From “Don’t Believe Women’s Weight-Lifting Myths“:

Strength training, along with a healthy diet and regular cardio exercise, is one of the best things women can do to maintain metabolism and keep their arms looking great. Despite popular belief, lifting weights does not make most women look masculine and bulky. Since women naturally have less of the hormone testosterone, an essential hormone for increasing muscle size, they do not gain muscle in the same way as men. Of course, women who want to can get very large muscles. But women who compete in body building competitions train for hours a day and utilize supplements to enhance their muscle mass. Women who follow a basic strength training regimen will not develop muscle in a similar fashion.

I’m not quite sure why or when this started, but there’s been a lot of talk about Michelle Obama’s “toned arms”. Not sure why…

Continue reading this post…

Taken from The New York Times, via Yahoo News:

THIS summer the unvarying male uniform in the precincts of Brooklyn cool has been a pair of shorts cut at knickers length, a V-neck Hanes T-shirt, a pair of generic slip-on sneakers and a straw fedora. Add a leather cuff bracelet if the coolster is gay.

In truth this get-up was pretty much the unvarying male uniform last summer also, but this year an unexpected element has been added to the look, and that is a burgeoning potbelly one might term the Ralph Kramden.

Too pronounced to be blamed on the slouchy cut of a T-shirt, too modest in size to be termed a proper beer gut, developed too young to come under the heading of a paunch, the Ralph Kramden is everywhere to be seen lately, or at least it is in the vicinity of the Brooklyn Flea in Fort Greene, the McCarren Park Greenmarket and pretty much any place one is apt to encounter fans of Grizzly Bear.

What the trucker cap and wallet chain were to hipsters of a moment ago, the Kramden is to what my colleague Mike Albo refers to as the “coolios” of now. Leading with a belly is a male privilege of long standing, of course, a symbol of prosperity in most cultures and of freedom from anxieties about body image that have plagued women since Eve.
Continue reading this post…

There’s been a lot of rage brewing over a recent Time article, “Why Exercise Won’t Make You Thin“. Here’s an excerpt:

“In general, for weight loss, exercise is pretty useless,” says Eric Ravussin, chair in diabetes and metabolism at Louisiana State University and a prominent exercise researcher. Many recent studies have found that exercise isn’t as important in helping people lose weight as you hear so regularly in gym advertisements or on shows like The Biggest Loser — or, for that matter, from magazines like this one.

The basic problem is that while it’s true that exercise burns calories and that you must burn calories to lose weight, exercise has another effect: it can stimulate hunger. That causes us to eat more, which in turn can negate the weight-loss benefits we just accrued. Exercise, in other words, isn’t necessarily helping us lose weight. It may even be making it harder.

Thoughts? Opinions?

I’d like to just reiterate that nobody knows anything about health.

From “New development builds ripped muscles legally”

Researchers in New Jersey have developed an effective, healthy and legal alternative to steroids. The weekly parade of amateur and professional athletes being exposed for using steroids may be a thing of the past.
[...]
To develop a healthier approach to “being ripped,” a creative team, led by Dr. Robert Shorr, recognized that accelerating the stem cell activity and sleep were equally important parts of fitness. They also formulated compounds to address the aggregate interaction and synergy of all-natural proteins, enzymes and amino acids, including a stem cell agonist, a trace mineral called indium and components to support natural, non habit-forming sleep processes

The core muscle building component, “eggplant extract,” is a natural dietary adult stem cell agonist. The eggplant extract quickly goes to work recruiting the sleeping adult stem cells in bone marrow and starts repairing the micro-tears and building new muscle. It is that combination of elements and interactions that works like magic, for the ultimate easy and safe results we each want, need and deserve.

Oh great, another extract, another supplement, another vitamin. Maybe this one will replace the “omega fatty acid” fad, which replaced the vitamin “C” fad.

OH GOD IT NEVER ENDS.

WOW! A TRIPLE NEGATIVE!

On a serious note, some articles made headlines in the news about obesity for some reason. Here’s the source material on the actual “study“. If you’re too lazy obese to check it out, here are some links to some charts.

What shocks me is that the study was performed using BMI, or “Body Mass Index.” According to the BMI scale, this man is obese:

Ronnie Coleman is obese. Yeah, buddy.

Wait, what?

Yeah you read that right. Obese. According to his stats, his BMI fluctuates between 34.4 - 45.2 depending on his lifting schedule.

So wait, what the hell happened? None of this makes sense…

Continue reading this post…

I spoke to a couple of people about a cardio technique called “High Interval Intensity Training” so I thought I’d make a post about it.

The basic idea is to breakup your cardio workout into short bursts (or intervals) - you run at full speed for one interval, then walk/jog lightly for the next and repeat.

An example of a routine would be run at 10mph for 30 seconds, walk at 4mph for 30 seconds, run for 10 mph for 30 seconds, walk for 30 seconds, etc.

Here’s a video example:

You’re probably thinking “is this better than a regular cardio workout?”. Well, there have been studies done on it, but I warn people about this like anything in regards to fitness and health - everybody is different so it will affect everyone differently. I wouldn’t suggest using it to replace your cardio routine as the “be-all-end-all” method, but it’s something different to spice things up.

Variety and moderation is the spice of good health.

Feel free to read up a little more on it and give it a shot the next time you’re doing a workout.

That being said, here’s a little on my personal experience with it:

Continue reading this post…

It’s no secret that certain Hollywood movie stars have taken steroids. Arnold Schwarzenegger, Sylvester Stallone, and others have admited to it. But in a society where we worship celebrity, and blow billions of dollars on movies, is it a good example to our children that these celebrities with the “Hot Bods” are really closet juicers?

Alright, let’s step back to reality for a minute here. I, and a few friends, are weightlifters. I have been lifting for about three years now, and I have a friend who has been lifting for over five. Yet, for some reason, we don’t look like these Celebrities that “Trained intensely for THREE WHOLE MONTHS!”. I wonder why this would be?

I don’t think there is an action movie that comes out now that doesn’t have a male lead that “got shredded” for the part. They put him on the cover of Men’s Health, Muscle and Fitness and so on. They have an interview with them, or more likely the guy who “trained” them, explaining how they did it. It normally goes like this:
Continue reading this post…

Original article: Tips of the day: 7 fitness don’ts

This is a pretty good article, but I’d like to expand a bit:

Don’t lean on the machines

You may not realize how much your depending on the handle bars on stair-steppers, treadmills, ellipticals and other equipment you use to exercise. Do a posture check several times throughout your workout so you will get the most out of your time on the machine and avoid wrist and back strain leaning can cause.

This is the most common mistake I see people doing on cardio equipment (treadmills, ellipticals, bikes, etc). I’ll see someone running briskly for a while, but whenever they decide to sprint they’ll grab the handles and lean into the machine.

Continue reading this post…