Exercise might make you less fit
It’s been a painful week for exercise. First, a review of six studies of physical exercise found that 10 percent of the subjects—people who exercised regularly—actually experienced a decline on one of four common measures of heart disease (blood pressure, insulin, HDL cholesterol, and triglycerides). Seven percent scored worse on two measures. So, for reasons...
101-year-old Fauja Singh finishes London Marathon
Fauja Singh has (again) broken the record for the oldest person to finish a marathon. The BBC reports that the 101-year-old Londoner (and proponent of ginger curry) posted a time of 7 hours and 49 minutes. That’s about a half-hour faster than his time at the 2011 Toronto Marathon, where he set the previous record...
North Pole marathoner thinks you could be more active
In a moment, we’ll get to North Pole marathon runner Dr. Andrew Murray. But first, consider this Easter thought: People sometimes talk about sports and competition and fitness like they are all the same thing. They are not. If you draw a Venn diagram of these three notions, you’ll see some overlap, but they are...
Booze: still bamboozling
People who exercise aren’t particularly puritanical. Often, they are the opposite: they can be dedicated (indeed, disciplined) sensualists, hedonists, in it for the endorphins, for the euphoria. So it’s no surprise that they seek the same buzz in other places, including the pub. A study by the University of Miami found that women who exercise...
The good news about your atrophying muscles is that maybe they aren’t
About a year ago one of the networks ran a story about a detective who found people who’d gone missing. The detective advised his colleagues to study the lost person’s photograph, then make a mental adjustment to accommodate the fact that he was over forty and had invariably lost muscle mass over the past few...
Nice racks in Amsterdam
Of all the videos you’ve seen of the Netherlands, this one is the least likely to make you dig into your IRA and call KLM. It shows a group of municipal bureaucrats from America touring the Netherlands to learn how that country has promoted bicycling. So, no windmills. Not much focus on the architecture of...
You’re “dramatically” more active today than in 1992?
The president of Sports Goods Manufacturers Association says you are, and it’s his business to know. The organization does an annual survey of Americans’ exercise activities, and it sees a boom in boomer sports. “Are the boomers playing more sports than 20 years ago? I think the answer to that is yes,” says Tom Cove,...
Fun run from the walking dead
Look at the face of a person skiing. OK, that sounds dangerous. Instead, look at the face of a person who has just made that final steep run and slid into the back of the lift line. Smiles. Maybe a look of steely self-satisfaction. Ruddy exhilaration. Actual human emotion. Now go to the gym...
The problem is that everything will hurt you
If you lift weights you can rupture an aneurysm. If you sit calmly at work or at home, you risk increased coronary disease (which is why some people insist on saying that “sitting is the new smoking”). If you run or play volleyball, you can damage your knees. There...
The world needs more exer-games
We have been telling people this for years: what the world needs is an exercycle hooked up to LCD display and a game console, so when you are training during these dark cold months you can stop watching Nancy Grace on the washed out TV at the gym and, instead,...
The New Apple iPod Nano (vs. Motorola’s MotoACTV)
Recreati wouldn’t normally review consumer electronics, but we’re making an exception for the new Apple iPod Nano. (Close readers will note that we’re capitalizing Nano even though Apple doesn’t. In English, the proper name of a thing is capitalized. We’ll bend on the intra-capitalization of iPod, but we have...
