Social Workout

Gym Scenes

A Play In One Act: Mortification In The Weight Room

The Scene: YMCA weight room, overrun by Russian Mole People.

The Players: Kim — Trying to overcome her fear of the "big man" room by wearing weight lifting gloves, carrying a clipboard of strategically planned exercises, a bright pink shirt (nothing says I own you quite like fuscia), and an iPod. 

Kim's iPod (from here on out known as arch nemesis) — Newer model, no longer stops playing music when earbuds come out; instead has speakers which broadcast your genius musical tastes.

And the scene begins...

New York

SW Labs

Motivation Through Technology

If I could have sex with anything in my gym bag it would be a little doohicky I attach to my sneaker. I have never in my life before owned anything by Nike (because I apparently live under a rock) but the Nike+iPod gizmo is by far the most motivating fitness fad I've succumbed to. Best $30 I have ever spent and here's why:

Online & Video

Tracking

My Favorite Sites (Other Than Social Workout!) For Internet Sweat

Feel like obsessing about your fitness, weight, lack of direction in life while you should be doing something productive for society and/or your boss? Have I got some sites for you. The interwebs is a magical place full of little nuggets of self-improvement obsession and time wasting.  From ExerciseFriends (like internet dating, but more immediately sweaty) to Dailyplate (where you can stalk your meals and the meals of your friends), all of the below are gratis, because the internet is best when it's free (I'm still mourning the early days of Napster).

Snapshot

Jen Has a Bottle of Olive Oil on Her Desk

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: Jen, aka whatodds. A bit of context, Jen's a Canadian living in Doha, Qatar. 

• What do you wear to the gym? Lululemon crops and t-shirt, almost exclusively now. It's essential for us be modest in a Muslim country, so shorts and tanks are always out but on the weekends when no one is around, we roll up our t-shirt sleeves and try to get some sun.
• What are you just never going to try? Pole dancing! For one thing, I live in Doha, so there's nowhere to practice. Secondly, I am the sweatiest girl you'll ever meet; it would be a bad scene. 

What's In Your Gym Bag?

He's Packing Protein and Strobe Cream

"What's in Your Gym Bag?" is snooping around inside yet another New Yorker's gym bag.

Who: Jay, Makeup Artists

What's in your bag, Jay?

1. GNC Pro Performance Whey Protein, vanilla flavored. For pre and post work out nutrition. 
2. Jock strap. Everything needs to be in place for when I do dead lifts and squats. 
3. MAC Cosmetics Strobe Cream. It moisturizes and energizes my skin. 
4. Water, definitely water. 
5. iPod, this week I'm listening to J.Lo's "Louboutins" cause she's taking back her love!!

New York

At least I can eat sugar today...

I'm a bit grumpy.

I got an iPod which is also a pedometer. That's good. But it has no belt clip and when I'm at work I don't have pockets. That's bad.

So I bought an OK case (I thought you'd still be able to see the purple iPod underneath but case more opaque than I imagine when I bought it) and now the iPod isn't as touchy!

Other Places

Workout Gear

You Have to Run To Hear the Music

"Dancepants" collects your kinetic energy and uses it to play music. If you stop moving, the Dancepants MP3 player stops working. But as long as you keep, dancing, running, shuffling, whatever, the tunes keep pumping. Created by a team of Lithuanian designers, the pants of Dancepants are the power connector between your feet and the MP3 player, so you'd have to work out in the same pair of pants every day if you wanted your MP3 player to work. Assuming there'd be some washing involved, that might outweigh the environmental benefits of not plugging in your MP3 player for a periodic charge. But whatever, Dancepants are still cool.  

Workout

...and then I put my ipod shuffle in the washing machine...

I've long contended that I would never workout if not for group fitness classes, and I suppose I should stick with them -- I spent an hour spinning by myself on Sunday evening.  I loved listening to my music, feeling it and working up a well-deserved sweat.

Newslinks

The Pill and iPods will Kill You. Mararthon Running Will Not.

• The New York Times jumps into the debate over whether or not humans are really built to run long distances. Tentative answer, yes.
• Closely related: Edward Norton is running the New York Marathon with a group of Maasai Warriors. Celebrity marathoners are the best.
• Are you always cold? Maybe it's because you're a woman. Or maybe not, says the Times. 
• If you have a pacemaker, iPod headphones can kill you, NPR reports. Magnets. Interference. This is only problematic if you rest headphones directly on your chest with the music cranked. Solution: Don't do that. 
• A new study shows that the least healthy cereals are the ones most aggressively marketed to children. 
• New research shows a diet of junk food dulls the pleasure centers in rats' brains, leading to compulsive overeating. 
• Bad news: Research out of Loyola University shows that birth control pills nearly double a woman's risk of stroke. The pill also makes you sniff out guys who are least genetically compatible with you, says another oldie but goodie of of a study.
• New research shows only the first ounce of protein consumed in a meal goes toward producing muscle, so if you're trying to bulk up, you can quit eating all those extra chicken breasts for dinner.  

Link Love

Free Will is an Illusion (Except for SocialWorkout Challengers)

• There's a new Michelle Obama action figure. We're not sure how the rights to these things get negotiated, but we want a piece of the action (as taxpaying Americans). Look out Barbie! Michelle has guns, and cool clothes, and maybe she'll come with a little plastic basket of local veggies. And a Barack doll would totally crush Ken. He'd have hot pecs, a kung fu grip, and a tiny, plastic framed Nobel Prize.
• The winner of Milwaukee's Lakefront Marathon was just stripped of her title because she used an iPod, which USA Track and Field considers a "performance-enhancing device." I've been telling you these playlists are powerful, right?
• A new study published in the Journal of Consumer Research shows that our choices to indulge or show self-restraint aren't based on our personal virtue. They're pretty much 100% based on the language marketers use to present the choices. We're pushovers.
• NPR reports, though, that a soda tax could raise $150 billion over the next ten years. Maybe if we have to pay for all the sugar we're glugging, we'd shake ourselves free of Madison Avenue mind control.
• Spice cougars: The Spice Girls are planning a comeback, but they're not saying exactly in what capacity. Recall that Mel B. and Geri are both fitness gurus. We're rooting for a Spice Girls Wii Fit Dance game. Maybe they'll do a choreographed routine with the new bike, and the even newer plastic, seven pound dumbbells.
• This month is Breast Cancer Awareness Month, and before you go crazy for all that pink packaging, you should know that it's maybe just a marketing ploy, and you're better off donating. Just saying.