An Insane swaga an Insane Je ne sais quoi

Im pretty sure most of you guys have already heard of Insanity. Insanity is a workout program that you can do at your own place without having to buy any special equipment or even have a huge saloon. All you have to do is buy the DVDs and follow the calendar of exercises for 60 days. I guarantee you, its mental but it does really work for anyone, providing you are a healthy responsible person who eats properly and rests adequately. A friend of mine passed me on the DVDs and I got so involved with Insanity that nowadays when I dont do it I feel something is missing in my life. 

I recently had my first child and the money to put my child in a good nursery in a few months time has got to be saved from "yesterday". UK charges body and soul when a child is in nursery age. I could not maintain a monthly gym payment and save for both my kid stem cell bank monthly direct debit, plus rent, plus car insurance, plus all the normal bills normal human beings are to pay "normally". So, without thinking twice, this DVD made me recognise that there was an option available for those who dont have much money available, but most of all, dont really have the time to spend on traffic jams and busy gyms. 

I tested it once before my kid was born and I loved it, but because of loads of work I had by then, I kind of left it aside. But Insanity kept coming to my head, and my friend enticed me to it once again when lending me the DVDs. Combined with Dietpower (see article here) I have been very fiercely destroying that fat gained over Christmas holidays with anxious munching of sweets and traditional festive food that bombed my weight from 85kg (already a little too much for the likes of me) to 88Kg. Well, I dont consider myself fat at all, nothing like that. I am just a vegetarian sporty dude who likes to be healthy, and entering my 35s makes me want to maintain a certain swaga, a certain enticing je ne sais quoi; I want to be fit to smile and feel good about myself. Ive always did, and thats why I stopped smoking in 2006 after 10 years puffing the nicotine dragon.

Supported by max interval training, working really hard for 3 to 4 minutes and then bringing it down to a 30 seconds cool down, I have been really happy with the results. 40 minutes a day keeps me fit and helps me get to my weight goal, 75Kg on the 01st of July. Then Ill hit the Portuguese beaches and show off my hard-gained body whilst watching the proud look on my wifes face. im already back to 85Kg three weeks after starting.

Insanity tests your limits but also your progression. Every two weeks theres a fit test that helps you understand how well or poorly (I doubt it) youre doing. Want to know my progression, take a look then:

Approximately 90% improvement on the Switch Kicks (build muscle quick), basically maintained the same level for Power Jacks, around 12% improvement on the Power Knees (working knee flexor and extensor muscles), 50% improvement on Power Jumps (working hip extension and knee extension) and Globe Jumps,  ~33% improvement on Suicide Jumps (great muscle builder) and push-up jacks (awesome for building pectoral muscle), and finally 25% improvement on low plank oblique (work internal and external obliques and transverse abdominis). Overall, a great improvement rate considering I only started three weeks ago.

Why dont you try it yourself and let me know how youre doing? If you dislike Insanity there are also several other training programs you can try, for example, P90X (see it here) or the Rock Hard program (find it here). Bare in mind that my first choice lays on Insanity because you need nothing but a bottle of water and a towel to get fit. In the meanwhile check the promotional video I found on the Internet and keep checking for more posts soon in The Toxicologist Todays blog. Cheers!

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1st Survival Summer Course Medical Emergencies Breathing problems

All right, so imagine youre out there in the wild, not London, thats too tacky for you; think of a place where you lose yourself for days. Youre surrounded by wild animals and feeling exhausted for walking miles without seeing a way out. Suddenly, you and your mate look ahead and a gay bear is in musth and cannot wait a second anymore. It invests against the two of you violently striking your mate down after a violent chest hit. You realize he has sustained an injury. "Ohhh, thats bad", you say to yourself, only to verify that hes going weaker and weaker with severe bleeding. In the meanwhile you start panicking and find yourself in shock. Its when you look around and see yourself alone in an immense flood of wild noises, rotten berries, a gay bear and dark green leaves that camouflage the thousand dangers you are to face. Scenario set, what would you do to correct your equilibrium once again?

Aforementioned Gay Bear 

Lets start with the breathing problems since your mate might as well be raped by this horny bear if you do not help him straightaway. To start with, stop panicking, its not going to help you in anyway. I remember a day when my wife (by then my girlfriend) decided that she neednt my help to reach that set of blankets high up on the closet and after falling she hit her chest against the bedside table. In less than two seconds she turned from golden-tan to sick purple as her residual air was expelled from the lungs when hitting the furniture. One of my mates, startled by the fusion of noise, color change and my girls incapacity to breath by herself; started panicking and caused more upset than the issue I already had in hands. My immediate idea was to tell her to go fetch some water, to just remove her from the scene so I could assess the magnitude of whatever was going on without having the third party causing even more entropy. After that initial assessment I proceeded the way I was taught.

1) Check if the victim has a partial or complete airway obstruction. If he/she can cough or speak, allow him/her to clear the obstruction in a normal natural way. Just hold hands and reassure the individual that you are there and nothing bad is going to happen. If the scenario seems a lot more serious then be prepared to clear the airway yourself and proceed with mouth-to-mouth resuscitation (only if the individual is unconscious). With a completely obstructed airway you will have to give him/her abdominal thrusts until you clear the obstruction.

2) With your finger sweep through the subjects mouth and clear of any alien objects, broken teeth, soil particles, etc.

3) Apply the jaw thrust method, i.e., grasp the hands of the persons lower jaw and lift with both hands, one on each side, moving the jaw forward. Rest you elbows on the same surface the person is lying on if you need stability. Proceed with opening the persons lips if theyre closed by gently opening the lower lip with your thumb (see image below).

4) Once the airway is open, pinch the persons nose close with your thumb and forefinger and blow two complete breaths into his/her lungs. Mind that you need to allow the lungs to deflate after the second inflation; only them you can:

- "look for his/her chest to rise and fall,

- listen for escaping air during exhalation,

- feel for flow of air on your cheek."

5) If this forced stimulation hasnt worked then youll have to proceed to maintain the persons breathing by mouth-to-mouth resuscitation.

6) People can vomit during mouth-to-mouth resuscitation, especially people who suffered drowning, so check the passages for vomit and clear it periodically.

7) Do never ever forget about your Red Cross Manual, ever again.

Now, that crazy bear from before is now pants down moving towards you once again... but thats only next week.

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