The Viking DBA - Making Strong Bodies and Databases

Pet Peeves - Part 1 - In the Gym Kicking off a small 2 part series on biggest pet peeves; in the gym and in your databases. Today I'll touch on 5 of my biggest pet peeves and irritations in the gym. Give it a read, if you have more or something unique, sound off in the comments. Alright, starting with the least annoying and going up, let's get after it! Loading every plate you can find to do tiny reps - There's always someone who takes every 45 lb plate they can find in a vicinity to load on a bar or machine. Sure, that looks impressive, but not if you do a half or even a quarter rep for 3-4. I'm sure there are some folks who will read this and immediately have a visceral reaction. "That's a valid form of training!" To a degree I'll concur with that. There is some science that suggest doing a larger weight for a half rep can increase muscle growth, however when done under slow movement and tension. Not for super quick "baby" reps! Couple this...

  In the Kitchen with The Viking DBA Fuel your body and your databases. In today's post we're talking about one of my favorite things to do in the world; EAT! If you see me in person, you might think "He's fairly fit, but clearly never says no to a cookie." Tis true. Sweets of all sorts are an Achilles heel of mine. Though I do attempt to limit those to special occasions and I have drastically cut down on the amount. About 2 years ago while training for my first Hyrox competition, our trainer put me on to a meal plan. this meal plan included things such as vegetables. Now again, if you know me, you'll agree that me and vegetables for a long time had a rule. We don't mess with each other. However, once I learned how to cook them to my tastes, I now find that I *gasp* enjoy them! I was 47 years old before I let broccoli pass my lips!  Well, today's post is about proper fuel. Both for your body and your database. I believe we can agree that in both scenar...

    A Bit of a Stretch Warming up the body and the database Working out and Databases. Sometimes, the subjects can tie together very nicely. If you scan some of my previous blogs, I feel it's been decent work finding connections between the database world and activities in the gym. But this topic...I'm not sure about.   Possibly the best thing you can do for your body prior to working out is stretching. Waking up tired and stiff joints, activating muscles alerting the receptors that hard work is imminent. Take your time and focus in on the muscle groups you plan to use in the workout.  In the video that accompanies this post, I step through a typical routine used before a big leg day or in this case running and high intensity cardio training (Hyrox looms). It is by no means close to an extensive list and even after putting it together I thought of more that could've been demonstrated. It is purely an example of movements I've found to be helpful and getting read...

  "Where have you been?" A look back at the last 7 months. If you've spent any time on the internet in the last 10 years, you've no doubt seen this animated gif around. Classic John Travolta, scanning the room, searching for anyone else being there even though he clearly hears a voice. I felt this captured how I've felt about my blog and my work with The Viking DBA over the last 7 months. Perhaps no one other than myself has been asking where I went to. I can live with that. What I cannot live with is giving up and that's what I felt. So let's get into it. December 2025 I was writing a blog post somewhat regularly, trying to accomplish 1 every week or so. My inspiration and guidance for starting this journey, Brent Ozar, even shouted me out in his weekly email blast! Queue the fan girling.....because I did hardcore! My read counts went way up thanks to that article. No comments and no engagement really, but people knew I was out there! And then the imposte...