. Some people will also hold signs, while others will distribute leaflets. The demonstration will involve chanting to urge Selfridges to drop foie gras to the tune of the "Birdie Song" and doing the kind of dance you see in this video. A person in a duck costume will lead the way. Foie gras production is banned in the UK and more than a dozen other countries. More than 60 per cent of Britons believe that foie gras sales should also be banned. Not one supermarket will sell foie gras in the UK. Foie gras has also been pulled from the shelves of House of Fraser, Prince Charles has banned it from Royal menus and the Pope has denounced it as cruel. Please plan to take part in this unique demonstration to urge Selfridges to have a heart for ducks and geese, and bring your friends and family! Attention non-Londoners: You, too, can take part! Unfortunately, we cannot pay for your travel and stay, but it's possible to get to London from other places in the UK very affordably through services like megabus.com. Why not make a weekend trip to London out of it? MegaBus.com advertises that it offers bookings starting at £1, plus a 50p booking fee (if you book in advance). If you do not have a friend or relative to stay with, it is possible to find affordable places to stay in London through hostelworld.com. It's important that you please RSVP to me by writing to [email protected] with "Birdie" in the subject line of your e-mail. The meeting location, dress code, lyrics of the chant, instructions on the dance and other fun details will be sent (to people who RSVP) closer to the date of the demonstration

You could cook meals for your family and friends so they can see (taste) how nice vegan food is. If you can't cook you could buy them the occasional vegan sausage roll, pie or ready meal. You could collaborate with your friend's girl friend. Many people think vegan food will be tasteless and unsatisfying - until they first try it.

Don't repeat this to meat eaters. But it's one way of thinking about it. It could be said that men who eat meat are mummy's boys. They listened to their mothers who told them they needed to eat their meat to grow up big and strong. Or they listen to other men whose mothers told them to eat their meat. Real men think for themselves and are willing to experiment. They are not afraid to walk along their own paths in life instead of following all the other mummy's boys. That's what could be said but it wouldn't go down too well with men who aren't strong enough to think for themselves.

You could try some bodyweight exercises. You could add extra weight to some of them by carrying the dumbbell or heavier objects. There's a method of training which Pavel Tsatsouline calls 'ladders'. I'm not sure if it will build much mass but it does allow you to do quite a lot of volume. Even with bodyweight it can be hard. You start off with one rep. Then 2, then 3, etc. As many as you can without going to failure. You rest and then repeat. When I do them, the rests between each set of reps is 3 seconds multiplied by the previous number of reps. So, after the first rep - which is 1 rep - I rest 3 seconds. After the second rep - which is 2 reps - I rest 6 seconds. And so on. When I've done as many as I can without going to failure - usually only 5 or 6 - I rest for 2 minutes and then do it again. I do this 4 times. If I only get to 5 reps in the first group, I will have done 5+4+3+2+1 = 15 reps. If I do that 4 times, I will have done 60 reps. Usually, though, I will only get to 4 in the last 1 or 2 groups. I use it for step-ups, dips and chin ups. I don't use it consistently because I prefer another method but I throw it in now and again for variety. Very good bodyweight exercises that need no equipment or only minimal equipment are one-legged squats, step-ups, chin ups and pull ups, dips, pike press ups - which on the Beast Skills website are called tiger press ups, press ups with your feet raised, and a few others. And, as I said, you could hold extra weight when doing them. They should do until you can get more weight. I bought over 400 lbs of weight from a gym for £20 a few years ago. They were no longer needed. You could ring up some gyms and ask them if they have any weights. Or put a card in a newsagent's window. Or you could make a heavy sandbag. Good luck in gaining some more muscle. Oh, and I eat a lot of raisins with nuts. Some people don't like dried fruit because of their high sugar-to-weight content but I love them.

It might just be me - I might be odd - but I have put a little bit more bulk on my triceps in the last few weeks. The only thing I can attribute it to is my new interest in handstands. I have been doing a handstand every time I have a cup of tea and a few other times during the day. That's about 12 times a day. When I say that I do a handstand every time I have a cup of tea, I mean I do them just before or after having the cup of tea - not whilst drinking them. I still can only do them by supporting my feet against a wall. I tested myself when I first started and I could only hold a handstand for 35 seconds before I started to feel a bit of discomfort. I can now hold the position for 50 seconds to the same degree of discomfort. And that is after doing three sets of handstand press ups. I couldn't do any of those before I started this practice. I would be able to hold one for well over 60 seconds if I didn't try doing so after the press ups. I can hold a one-hand handstand easily for 15 seconds. I haven't tried them for maximum time and I don't know how long I could have held one when I first started. I use Pavel Tsatsouline's 'greasing the groove' method when I do my daily handstands. I used to hold them for 12 seconds at a time. I now hold them for 20 seconds. If you hold them for about a third of your maximum time they won't tire you out. Usually, the only day I don't do them is the day after upper body training. James, if you have back trouble, the bird-dog exercise might help you. I'm sure it's helped me. I hold the position for 10 seconds, 15 times on each side. Just before doing my upper body exercises.

I like sites like that - you can do good by not doing much at all. I also like to click on one or two of the advertisers on the site. Those that don't really benefit animals. That way, they pay for the click, think that people are interested, and continue to pay for advertising. Such as 'dog training'. I stay on the new site that opens for a few seconds to make it look as if I am interested - they can tell how long someone stays on their site. But I wouldn't do that too often in case there is some monitoring system that will see frequent clicks from my isp on the dog training ad. I've bookmarked it and will click every day.

Thanks. If more people were vegan, there would be less strain on health services. We have to pay for prescriptions here, which I don't object to as it lightens the load on the NHS. Although people on on unemployment and invalidity benefits don't need to pay. We also pay for dental check ups. About £18 the last time I went.

I don't know why there is a smilie in one of the lines. It must be some sort of censorship for offensive words. The offensive word, if that is what it's for, was 'd i s g u s t i n g'.

I don't know about the health system in the US but I'm glad I live in the UK. We have a wonderful health service. But it could be better. One reason that it is not as good as it could be is that too many people clog up the system with unneccesary visits to their GPs. I know of many people who go to their physicians frequently - every time they feel an ache. Every time they have a cold. The NHS cannot cope with hypochondriacs like that. I have had my nose broken at least once and had a badly gashed face that has left a very noticeable scar. I didn't seek medical attention. I damaged both knees and my back many years ago. I didn't even think of going to the quack. If more people were more stoical we would have a better system. The trouble with a free service (free at the point of delivery) is that some people think it's their right to take advantage of it for the most trivial of conditions and don't care about those who are seriously ill, who they are effectively stealing from. I've never had to search around for a dentist. I have always been on the books of an NHS dentist. I think the present difficulty in some places is caused by changes in their funding and contracts. Too many dentists now refuse to see NHS patients who can't afford to go private. I don't know where the queue for dentists was that was shown in the video. If it was in Cumberland, the people were queuing to register as private patients after two surgeries announced they would no longer treat adults on the NHS. And, I believe, shortly after that a foreign dentist set up practice and gave NHS treatments. In some places there is a shortage of dentists, even entirely private ones. When a new dentist sets up shop there can be a rush by local people to get registered, even as private - non-NHS - patients. That's what most of the queues are about. In this country, the unemployed, the old and immigrants (legal or illegal) can get the best of free medical attention. I believe that in Europe some of the countries have an even better service. And another thing, the NHS was set up at a time when people were healthier. We had just fought a war, the country was almost bankrupt and rationing was still in place. Since then, despite a wider choice of food, certain diseases have been on the increase. Many - possibly most - people who go to their medics for non-accident cases will have contributed to their own disease by wrong living. They should be vegan and they should exercise. And shouldn't drink or smoke. That is, if they want to be healthy. A private medical service is all right for those who can afford it. I couldn't. I couldn't afford to pay for medical insurance. I believe all should have access to free (at the point of delivery) medical care. If some people want to spend extra money for private treatment that is their prerogative but they should still pay National Insurance contributions. As members of the same country we should be prepared to support each other's rights to basic services. Actually, many people believe that part of the problem with the lack of funding to the National Health Service - and other services - is caused by the Private Finance Initiative. This is where a private company builds, say, a hospital and then leases it back to the government or local authority. In the long run, the cost to the tax payer can be much higher than if the public sector had built the hospital. It is a swindle. The money to pay back the private companies has to come from somewhere. Often that means diverting money from the Health Service. We've seen recently where the greed and stupid short-sighted targets of the business world can lead us. We nearly had a meltdown in the world's economies. I don't trust big business, including insurance companies. Where big profits are possible, greed can blinker those who make the decisions. When the Labour Party was canvassing for votes before the 1997 General Election they promised to hold a Royal Commission into vivisection. Then a rich bloke from a supermarket family gave them a large donation and received a peerage and a job as science minister in their government. Eventually, he gave them a total of 11 million pounds. He had shares in companies that use vivisection and he is a supporter of that ing cruelty. There has been no Royal Commission, the numbers of vivisection victims have increased and that liar, Tony Blair, signed a petition in support of vivisection. Let big business run our health service and take complete control of vivisection and we can wave goodbye to any hope for the millions of victims of the vivisectors. They'll have little incentive to do proper scientific research, with the need to have new methods expensively validated and developed because the present, cruel, system does turn out a few new drugs each year which still make the drug companies milliards of pounds profit. And the tortured victims of the vivisectors are used to assure the ignorant public that every effort is made to make safe and effective drugs. We need a health service that is run by elected polititians - not those unelected ones who bung the government a few million quid so they can make more profit on their biotechnical shares - and who can be kicked out by the electorate if they prove to be useless or too corrupt. That's another thing - we have two or three main parties which have many corrupt members. We can't get rid of the corruption or uselessness because the next party will be just as bad. We need proper democracy but I don't know how or what form that would take. I'm not a capitalist nor a socialist. I believe that both, in their extreme forms, are dangerous. Both will invade other countries to further their own aims. And both care little for the individual once they get the scent of profit or more control in their nostrils. Good luck to you Americans with your system but long live the NHS!

You'll probably need barbels/dumbbells to build a lot of mass but bodyweight can build mass and great strength. Because of a back injury I am using bodyweight exercises only now. Although I carry extra weight for chin ups, dips and step ups. One legged squats are also very good. There are also single arm press ups. The type with the elbow by your side instead of pointing out away from your body are very demanding and need great strength. And handstand press ups. When you can do a few handstand press ups with your hands on the floor you could use something to increase the depth to allow your head to travel lower than your hands. And then there are partial one-handed handstand press ups. You need to keep the other hand on the ground in case your pressing arm suddenly gives way.

dailymail.co.uk/debate/article-1203343/JOANNA-BLYTHMAN-A-cancerous-conspiracy-poison-faith-organic-food.html

The agrichemical and GM producers have a lot of power. Just like the corrupt drug companies. Strange that crops from decades ago had more nutrients - including the time when all farming was organic-ish. An article in the Seattle Post-Intelligencer in September, 2007, highlighted some of the findings of The Organic Centre's report, 'Still No Free Lunch.' This examined studies done recently by food scientists and plant breeders. It found that as crop yields have increased, nutrient value has actually fallen. The taste and smell of food has also diminished. They found that the heavier a tomato is, the lower its concentration of lycopene, vitamin C and beta carotene. Sweet corn, wholemeal bread and potatoes have drastically less zinc, calcium and iron than they used to have. Researchers at Washington State University in one of the studies looked at how wheat has changed in the last 100 years. The researchers concluded that you would have to eat twice as many slices of modern bread to get the same nutritional value as bread from the earlier varieties of wheat. It would seem that bread can no longer be classed as the 'staff of life'. Researchers at the University of Texas in another of the studies compared nutrient content of 43 fruits and vegetables. Using data that covered 50-70 years, they found declines of 5% to 40% or more in vitamins, minerals and proteins in groups of foods, particularly vegetables. These declines have occurred over different time scales ranging from 50 to 100 years. More crops can now be grown per acre but at what price? Even some organic crops show a reduction in nutrients. http://www.organic-center.org/science.nutri.php?action=view&report_id=115

Follow Marcina's and Horsedoc's advice and also search for methods of prevention. Could you ask a vet to do the surgery but not restructure the bladder? Then change the diet and give things to prevent stones reforming. There might be some helpful info in these sites. I don't need to tell you to be careful in evaluating the information they contain: http://www.denes.co.uk/advice/fact_sheets/bladderstones_and_gravel.php This site also has lots of info, mainly about oxalate stones, including: Stone Prevention Retrieving the stones is generally the easy part of calcium oxalate stone management. Prevention of future stones is more challenging. If the patient is one of the 35% with an elevated blood calcium, then steps should be taken to control the calcium level and determine why it is high (see hypercalcemia). If blood calcium levels are normal, the following regiment is recommended: Step One: Feed a Protein-Restricted Alkalinizing Diet These therapeutic foods are high in fiber, not restricted in phosphorus, and mildly restricted in protein. Canned.... Step Two: If Oxalate Crystals Are Present, the Urine is Not Dilute, or if the pH of the Urine is Acid, a Greater Percentage of Canned Food Should Be Used and a Potassium Citrate Supplement Should Be Added Potassium citrate is available in chewable form, capsules or liquid. It is a natural stone inhibitor. The goal urine pH is now 7.5. In 2 to 4 weeks, another urine sample is performed. Step Three: If the Urine is Still Having Crystals or Other Undesired Properties, a Vitamin B-6 Supplement is Introduced. A population of cats has been identified for which a B-6 deficiency leads to oxalate stone development. This may.... http://www.veterinarypartner.com/Content.plx?P=A&A=1741 ------ And there might be something here: http://www.shirleys-wellness-cafe.com/ Put 'bladder stones cats', in the search box. Good luck to the little moggy.

If you want to do heavy squats but don't have a rack, you could do hack squats. The type where you hold the bar behind your legs. You could lift from the floor or a couple of piles of big books. The exercise seems to be half-way between squats and deadlifts. A slightly difference emphasis than either. And then there're single leg squats. I don't know about their affect on growth hormones but they are a wonderful exercise for leg strength. Or high step ups.

I'm not a runner - nor a stretcher - but I would give the following a try to see how it goes: You could run in intervals (as interval sprint training) with stretching between the intervals. As long as you didn't try to stretch too much before things were properly warmed up. Perhaps more stretching in the later intervals and gentle stretching during the first few intervals. If there are any adverse effects, try something else. I do interval training before I do squats. I do squat thrusts. 10 sets of 40 as fast as I can. No pounding along pavements. No dogs chasing me. No women throwing themselves at me. No car fumes.

Please cross post this. World Day for Animals in Laboratories. London, 25th April 2009. Meeting at 12 noon, Reformer's Tree, near Speakers' Corner (nearest Tube: Marble Arch) To mark World Day for Animals in Laboratories, campaigners from all over the UK and beyond will be gathering in London on April 25 to call for an end to animal experiments. Following a march from Hyde Park through the centre of London, where we intend to take the anti-vivisection message to large numbers of shoppers, tourists and residents, we will then hold a rally at Parliament to protest against the government’s pro-vivisection policies. It is now over 10 years since Labour was voted into government but any hopes that they would carry out their pre-election promises on animal experiments have long vanished. Soon after coming to power, the Government abandoned plans to hold an official inquiry into animal experimentation claiming this would be too costly. At the same time the Labour Party was accepting millions in party donations from powerful figures in the biotech and pharma industries, who were in return given key government positions and life peerages. In the intervening years this has allowed the drug companies to wield huge influence over government policy. Far from the promised reduction and end of vivisection, in the past 3 years the number of animal experiments has actually started to increase for the first time since the 1970’s. Meanwhile the Government continues to ignore growing scientific evidence that animal experimentation is a seriously flawed practice. There are fundamental physiological differences between different species, and even within species, which make animal testing unreliable and dangerous. Side effects from medical drugs are responsible for 18,000 deaths in the UK every year, the fourth biggest cause of premature death after heart disease, cancer and stroke. Yet all of these drugs were passed as “safe” following tests on animals. Animal experiments have no place in 21st century science. The longer the scientific community denies this, the more shame it will bring upon itself. This is the first time in over 15 years that the anti-vivisection movement has held a march in London to mark World Day, in previous years such marches attracted crowds of thousands. The march on 25 April is intended to revive the spirit of those earlier marches, to unite and mobilise the anti-vivisection movement, to attract new campaigners and to take the antivivisection message out to the public and to the heart of government. It’s clear that we cannot rely on the government or the vivisectors to take the necessary action to put an end to this huge scandal. Please join us on 25 April and let’s make our voices heard for the millions of forgotten victims of vivisection. For more information, including details of transport to the march and rally, contact us; WDAIL, BM Box 8623, London WC 1N 3XX. Email: [email protected] Donations: The march and rally and other events for World Day in London are being organised by a collective of individuals and grass-roots groups. Please consider making a donation to help us make the day a big success. Send Cheques/PO’s (payable to 'WDAIL') to WDAIL, BM Box 8623, London WC 1N 3XX. Publicity: We have posters, leaflets and banners available to advertise the march, which we can send you by post or you can download from the website. Please help us to spread the word by distributing them to friends and fellow campaigners, or by placing them in places such libraries, health food shops, community centres, offices etc. To order leaflets and posters: Please contact us by email: info at wdail.org or write to the address above. We have A5 colour leaflets 2-sided and A3 posters (see sample on left). Download: Click on the image on the left (front) or right (back) to download a jpeg version of the World Day leaflet. The front of the leaflet can also be enlarged for posters. THE IMAGES ARE SHOWN ON THE WEBSITE. This website will be updated with information over the coming weeks and months, so check in for more info soon, or contact us if you have any questions. We'll also be sending out regular email info updates, if you want to receive these direct let us know. "See you in London on April 25th" - World Day Organising Group

Very good. I liked how he said that it is similar to child abuse. Then, a bit later, a woman said that she likes a bit of bacon and gave a little laugh. I imagined a paedophile saying that he likes a bit of ten-year-old girl and then giving a little laugh.

My pleasure.

There doesn't seem to be a thread for this. I've only made the first on clickable. Just copyand paste the other addresses in a browser. I don't want to put almost duplicate/excess web addresses in case it weakens page rank with the search engines. Some interesting info here - the basics of anatomy, cell structure and cell biology, etc: http://www.lawrencegaltman.com/ lawrencegaltman.com/Naugbio/Bio211/Bio211Home.htm lawrencegaltman.com/Naugbio/Bio211/Lecture/Bio211Lecture.htm This one introduces the modules about various models. But be careful, half-way through it shows the anatomy of muscles using a real human corpse: lawrencegaltman.com/Naugbio/Bio211/Lab/Muscle%20PreLabFLASH.html It's the one on the main page called 'NVCC A & P Lab Video'.

Thank you, good sir.