This Is Not a Story About Last Place
![[image]](http://si.wsj.net/public/resources/images/PJ-BN118_SP_GAY_G_20130313192154.jpg)
Stefano SirottiTaylor Phinney’s solo ride during the Tirreno-Adriatico on Monday.
This is a story about a guy who finished last. Which is technically true. You can look up the results of the race, and you’ll see his name, right there, lonely at the bottom. Taylor Phinney. USA. Finishing time of six hours, twenty-two minutes, fifty-four seconds. One hundred-and-ninth place. Last.
But this story is better than that. (more…)
Don’t throw those running shoes away too quickly
Knowing when to replace running shoes is more art than science. Mileage alone is not a good measure.
By GINA KOLATA
New York Times News Service (more…)
Food, mood and you
You are what you eat — and then some. The foods that you eat can significantly affect your mood, behavior and quality of life.
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By Dan Labriola
On Health
The foods you eat can make you angry, sad, tired, grouchy, even hostile. While Americans increasingly turn to antidepressant, anti-anxiety and other psychoactive drugs for mood issues,the fact is no one was born with a Prozac deficiency. There are many possible causes for these symptoms, but the relationship between food and mood is often ignored and may not be obvious since the offending food may not affect you hours or days after ingesting. So how do you know if foods are affecting your mood or behavior? Here are some clues. (more…)
Relax! You’ll be more productive
More and more of us find ourselves unable to juggle overwhelming demands and maintain a seemingly unsustainable pace. Paradoxically, the best way to get more done may be to spend more time doing less.
The New York Times
5 tips to improve treadmill workouts
Follow these five tips for improving your treadmill workout to see better results, says fitness columnist Kelly Turner.
By Kelly Turner
On Fitness
As the cold and wet of winter set in, many prefer the shelter of a gym to the great outdoors. With that, many people head to the treadmill for their cardio workouts.
But many people make critical mistakes while using the treadmill. Simply racking up minutes isn’t going to get you results. Don’t waste your time and effort. Make every one of those minutes count. There are several variables you can play with to get the most out of your treadmill workout. Try one or try them all, in any combination, to burn more calories and see better results in less time. (more…)
4 Oatmeal Nutrition Facts You Need to Know
By Matthew Kayser
In your continuous effort to eat healthy and provide a good diet for your family, you have probably considered making oatmeal an essential part of your daily diet. You should now commit to the food that is often considered one of the healthiest choices available.
The oatmeal nutrition facts reveal even more benefits than previously thought.
The facts are these: if you are looking for a delicious way to eat healthy, and you want to entice your children into eating well by offering them something that is quick and tasty, you need to consider oatmeal. (more…)
Skier’s Diet: Surprising Muscle Building Foods
Super foods that will make you super fit this ski season. Garlic anyone?
By Kellee Katagi
posted: 09/05/2012
As you coax your muscles back into ski shape, fueling them well can add heft to your training. Your instinct is likely to reach for a steak (and rightly so: A 2009 study in the Journal of the American Dietetic Association found that eating four ounces of steak after a workout built muscle 50 percent better than a placebo), but these other strength-building foods may surprise you.
The Hardest Workout You’re Not Doing
by Brian Dalek February 10, 2012, 10:00 am EST
Thomas Dold has mastered the stairwell of the Empire State Building. See how you can get on his tail.
On Wednesday night, 666 people (seriously) put themselves through their own form of hell by taking the long way to the top of one the tallest buildings in the world when they scaled the Empire State Building from its stairwell. That’s 1,576 steps and 86 flights of hamstring- and gluteal-writhing agony all the way to the building’s glowing observation deck. (more…)
Kettlebells vs. Free Weights: The Smackdown
by Markham Heid February 29, 2012, 09:00 am EST
Kettlebell or weights? It depends on your goals. (more…)
Losing weight — and not finding it again
Tips for losing weight, and keeping it off, from columnist Carrie Dennett.
Special to The Seattle Times
DEAN RUTZ / THE SEATTLE TIMES
For many of us, losing weight isn’t too hard. People do it all the time … sometimes several times. But preventing those pounds from returning? That’s where the real challenge kicks in. (more…)
Exercises That Make Trainers Cringe
Dentists hate it when you don’t floss. Bartenders wince when you stumble out the door. Lawyers shake their heads when you represent yourself. After all, they know how bad the outcomes can be.
So what makes a fitness pro grimace? For starters:
1. When you “butcher” a great exercise by using poor form
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2. When you use an exercise that puts you at unnecessary risk for injury.
We polled several top Men’s Health advisers and asked them for specifics. The result: The top 5 exercises that make trainers cringe.
EXERCISE 1. THE CLASSIC UPRIGHT ROW
Yes, this “upper trap” exercise is a highly popular move used by everyone from serious bodybuilders to novice lifters. But it can be murder on your shoulders. “It’s my pick for the absolute worst exercise,” says Mike Robertson, C.S.C.S., co-owner of Indianapolis Sports and Fitness. “It puts your shoulders in a horrible position.” (more…)
10 Shape-Up Shortcuts
By The Editors of WOMEN’S HEALTH | Healthy Living – Wed, Aug 8, 2012 7:02 AM EDT
These genius tricks will help you drop pounds and sculpt muscle in record timeIt flies. It’s tight. You rarely feel like it’s on your side. Of course, we’re talking about time. You can blame it–or more accurately, the lack of it–for standing in the way of many things, but scoring the body of your dreams is no longer one of them. The latest research shows that sculpting lean legs, a tight tush, and flat abs doesn’t require extra hours at the gym. (more…)
How Money Can Buy Happiness
By Linda Stern | Reuters – Sat, Aug 18, 2012 6:22 PM EDT
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke has added his name to the long list of people who believe we should measure prosperity in terms of happiness and life satisfaction, instead of just dollars and data.
In a recent speech before a group of international researchers, Bernanke talked about the difference between happiness — a subjective and transitory feeling — and well-being, which is a longer-term measure. He said that keys to finding long-term life satisfaction include “a strong sense of support from belonging to a family or core group and a broader community, a sense of control over one’s life, a feeling of confidence or optimism about the future, and an ability to adapt to changing circumstances.” (more…)
The Best Fitness Advice from Top Olympians
When it comes to fitness, who better to seek insight from than world-class athletes and the people who train them? The MensHealth.com team recently asked a dozen U.S. Olympic athletes for the best advice they’ve ever gotten. Here’s what five of them had to say. Apply these tips to your workout today, and you’ll start seeing results tomorrow.
Eric Shanteau, Team USA Swimming “Don’t get hurt training.”—His weight coach, Doc Kreis
Sure, you have to push yourself hard to reach Olympic status, but don’t push too hard. “That’s when you’ll do something stupid and hurt yourself,” says Shanteau, who beat the competition and testicular cancer on his way to the Games. Your move: Follow your training plan unless your body is telling you not to, says Kristen Dieffenbach, Ph.D., a certified sports psychology advisor to the U.S. Olympic Committee. “The smart athlete knows what fatigue level to expect, and trains and adjusts accordingly.” Signs of exhaustion? Small mistakes, posture or form faults, moodiness, or an increased/decreased heart rate that you can’t explain. (more…)
25 Most Deceiving Exercises (They Tone More than You Think!)
Pistol Squats
Walking Your Way to Health
Walking has more health benefits than most people realize.
McClatchy-Tribune
SHANE KEYSER / MCT
Margie Warden, left, and Gladys Johnson walk along a trail at Kansas City, Kan., Community College. Warden and a group of friends have been walking six miles a day for 41 years.
Can you really walk your way to better health? Research continues to show both the physiological and psychological benefits of the exercise, yet many individuals continue to underrate walking as a health booster.
“The studies are overwhelming; the data is there to show that walking provides all of these health benefits, including reducing the risk of heart and cardiovascular disease and certain types of cancer, as well as reducing blood pressure and enhancing mood,” said Dr. Edward Laskowski, co-director of and specialist in physical medicine and rehabilitation at the Mayo Clinic Sports Medicine Center in Rochester, Minn. (more…)
Flexibility a key component of staying fit
Don’t forget to improve your flexibility as you work on fitness.
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By Kelly Turner
Special to the Seattle Times
Cardio is great for the heart, strength training is great for the muscles, and both are amazing for burning calories, but there is one more part to the fitness equation many people overlook: flexibility.
Improving flexibility, or the range of motion of a joint, is important for proper muscle balance, and alignment and to prevent injury. (more…)
Exercise will change your life, and here’s why.
Exercise can reduce your risk of getting, or dying from, certain cancers. It can delay or avert Type II diabetes and it can help maintain your cognitive function into old age.
ONE AFTERNOON not long ago, a friend and I were talking at her dining-room table, and I’ll admit it, we were feeling a bit self-righteous.
We’d gone bowling with her parents, and we both noticed her mom could barely roll the lightest ball down the alley. She struggled with a lot of other tasks, too. We didn’t think of her as an elderly person. But there she was, looking feeble.
“Well,” my friend said, shaking her head, “she doesn’t really exercise.” I nodded knowingly.
The way my friend and I see it, there are two kinds of people: exercisers and everyone else. We — the exercisers — prefer to sweat, not sit. They — we’ll call them “the relaxers” — prefer to read, not run. They think we’re nuts. We think they’re slowly letting themselves wither.
We’ll call this The Great Divide, and my friend and I patted ourselves on the back for being on the right side of it. Then we got up to leave.
“Ouch,” I winced, grabbing at my hamstrings.
“I’m sooooo sore!” she groaned.
And as we hobbled away, we felt decidedly less smug.
ARE YOU laughing at us? Nodding sympathetically? Either way, we’ll hazard a guess: Whichever side of The Great Divide you’re on, you can’t imagine living the other way.
“People internalize an image of themselves as an exerciser or not,” says David B. Coppel, a sports psychologist at the University of Washington.
So before we go any further, I’ll confess. I used to think people like me — who exercise four, five, six times a week — were crazy. Three years ago, in the pages of this very magazine, I described my physical condition as being “what you might expect for someone who types for a living.”
Tips For Lowering Cholesterol Naturally
By Jordan Richardson
Maybe your life-long love affair with bacon is finally taking its toll and your doctor has told you you’ve got to lower your cholesterol. You’ve heard horror stories of folks eating flavorless food and rising at dawn to jog. But never fear! Here are some less painful remedies …
There are many tools for lowering cholesterol naturally you may want to consider if you have high cholesterol. Many people go on crash diets or change all sorts of things about their lives, taking drastic measures to lower their cholesterol.
You do not need to do any of these things to lower your cholesterol, however. Using natural products, changing your lifestyle gradually and introducing healthier foods are some of the best ways of lowering cholesterol naturally.
Cholesterol is a type of fat made by your liver. Some of that fat comes from the food you eat, while some of it is already in your body.
All of the foods that come from animals have some form of cholesterol in them, whereas plant foods do not have cholesterol.
Foods that are high in saturated fats can raise your cholesterol level considerably, so having a balanced diet is really the best way to approach the cholesterol situation.
Wanna lose 10? Just HIIT it!
Our Drop 10 cardio plan will turn you into a calorie-torching machine. Find your weekly fat-melting schedule below. You can do the routines with any form of cardio you enjoy. Some days, you’ll HIIT it—as in, high intensity interval training; other days, you’ll dial it down. Begin each session with a five-minute warm-up, and end with a cooldown. Fat, you’re on burn notice.
Why it works HIIT, which alternates all-out cardio bursts with active recovery, releases high levels of hormones that target pudge, especially body fat. Proof: Women who did 20 minutes of HIIT three times per week (8-second sprints, followed by 12 seconds of recovery) lost 5.5 pounds over 15 weeks; those who sweated for twice as long at a steady pace put on 1 pound, a study in the International Journal of Obesity finds. What’s more, the HIITers lost 9.5 percent of their tummy fat, whereas the cruisers gained 10.5 percent. Take that, jelly roll!
What to do Below are five weeks’ worth of effective workouts, all mapped out for you by your Drop 10 trainers, Katrina Hodgson and Karena Dawn, the California girls dubbed “the new faces of fitness” by Jane Fonda. You choose which days to HIIT it hard; for every two intense workouts, you’re rewarded with a take-it-easy day—not to mention a hotter-by-the-day bod. (more…)
Top 10: Power Meals Every Man Should Be Able To Make
Break out of your usual dietary routine with some orange-marinated pork tenderloin.
By Shannon Clark,
If you want to maintain an active lifestyle and perform your best, it’s vital that you feed your body the quality nutrients it requires. Preparing your own classic standby meals is a great way to not only increase your enjoyment from eating but also treat your body right.
In a world where far too many men are dining out or relying on convenience or fast food for sustenance, it’s time to revamp your cooking skills and create your own dishes.
Here are 10 great power meals that every man should be able to make.
Szechwan Shrimp (more…)
Top 10: Fitness Goals
50 pushups or a 5-second, 40-yard dash? Why not try both?
By Shannon Clark,
In order to keep yourself motivated to stick with your active lifestyle, setting regular goals is important. By taking a look at what you’re working toward every so often, and making sure that those goals are still applicable to your current situation, you can ensure that you stay on track and get the results that you’re looking for.
If you don’t have a goal that you’re currently working towards, we have 10 ideas for you to consider.
Run Your First Full Or Half-Marathon (more…)
Top 10: Habits Of Elite Athletes
Get into these routines, and you’ll reap some serious benefits.
By Kevin Neeld, Fitness Expert
It’s been said that all it takes to be successful is to find someone else who has achieved what you want, and do what they do. Aristotle once said, “We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit.” In this vein, there is incredible insight to be gained from the habits of elite athletes. While not every man has the tools to compete at a professional level, mirroring the habits of the great athletes will surely help you get in better shape and improve your athletic performance. These are the Top 10: Athlete Habits.
