SportsGeezer

Stranger Than Fiction: Fitness In Nine Minutes a Week

The New York Times Well column asks the ridiculous question: Can one get fit in nine minutes a week? Then answers with a resounding "possibly."  What's up with that? The paper cites research conducted at McMaster University in Ontario, where one group of college students rode a stationary bike at a sustainable pace for between 90 and 120 minutes. Another set of students went through a series of short, strenuous intervals: 20 to 30 seconds of cycling at the highest intensity the riders could stand. After resting for four minutes, the students pedaled hard again for another 20 to 30 seconds, repeating the cycle four to six times (depending on how much each person could stand). Both groups exercised three times a week. After two weeks, the Times reports, both groups showed almost identical increases in their endurance (as measured in a stationary bicycle time trial), even though the one group had exercised for six to nine minutes per week, and the other about five hours.Wait, there's more: molecular changes that signal increased fitness were evident equally in both groups.
Read more in the New York Times.

Chocolate Milk Beats Sports Drinks for Muscle Recovery

Two years ago, in a study funded in part by the dairy industry, researchers at the University of Illinois determined that chocolate milk did as much or more as most "sports drinks" to help athletes maintain peak performance. Now comes another study, this one conducted at James Madison University, suggesting that chocolate milk "provides equal or superior muscle recovery compared to a high-carbohydrate recovery beverage with the same amount of calories."
The new study put 13 college soccer players through "normal" training for one week, and gave them either lowfat chocolate milk or a high-carbohydrate recovery beverage daily after intense training for four days. After a two week break, the athletes went through a second round of "normal" training, followed by four-day intensified training to compare their recovery experiences following each beverage. The researchers found no differences between the two beverages in effects on, soccer-specific performance tests, subjective ratings of muscle soreness, mental and physical fatigue and other measures of muscle strength. But when they looked at muscle recovery, the researchers found that chocolate milk drinkers had significantly lower levels of creatine kinase – an indicator of muscle damage – than the drinkers of a  carbohydrate beverage.

Read more from PR Newswire.

Olympic Swimmer Sharron Davies Shows How to Keep at Your Desk (Video)

In her fifth and final video on How to Keep Fit Without Leaving Your Desk, the remarkably tall and British (in that order) Olympic swimmer Sharron Davies demonstrates seat dips, seat raises, bicep curls and other exercises that probably won't get you fired. For a while.

The Five Best Exercises for Baseball Players

In honor of the 2009 baseball season's opening day (rained out in Geezerland), Geezer presents, with minor league suspicion, the exercise routines billed by Ask the Trainer.com as the best five weight training routines for baseball players.
And the winners are:
5. Cable wood chops:  excellent for strengthening the obliques and core stabilizers which can help a baseball  player throw faster or hit harder.

4. Lateral squats: can help fielders built the explosive power needed to move laterally.

3. Medicine ball throwing: more explosive power potential here, to be used when throwing or hitting.

2. Rotator cuff exercises: can help prevent career-ending injury to the rotator cuff.

1. Stability ball supine Russian twists: can strengthen  obliques and legs for "squashing the bug" when swinging a baseball bat.

Read more about exercises for baseball players at Ask the Trainer.com.

Watch a Kettle Bell Workout (video)

 What in the world is a kettle bell? Why in the world would anyone want one? The first question is answered nicely by fitness guru Roy M. Wallack in this piece in the L.A.Times. Wallack tells readers that a kettle bell is "a dense cast-iron weight, with a handle, that looks like a solid tea pot."  It is also, Wallack reports, "the fitness secret of Russian strongmen" and has become a hot fitness item that gyms are racing to build classes around.  Read more about kettle bells here. Wallack does readers the service of reviewing the pros, cons, weights and prices of four kettle bells that can be bought at fitness stores and online.
Still confused? Intrigued? Watch Lisa Shaffer show us one way to use a kettle bell.

Finally, "Moderate Intensity Exercise" Is Defined

For years, Geezer has been reading about recommendations for so many --OK, 150 --minutes of "moderate intensity exercise" each week. Happily, the definition of "moderate intensity" was left to the exerciser, and in Geezer's case, it was likely to vary conveniently from day to day. Alas. For better or worse, "moderate intensity exercise" has been defined by researchers at the School of Exercise and Nutritional Sciences at San Diego State University. Metrics-minded scientists there put 58 women and 39 men on a treadmill and monitored their oxygen intake, heart rate, and steps per minute. Science Daily reports that, using 3 METs, or metabolic equivalents, as the minimum level of oxygen demand of moderate exercise, the researchers found that for men, moderate intensity exercise equaled between 92 and 102 steps per minute. Women, the male scientists concluded, had to work harder, and achieved moderate intensity between 91 and 115 steps per minute. Lead investigator Simon Marshall suggests that people seeking the coveted "moderate intensity" shoot for a minimum of 100 steps per minute on level terrain. He told Science Daily that "a useful starting point" would be 1000 steps in 10 minutes, and a realistic goal would be 3000 steps in 30 minutes. Tools required: a simple pedometer and a wristwatch. And feet.
Read more in Science Daily.

Staying Slim in Foodland: Personal Workouts of L.A. Chefs

Ever wonder how people who spend 12 hours a day preparing calories for luxurious consumption choose to burn those calories off?  Editors at the L.A Times thought you might want to know, and gave us this:

Erik Oberholtzer, chef-owner of Tender Greens in Culver City, runs four to six miles five days a week, and that's just the appetizer. On most days, he puts in an hour at Gold's gym, and when he has time, Oberholtzer competes in serious cycling events.

David Myers, chef-owner of Sona and Comme Ca, works out three days in a row for 30 to 40 minutes, takes a day off and then starts again. He also skateboards between his various restaurants, surfs, snowboards, hikes and practices power yoga.

Page Moll, chef at the Beachcomber Cafe at Malibu Pier, wakes up at 6 a.m. stretches and practices Pilates, then lifts weights for 30 minutes. He also runs three to five miles five days a week and really appreciates exercise as an escape.

And you can read more in the L.A. Times.

Would This Workout for Two Help or Hurt Your Marriage?--Video

Is it romantic to work out with your spouse or spouse equivalent? Or does working out together only remind couples of an unhelpful spousal inequivalence? This video on the Washington Post goes where more circumspect marital partners fear to tread. 
Have a look.
Then click on the comment tab below and let SportsGeezer readers know: would this help or hurt your marriage?

Mike Alexander's Four Week Weight Training Primer

L.A. Times health writer Jeannine Stein kindly includes a short instructional video in this report of weight training advice from Mike Alexander, owner of MADfit, a private Beverly Hills training studio. Don't even ask why everyone over 40 should do some resistance training: the answer is too depressing. So, in Geezer's opinion, is the sameness of many exercises, but Alexander's four-week plan is uplifting, in more ways than one. Here are the basics:
Week One: Low weights, high reps, three times a week.
Week Two: Supersets: one exercise after the other, forget about resting.
Week Three: More supersets with more weight, fewer reps.
Week Four: New exercises that combine upper and lower body, cardio workout between sets.

For the details, where the devil is, read more and watch the video at the L.A. Times.

How to Choose a Gym

Just two days after advising readers how to negotiate the best price for a gym membership, Geezer now suggests that price isn't everything. Where does he get that idea? Well, largely from this piece by Vicky Hallett in the Washington Post. Hallett cites a few other factors that fitness club shoppers may want to consider-- things like location (how easy is it to get to the gym?), schedules for classes  (are they all in the morning, when you're at work?), credential of trainers, as well as availability of trainers, ndd more.
Read about what that more is in the Washington Post. Read more about how to choose a gym from HealthyMe and still more from wikiHow.