Legendary running coach Arthur Lydiard died this weekend at age 87. Q and A with Lydiard
here. Obit via Boomberg
here. NYTimes obit
here. Lydiard had been travelling through the US on a final lecture tour. Among distance runners Lydiard is a hero. Two of his athletes won gold medals for New Zealand at the 1960 Olympics, and
Peter Snell went on to dominate the middle distance running at the 1964 Games, taking home two gold medals, the only man since 1920 to win both the 800m and the 1500m. Lydiard coached Mexican, Japanese and Finnish runners to Gold medal performances, and his philosophy of training has influenced countless other runners. Finland thought that he was important enough to the success of their runner's to award him the White Cross (eq. of a knighthood), making him the only non-Finn to be given the award. Lydiard's approach was high-mileage, aerobic conditioning. Even his middle distance runners trained 100 miles/week. He felt that too many athletes were training for speed first and endurance second. One of his lectures, explaining some of the science behind his theories, is
here.
posted by OmieWise
on Dec 13, 2004 -
10 comments
Pole dancing? It's the new Yoga. Just ask the people behind
PoleTricks 101:
"Women all around the country are finding out that pole dancing is a sexy way to entertain your man (or men!) Not only that, it's good exercise and just plain fun. PoleTricks 101 is dedicated to bring you the training, the equipment, and the satisfaction of dancing with the sexiest of all props... the pole!" Just $549.00... [via
linkdump]
posted by feelinglistless
on Mar 7, 2004 -
14 comments
Punk Rock Aerobics. "Punk Rock Aerobics: The work out that rocks out. No more sucky classes full of braindead bimbos in spandex thongs. PRA is for fun people with discerning taste. An hour and a half of cardio and strengthening class that will have you pogoing and skanking your butt off!" Brought to you by Maura and Hilken (the latter of the band
fuzzy). As they say on the
mission page: "Free your mind and your ass will follow."
posted by moz
on Jun 8, 2002 -
12 comments
Jazzercise Eats Its Words after being accused of weight bias. MeFites may recall the
heated discussion this story originally garnered (and the associated
firestorm in Metatalk) when Jazzercise refused to hire an instructor that did not meet their "fit appearance" criteria. They have since changed their policy
"based upon the information and research that perhaps it's possible for people of varying weights to be fit." The barred instructor has gone on to start her own successful aerobics franchise based on her "fitness-at-any-size" philosophy.
posted by johnnyace
on May 8, 2002 -
46 comments
The latest exercise craze "Aerobic stripping". "I get people to move in a figure-eight with their hips," Costas said. "There's a lot of body rolling, starting with your chest, rolling down through the abdomen and through your buttocks. There's also a lot of touching yourself, and the session finishes in lap dancing." Where do I sign up?
posted by Steven Den Beste
on Sep 9, 2001 -
6 comments
I have no doubts that people will get exercise from watching
this workout video, but somehow, I don't think it's going to be aerobics. Check the reviews, I didn't even know there was a genre like this. This is the weirdest thing I've ever seen at Amazon, anyone seen anything weirder?
posted by mathowie
on Sep 16, 2000 -
13 comments
