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Stocking Stuffer
Eat More, Exercise Less, FIt in to Your Jeans
[Thanks again to Steve M. -The Eds.]
Enter the waistband stretcher, an ingenious device that you’d only know about if you spent way too much time reading SkyMall (like me).
Gearhead
The Latest in Wearable Hydration
[Via Steve M., our man in tech. -The Eds.]
I had my doubts. The Camelbak RaceBak hydration “vest,” is basically a tank top with a pouch on the back, and once you slip it on and shove the 72-ounce reservoir into it, it’s a little hard to ignore your sudden resemblance to Igor.
Review
Health Clubbing
Think polished concrete floors, and raw metal railings, and decadent, fur-covered ottomans: Equinox MePa is as close to night club as a gym can get. And that's not necessarily a bad thing...
Big Brother is Watching
Mio Digs Into Your Personal LIfe
For years, the biggest selling point of Mio fitness watches has been their ability to calculate your heart rate without the use of a chest strap. Apparently, that’s no longer enough. The company’s newest offering, the Mio Stride, wants to know what you ate for lunch, and with whom you slept last night.
Gymlife Exclusive: Mix 1 Berry. The unvarnished report.
You're rushing from a late spinning class, late to your evening engagement. Desperately dehydrated, still spacey, no time to wait for the smoothie bar kid to fire up the VitaMix. Dinner still more than an hour away. You scan the beverage fridge. F--k it, you'll shell out for one of those fancy performance drinks -- quick, while the register is open!
The Cheerios Challenge
Friends with kids stayed in my apartment, and they left behind a family-size box of Cheerios which screams at me every day: "Take the Cheerios Challenge!" Apparently, if I eat Cheerios every day for six weeks, I'll lower my cholesterol 4%. "Why not?" I thought this morning. "At least I'll finish the damn box." Went directly to CheeriosChallenge.com, a wonderful bright yellow place with music and nice people. Was about to sign up, but then I thought: "4%? Huh? Is that really worth it?" You're thinking: "Of course not! This is marketing, dummy." I know, but I had come this far.... So, I went looking for supporting evidence.
And I found the excellent blog What to Eat which notes that Cheerios claims to be the only cereal "clinically proven to reduce cholesterol," but that the study in question dates from 1998, and is 1.) long since out of print, and 2.) very likely funded by General Mills. Turns out it was.
Top Six Fitness Myths of All Time...
...as compiled by the not-for-profit American Council on Exercise (or "ACE"), which was kind enough to poll 1,500 ACE-certified trainers and fitness instructors:
- Women who lift weights will get bulky muscles.
(So, ladies, put down the lame-o, pink, 2lb dumbell and step up to the Big Iron.) - Spot reducing is possible.
(Huh? This makes us uncomfortable. Quick Google check. Phew. In trainer lingo, "spot reducing" means trying to reduce the size of one part of your body. Like, say, your butt. Nothing related to lunar cycles here. Keep moving.) - No pain, no gain. (Hey ACE dudes, don't fuck with words I've lived by since Junior High. Not cool.)
- Exercise requires a hefty time commitment.
(Very true, but if you're actually going to break a sweat, I find it takes at least an hour and a half, door to door.) - If you exercise, you can eat whatever you want.
(So stop it with the Foie Gras and Bluefin tuna crackers.) - There’s a magic bullet (quick fix) out there somewhere.
(There isn't?)
(Via That's Fit.)
FYI: The photo credit goes to Mythbusters, the Discovery Channel TV show, which we do not believe has any formal affiliation with the ACE.
Review
Tim Haft is Committed
Monday night. The gym at the 14th Street Y. 20 or so New Yorkers jumping rope and listening to the Rocketz singing Killing. For those not familiar, the Rocketz are a hardcore/rockabilly band, and K-I-L-L-I-N-G is loosely based on the nursery school rhyme about two people sitting in a tree k-i-s-s-i-n-g.... What killed me was the fact that Tim Haft, our leader, asked us to spell out the word while jumping, i.e. front and back, side to side. That's really all you need to know about Punkrope: as fitness classes go, it's so nutty, and yet done with so much commitment, that it approaches some form of alt. fitness genius.
Substance Control
The Caveman Cometh
Testosterone Nation is a massive online community of body-builders. Thousands of readers sharing war stories, workout tips, and muscle shots. You might think they're all sad 'roided out ex-football jocks, or else scrawny 17-year-olds with Wal-Mart bench presses drinking Joe Weider protein shakes. But actually the level of discourse can be very high. You will not find a more detailed - if goal oriented - discussion of diet and metabolism anywhere.
Consider this gem of an interview, posted today, with a 34-year-old native of Santiago, Chile known online as Caveman. Our man is 5'9" and weighs 220 pounds -- up from a mere 160 when he was in college -- and is clearly very dedicated to his practice. Caveman's key insights?
Equinox Responds to Global Crisis
Harvey Spevak is the CEO of Equinox. As the world's economies have collided like so many cars caught in a chain-reaction accident on the Interstate, Mr. Spevak rushed in as if he were an auto-body mechanic caught on the scene. "We are in a unique position to help our members maximize life," he wrote shortly after Lehman Brothers and AIG had crashed and burned. "Our members and prospective members are counting on us more than ever to provide community and support and help them de-stress and maintain a healthy life." True dat: as the Dow has plummeted, gym traffic has, in fact, spiked. Spevak's challenge as businessman and self-appointed Global Life Coach is to keep 'em coming back (for their sake!) And so, in a separate mailing, came the Equinox Crisis Response Plan, dubbed "Mind over Madness."
Health Clubbing
Think polished concrete floors, and raw metal railings, and decadent, fur-covered ottomans: Equinox MePa is as close to night club as a gym can get. And that's not necessarily a bad thing...
Tim Haft is Committed
Monday night. The gym at the 14th Street Y. 20 or so New Yorkers jumping rope and listening to the Rocketz singing Killing. For those not familiar, the Rocketz are a hardcore/rockabilly band, and K-I-L-L-I-N-G is loosely based on the nursery school rhyme about two people sitting in a tree k-i-s-s-i-n-g.... What killed me was the fact that Tim Haft, our leader, asked us to spell out the word while jumping, i.e. front and back, side to side. That's really all you need to know about Punkrope: as fitness classes go, it's so nutty, and yet done with so much commitment, that it approaches some form of alt. fitness genius.
well, very high marks for blogging, and helping mom, and please note there's still lot's of October left, and never say never, and also we'll be here for you in November too....
Posted in response to: Paying The Prize For Winter Running
Standing ready to poke and prode. Also, question for quant jocks, which I'll post for everyone eventually: Now that we've got this Workout Post, we could easily add fields to capture workout-related "stats." The question is, what exactly would be good in its own field? Duration? Distance? Calories? These are the things we're considering, and it gets sort of complex quickly. (And we want to avoid clutter.) But if there was any one (or two or three) thing(s) that you might want to track over time in a more structured way, let us know, and we can try them out on the form.
Posted in response to: gettin joggy with it
How's it going with the girl these days?
Posted in response to: A Week at Equinox: Day Three
Beautiful scenery.
Posted in response to: Gentlemen and Yogis
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Posted in response to: The Caveman Cometh
on 2 years 31 weeks ago by gymlife-admin