Odds are you came here expecting one of two things (as promised in today's N&O):
1. An update on where the Crabtree Creek Greenway extension from Lindsay Drive through the rock quarry into Umstead State Park stands. Or,
2. To find out how your fellow bikers, runners, hikers, etc., stand on the subject of stretching.
Well, you'll have to come back mid-week for both of those reports. The reason: I spent the last two working days of this week researching one of the most intense ab exercises I've ever endured. More demanding than the Abdominizer. More relentless than the Ab Rocket. And yes, more intense than the AbCoaster.
Yep, I'm talking about the 24-hour stomach flu. Surprisingly, there is precious little scientific material about what happens when your stomach decides to return everything you've eaten since fifth grade. One site that addressed whether you can break a rib via intense hurling (you don't want the link). Most were penned by people who apparently have a middle school appreciation of the subject. The best our research staff could come up with was a paper by one Alan D. Miller (no relation) on "Vomiting: Its Respiratory Components," which begins : "Vomiting is produced primarily by changes in intrathoracic and intraabdominal pressures that are generated by the coordinated action of the major respiratory muscles. ..." For more, click here (preferably before lunch).
For my part, suffice it to say that a determined stomach bug can render your abs sore for — what's today, Sunday? — four days.
Minimum.
