Weekly Web Fitness: None of the Environmental Articles

This week the blogosphere was all about the environment. I'm not covering any of that in this post. Not because I don't like planet Earth. It is, as The Tick said, where I keep my stuff. But I'm burnt out on hearing about it,and some of you probably are, too. So, instead a topic no ones bores of, heavy shoes:

These shoes are made for walking!
"Yet, the Muscletrainer is no shoe to be worn all day long. Each one weighs between 1 and 1.4 kg. And this weight is its strength. Walking in this shoe for 30 minutes, burns 300 cal more than what you would burn walking the same distance in the same time wearing ordinary shoes."

Using a metric converter I scientifically deduced that these shoes weigh something like 2 lbs each. This thing reads like an advertisement, so I'd like to read a study from a trusted source, but I googled them and couldn't find any mention anywhere. If the information is true, I'd suggest strapping on some ankle weights and saving your money.

Bigger Is Better, Except When It’s Not
This article mostly focuses on the benefits and drawbacks of height and muscularity in running, swimming, and rowing. I'll talk about kickboxing, since that's what I know.

Height is a huge advantage in boxing and kickboxing. Most successful fighters across the combat sport spectrum are tall with long arms. When no grappling is involved, reach almost always trumps strength, and even in mma stockiness is rarely an advantage (anybody see Tim Silvia fight Jeff Monson?), the contest being between the tall and muscular and the super-tall and lanky.

"That does not mean that parents should push their children into a sport based on their body type, exercise physiologists say. Most people who run or swim or do other sports, even competitively, do it because they love the sport, not because they are aiming for the Olympic Games. Many also choose a sport because they discover they are good at it."

This is a nice sentiment, but I'll point out that people usually like the sports they're good at.

BMI: "Freaking out about nothing"
Some insurance companies in the United States now use BMI to classify risk, and adjust their rates accordingly, which means that a person with a body mass index of 25 or 30 may pay more for health insurance than one with a BMI of 23. If a person is 5'6", the difference between a BMI of 23 and 25 is 7.5 pounds.
...
"A lot of people are just freaking out over absolutely nothing," she said, "when they're healthier than they think they are."

I hate the body mass index. It's ridiculous. If you're carrying a good amount of muscle, which is healthy for numerous reasons, your BMI will be worse than meaningless as an indicator of health, it will be absolutely false.

I'm currently trying out Yourself Fitness, a cool Xbox personal training program that, because it's not a prerecorded video, has endless permutations of 500 touted moves, from aerobics to step to strength training to yoga to pilates, and it tests you periodically and questions you to adjust the difficulty level. So far, I'm really impressed with it. Based on my high scores for core strength, it has given me some brutal exercises that have left my abs sore! I plan on giving you guys a full review of Yourself Fitness once I've spent some more time with it.

You can choose between several different goals. My focuses are flexibility and cardio. One thing that gave me a short flash of rage towards this otherwise delightful program is that because my height and weight place me as overweight according to the BMI, even though I rocked the strength tests, it suggested that my goal be weight loss. Grrrr.

5 Food Rules to Break

I don't talk too much about nutrition because I'm not a nutritionist but a personal trainer, so I feel more comfortable giving advice about something I'm certified to. Anyway, does anybody know what we're supposed to eat anymore? I'm really confused.