SportsGeezer

Ten Diet Books Reviewed, Smartly

The L.A. Times gives us a quick, funny, and comparative critique of ten new books about how to eat better and clean up our acts. With titles like "Does This Clutter Make My Butt Look Fat?" and "Skinny Bitch," the books are getting smarter, or looking smarter anyway, and these reviews keep up the pace. Worth reading for the chuckles, even if you already are a "Skinny Bitch."  Read more in the L.A. Times.

The True and Total Cost of a Mocha Latte

How much does a mocha latte really cost? According to Deborah McNaughton and Melinda Weinstein, authors of the new book "Rich and Thin: Slim Down, Shrink Debt & Turn Calories Into Cash, " the answer is  $871 and about 104,000 calories a year. And as Washington Post writer Michelle Singletary points out, if you get a 69-cent doughnut, you can add $179.40 a year and 46,800 calories.
Singletary likes the book, whose main claim is that the hidden costs, from higher insurance premiums to more hospital visits, is crushing people's bank accounts. Singletary is especially high on the book's  "Money Calorie Counter," which details how much you can save by investing the money not spent on unhealthful foods. Read more.

New Book Says "Stop Worrying and Eat It"

Barry Glassner, USC sociology professor and author of "The Gospel of Food: Everything You Think You Know About Food Is Wrong," would like people to chill. Particularly when it comes to food, says Glassner, Americans worry far too much. They worry about saturated fats, they worry about carbs, they worry about presevatives... But what they should really worry about, says Glassner in this interview with the LA Times, is an inability to enjoy food. Read more in the LA Times.

The Claim: Strength Training Can Make You Look Younger

Can strength training really make you look younger? Geezer hasn't a clue, but then Geezer hasn't earned a doctorate in medical science and hasn't written a book about the benefits of strength training. Karl Kopf, the founder and president of the Fitness Educators for Older Adults Association, has done both of those things.  In his latest book, "Weights for 50+: Building Strength, Staying Healthy and Enjoying an Active Lifestyle," Kopf asserts that looking younger is just one of many benefits of getting stronger. And in this interview with the Wall Street Journal, Kopf goes so far as to claim that "exercise is the fountain of youth,"
"If you improve your posture and stature," says Kopf, "you will automatically look younger, and strength training can do this. You can't do anything about wrinkles, but you can improve your carriage."
Read the whole interview.

Chris Carmichael Has Written the Book on Fitness

Chris Carmichael, the coach behind Lance Armstrong, founder of the eponymous Carmichael Training Systems, an Internet-based coaching business, and much much more, has written a book, and the New York Times has written a long and generally flattering piece about the fitness juggernaut and the juggernaut's latest effort. The paper describes, “5 Essentials for a Winning Life: The Nutrition, Fitness, and Life Plan for Discovering the Champion Within,” as Mr. Carmichael’s transformation from renowned coach of endurance athletes to guru for the overstuffed and underexercised. Only once, the Times warns, does  Carmichaeloverstep: In his sex advice to men. the fitness writer suggests that “good food yields great erections.” For a rebuttal, the Times turns to Dr. Abraham Morgentaler, a urologist at Harvard Medical School, who opines that there is no evidence that if a man with erectile dysfunction “starts eating carrots and greens, he’ll end up having an improved erection.” 

Health and Fitness Advice From Harvard--for $16

Just because the 42-page "report," Exercise: A Program You Can Live With, is a shameless effort to capitalize on Harvard's brand, doesn't mean it's not worth the sixteen bucks that Harvard Health Publications wants you to pay for it.  So is it? HHP gives us two clues: a table of contents here, and this excerpt:

How Much Exercise Do I Need?
So how active do you have to be to reap health benefits? This is where things can get tricky. It's true that for completely sedentary people, any activity makes an impact. But it's also true that, up to certain limits, the more exercise you get, the better.
This principle was borne out in a 1986 study in the New England Journal of Medicine that analyzed research conducted on 17,000 Harvard alumni. It appears that the greatest gains, in terms of longer life and lowered risk for disease come when you expend approximately 2,000 calories per week in some form of dynamic exercise, such as walking, gardening, or sports. Sedentary men were 64% more likely to suffer a heart attack than their counterparts who exercised up to the 2,000-calorie level. This translated into an average two-year gain in life span for the most active group. Since walking or jogging burns roughly 100 calories per mile, the 2,000 calorie threshold can be reached by walking 20 miles per week or its equivalent, an hour of moderate exercise five or six days a week.
The challenge is to figure out exactly what these parameters mean for you. For people who are mostly sedentary, walking or jogging 20 miles is a tall order. In fact, it's neither a practical nor advisable target for people who haven't been off the couch in years. The good news is that the health benefits begin kicking in at a much lower level - around 700 calories per week. This translates to logging 7 miles a week, roughly a brisk half-hour walk four times a week. For many people, this is a much more reasonable goal. Once you've reached this goal, you should aim to hit the 1,000-calorie-a-week mark (about 10 miles a week), since several studies have linked specific health benefits, such as greater longevity, to this target. If you'd rather not count calories, this translates into 30 minutes of moderate activity, 5-6 times a week.
To learn more, like how to buy Exercise: A Program You Can Live With, click here.

Outside Magazine's 15 Tips to Lifetime Fitness

In this post, Geezer borrows from Outside Magazine, who borrows from Paul Scott's book: Outside Fitness. Whatever. It's all good. Here are Scott's 15 tips to lifetime fitness. To find out exactly what he's talking about, visit Outside, or better yet, buy the book.
1. Periodize your workout.
2. Rest and grow stronger.
3. Realize that 30 minutes is 30 minutes.
4. Reach your peak by easing off.
5. Take your exercise outside.
6. Train body movements, not body parts.
7. Work out in the morning.
8. Focus on perfect form.
9.  Use dumbells as much as possible when lifting.
10. Lower weights slowly.
11. Make stretching a dedicated part of your workout.
12. Create a home workout.
13. Strenght-train at least three times a week.
14. Make your core muscles your first priority.
15. Learn your lactate threshold.

The Invisible Workout: Using Daily Movements to Stay in Shape

Geezer knows many people who are perhaps too proud of such habits as taking the stairs instead of the elevator, or walking the six blocks to a meeting instead of taking a cab. But practices like those are just the first steps, so to speak, of a daily universe of movements that can be turned into strength-building and balance-building routines. The Washington Post reports on a new book by Pilates instructor Brooke Siler that tells us how to do that, lots and lots of ways. Now available in paper, Your Ultimate Pilates Challenge reminds us that the common principle of Pilates health is activating the core abdominal muscles. And, as the Post reports, the common principle of Siler's advice can be summed up like this: Your stomach should be pulled in and up, your chest lifted, your spine straight and your weight evenly distributed. Increase your awareness of how you sit, stand, lift and carry throughout the day, and you'll start to think of fitness not as a once-a-day chore but a way to move through the world.

Anything That Burns Calories Counts

Once upon a time, Harvey B. Simon believed that the only good workout was an intense, cardio-throbbing thrashabout. Now, the Harvard med school professor and editor of Harvard Men's Health Watch is singing a different song--one whose tempo is a bit closer to adagio. Simon's latest book, The No Sweat Exercise Plan, urges readers to look around and exploit the normal activities in our daily lives that burn calories. Climbing stairs, raking leaves, even housecleaning. Writing about the book, the Washington Post reports that Simon makes an important distinction between "exercise for health" (what he is pushing) and "exercise for fitness" -- the higher-intensity cardio and strength training that recreational and serious athletes need. The book also includes health and fitness assessments, including a simple calculation for learning your heart attack risk. But the scariest statistics in the book are not about heart attacks: Simon notes that Americans spend an average of 170 minutes per day watching television.

Two Like-Titled Paths to A Healthier You

There are now at least two available books titled "A Healthier You," and both of them have the goods to deliver exactly what they promise.  "A Healthier You" number one is a holistic exploration of medical issues written quite recently by Dr. Sherri Tenpenny, a specialist in integrative medicine, and a perhaps too-frequent guest on health-related talk shows. Tenpenny encourages readers to treat the underlying cause of issues, rather than the symptoms, as is the preference of U.S. healthcare.
"A Healthier You" number two is the probably a more useful book, and certainly a more interesting book, if only because of the peculiarity of its source. The 340-page collection of dietary and exercise advice is the first effort of the Department of Health and Human Services to market a book in such chancy venues as bookstores and websites. At least one reliable source, the  Washington Post's healthful lifestyle writer, Sally Squires, thinks the book is well worth the price of admission, which at $12.95 is not exactly steep. Here's what Squires has to say: "A Healthier You" explains why healthy eating habits matter and makes the case for regular physical activity. It provides guidance on how to start changing habits, underscores the importance of finding balance between calories in and calories out, and explains why eating too much fat, added sugars and salt can undermine efforts to achieve a healthier weight. The book serves up numerous charts, work sheets and lists to help readers put their new habits into action." Read enough?  Spend the thirteen bucks and read the whole thing.