Pathology on parade

A new essay from Exuberant Animal takes on the “physique-industrial” complex and skewers the bejeezus out of it with savage, toothsome brilliance.

Get in touch with your inner fat

Pursuant to a discussion elsewhere on the site about fitness and fatness, this article provides a useful explanation of the distinction between subcutaneous (ie. under the skin) and visceral (ie. around internal organs) fat. Are you a Tofi?

Get in mah belleh!

Fun link from Ninja M, The Belly Project. Documents women’s tummies, most after pregnancies. This one gives me a warm fuzzy. Guess what, your belly is probably pretty normal.

“Hard week”

In hindsight I feel like I barely worked out at all last week. It was supposed to be a light week for recovery, but the volume was way lower than I am used to. This week, however, is designated as a hard week, with a lot more interval training and conditioning, plus another hour of […]

Are young athletes too focused?

A recent column considers the question of early specialization among young athletes. It argues, in part: “The problem isn’t with trying to identify potential blue-chip athletes at an early age. It’s the pressure of one-sport specialization that eliminates too many kids’ multisport experiences and creates false expectations of superstardom in those who do get into the game…

NSAIDs and stomach damage

Many active folks have little ouchies from time to time. Rest, ice, and anti-inflammatories is the most commonly prescribed athletic trifecta. But be cautious: NSAID, or non steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs, are not harmless. Indeed, they often come with quite significant side effects, particularly to the gastrointestinal tract. An overview from Johns Hopkins describes some of the problems…

Last day of first week

Yesterday was my high-carb refeed day. I feel yucky today. This is the last day of my “easy” week, which is good because I just don’t feel like I trained very much last week. Next week is marked “hard’ and it involves a lot more conditioning and longer strength sessions, but with the same diet […]

Foraging, Canadian-style: The donut store

A couple of weeks ago I was traveling in California, and got down on the US as the Great Satan O’ Sugar. This past week I was traveling in Canada, so it’s time for equal opportunity finger-pointing…

Grappling

I got some very exciting news tonight. But I have to wait to share it until it becomes awesomely exciting news. But on to training. Tonight I rolled with Mark, my instructor. Delightful and humiliating, as always. Apparently there are funny pictures of the event. Mark also showed me a cool new wrist lock and […]