Does watching television make you feel  like the Danny Devito of the male world? You feel fat, weak, and short compared to the bohunks on the big screen. Here are the real stats of the average man. This is either going to make you feel better or confirm you’re going to have to overachieve

Age when the average guy is in the best shape of his life: 23

Percentage of men who consider themselves “physically fit“: 69

Percentage who actually are: 13

Time it takes the average guy to run a mile: 8 minutes, 34 seconds

Amount he can bench-press: 135 pounds

Number of situps he can do: 36

Pushups: 27

Pullups: 1

Percentage of men who would never skip another workout if… …they could build twice the muscle with half the effort: 40

…women began wearing see-through spandex: 16

Size of the average guy’s biceps: 13 inches (flexed, at around 175 pounds)

Size of his chest: 40 inches (inhaled, exhaled closer to 38 inches, at around 175 pounds)

Size of his waist: 34 inches (at around 175 pounds)

The part of a man’s body that’s the biggest turn-on for the average woman: His butt

The part the average guy spends the most time trying to develop: His chest

Time period when the typical gym is least crowded: 10 am to 11:30am

Percentage of men who don’t belong in a gym: 88

Exercise equipment the average guy is most likely to own: Dumbbells

Number of men who have used their stationary bike in the past week: 1 in 3

Number who haven’t hopped on the thing in at least 3 months: 1 in 6

Percentage of men who use their fitness equipment as… …a place to hang their clothes: 45
…a doorstop: 13

…a weapon: 8

Amount of muscle the average sedentary guy loses each year: 1 pound

Fat he gains each year: 1.1 pounds

Resting heart rate of a fit man: 52 beats per minute (BPM)

Resting heart rate of a man who’s out of shape: 72 BPM

Time it takes a fit man to log 8,000,000 heartbeats: 30 years

Time it takes an out-of-shape man: 19 years

Amount the average 40-year-old man would save each year in medical costs if he exercised regularly: $949 Average cost of a 1-year gym membership: $648

His net profit: $301

Number of men who would rather work out than have sex: 1 in 7

Percentage of men (and women) who think that gyms are pickup joints: 14

Number of pushups the average man can do with good form* in 1 minute:

Age 20-29 30-39 40-49 50-59 60-69 Pushups 33 27 21 15 15

Pounds the average 175-pound man (aka : average weight, average height is 5′9 1/2) can bench-press one time:

Age 20-29 30-39 40-49 50-59 60-69 Lb 180 158 143 128 116

Number of situps the average man can do in 1 minute:

Age 20-29 30-39 40-49 50-59 60-69 Situps 40 36 31 26 20

Time it takes the average American man to run 1.5 miles:

Age 20-29 30-39 40-49 50-59 60-69 Time 12:18 12:51 13:53 14:55 16:07

The Average Guy has sex 1.5 times a week (79 times a year), and lasts about 14 minutes.
He has a 1-in-4.3 chance of cheating on his wife and enjoys a total of 12.4 sex partners throughout his life.
The odds that his wife will cheat on him are 1 in 8.3, and the average woman enjoys a total of four sex partners throughout her life.
The Average Guy is 34.4 years old and earns about $36,100 a year.
He’s about 5-feet-9 and weighs 175 pounds.
He’s married with two children and has $3,100 in the bank.
Average height (male & female): 5′9″ / 5′4″

Average weight (male & female): 175 / 150

Male weight chart:

Age: 20 to 29 yrs 30 to 39 yrs 40 to 49 yrs 50 to 59 yrs 60 to 69 yrs

kilograms: 76 81.3 82.6 84 83.5

pounds: 168 179 182 185 184

Female weight chart:

Age: 20 to 29 yrs 30 to 39 yrs 40 to 49 yrs 50 to 59 yrs 60 to 69 yrs

kilograms: 59.8 65.5 67.7 71.7 68.9

pounds: 132 144 149 158 152

The life expectancy of the average man, born in…

Year 1950 1960 1970 1980 1990 1997

Lifespan 65.6 66.6 67.1 70.0 71.8 73.6

Women’s life spans have remained about 6 years longer than ours since 1950; a girl born in 1997 can expect to see age 79.4.

Average man sleeps about 7 hours on a work night.

Average penis: 5.877 inches

Information via Men’s Health

As a runner, I go through 3-5 pairs of running shoes a year. I try and wear the old ones to work or around the house but there comes a point where I have 5 or six pairs just lying around. Although they may no longer be good for running they’re good for something. Here are a few great recycling ideas for your shoes, either how to make good use of them or to how to make some new ones out of recycled material.

If there is one thing in this world that there is plenty of, it is plastic bags. And this young lady took her crochet skills and made the finest pair of sandals that can be built with the catchings of a Wal-Mart fence

Meet the girl who made them

Your local city has you dividing up your recyclable materials into little bins only to have a guy come by and dump them into one truck. Then they go through and pick through them and keep the stuff that’s worth recycling and throw the rest in the dump. The one thing they don’t take is one of the most useful, the soles of your shoes. They easily can be made into thousands of products including the obvious, more shoes.

Shoes make some of the best planters you’ll find. They drain well and hold the perfect amount of dirt to grow a nice flower. I’ve planted up one pair of my daughters shoes each year and have her plant up her favorite plant in each. Both the plants and my daughter are growing up so fast.

Necessity is the mother of invention. 3rd world countries often have a lack of shoes. Ideally you would donate your shoes to a charity that will distribute them but most seem to go to Africa leaving South America to come up with these cool shoes. They’re made of old tires and seat-belts.

Nike has a fantastic program called Reuse a shoe. Athletic shoes (not just Nike) are broken into three parts. The fabric top, the foam, and the rubber sole. Then are then ground into the “Nike Grind” and made into athletic surfaces. It takes roughly 2500 shoes to make a basketball court but can take up to 75,000 shoes to make a full 1/4 track surface. Ironic, running with my new shoes on my old shoes.

ANCIENT OLYMPIA, Greece — The Olympic marathon in Beijing won’t be tarnished by world record-holder Haile Gebrselassie’s decision to skip the event because of pollution concerns, IOC president Jacques Rogge said Monday.

“While I regret the absence of Haile Gebrselassie, I respect his decision,” Rogge said in an interview with The Associated Press. “But the Games are far stronger than the individual. The marathon will be a great success and there will be a great champion.”

The 34-year-old Ethiopian runner, a two-time Olympic 10,000-metre champion, said earlier this month he won’t run the marathon at the Beijing Games because of the city’s air pollution, heat and humidity. He may still run in the 10,000.

“It’s going to be the hardest marathon in history,” said Gebrselassie, who holds the world record of two hours four minutes 26 seconds.

Pollution - in addition to the violence in Tibet and other human rights issues - has been a major concern for China and the International Olympic Committee in the leadup to the Aug. 8-24 Olympics. Some athletes are reportedly considering wearing masks to ward off the bad air in Beijing. » Continue reading “Olympic Marathon Will Still Be a Success Despite Controversy Says IOC President”

I am an age grouper, plain and simple.  As a matter of fact I am the 3rd fasted runner in my age group in the area despite the distance.  How do I know this?  Because I have come in 3rd in my age group in 15 out of 20 races.  In two years I will move to 5th unless someone get hurt.  This is one of the things you learn as a regular on the local running tour.

You get to know every guy your age group that races regularly.  You start to categorize them them into 3 categories.  Guys I always beat.  Guys I will never beat.  Guys that it depends how the day is going if I can beat them.  When you get to the race you take a look around and count them out.  I usually know what place I’ll come in before I even run.   On races with good swag I pray that the category two runners have a little league game to go to so I can get the $2.75 trophy. » Continue reading “The Life and Time of an Age Grouper”

I have the privilege and honor next year of having the Illinois Marathon running through my backyard here in Champaign Urbana. On April 25th will be the inaugural run of the marathon and I certainly will take part as long as I’m healthy. The website is not very informative at this point, and I may be able to give you information faster than the site does. Registration opens on June 1st and that’s about the only info they’re giving out at this time unless you want to give them money and be a sponsor. They have plenty of info on that. Which brings me to the point.

» Continue reading “Introducing the Illinois Marathon”

I got this bad news yesterday.

Athletes who take human growth hormone may not be getting the boost they expected.

While growth hormone adds some muscle, it doesn’t appear to improve strength or exercise capacity, according to a review of studies that tested the hormone in mostly athletic young men.

“It doesn’t look like it helps and there’s a hint of evidence it may worsen athletic performance,” said Dr. Hau Liu, of Santa Clara Valley Medical Center in San Jose, Calif., who was lead author of the review.

Researchers found that those who got the hormone put on about 5 pounds more of muscle, and lost about 2 pounds more of fat, although the fat loss wasn’t statistically different. The researchers said some of the extra body mass could just be fluid buildup.

There was no difference found in strength or exercise stamina between the two groups, but there were only two strength studies and eight that measured exercise. Those who got the hormone had more side effects including swelling and fatigue.

So let me get this straight. I am going to have to rely on diet and training to become a better runner? I can’t afford EPO so it looks like I am actually going to have to put in the miles. Looks like my one bottle of HGH and 1 mile run routine is going to have to be replaced with the 70 mile week again. I still am not going to stop wearing my speedo bikini that came with the HGH.

I have been waiting for four month to run in shorts. Running at the indoor track doesn’t count. I’m a layering kind of guy and boy did I ever layer this winter. One drifit shirt with long sleeve t-shirt over that, followed by a winter jacket. For the lower half , I had the old stretch pants with the sweats on top. This is my 5 degree to 32 degree outfit which pretty much meant I wore it the entire winter. When I run my long runs I really don’t notice the difference of the added clothes but not so in the speed workouts. I feel like I’m wearing a parachute while dragging a tire. So when I got to put on some shorts this week I felt like I lost 20 pounds.   Whether or not I ran faster is not the point.  I felt like I can and it inspired me to run an extra day this week.  The warmer air and the other runners get my running juices flowing.  I find it impossible to get up at 4:45 every morning when it is 10 degrees out but have no problem rising and shining at 40 degrees.  I move more, sleep better, and because of it, I’m happier.   Some bring on spring, I have some fast running to do.

We all want to be faster and of course, training and speed work would be way too much effort. I prefer lighter shoes. Everyone is different, but a light pair of shoes not only makes me feel fast but actually lessens the fatigue on my legs as the mileage builds up. I am fortunate I don’t need very much stability and despite being a big runner at 190 (hopefully 175 by May) I don’t need extra cushioning. What I do need is space in the toe box and because of this, Mizuno is my shoe of choice. I have been running in Mizuno Wave Riders since the day I began running. Just like an old dependable car, you want to try something different, but after trying a few new models you realize you already have the best model for you. » Continue reading “Shoe Review: Mizuno Wave Elixir 3″

1. You live in the United States and actually know how far a kilometer is

2. You’re covered in lube and have no plans of sex

» Continue reading “10 Signs You May Be a Runner”

I’m not making fun of any of these people (OK a few of them), I’m just saying if I’m standing at the pearly gates and God tells me I can come in if I can be ten people in a race. I’m going with these 10.

Despite his super turbo shoes I am pretty sure I can take this guy in a 10K. But I’m going to let you tell him he lost

No, not the dead guy, that would be too easy. I’m talking about the guy in front who’s the front runner for the most awkward photo award

When a Rainbow flag just won’t do it (not that there’s anything wrong with it) nothing says you can outrun me like a Mazda Miata, Spuds McKenzie, and garland.

The only problem I see here is that after each time I beat him, he’s just going to go back in time and run it again.

Yes he did but I think I can beat him

Anyone who gets a bruise from making a muscle may not have the strongest leg muscles

I owe him a good ass kicking as many times as he’s rolled me over the past few years

No photoshop here. Ironically this is how my legs feel after a long race

I’ve already beaten many a gay vampire in some half marathons so I don’t think this one will be any faster