What does Joe Kahn's 2007 holiday poem have to do with health and fitness or outdoor fun?
Who cares? It's a pleasure to behold. Click here to watch a video of Joe reading this year's opus.
How long will it be before the hills are alive with hikers, runners and cyclists sharing the details of their heart rate, pace, and arguing over where the hell they are? The Washington Post reports on the growing popularity (read--great holiday gift) of GPS devices (still, curiously, sold as "watches") that monitor pace, heart rate, distance and speed. Much of the market growth, the Post reports, stems from the creation of Web sites where all this information is being uploaded and compared,
including SportsTrack, Garmin Ltd.'s MotionBased.com and Nikeplus.com.
Read more in the Washington Post.
OK, the headline "Now You Can Vibrate Fat Away" isn't exactly true, unless you happen to be a mouse, but it could be true very soon. National Geographic reports on research conducted at State University of New York at Stony Brook that found that laboratory mice that spent 15 minutes a day on a vibrating platform developed 28 percent less fat than control mice. The magazine reports that scientists theorize that as the mice developed, the vibrations mimicked muscle activity and induced their stem cells to develop into bone or muscle cells rather than fat cells. Read more about fat in National Geographic.
A curious reader of the L.A Times wonders if "fat burning" programs on cardio machines actually burn more fat than other programs. The answer, offered by Jay Blahnik, is 'no", "sometimes" and "it depends." Blahnik does the calorie math nicely, then gets to perhaps more important realm of psychology.
What if a person did not like to run, he posits, but preferred power walking instead? That person might burn more fat and calories from running, but hate the
workout. That might cause her to work out less often, making her
weight-loss goal more difficult to achieve. Similarly, she might enjoy
running, but find herself unable to last more than 15 minutes. In that
case, her workout would be so much shorter, her overall fat- and
calorie-burn might be much lower than if she simply walked the full 30
minutes.
Blahnik tells us that the perfect "fat-burning" intensity is different for each person
because the intensity affects how long you work out and how much you
enjoy it. And those factors are often more important than how hard you
push yourself. The best thing to do, he says, is mix up your workout intensities and times. On
days when you are short on time, push yourself a little harder. On days
when you have some time to spare, go a little easier and work out a
little longer. Read more in the L.A. Times.
Geezer is surprised to learn that some women (and men) experience intense headaches during and after sex, not before it starts. But yes, the Scientific American is a reliable source. The magazine reports that about 1 percent of people have headaches
associated with sexual activity at some point in their lives, and that there are two types of sex-associated headaches: pre-orgasmic,
dull headaches that increase with sexual excitement, and
orgasmic headaches, which are sudden, severe headaches that
occur upon orgasm and can last for hours.
The good news, according to the report, is that there is now help for sufferers of both kinds of headaches. The standard preventive treatment for orgasmic headaches
has been indomethacin taken 30 to 60 minutes before sex, but
many patients can't tolerate the drug's intestinal side
effects, Another drug, propranolol,
can be helpful as preventive treatment. One or the
other drug is effective in 80 percent of patients. For the rest of us, Sciam advises, triptans can be effective preventive
treatment if taken about a half-hour before sex. Triptans can also
be used to shorten orgasmic headaches after they have begun. Sciam warns that triptans should only be used if standard treatments aren't effective
or tolerable.
It doesn't matter if the joke is funny or not funny. It doesn't matter if the laughter is real or not real. What matters, the Washington Post reports, is that the more you laugh, the healthier you become. The newspaper informs us that numerous scientific studies have found that daily laughter can help lift depression, lower blood pressure and boost the immune system. Now, we learn, some yoga and health experts are persuaded that even greater benefits may be had from a combination of chuckles and chakras. Readers may be surprised to learn that as many as 60 U.S. instructors who trained in India with the man who invented laughing yoga now instruct thousands of practitioners from California to Connecticut. They will not be surprised to learn that one-third American laughter yoga clubs are in California. Read more about laughing yoga in the Washington Post.
Add this to the list of things you can't do at the gym: grunt. The Associated Press reports that Planet Fitness, which has 120 facilities across the country, prohibits members from wearing bandanas, banging weights on the ground, or grunting, all of which, according to the company, can create "an intimidating atmosphere. When an offender is spotted, the AP reports, "lunk alarm" sounds to warn the member. How serious are they? Mike Grondahl, CEO of Planet Fitness, says they are serious enough that, nationwide, they are tossing out about one member a week.
The real joke, it turns out, is on those who laugh least, and it's not very funny. The Scientific American reports on a University of Maryland study that found that laughter increases blood flow in the body, and is very likely a good thing for heart health. Cardiologist Michael Miller and colleagues looked at the blood flow in 20 healthy men and women after they watched clips of the comedy movies Kingpin and There's Something About Mary and a stressful film, the opening sequence of Saving Private Ryan. The researchers found that while laughing, 19 of the subjects increased healthy blood flow
by an average of 22 percent. And comparing the amused and stressful
states brought on by film clips, more than 50 percent more blood flowed
when laughing.
Bottom line: being light-hearted boosted blood flow about the same amount as light exercise or drugs that lower cholesterol. Read more in the Scientific American.
The New York Times gives us a handsome slide show of home exercise products through the ages, from the Glamour Stretcher to the Gazelle, all as a side dish to Steve Friedman's 2,000 word tale of a less-than-joyful relationship with the exercise product du jour: Bowflex. Friedman tells us that Bowflex spent $16 million for paid programming on national cable channels in 2005, and after reading about his efforts to put the machine to good use, Geezer has a pretty good idea why that might have been necessary. The Bowflex manual is 69 pages long. It includes 75 exercises. Geezer is already getting tired. Read more and laugh.
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