Frank Zane Leg Blaster

So, two weeks ago I hurt my back. Again. Ugh! The lower left back, to be exact. This is the same exact thing I did two years ago, right after I’d just gotten back into working out. It set me back for three or four months. Back doctor, rehab at a sports medicine clinic, and lots of chiropractor visits and massages (THAT one I didn’t mind, though). Anyway, I went to a new integrative medicine doc I’ve been seeing (along with a new nutritionist), and she did all kinds of treatments with electrodes, sauna, etc. Wow, have I been recovering quickly. Within 24 hrs, I was better this time than I was a full two months after the injury last time.

But, I don’t want to get hurt like this again. How did it happen anyway, you ask? Well, two years ago it was from bent over rows. A truly evil, evil exercise (turns out I remember hurting my back doing this twenty years ago, back in college, too). I have nixed those from my workout routines now and forever. I instead do seated rows, one arm rows, etc, etc.  This time I hurt my back by doing squats. And not nearly as heavy as I’ve gone before, either! Well, actually, it was a chain of events (it always is). I started out the day doing some weird back thing that Matt Furey (look him up) raves about… not a good idea for someone who’s hurt their low back before. Yeah, I’m brilliant. Then, I did a lot of leg exercises during my workout. Next, I went to dance class with my wife (awww….). Finally, back at home, getting ready for bed, I bent over to collect the garbage….  that’s when my back went….

Was it the garbage? No, it was a chain of events, like I said. But I’m done with this. I won’t be doing those back bends anymore, I can tell you. I also am on a search to come up with something other than squats ( “the king of all exercises”, no less). See, sometimes you have to realize your body has its own weaknesses, and its own strengths, and you have to do the right exercises for YOUR body. This seems to be especially true after age 35 or so. For example, I have friends who have bad shoulder problems and have to work around that, avoiding military presses, and the like. While I, thank God, have never had any shoulder difficulties and can do just about any exercises for that particular body part. So, I’ve been doing a lot of web surfing, looking for squat alternatives. That’s when I came across the “Frank Zane Leg Blaster”, pictured above. Anybody got one of these? There’s lots of crazy looking, chain based contraptions out there that do similar things, taking a lot of the stress off of your low back, but this is the best looking one to me. But, maybe I’m wrong. And it AIN’T cheap, that’s for sure. I’ve read reviews, but I’d love to hear from someone who has one.

By the way, this is Frank Zane:

At age 65. He’s one of the only ones of the 1970s era bodybuilders who looks anywhere near this good. Have ya seen Arnold lately?

Zane is still pumping iron, and is the real deal. That’s another reason I’m considering his leg blaster.

Big Hair

Football. Ugh.

One of the MANY football caricatures I drew during the ESPN weekend gig awhile back. I liked the skinny body contrasting with the huge shoulder pads. Also the little helmet on the head was pretty funny, I thought.

Moustache

I drew this one live at a gig awhile back and scanned it in, cleaned it up, and threw in the flat coloring in Photoshop when I got home.

Computer Geek

When this guy sat down, he said he was a computer geek. I was ecstatic just to not be drawing yet another sports pic at this ESPN gig, so I had a lot of fun with his drawing. I liked the result, and so did his wife. He wasn’t exactly thrilled, though. I guess I made him too geeky.

Show and Tell: God Bless the Wii

I’ve got a buddy who is in game design out in California. He has every game system, every game. Usually long before anyone else does. He also has a soft spot for my daughter, Brady. He gave her a Wacom and a Nintendo DS at various times. A few months ago he was in town visiting us, and brought along his Wii to try out.

The Wii, for those few people on earth who aren’t familiar with it, is the game system that you have to move around to play. With the handheld, wireless controllers, you jump, twist, dance, punch, and dodge. In other words, it’s a video game system you play without sitting on your butt, wasting away, and generally getting fat and out of shape.

I’d heard the hype, seen the commercials, but I still wasn’t sold.

Until I saw Brady bowl.

See, I don’t talk about it a lot, but Brady was diagnosed with arthrogryposis multiplex congenita when she was born . To the layman what this means is lower muscle tone (sometimes nonexistent), and, often, contractures of the joints (this is what made that trip to Cancun so challenging that I just talked about). Brady had severe club feet, but those were operated on when she was very young. Her walk continues to improve to this day. God is good. Her hands, though, are still in a bit of contracture. In other words, they don’t come up to a fully neutral position. Instead, so far, they are in a slightly flexed downward position (despite the braces she wears at night).

She has private swimming lessons most of the year, but her shoulders and arms and trunk are all weaker than they should be still at her age. The good news, though, is AMC, as it’s called, isn’t regressive. She only gets better, basically, with therapies and time. Praise God.

Anyway, on to my point. We’ve been to bowling parties, and Brady can’t really do it the “right” way. She’s a real trooper, but I know it discourages her. She can’t “really” do most sports.

But she CAN on the Wii, I saw. Actually, she’s quite good. She creamed me on bowling that first day. A tear in my eye as I watched her, I decided I was a Wii believer.

I bought her one the next week.

Basketball and Football

If you know me, or have been reading this blog, you know I dislike them both. Basketball’s a little better, but not much. Anyway, that’s not the point. Here are two more pix from that ESPN gig awhile back…

You’ll notice the similarities in the poses. The Basketball guy was first, and I liked the raised leg, how it was inside the body. I also liked the little afro guy looking up at him.

I liked the leg positioning so much, though, that a few drawings later, on the football kid, I decided to try to perfect it. I often do this on live gigs, try to come up with new poses and work on them, refining them as I do each drawing. When you’re drawing these at 3-5 minutes each, it’s a great learning experience. With the football pic I obviously changed styles a bit, going a bit more “Dexter’s Lab” with the linework. But this actually helped me refine that leg thing even more…it’s now a pretty strong “S” shape, up and around his backside.

SuperZeroes: Turtles!!!

Show and Tell: The Mighty B!!

I’m watching this new show, “The Mighty B” , on Nick right now as I write this. The writing is good, and the character designs are spot on. The main character, Bessie Higgenbottom, looks a bit like a female Dexter from the great, late Dexter’s Lab cartoon. A lot of the background characters are very Power Puff Girls-esque, and some of the static drawings and character movements remind me of Ren and Stimpy. So, while maybe lacking on a truly original style, The Mighty B does pull it’s influences from some of the best designed, most memorable cartoons of recent memory. In this day and age of less than stellar art on so many toons (hello, “World of Quest”, “Johnny Test”, etc., etc), that will at least work.

The voices are great too, very distinctive. But the backgrounds are awesome! I like the sponge-y, chalky textures in the bgs. As you can tell, I really like this cartoon, and will be recording it each week.

SuperZEROES: Tarzan!