On Mon, 19 Mar 2001, Philip Thrift wrote:

> Nope. The muscle is visibly engorged with blood and larger (blown up).
> If you don't see that you are not pumped.

Okay.  I know what that is, and I *do* see it, along with some
redness from increased blood flow.  I have to say, however, that
I would be unable to say much about *degrees* of pump, not having
attempted to measure it.

> >Why would racketball cause your muscles to shrink?
> When you tear down some muscle it needs time to recover.

What makes you think that playing racketball interferes with this
recovery?  The recovery may not be happening during the playing,
but one doesn't do these things all day.  I think a lot of this
recovery takes place during sleep, doesn't it?  Racketball
doesn't interfere with sleep.  But it's clear that I'm burning
more fat playing racketball than I would be burning watching TV,
and I'd still be leaving plenty of time for muscle recovery.
Actually, I hadn't thought of racketball, but it's a pretty good
idea, since it recruits lots of muscles.  I was thinking of
taking up karate *kata* again, but done at moderate speeds.  They
have the advantage of also using lots of different muscles, and
being mentally demanding and interesting.

Todd Moody
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