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HAES, Health At Every Size

By on October 8, 2017 in Fitness, What I'm Reading

I thought I Supported HAES. I was wrong.

You may have heard of the Health At Every Size, or the HAES, movement. Considering myself a person against weight stigma who fights daily for people of all sizes to treat themselves and others with respect, I thought we’d get along. I joined a HAES group on Facebook, because hey, aren’t we in this together?

Yoni Freedhoff has tackled these falsehoods elegantly and logically in his article Why HAES May Never Go Mainstream. James Fell also ran into a deep well of illogic when trying to clarify the views of HAES proponents in his piece The Problem With Health at Every Size.

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A comprehensive guide to the new science of treating lower back pain – Vox

By on September 18, 2017 in Exercise, Fitness, Injury

A comprehensive guide to the new science of treating lower back pain

Cathryn Jakobson Ramin’s back pain started when she was 16, on the day she flew off her horse and landed on her right hip. For the next four decades, Ramin says her back pain was like a small rodent nibbling at the base of her spine.

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Why You Need to Be Doing Burpees | Outside Online

By on June 20, 2017 in Fitness, Health

Why You Need to Be Doing Burpees

What is the best predictor of when you’ll die? That seems like a hard-not to mention morbid-question, but, incredibly, study after study is showing that simple tests of physical performance are highly predictive of future mortality. My favorite recent example is a study from Brazil that tracked just over 2,000 subjects age 50 and up.

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How the back pain industry is taking patients for an unhealthy ride | PBS NewsHour

By on June 14, 2017 in Fitness, Health, Medicine, Pseudoscience

How the back pain industry is taking patients for an unhealthy ride

For the majority of us, it’s not a question of whether we’ll someday experience back pain; it’s a question of when. ‘Study after study after study has shown that long-term visits to chiropractors don’t help patients. They don’t prevent back pain; they don’t solve back pain.’

 

And Cathryn Jakobson Ramin’s book on the topic: Crooked: Outwitting the Back Pain Industry and Getting on the Road to Recovery

 

Crooked: Outwitting the Back Pain Industry and Getting on the Road to Recovery

The acclaimed author of Carved in Sand-a veteran investigative journalist who endured persistent back pain for decades-delivers the definitive book on the subject: an essential examination of all facets of the back pain industry, exploring what works, what doesn’t, what may cause harm…

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Americans Blame Obesity on Willpower, Despite Evidence It’s Genetic – The New York Times

By on November 1, 2016 in Diet, Fitness, Science

Via NOVA’s Secret Life of Scientists

Obesity affects one third of Americans. And even though research proves it is caused by interactions between the environment and genetics, three-quarters of a new survey’s participants still think it results from a lack of willpower. “It’s frustrating to see doctors and the general public stigmatize patients with obesity and blame these patients, ascribing attributes of laziness or lack of willpower,” says obesity researcher Donna Ryan. “We would never treat patients with alcoholism or any chronic disease this way.”

Americans Blame Obesity on Willpower, Despite Evidence It’s Genetic

Americans believe that obesity is the biggest health threat in the nation today – bigger even than cancer. But though scientific research shows that diet and exercise are insufficient solutions, a large majority say fat people should be able to summon the willpower to lose weight on their own.

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How SciBabe Lost (and kept off) 90 Pounds | Body for Wife

By on October 23, 2016 in Diet, Fitness

How SciBabe Lost (and kept off) 90 Pounds

This Guest Post is by Yvette d’Entremont, A.K.A. Science Babe www.SciBabe.com / www.Facebook.com/SciBabe Screw you, Dane Cook. My brain is geared to like certain things: Puppies, dirty jokes, and data. I’m a scientist, so I made a career out of at least one of these. I also cry with joy…

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Beyond the Binge: Eric Dietzius’s Success Story · Experience Life

By on October 2, 2016 in Fitness

Beyond the Binge: Eric Dietzius’s Success Story

One man’s journey to move beyond poor health habits – and overcome an undiagnosed eating disorder. When our first child was born in 2007, I had an awakening. Carrying 285 pounds on my 5-foot-11-inch frame, I was completely out of shape. I had become a self-indulgent person, and it was time to start living for my family.

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This Man Stretched 10 Minutes a Day For a Month. Here’s What Happened. | Bicycling

By on September 17, 2016 in Exercise, Fitness

This Man Stretched 10 Minutes a Day For a Month. Here’s What Happened.

Like most guys, I hated stretching. Why waste time sitting around when I could cram in more lifting? It hurt to learn that I was wrong-throbbed like hell, actually. I hurt my hip doing a leg workout and going running the same day, and had to shut down.

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Losing weight in 10 easy steps – and why you shouldn’t do an Ironman | Mountain Bike Trailer Park

By on August 28, 2016 in Behavior, Diet, Exercise, Fitness

Mountain Bike Trailer Park: Losing weight in 10 easy steps – and why you shouldn’t do an Ironman

I recently posted a huge personal victory on FaceBook. Specifically, I posted that I had officially reached 100 pounds of weight loss. This post got a lot of likes. In fact, more than any post I have ever done. Apparently, I touched a nerve. Since then, I also completed my first half Ironman race.

Things I’ll take away from this fellows experience:

  • “…For cardio, I do short, high intensity workouts a couple times a week. This builds speed and really ramps up the calorie burn. And, a couple times a week I do longer, slower cardio workouts. This helps endurance and is generally more fun than high intensity work. “
  • “…To stay motivated (and this is the hardest part), I enter races and events.” [Twenty years ago that was a big motivator for me. Time to resurrect it. The BHAG.]
  • “…What do you like? Swimming? Hiking? Bird-watching? Look for events that are enjoyable to you. Then register and pay for them. Put them on your calendar. Now you’ve got a reason to train and you have skin in the game.”
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The way you’re stretching is almost certainly not doing anything for you — Quartz

By on July 14, 2016 in Exercise, Fitness

The way you’re stretching is almost certainly not doing anything for you

Stretching has always been a part of fitness. Most of us were taught to believe that being able to touch your toes or grasp your hands with one arm over your shoulder and the other behind your back was linked to injury prevention, less sore muscles, and even better performance.

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