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stumpblog! stump (n.) 1. The part of a tree trunk left protruding from the ground after the tree has
fallen or has been felled.
2. Informal: a leg.
3. A short, thickset person.
4. A place or
an occasion used for political or campaign oratory: candidates out on the stump.
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Old lady joins gym, hilarity ensues
Comic about lifting weights
Not the plot you'd expect. Start on June 30 and keep reading...
Posted: July 8, 2008 6:09 am
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'Cause kiddie Ritalin and Prozac are so last year
Cholesterol drugs recommended for some 8-year-olds to prevent heart disease
Hey, why aren't those DARE people all uptight about this?
Posted: July 8, 2008 6:06 am
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Make the girls earn their rent
"One day recently I had an idea. As I rode public transportation to the office, my messenger bag slung uncomfortably across my chest, I thought, 'Why not put the girls to work?' Human-powered devices are showing up everywhere, from Rotterdam's sustainable dance floor to human-powered gyms in Hong Kong. The time seemed perfect—perhaps even overdue!—for a bra that could harness the untapped power of breast motion."
More...
Posted: June 29, 2008 7:27 am
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Improve your genes with diet and exercise
(Reuters) Comprehensive lifestyle changes including a better diet and more exercise can lead not only to a better physique, but also to swift and dramatic changes at a genetic level, US researchers said.
The researchers tracked 30 men with low-risk prostate cancer, who decided against conventional medical treatment such as surgery and radiation or hormone therapy.
The men underwent three months of major lifestyle changes, including eating a diet rich in fruits, vegetables, whole grains, legumes and soy products, moderate exercise such as walking for half an hour a day, and an hour of daily stress management such as meditation.
As expected, they lost weight, lowered their blood pressure and saw other health improvements.
But the researchers found more profound changes when they compared prostate biopsies taken before and after the lifestyle changes.
After the three months, the men had changes in activity in about 500 genes - including 48 that were turned on and 453 genes that were turned off.
The activity of disease-preventing genes increased.
Posted: June 29, 2008 7:24 am
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Deleted scene from Bigger, Stronger, Faster
Some of you may have heard of the new film Bigger, Stronger, Faster, which looks at steroid use in athletics and bodybuilding. Here's an
interesting clip that wasn't included in the film. Watch till the end to see a fitness model discussing steroid use in women, and some of the effects of sustained "fitness" training, extreme dieting and drug use (as well as surgeries etc). I think you'll agree that these aren't great role models of wellness. I actually don't object to intelligent drug use nor other body modifications, but I do object to the ideas that these are people to emulate if you want to be healthy, and that their results are simply due to "regular exercise and good nutrition" rather than the surgeon's knife or the pharmacist's needle.
(Luckily, of course, there are always the Stumptuous Fitness Models keepin' it real...) Posted: June 19, 2008 6:12 am
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Sedentary behaviour and obesity
From the Dept of Obvious Research, sitting on your ass is associated with a bigger ass. Recent data from Statistics Canada's Canadian Community Health Survey confirmed that the more TV you watch, and/or the more time you spend hunched over the computer, the more likely you are to be obese. Quite intriguingly, though, time spent sitting and reading isn't associated with obesity.
Approximately one-quarter of people who reported watching television 21 or more hours per week were classified as obese. Conversely, people who watched the least TV (5 hours or less per week) were much less likely to be obese. When examined in multivariate models controlling for leisure-time physical activity and diet, the associations between time spent watching television and obesity persisted for both sexes.
More...
Posted: June 19, 2008 5:12 am
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Kiwifruit keeps you healthy, at least if you're a mouse
Kiwi extract enhances immunity in mice
Posted: June 7, 2008 9:09 pm
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Kimonoworld: Women talk about BJJ
A little video I made this weekend, with a few of my Kimonogirl teammates hanging around the gym, using up the last 10 min of camera battery, shooting the breeze about why us grrls lovez the jitz.
Kimonoworld
Posted: June 2, 2008 7:21 pm
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Sports(wo)manship
One reason I've kept competing in women's BJJ is because the camaraderie is so awesome -- we root for each other, coach each other, and realize that we have to stick together in a sport where we might be the only women in our entire martial arts school. This video exemplifies some of the best elements of women's sport (and, sadly, one of the most common injuries).
It also reminds me of the time I hosted a women's poker night. When one woman ran out of chips, another one asked the group plaintively, "Can we give Jane some more chips so she can keep playing?" Group hug! Oh, and then after a few more drinks, the evening degenerated into arm wrestling...
Posted: May 27, 2008 1:54 pm
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Muscle health
Muscle health is emerging as an important part of overall health. And, they say, when it comes to muscles, bulk does not matter. How big they can become depends on your sex as well as genetics. What matters for health is whether you use them.
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Confidential to the guy with the magic inability to grow muscle! First of all if you could not grow muscle you'd be a puddle of goo. Second, if you want to grow more, STOP RUNNING MARATHONS! Otherwise kwitcherbitchin. Posted: May 23, 2008 7:43 am
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No excuses.
A video about a guy currently at 620 lbs, who started out at 770, and who now teaches water aerobics and never misses a gym workout. Rock on! It's great to see how supportive the other gym goers are -- I wish every gym would be that welcoming.
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Posted: May 14, 2008 8:28 am
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Sticks to Stools: 7 Random Objects Sold as Exercise Machines
The specially designed Plastic Step Stool. It's special 'cause, ummm... it's purple.
My first thought is: whatta scam! My second thought is: how can I too get in on this? Here's my workout secret -- I call it Clay Soil In My Garden. I'll sell you a 50 lb bag of it for 3 easy payments of $43.99. Move that crap around for 500 reps, and enjoy.
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Posted: May 14, 2008 8:19 am
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Damn.
We don't need no steenking teams.
One girl wins the team title for track and field BY HERSELF. Now that's efficiency. Queried about whether she'd do more if rules hadn't limited her to five events, she said: "I don't think I could handle any more [events]. It was hot and I was tired." No shit! I'm tired just reading that. Amazing.
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Posted: May 14, 2008 8:06 am
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Hurt Girls
A site reader kindly sent along this interesting piece in the NYT magazine for discussion.
More... (requires free NYT login)
Two paragraphs in this piece sum a lot of things up for me:
The pressure to concentrate on a "best" sport before even entering
middle school — and to play it year-round — is bad for all kids. They
wear down the same muscle groups day after day. They have no time to
rejuvenate, let alone get stronger. By playing constantly, they
multiply their risks and simply give themselves too many opportunities
to get hurt.
I think that suggests a lot of where things go wrong in translating
fitness/exercise to competitive, managed sport. I think it speaks
to our priorities in organizing physical activity and how
sport is coached. Plus, I think it focuses a lot on a small handful of commonly played North American activities such as soccer and basketball. We know that sports involving running and jumping along with explosive lateral (side to side) movement have a higher injury rate.
This is the other paragraph:
"I'm not in any way suggesting that this topic should not be taken
seriously," she says. "We need to do everything we can do to prevent
injuries. But when you look at the stories that get told, that those
who cover women's sports are interested in telling . . . it does seem
that so little coverage focuses on women's accomplishments, on their
mental toughness and physical courage. There is a disproportionate
emphasis on things that are problematic or that are presented as signs
of women's biological difference or inferiority."
Posted: May 14, 2008 7:57 am
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Women CF'ers montage
A good montage video
showing women lifting heavy weights as part of Crossfit training. If you can get past some of the slightly gratuitous and apparently bosom-focused photos (and vaguely inappropriate title), this is a nice video to send round to friends, family and colleagues worried about getting "too big" and "masculine" from heavy weight training.
Posted: May 14, 2008 7:41 am
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Women umpiring baseball
From The Grass Ceiling: For a few years, women who umpire baseball all over North America have discussed, from time to time, creating a way to make it easier for us to network and communicate. I hope this site is the very humble beginning of a strong and lasting virtual place for us to come together and share ideas and stories, ask questions, find mentors, and have fun.
Also, in case you were wondering, Slate.com takes on the subject of
Why Doesn't Baseball Have More Female Umpires?
Posted: May 11, 2008 7:13 am
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Women Olympic weightlifters
Big Farmboy O-Lifter Ron reminded me about this incredible photo set showing the mad skillz and buff bodz of the Chinese Olympic weightlifters. Among them are some impressive photos of women lifters.
48 kg (106 lb) Yang Lian snatches 98 kg (216 lbs) and jerks 119 kg (262 lbs), both world records. She has said, 'There is no end for me to smash world records, but what I want most is the gold medal in the Beijing olympic games.'
For the non-O-lifters in the crowd, if you're a woman and you can clean your bodyweight, you're pretty strong. If you can snatch 2 x your bodyweight, you are a complete freakshow (and I mean that in the most admiring way).
Posted: May 10, 2008 6:23 am
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High intensity exercise: start doing some
Ryan Andrews over at Precision Nutrition splains the difference between high and low intensity exercise (not to be confused with the one-set-to-failure High Intensity Training method popularized by Mike Mentzer in the 80s). A great intro article to the subject.
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Posted: May 8, 2008 8:50 am
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Fat cells: your friends till the end
The number of fat cells in your body remains constant throughout your adult life, a new study has found. The discovery suggests that the process of weight gain may be fundamentally different in adults and in children.
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Posted: May 8, 2008 8:41 am
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Melanie Roach: Finding inner strength
The very impressive story of Melanie Roach, an Olympic weightlifting hopeful for the US team.
NYT article
Video
Posted: May 8, 2008 5:39 am
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