MetaFilter posts tagged with fitness and exercise

Stumptuous: From Dork to Diva to YouTube

maudlin — Thu, 07 May 2009 12:36:53 -0800

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.

5BX: When wishing is not good enough

rongorongo — Wed, 25 Mar 2009 17:52:27 -0800

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. Because so many people did these exercises over several decades there is quite a lot of medical research published on their effectiveness. Sports Science and litigation have moved on since the 50s so there are now some caveats about the detailed method for performing some of the exercises. Jon Walker incorporates a simplified version of the program into "The Hacker's Diet".

A short history of the bench press

jason's_planet — Wed, 04 Feb 2009 10:37:46 -0800

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

WiiFit vs. WiiFat

jbickers — Thu, 22 May 2008 04:42:56 -0800

"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. At the core of the issue is the program's use of BMI as primary indicator of physical fitness. But BMI isn't entirely reliable as a benchmark; by the BMI standard, more than half the players in the NFL are obese, and according to one opinion, BMI can play a role in over-diagnosis of anorexia. Previously.

Gyminee!

jbickers — Mon, 19 May 2008 13:49:42 -0800

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.

What is Fitness?

jason's_planet — Wed, 20 Jun 2007 08:46:58 -0800

“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.”

World-class pianist, figure skater, linguist, diplomat ... and buff babe?

rob511 — Tue, 28 Feb 2006 22:11:07 -0800

Rice, the rocket. Secretary of State shares fitness tips with early-morning DC news. Next week: Cyclin' with POTUS (schedule subject to change).

kettlebell hype

the cuban — Thu, 31 Mar 2005 03:48:19 -0800

With girya or kettlebell training you can hack the fat off without the dishonor of diet and aerobics.

Poodle-robics

Down10 — Wed, 24 Nov 2004 15:07:31 -0800

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)

NEEEEEEEEERRRRRRRRRRRRDDDDDDDSSS!!!!!!

Stan Chin — Thu, 04 Sep 2003 00:02:49 -0800

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.

Coop — Wed, 04 Sep 2002 18:38:04 -0800

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.