Sooo ... it's been a while. So long, in fact, that I had trouble remembering my log-in information for Survival of the Fittest. (But that could also be the "notable" cognitive decline that sets in by age 27 -- and I left that marker behind a while back.)
My apologies for the absence! Life has been a titch more hectic than usual, and I found myself needing to scale back in some areas to just keep my head above water. But, I've been stockpiling post ideas, and I'm ready and eager to emerge from hibernation. If you're still there, I'd love to hear what you guys have been up to lately. (Comments! Comments! We love comments!)
Allow me to kick off my return by unabashedly ripping off some noteworthy linkyloos from other blogs:
"Inspiring Business With Sport": Kevin Roberts, CEO of Saatchi and Saatchi Worldwide (the Lovemarks company), offers four reasons sport is important to people.
He examines the idea from the angle of the fan, but I would posit the same values apply to athletes themselves. My favorite was No. 4: "Sport inspires radical optimism," and offer "a story, a purpose to commit to and defend." Love it. Weighted Single-Leg Squats: A good video demo from Michael Boyle. Yes to single-leg exercises! Regardless of age.
"How to Fix Shin Splints": Tony Gentilcore posted this long-and-worth-it video from DieselCrew.com on treating shin splints. The protocol involves stretching the calves, improving dorsiflexion, inversion, and eversion, and doing soft-tissue work and ice massage. It's fantastico. (I've been taking an Italian language class -- impressed?)
"Mr. T Takes Up Rugby":As part of a simultaneously disturbing and uninspired marketing campaign for Snickers called "Get Some Nuts," Mr. T
attended a practice with the Saracens Rugby Club in England. He mostly
just stands around saying gruff, nonsensical things -- and not a single pitiable fool tried to tackle him -- but still. The video seemed like something I should share. (Note: You must be at least 12 to watch it. Unclear why.)
Sometimes I feel like the dog in this video. Meaning, I do things that don't make a lick of sense.
Like when I might, hypothetically speaking, peer into the refrigerator late at night at the fresh, delicious blueberries that are sitting beside the weeks-old fudge and think to myself, I choose fudge.
Take also Survival of the Fittest. I love it here (in no small part because of the highly entertaining and thought-provoking comments y'all leave for me), yet it's been three weeks since I've blogged. I have, however, made plenty of time for bad Christmas movies.
Part of it's the SAD season, part of it's the hectic schedule, but part of it, I think, is that sometimes you just can't trust yourself to make very good decisions.
So instead I'll provide links to a few of the things I *considered* writing about during the past three weeks. Here ya go, Linkyloos for Y-O-U.
LET JOHN BERARDI read you a "Bedtime Story" about nighttime catabolism (and how to fuel your muscles while you sleep). More on protein from Berardi here.
I THINK I'VE MENTIONED this Tony Gentilcore blog post about how to choose a high-quality fish oil, but it bears repeating. Because accidentally supplementing with heavy metals is really not the idea. (To read about heavy metal poisoning, check out "Weighing Heavy Metals.")
DO YOU KNOW what your gallbladder does? I don't have one anymore, and sometimes I miss it. You know, just because. Oh, Gary, we had some good times over goat cheese, didn't we?
THORACIC SPINE MOBILITY. Yes, I'm harping on that topic again (see previous posts here and here), but it's important. And because EL just published this article on the topic in the new Jan./Feb. issue.
I RECEIVED A PRESS RELEASE announcing a new Facebook app that "allows users to see what they would look like at their target weight. You upload a photo of yourself, specify how much weight you'd like to lose, and WeightView sends you back an image of yourself at your target weight." No, I will not provide the link; something about it strikes me as a Very Bad Idea. (But if you want to become Facebook friends, I am down for that.)
What do you think about this app: harmless or potentially problematic?Got opinions on other topics in this post? And, whatcha doing for New Year's Eve?
Since I haven't managed to produce a post all week, I decided to instead share a bunch of half-digested thoughts with you. Bon appetit!
All A-Twitter
I joined Twitter this week. I'm not sure I really get it yet, but my friend Tyshawn told me it's the next big thing. Because I told her it's the next big thing. (I read that somewhere.) If you'd like, you can join me, a pithy 140 characters at a time, at twitter.com/jensinkler.
Treating Ligament Sprains
I sprained my ankle during a rugby tryout last weekend. It's not terribly severe, but irritating nonetheless. Did you know that the old standby treatment for sprains, RICE (rest, ice, compression and elevation), isn't necessarily the best plan of (in)action?Or at least you might want to consider loosening up about the "rest" component -- some movement and stretching of the injured joint can help you heal faster and lose less strength in the process. Back in April, Matt Fitzgerald wrote a piece called "Back in the Game" for Experience Life; in it he details the best treatments for sprains, strains and contusions.
(You may notice that at the end of the article, we recommend doing squats on a BOSU Balance Trainer. While this may, at first glance, seem at odds with my previous post on why you should avoid BOSU squats, the difference comes down to healthy athletes versus injured athletes. Those rehabbing sprained ankles do benefit from lower-body unstable surface training, while healthy athletes do not. Both groups benefit from single-leg training on stable surfaces.)
Acupuncture can also help sprains. And I recently discovered community acupuncture, which makes treatment cheapity cheap.
The Matt Fitzgerald Club
In another bit from Matt Fitzgerald, he takes on the myth of lactic acid and muscle fatigue. And explains what really causes muscle fatigue: depolorization of cells, and the buildup of potassium. I won't do his blog entry justice, so just go read it.
OK, one more from Matt -- he addresses the role inflammation plays in heart attacks, diabetes and stroke in this blog entry. He's been killing it lately!
Fast and Strong
Andrew Heffernan of the Male Pattern Fitness blog did a nice job breaking down a recent study on the Interference Effect -- that is, on whether doing cardio interferes with strength-training results. And while speculation remains that long bouts of cardio may very well interfere with strength gains, the type of cardio done by the subjects in this study -- full-body, sprint-like drills between lifts -- may actually increase strength gains.
What Does a Carbon Offset Buy?
With all the traveling I've been doing lately, I've been thinking about buying offsets for the carbon dioxide produced by my flights. Frequent Experience Life contributor Laurel Kallenbach answers the question about what exactly you get for your money in this post.
What are Parabens and Why are They Bad?
By now, a lot of us know some of the ingredients we're supposed to avoid in our foods and products -- high-fructose corn syrup, sodium laurel sulfate, BPA and parabens, to name a few -- but I like to know why, too. Don't you? Best Health Magazine explains why you might want to go paraben-free when possible. (In a nutshell, parabens mimic estrogen and possibly cause breast cancer. In men and women.)
Reach Out for Rugby
This video, which I first saw on USA Rugby chair Kevin Roberts' blog, was created as part of rugby's campaign to get back into the Olympics. Entitled Reaching Out, it's a nice illustration of how sport brings people together. Or maybe I'm a just a sucker for that kind of thing.
What is "Normal," Anyway?
When showering after the aforementioned rugby tryout last weekend, in a room also equipped with a refrigerator and a lawnmower, my friend Pam turned to me and asked, "Do you ever look around and say, 'What is my life?!' I mean, should we still be doing this kind of thing?" You see, we'd just discovered I was the only one to bring a towel, and there were three of us rinsing off before hitting the airport.
Another teammate, Alison, chimed in with, "Anymore, when people ask me how my weekend was, I just say, 'It was fine.' Because what am I going to say instead? That after our game on Saturday, a bunch of us saw how many feet and various body parts we could fit into a tub of Epsom salts? And that afterwards, we decided to see how many rugby players could pile onto the couch in my hotel room? You know, just because.
I know what she means. During a pretty typical weekend, I could answer that question thusly: "During the trip to [insert city name here], I made my travel companions listen to the same four CDs on repeat. We played a game to pass the time that essentially involved pointing at cows and seeing who could yell 'Moo!' first. We took ice baths and taped jammed fingers and talked about the minutia of what we should have done with the ball when we had the chance. We commandeered the nearest Italian restaurant for team dinner and hardly recognized each other in eyeliner and street clothes. When I got home, I dressed my dog up as a bee."
[photographer and animal stylist: Angie Marfisi]
Add to the mix Ellie laughing so hard in the treatment room that she bent her acupuncture needles, or Chobot kicking up (and over) so hard into a would-be yoga headstand that she nearly took out Blaire, or Dana making up rules for the team that involve talking like a pirate, and you've got a clearer picture of my version of "normal."
But the thing is, I suspect everyone has a weird, secret life -- especially if you play a sport or work out with pals. Or have a family. Or pets, for that matter.
So with that in mind ... how was your weekend, really?
TONIGHT, I'M GOING TO THE PREMIERE of "Let It Out: The Movie," on athletes' and fans' favorite Olympic moments. And, I have VIP tickets because I interviewed Julie Foudy, the film's spokesperson, for Experience Life's July/August cover. Woo woo! But I'm not sure what exactly that means -- a free packet of extra-soft tissues, perhaps? Because you see, the aim of the 40-minute documentary, sponsored by Kleenex, is to reduce viewers to teary, snotty messes by the end, and I'm sure I'll comply. Download the trailer below, or visit www.letitout.com tomorrow, when the full documentary will be available for your viewing pleasure online.
A WHILE BACK, MY FRIEND HALVO (the same one who can do one-armed pull-ups) was complaining she couldn't find a good sports bra. My personal favorites are made by Built on Athletics, or B.O.A., in large part because of their unabashedly loud patterns. (Click on a style of bra, then consult the drop-down menu to see all of their pattern options. Ohhhhh, I shouldn't have done that -- now I am coveting-coveting-coveting the printed spaghetti strap workout bra with the "Birds" print.)
If the selection isn't vast enough for you and you see a pattern on one of their other items that's not available in a sports bra, that's possible, too. For example, if you MUST HAVE a sports bra in the "Bonehead Red" skulls pattern you saw in men's running shorts, B.O.A.'s gracious general manager, Brad Thompson, has offered to tack on any special orders to the print run they're just about to have (i.e., hurry). Just call him at 1-800-900-2120 and if he can do it, he will, at no extra charge -- they're just about making the customers happy over there. If you have other questions, call the 800 number above or email info@boausa.com.
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MORE ON THE DIFFERENCE between tendinitis and tendinosis at Mike Robertson's blog, and what you can do for patellar tendinosis. (Yet more on the topic of -osis vs. -itis in this post and this article.) ______
KELLY OVER AT FITNESS FIXATION lets us down gently about why we might not be able to carve out a six-pack. OK, not exactly gently ... but it's a good reminder to embrace the differences in how our bodies interpret what "fit" looks like. ____
THE INFORMATION IN this post on what to eat at different points in your menstrual cycle is really interesting. If I had a better handle on what I should be eating and when period (snicker snicker), I'd be all over it.
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WILL THE GREAT STRETCHING DEBATE ever be settled? Perhaps not, due to the anecdotal nature of the topic. Still, these two studies strive to learn a bit more. (If you're asking yourself, What debate? see here, here, here.)
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I READ A BUNCH OF smart and interesting perspectives on the much-hyped possibility of an "exercise pill" that boosts endurance, but I thought this MedHeadlines post was particularly good. Bottom line: No pill is going to have the comprehensive effects you get with the real deal.
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SO FAR TODAY, I've had "I Want You" by Third Eye Blind, "American Girl" by Tom Petty and "The Pina Colada Song" by Rupert Holmes stuck in my head at different points of time. Not only is that a fairly schizophrenic mix, but I haven't heard any of those songs today.
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