Variety vs. Consistency

One of the biggest mistakes that an athlete can make is to prematurely change exercises or programs. Without consistency, it is difficult to reap the rewards of the work that you’ve performed. Randomly hopping from program to program all but guarantees minimal progress in any direction. Legitimate gains take time so it important that you remain both patient and consistent.

Sticking with a program doesn’t mean that you’ve turned your back on variety however. It’s entirely possible to remain consistent with the exercises that have proven beneficial, while including subtle forms of variety to prevent staleness. Therefore, consistency and variety can and should coexist within a training program. There’s absolutely no reason to choose one over another.

In the video below, I outline three simple ways to include variety without straying too far from your established training path.

For more video discussions, be sure to subscribe to my YouTube channel.

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“Small disciplines repeated with consistency every day lead to great achievements gained slowly over time.” – John C. Maxwell

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Cyber Monday

If you shop online and care to help support Baseball Musings, using this link to show on Amazon Cyber Monday helps. Maybe it’s time to buy a 4K TV to watch the 2016 baseball season!

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Cueto Says No

There is a report that Johnny Cueto turned down a six-year, $120 million offer from the Diamondbacks. Given that Cueto is both younger than Jordan Zimmermann, and a better pitcher, I’m not surprised. He’s probably worth $200 million for six years, although his poor performance when he went to the Royals might be hurting him.

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Shaking out the Competition

Smaller companies that run daily fantasy games are starting to exit the US market. The article is citing the crackdown by the government:

Mondogoal, a U.K. daily fantasy sports company focused on professional soccer, has pulled out of seven states so far. Founder Shergul Arshad, a Massachusetts resident, says he’s considering pulling up stakes entirely from the U.S.

Almost 90 percent of Mondogoal’s customers, he says, are outside the U.S. anyway.

I suspect a lot of this would be happening anyway, since DraftKings and FanDuel have captured most of the market in the US. The legal situation gives these other companies cover to exit without looking like they’re failing in the US.

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Signing the Jordan

Jordan Zimmermann makes a deal with the Tigers:

The Detroit Tigers have reached agreement on a five-year, $110 million contract with free-agent starting pitcher Jordan Zimmermann. Completion of the deal is pending a physical.

Zimmermann averaged 4.0 fWAR over the last three seasons. The 2014 season at 5.3 fWAR, was a bit of an outlier. He came in between 3.0 and 3.4 WAR in four of the last five seasons, and $22 million a year puts his expected WAR a little under three. It’s a fair price, and the term is short enough that the Tigers are likely to get their money’s worth.

My only reservation is that Zimmermann’s home run rate jumped in 2015, and moving to a tough division in the American League won’t help in that regard.

The Tigers’ rotation, as it currently stands, is expected to be comprised of Verlander, Zimmermann, Anibal Sanchez and Daniel Norris, with the fifth spot still to be determined either by another free-agent signing or an internal option.

Zimmermann is a nice piece of the puzzle, but the Tigers also need Verlander and Sanchez to stay healthy.

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Free Agent Lessons

Via BBTF, teams continue to learn and understand the perils of free agency:

The analytic segment of front offices run simulations of how similar players to those in current free agency aged, and the comparisons are not often pretty. In the past few weeks, I have talked to executives from more than half the teams, and in some form they all said: Why do we keep giving contracts of six, seven or more years, when we know how rare it is that those contracts still have value on the back end and how devastating that will be to future payrolls and maneuverability?

These are all things that, obviously, have been said before. But I notice a little more conviction right now. And I think the signing slow down is about teams trying harder than ever to limit — not the annual value — but the length of contracts. And, right now, when the market is deep in those starters and outfielders, there is no reason yet for any team to blink and stray too far beyond its comfort zone.

At some point, the player competition for the biggest contract moved from yearly value to total value. For example, the teams would have been better off giving someone like Albert Pujols $40 million a year for four years than $24 million a year for ten years. He still gets a lot of money, but the team can change the roster after a few seasons if the deal doesn’t work out that well. Players want the big, long-term deals, however.

The MLBPA wanted limited free agency for veterans to drive salary prices higher. Due to arbitration, this tends to drive all salaries for players with at least three years of service higher. That idea from the 1970s worked because teams were poorer then at judging talent. This was the age of paying for batting average, RBI, and wins, when a player was thought to peak at age 30. Front offices have learned, for the most part, the pitfalls of the system. They game it at the other end, keeping players in the minors longer so they get seven years instead of six from them, or long enough that the team captures all the peak years. The MLBPA needs to rethink free agency, so the young, good players capture the money, the money they are actually earning for the team. I suspect the union now is just as set in their ways as the owners were at the dawn of the free agent era, however.

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The Amazing Features of Steam Shower Units

As technology develops these days, regular showers have developed into something more remarkable just like steam shower units. These units have amazing features geared not only to help you feel rejuvenated but for alleviating the stress and strain out of your body, boosting your respiratory well being as well as the appearance of the skin. Steam shower units also are designed with amazing features depending upon the brand, the sort of unit or how sophisticated it is. Here are several of the most typical yet helpful features present in the majority of the units today.

STATE OF THE ART AND ELEGANT LOOK. First of all, not like standard showers, steam shower units appear more advanced and stylish. It is an encased glass room furnished with everything that you need for any steam bath. However its stylish and closed feature isn’t just for aesthetic reasons or to make the bathroom a lot more high-class. It is encased in order to avoid the vapor from damaging your bathroom wallpaper or paint.

SHOWERS. These units also have showers. They are available in either handheld showers or overhead showers to help keep yourself feeling fresh throughout the day..

STEAM POWER GENERATOR. Clearly, because these units are really for steam baths, they have steam generators. This specific generator is a machine that allows the system to produce steam. There is certainly no steam shower unit which doesn’t have steam generators. In fact, your unit will be useless without one.

CONTROL PANEL. The Control panel displays the menus utilized to control the unit and many of these are electronic panels. You can turn the steam unit on utilizing the control panel also. Control panel also includes other switches that will enable other functions and features of the system to work.

OVERHEAD LIGHTING. Certainly, every steam shower unit has got overhead lights to maintain this unit dimly lit while you’re inside. The lighting is not necessarily very bright when switched on but merely sufficient to illuminate the room and enable you to see your environment when inside. Lights also add more into the therapeutic and warm effect within the unit.

FAN. Since it would be hot and steamy within the unit, the majority of units have fans featured also so that even if the air inside is humid and hot, oxygen can still circulate so as not to suffocate you.

TEMPERATURE CONTROLLER. There is certainly no steam unit without having a temperature controller. This particular temperature controller normally can be seen in the user interface. It functions as what its name suggests which is to control the particular temperature or thermostat. You can actually modify the temperature of the unit regardless of whether you want it high or low using this selection.

Those are the usual but incredible elements typically found in steam shower systems. Each of them make your unit work better and get the advantages of the steam bath right for you. But it also relies on the sort of unit you’ve got. There are more highly developed units on the market too and they usually have more improved features.

Extra features seen in most modern units are foot massager, aroma therapy, and so on wherein you cannot just use the unit for steam baths but as well as for other healing uses. Some others likewise have radio and speakers, or even a telephone connection installed within the unit.

 

Contributed by: Perfectbath

 

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The Broken Toad Bust Set - Skin Deep, Paradise Lost and The Wicken King - An Unboxing.

It's a familiar story with me. Company releases shiny things, I try and resist until another shiny thing is released and in the end I break down and buy more shiny things than I intended - the Broken Toad Bust Bundle. 

In this case, I started out just wanting Paradise Lost, but held off. Then it was mentioned to me that I'd really like the next release they had coming out - Skin Deep - and indeed I did like Skin Deep. I went looking at the Broken Toad webstore and decided that while £75 for the two busts I really wanted as alright, £90 for 3 busts sounded a lot better, so I went for the bundle including The Wicken King as well. 

All three come in nice card boxes, with Paradise Lost and Skin Deep both having wraps around them as well. I'll start with The Wicken King and then move on to Paradise Lost and Skin Deep.

Initially, I wasn't sure about The Wicken King. Most of the models I buy tend to be what I could describe as clean, or orderly. Things like Guild Ball and Kabuki, Grey Knights or Hasslefree. I don't really 'do' Chaos. Even my large undead force is all made up of Skeletons and wights, with very few ghouls or any other form of monster in there. With this in mind, The Wicken King feels like a large deviation for me.

Inside the box, as with the other two, you'll find a top layer of foam, a sticker (which has made it's way on to my painting lamp), the bust, and then a final layer of foam.

The Wicken King consists of three parts - the main piece and two shoulder pads. I got a little click happy with the camera, so I'll let the pictures do the talking.

There is some really incredible detail there, but in breaking down the components, I think it's the face, or lack of one, that really makes it feel off to me. However, I'm going to look at it as a challenge. So far it's a pretty unique piece in my collection and if I enjoy painting him, it could open up a wider passage into more creepy and chaotic models.

Next up is my favourite of the three - Paradise Lost. She comes in four parts - Main body, two wings and a shoulder pad.

At this point I'll point out that all three of the models are a hard resin, slightly more brittle than others I've added to my collection. In most parts of the kits, this isn't a problem as the pieces are quite chunky and solid. 

It's another story with the wings of Paradise lost though. They're noticeably thinner than other parts of other kits and while incredibly detailed, feel rather brittle so I was quite wary when even moving them around to get photos of them.

I think that the main part of this miniature that catches my eye is the different levels of texture that offers. The face, hair, clothing, metalwork, wings... it all looks great and when put together, fantastic.

Finally, we have the most recent release - Skin Deep. A fairly depressed looking court jester, there is so much scope within the face for detail work it's fantastic. There are also a lot more pieces to this kit - main body, arm, mask, two mask straps, four large jester hat strands, 4 tiny metal wires and 4 little balls to go on the ends of the metal wires to complete the hat.

Following on from Paradise Lost, there is amazing detail on the fabrics, such as the piping on the shirt sleeve.

Above is the worst mold line I found on all of the three kits, which goes to show how much care has been put in to casting them. 

The little balls to go on the metal wires. The mold strands they're stuck on to partly cover little holes in them so once they're cleaned up, there isn't any need to drill more holes for the wire.

The metal wire - something I should have been expecting after looking at the detail on the pictures, but was completely surprised by when it turned up - it's so thin!

Overall, all three are lovely kits, three of the most detailed busts I've picked up so far. Any of the three will provide a fun challenge to paint and I'm looking forward to doing just that.

On a side note, What do people think of the black and white pictures I've been using for my last few unboxings? It was mentioned that the style I was using for taking pictures of metal minis made the details difficult to see so I've switched to black and white for the majority of the shots to help show off the detail and depth etc. Admittedly everything I've taken shots of since starting this have been resin not metal, but I'd like to know what people think.

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