A blown jock strap derailed the Sydney Thunder’s Big Bash campaign as the hilarious sight of Usman Khawaja stripping down in the middle of Manuka Oval signalled the end of the season for the men in green.
Khawaja opted to take his pants off and expose a pair of bright orange jocks after snapping the strap that holds his protective box in place.
Heat skipper Chris Lynn attempted to goad the opening batsman into continuing by bowling a spinner but Khawaja was determined to keep his “McNuggets” out of harm’s way.
“I had a blowout. And then Lynny was getting to me, he is like, ‘Spinner’s bowling’,” Khawaja said on Seven.
“I was like I have to protect my McNuggets, I don’t care who is bowling, no way I’m batting without my box. What a stinker.
“You’re not supposed to see the dacks, mate, that’s the point. Not one of my finer moments, but you’ve got to do what you’ve got to do, unfortunately.”
The commentators couldn’t believe what they were seeing as Michael Slater criticised Khawaja’s lack of colour co-ordination and James Brayshaw added, “I’ve never seen a cricketer completely derobe on the ground”.
Heat player Marnus Labuschagne said: “He gave us a full show.”
After switching out the strap, Khawaja appeared to lose focus while playing Labuschagne’s lethal leg spin.
The Aussie Test number three dropped a difficult caught and bowled before having Khawaja stumped two balls later as he played over the top of a wrong’un.
“Usman did not seem like he switched on after that break in play,” Adam Gilchrist said.
Ricky Ponting said on Seven: “Didn’t look like he was quite with it after that break, Khawaja. Even before that dismissal he turned around and was talking to the wicketkeeper. Lost a bit of concentration”
In 2013, fitness trainer Chris Jordan published a simple sequence of 12 exercises in a medical journal. It was notable because it combined aerobic and resistance training into a single bout of exercise that lasted just seven minutes. “As body weight provides the only form of resistance, the programme can be done anywhere,” wrote Jordan, who has a master’s degree in exercise physiology from Leeds Metropolitan University (now known as Leeds Beckett University).
The original seven-minute workout was based on a training programme that Jordan developed as a civilian fitness program consultant for US Air Force personnel stationed in Europe. Later, while training executives at what is now the Johnson & Johnson Human Performance Institute in Orlando, Florida, he fine-tuned the exercises into what he called a “hotel room workout” for the busy executives who complained they didn’t have the time or equipment to exercise while travelling.
Jordan, who is the director of exercise physiology at the institute, said he has never made money on the workout and insisted that the Johnson & Johnson Official 7 Minute Workout app be free of charge. “Many people cannot afford to buy a dumbbell or go to a gym,” Jordan said. “As time goes by, I’ve felt a greater desire and passion around making exercise as accessible as possible to as many people as possible.”
Jordan created several variations to the workout so that it could be useful to both “my triathlete elder brother and my 82-year-old mother.”
But as popular as the workout became, a number of people, particularly those who are overweight, older or have knee and hip problems, found it too difficult to complete. Among the biggest obstacles for some people were five exercises that require getting on the floor — pushups, planks, abdominal crunches, side planks and a tricky pushup with rotation.
To make the workout accessible to more people, Jordan recently created the Standing 7 Minute Workout, suited to bodies of any age, size or fitness level. Like the original workout, the standing workout includes exercises for cardio fitness, the lower body, the upper body and the core muscles — in that order. Each exercise lasts just 30 seconds, with only five seconds of rest in between.
To get the most out of the workout, do each exercise at a relatively high intensity – about a seven or eight or on a scale of one to 10. But go at your own pace, and stop if you hurt. It is recommended to talk to a doctor before starting a new exercise programme.
1) March in place: (30 seconds) – The goal is to get your heart rate up. Raise your knees and pump your arms. Pick up the pace if you can.
Rest for 5 seconds.
2) Chair-assist squat: (30 seconds) – Stand with your back to the chair. Place your feet shoulder-width apart. Now squat by bending your knees and lowering yourself toward the chair and back up. (Don’t sit down!) Keep your arms outstretched to counterbalance you. If you can’t go into a deep squat, just go halfway. (The chair is there for safety in case you lose your balance.)
Rest for 5 seconds.
7 Minute Workout
3) Wall pushup: (30 seconds) – Place your hands against the wall and walk your feet back so you’re leaning at a comfortable angle. Keep your body straight from head to heel, and lower yourself toward the wall and push up against it. If it’s too hard, scoot your feet closer to the wall. If it’s too easy, move your feet farther from the wall.
Rest for 5 seconds.
4) Standing bicycle crunch: (30 seconds) – Stand with feet shoulder-width apart, hands behind your head, elbows out. Lift your right knee and twist to meet it with your left elbow. Now do the opposite – touching your right elbow to your raised knee on the left. As you twist your upper body, crunch the abs. If you can’t touch your knee with your opposite elbow just get as close as you can, bringing the upper body toward the lower body.
Rest for 5 seconds.
5) Stand and box: (30 seconds) – Place your feet shoulder-width apart. Now raise your fists and punch and jab the air like a boxer. The goal here is to get your heart rate up. Punch a bit faster and add a squat if you’d like to make it harder.
Rest for 5 seconds.
6) Chair-assist split squat: (30 seconds) – Stand next to the chair with one leg forward and one leg back. Drop the back leg to the ground and use the chair for balance if you need it. Keep the front knee behind your toes. Switch legs after 15 seconds.
Rest for 5 seconds.
6) Chair-assist pushup: (30 seconds) – Place hands on the chair and walk your feet back so your body is at a 45-degree angle and straight head to heel. Bend your arms and lower yourself as close to the chair as you can. Push back up to the starting position. If it’s too hard, go back to the wall push-up.
Rest for 5 seconds.
7) Wall plank: (30 seconds) – Place your forearms against the wall to take the pressure off your wrists. Walk your feet back to a comfortable angle. Keep your body straight from head to heel, hold the position and feel your abs work. To make it harder, scoot your feet back farther from the wall.
Rest for 5 seconds.
8) Stepping jacks: (30 seconds) – This is a jumping jack in slow motion – without the jump! Start from a standing position with your arms at your sides. Step to the left and lift both of your arms over your head, hands briefly touching. Return to starting position. Now repeat, stepping to the right. If it’s too easy, pick up the pace or try a regular jumping jack.
Rest for 5 seconds.
9) Wall sit: (30 seconds) – Place your back flat against the wall and slide down into a sitting position, your knees directly above your ankles. Fold your arms. If it’s too difficult, just slide up a little bit. If it’s too easy, lower yourself. You should feel the muscles in your upper legs working hard.
Rest for 5 seconds.
10) Wall pushup: (30 seconds) – Repeat the wall pushup, or if you prefer, you can repeat the chair pushup. You should feel the arms, shoulders and chest working hard as you push away and lower yourself back toward the wall. Keep breathing!
Rest for 5 seconds.
11) Standing side crunch: (30 seconds) – Place your hands behind your head. Now lean to the right, raising your right knee to touch your right elbow. Now lean to the left and repeat, stretching to bring your left elbow to your raised left knee. You’ll feel this exercise in your side abdominal muscles. – The New York Times
You can download the Johnson & Johnson Official 7 Minute Workout app here
Sign up for one of The Irish Times’ Get Running programmes (it is free!). First, pick the eight-week programme that suits you. –Beginner Course: A course to take you from inactivity to running for 30 minutes. – Stay On Track: For those who can squeeze in a run a few times a week. – 10km Course: Designed for those who want to move up to the 10km mark. Best of luck!
New research led by Carnegie Mellon University Assistant Professor of Physics Shiladitya Banerjee demonstrates how certain types of bacteria can adapt to long-term exposure to antibiotics by changing their shape. The work was published this month in the journal Nature Physics.
Adaptation is a fundamental biological process driving organisms to change their traits and behavior to better fit their environment, whether it be the famed diversity of finches observed by pioneering biologist Charles Darwin or the many varieties of bacteria that humans coexist with. While antibiotics have long helped people prevent and cure bacterial infections, many species of bacteria have increasingly been able to adapt to resist antibiotic treatments.
Banerjee’s research at Carnegie Mellon and in his previous position at the University College London (UCL) has focused on the mechanics and physics behind various cellular processes, and a common theme in his work has been that the shape of a cell can have major effects on its reproduction and survival. Along with researchers at the University of Chicago, he decided to dig into how exposure to antibiotics affects the growth and morphologies of the bacterium Caulobacter crescentus, a commonly used model organism.
“Using single-cell experiments and theoretical modelling, we demonstrate that cell shape changes act as a feedback strategy to make bacteria more adaptive to surviving antibiotics,” Banerjee said of what he and his collaborators found.
When exposed to less than lethal doses of the antibiotic chloramphenicol over multiple generations, the researchers found that the bacteria dramatically changed their shape by becoming wider and more curved.
“These shape changes enable bacteria to overcome the stress of antibiotics and resume fast growth,” Banerjee said. The researchers came to this conclusion by developing a theoretical model to show how these physical changes allow the bacteria to attain a higher curvature and lower surface-to-volume ratio, which would allow fewer antibiotic particles to pass through their cellular surfaces as they grow.
“This insight is of great consequence to human health and will likely stimulate numerous further molecular studies into the role of cell shape on bacterial growth and antibiotic resistance,” Banerjee said.
Singer Guy Sebastian was forced to take a step back from performing in 2020 but says the one upshot was all of the extra time he got to spend with his family.
And for someone who loves entertaining a crowd as much as Guy Sebastian, it made an already hard year even harder.
“As a musician, 2020 was obviously a very difficult year,” says the multi-platinum Aussie artist.
“Performing in front of live audiences is an element of my work that I am extremely grateful for and I have missed it so much.
“We kind of got back to performing a little bit towards the end of the year but socially distanced audiences don’t have quite the same vibe.
“A lot of my band are based in Melbourne and I have missed performing together with them, so I’m looking forward to when we can all get together and jam again.”
Singer Guy Sebastian reveals his health and fitness secrets.Credit: News Corp Australia, Sam Ruttyn
Exactly when that will be is still anyone’s guess. But despite the challenges of last year, Sebastian says that one upshot is all of the extra time he got to spend with his family.
He even added a new string his ever-growing bow — perfecting a work-life balance.
“[My wife] Jules and I just finished building our dream home, we got a puppy late in January and my boys are six and eight years old, so I have been incredibly grateful for the time we got to spend with each other and hang together as a family, and from that I really learnt the value of balance,” says the 39-year-old.
“I was a bit of a workaholic in the past and now I realise the importance of making room for what matters in life.”
As for his 2021 health goals, Sebastian is going big. But that’s hardly surprising for someone so used to shooting for the stars in everything he does.
“A couple of years ago I undertook the challenge of being on the cover of Men’s Health — it was seriously hard work, but I felt amazing,” he says.
“I literally didn’t eat or drink one bad thing and worked out hard every day for 12 weeks. I need to feel that feeling again so I’m going to try and get a slice of that fitness back into me. Not as hardcore, maybe but close.”
GUY SEBASTIAN ON …
Best life advice
“I named my recent album and upcoming tour T.R.U.T.H. because this is something that I have really learned the value of over the last few years. When you live your life with honesty and integrity, there is nothing that anyone can ever take away from you.”
Diet
“Eat all the food! Food is a huge passion of mine. With Malaysian and Indian heritage, food is a big part of our culture and I am always cooking and always entertaining,” he says.
“In general I keep the carb count low. For example I can still enjoy curries but I will eat it over cauliflower rice.
“Things that you’ll always find in my fridge are hot sauce, eggs, another brand of hot sauce, steak and some more hot sauce. Most things taste better with hot sauce!”
Guy Sebastian said he wants to focus on his health and fitness in 2021.Credit: News Corp Australia, Sam Ruttyn
Mindfulness
“In the last few years I have developed a pretty serious obsession with golf — it’s great on so many levels, being outdoors, the concentration, when you can play with friends — the company, and of course, the exercise,” Sebastian says.
“So whether I can fit in 18 holes, a quick 9 or a half-hour at the driving range, focusing on golf for a little while helps me get through the rest of the day.”
Exercise
“I love getting outdoors. I’ve already mentioned golf but I love taking the boys fishing, bike riding, playing cricket with a bunch of mates, going out for a run or taking the dog for a walk,” he says.
“Anything to get outdoors and to get some fresh air, and I love HIIT-style training to stay fit. It shreds you fast if you stick with it and commit. If you go hard and work up a sweat it’s the best way to set up your mind to tackle the day ahead.”
* Guy Sebastian is an ambassador for Nature’s Way range of vitamins and supplements
Adam MacDougall is the creator of The Man Shake. A new, healthy, weight loss shake that is low in sugar, full of protein, fibre, vitamins and minerals that you can have on the run and leaves you feeling full.
When Danny MacAskill, legendary Scottish trials bike rider (and all-around god on two wheels), says at the beginning of his new short film, The Slabs, that what he’s about to ride is “pretty scary,” then you know goddamn well that it’s going to be a truly epic descent. One that would make mere mortals like us crumple to our knees, whimpering as we tearfully bail on the ride and slide back down the steep trail on our butts.
“I am a big fan of rock climbing and have been inspired by the various men and woman who set new routes and test themselves on some amazing faces around the world so I set out to find some challenging Slab Rock routes on my home Island of Skye with an aim to ride them in a continuous line and test what was possible on my bike,” MacAskill writes in the intro to the insane video.
He starts the show off by climbing to the top of The Slabs, located off the coast of Scotland, for his 1,600-foot ride down to Loch Coruisk below. The initial downhill seems fine, tame even. It doesn’t look that hard as you mumble to yourself. “Ah yeah, I could take that line, no problem.” And as it progresses, “I huck drops like that on [insert local trail here] all the time. No big deal.”
Then come the massive rocks and the gaps and the steeps. MacAskill goes from a languid but intense mountain bike ride down gently sloping side of a huge slabs of gabbro (a grippy, coarse type of rock similar to basalt) to dancing across boulders and bounding over huge gaps. The scale and steepness isn’t quite comprehendible until the drone shooting the descent starts to swoop and spin, showing the true angle with MacAskill silhouetted against the mountains behind him.
Craziness ensues as at one point he seemingly is about to run out of room on a precipitous knife-edge of rock that shoots down to the valley below. But MacAskill, being who he is, bounds up and out of the predicament, climbing like a goat and then continues to drop 650 feet down an even steeper, almost vertical, slope.
“I specifically picked lines that funneled me along a one-foot-wide ledge with cliffs dropping to the side,” said MacAskill in a recent interview with website UKClimbing. “It was quite a powerful feeling up there actually, I really quite enjoyed it,” he says. “Normally I’m used to doing tricks, so you’re maybe exposed for seconds at a time, whereas up there you’re doing a run where you’re exposed for a lot longer than that. It’s a bit more like climbing, I suppose.”
Check it out for yourself and bow down to the king of the death-defying stunts on two wheels.
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The most powerful substance in the human brain for neuronal communication is glutamate. It is by far the most abundant, and it’s implicated in all kinds of operations. Among the most amazing is the slow restructuring of neural networks due to learning and memory acquisition, a process called synaptic plasticity. Glutamate is also of deep clinical interest: After stroke or brain injury and in neurodegenerative disease, glutamate can accumulate to toxic levels outside of neurons and damage or kill them.
Shigeki Watanabe of Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, a familiar face at the Marine Biological Laboratory (MBL) as a faculty member and researcher, is hot on the trail of describing how glutamate signaling works in the brain to enable neuronal communication. In a paper last fall, Watanabe (along with several MBL Neurobiology course students) described how glutamate is released from neural synapses after the neuron fires. And today, Watanabe published a follow-up study in Nature Communications.
“With this paper, we uncover how signals are transmitted across synapses to turn on the switch for plasticity,” Watanabe says. “We demonstrate that glutamate is first released near AMPA-type glutamate receptors, to relay the signal from one neuron to the next, and then near NMDA-type receptors immediately after the first signal to activate the switch for synaptic plasticity.”
This new study was also partly conducted in the MBL Neurobiology course, where Watanabe is a faculty member. “It began in 2018 with (course students) Raul Ramos and Hanieh Falahati, and then we followed up in 2019 with Stephen Alexander Lee and Christine Prater. Shuo Li, the first author, was my teaching assistant for the Neurobiology course for both years,” Watanabe says. He will be returning to the MBL this summer to teach in the course — and discover more.
Australian Olympians and Paralympians are set to be vaccinated before the Tokyo Olympics in July with most athletes set to be covered in phase 2B.
News Corp revealed that, while the final timetable for the vaccine rollout has yet to be released publicly, Australian athletes would likely get their first shots in May and second round in July, well before the start of the rescheduled games.
Some Paralympic athletes will be eligible for to be vaccinated in earlier phases but federal sports minister Richard Colbeck told News Corp that the athletes wouldn’t need to jump the queue to get the vaccination.
“The clear priority for us is residents and staff in aged care facilities, they have to be first as they are the most vulnerable. That is the government’s priority and the advice we have received,” Colbeck told News Corp.
“Most athletes will get access in Phase 2B, which will be in late May, and June, which will give them time to be vaccinated prior to them heading off to the Olympics.
“Of course, everything will be dependent on supplies and obviously they will have to get some advice about how that will sit with their preparations and training and things of that nature.”
The news was reportedly passed on to sports officials earlier this week.
It comes at a time where there has been plenty of speculation about the event.
It reportedly has been unpopular in Japan to continue with Olympic plans while the pandemic continues with The Times reporting that Japan was looking to cancel the 2021 Games. The reported was flatly denied by Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga.
Suga swatted away the report in an address to parliament in which he declared the Games will go ahead as scheduled.
“I am determined to organise a safe Games while working closely with the metropolitan government of Tokyo, the organising committee and the IOC,” Suga said.
Australian Olympic officials also denied the reports.
The Games will no doubt be controversial regardless of what happens but the International Olympic Committee has also had to weigh in.
IOC president Thomas Bach had to defending forging on with the Olympics as not being irresponsible.
Japan are in a third wave of infections with many locals against the idea of the Olympics.
Bach did say that athletes shouldn’t skip the queue for COVID vaccines and promised the event would be safe.
“Our task is to organise Olympic Games and not to cancel Olympic Games. This is why we are working day and night to organise safe Olympic Games,” he said.
“We are not speculating whether the Games will take place. We are working on how the Games will take place,” he added, explaining that the IOC will issue guidelines for athletes and teams next month.
But some Canadian athletes have hit out against the thought of getting moved to the front of the queue
“We really need the vaccine to get into the arms of the people who are most at risk, those in long-term care homes, those in the front lines,” Canadian 75kg Olympic Champion wrestler Erica Wiebe told Reuters.
Similarly, racewalker Evan Dunfee said it “would sour public opinion and just turn the community against us”.
“Our value as athletes is only as strong as our community,” he said. “We’re nothing without our communities.”
He told Reuters he’d be unlikely to be vaccinated before the games.
The Australian news will help organisers as the nation joins the likes of South Korea, Denmark, Belgium and Hungary to reveal plans to vaccinate athletes while Israel has already started.
“The AOC is confident the vaccine rollout will see our Olympic athletes vaccinated ahead of the Tokyo Games without queue jumping health workers and vulnerable Australians,” AOC chief executive Matt Carroll said.
“We appreciate there are still details to be finalised, but our planning has always assumed the vaccine may not be available.
“The potential timetable we have been given is very welcome news and gives us even greater confidence we can achieve our mission. ”
Entry-level personal trainers initially rely on a training certificate and a high school diploma to successfully land a job.
However, coaching as a career path requires something more- Emotional Intelligence (EI). According to Melinda Abbott of Columbia University,1 49% or more of successful coaching is derived from a coach’s ability to monopolize emotional intelligence. Moreover, the ability to connect on a social level has been proven to drive motivation and teaching efficacy.
The bottom line is a coach should focus a substantial portion of their time on sports psychology.
The Benefits of Conscious Coaching
A well-known coach, Brett Bartholomew, brings up in his book, Conscious Coaching2 the importance of understanding the types of people you coach. As of late, there is a growing body of evidence surrounding understanding personality types for career success within the workplace and academic performance training.2
However, within the realm of sports, this too is becoming important. As Mark Rippetoe points out in his book Practical Programming for Strength Training,3 a strength coach will spend more time with an athlete during their career individually than any other coach. Therefore, knowing your athlete or client is of utmost importance.3
Focus less on counting reps and focus more on the client’s needs and know when to refer out.
Coaches are not licensed to be psychiatrists or medical doctors (unless one holds that title); nevertheless, understanding how EI applies to a client’s lifespan warrants some explanation. EI is a type of social intelligence that involves the ability to monitor one’s own and others’ emotions, discriminate among them, and use the information to guide one’s thinking and actions, according to Salovey & Mayer, 1990. In the context of coaching, this requires first an understanding of how a person approaches being instructed, how one manages failure, success, plateaus, and their interaction with nutrition and overall personal wellness.3,4,5,6
Emotional Intelligence in Coaching Builds Trust
One of my sessions consisted of six minutes of a client discussing their issues for the day before mobility work and isometric drills. EI allows that client to feel comfortable and builds trust.
Without trust, a client is not likely to follow instructions, and the client does come first.
You can have a Ph.D. in biophysics, but the client could care less; their foci are:
Achieving their intended results
Feeling appreciated
Those six minutes to my client made the remainder of her day far more enjoyable, and she will look forward to her next session.
As a coach, having a graduate degree makes reading bloodwork easier and discussions with a client’s physician more illuminating. The client learns that you care beyond the aspect of the job; this creates buy-in.2
This client is more likely to refer others to you and participate in higher engagement training.
Another client learned quickly that their well being is most important in and out of the competition. During a time such as COVID-19, clients are far more reluctant to engage with their coach, let alone purchase high-fidelity coaching programs.
As clients resurface, it is far more important to cater to mental health needs with the same vigor as a premium program or nutritional plan.
In particular, athletes who face suspension of events or entire seasons may feel displaced without a coach guiding them.
Contrary to popular belief, athletes often suffer more mental illness than average gym patrons.
As a coach, it requires that red-flags in normal function be caught sooner rather than later and ensure that your gym or office is a safe space. It is through a proper institution of emotional intelligence practice that client outcomes improve.7
While this product from Lintelek may be one of the most affordable options on the market, it boasts an impressive selection of fitness-related features.
It includes a large LCD touchscreen display, built-in heart rate and sleep monitor, and long battery life of up to 10 days.
Also, it provides nine built-in sports modes to track activities like walking, running, biking, climbing, or yoga.
What’s more, it can connect with your smartphone to alert you of new calls and texts, control your music, and send you reminders to keep moving throughout the day.
Working from home? Us too. While there are lots of variables to consider when your home also doubles as your workplace (will my dog bark during every Zoom call? Which pair of sweats should I wear this week?), choosing a desk has to be one of the most important. The kitchen table only works for so long; desks are essential. They’re also a significant investment, both in terms of money and the space they take up in your home. This is a decision you don’t want to mess up.
Thankfully, you have plenty of options. In this guide, we compared desks across major brands (looking at you, IKEA) and up-and-comers like Floyd, and rounded up options for a range of spaces and budgets. When shopping, there are a few things you’ll want to keep in mind. First, consider the amount of room you have for a desk, and also what your ideal work setup looks like. Multiple monitors will overwhelm a small writer’s desk, for example, but if you work mainly from a laptop, you likely won’t need something large. Second, don’t forget storage: Drawers and cord managers are great for keeping things tidy.
Whether you’re looking for a high-tech standing desk or something with maximum storage, the desks below make great picks to upgrade your WFH setup.
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