Just three minutes a week of exercise can help make you fit. That's 180 seconds out of 604,800. 'This apparently outrageous claim is supported by many years of research'. 'A few relatively short bursts of intense exercise, amounting to only a few minutes a week, can deliver many of the health and fitness benefits of hours of conventional exercise, according to new research.''But how much benefit you get from either may well depend on your genes.' [more inside]
posted by VikingSword on Feb 28, 2012 - 53 comments

Fit 2 Fat 2 Fit "My goal is to inspire people to get fit, teach them how to do it and give them hope that it IS possible to get fit and stay fit. " [more inside]
posted by Sassyfras on Nov 5, 2011 - 175 comments

Fitocracy is a social game that harnesses the power of feedback loops to promote fitness. [more inside]
posted by the man of twists and turns on Nov 1, 2011 - 41 comments

Couch Potatoes Explained - Missing Key Genes May Be Cause for Lack of Resolve to Exercise, Researchers Find. 'You may think your lack of resolve to get off the couch to exercise is because you're lazy, but McMaster University researchers have discovered it may be you are missing key genes.' 'The research appears in the current issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.' [more inside]
posted by VikingSword on Sep 7, 2011 - 67 comments

Why is the Planet Fitness chain of health clubs trying to alienate people who love to work out? [Via Slate.com] "Maybe you've seen the one where a greased up Schwarzenegger-type swaggers through the gym repeating the mantra, "I pick things up and put them down." Or the one where another "lunk"—that's what Planet Fitness calls these sorts of people—struggles to tie his shoes. A third shows a screaming gym buffoon as he fills out a membership application, flexing and making sound effects as if he's maxing out on the squat rack. "Not his planet, yours," reads the tag line."
posted by Fizz on May 9, 2011 - 187 comments

Team Gorilla is "a celebration of the functional athletic physique, and the effort needed to attain it." Because strong is the new skinny.
posted by Anatoly Pisarenko on Jan 31, 2011 - 51 comments

Everything You Know About Fitness is a Lie
posted by Anatoly Pisarenko on Jan 27, 2011 - 115 comments

"Feel better, look better and live longer" (video) was the credo of "Nutritionist, Author, Lecturer and Physical Culture Expert on Your Figure and Beauty", Jack LaLanne, who despite everything, passed away today of pneumonia at the age of 96, less than a week after the Slate "Fitness Issue" compared him to other "fitness gurus". [more inside]
posted by oneswellfoop on Jan 23, 2011 - 63 comments

Olga Kotelko is 91, and she has probably set more athletic world records—and will continue to set more—than most of us will in our lives. We all age, but she is aging differently. Scientists are trying to figure out why...but she is just trying to find someone who can keep up.
posted by dubitable on Dec 8, 2010 - 25 comments

Mark Twight, a prominent alpinist, is the founder of Gym Jones. His training of the actors of 300 has inspired "the 300 workout" as well as some detractors. (previously)
posted by Joe Beese on Aug 9, 2010 - 27 comments

The Fundamentals of Bodyweight Strength Training. [more inside]
posted by jason's_planet on May 8, 2010 - 23 comments

One thing is going to become clear in the coming years, Braun says: if you want to lose weight, you don’t necessarily have to go for a long run. “Just get rid of your chair.” "...Exercise does have an important role in weight loss. That role, however, is different from what many people expect and probably wish." And quite nuanced too. Turns out it's different for men and women and it matters what kind of exercise you do. [more inside]
posted by storybored on Apr 18, 2010 - 121 comments

International Gymnast Magazine reports the passing of trampoline inventor George Nissen, whose brainchild trained World War II pilots, transformed into an Olympic sport, and became a pop culture fixture.
posted by Chinese Jet Pilot on Apr 9, 2010 - 27 comments

Mistress Krista says: Only YOU can stop gym dorkery! Stumptuous, one of AskMe's favourite fitness sites, has both a spiffy new design and a bunch of new content (Why your excuses are crap; Lies in the gym; Things you should not lift if you want to look like Madonna). Beginners will find plenty of smart and blunt information about eating, starting and refining a training program, avoiding and recovering from injuries, and developing a home gym one way or another. But Stumptuous has also extended its domain to YouTube. Part of the original Dork to Diva web series on correct technique is now up at YT (deadlifts; biceps curl) thanks to the support of The Prevention of Gym Idiocy Society (Ladies' Auxiliary), but you can also find some more unorthodox exercise ideas.
posted by maudlin on May 7, 2009 - 21 comments

Bill Orban developed the "Five Basic Exercises" or 5BX program for the Royal Canadian Air force in the late 50s. Apart from the primary aim of getting people into shape it was designed to be simple to perform, to work on all the body, to require nothing in terms of special equipment or large spaces, to accommodate enough progression to cater for reformed couch potato and budding athlete alike and to fit into a time slot of 11 minutes including warm up. [Women, for whatever reason, were prescribed 10 exercises in 12 minutes with XBX]. The book of the exercises was translated into 13 languages and sold 23 million copies around the world before falling into obscurity in the 80s. [more inside]
posted by rongorongo on Mar 25, 2009 - 34 comments

A History of the Bench Press, by Sean Katterle (includes a list of 600+ pound classic bench presses)
All three variations of the press on back – prone floor press, belly toss and bench press – persisted relatively unchanged through the 1940s, but a hierarchy among them quickly developed. For bodybuilders the bench version gained dominance, and by the 1950s it was the king of upper-body movements
posted by jason's_planet on Feb 4, 2009 - 44 comments

"You don't tell kids that they're overweight ... This can have such a negative effect on young girls especially, that they can focus on eating and develop eating disorders." A professor of nutrition takes on WiiFit. [more inside]
posted by jbickers on May 22, 2008 - 73 comments

Gyminee is a truly excellent web app that lets you track workouts, nutrition and fitness goals. Prints grocery lists, lets you find workout buddies, etc. Very aesthetically pleasing, too. Considerably easier to use than Fitday, which a lot of people swear by.
posted by jbickers on May 19, 2008 - 15 comments

“What is fitness?”(large PDF) is an essay by the leaders of the CrossFit movement. The ideal they propose is an athlete who is “equal parts gymnast, Olympic weightlifter, and multi-modal sprinter or ‘sprintathlete.’ Develop the capacity of a novice 800-meter track athlete, gymnast, and weightlifter and you’ll be fitter than any world-class runner, gymnast, or weightlifter.”
posted by jason's_planet on Jun 20, 2007 - 51 comments

Rice, the rocket. Secretary of State shares fitness tips with early-morning DC news. Next week: Cyclin' with POTUS (schedule subject to change).
posted by rob511 on Feb 28, 2006 - 17 comments

With girya or kettlebell training you can hack the fat off without the dishonor of diet and aerobics.
posted by the cuban on Mar 31, 2005 - 19 comments

Mariko Takahashi's FITNESS VIDEO for being appraised as an "EX-FAT GIRL" A most peculiar entry from Panasonic's Olympic Games in Action summer promotion in Japan. From the artist: "This video expresses the joy of excercise. ...While I was trying to find something that both adults and children could enjoy, I saw a poodle with its 'muscle-like' hairstyle and I thought, how about a girl with muscles in the same places?" ...Possibly the most bizarre video I've seen all month. (38MB - QuickTime/Real/Windows Media Player req'd)
posted by Down10 on Nov 24, 2004 - 21 comments

Nerd Gym (43 pages o' flash) is about 80% hackneyed obvious jokes, but there's some gems here and there. Which is dissapointing, because I don't get enough of the "Cleaning the Spitten Coffee off of the Monitor" workout. It also has very little to do with driving a tricycle drunk or throwing a javelin limpwristed against the Alpha Betas.
posted by Stan Chin on Sep 4, 2003 - 7 comments

Couch potato lifestyle is worse for your health than smoking Poor diet and lack of exercise cause more illness than smoking, new figures show. The lifestyle of couch potatoes has overtaken smoking as the major cause of ill-health in EU countries for the first time, the World Health Organisation says. Great, now reading Metafilter is bad for me.
posted by Coop on Sep 4, 2002 - 12 comments