Archive for fitness commentary
ACSM vs. The Gurus
As you may know, the American College of Sports Medicine recently updated its exercise guidelines and released them last month (you can read the full position stand HERE).
Many people find the fitness industry about as frustrating as the stock market because we always seem to be up and down regarding what’s “optimal.” It’s no wonder our dogmatic ways get mocked:
The Antithesis to Childhood Obesity is 10 Years Old
Let’s Move over Michelle Obama!
10-year-old CJ Senter is on his own mission to end childhood obesity. While some youth are downing ding dongs and dying of blood clots due to sedentary behavior like playing video games, CJ (a.k.a., “The Workout Kid”) is shunning sweets in favor of vegetables, launching websites and making exercise videos to motivate his peers to get physical. Check it out:
Now, I’m sure some of you will say he’s too young to be training and should just be playing sports (which he does – baseball, basketball, football and track, to be exact), while others will think his parents are exploiting his athleticism in an effort to make money. There are likely even more that will say a 10-year-old fitness instructor only encourages more mockery of our industry.
Okay, I admit this probably won’t help us set a standard. But aside from CJ’s lack of experience and credentials, and some questionable plank form… I think what he’s doing is great. I just hope he’s not too upset when he finds out he didn’t actually invent “The Shredder” (a.k.a., the burpee)!
Let’s face it: Rebellious youth are way more likely to listen to this kid than some adult, especially a mother-figure like Michelle Obama (no offense), no matter how buff her arms look. If his exercise video gets a few more kids off the couch, it’s a little harder to dismiss as an insult, and I’m all for it.
What does everyone else think?
What if Everything You Thought You Knew Was Wrong?
Our industry is famous for blurring the line between fact and opinion, and debating the details of things that simply aren’t yet clear.
Take the spinal flexion debate, for example. Lead researcher in spine biomechanics, Dr. Stuart McGill, showed that repetitive bending of the spine can cause damage to discs. As a result, many of us (including myself) have since eliminated crunches and other abdominal flexion exercises from our programs.
But Bret Contreras and Brad Schoenfeld recently published this great article in the Journal of Strength and Conditioning that calls a few things into question. For example, they make the point that much of Dr. McGill’s research on spinal flexion was done using model pig spines, and therefore limited by the removal of musculature and supporting tissues. And as is consistent with Wolff’s Law, when stress is applied to a living tissue (provided it doesn’t exceed its physiological capacity and is allowed time to recover), the tissue remodels and grows stronger – suggesting that a live human spine may be more resilient to repeated bending cycles than that of a dead pig.
Shape-Ups Have Reached New Levels of Suckiness
In case you didn’t know, Skechers is now marketing Shape-Ups for girls…
And while there have been plenty of (legitimate) complaints that this may promote too much emphasis on aesthetics at a young age, Skechers argues that they’re really promoting a healthy, active lifestyle.
Personally, I don’t see how telling girls that simply putting on a pair of sneakers will increase their fitness level promotes healthy living any more than it does when we tell this to older populations… That, plus Shape-Ups don’t actually do what they claim!
Anyway, it’s an interesting debate, and you can read more about it here.
So Long Sit-up Test!
Along with the iPad 2 and some interesting comments from Charlie Sheen, this week saw the public release of the new Army physical fitness tests.
After 30 years of sit-ups, push-ups and long-distance runs, the US Army has finally joined us in the functional movement. From now on, the American soldier will have to run on a balance beam with 30-lb. canisters of ammunition, drag a weighted sled with 180 pounds worth of sandbags, and dodge obstacles while aiming a rifle instead.
The Army believes these types of challenges are far better indicators of a soldier’s ability to perform his or her duties on the battle field than were the previous tests, and training for them will produce more efficient fighters better able to protect our country, as well as themselves. (Army Wives are smiling now!) And while there are somewhat different standards for age and gender, all soldiers and officers are required to pass the same tests – even if their jobs are in an office.
The Army is also hoping to reduce injuries both on the job and as a result of repetitive exercise stress: ”This is about training smarter, not just training more,” Lt. Gen. Mark Hertling said.
I like it. I like it a lot.
The Biggest Loser In The UK
Looks like Jillian Michaels has some competition overseas: The Biggest Loser UK trainer Angie Dowds.
According to this article, Dowds got the axe for telling her team to starve themselves on a diet of only fruit and nuts. That’s worse than Jillian’s screaming, and maybe even as bad as her law suit-worthy weight-loss pills.
The only real question is, are the contestants losing weight, or losing out?
Program Design 101: 3 Tips To Make Your Life Easier
One of the biggest mistakes trainers and trainees alike often make is not understanding the difference between training and “working out.” Most people you see in the gym never take the time to plan and just wind up spinning their wheels.
What’s worse is that a lot of trainers take the same approach with paying clients. The sad truth is, few places in the industry actually teach the principles of program design.
Your Doctor Doesn’t Know Squat About Exercise
Fitness professionals are cautioned continuously not to overstep their scope of practice and attempt to “diagnose” or give medical advice; but turn the tables and it’s a different story. No one would ever ask a trainer to do a physical, so why do we ask physicians for exercise advice?
Sure, medical doctors have to study anatomy and physiology, but most of them know very little about human movement. Take The Biggest Loser “medical expert” Robert Huizenga, M.D. (possibly an even bigger problem on the show than Jillian Michaels), who helps design the morbidly obese contestants’ fitness programs.
In the February 2011 issue of Runner’s World, he’s quoted in a story as follows:
“Running is important in the contestants’ weight-loss journey because it’s the most efficient way to burn calories…That’s one reason we have the final four do a marathon. We want to encourage players to run as much as they can.”
Really?? Running is the most efficient way to burn calories?? Let’s ask Alwyn Cosgrove what he thinks about that. Heck, even the very same article alludes to the body of research showing long bouts of exercise (like marathons) trigger compensatory eating and aren’t the best way to shed pounds. Personally, I don’t see how crippling people so they’re forced to move less could possibly be an efficient way to lose weight, especially the amount of weight these people have to lose. According to the article, Dr. Huizenga thinks all the joint problems simply “go with the territory.”
It’s this kind of crap that holds our field back. Here we are trying to work together with the medical community to fight obesity while guys like this undermine our efforts and get away with giving bad advice just because they went to medical school. Newsflash: The fact that doctors can prescribe pills doesn’t mean they know how to prescribe exercise. If they did, we wouldn’t need the pills!
Don’t get me wrong, Dr. Huizenga is probably very smart and very good at what he studied at Harvard Medical School…which was immunology. I’ll even give him props for his efforts to stop obesity-related disease, and his emphasis on nutrition and having a “Yes I can” mindset. But the fact remains that he obviously doesn’t know anything about the effects of forces on the body if he’s preaching running as the cure for obesity.
I guess the “successes” on the show have nothing to do with the strict diets and 6-8 hours a day of exercise… The worst part is, The Biggest Loser contestants and millions of people who watch the show are being brainwashed into thinking they have to be in pain to lose weight – all because their exercise prescription is developed by an immunologist (and only slightly more qualified trainers).
For a safer weight-loss training program, check out the article on StrengthCoach.com (if you’re a member) called “Intelligent Interval Training” by Chris Kelly. Chris is also a contributor here, and he’s one who definitely knows his stuff.
Education vs. The Stability Ball
I had the pleasure of hearing some great presentations yesterday at the new FocusNYC – our first event of many!
Host Angela Corcoran brought up some pretty important points from ACSM’s Worldwide Survey of Fitness Trends for 2011.
If you haven’t yet seen the article, what do you think has been projected as the number one trend?
Click to find out…
Since you’re probably looking for the answer here instead, I’m going to hit you with a picture that will make you really rather look at that article:
Yes, A LOT has changed since the days of Arnold Schwarzenegger…
Kim Kardashian, Lunge Progressions and Food Safety
What do they all have in common?
Well…nothing, really, except that they all found their way into today’s post.
Not gonna lie: I don’t have anything particular I’m itching to write about today. And it’s a good thing, too, because the majority of my writing time right now really should be spent editing the remaining 325 pages of this physiology text (it’s coming, Marco!) and working on The Nightmare Before Christmas that is my 20-essay Research Design final takehome exam…
Thank you, Professor Scrooge, for the carpal tunnel syndrome!
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