Tag: coffee

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The Best Health and Fitness Articles of the Week #104 – Coffee and Tea Lowers Stroke Risk, How to Poop Right and a Bodyweight Gym Made of PVC

green-tea-and-pot


Coffee, green tea, may help lower stroke risk, research shows

Coffee and green tea each have properties that can reduce the chance of having a stroke and drinking both is likely to protect your body even more. I would recommend drinking only high quality coffee and organic tea (in last week’s update I mentioned the dangers of toxins contained in most non-organic tea)


Stability Is Your Problem…You Just Don’t Know It Yet

I’ve never used anti-movement exercises to practice stability. I wonder if there’s some way to use perturbations (the disturbance of motion) without a training partner.


How To Poop The Right Way

Digestive health is important and pooping is a big part of that. I still don’t own a Squatty Potty, but I plan on buying one soon. I might give some of the supplements in this post a try too. Check out the video at the end of the post of the guy having a breakdown trying to do everything he learned at the SuperHuman conference. That was hilarious.


2 Bodybuilding Podcasts Worth Listening

I listen to several health and fitness podcasts already, but I’m always on the lookout for more. I’ve actually listened to BioJacked radio once before but I didn’t realize that they were a regular podcast listed in iTunes. I’ve subscribed! I’ve also subscribed to Marc David’s podcast and the other one he recommended, Muscle College.


Vitamin D replacement improves muscle efficiency

Most people are deficient in vitamin D. Unless you supplement, you probably are too. This new study shows that by fixing deficiencies, people can fix muscle fatigue and possibly even increase muscle efficiency in non-deficient people. Take your vitamin D!


Things To Do Before Running

This is a great simple list of things to keep in mind before going for a run or a jog. The problem that I have is that cardio isn’t really a part of my training routine, so when I do run, it’s because I have the random urge. It’s usually totally unplanned. The main thing from this list that I never have and always wish I did is a playlist to listen to. I should just put some stuff on my phone right now.


How to Gain Muscle Fast – Geek to Freak: 34 lbs of Muscle in 4 Weeks

This is an old one, and I might have already linked to this before, but I came across it again and I’m so amazed at how much mass Tim Ferris put on, that I couldn’t resist posting it again. I’m in the middle of my Stronglifts program, but I think I want to do this one when I come to a plateau or a point where I need a break.


Black Iron Beast – 5/3/1 Calculator

This is a really cool tool. It pretty much lays out your workout program for you based on your rep/max numbers and the calculator also gives you the option to choose from 16 different templates (or workout programs). I love how it takes into account how many pairs of plates you have.


Falling in Love with the Safety Squat (Yoke) Bar

Sounds like there are quite a few benefits to using a safety squat bar. It’s good for beginners, it’s good for swimmers, good for tennis players and rugby players, and it’s great for people who have shoulder injuries. I’ve never used one myself but I would really like to try one out.


How to Build the Ultimate Bodyweight Gym (Using Only PVC Pipe)

This. is. awesome. I don’t have the space at home to build something like this, but if I did, I definitely would. There’s a three-month workout schedule and a great video at the end of the post showing all the ways to use this too. Very cool!


DO YOU EVEN LIFT? – Parkour and Freerunning – YouTube

Parkour is a lot of fun to watch and it’s amazing thinking about how much strength and control it takes to do. I wish I could do it. I wouldn’t even dare to try it though, because I know I’d smack my head on something.

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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 #82 – Improve Your Grip Strength, Healthy Vegan Recipes and OLY Shoes

image courtesy of crossfitkelowna

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

Improve Your Grip Strength

Just like this article says, grip strength is important for plenty of reasons, most importantly being able to lift more weight on exercises like deadlifts and barbell rows. There are some cool and interesting exercises here to help you increase your grip strength.

What Drinking Coffee Does to You

There are some excellent pros to consuming coffee, but drinking coffee also comes with some drawbacks if you drink too much. If you limit your intake to around 2 cups per day and if you drink high quality coffee, you have nothing to worry about.

A Guide to Eating a Plant-Based Diet

This article goes into the many reasons why eating a plant-based diet is important and how to transition into a vegan diet. There’s also a good list of foods that you can eat that are easy when starting out. This guide goes through just about everything a beginner vegan might be wondering.

Looking for Healthy Vegan Recipes?

When people are considering going vegan, they are always worried that they won’t be able to eat tasty meals anymore, but here’s a short list of recipes that are easy, tasty and healthy – Tortilla soup, fruit salad and apple crisp.

Seriously. Do This Yesterday. One of My All Time Shoulder Fixes

I bet it’s scary being friends with this guy. You never know what kind of painful situation you’re going to be in when he’s around. 😉

Using Coffee Enemas For Liver Detoxification

I always hear conflicting advice about coffee enemas, which is probably why I’m too afraid to try one myself, but this article does make it sound enticing. The author of this post also recorded a very informative video of the entire process.

How To Meditate – 3 Simple Techniques

Slowly but surely I’m learning more about meditation. I know it’s beneficial and I really want to do it, but life is so hectic that I find it hard to make time. This article talk about exactly that too – “if you’re too busy to meditate, you’re too busy!” I think what I need to do is set a schedule. Maybe just a few minutes after work everyday.

7 Home Remedies to Combat the Side Effects of Chemo

I hope that my healthy dietary and exercise habits are enough to prevent getting cancer later in life, but if not, at least I can refer back to this article if I ever have to go through chemo. I’ve seen the effects of chemo in my family and it’s not pretty.

First OLY shoe.. Recommendations?

I workout at home, so I lift completely barefoot. I like the idea of lifting barefoot more than lifting in shoes, but maybe I’m short-changing myself by not using weightlifting shoes. I’d really like to try a pair out to see how they feel.

Outdoor Home Rope Climb Post

There’s no way in hell my HOA would allow me to build this in my backyard, but I would in a heart beat if I could. I might see if my brother is willing to build it in his yard so that I can use it. This is awesome!

Train Like A Man, Look Like A Goddess

Ladies, do you need more proof that lifting weights won’t make you bulk up and look like a man? Here ya go! 😉