To grunt or not to grunt???

The tennis season is right on us and we love watching it, we have to regulate how much we watch or we'd never get anything else done..We miss Andy Murray but now cheer some of the younger British players, who are working their way up to be the winning players.

Some people don't like the shouting or grunting noise a player makes as they hit the ball.. However there is a science behind the shouting during exertion, it seems that vocalization can enhance muscular force and performance for up to 9 to 12% ! This can be enough to add a meaningful amount of energy to a lift, or speed to a tennis serve, or power to a punch!

There has been lab tests measuring force with or without vocalization. In one classic experiment participants who shouted during an isometric arm flexion produced 12% more force than those who stayed silent.

A more recent study measuring striking force in martial  artists, found there was 9% more increase when participants grunted,  jumping from 22.g force to 22.2g force per strike.

In tennis the result is equally clear a study of players, with  both serve and forehand velocities were  significant higher when players grunted! The same was true for isometric force during those strokes. The statistical confidence was essentially perfect, meaning the result wasn't a fluke. 

Its all to do with taking in oxygen and using the diaphram and deep abdominal muscles force out the air and add extra force to the punch, stroke or speed. 

During my post op physio on my arm, the one physio always used to say, take some deep breaths, fill your body with extra oxygen to help you.. It's something I do all the time now if I have to do something that is going to take a bit more effort!

So cheer on our British tennis players and be glad when they grunt, because it means that little bright yellow ball is going to be the winning stroke... Come on Cam Norrie, come on  Emma Raducanu, come on Arthur Fery!!

Do you love watching tennis too?

Chrisxx

Love

 

Saw this and loved it, so showing it to you.

Chrisxx

A Beautiful Family

 I do like to see the Royal Family, although I do realise what a privileged life they live. The Prince and Princess of Wales with their children, all looked beautiful in this year's Trooping of the Colour for the King's official birthday.

I don't think anyone can deny that Catherine has the statue of a future Queen. 

And its lovely to see that Princess Charlotte now 11, still looks like a little girl. I  remember in an interview Catherine, saying, that she wanted Charlotte to have a little girl's hair style and not some older style.

Prince George looking older and he is indeed quite tall and looks like William, his father, he'll be 13 in July.

  

And you couldn't forget Louis, age 8 and renown for his cheeky smile and antics on previous occasions, when the Royals have attended parades.. but the crowds love him all the more for his playfulness. 

They are a wonderful family, but they are not immune to the cruelties of life, as Princess Catherine's diagnoses of cancer in April 2024 showed.. and this was followed by a year of chemo, with her facing the world with video's of her talking about her illness and progress. So brave of her, with world looking on, to me she was still that beautiful young woman with her children around her fighting a disease, that has no respect for wealth or statue.

It was a great occasion and all the Guards in their red jackets on horseback made an amazing sight.

However when the carriage with the family passed some members of the watching crowd, there were boos. I think Catherine was seen to look sternly at the crowd and Louis and Charlotte looked confused.  Some people don't want a King, so let them live somewhere else I say, perhaps with a Dictator? I don't know what you reading this may think but.....

.......what ever you may think, you must acknowledge that they make a lovely family.

Chrisxx

Not 100%

I don't know how are when you're not feeling well, but I struggle to do anything. My tum has been upset, no sickness, but that horrible uncomfortable feeling.

So I did not go for my weekly hair appointment, I'll try to get an appointment on Saturday. 

When I went to get showered and dressed, I looked at my toothpaste and just couldn't be bothered to squeeze out the last little bit, altho we do have these.

It will squeeze out the very, very last bit of toothpaste, but it was too much of an effort, so I started my new tube. I could hear my Aunty's voice, 'waste not, want not!' Awful,  but I just thought, I can't be bothered. But it brought to mind the little tin with very short bits of string, I found after she had died, no doubt she had saved them incase they would be useful in the future, the tin lid had rusted!

I was awake at 5 and couldn't get back to sleep for a while, so I was tired as well.. Dh had to go to the post office in the afternoon, so I thought I'd have a lie on the bed with my book.. And felt my eyes closing, so snuggled down and was just dropping off and the land line started to ring. We have a phone in our bedroom, who phones in afternoons, advertising??  Grrrr!! I did not answer... I got up just as Dh returned. He checked the phone and we didn't know the number, so ?

As a PS. about the Opticians, they do have  another consulting room, where there aren't any steps, which was where I'd gone before.

Chrisxx

Red Frames!

 I have been having eye problems for a few months.  I can't see the print in some books, so buy the kindle version. I got some reading glasses two years ago, instead of varilux lenses and have been managing.. So yesterday, because the nose pad had broken on my reading glasses, I had to visit the opticians. 

Because I am boycotting shops with a step, there is only one optician I can visit. Repairing the nose pad was done there and then and they could test my eyes within 10 mins. 

However it was up a few steps, I said that's ok. But when I came to the steps, the hand rail was on the right side!  (my broken arm side.) I thought it would be ok, but it was difficult, they were very steep. I used both hands to hold the rail but honestly they were higher than usual steps, and then there was a step and no hand rail.. the optician let me hold his arm and I struggled to get up it!

Test was so, so, my eyes are very different from my last test, which I knew and my cataract in my right eye has grown.. not too bad as I was first told I had them in 2005. My Macular degeneration is no worse and he suggested, it would have been slowed down by the eye vitamins, MacuShield, that I take.. These were advised by an Ophthalmologist in 2014, so we were both pleased to hear that, because they're quite pricy! 

So I was ok about the test, I don't know why I kept putting it off, just couldn't fit it in with everything else I do.

But, then there were the steps to go down, I froze. Going down steps fill me with dread and I started to panic, the optician got Dh, I was a weepy and shaking. It was a slow process, the steps were very, very steep, I couldn't have got down without Dh's help! I'm not doing those again!!

I have an appointment to gage how bad the cataract is next week, with a view to getting it sorted. 

I may go privately as my cousin once said. there's no pockets in a shroud!

I've chosen red framed glasses!

Chrisxx

My Son.

 60 years yesterday my son Simon came into the world. It was a Monday afternoon about 5pm, when, with the help of the one Midwife on duty, I staggered to the delivery room.  Everyone else was on their break, I was the only one in labour.

She told me, as I lay there, she had just returned from a year delivering babies in S Africa.. And with her help he was born. No fuss, no doctors and the music being piped into the labour ward was the 'Mamas and the Papas,' singing, ' Monday Monday.' 

Compared to my daughter's delivery it was easy, and I think it was made easy by my friend driving me to the hospital in her old mini, bumping along on every bump! And an excellent experienced Midwife! His date of birth, 06/06/66

Here he is in Infant school, sitting in the middle of the first row in a navy cardi.

And now!

He is my entrepreneur son, photographer and has his ebay business selling cameras. Here he is togged up taking photos at a race course with one of his super duper cameras. Looking a bit cold, and he told me it was bitterly cold.  He's put on a bit of weight, but as he had Crohns in his twenties, that's no bad thing for him.

And this is the sort of photos he takes.

60 years, I can't believe it. And he is such a lovely fellow, always has a good thing to say to people, very good interpersonal skills and talented.

I'm very proud of him.

Chrisxx

Well would you ever??

 Have you ever stopped on a road side and bought something? I have, I've bought eggs, plants, and bunches of flowers as well as vegetables, cooking apples and a Christmas tree!

And I have put outside 'free' tomato plants, selection of mugs and some casserole dishes.. with a please help yourself note! All went..

But have you seen the latest thing?? 

Cake Sheds!

Bakers wanting to make money are resorting to selling cakes, and in some instances bread too, outside their houses.

Some have gone from selling eggs to adding flour, fat and sugar to make cakes and setting up a cake stall as it were. A cool box for the pastries and an honesty box and also a 'tap your phone here,' machine!

Good luck to them I say... what clever ideas some people have to make a living.

Wish there was one up one of the lanes here!!

Chrisxx

Getting Fit.

 So I did the Fitness Class.. altho the night before I decided I wouldn't go! Slept badly and woke up thinking I'll shower and dress and see how I feel.. my friend suggested I go and give it a try. So I did! But I had 4 worries...

First worry was over come, we were able to park, no not 'we' but Dh, was able to turn the car in the space, in front of the church on the other side , so we were facing the right way to park on the road. And we did, right outside the church hall!.

Next worry, would I stand out as a grey haired old lady, over weight,, No there were others the same, may be not so over weight

Would I stand out as the 'newbie' no there were 2 others joining then too. 

And would there be a disabled toilet... yes!!!

And the young woman, Karen, taking the class was lovely, so all I had to do was the exercises!

And I did and kept going for the hour! There were some my duff arm wouldn't do and there were 2 activities in the circuit that Karen adjusted for me. But over all I was able to do everything to the best of my ability and better than some.  I liked the chair exercises best! 

So I'll continue to go and hope as the weeks progress my legs will ache less the next day, because today they are 'red' hot!

I must admit I did feel good after it.

And any exercise must be good for me, what do you think?

Chrisxx

An unpleasant week.

 Hasn't it been blazing hot!! And my week was compounded by my covid booster jab and the RSV jab, which is for protection against chest infections. I was dreading going, but although getting into our very hot car, as on the drive it was facing the sun, once we were going the air conditioning kicked in and it was blissfully cool. The drive to Basil-end hospital takes about 15  to 20mins, all of 7 miles because of course here in Wales, the speed limit around towns is only 20 mph. Yes, very slow, but we're used to it now.

Amazingly we didn't have to wait and inside, it was cool. The needle didn't hurt, but as she dabbed the spot on my 'bad' arm I very much felt it and inadvertently gave out arggg sound. Its an automatic response, as it is very tender feeling.  I don't ever have injections in it and wish I'd asked for my thigh instead.

It was awful and Wednesday I felt ill, my arms ached and I had aching joints and a head ache. And my 'broken' arm was hell, I felt ill. I was even off my food. Dh made his version of SW zingy chicken.my favourite and I hardly ate any, although some ice cream slipped down!

So what with the heat and the reaction to the jabs I hardly slept. But by Thursday I was feeling a bit better, but didn't go out and missed the Mahjong group in the afternoon.

I was fine after a good sleep and Friday we went to the SW meeting and lost 1.5 pounds! 

So hopefully that's my jabs for a while. I know they are for my protection, but when I have a reaction, I'm not happy!!

Do you have a reaction to the covid jab?

Chrisxx

A small view of some plants in my garden,

 With this hot weather, flowers that were in bud have flowered, so my lupins are glorious..grown from seed two years ago and they are now multi-blooms.

 My latest rose.. 'Tottering by Gently,' a shrub rose with pale yellow single blooms. I absolutely love it. It's planted on the edge of the patio, I can see it up close when I sit out there.

And a moderately scented rose, 'Scarborough Fair,'  bought for the front garden in a corner, and it failed.. Or rather I flailed it and planted in the wrong place, so dug it up last Autumn and planted here and it really likes it!

Some 'Love in the Mist' seeds scattered here and they are gorgeous. I'll have them for ever now, as they self seed prolifically, well all over the place really whether you want them or not!

This rose name lost, is the Grand daughter of a rose given to me by my daughter for Mother's Day about 20 years ago.. Dh took 4 cuttings, which we grew in Suffolk, then cuttings from one of those for here. It has a lovely Turkish Delight scent. I watch it for green flies and any other bugs, its a very precious rose!

I love my garden.

Chrisxx