Tag: article roundup

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The Best Health and Fitness Articles of the Week #102 – Bone Injury From Running in Barefoot Shoes, Losing Weight With Cold Exposure and a Possible Cure for World Hunger

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Study: Vibram FiveFingers Lead to Greater Risk of Foot Bone Injury

If you’re a runner and plan on transitioning to barefoot shoes such as the Vibram FiveFingers, you may want to give yourself plenty of time to become acclimated to them. A 10-week study of 19 people running in Vibrams resulted in 10 of the runners getting foot bone injuries, two of which suffering full-blown stress factures. If you want to prevent the same from happening to you, consider taking loger than 10 weeks and focusing on low intensity runs.


Aftershokz: Bone Conduction Headphones

These are sweet! I always wear only one headphone when I’m doing things like riding my bicycle, sitting at my desk working or mowing the lawn because I don’t like not being able to hear surrounding sounds. These headphones look like the perfect fix. I would love to try these out.


The 17 Weirdest Things I Do Now That I’m Vegan

I do most of these things too, and a lot of them started after going vegan. I might be even more weird than Matt. I grow my own sprouts, I juice and make smoothies out of leftovers, I dehydrate foods, I make my own nutbutters and vegan milks, I wear Vibram FiveFinger shoes and I even brew my own kombucha. 😉


Hot Trend: Tapping the Power of Cold to Lose Weight

Tim Ferris’ book, The Four Hour Body, mentioned that Ron Cronise lost 27 lbs. in six weeks using cold exposure. This is when I started playing around with the idea too. I didn’t take cold baths, but I did take only cold showers for two months in the summer. I didn’t any significant weight loss during that time, but I did notice that I felt great all the time. I had more energy and I slept well. I do believe cold exposure had something to do with that.


Training Calves and Traps

Josh McMillan answers two questions related to why he trains calves and traps. Both are great answers. He trains calves because his calves don’t grow well. Many people don’t have to train calves when they’re doing deadlifts and squats, but I’m just like Josh. I need to do additional work on mine to get them to grow. And he does shrugs because his traps respond well to them. I really like his follow-up comment on that about never doing an exercise just to do it.


Improving Squat Power Out of the Hole

Chad Wesley Smith is a strongman champion, physical preparation coach and founder of Juggernaut Training Systems. Here he provides tips on improving squat power. He offers three types of squat variations to improve explosiveness – pause squats (pause in lower squat position for 5-7 sec. before exploding up), slow eccentric (7 seconds down, explode up), and dead squats (start at parallel, pick up bar from pins in power rack). He provides a lot more tips on each of these lifts in the video.


Lack of sleep ‘switches off’ genes

If you’re having problems getting enough sleep at night, you better learn to fix it or you could be deactivating genes that repair and replenish the body. Some of these genes effect metabolism, stress, inflammation and immunity. Just one week of bad sleep can turn these genes off. Imagine the damage you could be doing to your body if you have regular sleep problems.


How I Stopped Eating Food

Could you imagine a world where nobody had to worry about finding food and where sustenance could be obtained entirely from a drink? A man named Rob Rhinehart is trying to make that a reality. He created a drink, which he’s calling “Soylent,” that contains every essential nutrient that body needs. He tested it for an entire 30 days, the whole time never eating a thing. He felt great, had tons of energy, noticed an increase in cognitive function and all for the price of only $50 a month. He’s looking for people to participate in a study for Soylent right now. Is this real or are we being trolled?

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The Best Health and Fitness Articles of the Week #98 – The Best Juice Ever, Body Sensors in Temporary Tattoos, and Muscle Activation in Deadlifts

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Here’s a recap of the best health and fitness articles I’ve read over the past week.


Morning Fruit Juice – The Proof Is In The Juice

Israel Torres is well-known in the “Juicing” sub-category over at Reddit. I recently read a thread over there about someone who juiced cilantro for their first juice and they were immediately put off by it. It’s funny, because I did the same thing. It took me nearly a year to finally start eating cilantro again, ha! Anyway, in that thread, Israel Torres mentions that this morning fruit juice is his absolute favorite juice of all time. Considering that he’s done four 60-day juice fasts, that’s really saying something about this juice. I can’t wait to try it.


Meeting Yoda: An Interview with Tim Ferriss

I love listening to interviews with Tim Ferriss because he always has so much great advice. Most of the interview is about his new book, The Four Hour Chef, which I just recently purchased, but have not read yet. It’s not a cook book like you might think, but it’s a book on accelerated learning, while using learning how to cook as an example.


Temporary Tattoo Attaches Health Sensor to Your Body

What if you could monitor your hydration, sodium, potassium and magnesium levels simply by wearing a temporary tattoo? Well, that could soon be a reality because Researchers at University of Toronto Scarborough created a temporary sensor tattoo that right now can monitor for dehydration and they’re planning to create tattoos made of other materials that detect the other things I mentioned.


ABC: Is it Dangerous to “Squeeze the Glutes” During Hip Extension Exercises?

If you’re feeling pain in your hip or lower back when performing hip thrusts, you might not be squeezing your glutes enough. Squeezing your glutes protects the spine and the hips, so do it!


Contreras Files V: 15 More Practical Tips

Lots of great tips here, all based on studies and real experience. It’s all random, but I’m sure you’ll learn at least one new thing from this post.


Tim Ferriss vs. Leo Babauta on Goals on Vimeo

I really like Leo Babuata’s thoughts on how you shouldn’t always get hung up on outcome driven goals and should enjoy the success you have during the process of doing whatever it is want to do. Tim Ferriss also talks about how he gives himself an allowance of 40% “breakage” in not completing his goals, although he sets his goals very high in order to make sure he still gets something out of it.


How do you sterilize your juicer?

If you own a juicer, you’ve probably thought about this too. I certainly have. The stains on my juicer don’t really bother me that much and I feel like my equipment is clean enough, but if you don’t have the same feelings, there are some good tips on here on some things you can try. Some examples are using olive oil and a cloth, powdered brewery wash or even Oxyclean.


Muscle activation in conventional and sumo deadlifts

You can read the whole post for really technical info pulled out of the study, or you can skip to the end and get the key points. I read the whole thing, but I have to be honest, I didn’t understand much of it 😉 In the end, it seems that both sumo and regular deadlifts perform similar roles and both are good to include in a training program.

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The Best Health and Fitness Articles of the Week #97 – 40+ Best Bodyweight Exercises, How to Balance Hormones and The Science Behind Exercise

pike-roll-out

Here’s a recap of the best health and fitness articles I’ve read over the past week.


44 Best Bodyweight Exercises Ever! (High Def) – YouTube

I can do some of these, but most of these exercises require more strength than I’ll every possess, like the triple clap pushups, one arm hanging leg lifts or the archer pull ups. My favorite from this video is the ab crunch shredder dips.


High fructose corn syrup–another overhyped study

Here’s an excellent example of why you should review the research yourself before taking the popular opinion of the internet and media sources. Whether or not HFCS is any worse for you than other sweeteners, everyone just needs to cut back on sweeteners of all kinds.


How To Balance Your Hormones

Christopher Walker had a brain tumor that pressed against his pituitary gland that prevented production of testosterone, resulting in hormone imbalances and health issues. His case is extreme, but that doesn’t mean that the rest of us aren’t suffering some sort of hormonal imbalance as well. Check out this article for some great advice on getting your hormones in check.


Do Not Kip your Pull Ups before reading this

Another article against the kipping pull up exercise. If you really want to do kipping pull ups, at least make sure you have the strength to do a good number of slow, proper-form pull ups first. Check out the funny video at the end of the article about “kipping everything.” Now that was funny!


No Grains Equals No Migraines

I wouldn’t say that I feel crappy, but I do believe I could feel even better, especially after reading success stories like this. If it were easier to remove grains in a vegan diet I would definitely love to try it, but that doesn’t leave a whole lot left for me to eat. It’s something I’m still working on figuring out though.


How Do I Know if I Have a Glute Imbalance?

This article and the accompanying link to the article on how to fix glute imbalances is awesome! I haven’t noticed a glute imbalance on myself but who knows, it might be there. I’m definitely going to start incorporating glute exercises into my regular routine.


Content marketing tips from the world of cycling

How could I not mention an article that discusses my two favorite things – marketing and cycling? I always see articles like this comparing some niche topic to marketing, for example I regularly see comparisons on Star Wars, Harry Potter and Monty Python. I usually skip those because I have no interest in those topics, but cycling is finally one that fits me and I had a lot of fun reading it.


Tim Ferriss: How to Make the Perfect Cup of Coffee

As a newbie in the world of coffee geekery, I really enjoyed the tips in this post. Here’s a quick summary – buy high quality beans and use within a month of the roast date, grind in single proportions with a burr grinder, and use 2 grams of coffee per 30 ml/g of water (roughly 1 oz of water). I’ve been wanting an Aeropress and I just remembered that I got some Amazon gift cards for Christmas, so it looks like I’ll have this fun coffee gadget soon!


The Best PB & J Protein Shake Recipe You’ll Ever Try

When I saw the title of this article I expected to see a recipe for a really unhealthy shake, but to my pleasure, it’s actually all natural healthy ingredients! I’ve already made it and it’s awesome. It really tastes like PB&J.


The Truth About Exercise

This is a documentary that follows Michael Mosley, a medical researcher and reporter for the BBC, as he learns that most people’s knowledge of health, including his own knowledge, is outdated and sometimes wrong. This was an awesome documentary. I saw some of this stuff when I went to the 2012 Fitness and Health Bloggers Conference at the The Anschutz Medical Campus in Aurora, CO and I was in awe. You need to have a U.K. IP address to access this documentary, but you can follow these tips provided by Lifehacker to get around that. Now to try to find some “fidget pants.”

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The Best Health and Fitness Articles of the Week #96 – Fun Fitness Gadgets, Brain Injury Repair and Treatment for Autism

kinect-plus-iphone

Based on a traffic surge I received after posting my update on Sunday last week, two days later than usual, I’m going to be experimenting with the days of the week that I publish these weekly recaps. I just wanted to provide a heads up for anyone who looks forward to these. I’ll only be experimenting with Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays though.

Anyway, here’s my recap of the best health and fitness articles I’ve read over the past week.


Fitness Gadgets: Cheaper Than a Gym Membership?

There are a lot of cool devices here, like the Fitbit and the Up by Jawbone. Nike+ Kinect actually sounds pretty cool too and it has a lot of good reviews on Amazon. Now I want it 😉


How to Build a Simple Home Gym (Bloom to Fit Style)

I agree completely with this article because this is basically what my own home gym contains. The only thing I’m missing from the primary tools list is a set of kettlebells. From the secondary tools list I’m missing a TRX trainer. Even without those though, I have everything I need and I never need to go to a commercial gym.


Oxygen chamber can boost brain repair years after stroke or trauma

How awesome would it be to be able to cure brain injuries, and treat Alzheimer’s and dementia, even as far as 20 years after the injury occurred? What an exciting discovery!


What to do When You Think You Might be Injured

Preventative care on injuries is great advice, but the problem is that most people don’t feel like it’s necessary because they don’t feel anything wrong. Then it’s too late. I admit that I’m sometimes that person, but I’ve been trying to do more soft tissue work.


A Little Known Yet Powerful Cause (And Treatment) for Childhood Autism

If you have a child already suffering from autism, supplementing to boost glutathione levels might be something you want to look into. But what I think everyone should also get out of this is that your kids can either benefit or pay for what you do to your body before they’re born. Put good stuff in and keep bad stuff out.


Dear Mark: Can’t Squat, Please Help; Plus, High CRP, No Symptoms, and Glutathione

Another article talking about glutathione. It looks like I need to seek out a quality N-acetyl-cysteine supplement to help my own levels. I’m very interested in seeing how it works for me.


Why Are We Breathing Inefficiently (and What Are the Ramifications)?

Learning to breathe correctly can help get rid of tension in various parts of your body, for example the back and shoulders, which is where many people hold it. The video in this post showing how to do a corrective breathing exercise is excellent. I learned a more basic version of this exercise about a year ago, but I never stuck with it. I’m going to try to do it more often from now on.


Natural Energy Drink Alternatives

Did you know that some energy drinks can contain more than 3 cups of coffee in only a single sip? Too much caffeine can cause severe adrenal gland depletion and can even increase risk of stroke and arthritis, among many other terrible things. And that’s not even considering the artificial sweeteners that energy drinks contain. I believe that 1-2 cups of high quality coffee per day is fine, but this post has a few natural energy drink alternatives you might want to use.


Top Seven Fitness and Nutrition Experts

Oooh, I only recognized three people from this list. I can’t wait to see the content the rest of these guys share.

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The Best Health and Fitness Articles of the Week #95 – Biome Testing, Heavy Rope Training and Recharging For the Day

ubiome

A couple days late, and a little short but here’s a recap of the best health and fitness articles I read last week.


uBiome – Sequencing Your Microbiome

Having your microbiome diagnosed isn’t something that’s easily accessible by normal consumers and certainly not for the prices offered by uBiome in this indiegogo campaign, so you should considering contributing soon before they are fully funded. You can start at $69 for the GI sequencing kit or go all out for $335 and get a GI, oral, ear, nasal and genital testing kit. Hurry up, you’ve got until Jan. 31st before prices go up.


Jump Rope Training: The Beauty and Power of HEAVY Jump Ropes

I never thought about training with heavy ropes, but it sounds really interesting. I rarely use my speed rope because I never feel like going outside to use it, so it probably wouldn’t be worth my money to buy a heavy rope, but the Crossrope cables mentioned in this article sound amazing. Could you imagine jumping rope with a 3 lb. rope? That sounds painful.


Homemade Oat Milk, Two Ways

I’ve actually never tried oat milk before. I’ve made my own soy milk, hemp milk and almond milk. The only one I really like is almond milk, but it’s still a bit bland for things like cereal. I’m just so used to the sweetened process milks from the store. I want to move away from store bought milks so I’m on the quest to find my favorite homemade “milk”, which means the next to make on my list is coconut milk and now oat milk!


Olympic Lifting: 6 Clean and Jerk Technique Fixes

If you have any interest in olympic lifting, you’ll enjoy this post teaching how to do the clean and jerk properly. There are six tips here, mostly highly technical, provided by olympic lifting expert, Wil Fleming.


Mastering the Mid-day Recharge (In 15 Minutes)

I came across this older article on the Bulletproof Exec site as I was searching for recommendations on how much pink Himalayan salt to use in the my morning wake-up glass of water . The Pzizz app and T-Papp workout sound really interesting. I haven’t purchased the Pzizz app yet, but I probably will soon. I don’t think I’ll be buying the T-Papp DVD’s but it still sounds interesting.

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The Best Health and Fitness Articles of the Week #94 – Smart Drugs, Paleo Vegetarianism and Starting Your Garden With Cheap Shop Lights

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My Jeep broke down last weekend and all week I’ve been busy spending time working on it, so I’m surprised I managed to get any reading done this week, but I think what I’ve got in this week’s update is really good. I plan to get my Jeep back up and running this weekend, hopefully before the Denver Broncos game tomorrow, so that next week I can spend more time reading. Have a great weekend and go Broncos!

Smart Drugs? REMEMBER MORE – THINK FASTER – BE WISER

This article discusses the effects of smart drugs, the types of smart drugs available, how they act on our minds, the evidence of their benefits and moral questions someone may have when taking them. I think this is a great introduction to smart drugs and provides an excellent starting point to start doing more research on your own.

Experimenting with the Paleo Diet for Vegetarians

I’ve looked into this a lot myself, and like the author of this post, I didn’t find much information online. As a vegan, it’s extremely difficult to go paleo because the paleo diet restricts a lot of what we eat. It’s not impossible though. Look at raw food vegans. I think that’s probably about as close to paleo as we can get.

The Paleo Diet for Vegetarians: Your Questions Answered

Susan, the author of the above article on eating Paleo vegetarian, got so many questions about her experiment that she put together a Q&A. There really isn’t any good information out there on doing something like this.

Why January Is Most Annoying Time To Go To The Gym

A funny collection of videos of people doing stupid stuff in the gym. I laugh but I feel bad because everyone has to start somewhere. If you see a newbie in gym, be nice and help them out. 😀

How to deadlift by Mark Bell – YouTube

Watching all of these lifters, their differences in form and having Mark Bell describe what’s happening is really useful.

TrainerRoad

If you’ve ever looked into tracking your cycling workouts using a bike trainer, you’ve probably come to realize that it’s just too expensive. Not anymore! This device connects to regular bike trainers (the compatibility list is on their site) and outputs live data to your computer during your workout. What makes this even better is that they have 250+ structured workouts and they also sync up with videos like the The Sufferfest. I want this!

ICM – Indoor Cycling Music

Now that it’s too cold to ride outside, I’ve been paying more attention to indoor cycling stuff and this one was mentioned during a cycling podcast I listen to. It seems like a pretty cool service and it’s cheap at $4.99 per month. I listed to the 30 min. sample on the site and while I found some of it a little cheesy, I was bobbing my head and tapping my feet most of the time. I like it. They have 30, 60 and 90 minute mixes.

How To Easily Start Garden And Flower Seeds Indoors On The Cheap!

It’s not time to start seedlings indoors yet, but it’s never too early to start planning. I’m so happy to have come across this article. I had no idea that I can use cheap shop lights to grow seedlings. This method also helps to keep your plants straight and stops them from growing thin and skinny from trying to reach sunlight. You want to start seedlings 6-8 weeks before the last frost in your area.

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The Best Health and Fitness Articles of the Week #93 – How Sugar Strengthens Bones and Teeth, Restoring Cognitive Function With Lithium and a Dozen Sleep Hacking Tips

cane-sugar

Here’s a recap of the best health and fitness articles I’ve read over the past week. I did some catching up, so it’s a big one! I hope you have some time this weekend 😉

How to Strengthen Bones and Teeth with White Sugar

This theory seems so ridiculous, but I actually sort of believe it. It makes sense, but I’m really not sure what to think of it yet. I love this type of thinking.

Should We Ice Injuries?

I have a recurring back injury that I got from pulling around heavy dough troughs when I worked at Wonder Bread. The first time it happened I was bed-ridden for more than a week until I could finally walk again. It would come back once or twice a year usually after doing something like lifting a mattress or playing basketball (actual examples ;)). I’d go to my doctor, get some pain killers and wait a couple days to feel better. It hasn’t come back for a couple of years now, until last week when all I was doing was sitting down while visiting my grandparents. I felt it pinch, I let out a loud gasp and I headed home before it got too painful. This time was different than others in the past because I immediately got on the foam roller and really dug into it for about 15 minutes and then iced it for another 20. I felt pretty good before bed and the next day, the pain was completely gone. Foam rolling and icing is my new savior!

Video: 6 Biohacks That Will Change Your Life Forever

Dave Asprey condensed his information into a short 25 minute presentation and I condensed it even more. I still highly recommend having a listen.

Take 1000 IU of Vitamin D3 per 25lbs. of body weight, exercise at high intensity for short duration, divide your calories (50-70% healthy fat, up to 20% animal protein, up to 20% vegetables, about 5% fruit or starch), avoid “healthy” foods with anti-nutrients (ie. bananas), learn to control, relax and strengthen muscles, learn to breathe properly by practicing for 10-15 min. per day for at least 40 days (5 sec. in, 5 sec. out), train your heart using emWave, upgrade your head (eat healthy fats, meditate, eeg-based neurofeedback, fix sleep).

Extended sleep reduces pain sensitivity

I wonder in how many applications the results of this study effect our bodies. Being that this is a health and fitness blog, one thing that comes to my mind is the effect sleep has on our pain thresh-hold in the gym. I wonder if getting more sleep can help us push through more, harder reps?

Vitamin D tied to women’s cognitive performance

I recently had bloodwork done to check for nutrient deficiencies and everything came back fine except for slightly low vitamin d levels and high iron levels (more on that later). I actually get a lot of sun regularly, but it seems that’s not enough. I have 24.8 nanograms of Vitamin D per millileter of blood serum (normal is 30-100) while the women in this study had less than 10 ng/mL. Wow! Most people are deficient, so if you don’t already, take a Vitamin D supplement and improve your brain performance! Vitamin D2 is harder for some people to absorb than D3, so keep that in mind when buying a supplement. From the research that I’ve done, the best supplement that I can find for vegans is Vitashine Vegan Vitamin D3.

Warm-up

This massive article starts off by discussing the mechanics of the body’s muscles and joints and how to optimize their position. Then it gets into the exercises we can do to prepare our joints and muscles for the workout ahead. This is great stuff! There’s a printable form and an awesome Q & A section too.

Yoga shown effective for treating chronic neck pain

I’m willing to use any sort of natural remedy, as opposed to taking medication, if at all possible which is why it’s great to learn that a form of yoga, called Iyengar yoga (link to poses from the website of the inventor of Iyengor yoga), has been shown to effectively treat neck and lower back pain. There’s also a great YouTube playlist of asanas as taught in the Iyengar method provided by Senior Iyengar Yoga teacher John Schumacher.

WHFoods: The Latest News About Walnuts

This article suggests buying walnuts whole, with the skin intact, because that’s where 90% of the phenols are contained. I never realized that they came with/without skin. Walnuts also provide many health benefits, including improving cardiovascular health, providing anti-cancer benefits and anti-inflammatory benefits. It only takes one ounce (approximately 7 shelled, or 14 halves) per day to get the benefits of the walnut.

Go ahead and jump: Learning how to properly jump and land can help female athletes avoid serious knee injuries

There’s been up to a 50% decrease in ACL tears in female soccer players who have taken part in a jumping and landing program. The difference between genders is that females tend to land with knees pointing inward while males tend to land with knees outward. I’m not sure what kind of program is being referenced, but I would guess something like plyometric training.

Lithium restores cognitive function in Down syndrome mice

How awesome would it be if there were a potential treatment for down syndrome. I’ve never heard about lithium supplementation before but this doctor recommends 10-20 milligrams (from lithium aspartate or lithium orotate) per day for brain anti-aging and many other health benefits.

How to Front Squat: Everything You Need to Know

I rarely do front squats because I suck at them, but this article has me wanting to include the exercise in my routine. A tip in one of the videos really spoke to one my own problems, which is flexibility. I’ve always used four fingers of each hand when balancing the bar and just like Eric Cressey says in the video, that requires too much flexion of the wrist. Next time I’ll try two fingers instead. There’s a lot of info here, so if you read this you’re sure to find a tip that can help your front squat.

Squat and Deadlift Technique: Why the “Knees Out” Cue Might not be Enough

Another great video from Eric Cressey. I’ve noticed that I’ve been having problems with my knee positioning and this short video is going to help me out a ton.

Heavy Metal Natural Detox

I’m currently suffering many of the symptoms mentioned in this post – fatigue, disrupted sleep, headaches and brain fog. Brain fog was the first thing I noticed, about two months ago. I went to the doctor and they ran some tests; blood tests for nutrient deficiencies and sleep tests to see if I had sleep apnea. As I mentioned above, everything came back mostly fine except the iron test showed my iron was high, so we ran a few more blood tests, this time testing for genetic hemochromatosis, or iron overload. The test came back positive. The treatment is to draw a pint of blood every week until my iron levels go back to normal and then maybe a couple of times per year after that. This seems very similar to the heavy metal exposure issues mentioned in this article from Ben Greenfield. In addition to the recommendations Ben mentions, I plan to make other changes to my diet as well, to try to reduce the amount of phlebotomies I have to get in my lifetime.

Building a Better Front Rack: Shoulder and Trunk Stability Relationship

I’ve never paid much attention to where my elbows are when I’m doing squats until after watching this video. When I did squats this week I realized that I raise my elbows way up behind my back when squatting! I couldn’t believe it. Well, I’ve fixed that thanks to the MobilityWOD folks 🙂

Blueberry Kombucha Smoothie

I’ve been brewing my own kombucha for a couple of months now, but I haven’t used it in a smoothie yet. Now I will 😉

Squat Like A Baby: 7 Reasons this is a Ridiculous Myth

If anyone ever tells you to squat like a baby, point them to this article. Squatting like a baby sounds great doesn’t it, but as we age, our bodies might not be capable anymore.

12 Tips For Sleeping Better Than A Baby

If you’re considering sleep hacking, you’ll appreciate this gold mine of information. There are soooo many cool tips here. To do all of this at once would be pretty damn expensive, but you only need a couple things to get started and you can work up from there. I really want a pair of those sleep headphones.

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The Best Health and Fitness Articles of the Week #92 – Knee Rehab, Asparagus Extract for Hangovers and 93 Juicing Recipes

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Here’s a recap of the best health and fitness articles I’ve read over the past week.

Straightforward Knee Rehab

I’ve been having issues with one of my knees so I did some searching and came across this article. There are some good tips here that I plan to do, but it’s also set me on a path to learn more about what’s causing my knee pain. I see a lot more research in my future 😉

Three Weeks on Modafinil

I do marketing for a living so I sometimes visit the marketing forums. I came across this one earlier in the week. The original poster’s thoughts on Modafinil are interesting, especially as it pertains to helping with boring busy work that many of us marketers do regularly. There’s a lot of other great info in this thread too, for example a mention of the book “The UltraMind Solution” which I now plan to look into.

Eating asparagus may prevent a hangover, study suggests

Plan on partying on New Year’s Eve? Better pick up some asparagus extract to protect your liver cells and alleviate the symptoms of a hangover. I skimmed the study to find out how much extract is needed to see these benefits, but I couldn’t find an exact number. They took 100 grams of asparagus leaves and shoots, dried the samples and extracted them using 1 liter of boiling distilled water for 2 hours at 100 degrees celsius (212 degrees fahrenheit). The extracts were then passed through a Whatman GF/C filter. They found that the leaves provided more benefits than the shoots, so try to find a leaf extract if you can.

93 Juicing Recipes to Help You Through Your Juice Fast

I imagine there are going to be tons of people juice fasting as a way of detoxing or to lose weight as a New Years resolution, so I thought this would be helpful. Click the image to magnify the recipes so that you can see them. This list was created by Israel Torres, who has lost a ton of weight and likely added many more years to his life, by juice fasting.

The 100 Most Influential People in Health and Fitness 2012

This list starts off weak but the further down you go, the better it gets. The list redeemed itself once I started seeing people like Tim Ferris, Eric Cressey, Chris Keller, and Mark Sisson. There are actually a lot of people in this list who sound really interesting. It’s going to take a lot of time for me to visit all of these websites to see if I want to start following what they write, but it’s on my list of things to do…

Pipes and Gears – YouTube

If you’ve got six minutes to spare, check out this short documentary. Nikola Giorgiev turned an old air raid shelter into a gym so that kids had something to do. He created the equipment using old junk and by welding stuff together. It’s awesome what this guy is doing for these kids.

Top Ten Gifts for the Deadlift Junkie

I know Christmas is over but I like this article because it has so many cool products I’ve never heard of before. I really want a home glute ham raise machine. Too bad it’s so expensive. The deadlift bar jack sounds really cool too.

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The Best Health and Fitness Articles of the Week #91 – Is Coconut Milk Bad, Setting Proper Bike Fit and Office Chair Advice

organic coconut milk

Here’s a recap of the best health and fitness articles I’ve read over the past week.

3 reasons why coconut milk may not be your friend

Can we eat anything without worrying about the side-effects these days? Just when I thought consuming canned coconut milk was safe, I find out that there are only two commercial brands that don’t contain BPA and neither of those two come without guar gum. So the only good way to consume coconut milk is by making it yourself. For now, I’m just not going to worry about guar gum and I’ll buy Native Forest and Arroy-D brands.

Another Look at a Drink Ingredient, Brominated Vegetable Oil – NYTimes.com

I stopped drinking Gatorade a long time ago because of all the chemicals it contains. I’d much rather fuel my body with more natural sources, like coconut water. Now I know not to ever drink Gatorade again (or lots of other soft drinks) unless they remove brominated vegetable oil from their formulas. B.V.O has possible side effects of neurological disorders, altered thyroid hormones and a whole bunch of other crazy issues. More reason to eat mostly whole foods, that way you know what you’re putting into your body.

DIY Doggie Treats – with your leftover juicing pulp!

I throw my leftover juicing pulp into my compost bin, but I’ve always wanted to find a more useful purpose for it, so I was excited to come across this post. It’s more work thank simply dumping into my compost bin, but it doesn’t sound like much work at all and I’m sure my dogs will love it. Remember that some foods can be toxic for pets. Here’s a list of known food toxins for dogs.

All the Hype Behind Kipping Pull-Ups

It takes some time for the author to get to the point of the article, but when you finally get to it, he makes some great points. Ever since learning about kipping pull-ups, and trying them out several times, my own opinion has been that regular pull-ups are better and safer. Check out the comments on this post for more intelligent discussion. Oh! And check out that fail video of CrossFitters doing clean and jerks. My heart was beating so fast waiting for someone to get an injury. I couldn’t even finish it. Wow…

Vegan Weight Gainer Shake

A bean shake doesn’t sound very tasty, but I haven’t tried this so I’m not going to judge just yet. I was thinking about putting on a little more weight to help me increase my squat gains back to where they were last year when I was 15 lbs. heavier. On a side note, I also learned of a new protein powder after seeing it mentioned in the comments – Omega Nutrition Pumpkin Seed Protein Powder. I’ll have to give that a try too.

Bike Fit: Set Your Saddle Height

It’s too cold to commute by bike to the office now, so I’ll probably get my bike on the trainer soon. I’ll use this article to set my bike fit then.

Dorian Yates demonstrating bent over Barbell Row – YouTube

This is interesting because I’ve always heard the best way to perform barbell rows is by pulling the weight to your chest, or just under the nipple line, but Dorian Yates says that works out the upper back. He recommends pulling them to the abs instead, which works the lats, allows you to control form, protect your back and lift heavier weight.

Nine Fascinating Health Benefits of Basil

Basil can help reduce digestive problems, reduce inflammation in the body, relieve stress, protect against cancer and plenty of other great things. I don’t know how much basil it takes to get these benefits, but the more you eat, the more likely you are to reap the rewards.

Beetroot Juice and Tart Cherry Juice for a Fitness Boost

I learned about the anti-inflammatory and recovery benefits of tart cherry juice at the 2012 Fitness and Health Bloggers Conference, but I never made it a regular part of my diet. I mentioned to friend recently that I’ve been having problems with staying asleep at night and she told me that tart cherry juice can help with sleep issues (link to Pubmed study) because of the melatonin it contains. Two 8 or 12-ounce bottles of tart cherry juice per day should be enough to see all of these benefits.

Body Hacks for a Longer Life (Infographic)

There are a lot of good tips here, but the two that I like the most are that 1.5 oz. of dark chocolate per day can reduce blood pressure by 3 points and a glass of wine per day works similarly. Those two go perfect together! I’m going to try to start doing a daily crossword puzzle from now on too.

The Greatest Workout Ever Created

You can’t go wrong with a workout designed around the world-famous extra lives code for Contra – Up, Up, Down, Down, Left, Right, Left, Right, B, A start. I wonder how many rounds I can do? I’m in the middle of a routine that I don’t want to interrupt so I’ll have to remember to try this out later.

Office Chair Advice

I really like the tip in this article to place two tennis balls on each side of the spine as you’re sitting in an office chair. It keeps you an ergonomic position, provides an acupuncture effect and if you lose position, the balls fall and remind you to move back into proper posture.

Pressing Charges: 7 Bench-Press Crimes, Solved

Everyone makes these mistakes when starting out – sadly many never learn better. The one about the “crazy legs” is funny because I hate to admit it, but it actually happened to me a few days ago. I was doing floor presses (which I’ve never done before) so I had no leverage, no place to plant my feet and I did one too many reps. Since I was on the floor, I didn’t have my squat rack to protect me and in came crazy legs. I think that was the first time I’ve ever done that. I laughed at myself for that one… No more floor presses.

12 Weeks to Ridiculous Wheels

Ahh, now here’s a worthwhile routine, as opposed to the “4 weeks to bigger arms” routine I’m currently doing. What can I say, I’m a typical guy that want’s big arms 😉 Anyway, this leg routine looks tough and the progression is interesting – you alternate weeks of doing heavy weights with weeks of higher volume.

France Bans BPA in Food Packaging

If only the U.S. was anywhere near as progressive as other countries when it comes to their citizens health and nutrition. We have to take charge of our own health and help each other as much as we can.

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The Best Health and Fitness Articles of the Week #90 – B12 Effectiveness After Being Cooked, Nutrition for Vegan Children and How to Shop for Coconut Milk

Deva Vegan b12 bottle

Here’s a recap of the best health and fitness articles I’ve read over the past week.

Cooking B12

All vegans should be supplementing with B12, otherwise serious neurological problems can occur, but I bet not many vegans knew that B12 in fortified foods is damaged by cooking those foods. If you’re vegan, rely on uncooked sources of B12.

Seitan – A High Lysine Food

Lysine is an essential amino acid that can only be found in food or supplements. A deficiency in lysine can result in fatigue, dizziness, anemia and other issues. It’s easy to get enough of this amino acid in foods like meat, cheese, fish, and eggs, but vegans can find it nuts, legumes, tofu, spirulina and as this article suggests, seitan. Since seitan is basically a log of gluten, I’m not sure I’d like to get most of my lysine from that source, but it’s good info to know nonetheless.

Six Done-For-You Exercise Resources To Get A Killer Workout Without The Mental Strain

This sounds like a really fun workout schedule, but to follow this exact plan, you’d have to purchase a lot of different products. This plan is very fitting for a triathlete. I think it’s a great example of how we can stay healthy by doing activities that we enjoy.

A Healthy Start for Vegan Children

When it comes to vegan nutrition, in children or adults, Ginny Messina knows what she’s talking about. I’m not a parent myself, but I can only imagine how scary it is for new parents to find articles online about vegan children having nutrient deficiencies or when their doctors recommend animal-based supplements. But there’s no need to worry. It’s totally possible, and safe, to raise vegan children.

How To Shop For Coconut Milk

Should you buy coconut milk canned, in the carton or should you make it yourself? The healthiest way is to make it yourself, but the next best option is probably to buy it canned. I’ve read the ingredients on carton coconut milk many times and I never felt great about all of those weird ingredients, but I buy it anyway. Not anymore though. It’s canned or homemade from now on.

Find Your Strength: Strongman Training In Your Average Gym

This sounds like an excellent strongman training program. It’s basic, but it makes total sense. I would love to come back to this one once I get some fat grips and heavier dumbbells to do carrying exercises.

Lessons from the History of Insulin

Interesting post from the folks over at the Science-Based Medicine blog. I always love reading these posts because the writers on this site have a much different perspective on health and medicine than most of what we read online – a perspective based on academics, research and facts. This post discusses not only the history of insulin, but also the benefits of GMO and big pharma, which is something you’ll never hear anyone else say.

Dear Mark: Vegetable Juicing, G_BOMBS, Blood Sugar, and Hot Workouts

If you’re a fan of juicing, you should read this article from Mark Sisson. The key takeaways for me are that you should juice mostly vegetables, eat fruits instead of juicing them, you don’t really need to worry about insulin spikes and if you really want to drink fruits, consider blending them instead of juicing them.

An Unnamed Single Leg Gem of an Exercise

If you’ve done P90X, you’ll be familiar with the “skater squat” and you know how difficult it is. The version shown in this article is an advanced version of the skater squat and puts more emphasis on proper form. There are some great tips on progression here too.

New Innovative Ways to Use Your Fat Gripz

This made me laugh. To hell with the trolls in the comments. I’m glad these guys had fun putting this post together.

Is it Dangerous to “Squeeze the Glutes” During Hip Extension Exercises?

In short, Bret Contreras recommends that all lifters should squeeze their glutes when performing the hip extension. It helps protects the hips and the spine. You’ll have to read the article to learn the science behind it.

Plant Based Nutrition – Will I Get Anemic?

I just recently had blood work done and everything came back fine. I don’t think anemia is something most vegans need to worry about but getting tested is still a good idea, if nothing for peace of mind. I love the response from Marcella to a commenter in the comments section. A person named Bob said “wait a couple of years a retake your tests, and then tell me what your restlts are.” To which Marcella responded “Wait a couple of years after…what? I’ve already been vegan for 12 years and Derek has been vegan for 5 and we both have always tested with excellent iron levels – I even had above average iron levels while pregnant. Additionally, your results reflect your current diet…it doesn’t take years for your diet to influence your iron levels.” Bob is a great example of how clueless people are when it comes to nutrition.

Non-Alcoholic Beer, Non-Alcoholic Wine, Gluten-Free Beer, and Other Foods Scrutinized

The part I liked most in this post is about when Mark scrutinizes maca powder, because it’s a supplement I use regularly. I don’t use it for any of the sex-related benefits mentioned in the post, but it’s good to know 😉