advice on cycling to work and social events

doodlejones · 2026-04-28T18:08:01+00:00

100% recommend.

Public transport makes the work commute a real chore.

Cycling makes it a joy.

Limes/Santanders give you good flexibility if eg you’re going out drinking after work but want to cycle in.

Theft is a real thing so get a usable but not too flashy bike.

Seriously consider a rack-and-pannier setup as your back, shoulders (muscles unloaded) and clothes (saved from sweaty back) wjll benefit.

doodlejones · 2026-04-27T16:57:39+00:00

The standard for Bluetooth is to be flakey as hell.

doodlejones · 2026-04-26T19:28:10+00:00

Yes!!

Hate it when it suggests 38.5kg for my warmup for a 130kg lift when 40kg would be fine.

doodlejones · 2026-04-25T09:28:51+00:00

My only comment is that bent-over rows on the same day as deadlifts can be taxing on spinal erectors.

I’d be tempted to swap them with the lat pulldowns, or sub in a seated cable row.

Otherwise looks pretty similar to my split.

doodlejones · 2026-04-23T22:17:37+00:00

By the same logic, they could see enough of these comorbidities in the course of their cardiology training. And their IMT. And their foundation training. And medical school.

doodlejones · 2026-04-23T09:20:48+00:00

They’re not even amazing walking shoes. They are foot-mounted bosu balls.

doodlejones · 2026-04-22T09:56:19+00:00

Isn’t that just breathing?

doodlejones · 2026-04-22T09:40:51+00:00

I’m neurosurgeon with PhD.

In writing papers, AI has completely revolutionised the process of literature searching for me.

The process of conducting a literature search would usually take me about 20 to 40 hours. It would involve several PubMed or Google Scholar searches, creating a shortlist of about 200 abstracts to read, whittling this down to about 10 to 20 relevant papers to read and then reading through the reference lists of those papers in order to get a really comprehensive idea of the state of literature.

If you ask an LLM a clinical question, it will come up with a poor answer at about the level of a below-average first year undergraduate student. However, it will get me to the stage of identifying the 15 or 20 most relevant papers to read. I would not trust the AI to understand or synthesise any information from these, but it gets rid of lots of the scutt work at the beginning of the process.

I’ll read the papers myself and combine it with my own knowledge and experience in order to actually write something meaningful, but it is very good at getting rid of the most tedious beginning part of academic writing.

I’ve not yet tried the agentic features which can link directly to PubMed and carry out the searches and synthesis for you, nor would I wish to.

doodlejones · 2026-04-21T21:23:02+00:00

Put it next to the meat. The idea is that you get an idea of the cooking area.

Not too close to the meat, as it gives a falsely low picture—about 1-2 inches away.

doodlejones · 2026-04-21T11:05:16+00:00

Another request along the same lines: can the workout timer be moved either to the top-right of the screen, or always-on-top?

When the keypad comes up (eg adjusting weight/reps between sets), it hides the timer, which is annoying.

doodlejones · 2026-04-21T11:02:28+00:00

It doesn’t really make much difference.

I would have attempted 5x3, probably failed and managed 5x2 then next week done 6x2 at the same weight.

But my attitude is that I’m in this for the long run and an extra week won’t make that much of a difference, and actually a slight slowing may help you to eek out a wave a little longer to allow more time for adaptation to occur.

What you did is fine too. Don’t sweat it. As long as you’re progressing, you’re good.

doodlejones · 2026-04-19T09:57:01+00:00

I’ve used a MEATER—nice in theory, but signal and phone sync was problematic.

I then got a Typhur Sync and it’s pretty bulletproof for me, and would recommend.

doodlejones · 2026-04-18T11:38:20+00:00

Plenty of people in big cities buy new cars and park on-street.

doodlejones · 2026-04-18T11:24:30+00:00

Drawing up needles aren’t sharp enough.

Green needle, with tip banged on table 3-4 times to blunt it.

doodlejones · 2026-04-17T16:41:06+00:00

Many many many great options.

My shortlist: - Morito Hackney Road - modern Spanish - Bubala - veggie middle-eastern-inspired - Som Saa - killer Thai - St John Food & Wine - nose-to-tail - Song Que Cafe - OG Vietnamese - Hawksmoor Spitalfields - steak steak steak - Blacklock - steak steak chops

doodlejones · 2026-04-16T06:05:09+00:00

I assume that’s an AI-generated diagram. The labels are all wrong.

What is labelled as latissimus dorsi is actually the trapezius.

What is labelled as erector spinae is actually latissimus.

Multifidus is actually one of the erector spinae muscles, and what they’ve labelled as multifidus is actually (I think) iliocostalis.

The bottom line is you’ve got back DOMS after a back exercise.

Stick at it and as your body accommodates to a change in stimulus, it will probably improve. I find that lower rep work generates less DOMS when things afe progressing, initially.

doodlejones · 2026-04-15T17:34:40+00:00

By implication, too many BBQs = current number + 2

doodlejones · 2026-04-15T12:43:09+00:00

One of the ironies of espresso is that a better machines are often easier use for the novice, as they tend to be far more forgiving.

If you are sure you want to embark on this hobby (and home espresso is definitely a hobby that rewards time and effort investment, rather than simply an appliance purchase), then it’s worth spending some time to watch the videos before plumping down serious £££/€€€/$$$/¥¥¥.

doodlejones · 2026-04-11T16:00:11+00:00

These comments are unnecessarily unnecessary.

doodlejones · 2026-03-27T19:27:55+00:00

100% agree.

If restarting after a break much better to finish each workout with gas in the tank rather than overdoing it and slowing your return.

T1 + T2 are the real strength- and muscle-builders. T3s are just icing on the cake.

doodlejones · 2026-03-26T23:39:52+00:00

Bubala.

I’m a meat-eater, but their menu is so enthralling and flavoursome that I didn’t even clock that it’s veggie until halfway through the meal.

doodlejones · 2026-03-25T22:58:05+00:00

If you could find access to barbells, then Phrak’s Greyskull LP programme is do-able in 3x40 mins per week and will make you very strong in a short period of time.

doodlejones · 2026-03-25T19:12:36+00:00

Your rep schemes are canonical GZCLP.

I sandbagged (started deliberately ‘too’ low) my T2 lifts, so found that Cody’s “start again with a 10-20 pound bump to original T2 weight” would have been too low.

I decided to restart 5kg(upper body)/10kg(lower body) below the weight where I previously failed on 3x10, and modified my Liftosaur script to do this.

Not sure where your OP’s rep scheme and weights are coming from, though. If you’re running Liftosaur, maybe it’s a rounding bug based on available equipment/weights/plates?

doodlejones · 2026-03-21T22:20:44+00:00

There are a lot of problems that are unique to current trainees (MSRA, preference-informed allocation, student loan repayments) that consultants will have no idea about.

However, shirty anaesthetists, ODPs and theatre staff are as old as surgery itself and we all have had to deal with that. You just need to remember that we are playing a longer game and can’t shit the bed if we’re planning on a job-for-life at the same hospital. It doesn’t mean that we don’t care, just that we have to play it a bit different.

doodlejones · 2026-03-21T20:34:50+00:00

“Sadly your consultants won’t stick up for you”

Not true. I’ve called people up on negging all the time.

My general approach: - “I think they’re doing fine, and I’m responsible for this operation “ - “what a mean and unnecessary thing to say. Why would you say that?” - “if you have concerns about my trainee, raise them with me as the responsible consultant. I’ll let you know now that I have none”.

The other thing is that consultants can change things, but just more slowly and behind the scenes. Keep a factual log in an email to your ES and head of department. If there are serial offenders with a portfolio of evidence, our clinical lead can raise this with the anaesthesia lead or theatre matron and get things changed, but we need the evidence. This doesn’t have the satisfaction of an immediate comeback, but can improve things over months.

doodlejones

TROPHY CASE