Mixed Fitness

Here’s a recap of the best health and fitness articles I’ve read over the past week.

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Getting leaner with Brown Fat, Thermogenisis and Chilli Sauce?

Hot sauce may help you burn more fat, although it’s effect varies depending on the person. It’s so delicious though so why not use it anyway? Mmmm, my favorite is Tapatio!

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Is Sunscreen Healthy?

I’m not as paranoid about things like as Ben Greenfield is, but maybe I should be. My biggest problem is that I never use sunscreen, even when I really need it. I just forget to use it. I might make some of the homemade sunscreen mentioned here if I can find all of the ingredients.

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Weighty Matters: The BMJ’s Amazing Shock and Awe Assault on Sport Drink Science

There are a lot of myths about sports drinks busted here. I’m not a fan of sports drinks myself, but I admit that I do drink a gatorade occasionally because it just feels refreshing sometimes. When I say occasionally, I mean maybe 2 or 3 times a year, so I don’t worry about it all that much. Anyway, read this article and the studies mentioned so that you can decide for yourself how you feel about using sports drinks.

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Science of the Squat – Depth & Load – and How They Impact Your Squatting Muscles

The gist of this one is, either lift heavy for speed and power or squat super-deep to develop quads like a powerlifter.

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Does Everyone Need to Squat?

Need? No. Should? Yes. The key is finding the proper squat variation, form, depth and weight that works best for you. If you feel pain, you’re probably not using the best option for your body.

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Caffeine: A User’s Guide to Getting Optimally Wired – Developing Intelligence

“At doses of 600mg, caffeine’s effects on cognitive performance are often comparable to those of modafinil, a best-of-class nootropic.” Wow! This is an excellent article. Interestingly, this article talks only of caffeine and not coffee, which means if you use a supplement you’ll be missing out on the antioxidants and anti-inflammatories that high-quality (not Starbucks or grocery store bought) coffee provides.

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The 7 Minute Ab Workout From Hell

This looks killer, but it just seems like too many exercises. I guess all of those exercises would keep things interesting though. Remember, no matter how many ab exercises you do, if you’re body fat percentage isn’t low enough, you’ll never so those abs.

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The Fear Of “Bulkiness” and CrossFit

This article doesn’t just apply to crossfit, but to weightlifting in general. If you’re a female who is afraid of bulking up because of lifting weights, and all you’re doing is cardio, you’re really short-changing yourself. Include some weight training in your routine and you can really do some good to your body. If you think you’re genetically predisposed to bulkiness, you’re not. Read this article to learn why.

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EFS Classic: How to Cut Maximum Weight for Competitions with a 24-Hour Weigh-In

Holy crap this sounds miserable. Could you imagine trying to drop 30 lbs. of weight within a 24 hour period? I guess it all a part of competing, if that’s what you want to do.

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How To Do A Swim-Run Workout

None of the suggestions here really work for me since I don’t live near a lake or river and I don’t have a gym membership, but the tips are really handy for the next time I go to the Boulder Reservoir to do a little swimming. I’ll make sure to turn my next trip there into a swim-run workout.

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Why Medicine Might Be Wrong About Salt, Fat & BMI

If you’re looking for some scientific reading that may dispel commonly-held beliefs of the medical community, you’ve found exactly that. This is a long one, but it’s really interesting.

Here’s a recap of the best health and fitness articles I’ve read over the past week.

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How to Feel Like You’re Running on Rocket Fuel

I already exercise and eat a healthy breakfast to start my day off right, but I also hydrate right out of bed. I drink 32oz of water with the juice of a half lemon as soon as I wake up. It really helps. There are two other tips in this article that I’d really like to include in my daily routine – meditation, which I’ve been working on, and replacing my alarm clock with a wakeup light. I’ve never heard of a wakeup light before but it seems like such an awesome idea. I’ve got one in my Amazon cart right now.

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A Pretty Life in the Suburbs: Kitchen Kapers: DIY Fruit & Veggie Wash

I hate washing my fruits and vegetables because it takes soooo long. It looks like that will be a problem no more! Thank you vinegar 😉

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Five-second rule has plenty of bugs, says expert

Do you live by the 5-second rule? I don’t because I’m a bit of a germaphobe, but I see people quickly picking up dropped food from the floor all the time. According to this article, it doesn’t seem like there’s much to worry about, since the amount of germs picked up isn’t typically enough to cause infection, but if you have a sensitive system, you probably shouldn’t eat off the floor.

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Where do vegetarians get protein?

I hate when people ask me this question. I don’t get it all that often, but maybe once every couple of months. What I think is really funny is that this question always comes from people who know little to nothing about nutrition or health, and sadly, sometimes even physicians. I’ve known all about my protein requirements even before becoming a vegan. I know how easy it is to get the protein I need and I have no worries of being deficient.

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Fitness Mythbuster: Squatting with Knees in Front of Toes

I’ve heard bad advice from personal trainers in the gym before too. This one goes on to explain a little more about why restricting knee movement when squatting may or may not be a good thing for your body.

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Good News for Alcohol Consuming Bodybuilders

You learn something new everyday! Right in the first paragraph of this article I learned that bone is a living organism. I feel a little silly not knowing that, now that I know. Anyway, the good news here is that if you drink in moderation, it could be good news for your bones, but it’s definitely not a reason to start drinking if you don’t drink and alcohol still has many negative effects on building muscle.

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You Can’t Get Jacked if You’re All Jacked Up: How to Warm Up Your Clients (or Yourself) in 15 Minutes or Less

Wow, this is a great article! There’s a video showing all of the exercises you need to do to warm up your entire body and explanations beneath the video which discuss each movement in-depth. A must-read (and watch)!

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Here’s a recap of the best health and fitness articles I’ve read over the past week.

Science-Based Medicine: 5-hour Energy

I’m always cautious about taking energy drinks. I’ve had maybe 10-15 energy drinks in my entire life because I’ve never felt comfortable drinking them. It looks like there’s really nothing to worry about in 5-Hour Energy drinks, but their claims seem unfounded and the mix of ingredients hasn’t been properly tested for safety. I think I’ll probably continue to avoid it.

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Top 4 Spotting Tips for the Squat

We’re not always under the bar, right? If you’re spotting someone doing squats, you should know what you’re doing.

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Mobility WOD

Are you familiar with Crossfit WOD’s? If not, WOD stands for Workout of the Day. Mobility WOD is the same concept, except these 10-15 min. workouts focus on fixing tissue damage and bad joint mobility. Be careful doing these exercises, because you can seriously injure yourself if you push further than you should.

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Kettlebell Form Check – Kettlebell Swing Breath Right Hip Snap

If you want to learn pretty much all there is to know about proper form when doing the kettlebell swing, watch this video. Troy, the owner of this blog, showed his kettlebell swing to two experts who then diagnosed issues with his form and helped him correct it. Very helpful stuff.

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Rotating Your Lifts for New Levels of Strength

If you find yourself stalling on your lifts, it might be time to consider rotating new lifts into your routine. Here are a whole heap of variations you can do to get your training back on track.

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Homemade Dragging Sled

Once winter comes back around, I’m gonna see if any of my local stores sell a metal sled like this one. I haven’t seen one since I was just a little kid. I only see the plastic ones these days. Cool idea though!

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Upgrade Your Brain

Who couldn’t use a brain upgrade? There are lots of awesome tips here on how you can you increase cognitive function, both short-term and permanently. Check out the short mention of MSG too. I never knew that MSG could have a negative effect on your brain.

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Why Do They Do Studies Like This?

This article goes into the flaws that published studies can have. When reviewing studies, you should always look at the minor things that could make a study less credible. I would also add that you should consider what other factors the researchers did not take into consideration.

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DURIAN healthy Custard Dessert pudding recipe (raw vegan) – YouTube

I’ve read a lot about the durian fruit and I’ve watched many videos of people eating them for the first time. Most videos do not end well. I’ve heard people say that the durian smells like old gym socks and tastes like mushy old onions. Andrew Zimmern of “Bizarre Foods” doesn’t even like it and he likes everything! I think I’m going to finally try it anyway though. I want to try to talk a few of my friends into trying it with me. 😉

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Troubleshooting the Unrack on the Bench Press

I don’t typically do much of a warmup before benching, but when I start to see my progress slow down, I really should do exercises such as the one mentioned in this post.

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Are Low-Carb Diets Killing Sweden? (Also: New Interviews and Raw Vegan Immortality)

This is an enormous and interesting article. I also really like the section at the end about vegan mortality. There are specific examples of vegans, even raw vegans, who have died due to various causes such as heart attack and cancer. Many vegan evangelists, especially raw foodists, claim that their diet is the cure for cancer and other diseases, but it just isn’t true.

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Hardgainer Workout: Ready, Set, Grow!

This is my kind of workout! I love compound lifts and I wish everyone else did too. This routine doesn’t differ all that much from my own routine, but there are some tweaks, especially in the crazy amount of sets and reps. I would definitely like to switch to this one if I get tired of the one I’m doing now.

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Water Ball Video Tutorial

This sounds like a really fun idea. I feel like I would be constantly worried about it breaking though. I would only feel comfortable using this outdoors, at least until I’ve used one enough to trust it.

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How Many Hours You Should Limit Your Sitting To, To Avoid an Early Death

Three!! I sit way more hours than that because I’m at a computer all day at work and then again at home. I really should look into a standing desk already.

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The Minimalist Guide to Mobility: Moving Like a Ninja in 5 Minutes or Less

I really like this one. I’m gonna plan this into my routine for a while to see how I like it.

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Fluoride & Cancer Quackery

I hear about the dangers of fluoride all the time, but I’ve never actually done the research. It’s on my list of things to do. This article is a good primer before digging in to negative claims.

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What Is A Superfood

Rich Roll seems to be hitting the interview circuit because he just did a similar interview with Tim Ferris, which you may remember me mentioning in my fitness articles of the week #61 update. This one’s an audio interview and there’s some different info too. Rich Roll is awesome.

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The Great “Fat is Bad” Myth Debunked

I really dislike the idea behind low fat diets. Eating healthy fats is good for the body and it’s good for the brain. Lots of studies are proving this.

Here’s a recap of the best health and fitness articles I’ve read over the past week.

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How I got caught Red-Handed doing Squats in the Bathroom

This one made me laugh because I’ve done squats in the bathroom before too (that’s me in the photo to the left, wearing the Marvin the Martian t-shirt ;)) and I always worried what someone would think if they walked in and heard the noise. I did it in the stall, so it wouldn’t have been immediately clear what I was actually doing. Nobody has walked in on me yet though

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Hardgainer Nutrition: How To Eat For Maximum Muscle Growth

If you want a real look at how a bodybuilder has to eat to get big and stay big, read through this. More than $500 a week in groceries!? That’s why I’m not a bodybuilder, not that I wouldn’t want to be though.

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Never Buy A Rotten Avocado Again

This is a neat trick! This article explains how to find a good avocado by looking at it’s skin, but that’s not the end of the search. Once you have a good candidate, flick off the stem and look at the color to determine if it really is a good one.

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Will Blue Light Affect Your Sleep?

I actually started removing blue light from nighttime routine a couple of years ago and I’ve seen great results. I try to stay away from the television and my phone at least an hour before bed and I get to sleep with no problems at all. And if I do end up checking my phone right before bed, I always notice that’s it’s much harder to get to sleep. I pay attention to this every night, so I’m very well aware of how blue light effects me.

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Is Maple Syrup Healthy?

I don’t eat paleo, so I could care less if anything listed here is “primal,” but the research done to figure out how healthy these items are, and what effect they have on the body is what I’m interested in. The sections on sunflower seed butter and maple syrup are interesting.

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Can Athletes Perform Well on a Vegan Diet?

Basically, yes, athletes can perform well on a vegan diet, as long as they are eating a healthy diet. That’s not to say that a vegan diet is likely to result in better performance though.

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Powerlifting Basics: How to Bench

So much good information on performing the bench press here, from someone who knows how to powerlift. They cover the lockout, the setup, back strength, and using leg drive.

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DIY Chai Tea

I don’t think I’ve ever had Chai Tea, but everyone always talks about how good it is. It does sound really good. I need to find these spices to make it now. It doesn’t sound too difficult.

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Kitchen 101: Fruits, Vegetables & Herbs

This infographic might look a little confusing at first, but it’s really handy. Find your favorite fruit or veggie and figure out what season it’s in and the months of the year it grows. If you buy the foods in season, you can save a lot of money.

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Scientifically Test Water Quality Before You Dive In

I would never jump into a strange pond or lake, because you never know what kind of germs and bacteria that you’re going to expose to your body. You don’t have to carry around a water test kit everywhere you go though, because there are few easy-to-identify bugs that indicate healthy waters.

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Quick Tip – How to quickly ripen bananas

This is the perfect trick to ripening bananas really quick. This is especially helpfful if you want to make something like banana pancakes or banana bread when you don’t have old bananas laying around.

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Making an adjustable heavy-duty squat box

I wish I could afford a nice adjustable squat box, but I think building one will probably work just fine. This one has add-on’s to increase the height if needed. This would be much cheaper than buying a $200 box with an additional $60 in shipping.

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Better Homemade Weightlifting Straps

I don’t use lifting straps because I want to build up my grip strength, but it might be different if I lifted much heavier weight. Not that I don’t lift heavy, in fact I continue to add 10-15 lbs to each of my lifts per week, but I’m definitely no powerlifter. Maybe when I get up into the 400 lb’s I’ll find more use for straps like these.

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Really? The Claim: Eating Soy Increases the Risk of Breast Cancer

Soy is one of those foods that is constantly being attacked for being unhealthy while others work hard to claim otherwise. I admit that I am a bit cautious about soy. Based on everything I’ve read about it, I choose not to eat much soy but I’m not afraid to eat it occasionally.

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Top 10 Blood Tests for Vegetarians and Vegans

I believe that I’m getting all the nutrients that I need in my diet and by supplementation, but it would be nice to know for sure. I wish I had better health insurance to get all of the tests mentioned here. I think I also need to find a better physician. I asked for a blood test about 6 months ago and they didn’t want to do it, so I left wondering if my levels are ok.

Here’s a recap of the best health and fitness articles I’ve read over the past week.

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How Subway’s 3 New Vegan Subs Stack Up

If you haven’t heard, Subway is starting to add vegan options to their menu. There are only 8 locations (D.C. Maryland, and Virginia) that have them right now, but if they do well, they’ll likely be added to Subway menus everywhere. If you want to know how the three new options taste, read this review.

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Pasta Made from Green Banana Flour a Tasty Alternative for Gluten-Free Diets

Cool, I want to taste banana-flour pasta 😀 It’s great that there might soon be another ingredient option for people suffering from celiac disease, and if it tastes better than wheat like what the study suggests, maybe it’ll become much more widespread in the coming years.

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9 Deadlift Corrections to a Safer and Stronger Lift

This post starts off with the perfect example of a guy doing a deadlift the wrong way, who then proceeds to pass out face-first into a dumbbell rack, and then the article goes right into video tips on using right form. Some of these tips seem pretty obvious to me, but who knows, maybe some beginners actually do make these mistakes sometimes. The comment about using a hook grip to lift heavier is interesting too. I’ve never tried the hook grip with a deadlift. I’ve always used mixed grip.

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Why You Are Suffering from a Modafinil Deficiency The Bulletproof Executive

If you’re looking for mind clarity and the ability to be more awake and productive, consider looking into Modafinil (Provigil). I’ve never used it, but it sounds amazing. I would never use it daily, like the author, Dave Asprey, does though.

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Aniracetam at Upgraded Self

Here’s another drug recommended by Dave Asprey. This one can be purchased without a prescription. Aniracetam sharpens memory and learning and optimizes the use of oxygen in the brain. I think I’ll be trying this one soon.

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High-ORAC Foods May Slow Aging

I follow @CarissaAnneB on Twitter and she posted that she was eating a high-ORAC snack for breakfast (bell peppers), which is a term I’ve never heard before. According to the UDSA, high-ORAC foods (short for Oxygen Radical Absorbance Capacity) are fruits and vegetables that score high in antioxidant analysis and may prevent aging by protecting cells from oxidative damage. Another great reason to eat more fruits and veggies! There’s a handy table at the end of the article with a list of high-ORAC foods as well.

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How to Eat a Mango Without Getting the Juice all over – YouTube

I love mangos but I hate peeling them. The next time I go to the grocery store, I’m gonna look for the avocado peeler that John uses in this video.

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MRSA Natural Remedies

MRSA is a serious form of a “staph” infection, which can be contracted just like any other staph infection. If you have an open wound anywhere on your body, don’t go to the gym! That really sucks for Ben Greenfield.

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“Obamacare” explained very well. via reddit.com

If you don’t know much about the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA), otherwise known as “Obamacare,” this is a must-read. It’s pretty much everything you need to know, written for the layperson.