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| For dainty hands: The D500 is small,
but is loaded with features |
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I
am a Nokia fan, but this time i am singing a Samsung tune. Rated
as the world's 'best mobile phone' by the 3gsm World Congress
held at Cannes in February, the Samsung D500 made its India debut
at the recent Lakme India Fashion Week in New Delhi.
The handset combines modern functional design
with a smooth slide-up style. The LCD screen, which uses TFT technology,
is bright and clear. But then, Samsung does own some of the best
LCD plants in the world.
The other features include an mp3 player,
camera with resolution of 1.3 mega pixels (you can take good pictures
even with unsteady hands), video-recording, messaging, e-mail,
Bluetooth and advanced technology for enhanced voice clarity.
This new tri-band has 96 MB of user memory and supports messaging
in several Indian languages like Tamil, Marathi, Bengali, Gujarati,
Hindi, Kannada and Punjabi.
On the flip side, the phone is a tad too
small and can be inconvenient to handle. For a phone that is supposed
to make a lifestyle statement, the shiny plastic looks tacky and
takes the shine off the modern sleek look. Also be warned: if
your Samsung D500 starts ringing in the middle of a meeting, there
is no one-or two-key route by which you can make it go quiet.
But at Rs 22,500, the 'world's best mobile' is a good buy.
-Kushan Mitra
TREADMILL
BE A BRUTE, SOMETIMES
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| Warning: Getting ripped can be painful |
I
still remember the first time a gym instructor showed me how to
do super sets. It was my 'leg day' at the gym and, as usual, I
set up the squat rack for my first set. After a 12-repetition
first set of squats, as I was adding weights for my second set,
the instructor stopped me. "Try something new," he said,
leading me to the leg press machine. "Do a quick set of leg
presses," he said and before I knew it, there I was doing
10 moderately heavy ones on the machine. As I staggered off the
leg press machine, my quadriceps blasted, he pointed me back toward
the squat rack. "Now do another set of squats," he commanded,
"and follow that up with another set of leg presses."
Most gym-goers will know what I mean if I said that the following
day was hell for me. Walking was impossible.
What my instructor made me do that morning
is known as 'supersetting'. It is also the most brutal shock you
can subject your muscles to. Supersetting is high-intensity weight
training and there are a number of benefits to be had from it.
First, it's quick. Jumping from one to another exercise without
rest makes workouts shorter and tougher. Supersets put more pressure
on your muscles and help them grow faster. And because of their
intensity they can overload your muscles without resorting to
very heavy weights.
There are different kinds of supersets. You
could do one where the movement of the first exercise isolates
the muscles, while the second uses compound movements. For example,
you could do leg extensions that isolate the quadriceps and follow
it up with squats, which involve not only the quads but the glutes
(your butt), hamstrings and inner thighs. Or you could do the
opposite: a compound movement, followed by one that isolates the
muscle. Example: bench press followed by lying dumb-bell flyes.
Then there are tri-sets, which I call the father of supersets:
you do three sets of three exercises targeting the same muscle,
without resting in between. A set of squats, then, quickly, a
set of leg presses and then, again without a pause, a set of leg
extensions. Oh, boy! That's one helluva workout. Believe me, I
do it sometimes and then forget about walking for the next couple
of days.
-Muscles
Mani
write to musclesmani@intoday.com
THIS
PAD CAN HURT
The
pad we're referring to here is peripheral arterial disease, which
is caused by blockages to the arteries that supply legs with blood.
Such blockage can result in acute pain and, in severe cases, even
lead to gangrene. Here's an FAQ on PAD:
Symptoms: Fatigue, discomfort or persistent
pain in the muscles of the calves or the thighs. "Another
clue that a walking impairment may be due to PAD is a wound in
the legs that refuses to heal," says Dr S.K. Gupta, Cardiologist,
Indraprastha Apollo Hospital, New Delhi.
Causes: Since PAD is caused by arterial
blockage, smoking, diabetes, high blood pressure and cholesterol
are prime suspects.
Who's at risk: If you're 50 or older
and have a history of smoking, or are diabetic, you're in the
danger zone. Further, PAD patients face a six- to seven-fold increase
in the risk of a heart attack or a stroke.
Cure: First, treat the underlying
causes. If it doesn't work, angioplasty or bypass surgery for
the legs may be required.
-Indrani Rajkhowa
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