Ray Gun Fitness

Despite all the stress and it is seeming like the world is going to H – E – Double Hockey sticks in a hen basket, I am super thankful for one thing.

You may be thinking my

health

family

friends

passion.

Or you!

Correct on all accounts and there is one more massive item…

…I passed thermodynamics.

Ok, it was not recently but over 2 decades ago now, I graduated with my master’s in mechanical engineering and my thesis published research was on a ray gun.

It was a computer-generated monkey head in front of a big-ass microwave transmitter, and this was later used by the military in the Active Denial System aka Ray Gun. The frequency used is high gigahertz so it feels like your skin is being burnt by a light bulb; however, there is no deep tissue heating or necrosis (damage).

To do this uber classified research, I had to pass Thermodynamics I, II, Heat Transfer, and Conduction Heat Transfer. The amount of stress during this time was crazy high, and I am so thankful that it passed.

A useful concept from this is the triple point of water and it is related to your fitness goals.

From the “always correct land of I did my research” (aka “I typed stuff into the Googles”), wiki page

“In thermodynamics, the triple point of a substance is the temperature and pressure at which the three phases of that substance coexist in thermodynamic equilibrium. It is that temperature and pressure at which the sublimation curve, fusion curve, and the vaporisation curve meet. “

Yes, I left the typo of vaporization in there on purpose. Gotta love wiki.

The definition is correct. For example, water can exist as a liquid, solid, and gas, all at the same time.

Fitness Was The Furthest Thing From My Mind In College

At Michigan Tech since it is the UP of MI and it gets so cold, we would take boiling water outside and toss it into the air to see it turn into “snow” thus a real-world demo of the triple point.

We also drank a lot, poached runs down the local ski hill before it was open, jumped off the second story of the dorms into a snowbank after a huge snowstorm, and played poor man’s hockey (aka broomball) too.  So, take my advice here with a handful of yellow snow. Book smarts yes, other smarts, not so much.

But be careful if you replicate this experiment at home as people have been injured doing it (1).

Enough with the nerdy yammering. How the heck is this related to fitness? I believe that the “Triple Point” of Fitness is the intersection of performance, body composition, and health.

In a similar fashion to the triple point of water, that intersection does exist, but only under specific conditions. In fitness, when you wander too far down any one path, the wheels come off fast.

Do you want to get super shredded lean? Just stop eating of course.

Want to be an élite athlete where you are one of the top dozen in the world at your sport? As Dave Tate said once “…you can then put your health in a box and shove it under your bed.”

If you’re not an élite athlete, there is a better approach.

The triple point of fitness is the trifecta of better:

Performance.

Body comp.

Health.

This is what both the Flex Diet Cert and the Phys Flex Cert are focused on, with research-based methods to accomplish all three. While you can emphasize one for a period, you don’t want to completely neglect the other two.

Stay tuned for more about concepts in the Phys Flex and how they will help you do all three.

Trifecta for the win!

References

1) 8 Treated for Burns at Loyola Hospital After Trying Boiling Water Challenge During Polar Vortex” access Oct 9, 2020, url https://chicago.suntimes.com/2019/2/6/18413079/8-t…

Rock on!

Dr. Mike T Nelson