Unconventional advice fitness pros won’t tell you
Bryan Krahn first tells this story in an article titled, “Survivorship Bias in Fitness,”
When planes began returning to base riddled with bullet holes during WWII, the US Army Air Forces (USAAF) knew it had a problem.
How could they shore up the planes to better protect the crew?
The brightest minds at the USAAF immediately began looking for ways to reinforce the damaged areas.
They studied the areas riddled with bullet holes, particularly the wings and tail.
That is until Abraham Wald, a statistician and mathematician, made a key observation — they were only looking at the damage on…
What you should know when the scale makes you say WTF
It’s that time of year when millions of us renew our focus on health and lifestyle changes we want to make for the coming year. Whether you choose to go on a diet, start exercising, exercise more, or some combination of new habits, the start of a new year is a great time to approach your goals with enthusiasm and vigor.
As with any goal, you’ll need to measure your progress. For those interested in losing weight, the bathroom scale often becomes a torture device — one that can make or break your day in a matter of seconds.
As…
Hint: intermittent fasting helps, and you don’t need to give up carbs
You may have heard the term metabolic flexibility recently. The concept isn’t new, but the idea has gained more traction on popular websites, as being metabolically flexible is becoming a key marker of health.
Metabolic flexibility’s formal definition is the ability of an organism to respond or adapt according to changes in metabolic or energy demand, as well as the prevailing conditions or activity. That’s a lot of scientific speak to say metabolic flexibility is how well your body can switch from using carbohydrates to fats for energy depending on what you’re asking from it at the moment (i.e., …
#6 something called optic flow
By this point in our evolutionary history, we all know walking is good for us. Yet, many of us still leave this fundamental component of health up to whatever we manage to squeak in while walking around the house, to and from work (if that’s even happening), or while running errands.
We may think we counteract the amount of time we spend sitting with a 30–60-minute gym session, but our bodies weren’t designed to sit all day and then push as hard as possible for a brief amount of time.
According to a study in Diabetes,
The average non-exercising person…
No lab equipment required
If you’ve participated in aerobic training, you’re likely familiar with the term VO2 max. For years, only professionals went through the process of knowing their VO2 max to improve athletic performance. However, no matter how fit, any individual can benefit from understanding what VO2 max means and how improving your score can help you train longer, harder and faster.
For starters,
VO2 max is the maximum amount of oxygen the body can utilize during exercise. It’s a combination of how much oxygen-rich blood your heart can pump and the heart’s efficiency in extracting and utilizing oxygen. ~ Runnersconnect.net
You’re putting in the time; here’s why it doesn’t show
Let’s face it. Exercise, no matter how much we enjoy it afterward, usually sucks in the moment. Your muscles burn, your face turns red, sweat pours from your glands, and you may fight an overwhelming urge to quit. We know exercise is good for us, but mostly we keep going because we hope to reap some reward, like weight loss, a stronger heart, or rock-hard muscles.
The number one complaint I hear from clients is that they spend an awful lot of time exercising but don’t look like they work out. Perhaps you know the feeling. …
A new study says eating out can shorten your lifespan, but look closely before you panic
Remember eating indoors like the picture above? Remember the feeling of sitting close together talking to your friends with the din of happy diners chatting all around you? We’re at a moment in history where we’re so close to getting back to those times. I know most of us are itching for the normalcy of a restaurant meal.
Yet, a new study published in the Journal of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics provides a stark warning against eating out. The research “included 35,084 adults aged 20 years or older from the National Health and Nutritional Examination Survey 1999–2014, who…
If you’re tracking what you eat, this can be frustrating
In most cases, differences between food labels and calories in your food tracking app are minor. Yet, it’s a question I get a lot, especially from people who value a high degree of accuracy. If you’re prepping for a competition or getting down to the last pound or two you want to lose, you may want to make sure your numbers are buttoned up.
The following issues are more nit-picky than I usually discuss with clients. The more significant mistakes come from eyeballing portion sizes or estimating calories from foods eaten out. Plus, foods are only required to come within…
I get the odds, but it’s still a mind f*&ck
I walked into a pharmacy 30 miles from my house seven days ago, excited to finally get a COVID vaccine. Last in my state to qualify, I’d spent a lot of time waiting for this day. Before the shot, the pharmacist asked if I had any questions. “What shot am I getting,” I asked?
We both laughed. “Oh yeah. It’s the J&J vaccine,” he said. In my haste to schedule an appointment, I hadn’t looked at which one I was getting. I didn’t care. I was pleasantly surprised, though. I didn’t want to come back in three to four weeks.
…
Self-love is also about self-acceptance
I read an article the other day where the author started ranting about a plus-sized influencer who feels better about her body when she wears a bikini around the house. The act of strutting around in her swimsuit gives her a boost of confidence (hell yeah!). The author argued there are plenty of things this influencer could be doing to “feel better” about herself, like lifting weights or doing yoga, but she’s not.
My problem with the article is it implies loving your body means working to change it. Are you not allowed to wear a skimpy piece of clothing…
