<p>You know what I fully blame for women of my age range? Gym class and team sports. I can’t imagine a stupider way of trying to teach lifetime fitness skills than what they did to us. First off – choose your teams. Really? Popularity contests, so we can all see the popular kids fight over who gets the fat kid? (And I wasn’t even the fat kid.) Second – team sports – so if you’re uncoordinated, your whole team can laugh at you? Without ever teaching the rules – they just threw you out there to play baseball or volleyball or whatever. Dodgeball was a relief – pleasepleaseplease hit me and then I can sit down and be done with this already. Not to mention that very few Americans get fitness through team sports or sports that require a partner - tennis being the one exception. They do so through individual pursuits like running or taking classes. I MUCH prefer how they do it today - where it’s about finding your own activities (walking, running, using machines, yoga, etc.) that can form the basis for lifelong fitness. So hearing that jock-y “too good for a fitness center” – sorry, it really turns me off.</p>
<p>I didn’t get the feeling that anyone is too good for a fitness center - it just may not be there place of choice to exercise. Just like someone preferring outside pavement over treadmill. </p>
<p>While I do give anyone kudos for exercise to whatever degree, smoking might be a place where I’d draw the line - or should I say, I just don’t get it. I personally don’t get it. (like my D once said when she was younger - “how can anyone ever think that smoke coming out of your body is a good thing?!”)</p>
<p>Oh, I don’t get smoking either, one bit. I think it’s nasty and gross and disgusting and yuck on all possible levels. I’m just saying – sometimes people can only take x number of steps at a time towards a goal.</p>
<p>I remember spending many hours at the Boston College Recreation Complex. It had a wide variety of things to do and you could do them or not do them. They added far more group activities after I left - fitness classes of various sorts. They had an indoor track, two Universal gyms, basketball, tennis, squash, table tennis, diving pool, swimming pool. You could mostly do what you wanted without having people bothering you about it. I think that that’s a common model at colleges today.</p>
<p>Great stuff on the fish oil article. I appreciate the closer look and critical analysis. Thanks to all who posted.
Yesterday was a rest day. Also 2 glasses of bubbly.
Kettle Bell class today.</p>
<p>Speaking of treadmills… Mine saved my running plans last night! By the time I finished work and my marketing assignment, it was close to 10:30 pm. No way I was going outside to run my 8 miles at that time of the night! I hopped on the belt and played the hamster in the wheel for about an hour and 10 minutes (took it easy and slow). Of course, I much prefer to run outdoors, but there are some circumstances that warrant treadmill use. What I do not get is someone driving for 30 minutes to the gym from their nice neighborhood with sidewalks and a school track to a gym to run on the machine for 30 min! On a nice, sunny yet not too hot summer day! :)</p>
<p>Thank you for shredding the fish oil study to pieces, nre! I know that I can always count on my fellow CCers to take care of junk science and poor journalism when I do not have the time!</p>
<p>Initially I didn’t think I’d like the treadmill at all because I have some pretty places to run outside and enjoy the scenery. I’m willing to drive to run where I want. I also wish to avoid running on concrete sidewalks. As it’s turned out I see the treadmill has its advantages. I get to hang at the gym, which is fun. See the people, be a part of the energy. Obsess over numbers. Run on a flat surface that is easy on the joints. Go with my husband on occasion when he’s heading out for a swim. Intervals are nice to do on the treadmill. There’s the option of a medley workout if I so desire, using some of the other equipment available as well. Yeah, I like it pretty well, and I still like running outside, too!</p>
<p>I do like the convenience of just being able to “run” out the door and exercise. At the same time, I get kind of tired of my immediate neighborhood and all the “blocks” - meaning all the street crossing and watching for cars because of it - I’ve become pretty creative about new routes - even close to home - and I will sometimes hop in the car for a very short drive to a nearby park or trail to run for a change of scenery. :)</p>
<p>I know there are bad aspects about team sports, but to paint it so negatively with a broad stroke, well … </p>
<p>The life lessons that team sports offers are invaluable. Team building, friendships, working towards common goals, working toward individual goals, etc. Sports and team sports for girls/women have come such a long way since Title IX. Admittedly girls /women’s sports/team sports were a joke in the 70s and somewhat in the early 80s. </p>
<p>The time and commitment it takes to reach and compete at a varsity level is a true accomplishment for many boys and girls. IMHO the playing field as well as the academic classroom are both important.</p>
<p>Thanks for the fish oil stuff. I figured out pretty quickly that the breathless media reporting of these studies is so bad as to be laughable. You really have to step back and question anything regarding health or fitness or diet that makes it into the popular media. It’s horrible.</p>
<p>Here’s a great example. We all “know” that hot dogs kill you “because of all the nitrites”, right?</p>
<p>Well, guess what. Here’s a list of foods that all contain the same amount of nitrites:</p>
<p>Ruh, roh. I guess those salads I eat cause cancer! And, guess what they do to make “nitrite-free” meats? They substitute celery juice for the sodium nitrite. The actual nitrite level is much, much higher in “nitrite-free” products than in regular hot dogs or bacon, they just don’t have to list it in ingredients. “Celery juice” sounds so natural, right?</p>
<p>It’s literally a case of the more “they” (public health and media) try to “teach” us about healthy eating, the less we know about healthy eating.</p>
<p>I’ve always hated athletes being labeled “jocks” (FYI few people wear jocks anymore. Never heard my daughter or her friends use the term so I wonder if it is just an old persons term now?) just as I’ve always hated labeling people “nerd”, “freaks”, “band geeks”, etc.</p>
<p>I understand. It’s actually pretty easy to understand. Nobody enjoys smoking. They enjoy the relief of putting an end to drug withdrawal when the nicotine hits their brain 8 seconds after the first puff and releases a flood of dopamine. The physical addiction is quite insidious. The nicotine hijacks key brain receptors so that, for nicotine junkies, all the normal stuff (like food, warmth, etc.) is largely blocked from releasing dopamine. In effect, nicotine is required for any normal feelings of basic contentment. An hour or two without nicotine for a junkie and the drug withdrawal symptoms start.</p>
<p>The model of smoking as a “habit” or “behavior” is fundamentally flawed. It’s driven by brain chemistry and the action of an insanely-addictive drug.</p>
<p>Having seen how that works, I think I was naturally receptive to the concept that obesity is probably controlled by physiological and brain chemistry conditions as well. They know that certain foods (sugar) work in the same brain chemistry pathways as nicotine and are tied to this dopamine rewards pathway. On top of that, you’ve got some very powerful hormonal states that are tied to energy storage/metabolism.</p>
<p>Sorry enough of my thin skin. Back to exercise!</p>
<p>Only worked a 1/2 day to get an AlterG session in. Mile warmup and warmdown. Did 5 consecutive 5 minute miles gradually increasing the weight - 70/75/80/85/90% weight level. Knee felt good after yesterday’s cortisone shot. No aches and pains.</p>
<p>Anyone know how to make some healthy snacks and would like to share their recipe? I am tired having to snack on some unhealthy snacks late at night when I eat clean throughout the day. I’m talking about tuna sandwich, Turkey sandwich (high in sodium), …</p>
<p>3.45 mile walk with some running intervals. Daily planks & other stuff. The only time I had to be careful with the calf was when I tried to run after walking up the big hill. Hills are the devil (at least to my calf).</p>
<p>Pizzagirl, I don’t think PE classes were actually meant to teach us lifetime fitness skills back in our day. Things are different now, and maybe better, I don’t know. I always loved PE. I’m a happy jock(ette).</p>
<p>This one is from Chris Mohr, PhD sports nutritionists (he did the food menu/diet stuff in the random exercise book I recently found on the internet)</p>
<p>Turns out that all of the subjects had pretty low levels of Omega 3s in their blood, certainly compared to populations in fish-eating countries. Dividing them into “quartiles” made it seem like there was some real difference in groups, but there really wasn’t. It was this low overall level of Omega 3s that led to the headlines that “just eating fish once or twice a week could cause prostate cancer”.</p>
Run on a flat surface that is easy on the joints. Go with my husband on occasion when he’s heading out for a swim. Intervals are nice to do on the treadmill. There’s the option of a medley workout if I so desire, using some of the other equipment available as well. Yeah, I like it pretty well, and I still like running outside, too!</p>