Posted by: jakinnan | November 15, 2012

Strengthen Your Back

 

Kneeling Halfmoon
Why: Your lower back is especially vulnerable to twists and jerks. Dynamic, rotational strength-builders help stabilize your core for safer pack-lifting and loaded travel on uneven terrain.
How: Start by kneeling on the ground with a 10- to 25-pound weight on your right side (use an iron plate or dumbbell). Bend at the waist, grab the weight with both hands, lift it above your head to full arm extension, and place it to your left side. Reverse the move to complete one rep; do four sets of five reps three times a week.

Loaded Step-Ups
Why: This lower-back exercise helps prevent bad form, like leaning forward, which can cause long-day fatigue. Bonus: This move also builds cardio fitness.
How: Put on a 15- to 20-pound pack. Step straight up onto a 16- to 20-inch bench, fully extending your leg and hip as you stand all the way up. Then, step down and repeat the move, leading with your opposite leg. Start with two 30-minute sessions per week. Go big: Build up to 750 step-ups (375 per leg) in 30 minutes wearing a 40-pound pack.

Low Back Complex
Why: Focused isometrics quickly build strength in pack-hauling muscles.
How: Assume this stance: feet shoulder-width apart, knees slightly bent, leaning forward from the hips. Squeeze your shoulder blades together while pushing your butt back and torso forward. Then, one after the other, hold each of these positions for 20 seconds: arms extended behind you, alongside your torso; arms raised above your head, in-line with your ears; hands pressed into your knees. Do four sets four times a week.

Courtesy of Backpacker Magazine

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Posted by: jakinnan | November 15, 2012

Pumpkin Peanut Soup

Prep time: 3 mins
Cook time: 15 min
Price: $1.65
Weight: 10.3 oz
Serves: 2
Calories: 441*
Fat: 29g
Carbs: 37g
Protein: 17g

Recipe:
1/3 cup chunky peanut butter
1 15-ounce can pumpkin
1 tablespoon unsalted butter
1 cube chicken bouillon (enough for 2 cups of broth)
Salt and pepper
1/3 cup Monterey Jack cheese, grated

At Home 
Measure peanut butter and butter into a zip-top bag.

In Camp
Mix peanut butter, pumpkin, butter, bouillon, and two cups of water in a pot. Heat on medium and stir three to five minutes, until smooth. Add a pinch of salt and pepper (to taste). Turn heat to low, and simmer soup for five to 10 minutes. Divide the soup into bowls and top each with half of the cheese.

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Posted by: jakinnan | November 15, 2012

Carry the Beauty

“Though we travel the world over to find the beautiful, we must carry it with us or we find it not.”

-Ralph Waldo Emerson

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Posted by: jakinnan | November 15, 2012

Time to Look for a Different Clinic

When church actually inoculates people to a true experience of Jesus—or to an experience of the true Jesus—then yes, I am very anti that sort of church. All the men and women I’ve met who have spent decades in church and still do not know God. If the people you loved came down with cancer, and were told to faithfully attend a center for recovery but at the end of ten years were no better, wouldn’t you be mad about that? Wouldn’t you at least say that it’s time to look for a different clinic?

The simple test is this: Do you encounter Jesus in church—or in any of the Christian things you do? Are you drawn into a genuine understanding and experience of Jesus as we find him in the Gospels? If not, there’s a problem. Don’t forget—Jesus healed a man on the Sabbath. The religious leaders decided to kill him. This spirit is mighty nasty—and slippery as an oyster.

Friends, if you would know Jesus as he is, if you would let him simply be himself with you, then run—run as fast as your two feet will carry you from anything that smacks of religion.

-John Eldredge, Beautiful Outlaw, 205, 206

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Posted by: jakinnan | November 15, 2012

11/15/2012 Scripture

But now God has shown us a way to be made right with him without keeping the requirements of the law, as was promised in the writings of Moses and the prophets long ago. We are made right with God by placing our faith in Jesus Christ. And this is true for everyone who believes, no matter who we are.

-Romans 3:21-22 NLT

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Posted by: jakinnan | November 14, 2012

Build Trail-worthy Ankle Strength

>> Four-way Resistance Band Stretch 
Sit on a chair or the floor with your right leg straight, wrap a resistance band around your right foot and hold it in both hands. Maintaining resistance in the band, rotate your ankle inward and outward for one rep. Do one to three sets of 10-15 repetitions on each foot daily. Challenge yourself: Increase the resistance by shortening the band or switch to a higher resistance band to test your strength.

>> Alphabet Range of Motion Exercise 
Sit on a chair, cross your right leg over your left and imagine your big toe is a writing instrument. Flex your ankle and begin tracing the letters of the alphabet from A-Z. Repeat on the opposite ankle and perform twice daily. Challenge yourself: Create a sling using a loop of 1-inch webbing and a 5-pound dumbbell. Hang the sling from the base of your toes to add resistance and trace the letters of the alphabet backwards.

>> Balance Leg Lifts 
Tie a large resistance or elastic band into a loop and slip the loop onto the leg of a sturdy, four-legged chair. Stand alongside the chair and put your left foot inside the loop, move away from the chair so that there’s light tension in the loop (it shouldn’t give resistance, but shouldn’t flop around). Use the chair to steady yourself and cross your left foot in front of your right leg as far as the elastic permits. Do two sets of 15 to 20 repetitions on each leg. Challenge yourself: Add more resistance and increase the repetitions to 25 to 30 on each leg.

>> Calf Raises 
Keeping your knees and back straight, stand with both legs shoulder width apart. Raise your heels up off the floor as high as you can and hold for 30 seconds. Return to the floor and repeat. Do 15 repetitions twice daily. Challenge yourself: Perform on a step with your heels unsupported. Allow your heels to drop below the level of the step without letting them touch the floor and slowly rise back up. Do three sets of 20.

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Posted by: jakinnan | November 14, 2012

Smoky PB Chicken Chili

Prep time: 30 min
Cook time: 25 min
Price: $1.97
Weight: 11.5 oz.
Serves: 4
Calories: 427*
Fat: 18g
Carbs: 51 g
Protein: 23 g

Recipe:
1/2 onion, chopped
1 clove garlic, minced
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 14.5-ounce can diced fire-roasted tomatoes
1 6-ounce can tomato paste
1/2 cup peanut butter
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 16-ounce can red kidney beans, rinsed and drained
1/2 red bell pepper, seeded and chopped
1 4.5-ounce can chicken
2 tablespoons roasted peanuts

At Home 
Make stock by sautéing onion and garlic in oil until soft, about five minutes. Add canned tomatoes, tomato paste, peanut butter, and salt. Simmer for 20 minutes (stir constantly to prevent burning), then cool and store in an airtight container for up to two days (keep cold). Combine kidney beans and chopped bell pepper in a separate zip-top bag.

In Camp
Pour stock into a pot and add 1.5 cups of water. Bring to a boil on medium-high heat. Reduce heat to low and add the kidney beans, chopped pepper, and chicken. Cover the pot and simmer for 10 minutes, or until hot. Divide chili into bowls and top each serving with peanuts.

Courtesy of Backpacker magazine

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Posted by: jakinnan | November 14, 2012

Mountain Love

“Range after range of mountains.
Year after year after year.
I am still in love.”

-Gary Snyder

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Posted by: jakinnan | November 14, 2012

Keep Me as the Apple of Your Eye

We begin our journey into sonship by looking backward, to what our lives as boys were like, and, more important, what they were meant to be. For so much of the way we now approach life as men was set in motion in our youth-some of it for good, and some not so good. We want to recover what was good, and find healing for all that was not.

Boyhood is a time of exploration and wonder, and to be a boy is to be an explorer, from the time when the little guy figures out how to crawl up the stairs (he is gone in a flash), to the time he discovers that if he jumps over the back fence he can get down to Jimmy’s house, where they have a secret fort. When God set Adam in the Garden of Eden, he set his son in a world that was, at the very same moment, safe and secure yet full of mystery and adventure. There was no reason whatsoever to be afraid, and every reason to dare. As Mark Twain said, “There comes a time in every rightly constructed boy’s life when he has a raging desire to go somewhere and dig for hidden treasure.” (How many of you, when you were a boy, thought there was treasure buried somewhere in the yard, or stowed away in your grandparents’ attic?) Evil is-for now-held at bay. Such is the world God intended for the boy. And that world is created under the sheltering strength of a father who makes you feel safe. For this is the time in life when we were meant to come into the knowledge that we are the Beloved Son, the apple of our father’s eye.

-John Eldredge, Fathered by God

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Posted by: jakinnan | November 14, 2012

11/14/2012 Scripture

Don’t be concerned about the outward beauty of fancy hairstyles, expensive jewelry, or beautiful clothes.  You should clothe yourselves instead with the beauty that comes from within, the unfading beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which is so precious to God.

-1 Peter 3-4 NLT

Picture Credit: Steven W Oachs

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