The Melon» Liam Rosen

What to look for in a gym

Liam Rosen — Mon, 25 May 2009 14:00:41 +0000

What you want in a gym will largely depend on what you want out of it. That being said, there are many general things that mark “good gyms”. I decided to write the guide because I’m tired of seeing articles like “avoid gyms with loud people, huge people, or equipment that will actually help you build muscle”. This article is dedicated to helping you choose a gym that will motivate you to train hard and avoid all the gimmicks that come with fitness.

Price

You want to negotiate the lowest price possible. A lot gyms try to get you to pay for an extra registration fee, which is often the same price as a month’s membership.

Monthly memberships range from $20-75, and sign-up fees can be as much as $250.
If any of the gyms offer to let you sign-up without paying this fee, you can use it as leverage to get other gyms to let you join without paying for registration.
Look for special seasonal deals, like summer or New Years, when signing up, to lock in the lowest monthly rate. Gyms are sales-oriented businesses. They want to get you to pay as much as possible. Don’t be suckered in. Talk them down.
Ask them if they charge a fee to cancel the membership, and how much it is.
Avoid frills. You’re going to pay more at gyms with racquetball courts, group fitness classes, saunas, swimming pools, climbing walls, and so on. If you’re not using these, you need to look for a weight-lifting gym.
How far is the gym away from your house, school or place of employment? Calculate your miles per gallon rate, multiply it by the distance, and add it to the monthly fee when comparing gyms.
Location matters. If you’re lazy one day, you’re going to use a 30 minutes commute as an excuse to skip out on training.

Equipment

This is the most important aspect. There’s no sense getting a great deal on a gym if it doesn’t even have the equipment you need. Here’s what you need to look for:

Power cages or squat racks for doing squats, rack pulls, rack lockouts, and more.
Cardio machines, if you’re interested in doing cardio. Observe how busy they are. Will you be able to get a machine during peak hours?
Dumbbells up to 100lbs. Eventually you’re going to get strong enough, especially if you are doing dumbbell bench press, where you need dumbbells over 100lbs. In this case, your gym should have at least up to 150lbs.
Is there a place to do deadlifts? Many gyms have special padded platforms. Avoid gyms with hexagonal plates, these are very hard to do deadlifts with.
Are there padded plates? If you’re doing Olympic lifts or deadlifts, you don’t want to disturb too many people in your gym by dropping heavy metal weights all over the place.
Is there a place to do pullups? Dips? Are there belts where you can add weight for pull ups or dips?
Is the equipment well maintained? Things to check:
- Rust on dumbbells or barbells
- Frayed cables on cable machines
- Benches with holes in the padding
Generally, any gym that offers chalk is a gym you want to lift at.

Employees, Rules and Ambiance

If you want to use a personal trainer (note: see the page on trainers for why you should never do this), are they going to be knowledgeable? Look around. Are the trainers having their clients do real compound exercises, or gimmicky bosu ball squats holding 3 pound rubber dumbbells? Are they strong? Do they look like they actually lift weights, or is it some college kid that got picked up off the street?
Are there rules against deadlifting or olympic lifting? Is there a “lunk alarm”, like at many Planet Fitness locations, for making too much noise?
Is the gym more interested in selling you supplements or protein shakes than being dedicated to weightlifting? If so, avoid it.
Is there a designated women-only area? Avoid it like the plague. These areas are often stocked with nothing more than light dumbbells and preloaded barbells among mountains of weight machines.
Are they playing terrible soft rock or the same 5 R&B songs over and over? Generally, any gym that plays metal is a gym you want to train at.

CrossFit Gyms

If you’re training for a sport, or if you would like to become more of an all-around athlete, you may want to look into joining a CrossFit gym. CrossFit is hybrid training methodology that aims to build “the quintessential athlete, equal parts gymnast, Olympic weightlifter and sprinter.” These gyms are usually well-stocked with equipment, the clientele always forms a tight, motivating group, and CrossFit trainers are more knowledgeable than almost anyone around. These gyms have quite an enormous downside, however. They are incredibly expensive. It is not uncommon for people to pay $90-$150 a month for a CrossFit gym, although this includes free training. This is because CrossFit works off a different profit plan – they want to have the most people training possible and they care about their progress, so they have a smaller clientele.

Reading this post will save you thousands of dollars

Liam Rosen — Sun, 07 Dec 2008 14:00:44 +0000

If you are currently a college student, this is probably the most important Melon post you’ll ever read. Why? Because I’m about to tell you something that will save you tens of thousands of dollars when done correctly. Not only that, you’re going to get this money for not doing something. It’s hard to find a better deal than that.

You’re not going to pay back your student loans. Okay, more specifically, you’re only going to pay the minimum amount required on for as long as possible.

“Why?“I’ve been asked countless times when explaining this idea of mine to my fellow students. It sounds crazy, but it works.

If you have student loans, you probably received them at a certain interest rate: Likely 5% for Perkins loans and 6.8% for Stafford loans (which, depending on when you received it, may go down to as far as 3.4% in 2011 according to this site). After college, you should consolidate your loans, if it is prudent to do so. Consolidating costs nothing and can be done for federal loans at this site with no cost. Generally, your repayment period will be extended to 20-30 years, depending on how many total loans you have.

I’ll use myself as an example. I will graduate from The University of Puget Sound in May 2009 with $26,870 in student loan debt from Perkins and Stafford loans. Let’s say I wait until July 2011 and consolidate my loans, locking in an interest rate of between 3.4% and 5%, depending on my loan mix. With an interest rate this low, why would I want to pay my loan off? If I do that, I will effectively be losing money.

Look at it another way. If I gave you a $1000 loan at 5% interest and you turned around and invested that in the stock market at 10% interest, over a year, you just made $100, $50 of that which you now pay to me, so you walk away with $50 in your pocket. If you managed to pay the loan off right away, you maybe owe me three or four dollars in interest. You might look at this as a good deal, but if you had decided to draw out the contract as long as possible, you would have made $50!

Student loans are basically “free” government money for you to turn around and invest in the stock market.

What about for the doubters that cite our hard financial times as a reason to pay off your debt right away? What about those of you reading this right now and saying “I don’t trust the stock market!” I’ll show you why this will work. Using the Standard and Poor 500, as a benchmark, the stock market has grown 9.4% on average annually from 1871 to December 2005 (Source). This includes the great depression, this includes every financial crisis in the last 130 years of which this current one is just another drop in the bucket. However much I disagree with capitalism, the administration, et cetera, I will bet every single time on the stock market as opposed to keeping my money in a coffee can over the 20-25 year period in which I’m going to be paying off my loan.

Back to me as an example. My 26,870 in student loan debt is going to be invested in the stock market. To account for fees and such, lets say I average a rate of return of 8% annually during my loan payoff period over the next 20 years. Let’s say I am able to consolidate my student loans at 5%. For these 20 years, I steadily plug away at my loan, paying only the bare minimum every month. Meanwhile, my effective interest rate is 3% because I’m turning around and investing the government’s money in the stock market and keeping the interest. My 26,870 just turned into 48,530.21 over that period.

To summarize:

1. Consolidate your loans once you graduate.

2. Invest.

3. Pay off only the minimums on your loans every month.

4. Profit.

Disclaimer: There are a lot more factors at work here, this is just a gross oversimplification because I know my target audience is not that of a finance blog. There is the factor, for example, that student loan interest is tax-deductible, which even further reinforces my argument. This method will also not work if your loan interest rate is over about 8%. In that case, you should pay it off as soon as possible. If anyone has any specific questions, I can address them in the comments section.

image by http://flickr.com/photos/articnomad/

The Bill Ayers you don’t see in the attack ads

Liam Rosen — Thu, 09 Oct 2008 07:21:58 +0000

The “American Issues Project”, under the leadership of a paid consultant of John McCain has recently decided to air a negative attack ad condemning Obama’s link to Bill Ayers.

The ad paints Bill Ayers as a terrorist, rhetoric which has been picked up by conservative pundits and figures. The democratic response to this campaign has left out one key argument. They prefer to point out that Obama does not have a close relationship with Ayers, and that he was eight years old when the attacks occurred, and that he has condemned the attacks. These arguments serve to distance Obama from Ayers, which is fine. However, why is this man so deplorable that one needs to claim he is not friends with him?

The terrorists we are fighting against, and whose hijacked plane is contrasted with Ayers’ deeds in the advert, are conservative Muslims who do not believe in freedom of thought and action. They believe in a theocratic dictatorship without personal rights governed by Sharia law.

Let me tell you a bit about Bill Ayers:

He comes from a wealthy family in Chicago. Instead of taking the standard corporate route like many of his wealthy peers, he decided to live his life so that it did not become a mockery of his values.
In 1965, Ayers joined a picket line protesting an Ann Arbor, Michigan, pizzeria for refusing to seat African Americans.
At the age of 21, Ayers became director of a preschool based on the “free school movement”, encouraging cooperating and communication instead of test scores and grades
Ayers became militant and participated in several bombings: the New York City Police Headquarters in 1970, the United States Capitol building in 1971, and The Pentagon in 1972. No one was killed as a result of this.
After his radical days, he worked with Chicago Mayor Richard M. Daley in shaping the city’s school reform program.
He is a distinguished professor of the University of Illinois at Chicago.
He believes in the downfall of US imperialism and the achievement of a classless world.

Does this sound like a dishonorable man? Does this sound like a man with intentions to hurt the “American dream”?

Ayers’ mistake was going militant. As a pacifist, I realize that non-violent action is the only way to force meaningful, credible change. Everyone makes mistakes. Ayers is quoted in the advertisement to have said “we didn’t do enough”. This claim is in reference to everyone in America at the time not doing enough to stop the war, not in reference to how many bombs he built.

Bill Ayers questioned America’s government at a time when it most needed to be questioned. Ayers tried to save innocent lives, both of our servicemen in Vietnam and of the Vietnamese people, some of whom were probably unjustly killed in the 23 bombing runs flown by John McCain. Bill Ayers is not a terrorist, at least not in the sense that the attack ads paint him out to be. He is not a Muslim who wants to limit women’s rights and implement Sharia law. Bill Ayers is a freedom fighter, and should be considered an American hero for his exemplification of the founding fathers’ idea of questioning one’s government.

Sarah Palin has national security experience because of her proximity to Russia

Liam Rosen — Tue, 02 Sep 2008 06:46:52 +0000

…via thinkprogress.org

GEORGE STEPHANOPOULOS: But she has no national security experience.

CINDY McCAIN: You know, the experience that she comes from is what she’s done in government, and remember, Alaska is the closest part of our continent to Russia. It’s not as if she doesn’t understand what’s at stake here.

As if this was not ridiculous enough: Sarah Palin has never been to Russia, and did not possess a passport until 2007.

Response from CAIR to the UPS Community

Liam Rosen — Thu, 24 Apr 2008 20:39:10 +0000

The Coalition against Injustice and Racism has published a response (in the form of a campus-wide e-mail) to some scattered criticism they received as a result of their list of demands aimed at improving diversity at Puget Sound:

An Open Letter from CAIR to the UPS Community
Coalition Against Injustice and Racism

Why is there such a negative reaction to an anti-racism and discrimination group at UPS? This is a question that members of CAIR have been asking themselves, a question that members of CAIR have been asked by other members of the campus community, and a question that this campus should ask itself.

CAIR would like to clarify its goals and aspirations for change in our campus community. We have made demands to the University to help improve the environment on this campus for currently and historically marginalized communities. We want to work with the University and others to not only increase the number of students of color and students from other marginalized groups (across the board), but also improve the campus climate toward these groups and the issues that exist at this University. We want to address issues such as culturally conditioned racism and overt bigotry on this campus. Awareness that everyone on this campus is not subject to the same positive experience is necessary to create an environment that is open to diversity. We do not wish to at all decrease diversity on our campus in any realm. We have demanded that the campus representation of historically marginalized groups/backgrounds be increased to at least proportionally represent the U.S. make-up. For example, we do not want to decrease the number of Asian students.

We do not presume to speak for every person at UPS. We are a large group of current UPS community members, past UPS community members, and members of the surrounding Tacoma community. There are several members of CAIR who belong to historically silenced groups. These people and many allies have opted to end the silence. We have taken action so that different people and groups – who have traditionally been involved in a culture of silencing these voices – may now hear our voices. We do not plan to be, once again, silenced by opposing rhetoric or racist and discriminatory ranting.

Various articles and Hey You’s written in the Trail for the last five weeks have made it abundantly clear that many members of this community highly value their right to be racist. Some appear afraid that we are working to deny that right. We do not challenge anyone’s right to feel and believe the way they want. However, we also have the right to make clear that we believe that racism and discrimination are wrong. We also have the right to work to eradicate these things from our environment. Because we are equal members of this community, we will take our equal right to speak and be heard, which our society has tried to prevent. This campus should be a perfect place for us to demonstrate this right. Further, while one has the right to harbor one’s own personal racist or discriminatory beliefs; acting on those beliefs is prohibited by our United States law and our University code of conduct. Legally one cannot express racism in any way that harms, slanders, defames, harasses, or creates a harmful environment for other people.

Some people on campus value silence on certain issues of power. They prefer comfortable rhetoric that never asks them to think critically, rhetoric that never asks them to challenge or even recognize privilege. Privilege often manifests itself when society validates people of certain identity backgrounds (such as: male, white, upper-class, heterosexual, conventionally able-bodied, etc.) over others. For example: the feeling of entitlement to publish ones opinion which misrepresents factual information or is not well researched could be an expression of privilege.

This is an institution of higher learning. As such, this is the place to ask the hard questions and think critically. Questions like: If this campus has no problem with diversity, then why have so many students gotten up in arms at the mention of the idea of raising the number of students of color? Why is it, that UPS is consistently described as a homogenous community by those within and outside this campus? One of the prevailing responses has been that increasing the number of students of color will mean admitting students of a lower academic caliber than the white students currently attending UPS; is this not a racist notion? These are questions that we will be discussing in regular CAIR meetings Mondays at 8am in Wheelock 201. All are welcome at these meetings as well as the meetings of the CAIR sub-groups which are working with the individual administrative offices; who have been very receptive to the ideas for change that this group has presented. It is possible to find out what these sub-groups are and what times they meet by attending a single 8am meeting or simply asking any member of CAIR for the information.

There have been several other responses to CAIR’s initiative including: a cartoon in the Trail portraying white students as the real victims of bigotry; and diversity-initiatives have been characterized as a form of “revenge.”Â CAIR has also been credited with creating a divisive environment rather than opening up discussion. Such responses, which tend to portray those with more power and privilege as victims, are commonplace when disagreements about diversity arise. There’s nothing new about them. However, such responses also demonstrate the extent to which the climate on campus needs a critical look and substantial reformation. At the same time, CAIR has benefited greatly from the support of a wide range of students, faculty-members, staff-members, and administrators including President Thomas. The productive debates and conversations we’ve observed and participated in give us hope that UPS is capable of positive change and may not, in fact, be stuck in a rut forever.

Once again CAIR’s purpose is to create a more inclusive environment for all aspects of diversity. We feel that groups or people that are being hurt by this environment should not be silenced for addressing issues that until now have received only a blind eye, or empty talk. The action that we have taken is necessary to affect the real changes that we are looking for. We have decided to supplement the conversation with active work toward positive change. As we can see historically, real change has never been caused by only conversation neglecting action.

CAIR is not working to further the agendas of any other groups on campus. We are intelligent members of this community and we are exercising our right to express our disdain for what we find to be unjust in our community, and doing what we can to change those things. The concerns that we have raised and the goals that we have laid out are consistent with what the highest courts in our nation have deemed a compelling government interest – diversity. Our goals also fall in line with what the University has deemed important in the Diversity Strategic Plan. We look to help put the Strategic Plan into action. Our behavior has been criticized as too aggressive. This is criticism that oppressed groups have faced with every challenge to the status quo. Martin Luther King Jr. addresses this critique in his Letter from a Birmingham Jail.

“My friends, I must say to you that we have not made a single gain in civil rights without determined legal and nonviolent pressure. Lamentably, it is an historical fact that privileged groups seldom give up their privileges voluntarily. Individuals may see the moral light and voluntarily give up their unjust posture; but, as Reinhold Niebuhr has reminded us, groups tend to be more immoral than individuals.

We know through painful experience that freedom is never voluntarily given by the oppressor; it must be demanded by the oppressed. Frankly, I have yet to engage in a direct action campaign that was “well timed” in the view of those who have not suffered unduly from the disease of segregation. For years now I have heard the word “Wait!” It rings in the ear of every Negro with piercing familiarity. This “Wait” has almost always meant “Never.” We must come to see, with one of our distinguished jurists, that “justice too long delayed is justice denied.”

–Martin Luther King Jr.

“Letter from a Birmingham Jail”

CAIR – Coalition Against Injustice and Racism

Some members of CAIR include: Nicky Wright, Allegra Oxborough, Whitney Stewart, Peter Ryan, Vanessa Shafa, Ashley Thrasher

I wrote a short injudicious response:

Because some of the measures you have proposed are counterproductive. Overall I found the idea great, and most of the steps as well. Here’s the problem: you can’t legislate morality. That’s the liberal approach, and it only works up to a certain point. You pushed the UPS community too far, and it should not be surprising that many reacted in this way. Not only were your points too radical, they also hit all the wrong buttons with uses of words like MUST and SHALL. The more you force someone to do something, the more they will push back against it.

To quote Chris Van Vechten in The Melon:

CAIRs demands reflect a group that is less interested in opening doors for minorities than closing them for Whites. Here’s what they should have demanded:
DEMAND #1: expand recruiting efforts in low-income school districts.
DEMAND #2: expand and free-up endowment funds for scholarships
DEMAND #3: convert the UPS application process into a SAT-optional exercise
DEMAND #4: reorginize university budget planning so that by 2010 entering freshman will receive guarentees that their tuition costs will not increase during their four-year tenure at UPS. At present the difference a student pays his first year at UPS is roughly 3K less than what he/she will pay their senior year. Students cannot effectively budget under such circumstances.
DEMAND #5: ban hardcovered textbooks – which cost twice as much as softcover – from the UPS bookstore.

Want to reach a bigger audience? You need to rationalize your approach.

Since responses to the e-mail will be only directed to CAIR itself, it would be nice if this post could act as a forum for responses. What do you say to their response? Leave your contribution as a comment to the post.

Africans: The most academically successful ethnic group in the United States

Liam Rosen — Sat, 12 Apr 2008 17:50:46 +0000

African immigrants to the United States (not to be confused with Black Americans, who are the descendants of former slaves) are the most academically successful social group in the United States, and one of the most prosperous.

According to The Journal of Blacks in Higher Education, 48.9% of all African immigrants hold a college diploma. This makes them not only the most successful immigrant group, but the most successful ethnic group overall in the United States. For comparison, this is double the percent of White Americans with a college degree, and quadruple the percent of all Black Americans with a college degree. 19.4% percent of African adult immigrants hold a graduate degree, compared to 8.1% of whites and 3.8% of blacks.

Africans have the highest high school graduation rate of any immigrant population. Only 7.6% of African immigrants, according to the 2000 U.S. Census, were not fluent in English. This is even lower than than immigrants from Europe, Russia and Canada, who had an 11.5% non-fluency rate combined.

This does not just apply to immigrants fresh off the boat. Studies show that these results are more or less replicated even in second or third generations.

Self-selective immigration bias aside, what does this tell us about black culture in the United States?

Hillary’s Dirty Campaign

Liam Rosen — Sat, 26 Jan 2008 22:23:37 +0000

Hillary Clinton has decided to play dirty, and it’s making me very uncomfortable.

At this point in the campaign it seems like the Clintons will do anything to win. Yet it was still surprising to me that yesterday Senator Clinton stated in a press release: “”I will ask my Democratic convention delegates to support seating the delegations from Florida and Michigan”. If you are unfamiliar with the backstory, the Democratic Party declared the Michigan and Florida primaries invalid because they defied a party rule stating that their primaries should not be held before the 5th of February. As a result, the major Democratic candidates agreed to withdraw their names from the ballot in those states… except for Clinton. Because of her refusal to play nice, Clinton won Michigan with 55% of the vote, and currently leads 2-to-1 in the Florida primary, which will take place on February 5th.

Her press release goes on to say, “This remains a delegate fight, with 1,681 delegates at stake on
February 5th, and 2,025 needed to secure the nomination — and we are
ahead in that fight… Despite efforts by the Obama campaign to ignore Floridians, their
voices will be heard loud and clear across the country, as the last
state to vote before Super Tuesday on February 5th.”

Yet
Obama did not ignore Florida at all. He simply held up the pledge of
the major candidates to keep away from the two states that had ignored
the rules of the national party and were punished for it .

If
the the delegates are indeed counted, it will be yet another
disappointing move by the Democratic party. I hope, for their sake,
that they do not give in to Senator Hillary Clinton, who from all
reports, seems to ignore the main virtue of campaigning – playing fair.

Why the United States Needs Universal Health Care

Liam Rosen — Thu, 17 Jan 2008 01:38:31 +0000

If you are against universal health care or don’t have an opinion on it at all, I urge you to read the following. I will attempt to simply and concisely prove why the United States needs to change its current health care system.

In the United States of America, 44.8 million people are without health insurance. Either they can’t afford it or they are denied coverage because the companies do not think they will be “economical enough”. Even if one does have medical insurance, chances are they will be denied coverage at one point in their life. This is due to the privatized, profit-driven system, which encourages legalese like co-pays, thresholds, limited coverage, and more.

Our private system, contrary to popular belief, is incredibly expensive for the state. We give 15% of our GDP to healthcare for a system that is supposedly run by corporations. That’s the highest GDP percentage in the world that is spent on healthcare.

Here’s why a universal healthcare system would be better for many reasons. Those who agree that health care is a basic human right (78% of Americans do) would easily list this as the first reason. Universal Health Care would also be cheaper. According to the WHO, the United States spends $3371 per person, per year for health insurance. Look at what these countries pay:
Australia: $1017 (#2 in the world)
Canada: $916
Sweden: $532
United Kingdom: $397

Yeah. We pay three times as much as Australia, the number two country on the list, for a fundamentally broken system. And where does most of that money go? Into the pockets of big insurance company management.

As for the doctor pay: Yes, doctors will be paid less. Perhaps as much as 30% less. In spite of this, doctors will still be one of the highest-paid professions in the United States, even with universal health care. Furthermore, under the new system that many are proposing, med school would be partially or completely subsidized by the government.

Another argument often heard: “Taxes would spike”. Not if it’s done right. US government spending is SECOND-HIGHEST in the world per person, for a private system. Countries with Universal Health Care, like Australia, Canada, UK, etc. all have less government spending per person that us, and a better system. Same or less amount of spending means the same or less amount of taxes.

Enough of the status quo. It’s time for change. It’s not just about voting with your heart, it’s about voting with your brain. Universal Health Care is the logical alternative.