Social Workout

Scientific

Your Annoying Gabby Coworker Could Save Your Life

Social interaction, with friends, family, and even coworkers is vitally important for health, shows a new study. Just how important? People with high human interaction scores had 50% greater odds of survival than people with low human interaction scores. But that's the positive light. Check out the negative light: Low social interaction is as bad for your health as smoking 15 cigarettes a day, as bad as never exercising, as bad as being an alcoholic, and twice as bad as being obese. Go to the water cooler and chat someone up immediately!

Scientific

Friends Make You Live Longer

People with the largest networks of friends live 22% longer than people with the smallest networks of friends, according to a new study conducted by the Centre for Ageing Studies at Flinders University. Friends are nice and all, but what do they actually do for your health? The researchers have a theory: Good friends discourage smoking and heavy drinking and other unhealthy behaviors. Here's what's really interesting though — networks of friends make a difference on longevity, but networks of relatives, including children, don't have an impact. My theory: You don't listen when your sister says you should cut your liter-a-day soda habit, put down the cigs, and go to the gym. She's just your sister. But when your friend says it, falls on different ears. Maybe? To reiterate, this theory not yet supported by science, currently just supported by me. But anyone else had this experience?  

Workout

Yesterday was awesome fourteen times.

I woke up to my husband coming home after a red eye back from LA. Awesome thing number one. With him were three Double Doubles from In-N-Out, one Animal style, just for moi. Awesome things numbers two, three, and four. I tried to go back to sleep but had some trouble, so I stayed up and knocked out some emails before heading to the gym for Matt's 1030 Ride.

Featured Body

It Wasn't Me, It Was My Friends

This week's Featured Body, michlny, on the wonder of friends who share your fitness interests.

When I get together with friends, I always try to fit it around fitness/activity.  So, it needs to be after the gym or it needs to include a workout or a walk, bike, hike, etc.  If we're going to eat, it needs to be someplace with healthy options. 

Workout

Happy Day

So I took Carrie's 8:30 this morning at Ride the Zone and picked up a message from my dear friend, Monica from Brazil! Querida! She's in town. We had a lovely lunch earlier this afternoon and I walked up Madion avenue towards home. All of a sudden, I noticed this random guy trying to walk next to me and he started chatting with me, he was a bit off.

Snapshot

Amber Loves Enell Sports Bras and Wants to Run Like Phoebe From Friends

Every day, we give you a snapshot of one fellow striver in fitness. We ask personal questions, he or she boldly answers. Today's snapshot: Amber, aka Butwhatifido.

• What's the best thing in your gym bag? I don’t have a gym bag. I’m incapable of getting organized/motivated enough to carry gear and get re-dressed after a workout so I’ve always gone to gyms/worked out near home so I can just roll in and out. I haven’t even been in the dressing room of my gym since the initial walk-through. The two things I couldn’t do without, though, are first, my Enell sports bra – really the ONLY one that’s ever worked for me, (I’m totally cult-like about it) and second, my beautiful red Jade natural rubber yoga mat. It’s one of the few pricey workout toys I’ve ever gotten and it’s been worth every penny. Plus, I love that it’s red. 

Newslinks

No One Wants to Workout For Their Health, Apparently

Last week's New York Times reported that exercise was basically magic, and urged us all to exercise for the sake of our health. Today, the New York Times is back, reporting, that unfortunately, no one wants to do anything for the sake of their health. As one motivational psychologist puts it: "The ‘health’ and ‘weight-loss’ brand of exercise doesn’t create desire in people to exercise on a daily basis. It makes the behaviors feel like a chore and a ‘should,’ which undercuts our desire to do them." But apparently we're not all doomed to be fat Muggles who won't work out just because it's good for us. There is an answer. And that answer is twofold: fun and friends. If you work out with friends and your workout is something you find fun, that's when the enchantment begins. 

Noon Stretch

A Little Help From Your Friends

Scientific

Fitter with Friends, HPV, and Leveling Obesity Rates

• Spending time with friends may help kids avoid obesity, says new research. In the study, kids paired with friends for a challenging activity showed much less interest in food than kids paired with unfamiliar peers. You gotta figure that's a little bit true for grownups too. 

Workout

these challenges will be... well, challenges

I have signed up for the Emergency Holiday Challenge, knowing that I love to overdo the merriment and cheer with cocktails, cookies, and anything cooked in duck fat. So this sort of proposed workout schedule is just what I need.