Look Better Naked

In short

2011-03-02T19:26:00.010-07:00

I have not logged into this account in two years.

Sometimes I think about what I meant to do when I started writing this blog. I wanted to share my experiences and opinions about some things I've learned.

While attending high school, I participated in a football camp where I met an NFL veteran who had become interested and involved in competitive bodybuilding. He told me, after training me for three summer months, that I had a genetic property that I should know about. He did it in a way such that I could not dismiss what he was telling me as some nicety or weak compliment.

He tried to make it clear that I had a muscle quality that one cannot gain through any sort of training or nutritional, or hormonal, supplementation. He told me that I was born with what bodybuilders call, "good separation."

He was trying to tell me I had a natural gift that I did not notice. He told me if I wanted, I could "go all the way" in bodybuilding if I were determined enough to do so.

I never went on to play college football or continue athletics. I attended college for academics and career preparation.

It was later, after listening to Anthony Robbins' audio tape, Get the Edge (which I think is no longer in print), I realized I should exercise in the morning.

In short, I returned to the memory of what I had been told, and decided not to allow a potential or gift I had to be wasted or ignored, one I should not take for granted. I wanted to become a fitness model. With no claims of 'sour grapes,' I did not want to become a competitive bodybuilder, not at any period of my life.

To me, in my own humble opinion, and not intending ill will to anyone, that the competitive bodybuilding I saw and was limited to in experience, was on ESPN, sunburned men, greased up and wearing neon colored panties on stage, under lights. I did not want to do that; that is just me.

But I bought and read Arnold Schwarzenegger's book, "The Encyclopedia of Modern Bodybuilding."

The basic argument of that entire book, I present in very short form:

The human body is like a machine

But unlike a real (metal) machine, which can only do a fixed amount of work
Humans are like magical machines
If a human does a fixed amount of work
The human body will adapt to do even more work
Given proper work, done correctly, nutrition, and rest, the human body will adapt, and become an even bigger and stronger machine
Specifically, the male human body will release larger, necessary quantities of natural, endogenous, androgenizing (toward maleness) hormones (testosterone [T] and human growth hormone [HGH]) that promote genetic transcription and growth

And also the part that reaffirmed what I had been told by my trainer

Great bodybuilders are not just made, they are also born. Genetics of the muscles is most of what bodybuilding success is, period.

And toward the end of the book

People who take steroids are just kidding themselves and are basically losers (to paraphrase "not winners" or "not champions")

This all made perfect sense to me. So I embarked on my journey to work hard, eat well, rest plenty and become great. I planned to be like my own drill sergeant, endlessly, mercilessly, pushing , myself on toward victory.

I was doing squats (work) one day, with too much weight on my back and I fell with the weight on top of me while attempting to lunge forward so that the weight would not crush my spine. That emergency situation felt like it lasted for minutes, not just one or two seconds. There was no one in the gym supervising and disclaimers everywhere say, in brief, 'you are at your own risk.'

That accident led to an injury that hindered my breathing and affected my posture and walking gait. I limped for years. Even though Arnold's book says not to attempt to "train through" an injury, I did so anyway. I blocked the event, and the pain, out of my mind. I just refused to accept it.

I continued training like a madman, putting 10 to 11 forty-five pound plates on each side of a leg press machine doing 3 or more sets of 5 or 6 reps, lowering and raising the weight very slowly. I loved the burn and still do.

That would be a typical warm-up exercise that preceded a two-hour long workout, for example. Most days I trained for 3 hours, non-stop. I would turn up my headphones and block out all the people standing around and chatting or resting 5-10 minutes between sets.I did this sort of thing every day because I became hooked on (and grateful for) the endorphin rush produced by pushing out of one's (my) comfort zone. Clearly, doing so takes far less effort than what is normally deemed "walk a little longer, try a different swim stroke, learn a new dumbbell exercise, reverse the order of the exercises you do every now and then or just enjoy doing new

At a certain point, I could no longer continue. I was tired all the time and the injury which I repressed, would have denied if anyone ever asked, just got worse.

When I found out that competitive bodybuilding is totally and completely saturated with steroid hormone using people (even women taking androgenizing hormones--which have another side effect of make their skull structure (forehead ridge and jaw) appear more like a mans.' In males the side effect of steroid abuse is a facial structure similar to neanderthal man. It you don't believe that competitive bodybuilding is chronically saturated with steroid users yet, ask, in a polite way, certain questions and you will not believe how some people rationalize (make up 'good' reasons) it.

1. Is it cheating to take steroids and compete in bodybuilding?

2. Is it "natural" to take hormones or hormone-mimics, created by unknown people?

3. Is it possible to become addicted (tolerance and then painful withdrawal) to steroid use?

I became disgusted. I found out that Arnold too, took steroids and admits to it, but won't endorse them to anyone. If you look at the 'champions' of the past, none of them want to take their shirts off in older age. If you watched Rocky6, you will catch a glimpse of the reason why that seems to be.

After reading many opinions from people who seem to claim some right to demand things from Arnold, these individuals want him to explain his choices/decisions in his own life and claim "regret" in order to set an example for youth. hrm. If people could control youth in the way they only imagine in their own minds, it would make sense but those people are actually just projecting their feelings onto other people.

When I saw Conan the Barbarian in the theater as a kid, I was astounded. Arnold has a muscular structure that is almost unworldly. Unlike many bodybuilders who are overly large to compensate for less definition and separation, Arnold looked magical to me. I read how even though he did not have money for weight training specific equipment, he would go to the scrap yard and heave around heavy objects. When he had access to a gym with numbered dumbbells, he trained so hard and with such drive that while riding home on his bicycle he crashed into a ditch.

When I read his story, I could feel myself becoming energized. I knew that feeling in my bones. I had learned for myself, what it was like to make the legs burn so badly that it feels like you're about to collapse. Some days, I had to hug the railings on the stairs, lest my legs give out and I tumbled downward.

Arnold doesn't have to justify himself or explain himself. It was and is his own life to live. Arnold made a career, a very successful one, out of bodybuilding and don't judge him. And 0.00000001% of people will accomplish what he did because they simply were not born with those muscle-specific genetic gifts. People will still claim to try, as if this were some written goal, imagining million dollar supplement (powdered food) endorsements and the like.

I am finally getting over the injury after a period of rest. I look forward to training, kettle balls, elastic bands, yoga, and swimming, for personal enjoyment and growth. I will also pick up the weights again one day. Maybe you'll see my picture in some magazine picture, demonstrating how to to do exercises with proper form.

In short, if a single person learned something or gained a new angle by reading what I posted here, then imo it was worth putting down some thoughts here for the public. Otherwise, I would have checked this blog as a personal, private entry for posterity

Thanks for reading, if you did. I will be around the internet, still. I may even make version 2.0 of these thoughts :0)

My mind just sits and waits patiently for the next available moment.

Best wishes

7 fitness don'ts for exercise newbies to athletes

2009-02-21T18:05:00.000-07:00

Good and basic rules

Obama's workout time

2009-01-29T14:49:00.003-07:00

"Although his presidency is barely a week old, some of Mr. Obama’s work habits are already becoming clear. He shows up at the Oval Office shortly before 9 in the morning, roughly two hours later than his early-to-bed, early-to-rise predecessor. Mr. Obama likes to have his workout — weights and cardio — first thing in the morning, at 6:45. (Mr. Bush slipped away to exercise midday.)"

Acai berry

2008-11-20T13:04:00.004-07:00

Like you would expect as an informed and mature adult, this product has nothing to do with your metabolism and cannot change your metabolism, unless it also acts as a neurotransmitter. I don't know if Oprah sincerely endorsed this product but if she did then she should expect fewer people to trust her, in terms of book selection or credibility, in the future.

Experimental Drug Spurs Fat Burning

2008-11-06T13:18:00.001-07:00

Experimental Drug Spurs Fat Burning

Drug May Help Keep Weight Down, Even on a High-Fat Diet, Lab Tests Show

"So far, the experimental drug has only been tested in mice. But when those mice got a high daily dose of the drug for three months, they didn't gain weight on a high-fat diet. A lower dose of the drug wasn't as effective.
The experimental drug doesn't have a brand name yet. For now, it's called SRT1720. It targets the SIRT1 gene, boosting the mice's fat metabolism as if calories were scarce, not abundant.
...
SRT1720 is a long way from being ready for use in people. But there's already a low-tech way to prevent weight gain and also benefit the heart, brain, bones, and the rest of the body. That's the timeless combination of a healthy diet and an active lifestyle.

Resolutions and attitude

2007-12-30T07:37:00.000-07:00

Avoid making resolutions that sound like "I will lose weight." Sometimes, the way we phrase certain tasks influences whether these tasks will get accomplished or not. "Lose weight" sounds dreary, and sounds like it involves pain or being deprived. I always thought "Weight Watchers" wasn't a great name for a business because the name has built-in dreariness. Saying, "I will lose weight," doesn't really describe how you're going to do it, either.

The subconscious hears the things we say to ourselves and leads the body accordingly.

Make resolutions that are phrased better. It's like asking the right question. Ask the right question--the one that will give a better answer. Don't ask "how much do you bench press?" ask "how do you bench press and how does it make your chest muscles feel while you do it?"

Instead of "I will lose weight," say "I will learn how to do basic weight training moves." By starting with low weights and gradually increasing them, while learning correct lifting form and eating 6-7 meals a day (adding snacks between meals)."

By February--probably before the end of January--you'll notice the changes to your body as a side effect that you get for pursuing your hobby, learning weight training moves and eating throughout the day. The positive changes to mood, energy level, even outlook on life, will also be side effects. And all this just for picking up a new hobby.

How to Lose Weight

2007-11-30T10:53:00.000-07:00

Every person needs a certain amount of calories (food) in a day.

Here are two ways to go about eating that amount of food:

1. You can take this amount of food and divide it up into 6 to 8 fractions and eat it throughout the day, taking each small meal about every 2 or 3 hours while you're awake. (6-8 small meals)

you won't really feel hungry
your metabolism will speed up
you will lose weight

2. You can starve yourself all day while drinking soda and then binge eat all your calories in 1 or 2 sittings. (1-2 giant meals)

you'll be hungry at first, but then the hunger passes as your body enters survival mode
when you do get around to eating, your body will "remember" or realize how hungry it is and the urge to gorge or binge on food becomes intense
your metabolism will slow down
you will store as much fat as possible and gain weight

Somewhere in between these two extremes is "3 meals a day" which is a social convention that we made up. Is "3 meals a day" the best of all possible worlds?

The metabolism changes based on the frequency of meals (how often one eats) regardless of whether one exercises or not.

Eating 6-8 meals or grazing (eating throughout the day) changes the metabolism and puts the body in an "anabolic state."

For people who train with weights with a goal of building muscle, eating 6-8 meals is a must. Otherwise, they won't get significant results--unless they support their training (work done) with proper nutrition.

For people who want to lose weight (body fat), eating 6-8 meals is an effective and long-lasting way to go about it.

This principle is essentially what NutriSystem sells. There's probably nothing special about what is in their food--the key is in having a consistent meal schedule.

Some cereal brands promise weight loss of 5 or 10 lbs by eating their cereal for breakfast. I have a hunch that the weight-loss occurs just by encouraging people to have a more consistent and well-proportioned meal schedule.

There is a stereotype that obese people eat all day long. More often than not, they fast until they've made themselves very hungry and then they binge eat. The roots of this behavior usually begin with the false but common misconception that skipping meals will lead to weight loss, which is absolutely false.

After fasting or starving oneself, the pleasurable feelings produced by finally eating are intensified. It becomes a reliable way to change the way one feels--using food to influence one's emotions--much like drugs and alcohol are used as predictable ways to change one's feelings. In contrast, if you eat throughout the day, you don't get to that point of intense hunger; you forget what hunger is like. Food is still pleasurable but it doesn't affect the brain's survival and pleasure centers as intensely.

After adjusting one's eating habits for long enough one realizes that unless you fuel your body and brain throughout the day with well-portioned and balanced meals, they don't run as well. It's a self-reinforcing habit.

The New Plan for Powerful Legs

2007-08-21T23:52:00.000-06:00

Any properly executed squat, however, may be a more effective muscle builder than all other exercises combined. It requires the synchronized recruitment of muscle fibers throughout your body. And because squatting is one of the most natural human movements, like walking or using the remote, it's perfectly safe. And new research shows that squats burn up to three times as many calories as previously thought. So it's a powerful fat-burning tool as well.

...
Named for the way in which you hold the weight--in front of your chest, with your hands cupped--the goblet squat may in fact be the only squat you need in your workout.

25 Biggest Weight Loss Mistakes

2007-08-20T14:16:00.000-06:00

"Many women have spent an average of 20 years "dieting," so another safe assumption is that we know a lot about what to do right. However, little attention is usually given on what not to do. Apply this list of things NOT to do to your healthful regimen, and spare yourself many of the pitfalls that derail most dieters."

1. Having a negative defeatist attitude. If you think there is no way that you are going to succeed this time, lose the weight and keep it off, then you will be right! However, if you think positively and believe that change is at hand, you will empower your journey, and you will reach your goals!
2. Going on any diet that is NOT a manner of eating that you can adhere to for the rest of your life. Be careful when deciding what nutritional plan you want to follow, as it should be a manner of eating that matches your tastes, budget and lifestyle. You should model all of your future nutritional plans closely after how you lost the weight to keep that weight lost for good!
3. Believing that you will eat cabbage soup -- or any other low-cal, monotonous fare everyday for the rest of your life. If a particular odd "diet" is something that you can barely stomach, it isn't realistic to think you will eat that way for the entire time it takes to lose all the weight. It certainly won't teach you much about how to live healthfully for the long-term. Just say NO, to cabbage soup and other such funky diets!
4. Weighing in too frequently, letting the scale rule your mood and actions. Up to this point, have you been fixated on the scale? Well, if so, it hasn't really helped you lose weight, has it? Otherwise, you wouldn't be here, looking for yet another "diet." So do us both a favor, and pack the scale up, put a big red bow around it, and unwrap it after six months of consistent healthful living. It might actually show you something you want to see! --- more »

Calorie needs can fluctuate like your weight

2007-08-20T13:20:00.000-06:00

Calorie needs depend on weight, age, gender and activity level, as well as individual metabolic rate. The figures from the USDA Center for Nutrition Policy and Promotion provide a rough estimate.

Tip of the Week: Six of the Worst Workout Habits

2007-08-19T21:25:00.000-06:00

Lobes of Steel

2007-08-19T10:40:00.001-06:00

"Scientists have suspected for decades that exercise, particularly regular aerobic exercise, can affect the brain. But they could only speculate as to how. Now an expanding body of research shows that exercise can improve the performance of the brain by boosting memory and cognitive processing speed. Exercise can, in fact, create a stronger, faster brain."

Not very long ago, scientists and doctors thought that the number of brain cells a person has after puberty was all they would ever have in their life. Now scientists now that adults produce new brain cells throughout adulthood and into old age, in a process called neurogenesis. The article explains that physical exercise enhances neurogenesis.

ATTITUDE IS EVERYTHING

2007-08-19T09:26:00.001-06:00

A nice story about attitude

Tired of spin classes? Try Wii workout station

2007-08-10T21:22:00.000-06:00

He estimates that one session of Wii boxing, tennis or bowling equates to going for a brisk walk and can burn between 75 to 125 calories.
“All of our clients get great results, but the biggest result we see is the smile on their faces. People have to understand that fun is important,” said Mellalieu.
...
Nintendo is also currently developing Wii Fit, a 2008 video game with an array of activities, from yoga to aerobics. [link]

The Comfort Zone

2007-08-10T21:12:00.000-06:00

Remember that big conversation you had with yourself, in which you vowed to lose weight or find a new career or start exercising, etc? Do things always seem to get in the way of accomplishing even the simplest of goals like calling potential clients? If you find yourself in the intellectual zone and not the productive zone, I have some ideas for you to think about if you’re willing to break out of your personal “comfort zone“. [link]

You gain strength, courage and confidence by every experience in which you really stop to look fear in the face. You must do the thing you think you cannot do.
- Eleanor Roosevelt

It's amazing how many cares disappear when you decide not to be something, but to be someone.
- Coco Chanel

If one is lucky, a solitary fantasy can totally transform one million realities.
- Maya Angelou

Feel the Fear and Do It Anyway (Paperback)
-This book teaches something truly amazing. It can change the way you see the world.

Top 9 Fitness Myths -- Busted!

2007-08-10T18:49:00.000-06:00

It's easy to fall into the trap: A workout buddy passes along an exercise tip, and then you pass it on to several folks you know. One day, you're at the gym, and sure enough, you hear the same tip repeated, so you figure it must be true. But experts say that in the world of fitness, myths and half-truths abound – and some of them may be keeping you from getting the workout you need.
"Some myths are just harmless half-truths, but many others can actually be harmful," says professional triathlete and personal coach Eric Harr, author of The Portable Personal Trainer. "They can cause frustration in working out and sometimes even lead to injury," he notes.

One reason myths get started, says Harr, is that we all react to exercise a little differently. So what's true for one person may not be true for another.

"In this sense you sometimes have to find your own 'exercise truths' – the things that are true for you," says Harr.

That said, experts say there are also some fitness myths that just need busting, and the sooner the better!

edit 8/20/07
Exercise 'must be tough to work'

To be healthy, you really do need to break into a sweat when you exercise, say experts.
Recently, researchers at Queen's University, Belfast, found walking for half an hour on just three days a week gave similar fitness and blood pressure benefits to walking for 30 minutes five times a week.
The sports scientists, however, say this advice is misleading and could encourage people to do too little exercise.
"There are people who have not accepted, and others who have misinterpreted, the original recommendation.
"Some people continue to believe that only vigorous intensity activity will improve health while others believe that the light activities of their daily lives are sufficient to promote health," they told Circulation.

This article contradicts one of the myths on that list.

16 Ways to Eat Healthy While Keeping it Cheap

2007-07-31T08:43:00.001-06:00

What is Healthy Food? Before we start, let’s define healthy food. It consists of:

Protein. The building blocks of muscles, needed for strength.
Fat. A balanced intake of omega 3, 6 & 9.
Veggies. All kinds, especially green fibrous veggies.
Fruit. Full of vitamins.
Water. 1 liter per 1000 calories you expend.
Whole grain food. Oats, rice, pasta, breads, …

On with the tips.

Yoga @ Your Desk

2007-07-26T10:06:00.001-06:00

People who work at their desks all day tend to stay in one position for a long time. The exercises in these videos are designed to counter the effects of sitting at your desk.
We suggest that you start with Part 1 below and then move on to Parts 2 and 3. Each video is about the length of your coffee break.

10 Ways to Instantly Build Self Confidence

2007-07-26T10:04:00.000-06:00

9. Work out

Namaste Yoga

2007-07-08T10:54:00.000-06:00

Namaste Yoga is on FitTV. It's a good workout. The models make it look easy.

Kids are still obese, despite nutrition education

2007-07-08T10:45:00.000-06:00

Kids are still obese, despite nutrition education
$1 billion government programs don't change weight problem, studies show

PANORAMA CITY, Calif. - The federal government will spend more than $1 billion this year on nutrition education — fresh carrot and celery snacks, videos of dancing fruit, hundreds of hours of lively lessons about how great you will feel if you eat well.
But an Associated Press review of dozens of rigorous scientific studies shows that these programs almost never change the way kids eat. And there is no indication they will make a dent in the growing epidemic of childhood obesity.
...
That reinforced a slew of disappointing studies:
Last year a major federal pilot program offering free fruits and vegetables to school children showed fifth graders became less willing to eat them than they had at the start. Apparently they didn’t like the taste.
In Pennsylvania, researchers went so far as to give prizes to school children who ate fruits and vegetables. That worked while the prizes were offered, but when the researchers came back seven months later the kids had reverted to their original eating habits: soda and chips.
In studies where children tell researchers they are eating better or exercising more, there is usually no change in blood pressure, body size or cholesterol measures; they want to eat better, they might even think they are, but they’re not.

Most Americans think that they "eat healthy."

They could throw even more money at the problem by enforcing mandatory nutrition classes, but it still won't necessarily change people's behavior.

Nutrition information is good up to a point, then you have to realize that people eat what they have learned tastes good to them(processed junk), not the foods that actually make them feel more energetic and give them the best health returns (foods with high water content, fruits and veggies)

Instead of eating to survive people tend to use food to change the way they feel, sort of like they do with drugs. It's common for people to feel sorry for themselves with a tub of ice cream, for example.

Nutrition education is and should be just be a footnote to physical education and teaching people good habits to change the way they feel by breaking out of their comfort zone, instead of reaching for food. Food is fuel.

Now's a good time to ask again, "What is the difference between fit and fat people?"

Is it money? No.

Is it because the cheapest, most calorically dense foods can be found at the fast food drive through? No.

Is it having a personal trainer? No.

Is it because fat people are lazy and don't care? No, that is a stereotype. A lot of them do care and realize things could be better, they just don't act or rationalize "good reasons" to keep putting it off.

In general, the difference between fit people and fat people is a habit. The habit is regular physical activity. People who normally exert themselves and break out of their comfort zone feel great. People who don't have this habit, do other things, like emotional eating, to make themselves feel better or just normal.

If you do a thing consistently for 90 days, it becomes a habit. Exercise is a self-reinforcing habit. Once a person has this habit, other things like nutrition fall into place and it becomes a lifestyle.

"Weight-loss without exercise" is a marketing trick, a myth. Exercise only appears optional these days.

Big Wendy the muscular whippet

2007-07-05T17:09:00.000-06:00

Look at the picture of this dog, Wendy the whippet.

The dog has a double mutation for myostatin protein. [link]

Wendy was recently part of a genetics study done in the U.S. on mutation in the myostatin gene in whippets, which resemble greyhounds in appearance. The National Institute of Health study reported that whippets with one single defective copy of the gene have increased muscle mass that can enhance racing performance in the breed, known for speeds up to 60 kilometres an hour.
But whippets with two mutated copies of the gene become "double-muscled," like Wendy. It has been seen before in one human, and also in mice, cattle and sheep, says the study.

p.s. Myostatin blocker bodybuilding supplements are a fraud.

Increase your Brain Activity with 15 Ideas

2007-07-03T08:57:00.000-06:00

These are 15 fun ideas that will increase your brain activity. It has been proven that the more exercise you give your brain the more it will grow and operate to new super levels. Are you striving to be more intelligent, more creative? Here’s a great platform on how you can achieve your goals.

1. Just stop.

“Take 20-30 minutes out of your day to think about nothing. But don’t sleep – you’ve got to meditate. Sit still, reduce sensory input, and try to focus your mind on something like a calm scene or a color (to begin with thinking about something rather than trying to think of ‘nothing’ is easier). A study at the University of Kentucky revealed that subjects who took a late-afternoon test after meditating for 30 minutes had better scores than those who napped for the same time.”

2. Hit the streets.

“Lace up your running shoes and get moving. A study from the University of Illinois, US, revealed that aerobic exercise actually increases brain volume. They put two groups through different regimens - one did aerobic training three times weekly for one hour; the other group did just stretching and toning exercise. The aerobics group had increased their brain volume and white matter, which forms the connections between neurons.”

3. Mix it up.

“Exercise has long been hailed as an aid to brain-power longevity. But to ensure you’re not leaving the gas on in your eighties, vary your workout routines now. Try changing things up on a regular basis and you’ll stimulate your brain more because you’re not using the same pathway over and over again.”

Shoulders

2007-06-29T00:18:00.000-06:00

It has been some time since I thought my shoulders were "fixed." I was wrong again. But thankfully, I know I'm right this time. :)

I had rounded shoulders, andI did the Perfect Posture Plan. But I was still using my shoulders wrong and they were still not growing at all. I found that there is one last thing I needed to do to get my shoulders lined up correctly and working in coordination with my back and chest.

It took me a long time to figure this out instinctively yet it's so simple. It is necessary for me to do exercises while standing within a door frame.

What I did was to stand erect inside the door frame with contracted core and pushed against the insides of the door frame with my arms. I did that in various positions with forearms flat against the insides of the doorframe, directing the force through the elbows. I did this until I could move my forearms up and down, mimicking the shoulder press movement.

I'm not sure what effect this had on my back muscles or what it did specifically to my shoulders. Maybe it contracted my trapezius which could have been overly stretched out. Anyway, doing this doorframe exercise made all the difference in the world.

Good article [LATERAL COMBUSTION:Take lateral raises above parallel to prompt middle delt and trap growth] that argues that above parallel is actually is most effective way to do lateral raises.

Which brings us to the dumbbell lateral raise. Just about anyone who does this exercise raises the weights to only shoulder level, arms about parallel to the floor, but no higher. Know why? Think it causes rotator-cuff impingement and is dangerous to go above that point? Uh-uh. Think the arms-parallel position is where the middle delt stops working?

Wrong again.

“Going to arms parallel in the dumbbell lateral raise provides good deltoid recruitment and doesn’t put the shoulder joint in a stressful situation,” says Louie Brockhoeft, MES, a personal fitness coach at Mercy Hospital in Anderson, Ohio. “But taking the move 45 degrees past parallel fully engages the middle delt; plus it recruits the upper traps, levator scapulae and all muscles around the scapula, including the rhomboids, the lower traps and serratus.”

Shoulder Stretches for Swimmers
Yoga @ Your Desk

I do the poses from Yoga @ Your Desk before training shoulders and it helps prepare the muscles to do upper body exercises with good form.

Drama Prairie Dog

2007-06-25T07:55:00.000-06:00

The best YouTube video is only 5 seconds long

McDonalds supersizes its Q&A list

2007-06-23T10:20:00.000-06:00

McDonalds has launched a site answering its British customers’ questions. All of them, by the looks of it.
“Are your baconburgers kosher?” asks one curious connoisseur (A: “This item is not kosher”). “I read in the paper that some burgers contain poo. Is this really true? If so, what proportion of burgers contain poo?” asks anther. (A: “This is absolutely not true”). “What part of the cow do you use in the burgers cos i heard it was the teeth?” runs a third.
There are 8,500 of them. Each gets a considered answer from a McDonalds sage with the patience of a saint.

The link within the article is broken. http://www.makeupyourownmind.co.uk/

18 Cool Body Hacks

2007-06-17T19:15:00.000-06:00

Soothe a burn, cure a toothache, clear a stuffed nose...[link]

This be funny storyz

2007-06-16T12:08:00.001-06:00

I didn't make this one, but hehe.

Pump up the volume to bring on the burn

2007-06-13T14:24:00.001-06:00

Pump up the volume to bring on the burn
"We asked you which songs get you moving. Your favorites ran the gamut from heavy metal (“Metallica … and White Zombie always make my workouts more intense,” writes Jennie from Schenectady, N.Y.) to soft rock (“I like to work out to Air Supply. It is so soothing,” writes Vince Jones) to soundtrack standards ("Anything from the ‘Rocky IV’ ... Combining the songs with the memory of Rocky training really gives [me] motivation to exercise harder," writes Hirsch in Chicago)."

Anything by Frank Sinatra

“Born to Be Wild” by Steppenwolf

“Can’t Get You Out of My Head” by Kylie Minogue

“Closer” by Nine Inch Nails

“Crazy in Love” by Beyonce

“Earthshine” by Rush

“Escape” by Gwen Stefani

“Fergalicious” by Fergie

“Fighter” by Christina Aguilera

“Going Back to Cali” by Notorious B.I.G.

“Hold On” by Santana

“Hung Up” by Madonna

“Lose Control” by Missy Elliott

“Mr. Brightside” by The Killers

“New Workout Plan” by Kanye West

“Personal Jesus” by Depeche Mode

“Promiscuous” by Nelly Furtado

“Rent” soundtrack

“Run Like Hell” by Pink Floyd

“Running on Empty” by Jackson Browne

“SexyBack” by Justin Timberlake

“Starve” by Rollins Band

“Tainted Love” by Soft Cell

“You Could Be Mine” by Guns ‘n’ Roses

How Music Motivates Your Body, Men's Health
Best and Worst Workout Songs, Men's Health
The Science of Workout Music, Men's Health

OTC fat-diverting pill Alli, debuts today

2007-06-13T08:11:00.000-06:00

FDA allows nonprescription sale of lower-dose version of Xenical

WASHINGTON - Dieters got a new tool Wednesday to help them take off the extra pounds — the first government-approved nonprescription diet pill.
The Food and Drug Administration said the fat-blocking weight-loss pill orlistat, which has been available by prescription, can be sold in a reduced-strength version over the counter.
The drug is intended for people 18 and older to use along with a reduced-calorie, low-fat diet and exercise.

Dr. Charles Ganley, FDA’s director of nonprescription products, stressed that the drug is intended for use along with diet and exercise programs.
“Using this drug alone is unlikely to be beneficial,” Ganley said at a telebriefing. ...
Ganley said in trials, for every five pounds people lost through diet and exercise, those using orlistat lost an additional two to three pounds.
---
"We know that being overweight has many adverse consequences, including an increase in the risk of heart disease and type 2 diabetes," said Dr. Douglas Throckmorton, deputy director of the FDA's Center for Drug Evaluation and Research. "OTC orlistat, along with diet and exercise, may aid overweight adults who seek to lose excess weight to improve their health." link
---
The way orlistat works to prevent weight gain or promote weight loss is to inhibit enzymes that would otherwise facilitate absorption of fat in the gastrointestinal duct. As reported, the drug can stop as much as 20 to 30 percent of dietary fat from being absorbed.

Because fat-soluble nutrients need fat as carrier to get into human body, the diet drug inevitably blocks absorption of fat-soluble vitamins such as vitamin D, K, E, and other fat soluble nutrients. For this reason, the consumers of orlistat are suggested to take a multivitamins at bedtime to compensate the loss of nutrients due to the use of the diet drug.
...
The worse part is this: studies showed the weight loss effect diminished and lost weight came back after use of the drug was discontinued. Those who want to keep the pounds off need to keep taking the pill. But that is not advisable because the long term adverse effects of this diet drug remain unknown.

Considering the fact that the drug prevents absorption of fat-soluble nutrients, potentially leading to malnutrition, it is unreasonable for one to continue the dieting regimen beyond six months. What does that mean is, you may have to lose the regained weight again later.

The side-effects of using orlistat, prescription or TOC, include gas with discharge, oily discharge, increased number of bowel movements, oily spotting, oily or fatty stools, urgent need to have a bowel movement and inability to control bowel movements. About 50 percent of patients on the drug experienced some side-effects and seven percent lost bowel control. For this reason, one may have to take another drug to get the side-effect under control. link at foodconsumer.org

This pill is meant for people who are cutting down their calories while burning more calories exercising. It is not meant for people who want to keep their current habits and also lose weight

'Exercise after eating' diet tip

2007-06-10T09:30:00.000-06:00

Exercising after meals can help promote weight loss by boosting hormones that suppress appetite, say UK scientists.
Thanks to these hormones, active people feel less hungry immediately after exercise, and this carries through to their next meal, experiments suggest.
Even when their meals were bigger, sporty people gained fewer calories overall because they burned off more.
... levels of hormones called PYY, GLP-1 and PP, which tell the brain when the stomach is full, increased during and immediately after exercise. [link]

Yoga May Help Treat Depression, Anxiety Disorders

2007-06-10T07:46:00.000-06:00

THURSDAY, June 7 (HealthDay News) -- Yoga's postures, controlled breathing and meditation may work together to help ease brains plagued by anxiety or depression, a new study shows.

...Brain scans of yoga practitioners showed a healthy boost in levels of the neurotransmitter gamma-aminobutyric (GABA) immediately after a one-hour yoga session. Low brain levels of GABA are associated with anxiety and depression, the researchers said.

...She believes yoga could prove a useful tool to help people battling depression and anxiety disorders. "We're not advocating that they chuck their medication, but I would advise that they could use it as an adjunct and see how they are doing," Streeter said.

...She said the style or school of yoga practiced didn't seem to matter. "We had hatha, ashtanga, bikram, vinyasa, and kripalu" practitioners included in the yoga group, Streeter said, "and many had been trained in several different schools."
..He also pointed out that all of the people in the study were mentally healthy, and clinical depression and anxiety disorders involve more than the "daily fluctuations in stress and tension" that healthy individuals are prone to.

..."We know that yoga can have a profound effect" on smoothing out life's daily ups and downs, Segal said. "But so does working out on a Stairmaster for an hour."
...Would other mind-body practices -- Tai Chi, for example -- produce similar effects?

"I think that's very possible," Streeter said. "I suspect that all roads lead up the mountain." [link]

Your Body Can Burn Fat on Its Own

2007-06-02T14:25:00.000-06:00

Good tips [link]

JFK exercise quote

2007-06-01T16:56:00.000-06:00

"Physical fitness is not only one of the most important keys to a healthy body, it is the basis of dynamic and creative intellectual activity." John F. Kennedy

Gym comes up with No Grunting Rule

2007-05-20T09:46:00.000-06:00

Personally, I don't like when people grunt while lifting because I think it's embarrassing for the lifter and it creates a sort of eyebrow-raising discomfort for others.

"If I've just heard you grunting in the weight room like a walrus, there's no way I'll talk to you." --Nina, 24, florist

I disagree with the notion that grunting is useful if you learn how to breathe without grunting from the start. Some people grunt as a way to exhale a little bit of air and after lifting like that over and over, it becomes a habit.

Grunting on the last repetition to complete the set, might be acceptable. But some people grunt on every rep. IMO, they use too much weight for themselves without realizing it and grunting is an attempt to retain some control of their lifting form. This habit is easy to develop if during every set and every workout you try to lift as much weight as possible (going "heavy duty") instead of varying one's routine now and then.

Nevertheless there is a gym that is yanking memberships for grunting.

"Planet Fitness is not interested in such vocal lifting.
Members who violate the grunting prohibition a second time are subjected to the lunk alarm -- a siren that flashes blue.
The New York Times recently featured an article about a Wappingers Falls, N.Y. bodybuilder who ran afoul of the grunting rule.
A manager of the Planet Fitness in Wappingers Falls canceled the bodybuilder's membership after the muscle-bound member challenged the manager about the grunting charge." [link]
---

WAPPINGERS FALLS, N.Y., Nov. 13 — Albert Argibay, a bodybuilder and a state correction officer, was at a Planet Fitness gym with 500 pounds of weight on his shoulders one afternoon this month when the club manager walked over and told him it was time to leave. Mr. Argibay, the manager explained, had violated one of the club’s most sacred and strictly enforced rules: He was grunting.
...
At most health clubs, grunts elicit little more than annoyed looks or sighs of irritation. But at Planet Fitness, a national chain with 120 locations, it is a matter not only of etiquette, but also of club policy: one too many offending noises can get a membership revoked
...
The no-grunt policy is one of several eyebrow-raising rules — no bandannas, no jeans, no banging weights — that managers say are intended to make their target clientele of novice exercisers feel comfortable. [link]

Their rule about no banging weights should be a standard rule in every gym, just like this one:

"Your Mom does not work here. Put your own dumbbells and weights away when you're finished. "

Tip o' the Day

2007-05-16T09:12:00.000-06:00

Do Cardio. The overall best way to shed fat fast is to do cardio (30 min minimum) right when you wake up. Your body will search for energy to use, when it finds nothing in your stomach, it will go directly to your fat storage for energy and the fat will burn up so fast!

Students can't stomach bare-bellied photo, so they swipe newspapers

2007-05-10T21:57:00.000-06:00

Those girls think they look fat? Maybe they're slouching a little, but come on.

There's a picture with the article.

Thin people can be fat on the inside

2007-05-10T18:05:00.000-06:00

Some doctors now think that the internal fat surrounding vital organs like the heart, liver or pancreas — invisible to the naked eye — could be as dangerous as the more obvious external fat that bulges underneath the skin.
...
“Being thin doesn’t automatically mean you’re not fat,” said Dr. Jimmy Bell, a professor of molecular imaging at Imperial College, London. Since 1994, Bell and his team have scanned nearly 800 people with MRI machines to create “fat maps” showing where people store fat.
...
According to the data, people who maintain their weight through diet rather than exercise are likely to have major deposits of internal fat, even if they are otherwise slim. “The whole concept of being fat needs to be redefined,” said Bell, whose research is funded by Britain’s Medical Research Council.
...
Even people with normal Body Mass Index scores — a standard obesity measure that divides your weight by the square of your height — can have surprising levels of fat deposits inside.
...
Still, most experts believe that being of normal weight is an indicator of good health, and that BMI is a reliable measurement.
...
The good news is that internal fat can be easily burned off through exercise or even by improving your diet. “Even if you don’t see it on your bathroom scale, caloric restriction and physical exercise have an aggressive effect on visceral fat,” said Dr. Bob Ross, an obesity expert at Queen’s University in Canada.

The caveat for BMI is that it's a reliable measurement for most people but not for those with a lot of muscle. Sometimes a higher BMI is the result of muscle mass figuring for a larger portion of overall body composition.

The generic scale for BMI for males usually considers 26 to be the cutoff from being fit and being "overweight." The study described below found 26.5 to be the "ideal" for males. How can it be ideal to be overweight? which makes the value label of "fit" and "overweight" a bit arbitrary.

World's most beautiful couple: and the figures to prove it

It is the holy grail of the fashion and beauty industries: a scientific blueprint for the most beautiful women, and men, in the world.
Researchers have thrown away the old vital statistics and, instead, focused on how the dimensions of different parts of the body relate to height and body mass index (BMI) to give the perfect physique. Perhaps surprisingly, two of the most important measurements are the girth of the thigh and the slimness of the calf.
Perfect woman: Naomi Campbell

The vital statistics:

Body mass index 20.85

Bust girth to height 49.3%

Waist-chest ratio 1.4

Leg-to-body ratio 1.4

Calf girth to height 19.5%

Height 175cm

Thigh girth to height 29.7

What it all means:

"Super beautiful" women have waists a third smaller than their hips and three-quarters their bust measurement. They have longer legs, and slimmer thighs and calves than the average woman.
Perfect man: Christian Bale

The vital statistics:

Body mass index 26.5

Waist-chest ratio 0.6

Leg-to-body ratio 1

Height 188cm

What it all means:

The physically ideal man is more than 6ft tall, with legs the same length as his upper body. The leg-to-body ratio of 1 makes him appear more muscular, which is why the ideal BMI for men is higher than for women.

Bye-bye BMI? Tape may measure obesity better

Researchers say waist-to-hip ratio may paint better picture of fitness

Training Wheels: Laying the foundation for your training program

2007-05-03T23:18:00.000-06:00

Great article that focuses on the essentials of training. Even though the author specifically mentions triathlon training and preparation, all the tips after the first page apply to training with weights as well. link

Exercise Fuels the Brain's Stress Buffers

2007-04-20T21:16:00.000-06:00

"Exercise may improve mental health by helping the brain cope better with stress, according to research into the effect of exercise on neurochemicals involved in the body's stress response."

Many dieters 'finish up heavier'

2007-04-10T10:21:00.000-06:00

Dieting is unlikely to lead to long-term weight loss and may put a person's health at risk, a study says.

US researchers found people typically lose between 5% and 10% of their weight during the first six months of a diet.
But the review of 31 previous studies, by the University of California, said up to two-thirds put more weight on than they had lost within five years.
Repeatedly losing and gaining weight is linked to heart disease and stroke, the American Psychologist journal reported.
Lead researcher Traci Mann said: "We found that the majority of people regained all the weight, plus more.
"Diets do not lead to sustained weight loss or health benefits for the majority of people.
"We concluded most of them would have been better off not going on the diet at all.
"Their weight would have been pretty much the same, and their bodies would not suffer the wear and tear of losing weight and gaining it all back."
...
Professor Mann said in her opinion eating in moderation was a good idea for everybody as was regular exercise.

Fitness Tip of the Day

2007-04-01T21:27:00.000-06:00

If being a few pounds away from so called perfect is your biggest problem in life - then you have a pretty amazingly good life! Think about all the problems people have around the world and your body issues will be put into better perspective.

Caffeine...Exposed! Soda Labels Show the Good, the Bad, and the Ugly

2007-03-29T18:40:00.000-06:00

"So, you should ask yourself: When you are tired and reaching for your caffeine fix, are you giving yourself energy, or are you managing the withdrawal effect?" [link]

"A high intake of caffeine is 500 mg daily. A medium intake is between 250 and 500 mg and a low intake is below 250 mg. The following list of beverages and foods, along with the amount of caffeine in each serving, will help you determine the category you fall into:

Coca Cola Classic — 34.5mg (12-ounce can)
Diet Pepsi — 36mg (12-ounce can)
Pepsi — 37.5mg (12-ounce can)
Diet Coke — 46.5mg (12-ounce can)
Mountain Dew — 54mg (12-ounce can)
Diet Pepsi Max — 69mg (12-ounce can)
Instant Coffee — 40-105mg (150ml cup)
Filtered Coffee — 110-150mg (150ml cup)
Tea — 20-100mg (150ml cup)
Starbucks Coffee, Grande — 500mg (16-ounce cup)
Chocolate Cake — 20-30mg (one slice)
Caffeine Pill — 50-200mg (read label to determine exact dose)"

Too shy to strip in front of a man

2007-03-28T21:46:00.000-06:00

A third of women think they are too fat ever to appear naked in front of their partners, according to a survey.
Images of stick-thin models and digitally-slimmed celebrities are convincing a whole generation to keep their clothes on at all times.

Experts believe the compulsion to cover up is putting a serious strain on domestic relationships, with one woman in ten having to turn out the light before she can undress in front of her partner.

Some of the most awkward encounters happen in the bathroom - with nearly a quarter of females never entering with their other half.
...
"This shows how seriously people think about their body image - yet being bare-skinned is such a natural thing." link

Diets an unhealthy fix for teen weight concerns

2007-03-13T21:32:00.000-06:00

NEW YORK (Reuters) -- Teens who go on diets to drop some pounds are more likely to skip breakfast and binge eat -- which may at least partly explain why they put on more weight over time than their peers who don't diet, a new study shows.

...Nevertheless, the findings show that dieting is a short-term fix that teens choose instead of longer-term, healthier -- and more effective -- strategies such as eating more fruits and vegetables and getting more exercise, Neumark-Sztainer said.
...The findings suggest, Neumark-Sztainer and her colleagues conclude, that kids who diet are in danger of developing unhealthy physical activity and eating behaviors.
..."My advice to parents is to redirect their children's efforts away from dieting toward the adoption of eating and physical activity behaviors that they can engage in over the long term," she told Reuters Health.

Dieting is a short-term fix that tends to backfire. Diets in general don't work and are commercial enterprises to sell the appeal of that mythical creature, "weight-loss without exercise."

Skipping meals doesn't lead to weight loss. It seems like the common-sense thing to do, but it doesn't work. Instead, it leads the body to think, "No food. Famine coming. Hard times coming. Time to store as much fat as possible to survive hardship." The metabolism slows down, and the body stores fat more efficiently.

Humans are natural grazers. Before we had agriculture and stored food, humans ate all day long. The idea of three-meals-a-day is a social convention, we made it up. Grazing, or eating throughout the day, will actually change your metabolism. In a sense, it's the opposite of what starving does to the metabolism. Since real grazing is not feasible for most people,"the trick is to break up the nutrition you need in a day to have as snacks in between meals." That creates 5 meals instead of only 3. Grazing and weight loss

When you hit the gym can impact your results

2007-03-13T19:57:00.000-06:00

Early birds get cardio boost; afternoon exercisers can cut down on stretches
... Personal trainers and experts on exercise say the effectiveness of your gym time depends partly on your body rhythms as well as what exactly you're trying to get out of it — whether it's losing inches around your waist or putting inches on your biceps.

...clients who want to build muscle mass to hit the weights in the afternoon. In the morning there isn't enough glycogen in our muscles, or stored fuel, to support an effective workout.

...There are, of course, pluses to working out in the morning too. May recommends it for people whose main priority is losing weight.

...say you're probably better off spreading it out in frequent intervals throughout the week, rather than saving it all up for one hellish day or the weekend.

Some say that it's best to do weight training early in the morning, based on testosterone. More testosterone is available around the time a male wakes up, which is the physiological reason why men get morning erections or "morning wood." Because of this, some think pumping iron in the morning is taking advantage of the situation.

But the testosterone is there in the morning for other purposes besides lifting weights. Cortisol is higher in the morning too and this supposedly makes it a less optimal time to train with weights. And there's less glycogen and less flexibility in the morning as well.

Study shows why exercise boosts brainpower

2007-03-12T22:43:00.000-06:00

WASHINGTON (Reuters) -- Exercise boosts brainpower by building new brain cells in a brain region linked with memory and memory loss, U.S. researchers reported Monday.
Tests on mice showed they grew new brain cells in a brain region called the dentate gyrus, a part of the hippocampus that is known to be affected in the age-related memory decline that begins around age 30 for most humans.
The researchers used magnetic resonance imaging scans to help document the process in mice -- and then used MRIs to look at the brains of people before and after exercise.
They found the same patterns, which suggests that people also grow new brain cells when they exercise.
...
"Our next step is to identify the exercise regimen that is most beneficial to improve cognition and reduce normal memory loss, so that physicians may be able to prescribe specific types of exercise to improve memory," Small said.

Just one more good reason :)

Wash those Bananas (and other lessons in cleaning produce)

2007-03-04T11:29:00.000-07:00

"Probably 100 people handled that banana before you did," says Ann Zander, a food safety expert with the Colorado State University Extension in Longmont, Colo. "If you have somebody who hasn't washed his hands after the bathroom or has the flu, that's all over it." link

"Machine May Help Shed Pounds Without Sweating"

2007-03-01T22:30:00.000-07:00

DENVER -- Sweating off the pounds might be a thing of the past with a new machine that promises to shed pounds simply by standing on it."You can stand on this machine for 10 minutes and it's equal to 45 minutes to 60 minutes of typical exercise," said DeepTone instructor Jennifer Ament.

Ament said TurboSonic uses sound waves that produce frequencies to stimulate your cells. She said a person can burn up to 300 calories in 10 minutes, and that's why people shouldn't be on it for more than that.
...
"It's equal to 60 minutes of exercise so you'd be just overdoing it," said Ament.

"I lost 9 pounds, a pants size, which is very exciting and I noticed my face tightening," said Kelly Walton.
...
"Most of the research that looked at whole body vibration said that they were at best mild cardiovascular effects, which means you're burning some calories just standing there but not the same thing as jogging around the block," said Wolkodoff.

DeepTone in Denver is offering the use of TurboSonic to its clients for a fee.

You can buy one here for yourself, it's only $13,000. Soloflex sells a non-powered platform for $500

Professor Alan Hedge of Cornell University writes, "Whole body vibration [at the frequencies detailed] may create chronic stresses and sometimes even permanent damage to the affected organs or body parts."

"Suspected health effects of whole body vibration include:
– Blurred vision
– Decrease in manual coordination
– Drowsiness (even with proper rest)
– Low back pain/injury
– Insomnia
– Headaches or upset stomach" link

I think I would rather just go for a brisk walk. These two pages are illuminating:

The Healthy Skeptic: Whole Body Vibration Training Is A Case Of The Emperor Having No Clothes

The "Research" Behind the Hypergravity Whole Body Vibration Platform

Analyze a bodybuilding supplement ad

2007-02-28T11:21:00.000-07:00

In a previous post, I wrote that no company, university, or hospital has yet determined how exactly myostatin inhibits muscle growth. Nor have they discovered how to stop the action of myostatin protein in humans.

Yet certain bodybuilding supplement companies say that they know how to do all that. Look at this ad here. That page is a good example of how supplement marketers make their ads.

That website, btw, is dedicated to selling supplements. Like bodybuilding magazines are just brochures to peddle supplements, websites are now dedicated to selling supplements under a guise of authority. Is it bodybuildlng.com or bodybuildingsupplementadvertisements.com? At the front page, there is this illusion that one can choose to enter either the "supersite" or the "store." This puts the mind to rest that they're not just out for your money. Then enter the "site" and all the articles and links point to...the "store" you actively chose not to enter.

Many supplement companies came out and directly stated that products that affect myostatin are actually not possible currently.

But then there are other supplement companies who are so patently dishonest, they contribute to the impression that all people within the "fitness industry" are bunch of con artists, like many in the weight-loss industry, the diet pill peddlers and the like.

Usually a supplement ad will say something that sounds scientific, or verifiable, substantiated with evidence.

Regardless, the subject of the ad, their product, has nothing to do with the scientific details that are mentioned in the ad.

Myostim - the first generation of the new age
Once we had found a compound that bound myostatin we had to develop a delivery system to get it into muscle. At the same time we wanted to make sure that all of the synergistic pathways of muscle synthesis were properly supported. After all, muscle development requires that many things come together at once.
Unlike other supplements, which may work fast, but with results that taper off over time, the action of myostatin control is gradual but consistent. In fact, research studies have shown that as long as myostatin is under positive control, animals NEVER PLATEAU!

Bahahaha! Notice how they never state explicitly that their product does anything at all. Notice that they are talking about research in lab animals.

If someone told you this garbage to your face, it would be told by no more than a con-artist. One who lacks shame.

What's in that ad is like saying:

Let me tell you about Einstein's Theory of Relativity. E = mc^2. Wow! Awesome!

Now, the exciting part is actually having a time machine using Einstein's equations! First I had to come up with a way to power the vehicle. Next, I would have to determine how my face wouldn't peel off my skull while flying at the speed of light. Can you believe how amazing it would be for you to travel back to the time of Jesus? To the age of the dinosaurs? Rowwrrr! Pack your bags! You're going and I've got your ticket!

Only ~~$1Billion~~ $1Million add to cart

After sometime reading through these ads, one just finds that almost all bodybuilding supplements are marketed in exactly the same way. Creatine does have some evidence, but they never advertise for creatine; only the the novel, sensational, the obscure that most haven't learned about yet. Nitric oxide this, human growth hormone that...blah blah blah

The Most Important Exercise Tip

2007-02-26T18:57:00.000-07:00

I usually don't see any point to reprinting other articles within a blog post but this article is spot-on, explaining clearly one major reason why people exercise and keep doing it.

The Most Important Exercise Tip

By Robin Lloyd
Special to LiveScience
posted: 30 May 2006

They lack six-pack abs. They could lose a few. Yet they're happy, body and soul. How are such people possible in body-centric America?
They exercise. They work out. It's part of their routine. Maybe not as often as they would like or think they should, but they do something.

Sure there are the long-term benefits like lowering your blood pressure, improved strength and endurance, a trimmer physique and the confidence that follows, increasing mental alertness, and reducing your odds of cancer, diabetes and heart disease. But exercise simply makes you feel good.

It is no sure-fire happy pill, and some say it has to be intense, or anaerobic (involving short energy bursts that cause the body to run out temporarily of oxygen), to bring on the psychological boost, but it is a part of the feel-good equation, experts say.

The problem with the perfect workout

Many Americans forget or ignore both the short- and long-term benefits and avoid exercise due to a sedentary lifestyle, allowing a "perfect" workout to be the enemy of one that is "good enough," and boredom due to repeating the same exercise routine over and over, says Debbie Mandel, author of "Turn On Your Inner Light: Fitness for Body, Mind and Soul" (Busy Bee Group, 2003).

Two primary chemicals involved in making exercise feel good are cortisol and endorphins.

Cortisol is a hormone produced by the body under stress, such as anger, anxiety or fear, and it ultimately inflames and damages our organs. Exercise burns cortisol, and thereby makes us healthier and happier, Mandel says.

Endorphins are morphine-like hormone molecules that enter the brain's neurons and park on receptors that normally send pain-signaling molecules back to other parts of the brain. Some say endorphins are even more powerful and yield a more euphoric feeling than opiate drugs such as morphine and opium, which park on the same receptors when introduced to the body.

Exercise stimulates the brain's pituitary gland to release endorphins, an abbreviation for endogenous (meaning "produced within") morphine, in the bloodstream.

Get started

Even with a stagnant gym membership or so-so discipline, individual episodes of intense exercise provides psychological boosts aside from the harder-to-see, harder-to-acquire physical and disease-fighting benefits of exercise.

A single exercise session lasting 20 or 30 minutes at 80 percent of your capacity brings on pain-relieving endorphins, according to work by Robert G. McMurray of the University of Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Mandel agrees that even one session makes you feel better and clears your head. "Once you make a commitment to exercise then you are motivated to keep feeling good every day. After about two weeks of exercise you stay on course," she said in a recent email interview.

Mandel says you can ensure a psychological reward if you tailor your workout level to your stress level. "If you are highly stressed, you need to do a more intense workout which means longer than 30 minutes; if you are less stressed, then 30 minutes should suffice," she says.

Heavy lifting

Some scientists say the feel-good benefits vary with the type of exercise. Research by Ed Pierce, now at Bridgewater College, and his colleagues shows that moderate exercise and light weightlifting or other resistance training, while critical for overall health, fail to bring on endorphins.

Alan Goldfarb of the University of North Carolina-Greensboro also says endorphins are only associated with heavy weightlifting or any kind of exercise during which you sprint (such as during running, biking, swimming).

Some experts say that tolerance to endorphins increases over time, but Mandel also says this varies with the person.

"Mostly, you get a consistent high from a workout to music and a workout that you enjoy," she says. "It is important to realize that routine deadens the heart, and you have to change up your exercise regimen. The body always adapts and you need to challenge it. So, vary the intensity, cross train, take dance classes, try a new sport, use a personal trainer for a few sessions, etc. Keep it fresh, and you will get that high!"

To those who don't get much regular physical activity, the people who don the sweats and run at dawn when it's freezing outside or who head to the gym before work, must look nuts. They must have superhuman willpower and motivation. What they have is a habit, one that offers many health benefits and is self-reinforcing.

The author is right. When you go the gym, you don't see things like in the movie Dodgeball, where everyone already looks "perfect." You see people of all shapes and sizes and ages; people enjoying themselves.

It's good to keep muscle as one ages

2007-02-24T20:30:00.000-07:00

These two relatively recent stories got my attention

81-Year-Old Jumps In Pond, Pulls Woman From Submerged Car
An 81-year-old security guard in Volusia County, Fla., is being credited with saving a woman's life by jumping into a retention pond and pulling her out of a sinking sedan, according to a Local 6 News report. Frank Cappel, who is a security guard at the Hawaiian Tropic tanning labs in Ormond Beach, Fla., said he noticed a woman drive her vehicle into the water and he ran to help. Cappel wrestled the 200-pound woman out of the vehicle.

U.S. tourist kills mugger with bare hands
SAN JOSE, Costa Rica - An American tourist who watched as a U.S. military veteran in his 70s used his bare hands to kill an armed assailant in Costa Rica said she thought the attempted robbery was a joke — until the masked attacker held a gun to her head.

MAN, 100 FIGHTS OFF MUGGERS
28 February 2007
A 100-YEAR-OLD man fought off three teenage muggers after being surrounded at a bus stop.
Buster Martin, who still works five days a week as a car washer and mechanic, was followed by the gang when he left a pub..."I pushed one and kung-fu kicked the other one between the legs. They ran off scared after I did that and I still had all my money."

Essential Fatty Acids

2007-02-17T14:46:00.001-07:00

Fats usually get a bad rap, are relegated to a "bad" status. Nevertheless they are necessary; the brain does not function normally without essential fatty acids. A simple way of obtaining these, in terms of supplements, is through fish oil.

Nutrients we need include essential amino acids. Glucose is necessary too, all the time, to feed the brain (but carbs are not called "essential").

There are necessary fats. There are good fats and bad fats. Good fats include essential fatty acids that must be consumed in our diet. Omega-3 fatty acids are part of a healthful diet and are required for good cardiovascular health and brain and nerve function. ("Essential oils" are not the same thing as essential fatty acids; consumption of tea tree oil has recently been linked to gynecomastia or man-boobs)

Linolenic acid (linolenate) and Linoleic acid or (linoleate) are essential. They were deemed "essential" because they are necessary at certain, specific stages of development.

The recommended daily value for omega-3 fatty acids is 2 grams, or 2000 milligrams per day (too much is not a good thing either).

According to Dr. Brenda Watson, the average person in America actually gets about 0.2 grams, or 200 milligrams per day, or
one-tenth
1/10
0.1
of the recommended daily value. link

Many who train with weights commonly focus on protein and carbs in their nutrition.

But like essential amino acids, there are also essential fats that are necessary for normal brain, heart, and vascular function and development.

Lately, food retailers are putting omega-3 fatty acids into many foods, even orange juice and bread. But these contain only trace amounts and would require eating too much bread or drinking too much juice to get what one needs.

I once read a blip in Men's Health that said that fish oil may contain mercury, so take flaxseed oil instead. But then two months later the magazine had another article stating that taking flaxseed oil hasn't been proven to be nearly as beneficial as taking fish oil. Great, now what?

Dining Dilemma: A new study suggests that a federal advisory urging pregnant women to restrict their seafood intake could do more harm than good. But what about the risks of fish-borne mercury?

Fish during pregnancy may boost kids' IQ

Fish oil capsules, two of them, contain all the fatty acids required for one day. One with breakfast and one with dinner is good, based on trial and error.

Strive to supplement your essential fatty acids so that you get the minimum requirement and you will notice a difference. These nutrients are necessary for normal function. Humans evolved eating the harvest of seafood provided from living within intertidal regions. This tradition allowed humans reliable and sufficient nutrition before the inception of agriculture. Humans subsequently left the African continent, migrating across the globe.

Taking fish oil capsules are easier for me than eating a lot of fish (ie wild salmon). I decided it's better to just take the fish oil caplets and get nutrients my body must have, despite the possible risk from mercury.

Mmm, sweaty! Women aroused by male scent

2007-02-08T12:11:00.000-07:00

WASHINGTON - For women, apparently there’s nothing like the smell of a man’s sweat.
Researchers at the University of California at Berkeley said women who sniffed a chemical found in male sweat experienced elevated levels of an important hormone, along with higher sexual arousal, faster heart rate and other effects.
They said the study, published this week in the Journal of Neuroscience, represents the first direct evidence that people secrete a scent that influences the hormones of the opposite sex.
...
The study focused on androstadienone, considered a male chemical signal. Previous research had established that a whiff of it affected women’s mood, sexual and physiological arousal and brain activation. Its impact on hormones was less clear.

Every year in Men's Health there is at least one article about "what smells sexy on a man" and reports that women enjoy apparently the smell of his sweat more than his cologne. Now there's evidence for it. You don't even need to buy anything to get the "Axe effect."

I should note that in the articles the author usually makes certain to distinguish between "sweat" and "body odor."

Another hurdle to exercise: embarrassment
Fear of looking fat, silly prevents many people from breaking a sweat

Whatever you focus on or whatever you are thinking about affects the way you feel.

If you focus on the bad, the unpleasant, the gloomy, you start to physically feel bad.

If you focus on good things, take inventory for why you're grateful, think of happy or funny times, you will feel that way too.

Want a good workout? You better believe it
People who think of activities as exercise gain more benefitsPeople who think they're getting a good workout obtain more benefits than those who perform the exact same activities but don't think what they are doing is exercise, according to the findings of a study by Harvard researchers. These results support the idea that the benefits of exercise may involve a placebo effect.

Most of the noisy, seemingly incessant inner dialogue that goes on in our heads is just a hindrance from living in the present with awareness.

The consciousness of "self" is the greatest hindrance to the proper execution of all physical action [6]

*This is actually a Zen or Chan maxim which means to "be in the moment" and NOT be distracted by your own thought process. The Zen quote is: "If you seek it, you will NOT find it". The "Western" counterpart to this is the term "Being in the Zone".

Fat-blocking pill will be sold over the counter

2007-02-07T20:00:00.000-07:00

FDA allows nonprescription sale of lower-dose version of Xenical

WASHINGTON - Dieters got a new tool Wednesday to help them take off the extra pounds — the first government-approved nonprescription diet pill.
The Food and Drug Administration said the fat-blocking weight-loss pill orlistat, which has been available by prescription, can be sold in a reduced-strength version over the counter.
The drug is intended for people 18 and older to use along with a reduced-calorie, low-fat diet and exercise.

Dr. Charles Ganley, FDA’s director of nonprescription products, stressed that the drug is intended for use along with diet and exercise programs.
“Using this drug alone is unlikely to be beneficial,” Ganley said at a telebriefing. ...
Ganley said in trials, for every five pounds people lost through diet and exercise, those using orlistat lost an additional two to three pounds.
---
"We know that being overweight has many adverse consequences, including an increase in the risk of heart disease and type 2 diabetes," said Dr. Douglas Throckmorton, deputy director of the FDA's Center for Drug Evaluation and Research. "OTC orlistat, along with diet and exercise, may aid overweight adults who seek to lose excess weight to improve their health." link
---
The way orlistat works to prevent weight gain or promote weight loss is to inhibit enzymes that would otherwise facilitate absorption of fat in the gastrointestinal duct. As reported, the drug can stop as much as 20 to 30 percent of dietary fat from being absorbed.

Because fat-soluble nutrients need fat as carrier to get into human body, the diet drug inevitably blocks absorption of fat-soluble vitamins such as vitamin D, K, E, and other fat soluble nutrients. For this reason, the consumers of orlistat are suggested to take a multivitamins at bedtime to compensate the loss of nutrients due to the use of the diet drug.
...
The worse part is this: studies showed the weight loss effect diminished and lost weight came back after use of the drug was discontinued. Those who want to keep the pounds off need to keep taking the pill. But that is not advisable because the long term adverse effects of this diet drug remain unknown.

Considering the fact that the drug prevents absorption of fat-soluble nutrients, potentially leading to malnutrition, it is unreasonable for one to continue the dieting regimen beyond six months. What does that mean is, you may have to lose the regained weight again later.

The side-effects of using orlistat, prescription or TOC, include gas with discharge, oily discharge, increased number of bowel movements, oily spotting, oily or fatty stools, urgent need to have a bowel movement and inability to control bowel movements. About 50 percent of patients on the drug experienced some side-effects and seven percent lost bowel control. For this reason, one may have to take another drug to get the side-effect under control. link at foodconsumer.org

CSPI Picks the Best and Worst Fast Foods

2007-02-07T13:46:00.000-07:00

Burger King Sweeps the Worst ... but Also Has Two Bests

Fast-food menus are getting better ... and worse, says the nonprofit Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI).
...

Burger King Old Fashioned Ice Cream Shake. It looks like an ordinary shake. But thanks to the ice cream, a medium (22 oz.) has 760 calories and 29 grams of heart-breaking fat (1 ½ days’ worth). A large (32 oz.) crams in 1,200 calories and 42 grams of saturated plus trans fat—the kind that cause old-fashioned heart attacks. Burger King managed to design a drink that is worse for your heart than even the worst burgers.

Wow, having one of Burger King's ice cream shakes is like eating a stick of butter and cup of sugar. It's kind of funny at how ridiculously bad it is, kinda' sad too.

Shoulder Rotation

2007-01-29T13:58:00.000-07:00

One of my goals has been to attain full functionality and rotation in my shoulder joints. I have had upper-cross syndrome for years and I did not know it. Most people who have it don't know it. The longer the condition goes unattended while continuing to train, the harder it becomes to fix because upper-cross syndrome makes it virtually impossible to have correct form on any upper body exercise and deadlift (and Romanian deadlift, and power cleans, and shrugs...), even isolation movements, including biceps curls.

The upper crossed syndrome is defined as tightness of the upper trapezius, pectoralis major, and levator scapulae and weakness of the rhomboids, serratus anterior, middle and lower trapezius, and the deep neck flexors, especially the scalene muscles. link

Do I have it?: Upper Cross Syndrome
How do I fix it? Perfect Posture Plan

Being able to fully rotate my arms about the shoulder joint was something I took for granted. Instead of fully rotating the actual shoulder joint I just made circling motions with my arms swinging and my elbows bent.

Something in my shoulders has finally "clicked." I can fully rotate my shoulders while my arms are fully extended, with elbows locked. It's like something I'm experiencing for the first time, as far as I can remember anyway. It's liberating.

I found these shoulder stretches most helpful and who knows better about full rotation of the shoulders than swimmers? :

Shoulder Stretches for Swimmers

W.Va. turns to Weight Watchers to slim down

2007-01-28T11:07:00.000-07:00

CHARLESTON, W.Va. - Facing more than $100 million in annual costs linked to obesity, the Medicaid program in one of the country’s most overweight states is turning to a familiar name to help residents slim down.
Up to 75,000 West Virginians will soon be eligible for free weight loss courses through Weight Watchers, thanks to an effort by the state Medicaid program and the health benefits group UniCare, the largest provider of Medicaid coverage in the state.
Medicaid clients of Unicare who obtain a physician’s referral and score within specific ranges on the fat-measuring body mass index will be eligible to take up to 16 weeks of courses for free from Weight Watchers. The group is famous for its regular meetings and system of assigning points to different foods.

When a person pays a service to help them lose weight, and they in fact get lasting results, then that's fine, a good thing.

But the weight-loss industry, including Weight Watchers, is wrong-headed in their approach and mission. (the "weight-loss" business is not the same thing as the "fitness" business)

many people wish to lose weight
the idea that weight loss is achieved without exercise, is appealing
the mere appeal of weight loss without exercise, can be sold as a food or information service, a pill, a soft drink...

These 3 premises are the three highest principles of the weight-loss business. They're well-known but unspoken. Also, my problem with Weight Watchers is:

focusing on "losing weight" and "dieting" means deprivation and misery and pain, and puts attention toward something universally considered "dreadful" and is much more difficult than simply picking fun activities. Even the name itself, "Weight Watchers" is dreary
whether or not the customer loses weight is completely and ultimately dependent on the customer and this is actually made clear to people who want to lose weight. (and which is also great for business, incidentally)
nutrition classes, point counting, and meetings are what Weight Watchers offers, but introduce novelties that are, quite frankly, distractions and misspent psychic energies (away from regular physical activity. Just do it.)

Instead of giving money to Weight Watchers, wouldn't it be more wise, during this time of shrinking school budgets, to invest the money toward prevention? Toward improvement of physical fitness and wellness education?

Giving money to Weight Watchers and hoping that they can "fix" what is already broken, after the fact, is a poor solution.

This is a much better idea from West Virginia and has at least, a chance of being effective.

Dancing video game helps kids keep weight off

Pasta and milk are root cause of ill health for millions

2007-01-22T10:13:00.000-07:00

Almost half the population is suffering from common complaints such as exhaustion, colds and migraines because of food intolerance, according to a new report published tomorrow.
"Around 20 million people are suffering from symptoms that impact on their daily lives and yet they are not able to get help from the NHS," said Muriel Simmons, Allergy UK's chief executive.

"We want to see more dietary advice being available and more training given to GPs so that they can recognise that food could be the trigger for some of the symptoms that they are seeing on a daily basis."

What makes this situation more tricky is that some food sensitivities don't trigger side effects or reactions till up to 36 hours after eating them. This makes it more difficult to figure out what food caused what reaction.

The most common food insensitivities are from dairy, wheat, gluten, nuts, soy

Dairy and milk do not make bones stronger. If anything, too much animal protein in the diet is very bad for bones. The countries that have the highest consumption of milk products also have the highest rates for osteoporosis The United States is #1 for dairy consumption and also for osteoporosis. But how could that be so if milk makes bones stronger?

It's because the idea that milk makes bones stronger is a myth, if not an outright falsehood. Celebrities who endorse milk probably don't drink it themselves; the marketers put it on their lips to inspire the consumer's imagination, suggest a hallucination that milk is on the daily menu of celebrities.

Nowadays, milk is not necessary. There is no need to drink milk, past the first year of life. There isn't any need to drink the milk of an elephant, or a racoon, or a rat, or a cow.

Eat cereal with rice/soy milk, not body fluids of cows

"Milk is for babies" -Arnold

Why dairy products won't help you maintain healthy bones

Early man 'couldn't stomach milk':

A drink of milk was off the menu for Europeans until only a few thousand years ago, say researchers from London...

...But intolerance to milk remains common in modern times, say nutritionists.

In order to digest milk, adult humans need to have a gene which produces an enzyme called lactase to break down lactose, one of the main sugars it contains.

Without it, a drink of milk proves an uncomfortable experience, causing bloating, stomach cramps and diarrhoea.

Growth drugs don't fight aging, researchers find

2007-01-16T10:44:00.000-07:00

The costly hormone shots can have serious side effects, according to a roundup of studies.

Human growth hormone injections do not increase life span or fitness, and have many potential adverse effects, including joint swelling and pain, carpal tunnel syndrome and a tendency toward diabetes, Stanford University researchers report today.

Compiling results from 31 separate studies in about 500 healthy adults, Dr. Hau Liu of Stanford and his colleagues at Stanford and the Veterans Affairs Palo Alto Health Care System conclude in the Annals of Internal Medicine that there is no rationale for the elderly to use the drug.

"You are paying a lot of money for a therapy that may have minimal or no benefit and yet has a potential for some serious side effects," Liu said.

"The appropriate conclusion is that it is premature to be using human growth hormone" to reverse the effects of aging, said Dr. S. Jay Olshansky of the University of Illinois at Chicago, who was not involved in the study. "It is also illegal."

Growth Hormone No 'Magic Bullet' for Aging

MONDAY, Jan. 15 (HealthDay News) -- Human growth hormone is being sold in increasing amounts as a cure-all for the ravages of aging, but new research shows no evidence for these claims -- and even possible dangers from the treatments.
So concludes a study from Stanford University researchers reported in the Jan. 16Annals of Internal Medicine.
Growth hormone is widely promoted on the Internet and its use as an anti-aging drug has been touted in media ranging from NBC's Today Show to Business Week.

Being Top heavy

2007-01-13T14:40:00.000-07:00

Being "top-heavy" according to Arnold, is having a large upper body and a disproportionately small lower body. Smallish thighs coupled with very large arms makes for an asymmetrical physique.

Being top-heavy is almost never seen in women. Women get a surge of testosterone during puberty that makes their muscles larger. There are some women who never lift and they have bigger leg muscles than men. But it's almost never the case that women end up top-heavy.

The situation seems vastly different in men.

Comparing the legs and arms, the biceps and the calves should be about the same size while contracted.

If the arms are as large or even larger than the thighs, it's time to change the old workout routine.

Training large muscle groups during compound movements releases hormones (HGH and T) that make the entire body bigger.

The legs have to be large for the upper body to become large, in a naturally developed person.

Sometimes top-heavy physiques can be the result of excessive effort toward making the pecs, biceps, shoulders bigger by brute-force hard work. But that case is rare compared to the much more common case of the guy who is taking steroids yet the only exercises are upper body exercises. I read an anecdote about a guy taking steroids who would habitually chew gum on only one side of his mouth. His jaw developed asymmetrically, distorting his face.

Doing dozens of sets of curls, spending hours of workout time doing isolation movements, is inefficient, most especially for guys who do not experiment on themselves with hormones.

If one trains the upper body very hard, putting in much exertion into his efforts, his pecs, biceps, and back will a bit bigger, but that's it.

If one trains the lower body with intensity* during every leg workout, then his legs and hips will get bigger, and also, his pecs, biceps (upper body), will get bigger.

Instead of heading down the road to becoming top heavy, plan a little bit better; notice that you get two birds for the price of one stone (the amount of time and energy you are investing) by focusing most of your effort on training legs and hips and back.

Sometimes the best way to make the upper body bigger is to give the upper body a rest for a while and train the legs and hips.

For muscle mass, choose to do compound (more than 1 joint) exercises. The body is one piece, and training should reflect that. Do not do 'bodybuilder' splits unless you are indeed a bodybuilder and have extra 'androgenic anabolic supplements' to back them up. Pick from the following for lower body: deadlift, squat, isolateral leg work (one leg being worked at a time). For upper body: overhead press, bench press, chin, and row. Any of the previously listed exercises will do, ie. sumo deadlift, front squat, incline bench press, dumbbell row. Don't forget the Olympic lifts, which have the highest degree of transferability to real life. As they are too complex to be discussed here, Google them! link "How to Build up Muscles" wikiHow

intensity* - I'll get to what intensity is, one day

Psst...hey buddy, over here!

2007-01-11T19:02:00.000-07:00

Want real human growth hormone and testosterone? There's a way to get them both that's 100% legal and it's virtually free too. Plus it's all natural and of the highest quality and the dosages are always perfectly tailored for your body.

How can you get them?

Train major muscle groups (legs, back) using compound movements
like squats, leg press, and deadlift,
using correct form and striving for the burn from lactic acid, not the amount of weight

Doing this at least one day a week produces your body's own juice, of the highest quality because you made them with love and caring :)

Your natural hormones produced in this way then:

make the upper body muscles grow bigger, all of the muscles actually, even the ones that make up your facial appearance
maximize the returns for upper body workouts that follow leg day

At least one day a week, train legs, back; the largest muscle groups using compound movements

Start with low weight and correct form and work up gradually (just like with every exercise)

Nothing will interfere more with your fitness goals than an injury caused by lifting too much weight or lifting incorrectly. Safety first.

Focus your zeal on persistence and steady improvement, and sometimes bursts of intense exertion

The catch:
It won't work unless you...eat about every 3 hours (waking hours) which means eating about 6 meals, about 25% of total calories from protein.

It won't work unless you...allow the legs to rest and recover for a day or two before the next leg/back workout

But the bonus:
If you train your body in this way, by making the largest muscle groups a priority, you will avoid being "top-heavy," asymmetrical.

Foolproof your fitness resolution

2007-01-09T09:13:00.000-07:00

Foolproof your fitness resolution
Avoid 8 common roadblocks so your plan stays on track

If you recently vowed to shape up in '07, you've taken an important first step on the road to wellness. But unfortunately, every year many well-intentioned people fall off the fitness wagon long before their new gym memberships expire.
According to the American College of Sports Medicine, more than half of people who begin exercising at the start of the new year hit the bench within three to six months.
The problem? They didn't take the right path to fitness and ran into numerous roadblocks along the way....link

FTC fines 4 diet pill manufacturers

2007-01-04T09:47:00.000-07:00

Diet pills, like certain bodybuilding supplements, don't really fit into either category of food or drug. The Food and Drug Administration does not evaluate the claims of diet pill manufacturers and so all their ads have a little disclaimer at the bottom; that whatever benefits are promised in exchange for your money, well, you might not actually get those benefits. Has anyone heard of "myostatin blocker?"

WASHINGTON - The Federal Trade Commission on Thursday fined the marketers of four weight loss pills $25 million for making false advertising claims ranging from rapid weight loss to reducing the risk of cancer.
FTC Chairman Deborah Platt Majoras said the products would remain on store shelves, but that the companies would have to stop making the false claims.
“What we challenge is the marketing of the claims,” she said. “The marketers are required to back up the claims with the science and if they can’t do that they can’t make the claim. But we don’t ban the products from the shelves.”
...Fines were levied against marketers of Xenadrine EFX, One A Day Weight Smart, CortiSlim and TrimSpa.

“Testimonials from individuals are not a substitute for science,” Majoras said. “And that’s what Americans need to understand.”

Diet pills, when they do work (weight loss), they usually contain stimulants that artificially raise the metabolism. (The common ingredient in these pills used to be ephedra or ephedrine but now it's synephrine after an FDA ban of ephedra herbal products) The body adapts and one builds up a dependence on the pill. Since the pill kept the metabolism artificially high, ceasing to take the pill means the metabolism immediately slows to its regular basal rate. Then the weight comes right back. This is distressing enough to warrant buying more of the pills. So, "weight loss" becomes a subscription to their product (when the pills actually do work).

Excuses

2007-01-02T14:50:00.000-07:00

There's a term in psychology called rationalizing. The short definition is that rationalizing is making up "good reasons" so that people can do what they want to do.

The thing about humans is, we have reason, but we are also driven by our emotions, our feelings. Sometimes we think up "good reasons" to avoid doing something, even though we know that doing it is necessary and beneficial, simply to feel normal, healthy.

I think the number one rationalization, or excuse for anything, is "I don't have time." Maybe the next excuse in line is, "I didn't want those sour grapes anyway."

We are not all born equal in talent or ability. The only thing that is equal among all people, is the amount of time we have in the day. We all get 24 hours a day.

"I don't have time," becomes more of a belief than an excuse after repeating it over and over again. It becomes a habit to believe in a self-restricting belief that only limits oneself.

A more useful belief to have is exercise is something that could change your outlook and attitude, releases feel-great endorphins, and has benefits that carry over into all other aspects of your life. The muscle you develop and condition now, you will keep into your old age. After 50, the amount of muscle one has declines steeply with increasing age. Is mobility and independence important at 70 or 80? Yes. We all age; we are all getting older.

The best way to build strong bone is to do weight-bearing exercises. This makes the bone more dense. The old idea that cow's milk is good for bone health is myth. Weight bearing exercise + lots of broccoli and cruciferous vegetables (calcium) do the best job, not dairy products.

Training with weights is about keeping what you have--about keeping the muscle and bone you have, throughout life. Your body is your vehicle in life.

If you understand this and believe it, your brain will find a way no matter what; your brain won't need the "good reasons" that only justify easy and comfortable habits. And after doing it for a while, you don't have to believe it because you come to know it.

Resolutions

2006-12-31T12:13:00.000-07:00

On New Year's Eve or any other day of the year, getting disturbed precedes a decision.

Get fed up and then...make a decision.

Sometimes if you ask yourself the right questions, you can think of something--there's always something--because a sign of health is knowing that one can do better.

Think of something that you've considered doing, or have wanted to get handled in your life. It should be something that if you changed it, starting today, the quality of your life would improve as a result.

The decision could be small, simply deciding to act and do something or the decision can be big, like deciding to change for the better.

New Year's Resolutions are usually not well planned:

"I'm gonna run 5 miles a day"
"I'm gonna lose 5 or 10 pounds"

How are you gonna run 5 miles a day if you injure your leg? When there's a blizzard?
How are you gonna lose 5 or 10 pounds? How are you going to go about it?

Few people stick to their resolutions because they were doomed from the start.

Better resolutions are ones which are more clear about what is the intended goal.
What are we really after? Success!

example: "Sign up at the gym and exercise for 30 to 60 minutes, 3 times a week, for a year. While there, lift weights properly (a cookbook-easy way to start: Body for Life). (Or Yoga. Or fitness classes...) Do this again and again, no matter what, and it becomes a habit."

"Outside of the gym eat clean , 6 times a day and get plenty of sleep and rest."

"...according to Time magazine, training with weights has become the number one athletic activity in the United States."(Arnold's book, p. 64)

If you don't want to think too much about how to get started right without needng to plan every detail at the beginning, or want to skip reading a book about it, I recommend Body for Life. It's all free on their website. Tools for exercise. Cardio. Workout program.

Body for Life workout program, which includes planning for cardio and rest. Follow the instructions and it will work for you in a matter of weeks, months. If not, your nutrition needs changing. If you want cookbook simplicity regarding nutrition, get the Abs Diet, from Men's Health. Otherwise eat clean and eat often (for males, it should be thousands of calories a day; 25% of calories from protein).

Experts agree, the benefits of exercise begin to wane after one hour of rigorous exertion; it's the law of diminishing returns. You don't have to go all out and give yourself a hernia or burn out early in the game. Moderation is the key; the results come with persistence, not short bursts of extreme exertion. The greatest paradox of exercise is that even though you expend more energy through your workouts, you will have more energy for your life outside the gym.

Do easy, comfortable things and life becomes harder later. Do easy, comfortable things and life becomes very boring.

Do "difficult things" and life becomes easier. Do difficult but worthwhile things and your self-esteem grows.

Once you actually do what is "difficult" and do it again and again, it becomes easy; and on it goes, to the next challenge.

I recommend taking a before picture.

2007 is going to be a great year.

More Dangerous Than Smoking? Death by Soda

2006-12-28T11:12:00.000-07:00

Drinking one soda a day could cause you to gain 15 pounds a year. Other related health risks include type 2 diabetes, heart disease, bowel cancer and nerve damage

I think they add caffeine to soft drinks to make them habit-forming, addictive. If it's caffeine a person wants, they can get it from coffee. Coffee consumption is correlated with a decreased incidence of type-2 diabetes, while soda consumption seems to promote type 2 diabetes. Decaffeinated coffee has the same benefits as regular coffee, so it's not the caffeine that helps ward off diabetes.

To add value to their sugar water, they carbonate it and add drugs (caffeine). There's a reason why it's less convenient to simply have water at many fast food restaurants. They lose sales and from a highly profitable product because water, High Fructose Corn Syrup, and flavoring are cheap.

Mary Christmas

2006-12-22T20:32:00.000-07:00

If Lloyd Christmas married Mary "Samsonite" Swanson then her name would become...

Their real name is Christmas :)

More on Men and Body Image

2006-12-21T09:40:00.000-07:00

Guys have body issues, too:

Hunky media images have negative effects on men, spark reckless behavior

“Body image is not just a concern for women,” says researcher Deborah Schooler, who’s looked into the adverse effects such media images can have on male self-esteem. “It affects men, too, and it demands attention.”

...Does all this mean it’s unhealthy for “Average Joes,” as the researchers titled their study, to aspire to the lean, muscular body idealized by Michelangelo and Abercrombie alike? One prominent promoter of men’s fitness argues no — unless, of course, it’s an obsession.
“What’s good about that image is that it’s the picture of health,” says David Zinczenko, editor of Men’s Health magazine and a best-selling diet author. “With diabetes rates skyrocketing over the past 70 years, a little more ‘lean’ wouldn’t hurt us.”
Zinczenko points to all the role models with healthy and realistic bodies that have graced magazine covers: George Clooney, Matt Damon, Tom Cruise, Hugh Jackman.
...And what of [Jack] LaLanne, now 92, who so depressed the young Simmons decades ago that he turned off the TV?
Of the incessant media images, the still-avid exerciser says, “Maybe at least that’ll get ’em out doing something!” Aspiring to today’s ideal body is fine, he says, as long as it’s what you want. He deplores, though, the overly muscular type that “looks like they use steroids. Once you start fooling with Mother Nature, you’re in trouble.”
As for his own image issues, LaLanne, who still works out two hours every morning, says they’re soley focused on sticking around a while longer.
“I can’t afford to die,” LaLanne explains. “It would wreck my image.”

Orthorexia and Bigorexia

2006-12-19T11:25:00.000-07:00

The DSM-IV-TR, the diagnostic manual for psychiatry, describes mental disorders, mostly for billing purposes. There is a category which includes those who become obsessed with counting calories and many bodybuilders could be considered to have the "illness."

307.5 Eating Disorder NOS (not otherwise specified)

And now there is even a more specific term for the illness, called Orthorexia

Reading such things makes me feel better about myself that I still eat fast food on occasion; sometimes it's a reward to workout even harder, in anticipation of "cheat day."

Keep a cheat day once a week where you allow yourself to eat what you want. I think it's good for one's mental health and helps people avoid the obsession with trying to be "perfect" which only seems to backfire, ironically.

For males who want to improve their appearance, lose weight and feel better, but who also love to eat, and eat a lot--the best activity to consider, is weight-training, not aerobics.

The Rock, in a recent interview in Mens Health says the 3rd secret to his success is to have a large pepperoni pizza, a six-pack of beer and a shot of whiskey, once in a while to "cut" all the clean eating. Go figure.

Bodybuilding would be easier, if only it did not require eating so much food; eating all the calories that are required to keep the body in an anabolic state means eating clean all day long. The aspect of lifting hard in search of the pain is simple compared to the amount of food that has to be eaten. If you love to eat, you are already halfway there; just don't lift like a powerlifter and you can eat clean as much as you want; don't rest for longer than a minute or two between sets.

This applies to women also but most women assume that they'll get so muscular as to become "too big." Here is Arnold's reasoning to get around that myth: Try to get big! Try it! It won't happen even if you want it to, because there is simply not enough testosterone.

The myth comes from female bodybuilders (not figure/fitness competitors, but female bodybuilding competitors) who either: 1) take testosterone and growth hormone or 2) were naturally born with one more testicles in additional to their ovaries

Bigorexia: working out too much

Bigorexia or Muscle dysmorphia is a disorder in which an individual becomes obsessed that they are not muscular enough. Sometimes referred to as bigorexia or reverse anorexia nervosa, it is a very specific case of body dysmorphic disorder (BDD).

Muscle dysmorphia can cause individuals to:
- Constantly check themselves in a mirror
- Become distressed if a gym session is missed
- Take potentially dangerous drugs (e.g. anabolic steroids)
- Neglecting jobs/relationships/family due to exercising

Gym Bag Stuff

2006-12-16T23:50:00.000-07:00

Some of the stuff I keep in my gym bag:

extra pair of lifting gloves
extra t-shirt
Carmex
chewing gum
extra caffeine tablets
MP3 player
combination lock

What the good news is

2006-12-07T21:10:00.000-07:00

Arnold states, and I also saw it appear in Men's Health twice, that it takes at least a year of heavy persistent training, rest, and nutrition to even find out if one has "good" genetics for building muscle.

I'll give you the shorthand version:

If you can make even one muscle look good when it's flexed, you can do the same thing across your entire body; whether or not you get there depends on how much you want it.

(If you want an overly simple indication right away, look at the "cheekbones" while smiling big. If there's too much of a fat layer to see them, then it's time to do something about it. Don't do what most tend to do and blame or criticize yourself and feel bad; just act. The self-loathing does zero and will only hold you back.)

The consciousness of "self" is the greatest hindrance to the proper execution of all physical action^[6] - This is actually a Zen or Chan maxim which means to "be in the moment" and NOT be distracted by your own thought process. The Zen quote is: "If you seek it, you will NOT find it". The "Western" counterpart to this is the term "Being in the Zone".

Which muscle is worth shooting for then, if you had to pick one? The quadriceps. There are so many good, second-hand benefits that I don't know if I can list them again. Nevertheless, most guys go for the "mirror" muscles first--the pecs or biceps, the muscles that impress other guys, which is fine too.

When they were planning to film Superman, they tried to fill the costume with padding to make Christopher Reeve look more muscular. He made it much, much easier for the producer and for himself by unleashing himself against the weights for a year. It does not take years to get "big" if one goes about it with a bit of forethought.

The results, in terms of muscle, come in months, not years. The good feelings come immediately. (At least do enough to break a sweat each time) People tend to not even bring up the issue and talk about it, until they are certain that lifting in specific ways makes one's muscles bigger; it takes a year to feel certain about changes that begin in weeks, months.

If it's been a year and not much has happened, I can break it down to what you're doing "wrong," what most likely holds many back from getting the best results, is either:

1 nutrition
2 posture
3 lifting form and/or neglecting the legs or back
4 intensity

Right calf after a workout

2006-12-06T22:57:00.000-07:00

I was looking through old photos and I found this one; it's of my lower right leg, an hour after doing standing calf raises; taken in March of this year. I'm not flexing and I didn't train my soleus that day. My heel is off the ground and my knee is bent, but you can't tell that from the photo

Hooray

2006-12-05T15:09:00.003-07:00

About 3 years ago I decided I wanted to put on muscle and get fit. I bought the book by Arnold, the New Encyclopedia of Modern Bodybuilding. It was only twenty-five bucks yet had the heft of a small city's phone book.

Arnold's book changed my view of bodybuilding. I had considered bodybuilders' appearance as "grotesque" and abnormal. If you read through it once, the guys in the photographs start to look more normal, oddly enough. After reading Arnold's book I had enough knowledge to get started. I read it repeatedly, I was gradually memorizing it, and could read through the entire thing in a couple of hours, whenever I wanted to reignite the fire under my bottom.

Arnold's book is written in such a way that a person without prior knowledge of bodybuilding can read it and learn that bodybuilding does not involve steroids or synthetic hormones--that anyone who assumes otherwise is in for failure; it's only cheating one's self.

I found out later that Arnold currently admits years of steroid (ab)use and actually advocated their use among his peers and in pamphlets. But the argument he makes in his book is nevertheless sound, tempting as it is to make that ad hominem attack and call Arnold a hypocrite, etc. Nevertheless he is correct, in his book. Also, we didn't know things then that we know now. And he has enough integrity to come clean and just admit it, instead of lying.

I do respect Arnold for writing thebook; it was inspiring enough and also gave me a proper direction to take, so I highly recommend it. I would say that persuading someone to do what he suggests is a feat in itself. Few individuals are able to convince people to pursue the "pain." Arnold can say what he does confidently because if anyone does what he says, they actually get what he promises.

In short my caveat to you, reader, is: Arnold advises hanging up pictures of competitors on the wall to strive to look like them. YET he does not tell you anywhere in the book that he and likely most or all other competitors took steroids to get there. Don't set yourself up for frustration (not getting what you expect). Get the poster, the Muscular System.

What was actually disappointing to me though was not finding out about Arnold's past or how much of competitive bodybuilding is contaminated with banned substances.

Deep down, what disappointed me more was that some things he described as part of the joy of bodybuilding, I felt I didn't enjoy. He wrote about how bodybuilders love to look at their muscles in the mirror, flexing and posing--they revel in the satisfaction and payoff for their hard work.

I did not feel like that. I didn't even like looking at my own body unless it was while I worked out. I thought there was something wrong with me; I started wondering if I had body dysmorphia, an illness where one's perception of his own body is distorted, burdened with feelings of constant inadequacy about body appearance, even when it's great by most people's standards. It's like anorexia for males. Just that thought was depressing in itself. But I kept going back because lifting made me feel great afterwards and nothing in the world clears my head as well as a rigorous and prolonged period of exertion. I don't think it's just me, who is like this (hint, hint ;)

I had lost about 20 lbs of fat and added about 25 pounds of muscle over all that time, but I still felt that something was still not 'right.' I liked looking at my legs below the knee, but that was about it. I learned to leg press 720 lbs ten times and squat 400 lbs but I didn't care, and I still don't. Strength is one of my last concerns.

Thankfully, I don't have body dysmorphia. It wasn't until relatively recently that I understand better, the source of every problem I had with my physique and what was screwing up every upper body exercise I did: Upper Cross Syndrome. "Syndrome" makes it sound like a disease, but the word just means that it involves a number of typical characteristics, which are:

The upper crossed syndrome is defined as tightness of the upper trapezius, pectoralis major, and levator scapulae and weakness of the rhomboids, serratus anterior, middle and lower trapezius, and the deep neck flexors, especially the scalene muscles. link

I started fixing my shoulders about a year ago, using this program, the Perfect Posture Plan. At least 3 or 4 times in the past year, I had thought my shoulders were finally "fixed," I even posted on this blog about it. I underestimated how badly slumped forward my shoulders were; my entire shoulder girdle was pulled forward and locked in position that way, the older exercises I returned to after 'completing' PPP only contributed to the problem.

I did regain the ability to pull my shoulder blades together by doing the PPP, but I still had not relearned how to use my shoulder muscles in coordination with my chest and back, again.
What I describe may sound extreme, but I didn't look like Quasimodo. Destablized shoulders detrimentally affect how every lift is done, but the appearance is subtle. I see at least a handful of strangers daily who I would bet have upper-cross syndrome.

I understand now why I rarely liked how I looked in photographs; why I've always thrown a football "like a girl," and why my posterior deltoids were thin and underdeveloped. I don't even have a "before" picture of myself without clothes because I didn't want to take pictures of myself. And no matter how much or how hard I worked them, my pecs and deltoids didn't grow much; they looked partly good only while I was "training" them, yet I was merely filling them with a little more blood.

Now that my shoulders are pulled back farther and previously neglected muscles in my back are activated, it is a strange feeling to have shoulders, weird as that is to write. I feel like I have half a grapefruit at the top of each arm where clavicle meets humerus. It feels both good and funny.

I'm happy about it! I never considered posture to be that important before, Arnold doesn't mention it specifically, besides warning not to stand on stage with one's belly hanging out while others do their routines.

Posture is so important that it makes a good body look bad and a bad body look better.

No matter how well you think you "know" how to do an exercise there is always a little necessity for improvement or variation every so often.

The simplest way to describe 'upper cross syndrome' is that it is an imbalance between the chest and back, which oppose each other. It's like a tug-o-war and the front of the body is winning; the position of thee center flag (shoulders) is a good distance in favor of the "back team" buying dinner for the winning "chest team," except that the winning team doesn't get larger. All that happens: chest team gets shorter while back team gets longer. :|

Remember what Arnold writes about training every single muscle. Train your neck. Yes, your neck, especially where you're tilting your head back.

Keep going.

Don't Quit

"When things go wrong as they sometimes will
When the road you're trudging seems all up hill.
When funds are low and the debts are high.
And you want to smile, but you have to sigh.
When care is pressing you down a bit.
Rest, if you must, but don't you quit.
Life is queer with its twists and turns.
As everyone of us sometimes learns.
And many a failure turns about
When he might have won had he stuck it out:

Don't give up though the pace seems slow -
You may succeed with another blow.
Success is failure turned inside out -
The silver tint of the clouds of doubt.
And you never can tell how close you are.
It may be near when it seems so far:
So stick to the fight when you're hardest hit
It's when things seem worst that you must not QUIT.

-author unknown

I know it's a bit trite but I like the how the rhythm accompanies the meaning of the words :)

I'm Still Here

2006-12-04T09:36:00.000-07:00

It was good to take a break; like taking a step back and observing from a different angle. I'm working on the circled parts currently. :)

Dieting vs. Exercise

2006-12-01T15:05:00.000-07:00

Obese should exercise not 'diet'

Women who are clinically obese don't need to diet to improve their health, say UK researchers.
A programme which encouraged women not to diet but to take part in exercise classes found significant improvements in health and mental well-being.
The women in the study were also taught about good eating habits, such as how to cook, and received social support.
After a year, the women had only lost a little weight but were significantly fitter and happier with themselves.

...and after another year, I would bet these women will still be happy and still losing weight. Wouldn't you think they would be better off than those who lost a larger amount of weight but were still feeling lousy and thus more likely to gain it all back? The key is in the activity.

It's not just the obese who should exercise. It's everybody who needs to exercise, in order to feel normal or great. "Dieting" is a sham and has turned into a disgraceful money-making endeavor for those profiting from people not exercising; contributing to the myth that physical activity is optional. It's not. Look around. Do fad diets and weight-loss centers work for longer than the short-term? If they really worked, wouldn't these sorts of 'services' begin disappearing from a lack of demand? Are these people giving out (selling) fish or teaching people how to fish for themselves? Weyt Watchers and NootriSystems have figured out that they can get people to depend on them and pay them for all their food, at every meal. It sounds nuts, but that's all they do. They feed people false beliefs that they "don't have time" to cook or exercise instead of pointing out that they simply never bothered to try. It's a Jedi mind trick.

Most people who diet gain all the weight back, plus an additional 2 lbs. Dieting is crock.

Exercise is not optional it just appears that way these days. Ask the right questions. The right question is not "which diet do I choose?" The right question is, "what activities will help me lose weight and that I will enjoy and have fun doing?"

You don't have to run! Personally, I don't like the pounding my body takes from all the jarring foot planting from running for long periods. I like to row (rowing is mostly a leg exercise that burns more calories than running). Pick something that's fun and that'll make it easier to keep coming back. Then focus on how great you're gonna look and how good it feels to be moving and alive.

Don't imagine/hallucinate/fear that people are looking at your butt in baggy sweats today. I think most people who imagine exercise as dreadful or think it's not fun, spend most of their exercise time focusing on things that are not worth thinking about. What most people see: a person who has just realized how fed up they are, got disturbed enough to do something, and is on the road to achieving their goals.

Focus on your goals consistently and you will get there, even if you forget why you're doing it.

Fun

2006-10-17T14:58:00.000-06:00

Food like drugs for some

2006-10-08T11:45:00.000-06:00

Food like drugs for some, same brain path used

Overeating and drug addiction may be linked, researchers find
WASHINGTON - The same brain circuits are involved when obese people fill their stomachs as when drug addicts think about drugs, a finding that suggests overeating and addiction may be linked, U.S. researchers reported on Monday.

"We were able to simulate the process that takes place when the stomach is full, and for the first time we could see the pathway from the stomach to the brain that turns 'off' the brain's desire to continue eating."

"We thought the activated area (of the brain) must be in the satiety center, which we learned in medical school is supposed to be in the hypothalamus," Wang said in a telephone interview.

They used a positron emission tomography or PET scan to see which parts of the brain activated when the stimulator was activated. They also carefully questioned their volunteers, all of whom were very obese, about why and when they overate.

The stimulators also sent messages of satiety to brain circuits in the orbitofrontal cortex and striatum, which have been linked to craving and desire in cocaine addicts.

What is addiction anyway?

Addiction:
1.
a. Compulsive physiological and psychological need for a habit-forming substance

2.
a. The condition of being habitually or compulsively occupied with or or involved in something

From the Latin, it means ad-dict, to speak toward. There is a voice in the head that says, "do it again."

So people can develop addictions to food (and sex and drugs and gambling...etc.) too. This website here is the most ultimate source on addiction on the internet. Ultimate, because the site actually shows people how to quit an addiction--any addiction--by articulating how addiction works and teaching a learned skill called AVRT.

The conclusion of the study was that the sensation produced by eating until the stomach is full --that is the sensation which is addictive, not the food itself. Food is metabolic fuel; is necessary.

But eating until the stomach feels stretched is not necessary. The longest-living people on the planet live in Okinawa, Japan. Do you know how they eat by tradition? They eat until they feel like they are 80% full. Then they stop eating.

If you try it, you'll notice that if you stop at 80%, and just wait a minute or two, you feel perfectly sated. I know that if I eat until I feel "full," a few minutes later I feel so full it can hurt.

You are not trying to get A's for eating. A B grade for eating is actually B for better. I will give you an overall 'A' and a well-deserved pat on the back if you shoot for a B and get it, at every meal.

I'm no paragon of fitness or judge of what is best for anyone. But I've gone through periods of eating 1 or 2 meals a day, basically gorging during those meals, based on built-up hunger. Eating 5-6 meals a day, by adding snacks, works best, I have found. It works for both losing weight and building muscle mass.

Too Much Testosterone Kills Brain Cells

2006-09-27T19:40:00.000-06:00

WASHINGTON (Reuters) -- Too much testosterone can kill brain cells, researchers say, in a finding that may help explain why steroid abuse can cause behavior changes such as aggressiveness and suicidal tendencies.

Tests on brain cells in lab dishes showed that while a little of the male hormone is good, too much of it causes cells to self-destruct in a process similar to that seen in brain illnesses such as Alzheimer's.
"Too little testosterone is bad, too much is bad but the right amount is perfect," said Barbara Ehrlich of Yale University in Connecticut, who led the study.

Apoptosis is the body's way of killing off cells that are unnecessary or die as a natural part of growth. It is programmed cell death. An example of this is the webbing between people's fingers. As an embryo, humans have pronounced webbing between fingers and toes. The cells in the webbed tissue are normally killed off by apoptosis; if not, people are born with webbed digits.

Nerves are like this too--they're highly sensitive to signals that tell them it's time to die. Even though we're born with trillions of brain cells and nerves throughout the body, they normally die as part of their life cycle. The stuff that isn't used is like excess baggage that needs to be eliminated. The rule for the brain and for nerves (and for muscle, and for bone...) is "use it or lose it."

Apoptosis, it turns out, is triggered by high levels of testosterone. This may be analogous to the rapid bodily changes that occur during puberty in males, accompanied by a surge of testosterone.

"Anabolic steroids, which are synthetic versions of the primary male sex hormone testosterone, can be injected, taken orally, or used transdermally. These drugs are Controlled Substances that can be prescribed to treat conditions such as body wasting in patients with AIDS, and other diseases that occur when the body produces abnormally low amounts of testosterone. However, the doses prescribed to treat these medical conditions are 10 to 100 times lower than the doses that are abused for performance enhancement." link

Anger and Oxygen

2006-09-27T12:47:00.000-06:00

Nearly sixty percent of people experience road rage as a part of their morning commute.

Getting angry compromises lung function.

Many experts agree that the stress reaction is triggered by one or more small cues. The stress reaction is a physiological cascade where the body prepares for the three F's: fleeing or fighting or reproduction. Stress triggers include shallow breathing and clenching the jaw; the rest of the body follows these cues that may be anchored to certain thoughts or the way we perceive things ("he cut me off on purpose!"). What we perceive is not necessarily how things are.

Getting in a rage in the morning could possibly be the worst way to start off the day.

It's tough to remember sometimes but smile and breathe deeply. Imagine that today were your last day, if your life ended at midnight, you would have spent the last day pissed off and short of breath, even though anger changes nothing.

Some people psych themselves up to do a set by getting enraged, by making their "blood boil." I wonder if that has a negative effect on performance? I dunno.

What is the Deal with Bodybuilders and Tanning?

2006-09-22T02:25:00.000-06:00

Odd as it seems, being tan hundreds of years ago was a mark of being poor, of belonging to the working class (serfdom) whose members toiled in the fields all day long. Not being tan was a sign of affluence; people powdered their faces to appear more pallid. But today, being tan is associated with having the means, spending leisure time in the outdoors, to vacation on the beach, on the golf course, taking a boat on a 3 hour cruise, etc. Tanning has a sort of status appeal nowadays.

If you've ever seen bodybuilding competitors on stage, they're all tan; they all look brown or tried to be. Some are naturally suntanned, some are tanned artificially through use of UV tanning beds. Others with fair skin use dyes that color the skin. There are others still, who use dyes because of the dangers of developing skin cancer.

Bodybuilders don't brown themselves for status reasons. They do it because a tan brings out the definition in the muscles. It's a visual effect. For this reason, fitness models are also usually a little more tan than not. In "body transformation" photos (before-and-after pictures) the after photo almost always shows a more tanned body.

A downside of long exposure to the sun (besides skin cancer, of course) is premature aging of the skin. There are nuns in convents who rarely see the sun and even in their 60's they apparently have the skin of teens. Leathery skin from a lifetime of UV radiation is not something good. Lying out under the sun and in machines is also time-consuming; boring.

Dyes are often difficult to spread evenly and when applied to the face and ears to match the body, it often looks like some have painted themselves with wood stain, using a too-big paintbrush.

There are costs for being bronzed which may not be worth the benefits. The rising incidence of deadly skin cancer, malignant melanoma does not help this. But there is hopeful news!

The journal Nature reports:

Fake tanner wards off skin cancer:
Plant extract triggers pigmentation to protect fair skin.
There is hope for fair-skinned people who long for a tan. Researchers have found a chemical from a tropical mint plant that works both as a sunless tanner and as a solar shield in fair-skinned mice. If the compound works for people too, it could prove a boon for the cosmetics industry and a life-saver for people with a rare genetic disorder that keeps them indoors. Unlike other sunless tanners on the market that simply dye the skin, forskolin prompts the body to produce a real tan, protecting against ultraviolet radiation.

Scientists develop a sunless tan (BBC)
Scientists have given mice a tan without exposing them to the sun.
They have developed a cream, which has not yet been tested on humans, that switches on the tanning machinery in skin cells.

Experimental Lotion Could Be Secret to a Safe Tan (NPR)
"I will confess I suspected we might see some darkening," says Fisher. "But I was fairly shocked that it was as efficient and complete as what we actually saw."

After several weeks, of applying every day, the mice became really tan.

Sunless Suntan Proves Possible (Scientific American)
Sun seekers and tanning-bed junkies take note: Researchers have induced honest-to-goodness suntans in mice without exposing them to ultraviolet (UV) rays.

Estimated number of people worldwide who die each year from too much sun: 60,000

More Fun Pictures

2006-09-14T19:44:00.000-06:00

Number of Reps in a Set

2006-09-14T01:03:00.001-06:00

There's no fixed rule about how many reps should be done in each set since the body eventually adapts.

If a generalization can be made, this might be close:

1-4 reps

6-12 reps

12-20 reps

Strength

Mass / Hypertrophy

Streamlining / Toning

"Powerlifting"

"Bodybuilding"

"Endurance"

little cardio or sprinting

Sprint-Interval Training

Cardio, Marathon, Triathlon, Cycling

Hardly winded

Anaerobic

Aerobic

Workout time = mostly rest

Little, measured rest

No rest

If one does too much A or already looks like A, more C would be appropriate

If one does too much C or already looks like C, more A would be appropriate

Equal amounts of A and C average out to B

Too much B all the time is not as effective because the body adapts.

Cycling A and C with B, periodically, helps break through plateaus. This is called Periodization.

Lifting heavy weights all the time is not the best way to build muscle
The body adjusts if you lift heavy weights everyday, preventing you from progressing in your strength training. In addition, lifting heavy weights on a regular basis increases the potential for muscle pulls and strains. Exercise physiologists recommend "periodized" schedules in which you vary your weights in two- to four-week cycles in order to stimulate optimal development of bone, muscle and other tissues.

DOS
1. Do vary your workouts.
We recommend you alternate among light workouts, moderate workouts and heavy workouts. Sometimes women use very light weights because of the fear of getting too muscular. In reality, most women don't have the hormones to get the type of muscles that men can develop, but they will lose fat just under the skin and have more definition of their muscles.
You just can't go in and lift heavy weights everyday, either, because they body gets used to it and you won't progress. Lifting heavy weights can also increase the potential for muscle pulls and strains. Through the use of what we call periodized schedules, where you have variations, either from workout to workout, or over two- to four-week cycles, you can expose the body to different types of workouts that will stimulate optimal development of bone, muscle and other tissues.

Women and Thinness

2006-09-13T02:08:00.000-06:00

Along the same lines, competitive escalation is a dynamic among women too. A well argued commentary in an audio file (NPR) about the pecularities of women's sizing:

Gaining Weight, Losing Perspective: When Sizes Grow
Obesity is becoming a bigger and bigger problem in the United States. An estimated 30 percent of Americans are obese, and the number is going up. But commentator Lori Gottlieb observes that it's getting harder to tell how much weight you've gained -- if you're gauging by your pants size.
Lori Gottlieb is the author of Stick Figure and I Love You, Nice to Meet You.

Spanish fashion show rejects too-skinny models:
Women with very low body-mass index not allowed on runway

MADRID, Spain - Spain’s top fashion show has turned away a slew of models on grounds they are too skinny — an unprecedented swipe at body images blamed for encouraging eating disorders among young people.

Just not attractive, IMO

When Is Thin Too Thin?

Girls aged seven 'have anorexia'

Men lust for hourglass curves, say researchers

What Kind of Male Body Are Women After?

2006-09-12T14:32:00.000-06:00

David Frederick of UCLA did a research study on male and female perspectives of body appearance. His study asked:

"Do representations of male muscularity differ in men’s and women’s magazines?"

Here is the abstract, or summary of his findings:

Men overestimate the degree of muscularity that is attractive to women, and women overestimate the degree of thinness that is most attractive to men. Consistent with the thesis that sociocultural input influences such body type preferences and beliefs, we postulated that magazines aimed at a male audience would portray a more muscular male body ideal than would magazines aimed at a female audience. Systematic comparison of popular magazines (Cosmopolitan, Men’s Health, Men’s Fitness, and Muscle & Fitness) revealed that the ideal male body marketed to men is more muscular than the ideal male body marketed to women.
We introduce the Physical Trait Overvaluation Hypothesis, which proposes that gender-specific media fuel emphasis on certain body parts in within-gender prestige competitions. The resulting competitive escalation creates a disconnect between the preferences of one gender and the personal aspirations of the other.

What does this mean? (From Men's Health, September 2004):

When rating desirability of varying builds for sexual partners, [325 college-age women] rated:

"average bodies as somewhat desirable;
muscular men as very desirable;
and extremely muscular men somewhere in between.
Least desirable: soft, fat guys."

"Frederick...says very brawny guys were viewed as likely to attract other women--and cheat."

Women associate pronounced muscularity with...
[+] dominance
[+] sexiness
[+] sexual ability and skill
[+] popularity
[+] ability to acquire resources and provide protection
[+] health and genetic fitness
[+] money and ambition

[-] decreased likelihood of sexual fidelity
[-] decreased sensitivity to their needs
[-] greater likelihood of narcissism and a bad temper

Note that whether or not women's associations are "correct or incorrect," or simply stereotypes, is a different subject.

Fun test for your degree of narcissism.

'Echo and Narcissus' 1903
John William Waterhouse

:|

2006-09-11T21:54:00.003-06:00

Shrugs on a Standing Calf Raise Machine

2006-09-03T14:38:00.000-06:00

I work my trapezius on the same day as shoulders (deltoids). I don't like doing barbell shrugs. It feels like I'm effectively taking a heavy bar and rubbing it up and down the front of my crotch.

So I do shrugs on a standing calf raise machine if I'm not using heavy dumbbells. This site calls it the "gripless shrug." It works the trapezius exactly the same way (straight up, straight down). Plus I don't have to deal with loading 2-3 plates on each side of the bar. It's much easier to just change the weight by moving the pin to the appropriate weight. Standing calf raise machines usually have 400 to 500 lbs available with the change of a pin. Loading the same amount onto a barbell is a waste of time and energy, IMO.

Also, I don't have to worry about my grip giving out later; I can save my grip strength for deadlift.

Steroid Cautionary Tale

2006-09-02T14:41:00.000-06:00

Just to warn you, don't watch the video link below if you're squeamish or dislike needles. Yuck.

The subject of the video compares animal protein farts as a "small side effect" with "big side effects" from steroids as if there is any comparison. His ability to reason has left him, if he ever had one. Apparently, he has no conception of long-term consequences. From the way he speaks about it, it is obvious that he has always believed (falsely) that steroids are a "normal" or necessary part of bodybuilding. From his point of view, it's a given that people who want to build muscle will take steroids. Some people believe what they want to believe so they can do whatever the hell they want.

He's an exception among those "in the know." There are other juicers who would say that he was stupid and didn't take the drugs "correctly" which is to inject into his buttocks and use sterile technique. They're not much better than he is.

People who "correctly" abuse steroids end up saying things like this:

Confession of a steroid user
That (30 lbs of) muscle came at a price. I've spent close to $30,000 on steroids and now stay on them at least two-thirds of the year. I have masses of scar tissue in my glutes from hundreds of injections. People I meet are intimidated, and some automatically assume I'm a jerk, which I'm not. But that's all trivial compared with this: A few months ago, after a cycle in which I had used a lot of oral steroids to prepare for a contest, a blood test showed liver damage comparable to that of a hepatitis patient...

My liver has almost fully recovered, but now my wife wants me to quit. She says that at some stage I have to give up the idea of getting bigger and focus on my health, and I don't disagree. It's also getting harder to conceal my steroid use from the older of our two children.
Here's my advice to anyone considering steroids: Unless you're at or very near your maximum genetic potential, don't waste your time. Using steroids too soon will keep you from learning how to make gains without them. If you're under 23, you have no business juicing. Besides the fact you have enough natural testosterone, you could stunt your growth if you haven't reached your full adult height. Finally, most guys who set out to do "just one cycle" end up using steroids for years.

If you think you'll be the exception, you've just joined a very big club. Once you've started, it's tough to go back.

It's a personal choice, but one you have to think through as carefully as any other decision you make in life. Be sure you aren't going to let the desire to be huge take precedence.

It takes at least a year of hard lifting to even find out what kind of genetics you have. I learned that from Arnold's book and I agree with him. How many people give bodybuilding a sincere effort for a year or two in order to find out?

video link. yuck

Genetic Potential

2006-09-01T10:56:00.000-06:00

Many people talk about "genetic potential" regarding one's natural ability to build muscle. Sometimes people use it as an excuse, "I don't have good genetics like that such-and-such a person." Making a determination like this, judging your body, but without doing any actual training, is not wise. Using "I don't have good genetics for muscle" as a rationalization ("good reason") to abuse steroids is not wise.

You cannot even know if you have good genetics for bodybuilding unless you do it sincerely. It takes a year or two of hard lifting to find out. Some people carry, under a layer of fat, muscles of high quality and potential.

"Gym in a bottle"

2006-08-31T13:59:00.000-06:00

Here's another potential quick-fix in the works.

'Gym pill' for a no-work six-pack

Teams have been studying the genetic pathways controlling how muscle builds up and is broken down in the body.
Tests on rodents showed that manipulating these pathways can halt muscle wastage from disuse or disease.
At least three research groups have identified some of the genes responsible.
Alfred Goldberg and colleagues at Harvard University in the US and a pharmaceutical company Regeneron have found genes called atrogin1 and muRF1 that are active during muscle wasting.
A team at Purdue University, Indiana, has been * looking at a gene called erg1.

More hope for patients with Muscular Dystrophy and chronic wasting. It seems like we read about all these potential applications and "dream drugs" all the time and very few (almost none) actually make it to market. Yet there will likely be new supplements popping up based on this little bit of science news. Keep an eye out for them!

The upshot is that if they make drugs that affect these targets, people who juice can no longer rationalize steroid abuse with excuses like, "I take them only to maintain the muscle I do have."

"Yet, [he] has always maintained that he didn’t use steroids to bulk up, just to maintain his size when he was preparing for a contest."

What ever happened to treatments that will affect leptin? That was supposed to be the new "cure" for obesity.

*Please do not do what the individual is doing to this preacher curl apparatus with his armpit, if only for the sake of decorum, if not hygeine. It sounds like I'm joking till you notice how many guys wear sleeveless shirts in the gym. :|

Also, the guy in the photo has upper cross syndrome, IMO. If he doesn't fix it, it doesn't matter how much weight he curls.

The Road to Hell is Paved with Forced Reps and Cheat Curls

2006-08-30T09:00:00.002-06:00

Forced repetitions are a way of completing a set that requires a spotter. The lifter attempts a certain number of repetitions (8-12) of a heavy weight. Usually he calls out the number, "I'm gonna try for X number of reps," so the spotter knows what to expect. I find that can be a self-fulfilling determination, but anyway...

The spotter helps the lifter by assisting with just enough help so that every repetition can be completed. Sometimes, it ends up that the lifter ditches his good form and the spotter gives so much assistance that it wasn't even worth completing the rep. The spotter ends up doing upright rows or curls. :| If you do every set with too much weight for yourself (for the sake of appearances) it's sort of an imposition on your lifting partner especially if he, the spotter, has to lift the bar off your chest. It might not be in the best interests of your partner to expend energy on activities besides actual lifting.

Some lifters always need a spotter because they always do forced reps. Someone else helps finish their last rep or two or three. Forced reps are a good way to stimulate growth but aren't necessary for every set that one does. There are many ways to complete a set, one way is to just eliminate rest between sets, supersets, or run the rack, or do 21's, or use a Smith machine, not a spotter. If you do forced reps all the time, stop. Do something else for a while because your body has already adapted. Do something else, like a machine circuit and you will be pleasantly surprised, I would bet.

Personal trainers tend to overdo forced reps. Maybe it helps the client feel more like the trainer is doing something besides just saying, "do this, do that." If you've only lifted with a trainer, but then go about it on your own, you might feel a need to continue doing forced reps. Why? Because you've done every set just like that, as forced reps, and the trainer is the ultimate authority, right? :|

Cheat curls are a variation of curls where extra "help" is given to the movement by swinging the hips, using any and every other muscle and momentum to get the weight up. It can contribute to growth since the completion of the movement means all the fibers are contracting. A cheat curl (singular) is useful sometimes to get the last rep finished. Sometimes the variety from very heavy cheat curls, maybe once a month or so is beneficial.

Cheat curls are terribly overdone. Some do all their curls as cheat curls. The ego requires lifting visibly "heavy" weights, even if the move is not done correctly and the pelvis swings like Elvis in Vegas. There should be a pause and hard contraction of the biceps at the top of the movement to maximize the benefits of each rep.

A repetition consists of: a concentric contraction [curl upward] and an eccentric contraction [lowering the weight back down]. Lowering the weight is also called "negative" movement. (Pronounced as, "ee-sen-tric")

Lowering the weight, or negative movements, build more muscle than moving the weight up. Doing the negative portion of the lift slowly so that it burns intensely is effective.

Standing with the heels, butt, shoulders, elbows, and head against a wall eliminates the possibility of cheating. Another helpful technique is to count: 2 seconds up-pause-2 seconds down, or 4 seconds up-pause-4 seconds down.

The Easy Rule of Life

2006-08-28T20:40:00.000-06:00

All activities can be narrowed down into two (2) categories.

Activities that we simply do and don't require much thought for us, are easy.
Activities that we ruminate over, put off, or even fear, are difficult.

Some activities that are difficult for us, are easy for others. Some activities that are easy for us, are difficult for others.

Whether or not something is "difficult," depends on whether we've done it before or not. If we've done it a zillion times and are comfortable with it, it's "easy." It's all perception; in our minds.

In a book by Ernie Zelinsky called The Joy of Not Working, I found this little truism called

The Easy Rule of Life:

Do what is easy now --> Life ends up difficult later
Do what is difficult now --> Life ends up easy later

Zelinsky calls the Easy Rule of Life a "principle of the universe." I have a hard time disagreeing.

I have noticed that:

Things like exercise and saving money are usually considered "difficult" for many.
[leg and back exercises]
Things like not exercising and appearing wealthy are usually considered "easy" for many.
[curls and bench press, "mirror muscles"]

And I have found that:

Doing what is easy leads to...boredom
Doing what is difficult leads to...self-esteem

Then recall that what is "difficult," once we've actually given it a shot, after we've done it over and over, becomes easy. And so it goes, onto the next challenge.

Anything I've ever done that ultimately was worthwhile initially scared me to death.
- Betty Bender

Weightlifting vs. Powerlifting

2006-08-27T00:26:00.000-06:00

Bodybuilding is not powerlifting.

Powerlifting consists of 3 moves: Bench Press, Squat, Deadlift

Bodybuilding and powerlifting are not Olympic sports. Weightlifting is an Olympic sport.

Sometimes people say "weightlifting" when they are thinking, "lifting weights" or "weight training."

Weightlifting consists of 2 moves:

Snatch
(wiki)
(official rules)

Clean and Jerk
(wiki)

The moves are complex and difficult to perform correctly; an instructor is usually a requirement for learning them.

This article argues that weightlifting is the best workout there is because of the resulting strength gains and the rapid contraction of fast twitch muscle fibers. It includes a workout with exercises that work the muscles following those principles, but which are not as technically difficult as the snatch or clean and jerk.

Caffeine and Energy Drinks

2006-08-25T19:24:00.000-06:00

Caffeine changes the perception of pain; it blunts it.

Caffeine also can help facilitate a pump. If a sample of muscle tissue is removed from a source and caffeine solution is added to it, the muscle fibers contract.

For these reasons, some people take caffeine before a workout, often from coffee.

I tried it. I'm not a fan of drinking lots of coffee, especially in the summer. So after reading yet another article about caffeine and muscles, I took a No-Doz (200 mg), about the amount in 2 cups of coffee; I had such a great workout that I still take caffeine before lifting.

It doesn't create any significant boost in strength. But it takes some of the edge off the 'hurt' so that one can do more work and it does affect an ability to contract muscles more easily. I enjoy the hurt but caffeine makes takes the sharp edges off it, which is valuable.

One of the consequences of this [caffeine + workout] combination is that drinking coffee or taking caffeine leads to a slight pump (muscles get larger) even without any exertion or lifting. My body has learned to associate caffeine with increased blood flow to the muscles.

Caveats:
If you take too much, there's a sort of hair-raising jitteryness that is not beneficialwhile lifting. It's actually distracting and counter-productive to be shaky with weights in hand.

If you lift at night, you may have some trouble getting to sleep.

If you are already a regular, habitual caffeine user, more caffeine at workout time would be required to get the same effect, unless you tone down your use outside the gym.

Caffeine acts as a diuretic and will promote fluid loss through urination so drinking more water is par for the course.

You may learn to depend on it, in the gym and outside the gym. I noticed that on days I didn't workout (days I didn't take any caffeine) I was feeling kind of lethargic.

Talking a handful of caffeine pills would be bad. That sort of thing is crossing a reasonable line. So if you decide to do it, you may have to figure out a way to balance the eventual tolerance with the amount of caffeine that is effective. I don't seem to build up much tolerance for caffeine. I take 2 caffeine pills, occasionally 3 of them, and I've never needed to take more than that. That's the amount I've been taking for about 2 years.

You may find that coffee is better, more beneficial, than taking caffeine pills. I would, but too much, like 6 cups before lifting would make my stomach sour or feel too acidic, which I don't like.

Coffee as a Health Drink? Studies Find Some Benefits. Coffee is not usually thought of as health food, but a number of recent studies suggest that it can be a highly beneficial drink.

Among them is a systematic review of studies published last year in The Journal of the American Medical Association, which concluded that habitual coffee consumption was consistently associated with a lower risk of Type 2 diabetes. Exactly why is not known, but the authors offered several explanations.

Coffee contains antioxidants that help control the cell damage that can contribute to the development of the disease. It is also a source of chlorogenic acid, which has been shown in animal experiments to reduce glucose concentrations.

Caffeine, perhaps coffee’s most famous component, seems to have little to do with it; studies that looked at decaffeinated coffee alone found the same degree of risk reduction. link

Tea 'healthier' drink than water: "Tea not only rehydrates as well as water does, but it can also protect against heart disease and some cancers, UK nutritionists found." "Tea replaces fluids and contains antioxidants so its got two things going for it. "

Energy drinks:

THE cloudy purple drink in my glass had scarier instructions than most prescription drugs.

I was to drink only a quarter-bottle of EndoRush at a time, and only if I was over 18 or under 50. After 30 minutes, I would need to assess my tolerance. I could not have any other caffeine or expose myself to excessive heat after drinking EndoRush. Blood-pressure problems, depression or pregnancy would mean no EndoRush for me at all.

If I could pass the tests, EndoRush, which can be bought at gyms and nutritional-supplement stores, promised to give me endurance, energy, performance and mental focus — claims that its label points out have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration.

The drink draws its powers from a long list of ingredients, which range from stimulants like caffeine and the brain-enhancing drugs called nootropics to more than 4,000 percent (that's not a typo) of the daily requirement for Vitamin B12.

It would take days to research thoroughly the two dozen unusual stimulants and amino acids in EndoRush. Well, now, maybe less. After just four ounces, my heart is beating, my face is flush and I feel the need to do something — anything — quickly.

But would I want to work out feeling like this?

Lift with Music

2006-08-24T12:15:00.000-06:00

If you haven't lifted with music before, consider giving it a try. I find that it makes a world of difference.

Music helps you exercise. People who listen to their favourite music while exercising may push themselves further and feel as if they are exerting themselves less than people who prefer a tuneless workout, according to new research.

Get psyched up! I like Metallica and Van Halen; Pantera on leg day; action movie soundtracks. Try lifting to Armageddon or Rocky IV. It adds a special twist to my workout when I imagine training for the day I get to save all life on the planet from destruction. :) It helps me tune out my surroundings and focus on lifting. I've noticed that when I don't have music, I tend to look around more and sit for longer periods.

As a study, I could go to the gym and observe who is sitting and resting for 5-10 minutes between sets and who is busting their ass and loving it. Then I could note whether they're listening to their own music or if they're listening to "Ghostbusters" and "Margaritaville" playing on the PA speakers in the background. I can tell you what my prediction is but you likely know already.

Keeping the Pace:
The right music can help pace your workout. Keep these beats:

Running: 120 to 160 beats per minute (bpm), or about the speed of "Run Like Hell" by Pink Floyd

Boxing: 122 to 140 bpm, or about the speed of anything from the Rocky soundtrack

Cycling: 130 to 170 bpm, or about the speed of "Panama" by Van Halen

Lifting: 140 to 170 bpm, or about the speed of "Black Dog" by Led Zeppelin (one repetition for every four beats)

Warm-up/Cool down: 90 to 110 bpm, or about the speed of "Black Magic Woman" by Santana

Personally, I don't understand how I used to lift without music. I have a little flash MP3 player that I wear strapped to my arm. They're getting cheaper by the day. The full-size iPod or an MP3 player with a hard drive is not a good idea for use with exercise. Try that link above at Newegg.com instead of Best Bye or Circus City where you would have to pay full MSRP. But I'm sure I don't need to tell you how to shop.

If I get to the gym and my rechargeable battery is dead, I'll leave and go get batteries. I don't lift without music anymore. My workouts seem half-assed when I don't have my own music. Lifting without music is like a movie without a soundtrack. Crickets chirping in the background and stuff. The power of it: it is a big distraction that directs ones attention away from inadvertantly focusing on the "pain."

"Men feel pressure to build perfect bodies"

2006-08-23T23:29:00.000-06:00

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) -- Men are catching up to women in one area. They too are feeling pressure to achieve perfect bodies, and this can lead them down unhealthy paths. link

The findings of a new study "challenge that myth that men aren't affected by the media or other's comments towards their bodies," Dr. Tracy L. Tylka, at Ohio State University, told Reuters Health.

"Men are affected by those pressures in the media ... or the pressures that others put on them to look more muscular," she said.

"For some men, this can lead to unhealthy and potentially dangerous behaviors to try to reach that ideal," Tylka added in a statement from the university.

...

Men who were dissatisfied with their muscularity, for example, were likely to be more preoccupied about becoming more muscular, which led to their use of supplements and possibly steroid use as well, to achieve that muscular image, according to Tylka. Dissatisfaction with their level of body fat predicted a higher preoccupation with counting calories and cutting off certain food groups, she explained.

...

Because the idealized muscular body image is rooted in society, with "men thinking they're expected to look a certain way, it can contribute to very negative things for men," Tylka said.

I don't disagree with Tylka's findings at all, especially since women are attaining greater economic parity with men and can increasingly take their pick of mates. They no longer have to settle for any slob with a job. But...

1. Her study is supposed to "...challenge that myth that men aren't affected by the media or other's comments towards their bodies." What myth? What the hell is she talking about? Oh you mean that myth, which has confounded women who are really slow and unintuitive and who think men are robots. Remember those old ads by Charles Atlas* about the scrawny weakling getting sand kicked in his face at the beach? That's an older example of commercial marketers exploiting an anxiety; an anxiety that was already there. Men don't care about how they look (that's a myth!). Duh, really?

2. She puts "use of supplements" and "counting calories" on the same level of danger as "taking steroids." That was a good laugh. Whey protein and a vitamin, oh the horror! Taking supplements is a negative consequence if one gets ripped-off by unethical business people. Counting calories? What? Study: Even a few extra pounds are risky: "Being overweight does increase health risks. It's not simply a cosmetic or social problem."

3. "the idealized muscular body image is rooted in society." That's because a muscular body is rooted in biology. It manifests itself in society. Secondary sex characteristics like muscles on men and boobs on women are biologically hard-wired into the minds of the opposite sex and further motivated by the sex drive, or libido. Some like small, some like big (muscles or boobs), there's personal taste based on learning involved, but they're still boobs and muscles. That's why images of cleavage and of shirtless guys are everywhere. And that's why the people in movies and TV look like that. Because people want to see it; pay to see it. It's the only explanation for why an inane show like Baywatch could last so long.

Secondary sex characteristics (except body hair) are like signals that say, "hey. worthy mate here. the kids would be healthy and would live long enough to produce grandkids." A male with a desirable but costly trait and who is still alive despite that cost, sends a message, like a sign that says "good genes." It's biology, not sociology.

4. And at the end of the article she says...

"Instead of pressuring men to be more muscular, (we need to) accept men's bodies for what they are and instead focus on internal characteristics," she said. "Stop focusing on appearance, for both men and women."

?!Wow. That's a tall order! Let's watch Shallow Hal and make the moral of that story into a reality. Good luck with that, lady. That's as naive as her comment, "(we need to) accept men's bodies for what they are." What are they, exactly?

If people stopped focusing on appearance, what good would that do? How will that help improve's people's self-image and self-esteem? The last time I checked, people don't read each other's minds. We can't telepathically say to each other, "you might not think you're good enough, but I accept you just fine as you are." That would be idyllic, sure, but it's not gonna happen. Her advice would be good if it were part of a larger statement: "If you're looking for a mate and any mate will do, [stop focusing on appearance, for both men and women].

We live in a culture that tends to settle. A lot. Say no to steroids, absolutely, but there is nothing wrong with striving to be excellent.

People don't get self-esteem from the sweet-sounding compliments and approval of others. That's how insecure people judge their own value.

Self-esteem comes from doing difficult but worthwhile things. BTW, taking steroids is the easy way, for wussies. Who gets self-esteem from accomplishing easy things? That's right. No one.

If you're a man and you care about the way your body looks (it's a myth that you wouldn't) then do something about it. Give it a sincere effort. Arm yourself with knowledge and then do it. The journey is fun and fulfilling and it carries into all other aspects of your life. You'll see.

*So what did they get? Who? The people who saw those Charles Atlas ads and ordered the product that was being sold. I'm so sure he paid out of his pocket for full-page ads to give away things. Anyway, what was Charles Atlas selling that turned the scrawny weakling into a very muscular guy who went back to the beach and in revenge, punched the bully in the face? (How convenient that the bully was still on the beach!). What was it that gave this guy such big muscles and newly learned fighting skills?

Isometric contraction. Build muscles by grabbing and squeezing a doorknob as hard as you can and hold it for a couple of minutes, that sort of thing. Only 15 minutes a day! Amazing, huh? Whether or not he made a truckload of money or did it out of vanity or for publicity, the supplement industry has continued the same tradition of exploiting mens' muscle anxiety, in grand style.

The Shape of the Nation

2006-08-22T12:54:00.000-06:00

"The 2006 Shape of the Nation -- jointly conducted by the American Heart Association and the National Association for Sport and Physical Education, a nonprofit organization dedicated to promoting high quality physical education -- concluded that most states are failing to provide students with adequate physical education requirements.
The percentage of students who attend a daily physical education class has dropped from 42 percent in 1991 to 28 percent in 2003, the report says." link

I think this says a lot about priorities and how prevention is usually put on the back burner while every one is off in search of the quick fix. Obesity is an "epidemic" yet instead of teaching appreciation for physical activity, they push more and more fat laden red meat and greasy food on kids' plates. Thanks U$DA lunch lady.

US consumers convinced they follow 'healthy' diets

What is Myostatin?

2006-08-10T11:15:00.000-06:00

Myostatin is a protein that is naturally produced by the body. It normally acts to inhibit muscle growth (hypertrophy). It is like a glass ceiling for muscle growth.

Animals deficient in myostatin display unchecked muscle growth even without doing any rigorous physical activity. Without myostatin around to put a limit on hypertrophy, animals lacking myostatin protein get big.

Myostatin in humans, functions just like it does in mice and cattle. This understanding led to hopes of manipulating myostatin, as treatment for individuals with muscular dystrophies. This hope was bolstered when a human boy was born with a double mutation for myostatin. He makes no myostatin, and he was born that way. Figuring out a way to disable myostatin protein could be valuable in patients with degenerative muscular disorders, possibly increasing life expectancy or improving quality of life. One strategy was to introduce altered antibodies which stick to and disable the protein. That compound was called MYO-029 and the results were not inspiring.

In January of this year the leading researchers in myostatin announced that they have found a compound (ACVR2B) that disables myostatin, and it is not an antibody. It is an allosteric inhibitor that removes the normal function of myostatin. The rub is that ACVR2B could also unintentionally inhibit other proteins that are similar to myostatin. Nevertheless, it's big progress but they're still working on it.

Knowledge of myostatin function also led to a boom in "myostatin blocker" products from unscrupulous supplementeers for the bodybuilding market. It would seem highly unlikely that top researchers in search of a potential therapy, are lagging behind the supplement industry? What their ads appear to claim is that anyone can waltz right into the vitamin store and pick up a $50+ dollar container of "myostatin blocker" product! Imagine that! A potential cure for devastating illness, and all along it was sitting right under our noses; sitting on the shelves of the local supplement store at the mall. Will wonders never cease? I guess they won't need to have Jerry's Kids telethons anymore. Thanks supplement companies! Tell the patients to plan on getting "freaky" and "ripped" like the ads say! Is it likely that the scientists are running trials on these myostatin products to see if they alleviate muscular disease?

Their marketing tactic is basically "myostatin = "very bad! Bad bad bad myostatin!" What a sham. I can save you time and money. Any search result that involves a trademark (TM) or pending application for a trademark and that claims to have any consequence whatsoever on myostatin....is pure bullsh*t. Take the results of that internet search and add all those companies to a black-list of firms that you won't do business with.

If you read the ad copy for any particular product, it is basically a shabbily written description of what myostatin is and what it does. This information however, has nothing to do with their product. They will never even attempt to explain how their product does anything besides amount to terrible tasting mystery hash going in and expensive poop going out.

There is a magical leap between what they claim and what their concoction actually does (sits in your gut doing nothing).

In fact, creatine, supposedly touted as the supplement with proof of clinical effectiveness, is not a magical muscle builder. It fills muscles with more water and makes them look bigger (temporarily bigger). There is no strong evidence that taking creatine leads to any improvement in real-life muscle growth, hypertrophy.

Do a Google search for "myostatin blocker" and almost all the links come from sources that profit from misinformation and sales of sham products. The technique is called "bait and switch." First they lure you in with a claim that is intensely appealing and powerful (if it were truly possible) but then end up giving you worthless crap enveloped in sly marketing; snakeoil that was hatched up in their dimestore laboratories.

Here is the algorithm for picking out their bullsh*t:

1. Type in "myostatin" into Google search
2. Click on "IMAGES" to convert the search results
3. Any labeled container with any product name resembling "myostatin" is manufactured by dishonest people.
4. Repeat.

Upper Cross Syndrome

2006-08-06T14:59:00.000-06:00

The correct way to do shrugs, which work the trapezius, is to bring the shoulders straight up and straight down.

Gyrating one's shoulders in circles while doing shrugging movements is not correct. Correct is: straight up, straight down.

The ability to bring one's shoulders straight up and straight down is influenced by posture.

Some postural deficiencies are responsible for most plateaus in strength and hypertrophy.

Rounded shoulders, or upper cross syndrome can lead to incorrect form for shrugs, and almost all other upper-body exercises. That article shows how you can tell if you have it. It's common among those who sit at desks for long periods, and people who lift weights. If you love to do chest exercises but neglect your back and rowing-type movements, you may be more likely to have it.

If you find that you have it, the good news is that you can fix it. This article, The Perfect Posture Plan, shows you how. I know it works because I did what they suggest and it fixed my shoulders. It also affected positively, every other upper body exercise I do.

The way to appear confident in your posture is to have correct posture. That is, to stand upright with your shoulders pulled back and down. It is like the posture one has while wearing a cape (think Superman). Upper cross syndrome makes it tough to have correct posture and correct lifting form, especially for bench press, all back movements, all shoulder movements, and triceps movements. It's that important to fix it.

See if you have it then fix it. I did it and I'm so glad I did. :)

Opposing Muscle Groups

2006-08-01T21:08:00.000-06:00

It's a common practice to work out opposing muscle groups during the same workout:

biceps + triceps,
quadriceps + hamstrings,
chest + back,
extensors + flexors (top and bottom) of forearms
hip abductors + hip adductors...

Supersetting these groups is effective: do a set for one muscle then without rest do a set of the other. Training chest + back, or biceps + triceps, like this makes the arms, the entire upper body, feel very pumped and large.

Both of the muscles that oppose each other must be trained paying equal attention to each one--if not on the same day, then on separate days of the week.

The size of one muscle is ultimately limited by the size of the muscle that opposes it. The biceps can only get so big if the triceps aren't trained at all, or with the same attention and intensity. The chest is limited by the size of the back, and so on.

So then what is the opposing muscle group to the calves (gastrocnemius and soleus)?

The calves do have an opposing muscle group--the tibialis anterior, that runs vertically along the tibia, the shin.

Few people specifically train their tibialis anterior.
+
Big calves are a rarity.

After I train my calves, I do tibialis raises while seated with "light" dumbbells on my feet. Sit up straight, with good posture, like there is an imaginary thread pulling your body upward, exiting out the top of your head. Start light, but move up. It may feel awkward at first to balance the weights on your feet. You'll notice that hardly anyone takes the time to do this. It is worth it. I can make this exercise hurt intensely because these muscles burn like no other muscles on my body. But it hurts so good. :)

Here are more exercises for the tibialis anterior (they don't have a seated version with weights, though).