Do You Like Gladiator Movies?

Oh yeah!!, I am Spartacus." Everyone is Spartacus these days.We all know good and well Kirk Douglas is the real Spartacus, but there is a new cable TV drama Spartacus, that is homoerotic enough for Liberace, has enough hetero smut thrown in so they don't turn it off in Peoria (or wherever normal dwells these days) and sufficient blood and guts to furnish　an abattoir.


I watched one episode and I thought: F**k yeah I want to look like these guys. The only problem is I'm like 54 years old and have been sitting on the couch for 4 years, I mean I am really out of shape.　

So along comes Men's Health Magazine, with a tie-in work out http://www.menshealth.com/spartacus/workouts/ 

And with more determination than good sense, I began the Spartacus workout program. It is a circuit that is supposed be completed 3 times in one go and 3 times a week. So far I have not been able to get past the first circuit and it makes me feel like I'm going to puke. 

Makes me wonder if a 54 year old couch cluster can really do this kind of thing or  will I herniate something, or clutch my heart and fall to the frozen floor of my apartment.  

But somehow there's a whatever-doesn't-kill-me-makes-me-stronger quality to the workout that keeps me going. A kind of fight club where it's "I vs me."  Ten kilos to lose and then watch out Steve Reeves. 

See you at the gladiator movies.
Photo of Kirk Douglas © 1960 Universal Pictures Company, Inc.

Update: OK, still feeling virtuous, this is working out well, so far no injuries, feeling more just all around genki, lost a little over a kilo so far, and tripping delirious on the endorphins. What I really like about this is you can get a serious workout in a reasonable amount of time and without a lot of equipment. And if it's snowing outside or typhooning you can still workout.

Asashoryu Forced Out--Sumo Slimes Itself

Loved by sumo fans of all races, reviled by the Japanese sumo establishment, there was none better in the ring than Asashoryu. Unlike others, he stayed true to his Mongolian roots in and out of the ring. The day they forced him to retire, is the day sumo died for me, the excitement is dead. We've still got Hakuho and Harumafuji, but neither one brings the volatile mixture of speed, power, charisma, and barely controlled violence to the ring as Asashoryu did. When he turned and pounded his belt before each match you know he was good to go. I don't think too many of the wrestlers that had to face him will miss that mighty thump. The thing that really pisses me off is the fact that he was only, what, 7 or 8 wins away from being the greatest champion of all time. A flawed tragic hero now leaves the rotting corpse of sumo behind, clearly one time when a man is bigger than the sport. Long live the King!!