Mid-Term

Dear Friend,

One of the classes I'm taking this semester is English 1102. Last semester I took English 1101 and it's the two are fairly similar to each other. English 1101 kind of got me back to where I needed to be in a writing sense since I've been out of school for so long. Now that I'm in English 1102 I'm starting to learn more ways to write papers. I've learned how beneficial it can be to have others read your writing and provide you with feedback on it. It helps to make whatever it is that I'm writing to be better and to be more easily understood by people who are reading my writings. Also, I've learned a lot of different things to consider when writing an argumentative paper. It's not just writing about a subject you like and telling people to believe what you say. It's about gathering information on the topic, finding different viewpoints of the argument, presenting them for everyone to see and then trying to change their minds based on the information that you've given them. Learning to research a topic properly and to put all the pieces of your research together is important because people need information to make up their minds about a topic and if you present enough information to support your claim then it's likely that they'll see it your way. The peer reviews were beneficial because it brings the viewpoint of the reader in and helps you to write in a way that makes sense to others since they're the ones that are reading your writings. So, do the research, write your paper and once it's written get people to read and review it and help you to make it better so that others can read and understand it. It'll make your writing much more efficient!

For the next section I'm going to write about our first piece that we wrote: "What's it Like to be You?". The first time we wrote this we did it with NO technology. I haven't written a paper without a computer since middle school probably and that was a very long time ago! It was difficult enough to write about myself but throwing out computers to do it made it so much more difficult for me. Most of the topics I covered in the piece took me a few days to really think about and write. I'm not good at writing about myself. Another thing that was difficult for me is that when I write a paper I usually bounce around from topic to topic. I get an idea in my head and write and once that idea is complete I find something else to write about and tie it into the other piece. I do a lot of cut and paste with my paragraphs to get them to sound right. When actually writing the first draft of this essay I couldn't do that so it proved to be a challenge in that sense. There weren't any stand out ideas that influenced my writing. I just thought back to my past experiences and tried to explain them the best I could. I don't wear my emotions on my sleeve so it was particularly hard to write the part about my platoon commander dying next to me. That's not something I share with most people so that felt like a huge risk for me to take in giving up that piece of information. Not a fan of that part. I think, as difficult as it was to write, someone reading that essay might get a who I am on a small scale. There's much more to me than what I wrote in that paper. If I were going to completely explain to people who I am I would have ended up writing a novel. I know that I revised a few things in my second draft as the first was a little vague and not very descriptive. My first draft was three pages and I think, by the time I was done with the second draft it ended up being about six pages. There was a lot of information that I added into the last drafts that were needed to better describe what it's like to be me. 

Here are my thoughts on PB&J and I'll be completely honest here. When I started reading, as I went through with reading it and after I finished reading it I was a little lost. It was hard to follow for me. I had to re-read a lot of things in that book to understand what was being said. Some of the things I wasn't really sure were relevant. I suppose it was just a different type of reading for me, one that I'm not really used to. I suppose that it was good to ease into the semester since it was short and not very complex. Though it was a little hard to follow at first, once I re-read things it made more sense and became easier to understand. It's an odd combination of things and it may make reading it difficult for some people.

Haiku:

The stone age was fun

no computers, no iPads,

but this is college!

3rd Post

I'll be writing my paper to people that are interested in doing Periodization Training. The most popular form of this type of training is P90X which has gotten huge since it came out. There are a lot of people that have tried it and a lot of people that want to try it, including myself. Timeliness is important because it shows how recent certain findings are on a particular topic and it shows how much research has been done as well as how much is still being done. It lets people know whether or not it's a hot topic and still up for debate or maybe how important or unimportant it is. The articles I'm using are both fairly old and fairly new. My investment in the paper I'm writing is that it's something that I've wanted to try for a while now. It seems like it works and provides great results for people who put 110% into it. Plus I want to look good for my wedding this fall! I think high school teachers were looking for a finished product more than one that actually interested the writer. If a high school kid wrote about something they liked then the paper might be too long and if shortened up then it would be too vague. Also, I think they cared more about the fundamentals of writing and not much more. College teachers probably think that the students will produce a better product if the topic they're researching is one that they like. Length may not be much of an issue so the student can write as much as they can and be more thorough with their research and writing.

The more I research the more I see that there are people who believe in Periodization Training as well as people who don't. One of the articles I'm using actually has two parts to it. The first part is the history of the training, how and why it works and who gets the most out of it. The second part of it is a rebuttal letter written to the author explaining why some of the information written isn't true or just isn't backed up by enough science. P90X is for the average Joe and the more I research the more I see the trend of this kind of training being more beneficial to professional athletes and not normal people so that provides some interesting information.

The most interesting thing I learned from doing my research on Periodization Training is that it's not meant for regular people trying to get in better shape. Its original design and purpose was for competetive athletes to be able to perform at a higher level for their competitions, whatever those might be. The more and more I research the more I find that this type of training isn't what most people think it is and it's not for what most people think it's for. The research is opening my eyes a little and making me realize that you really can't judge a book by its cover! You have to dig a little to find the real truth.

So far the most interesting article that I've found on my topic is one called "Why Periodization Doesn't Work." It was written by a guy named Charles Staley, B. Sc., MSS. The article is a web based article on a site called T-Nation.com. It's really interesting because it takes an awful lot of information about periodization training and kicks it all in the teeth by thoroughly explaining why it doesn't work. He gives a lot of examples and show a few charts on specific information and testing. Mr. Staley breaks the idea of periodization training into five problems which he labels in the article. Through each of these problems he makes a comparison to normal people and to professional athletes and explains why it works and doesn't work for each group. After stating those he goes on to say what would actually work for normal people and how to go about doing it. He goes on to break down his ideas of how to work out through phases that he's put together to achieve a better overall health status.

At first my topic was about if P90X worked and how well did it work. After doing research on it I've found that P90X is just periodization training so I've decided to change my topic to being about whether or not periodization training works. While I was researching P90X I found that most of the articles about it were simply about the type of training that it was more so that P90X itself so I actually had to broaden my scope for this assignment.

The biggest problem that I'm having is not finding enough specific research on just P90X and actually finding more information on the type of program that it is. That's causing me to have to change my topic a little and like I said broaden my topic a little. Other than that I've found some great articles on why and how it works well and I've also found a some good articles dispelling those findings. Good mix of for and against the topic.

Research Topic

Ok, so for this research paper the question I ask is "does P90X work better than traditional workouts and why?" I'm curious as to how this question's answered and how much actual evidence there will be to sway my opinion of the P90X program. I've never tried it before but I did do a little bit of the Spartacus workout while I was deployed to Afghanistan and the two are similar in energy output. I feel like this is a fairly important topic as more and more people are giving this workout a go. If I was going to pay over $120 for a workout program I would definitely want to know more about it. Specifically who is saying what about it and why they're saying it. I know a few people that have used the program and from what I've seen they're all in great shape so that proves that it does work in getting people in shape. When P90X first came out I looked into it a little and found that the diet that one should use while on the program was not so good for them. It seemed much like the Atkins diet which is horrible for your body in the long run. Recently I've come across a few articles and reviews that have opinions that are for the product as well as against it. Some of them are basing their opinions on the looks of the individuals using the program and others are basing their opinions on the nutritional aspect of it. There are a lot of mixed feelings about it. The P90X program is based on muscle confusion which prevents your muscles from reaching a plateau (they stop growing once they've plateaued) and helps to alleviate over working your muscles among other things. The idea is that you vary your workouts in a way that your body has to continuously adjust to the different amounts and types of workouts you're doing which forces your muscles to keep growing stronger. It's a great idea and is proven to be effective which is one of the things that makes me believe that it's a great program. Now, the nutritional side of it I'm not so fond of. When I first looked at it, as I said before, it's almost like the Atkins diet. Atkins is a program that eliminates carbs from a persons diet and forces their body to burn through sugar faster causing them to lose weight faster. The problem is when you do that you force your body to change where it gets its energy from. Usually carbs are what fuel your body but while on the Atkins diet it starts to use sugar as energy and then once the sugar is gone your body has to turn to protein for fuel. Yes, you'll lose the weight but eventually you'll start to lose muscle making your body weaker. I'm not sure if it's changed since I last looked at it but if it hasn't then that's one thing that I don't like about P90X. All in all, should be an interesting topic to research.