The Subculture of Steroids and Performance Enhancing Drugs

  • December 8, 2009 9:59 pm

The past few years have been unkind to many of the world’s top athletes. Olympic hopefuls to MLB sluggers to Tour De France cyclists, have all fallen prey to intense scrutiny as we seek to maintain the image of a pure natural athlete. I am not going to talk in specific about any one athlete in particular, but rather the culture of altering our bodies by way of non natural processes.

Everyone wants to be the best, be at the pinnacle of whatever sport or activity they may be participating in. We get it in our heads that to beat everyone else, we have to give ourselves a one up and this is where steroids and other performance enhancing drugs (PEDS) enter into the equation. Sure there are side effects to their use, but they can be mitigated by incredibly careful, doctor assisted monitoring. What I mean is frequent blood work and hormone panels. 98% of PEDS users do not fit into this category of careful use. So why even decide to go that route? You are short changing yourself, determining that you will fail at achieving your goal without even trying.

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Dynamic Flexibility Part 1: What is it?

  • December 8, 2009 9:48 pm

The question on when and how to stretch and warm up is one that comes up often. It is one of those, made to complicated because we think about it too much things. And from all this thinking have spawned several myths which we will talk about here later on. But what people fail to talk about or do much is dynamic warmups.

Dynamic warm ups are not exactly new, but they have yet to go mainstream. What are they? Well its warming up your body by stretching through movement. Examples of this are lunges, side bends, high knees, back pedals, scorpions, side stepping, high knee skipping, Frankenstein walk and MORE! Descriptions will follow.

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Beating Down the Wall: Mind over Body

  • December 8, 2009 9:38 pm

There comes a point when all of us think that we can not go anymore. That another step would kill us, turn of the pedal drain what little energy we have left, rep under the weight of a barbell crush us. Well the truth is, you are thinking you can’t so how the hell could you possibly expect go any further? No matter what you are doing, this point is what many of us like to call the wall.

Time stops, its a surreal moment actually, and you are given a choice. I mean this very literally — your body actually asks your mind if it wants it to go further even though it may hurt, even though our bodies think we are spent and have nothing left to give. Those of us with the courage to take the harder path will say no, I want you to keep on going; whatever happens after that, I will deal with when the dust has settled.

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Alcohol and Your Heart: A Reason to Raise a Glass

  • December 8, 2009 11:38 am

Here is some health advice that we can all get excited about. Recent research is showing a stronger casual link between alcohol consumption and coronary health.

Before we get into the details let me say a few words. Drinking in this article will be defined as no more than one drink per day for women and no more than two drinks per day for men. Thus, we are not promoting in any way heavy drinking. Further, if you do not already drink do not start drinking because of this article. Most of the research in this area is new, and though it comes from prestigious institutions it is still not fully understood.

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What is fitness? A Misunderstood Word

  • December 7, 2009 10:59 am

When asked what it means to be physically fit, most people respond by answering that it means being athletic, thin, strong, fast or any combination of the latter. This is still a broad definition. Since this blog’s purpose is to help explain what fitness is and how one can be fit, I find it necessary to define the term.

For our purposes, fitness is the epitome of health. Now this might seem bizarre or incorrect, but a properly executed fitness regimen will provide excellent health benefits. Merely exercising and dieting by no means produce fitness though. For example, someone who runs everyday but is on a high carbohydrate, low fat and medium protein intake  diet is at risk of developing atherosclerotic disease, among a slew of other things. Fitness then is a compound measurement of many key areas.

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But, I Don’t Belong to a Gym

  • December 6, 2009 9:24 pm

One of the most widely circulated reasons that I hear as to why it is hard to stay healthy is someone saying that they do not belong to a gym. Who ever stipulated that being healthy required a gym membership? I think the reason  that people will resort to an excuse like this is because they do not know how to exercise without exercise equipment. Well let me see if I can help dispel the myth that being healthy requires a gym membership.

So what exactly do we do at a gym? Well, we either push something, which would be weights, pull something, or breathe hard which would be cardio. Now, unless you live in a box, I think it is impossible for anyone to say that they cannot do those three things in and around their house or place of work.

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Let’s Talk Basics: Weight Management

  • December 6, 2009 5:38 pm

Assuming that you do not have other health issues, how your body retains or loses weight is a relatively simple concept to understand. If after this post you have any further questions please leave comments below.

Let’s first preface this discussion with some basic math stuffs. Your body is like a battery, excuse the sorry analogy. To do work it must intake a sufficient level of calories to convert into usable energy, which in our bodies is ATP or adenosine triphosphate. At the end of the day, excess levels of ATP are stored as either fat glycogen or other sugar substrates… or excreted. This is a gross simplification but it is sufficient for our purposes.

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A Novel Beginning: Secrets To…

  • December 6, 2009 4:27 pm

When is the last time you heard someone or something tout that it was going to reveal to you the 5, 10 or maybe even 15, secrets that would turn your life around. 10 secrets to amazing fat loss, or 5 quick steps to rock hard abs, this kind of non-sense is everywhere. Let it be known though that a finite percent of these claims do contain useful knowledge and tips that will help you reach a certain goal an exponentially larger proportion are absolute bogus pseudo-science. Again, the purpose of this blog is to help you better understand what is real and what is not.

If you google secrets of fat loss, http://topsecretfatlosssecret.com/ is the first link that comes up. First let me say that anyone or anything that makes you buy knowledge relating to health and fitness is nonsense. This does not include trainers, dietitians, nutritionists or doctors as they are charging you more for a one on one assessment of your needs. Back to, “Dr Suzanne Gudakunst”. She is making the claim that all people who are overweight are overweight because their intestines plaque buildup that is preventing the digestion of food, but to remedy this you need to buy her secret.

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