Tag: fitness articles

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The Best Health and Fitness Articles of the Week #90 – B12 Effectiveness After Being Cooked, Nutrition for Vegan Children and How to Shop for Coconut Milk

Deva Vegan b12 bottle

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

Cooking B12

All vegans should be supplementing with B12, otherwise serious neurological problems can occur, but I bet not many vegans knew that B12 in fortified foods is damaged by cooking those foods. If you’re vegan, rely on uncooked sources of B12.

Seitan – A High Lysine Food

Lysine is an essential amino acid that can only be found in food or supplements. A deficiency in lysine can result in fatigue, dizziness, anemia and other issues. It’s easy to get enough of this amino acid in foods like meat, cheese, fish, and eggs, but vegans can find it nuts, legumes, tofu, spirulina and as this article suggests, seitan. Since seitan is basically a log of gluten, I’m not sure I’d like to get most of my lysine from that source, but it’s good info to know nonetheless.

Six Done-For-You Exercise Resources To Get A Killer Workout Without The Mental Strain

This sounds like a really fun workout schedule, but to follow this exact plan, you’d have to purchase a lot of different products. This plan is very fitting for a triathlete. I think it’s a great example of how we can stay healthy by doing activities that we enjoy.

A Healthy Start for Vegan Children

When it comes to vegan nutrition, in children or adults, Ginny Messina knows what she’s talking about. I’m not a parent myself, but I can only imagine how scary it is for new parents to find articles online about vegan children having nutrient deficiencies or when their doctors recommend animal-based supplements. But there’s no need to worry. It’s totally possible, and safe, to raise vegan children.

How To Shop For Coconut Milk

Should you buy coconut milk canned, in the carton or should you make it yourself? The healthiest way is to make it yourself, but the next best option is probably to buy it canned. I’ve read the ingredients on carton coconut milk many times and I never felt great about all of those weird ingredients, but I buy it anyway. Not anymore though. It’s canned or homemade from now on.

Find Your Strength: Strongman Training In Your Average Gym

This sounds like an excellent strongman training program. It’s basic, but it makes total sense. I would love to come back to this one once I get some fat grips and heavier dumbbells to do carrying exercises.

Lessons from the History of Insulin

Interesting post from the folks over at the Science-Based Medicine blog. I always love reading these posts because the writers on this site have a much different perspective on health and medicine than most of what we read online – a perspective based on academics, research and facts. This post discusses not only the history of insulin, but also the benefits of GMO and big pharma, which is something you’ll never hear anyone else say.

Dear Mark: Vegetable Juicing, G_BOMBS, Blood Sugar, and Hot Workouts

If you’re a fan of juicing, you should read this article from Mark Sisson. The key takeaways for me are that you should juice mostly vegetables, eat fruits instead of juicing them, you don’t really need to worry about insulin spikes and if you really want to drink fruits, consider blending them instead of juicing them.

An Unnamed Single Leg Gem of an Exercise

If you’ve done P90X, you’ll be familiar with the “skater squat” and you know how difficult it is. The version shown in this article is an advanced version of the skater squat and puts more emphasis on proper form. There are some great tips on progression here too.

New Innovative Ways to Use Your Fat Gripz

This made me laugh. To hell with the trolls in the comments. I’m glad these guys had fun putting this post together.

Is it Dangerous to “Squeeze the Glutes” During Hip Extension Exercises?

In short, Bret Contreras recommends that all lifters should squeeze their glutes when performing the hip extension. It helps protects the hips and the spine. You’ll have to read the article to learn the science behind it.

Plant Based Nutrition – Will I Get Anemic?

I just recently had blood work done and everything came back fine. I don’t think anemia is something most vegans need to worry about but getting tested is still a good idea, if nothing for peace of mind. I love the response from Marcella to a commenter in the comments section. A person named Bob said “wait a couple of years a retake your tests, and then tell me what your restlts are.” To which Marcella responded “Wait a couple of years after…what? I’ve already been vegan for 12 years and Derek has been vegan for 5 and we both have always tested with excellent iron levels – I even had above average iron levels while pregnant. Additionally, your results reflect your current diet…it doesn’t take years for your diet to influence your iron levels.” Bob is a great example of how clueless people are when it comes to nutrition.

Non-Alcoholic Beer, Non-Alcoholic Wine, Gluten-Free Beer, and Other Foods Scrutinized

The part I liked most in this post is about when Mark scrutinizes maca powder, because it’s a supplement I use regularly. I don’t use it for any of the sex-related benefits mentioned in the post, but it’s good to know 😉

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The Best Health and Fitness Articles of the Week #89 – 32 Types of Pushups, a Homemade Mauler Sled and Workouts For Your Brain

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

Bodyweight Training Basics – Push-ups 101

I admit that I’m more of a bench press guy, but I really should throw more pushups into my routine. This article provides a a great explanation of getting the perfect pushup form and also includes huge list of 32 pushup variations and a video showing how to do all of them.

Signs and Symptoms of Insulin Resistance: Can You Be Insulin Resistant and Not Know It?

This article provides an excellent explanation of insulin, how it works in your body and how insulin resistance occurs. There are also some great tips on preventing insulin resistance.

Exercise makes middle-aged people smarter

I’ve been working out regularly for years and I’ve always noticed that I think more clearly on days that I workout. Well here’s proof! A study from the Montreal Heart Institute shows that exercise helps the body oxygenate the brain and increase cognitive function.

Drug used to treat glaucoma actually grows human hair

If you have glaucoma, you might have heard about the drug Bimatoprost. Interestingly, it seems the drug not only slows the progression of glaucoma, but it might also help grow back hair. My brother actually suffers from a condition called alopecia that causes him to lose hair in random patches. It would be awesome if Bimatoprost could help him.

Homemade Push Pull Mauler Sled

I don’t have the skills or tools necessary to build this, but it sure is an awesome idea. This is a really cool blog too because it’s all about creating DIY fitness equipment. Definitely going into my favorites.

What Is The Diet Of Top Athletes?

It’s interesting to see the varying diets of top athletes of the world. It’s crazy to see how crappy some of these athletes ate, yet still managed to be the best at what they do.

Men who do exercise produce better quality semen, study finds

Good to know if you’re planning to have a baby. There’s also a long list of sperm quality parameters in this article that can help men diagnose various issues with their semen.

Lifehacker.com Updates: Four New Tools for Brain Workouts

I’ve had very noticeable results in cognitive function on days that I workout and occasionally when I drink coffee, but I’ve never really done any tests. I would really like to do everything mentioned in this post, so I’m going to turn it all into actionable goals that I work on over time.

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The Best Health and Fitness Articles of the Week #87 – Deadlift Tips, a Guide to Caffeine and Beating Insomnia

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

14 Deadlift Tips and Tricks

I knew I had to include this in my weekly roundup as soon as I read the last paragraph in the very first tip. There’s a ton of great deadlift information here.

Clint Darden on Rehabbing Back Pain

Have you ever thought of using a car buffer to rehab your back? I haven’t. There are lots of other great tips here too. I’ve never heard of Clint Darden before, but this guy definitely knows what he’s talking about.

StrongLifts 5×5 Workout A: Full Video Demonstration

This is a really long video (30 minutes), but Mehdi provides a whole bunch of great tips about the 5×5 program as he actually completes an entire workout. It’s really helpful if you have any questions about the program.

4 Weeks to Big Arms

I must admit, this program sure does sound enticing. Shoot! I can’t help myself. It’s only 4 weeks so I’m gonna take a break from my routine and try this one out.

The Ultimate Guide to Caffeine

Awesome article and I love this quote “Caffeine is kind of like getting a green shell in Mario Kart – it’s readily available, can certainly help you win, but has to be used properly or it can end up doing more harm than good.”

Is Alcohol Good or Bad For Health?

This article goes through the pros and cons of drinking alcohol, how alcohol is processed by the body and the best ways for you to consume alcohol so that it doesn’t effect your health.

The Virtual Squat Seminar

This one covers everything when it comes to squatting – depth, stance, hand position, mobility, bar position, knee pain, and proper footwear.

How To Hack Your Sleep, Beat Insomnia & Get Into A Deep Sleep Phase As Fast As Possible

Ben Greenfield provides a whole bunch of great tips on improving sleep by using technology, gadgets and supplements.

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The Best Health and Fitness Articles of the Week #85 – Algae Powders, Limiting Calorie Burn to 4000 Calories Per Week and Screwing Up the Row

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

Is It Primal? – Spirulina, Chlorella, Amaranth, and Other Foods Scrutinized

If you want to know the quick answer, spirulina and chlorella are primal, and amaranth isn’t, but all three are fine to consume. There are lots of benefits to eating all of these. I just wish spirulina and chlorella were more affordable.

Rugby Conditioning Workout Caveman Style – YouTube

I would be running for a bucket after about 5 minutes of doing this workout. 😉 Watching this video really helps to understand how someone has to train in order to be a professional athlete.

Why You Shouldn’t Burn More Than 4,000 Calories a Week

Killing yourself in the gym everyday can help you lose weight, but you can lose weight faster and do less damage to your body if you don’t take it past the point of diminishing returns. If you go too hard on your body, you can actually reduce your overall wellness. The article suggest 4,000 being just about right for the cut off point. That’s not a lot. In the summer when I’m riding my bike to work, I’d meet that mark by Wednesday and I’d still have a couple more workouts to finish in the week.

Modern wheat a “perfect, chronic poison,” doctor says

An excellent five minute interview with Dr. William Davis, the author of the hugely popular book Wheat Belly. He talks about what’s wrong with the wheat of today and the health issues that wheat causes. I haven’t read his book yet, but I plan on it.

Round Back Deadlifts

This is probably the most informative and in-depth article I’ve ever read on deadlifts. Set aside some time and read this one all the way through.

How To Bench Press With Proper Form (StrongLifts 5×5) – YouTube

I’ve never cheated myself by doing incomplete reps, but I saw it in the gym all the time when I still had a membership. This video runs much longer than it needs to, but you can get the info you need in the first couple of minutes.

Use Onion Skin as a Built-In Handle for Safe Chopping

This is one of those things that’s so simple, you’ll feel stupid for not thinking of this before. Well that’s how I feel anyway 😉 I always hate cutting the end of the onion because it starts slipping all over the place. Hopefully this neat trick helps.

Strength Training Technique: 8 Ways to Screw Up a Row

Lots of good tips on perfecting technique when doing different types of rows. He demonstrates only one handed cable machine rows, but it easily translates to other variations.

Does Organic Produce Have More Nutrients?

I think a lot of people, even me at first, were led to believe by the recent Stanford study on organic produce that organic produce isn’t healthier than regular produce. The study didn’t say the word “healthy” though, it said that organic wasn’t more nutritious. According to this excellent article from Marks Daily Apple, that might not be entirely true either.

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The Best Health and Fitness Articles of the Week #84 – A Miracle Plant, Losing Strength From Being Lazy and Checking For Skin Cancer

image courtesy of cookbookman17

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

THIS Plant is an Effective Diuretic, Can Help with Joint Problems, …

This is what I love about plants. There are just so many benefits, many of which aren’t commonly known. That’s quite alright though, as long as we’re eating them, right? Eat as many different types of fruits and veggies as you can and you’ll heal your body.

Jessica back squat 150 kg – YouTube

I’m amazed by this feat of strength. This fit and beautiful woman can squat much more weight than I can. I suppose that’s not saying much, but wow, I’m impressed. She’s doing 330 pounds! The most I’ve ever squatted is 300 lbs. I haven’t tried a 1-rep max though.

How Quickly Do You Lose Muscle Strength When You Sit Around?

The study mentioned in this article claims that muscle atrophy can begin in periods as short as two days or less. Use those muscles or you’re gonna lose ’em. That doesn’t mean losing muscles is going to be permanent though, say for example after a debilitating injury that keeps you out of the gym. You can always earn your muscle back with time.

How to Tape Ankles for Athletes

I hope I never have to use this info, but it’s an excellent tutorial. The video is super-helpful.

How to check your skin for skin cancer

Here are some great tips from the American Academy of Dermatology on self-diagnosing skin cancer. One in five Americans are diagnosed with skin cancer, so do your due diligence and check yourself for warning signs to catch it early.

Busting common myths about the flu vaccine

I found this one interesting and timely because a group of us were talking about flu shots at work. The first and last myths here were actually mentioned in our conversation and I guess my coworkers were wrong about it.

6 Reasons Why Vegans (and Doctors) Are Wrong About Animal Protein

I’m posting this only because I think the author is totally ignorant about what he’s talking about. I think it’s completely irresponsible for Kiefer to flaunt his degrees and credentials to convince people that what he says is true, then judge Dr. Joel Fuhrman’s health based on the way he looks. Appearance is not always an indicator of health. What if Dr. Fuhrman doesn’t want big muscles? That’s not everyone’s goal in life, you know? And while the studies might suggest that vegans and vegetarians don’t get the nutrients they need, that may or may not be true depending on the wide variety of factors. I guess Kiefer doesn’t know about these things called supplements. I get vegan b12. I get EPA and DHA from algae sources. I get nutrients from chlorella and spirulina. It’s all natural, from the earth and healthy. And if you’re judging health based on looks, I’m bigger than Fuhrman and I’m bigger now than when I was eating meat. But that’s not because of my vegan diet. It’s because of the hard work that I do in the gym and because I know what I’m putting into my body.

Save Food from the Fridge

Did you know that apples can prevent your potatoes from sprouting? And that storing root vegetables right-side up can keep them fresher longer? There are some other really cool tips here too.

Why Pressure Cookers Are Awesome – MDRN KTCHN – YouTube

Ok, I’ve always been a little bit afraid of pressure cookers, but after watching this I’m not so scared anymore. I kinda want one, but I’d have to find a bunch of recipes that sound good so that I get enough use out of it.

The Deload Week: What It Is, How to Do it, and Why It Might Help You Get Stronger

I love the example Mark uses in this article about healing the body. If someone cuts their finger when slicing a tomato, they don’t use that finger anymore because they know it’ll take longer to heal, yet for some reason people don’t understand that the same healing process needs to be applied to the body after workouts too. This article provides some great instruction on de-loading. I think I’m going to try taking a scheduled de-load week every six weeks moving forward.

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The Best Health and Fitness Articles of the Week #83 – Hardgainer Myths, Using Weightlifting Belts and Preventing Hangovers

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

9 Hardgainer Training Myths – How to Build Muscle

This was a fun three part series to read, with a lot of great information for hardgainers like me. I don’t know if the story is true, but this series definitely has me on the verge of purchasing the program. It’s hard to part with money when you don’t know if something is gonna work for you though. I’ll put it on the backburner for now, but I’d really like to try it out.

Should I Exercise with a Hangover

A quick video explaining why it’s a good thing to exercise the day after having a few too many drinks. If you can manage to get yourself up to workout on a hangover, you should definitely do it. I remember one specific time when I tried to workout on a hangover while I was out in Vegas and I felt miserable. I’ve never tried it again.

Lessons In Weight Belts: How And Why To Use Them

When I had a gym membership, I would see people misusing weight belts all the time. If you use a weight belt and you want to make sure you’re not looking like a fool in the gym, read this. I actually have one of those really wide-backed belts because it was given to me by someone who sold me weight lifting equipment. If you don’t already know, the extra wide backs on lifting belts are pointless, because it’s not the back of the belt that’s important, it’s the front. And when the back is too wide, it’s difficult to get a proper fit.

How To Make Your Own Probiotics

I’ve actually just started making my own kombucha at home about a month ago. I’ve only bottled one batch so far and I have two batches fermenting right now. This is a really helpful video from Ben Greenfield.

5 Factors That Affect Nutrient Absorption From Your Diet

I liked this one a lot because it’s all new stuff that I’ve never heard before. I had no idea that coffee and tea can reduce the ability of the body to absorb nutrients from plants. Being vegan, it’s really good for me to know.

Caffeinated coffee linked to vision loss

Coffee has many benefits, but it seems that overuse can lead to glaucoma. This study shows that three cups or more per day can lead to increased risk of developing glaucoma and women with a history of glaucoma in the family are at an even greater risk.

4 Lower Leg Injuries that Slow Weight Loss Progress

I thought this was really informative. I’ve never suffered from any of these injuries, but it’s good to get a better understanding of how they’re caused and how they can be prevented.

Is Oatmeal Healthy

I guess I’m in the minority because I eat plain oatmeal with coconut oil mixed in every morning. I eat quick oats, which I now know from reading this article that it isn’t as nutritional as steel cut oats, but it’s not all that bad. It has no additives or other ingredients of any kind. If I had an oven at work I’d move to steel cut oats, but that’s not an option. I’ll try to find a more natural rolled oats option when I finish the oats I have right now.

How to turn an ugly jicama into something awesome

I’ve only used jicama to make jicama rice for nori rolls and I think it’s really tasty. This recipe sounds delicious too. All you need to do is slice a jicama into chunks like fries, sprinkle chili powder and salt on top and add a squirt of lime juice.

How to Design a Sprint Workout Routine

This looks like a solid sprint routine, despite a few grammatical errors in the post 😉

How to Train Harder and Smarter Without a Power Rack

I purchased a power rack and I’d have to say that it’s my most prized possession in my home gym. If you don’t have access to one though, you still have options.

What to Drink: Bulletproof Alcohol for Thanksgiving (Infographic)

I’ve been waiting forever for Dave to post an article about alcohol on his website and it’s been there the whole time! This was before I started following his blog, so I didn’t know it was there until he linked to it in one of his recent articles. I like to have drinks with friends, so I’m excited to see how well this works. I actually don’t get bad hangovers anymore anyway since I’ve cleaned up my diet, but I’m sure this will really help me feel much more alive the next day.

Pumpkin Pie Green Smoothie

Three delicious smoothies made using homemade pumpkin puree, or canned if you’re lazy like me 😉

Avocado chocolate “Nutella” pudding – Dairy-free, Gluten-free, Egg-free and Delicious

This isn’t just a recipe, but also a lesson in the beneficial health properties of avocados and cocoa. I love Nutella, so I can’t wait to try this.

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* image courtesy of cast_tkohl

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The Best Health and Fitness Articles of the Week #82 – Improve Your Grip Strength, Healthy Vegan Recipes and OLY Shoes

image courtesy of crossfitkelowna

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

Improve Your Grip Strength

Just like this article says, grip strength is important for plenty of reasons, most importantly being able to lift more weight on exercises like deadlifts and barbell rows. There are some cool and interesting exercises here to help you increase your grip strength.

What Drinking Coffee Does to You

There are some excellent pros to consuming coffee, but drinking coffee also comes with some drawbacks if you drink too much. If you limit your intake to around 2 cups per day and if you drink high quality coffee, you have nothing to worry about.

A Guide to Eating a Plant-Based Diet

This article goes into the many reasons why eating a plant-based diet is important and how to transition into a vegan diet. There’s also a good list of foods that you can eat that are easy when starting out. This guide goes through just about everything a beginner vegan might be wondering.

Looking for Healthy Vegan Recipes?

When people are considering going vegan, they are always worried that they won’t be able to eat tasty meals anymore, but here’s a short list of recipes that are easy, tasty and healthy – Tortilla soup, fruit salad and apple crisp.

Seriously. Do This Yesterday. One of My All Time Shoulder Fixes

I bet it’s scary being friends with this guy. You never know what kind of painful situation you’re going to be in when he’s around. 😉

Using Coffee Enemas For Liver Detoxification

I always hear conflicting advice about coffee enemas, which is probably why I’m too afraid to try one myself, but this article does make it sound enticing. The author of this post also recorded a very informative video of the entire process.

How To Meditate – 3 Simple Techniques

Slowly but surely I’m learning more about meditation. I know it’s beneficial and I really want to do it, but life is so hectic that I find it hard to make time. This article talk about exactly that too – “if you’re too busy to meditate, you’re too busy!” I think what I need to do is set a schedule. Maybe just a few minutes after work everyday.

7 Home Remedies to Combat the Side Effects of Chemo

I hope that my healthy dietary and exercise habits are enough to prevent getting cancer later in life, but if not, at least I can refer back to this article if I ever have to go through chemo. I’ve seen the effects of chemo in my family and it’s not pretty.

First OLY shoe.. Recommendations?

I workout at home, so I lift completely barefoot. I like the idea of lifting barefoot more than lifting in shoes, but maybe I’m short-changing myself by not using weightlifting shoes. I’d really like to try a pair out to see how they feel.

Outdoor Home Rope Climb Post

There’s no way in hell my HOA would allow me to build this in my backyard, but I would in a heart beat if I could. I might see if my brother is willing to build it in his yard so that I can use it. This is awesome!

Train Like A Man, Look Like A Goddess

Ladies, do you need more proof that lifting weights won’t make you bulk up and look like a man? Here ya go! 😉

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The Best Health and Fitness Articles of the Week #81 – Beating Caffeine Addiction, High Fructose Corn Syrup and the Specific Carbohydrate Diet

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

How to Kick Your Caffeine Addiction and Actually Enjoy Your Coffee Again

I will only drink one cup of coffer per day, maybe two, but never more. I will also never drink coffee or tea after 12pm, because I don’t want it to effect my sleep. I try to consume caffeine as responsibly as I can. For many people though, caffeine is abused and becomes an addiction. If that sounds like you, you should definitely read this article. And when you get your caffeine addiction under control, go read some articles about coffee over at the Bulletproof Executive website.

Natural Food Sources of Iodine

We started talking about iodine in salt at work the other day and someone mentioned that an iodine deficiency can cause goiters. Come to find out, it’s true and it’s one of the most common causes of goiters. Deficiency can also cause a whole host of other problems such as mental problems. I wonder how this might effect someone like a raw foodist who doesn’t use salt.

The Sweetener Wars – HFCS Strikes Back

One part I found really interesting in this article is about how Google has three colored shelves, each designating how healthy the items are that are placed on it – healthy on green, OK on yellow and unhealthy on red. Google actually had beverages sweetened with sugar cane on the green shelf. What! I thought people knew better than this, but if a company like Google doesn’t, I bet tons of people don’t know either.

How Bulletproof Coffee Stops Dry Eyes The Bulletproof Executive

If you have eye dryness issues, maybe all you need is a cup of coffee! I can get on that train 😉

Specific Carbohydrate Diet Legal/Illegal List

I was listening to a podcast from Ben Greenfield about stopping digestive problems, gas and bloating and the interview guest, Steven Wright mentioned a legal/illegal list of foods for the “Specific Carbohydrate Diet” which is a diet designed to help with digestive problems. If you’re having digestion problems, I would highly recommend looking at this list and seeing if something you’re eating is marked as illegal.

To Squat or Not to Squat

I actually haven’t listened to this yet, but the outline looks fantastic. I’ve added this show to my iTunes podcast and I can’t wait to listen to it.

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The Best Health and Fitness Articles of the Week #80 – Awesome Fitness Apps, Homemade Nutella and Concurrent Training

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

Best Fitness Apps

Finally an article about fitness apps that doesn’t have all the same apps that everyone else always talks about. There are some really cool ones here. I just got the new iPhone, so I’ll be checking most of these out really soon.

Homemade Nutella

Nutella isn’t vegan so I haven’t had it in quite a while now. I’ve tried alternatives, which are no comparison to the actual Nutella brand, but I’ve never tried to make my own.

“40′ Ropes Wanted–where is the cheapest?

The best tip here is from a user named Richie Korn who says “There is a rope and supply place near me that sells to boats and docks. They have cheap prices on both manila & cotton. Anytime you can take the word “exercise” out of a piece of equipment it gets cheaper.”

Green Tea + Bulletproof Coffee: Better Together For an Even Better Brain The Bulletproof Executive

There are just so many benefits of consuming green tea that there’s no reason you shouldn’t be drinking it every day. I never drink tea on days that I drink coffee because I worry about my sensitivities to caffeine, but maybe I’ll give it a try to see how it affects me.

Sunrise Lamp Alarm Clock

I don’t have the time or expertise to build this myself, but if you’re into technical DIY stuff like this, you should go for it. I plan to simply buy one from Amazon when I have some cash to burn.

27 More Nutrition Facts

The link in the first sentence is the first part of this article, hence the reason this one has the word “more” in the title. I highly recommend reading both. Lots of great tips and all fun and easy to read and understand. I’m not a big fan of all of the supplement pushing going on here, but still interesting stuff.

No time to exercise? Try 10-minute workouts

The danger claims here about middle-aged and older people doing high-intensity exercise are interesting. I’m still really young, so I don’t typically read about things like this, but it’s good information to know and share. I guess that means tabata is out of the question for older folks.

Never Be Bored Again: 5 Creative Ways To Prepare Brown Rice

The pancakes and brown rice pudding look pretty dang good!

Ask The Ripped Dude: Can You Booze It And Still Lose It?

What most people don’t realize about alcohol and getting fit is that it’s not just that you’re consuming empty calories, but it’s that alcohol also makes it much harder for the body to burn fat. A few glasses of wine or a couple of beers probably won’t mess with your fat loss goals, as long as you take it easy.

Concurrent Training: Strength And Aerobic Training At The Same Time?

If you want to be long-distance runner, you won’t get there by training like a professional bodybuilder. This makes complete sense, but if you want to learn about the potentially detrimental effects of concurrent training, or on the flip side, how concurrent training can be beneficial, read this article.

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The Best Health and Fitness Articles of the Week #79 – DIY Plyo Boxes, a Pumpkin Butter Recipe and Burning Fat With Cold

image courtesy of stroopsmma

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

DIY Plyoboxes

Two plyo-boxes for about $30 is a steal! This one looks like a lot of fun too. I need to clear out a little room in my garage so that I can do this one.

Muay thai / Boxing Tyre Bag – Explosive Fitness – YouTube

I have no room for a punching bag, much less one made out of tires, but if you’re looking for a really cheap DIY punching bag build, this one should do.

All-Natural Pumpkin Butter From Scratch + Many Ways To Use It!

I’ve never even heard of pumpkin butter, but a friend of mine just recently made some and she said it’s really good. Now I have to make some so that I can judge for myself 😉

MyPhytos

There are tons of juicing recipes here, along with nutritional information. You’ll never run out of juice ideas with this site around. I haven’t tried any of these yet, but I will soon!

Studies shed light on how to reduce the amount of toxins in plant-derived foods

I’m not familiar with cadmium toxins at all, so this information is really interesting for me. There are no safe levels of cadmium, but it exists virtually everywhere! I don’t even know if there’s anything that can be done to reduce cadmium intake or mitigate its effects. Something I definitely want to look into further.

Knee Strengthening Exercises to Tighten up your Suspension

I’ve always had problems with my knees. I can probably attribute that to having very little muscle in my legs growing up, but now I wonder if some of my more recent problems are due to underdeveloped hamstrings and me doing poorly executed squats that aren’t hitting my hamstrings.

Pelican Pushups – YouTube

I don’t have rings to be able to try this one, but wow, that’s some range of motion isn’t it? Some day I’ll get some rings and I’ll be able to smack my face on the ground trying to attempt this one.

Burning More Fat With Cold

Really interesting article! Cold thermogenesis is something that I’ve really been getting into lately. I’ve known about the benefits of cold therapy for a long time now, but I just recently read a book called The Flinch (free on Amazon Kindle) which suggested taking cold showers as an exercise to conquer “the flinch.” I used that as my jumping point to finally testing cold thermogenesis on myself. I honestly feel like it’s been working wonders for me.

Doggcrapp Training: The Ultimate Mass Gaining Program

I’ve heard about the DoggCrapp training method before but I never tried it because I didn’t feel like I met its criteria. If you’re already an experienced lifter and you’re ready to go advanced, this might be what you’re looking for. The routine is explained in very easy to understand terms. I decided to go looking for a spreadsheet and I found this post with a bunch of people posting their own personal tracking sheets.

Guide to Novice Barbell Training

If you’re looking for a program to get you started with advanced lifting, for example something to do before you try the DoggCrapp program above, you should check out the Starting Strength program from Mark Rippetoe. This forum thread explains it all, and here’s a google spreadsheet you can use to get started.