cesimpson

Two interesting things happened in the last few days. The most recent happened yesterday as the House of Representatives voted to enact some kind of health care insurance reform in the United States.

The other happened Saturday morning in St. Charles, MO. It was a far more local thing. It affected one person significantly, maybe another half-dozen or so tangentially. Their roughly temporal intersection has given me some thoughts for this blog.

But first, this morning’s workout.

Monday Morning

3x Warm Up @ 65#, 95#, 115#

8x Barbell Row

8x Power Clean

8x Front Squat

8x Jerks

8x Back Squat

Deadlift

5x Deadlift @ 195#

5x Deadlift @ 255#

5x Deadlift @ 295#

9x Deadlift @ 335#

Assistance Work

15x Dips @ BW+25#

10x Squats @ 135#

15x BW Rows

10x Squat @ 185#

12x Dips @ BW+25#

10x Squats @ 225#

12x BW Rows

10x Squat @ 225#

AMAP: 10x Dips @ BW+25#

AMAP: 5x Squats @ 275#

AMAP: 9x BW Rows

AMAP: 4x Squat @ 275#

My legs are quickly becoming accustomed to the higher work load. I don’t feel half as sore today as I did on Friday, and not a tenth as sore as I did a week ago.

The Story

On Saturday morning, my nearly-70-year-old, 300# father-in-law undertook the task of removing the Christmas lights from the roof of his home. After he put the extension ladder away, and on his way inside, he noticed he forgot to remove the wreath from the backboard of the basketball goal hanging over the garage.

Not wishing to walk “all the way” back down to the shed to retrieve the extension ladder, he got the 6′ aluminum step ladder out of the garage and climbed up to reach the wreath. Needing nearly all 6′ of that aluminum step ladder, he climbed to the top-most step. (For bonus points, I will leave it as an exercise for the reader to calculate the center of gravity of such a precarious system.)

As a review: aluminum is known for (and generally valued for) its relative light weight. My father-in-law is not.

So, FiL reached out untie the wreath and the whole system came tumbling down onto the hard concrete below. He could not get up on his own; with the assistance of neighbors, he made his way inside to clean up the abrasions and assess the damage. It was pretty bad.

An immediate trip to the ER and another, later, trip to an orthopedist gives us the following:

• a battered and bruised left arm, shoulder, hip, leg and foot
• sprained ACL
• torn medial meniscus
• a broken kneecap - two separate fractures
• a broken heel

No weigh-bearing activity whatsoever for four weeks - basically he’s wheelchair bound. Reassess in four weeks for possible physical therapy or perhaps a continuation of the enforced rest.

So, what does this have to do with health care insurance? I would like to propose hypertrophy and fat loss as a very inexpensive health insurance.

It’s widely known that, in female athletes, improving single-leg balance and strengthening core and posterior chain muscles (especially the hamstring) significantly reduce incidences of ACL injuries. I suspect, though he’s neither female nor an athlete, stronger core and posterior chain muscles (and the often occurring less body fat) would have significantly reduced my FiL’s chance of injury from his fall. One could argue, I think convincingly, he’d have been less likely to fall in the first place if he had more muscle and less fat and better single-leg balance.

Furthermore, I think it’s reasonable to assume that, in general, as we get older, the more muscle and the less fat we carry into old age, the less injury prone we’re going to be. So, while Congress, the President and the Tea Baggers all argue about health insurance reform in the United States, why don’t you spend $25/month at a gym and institute your own supplemental policy?