exercise and fitness
gregladen | April 20, 2012There is a study that shows that people who sit more per day die sooner, despite other factors such as overall health. It is reported in The Atlantic and written up here.
From the study:
Prolonged sitting is considered detrimental to health, but evidence regarding the independent relationship of total sitting time with all-cause mortality is limited. This study aimed to determine the independent relationship of sitting time with all-cause mortality.
... We linked prospective questionnaire data from 222 497 individuals 45 years or older ... to mortality data ...
During 621 695 person-years…
gregladen | April 9, 2011... Continued ...
... as in "no pain, no gain."
Special sets are a way of working your muscles that produce more spectacular results. It is a good idea to not do this until you've gotten pretty good at doing the exercises properly and your body is used to this sort of work.
There are three kinds of special sets that I know of, and they can be combined. Giant, super, and breakdown. I often confuse Giant and Super, so this definition may be reversed, but it hardly matters.
In a Giant Set, you do an exercise, wait one minute (or some other time, depending, but usually a minute) then you do it…
gregladen | April 8, 2011... Continued ...
Obsession can be a good thing. And I'm not talking about some dumb-ass perfume.
The Augrabies Ultra. 250 kilometers over five days. My field buddy was doing that every year.
Stuck in the field without a gym for three weeks was going to be tough, but I worked out two ways to stay in shape. First, every time we were in a city with a gym, Lynne got me into the gym, and my field crew usually came along as well. Lynne knew all the gyms and all the people who worked in all the gyms, and generally had the ability to make things happen. This mainly occurred in the city of…
gregladen | April 8, 2011... Continued ...
When it comes down to it, it is all a matter of just how hard you are willing to work. Then, you start with that and work harder.
This guy had it easy.
I got my six free sessions, and then I paid for a lot more. In the end, I've paid less for cars I've driven for years, but it was worth it. Having never been part of the "workout" culture, having never gone to a gym before, I found Lenora's training to be invaluable.
We were efficient. I would arrive at the gym way before hand and do all my warm-ups. I'd do my post-workout stretches after the session, as well as selected…
gregladen | April 7, 2011... Continued ...
When working with a personal trainer, the first thing you have to do is to calibrate. Then, if the trainer does not crank it up to a higher level, she's probably not worth her fee.
Lenora is the best physical trainer that ever existed, bar none.
By this time it had become clear that I was joining this gym with a life membership. I'd lay out a few hundred bucks and be a member for about $50 a year forever after. That may seem like a lot and these sorts of things are not always good deals. But part of my motivation for choosing the super-membership was to put the money down…
gregladen | April 7, 2011... Continued ...
Back from South Africa and with some time on my hands, I was hell bent on keeping the promise I had made to myself to get back into shape. For most people I know, this would mean eating better and going to the gym more often. But for me, it meant eating better and going to a gym for the first time in my life.
Photo by flickr user JerryOneLife
I went to an elementary school with no athletic program. In Junior high, there was a minimal program but the other students I hung out with and I had figured out how to skip gym. Always. I did not attend high school. I did not attend…
gregladen | April 7, 2011... Continued ...
I started out walking a good six feet behind her, to avoid the sand she was kicking up and the occasional thorn-lined branch that might swing back in the wake of anyone walking through the African Bush. We were traversing open country in the Kalahari, in an area sealed off from people owing to the presence of unfriendly lions and other dangers. We were doing this in part because we both felt like we had been locked up for days and needed some freedom; We needed freedom from confinement, freedom from the people we were with, freedom from patronizing park employees, freedom…
gregladen | August 27, 2010A recent paper provides the groundwork to establish a way for exercise to diminish appetite. Or, more likely, for sedentary behavior to increase appetite.
It is well known that exercise burns calories. Personally, I think that's overrated: Strength building raises your metabolic demand, and THAT burns calories. But that is not the main topic at hand. New research indicates that exercise also increases the sensitivity of neurons that are related to the control of the feeling of satiation. Therefore, you feel full rather than hungry sooner and/or more often.
In rodents. So far.
The…
gregladen | January 14, 2010All good things come to an end. But then if you work hard enough, you can get them back.
.... continued
Like I said earlier, I returned from South Africa in similar or better shape than I left in. And I kept that level of exercise up for a long time, and kept in shape for a long time. Over the years, I had a couple of friends I'd go to the gym with on a regular basis. Amanda and I formerly did that quite regularly, but we have slacked off a bit.
But eventually, life got the better of me, and I started to slack off and go to the gym less and less often. Then, I got a job that actually…
gregladen | January 14, 2010Funny Thing Two and Funny Thing Three.
...... continued
Second funny thing: BFF Stephanie and I were working in the free weight area of the Kimberly gym one evening. There were a lot of people there. Then these two meaty looking guys came in and tossed a big rubber thingie on a bench. One of the guys then proceeded to unpack the rubber thingie, and it was some kind of shirt or jacket, much like (yet different from) a wet suit. So Guy One starts to put the jacket thing on, and Guy Two is helping him, but it seems to be several sizes too small.
These two guys struggled and struggled and…
gregladen | January 13, 2010Obsession can be a good thing. And I'm not talking about some dumb-ass fragrance.
... continued ...
Stuck in the field without a gym for three weeks was going to be tough, but I worked out two ways to stay in shape. First, every time we were in a city with a gym, Lynne got me into the gym, and my field crew usually came along as well. Lynne knew all the gyms and all the people who worked in all the gyms, and generally had the ability to make things happen. This mainly occurred in the city of Kimberly ... which actually has a very nice gym ... but I also worked out in Pretoria and…
gregladen | January 12, 2010When it comes down to it, it is all a matter of just how hard you are willing to work. Then, you start with that and work harder.
... continued ...
I got my six free sessions, and then I paid for a lot more. In the end, I've paid less for cars I've driven for years, but it was worth it. Having never been part of the "workout" culture, having never gone to a gym before, I found Lenora's training to be invaluable.
We were efficient. I would arrive at the gym way before hand and do all my warm-ups. I'd do my post-workout stretches after the session, as well as selected exercises that…
gregladen | January 11, 2010When working with a personal trainer, the first thing you have to do is to calibrate. Then, if the trainer does not crank it up to a higher level, she's probably not worth her fee.
Continued ..
By this time it had become clear that I was joining this gym with a life membership. I'd lay out a few hundred bucks and be a member for about $50 a year forever after. That may seem like a lot and these sorts of things are not always good deals. But part of my motivation for choosing the super-membership was to put the money down up front so I would be motivated to stick with the program for a…
gregladen | January 10, 2010
Continued from here
Back from South Africa and with some time on my hands, I was hell bent on keeping the promise I had made to myself to get back into shape. For most people I know, this would mean eating better and going to the gym more often. But for me, it meant eating better and going to a gym for the first time in my life.
I went to an elementary school with no athletic program. In Junior high, there was a minimal program but the other students I hung out with and I had figured out how to skip gym. Always. I did not attend high school. I did not attend college. I never joined a…
gregladen | January 10, 2010Did you ever watch cattle? I mean, really watch them, for a few hours? Mostly they just sit or stand around munching on grass, chewing their cud, or snoozing. But every once in a while a handful of them will stand up and point in one direction. And they may take a few steps in that direction. Then a few more will join them. And once a critical mass has been reached, the whole herd will just go. Domestic cattle, wild African cape buffalo, whatever. This is what they do.
And as the cattle do, so do Scienceblogs.com bloggers. And the current stampede about to form up is about fitness. I'm…