SportsGeezer

Six Exercises For 2006

While the Boston Globe reports on the annual New Year's stampede for health club memberships (January can account for 15 percent of a club's yearly numbers), Men's Journal makes the fit life sound simple, presenting the only six exercises we will ever need, allegedly, in the new year and any year to come. They are:
The Twist
The Squat
The Lunge
The Dead Lift
The Pull
The Push
The piece, adapted from The New Rules of Lifting, by Lou Schuler and Alwyn Cosgrove, includes a three-day a week workout plan that alternates lifts for maximum gains.

Functional Foods: How Much Is Hype?

The New York Times tells us that a study conducted by BrainReserve in 2004 found that 65 percent of people were using diet to treat an illness, whether through a low-fat regimen, a diet of organic food or a higher intake of certain kinds of food.  Because numbers like that do not go unnoticed by marketing departments, dozens of major food makers are now selling foods whose marketing campaigns suggest that they may lower blood pressure, relieve arthritis pain, lower cholesterol and do whatever else is hinted at, even slightly, by often questionable research. The Times reports that Dannon, the American division of the French company Group Danone, expects to spend $60 million next year aiming a new product at the 70 million Americans who suffer from digestive problems. The Times doesn't tell us what works and what doesn't, except when it comes to marketing, where, yes, money works. Read more.

Gliding Discs: Slip Sliding to Fitness

Why is it that a search for weird new workouts never needs to go beyond the LA Times?  This week's technological breakthrough is called gliding discs, and they are described by Times' staff writer Janet Cromley as 9-inch "Frisbeeish plates" held beneath the balls of one's feet and used to slide around the room while the wearer practices all manner of torso tormenting exercises. Cromley is clearly taken by the intense, music-fueled workout, which includes a series of modified backward lunges, matwork, with discs beneath heals, and even push-ups. Cromley reports that several LA fitness centers, including Equinox and the Sports Club/LA, are incorporating the discs into their classes in various ways. Read more abut gliding discs at About.com.

Mountain Unicycling: Fewer Wheels, More Fun

For unicycling wildman Kris Holm, less is more, or, to be grammatically correct, fewer is more fun, at least when it comes to wheels. The New York Times recounts Holm's unicycling exploits (a plunge down Mexico's highest volcano, a trek through the Himalayas) and touts his inventions, such as the Freeride, an overland uni with fat tires, an aluminum alloy frame, and a price tag of $520. Geezer recommends spending an additional $179 for the model that is equipped with a brake. See the Freeride and more unis here.

One Last Last Minute Gift: Exercise Balls

That's right. Exercise balls. Why not? Almost anyone can use one, and almost anyone can benefit. The ever-reliable Moving Crew appears roundly impressed with the results of a recent study, which looked at six men and five women age 20 to 45, and found that doing trunk (core) exercises on a stability ball caused greater activation of the lower abdominals than doing the same exercises while stable. The same study, published in February's Journal of Strength & Conditioning Research, showed that chest presses done on a ball recruited far more trunk-stabilizing muscles than did presses done on a bench. Exercise ball is not quite right? The helpful Crew gives us a link to some spinoffs that they might be worth a look.

Last Minute Gift Panic: When in Doubt, Go With Technology

Still have to pick up a few holiday gifts? Geezer feels your pain. This holiday shopping thing was a lot easier when you could please 80 percent of your friends with a stop at a single liquor store. Nowadays, the ordeal requires a bit more imagination. Geezer's rule for healthy, socially correct gifting it this: When in doubt, go with technology. Toward that end, we direct your attention to Men's Health 2006 Tech Guide. Wait, did they say 2006?

Stretching Doesn't Reduce Injuries

The age-old conviction that stretching before exercise will reduce the chance of injury turns out to be, well, a stretch. The Los Angeles Times reports on a study published in the Journal of Athletic Training that concludes that pre-exercise stretching doesn't seem to decrease injury and that post-exercise stretching doesn't seem to reduce soreness.  The study did no new research; it simply analyzed several previous studies, but its finding is the second blow in a one-two punch to the alleged rewards of stretching. The Times reports that it comes on the heels of evidence that stretching can actually impair performance of explosive moves such as sprints and jumps, and that some experts now question the need for regular stretching at all.
Want more? The greater risk of injury may come from stretching itself. The Times quotes experts who worry that people who work toward hyperflexibility, like touching the floor four inches from their toes, could easily end up doing more harm than good.

Yoga is Best for Back Pain Relief

In an earlier post, Geezer found evidence that the best exercises for relieving low back pain have little to do with the lower back. Rather, a recent study found, relief came from doing things like walking--several times a week. Now another study suggests that back pain sufferers are even better off with yoga. The Seattle-Post Intelligencer reports that research conducted by the Group Health Cooperative and the University of Washington compared three remedies for people with chronic back pain: a gentle yoga program, a self-care book and an exercise regimen developed by a physical therapist. At 26 weeks, the paper reports, the yoga group was less likely to take pain medication than the other two groups and reported less pain and more mobility than the group that relied on the book alone. The yoga group also reported less pain than those who stuck to a more standard exercise routine. Why? Geezer would like to know too, but the story reports that researchers don't have an answer.

Fitness Podcasts: Time to Listen Up

In this just overdue trend piece with several useful links,  the LA Times looks at fitness podcasts, and at the beginnings of a movement that threatens stock the Web with audible advice about how to do everything perfectly. (Geezer awaits the podcast on How to Keep Cynicism in Check.)  The Times focuses on the running-centric podcasts at RunCast Weekly, produced by a particularly engaging amateur runner from San Antonio, and the piece links to several other fitness pods, including those of Marina, whose music-driven workout podcasts captured the attention of SportsGeezer readers a while ago. Links take us to another podcast about running, and others on climbing, endurance training, general fitness, and strength training. Take a listen.

Running In Snow

Geezer regretfully acknowledges that while "Running in Snow" sounds like the title of the latest overwrought German film, it is, in this case, just another post about--you guessed it-- running in snow. So, running in snow. What about it? Well for one thing, running in snow is a lot harder than running anything that is not snow. Running in snow, for example, requires the stabilizing muscles on the inner and outer parts of legs to work overtime, fighting the tendency to slide in every direction. And for a few of the same reasons, running in deep snow can provide a great resistance workout. Running Online offers eight pieces of advice for runners who are too stubborn to quit just because a few inches of the white stuff has fallen. Geezer is especially fond of tip number 4. "It's okay to cut your mileage when running through snow... Don't overtrain just to jot down the same distances you ran this summer in your logbook." Read all eight tips.