Tag: health articles

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

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Cinnamon compounds have the potential ability to prevent Alzheimer’s

Cinnamon is no cure, but it shows promise in preventing Alzheimer’s. There aren’t any recommended dosages yet, but the researchers of this study suggest not using more than what you would typically use when cooking. If you’re not already using cinnamon in your food, it’s time to start!

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Squat Like A Boss: How To Fix The 3 Most Common Squat Mistakes

Tony Gentilcore is now a contributing author on bodybuilding.com and his first article on the site is awesome. It’s packed full of squat tips. He also followed up on his own site on head position, which commenters on bodybuilding.com kept asking about.

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Sadistic Strength Methods: Sadiv Sets

This sounds like a brutal routine. I think I’m too afraid to try it. If I ever need a shock to my system, for example if I plateau, maybe I’ll come back to this one and give it a try.

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Teaching your kids about food will not cause eating disorders

There are good ways and bad ways to teach kids about food. You don’t want to deprive your kids of certain food groups, but you should educate them. And when you give your kids sweets and snacks, make it a healthier version of that food. Instead of giving them a bag of highly processed BBQ Lays potato chips, find some organic non-GMO chips with an ingredient list you can read. Or you can even make your own chips. With kids being diagnosed with high cholesterol and type 2 diabetes at earlier ages and more frequently then ever before, education is becoming very important.

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“Natural” Glute Ham Raise (GHR) Alternatives – YouTube

I just started a new routine and one of the exercises is the glute ham raise and since I work out from home, I don’t have a glute ham raise machine just laying around so I had to look for some alternatives. This video shows a whole bunch of different ways to do the exercise. I used a barbell in my power rack to hold my feet and an ab roller to assist me.

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The Risks of Sitting and 5 Things You Can Do To Counteract Them

This is an awesome PDF article. By now, most of you should be familiar with the negative health effects of sitting, and this article goes into a few of those details, but most of what this article discusses are the things you can do to counteract those negative health effects. There’s some great stuff here and lots of links to additional info. The friend who sent this article to me also sent me a link to this sweet standing desk. How awesome would it be to have that?! Too expensive for me though.

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Sitting Is the Smoking of Our Generation

And while were on the topic of the risks of sitting, here’s an interesting post from the Harvard Business Review. Walking-meetings are a great idea! I rarely do meetings, but the next time I have a meeting I’m going to suggest taking a walk instead of booking the conference room.

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What You Need to Know About Rhabdomyolysis: Insights from the University of Iowa Incident

I’ve never had Rhabdomyolysis caused by over-exertion during exercise, but I wouldn’t doubt if I’ve been really close. One time I actually had to call in to work because my legs hurt so bad I couldn’t walk. If you’re a trainer or even if you’re not a trainer but helping to train a friend or partner, heed the tips at the end of this article to prevent exertional rhabdo.

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The Kale Shake is Awesome – So Upgrade It

I keep hearing about Joe Rogan’s awesome famous Kale Shake, but I also hear that it tastes pretty bad. If it doesn’t taste good, there’s no way I’ll be able to stick to it, but Dave Asprey has made some upgrades to it and he claims that it tastes great. I’ll see about that! Ben Greenfield took Dave Asprey’s idea and made some modifications of his own to the kale shake, namely the addition of cinnamon and protein powder and swapping kale out with spinach.

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Bug and weed killers may up Parkinson’s risk

Exposure to pesticides, and bug and weed killers increase the risk of developing Parkinson’s disease by 33 to 80 percent. That’s a lot! More reason to buy organic foods, or use a veggie wash when not buying organic, and to not use poisons on your lawn or around the house.

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A Love Affair with Pulp

Anyone who has ever juiced has thought about ways they can re-use the pulp leftover from their juices. Here’s a great recipe on using pulp to make wraps, or if you dehydrate longer, chips. I’m doing this!

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The Vitamin Deficiency That is Written All Over Your Face

If you’re deficient in Vitamin K2, you may have extensive wrinkles or skin sagging. That’s a visible symptom. Vitamin K2 is also needed for bone and kidney health, protecting against heart disease, preventing cancer and promoting brain function. Since I’m vegan, the best source for me to get K2 is in natto, or fermented soybeans, which I’ve tried before and didn’t really enjoy. Maybe I just need to suck it up and keep trying. I did eat it plain though, so perhaps I should mix it in with something tastier.

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As Seen On Twitter: Diet Sodas Make You Fat

You might have seen all the news all over Facebook and Twitter this past week about the dangers of diet sodas. I saw it myself several times. Well here’s an interesting point of view from Keifer who disagrees with some of the points the media are making in regards to the study.

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

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Developmental Fluoride Neurotoxicity: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

This study shows that fluoride exposure could negatively effect a child’s neurodevelopment. I really don’t know what to think about fluoride, but it just seems like there’s not enough data to prove that fluoride is beneficial, yet there’s quite a bit of research out there that support negative health effects of using it. I still use toothpaste containing fluoride, but that’s only because I’m working my way through a bunch of toothpaste I bought almost two years ago from Costco. When it’s gone, I’m switching to charcoal toothpaste.

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2-A-Day Training for Radical Gains

I’ve never tried a workout program requiring morning and night workouts but athletes always talk about it. Of course they’re athletes and I’m not, so there you go. This program isn’t really for athletes though, since it’s designed to build mass as opposed to strength. If you have enough free time, money for extra food and a desire to put your body through some pain, this might be the workout for you!

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Anabolic steroids may affect future mental health

Are the physical benefits offered by steroids worth the negative effects they have on the mind later in life? I say hell no! I want to be healthy and happy when I’m old.

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How harmful is the pill?

I posted an article about this in last weeks update too, but after learning about it, I’ve become very interested in the topic. I’ve even convinced my partner to stop taking birth control. You don’t have to take hormonal contraceptives to prevent pregnancy or diseases. There are several birth control options listed here. One of the lubricants she mentions that can be used with condoms is Aloe Cadabra, which is organic and “practically edible.” Interesting! Check out the comments on the page for more helpful information.

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Gluten-free diet reduces adiposity, inflammation and insulin resistance associated with the induction of PPAR-alpha and PPAR-gamma expression

The mice they tested in this study were fed either a 4.5% diet of gluten or no gluten at all. Despite there being no changes in the amount of food either groups were fed, the ones who consumed no gluten showed a reduction in body fat and weight gain.

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

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Find Your Perfect Hummus

Earlier this week I made the basic hummus recipes that’s linked to from this page, and I think it came out tasty. It was super-easy too, for the most part, but I learned some things after trying it out for myself. First, I didn’t add enough water so mine came out a little thick. Second, I used my Vitamix, and I think a food processor would have made this way easier. As soon as the batch of hummus I just made is gone, I’ll try some of the options listed in this article. I can’t wait!

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How to Make Fatty Coffee with Butter and MCT Oil (Ketogenic Coffee Recipe for Biohackers)

People everywhere are catching on to Dave Asprey’s Bulletproof coffee. Abel James likes to call it fatty coffee and he’s included several modifications you can try, such as cocoa powder, MCT oil, almond butter and vanilla powder. He also sometimes uses heavy cream and grass-fed butter, but being vegan, I obviously don’t use those. I could try coconut cream though. I was actually thinking about buying one of those frothers from World Market but I wasn’t sure how well they worked, but they look pretty good. I’ll probably pick one up this week.

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Fascinating Facts About Sleep

I’ve mentioned one of the ideas from this post before, which is that before man-made light, people used to go to sleep as the sun went down and woke up in the middle of the night to have tea or get things done and then went back to sleep for a second time. Some theorize that this is how the body was designed to sleep. It’s interesting. The post also goes into sleep aids and pharmaceuticals and how some help and some hinder your ability to get a good night’s rest. I personally really like the idea of sleeping in different rooms, but I know for a fact that my partner would not be happy with it. She barely lets me have my own blanket, but that’s a luxury I’m unwilling to give up.

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5 Fitness Buzzwords That Make Me Want to Punch a Hole in the Wall

I wish that everyone in the entire world could read this article. It pretty much tackles everything that’s wrong with the marketing hype of the health and fitness world. I’ve fallen for all of these things over the years, and that’s because as a beginner, I turned to magazines from the grocery store. I eventually wised up and started doing my own research but luckily for beginners these days, there are posts like this from Nerd Fitness.

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Guides to Local Foods By State

Great resource to figure out what foods are in season in your state and where to find it. This will help you find fruits and veggies grown closer to home, which is better for the environment and requires less travel, which also means your food will have more nutrients as it gets in your belly.

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Balancing Hormones Naturally, Post Hormonal Birth Control

This is a great post that discusses the many negative side effects of birth control, such as thyroid problems, nutritional deficiencies, gut bacteria depletion and how it compromises the body’s ability to produce hormones naturally. The post also talks about how to re-balance the hormones in the body after coming off of hormonal contraceptives. In addition to what this post doesn’t mention, I’ve also read that hormonal contraceptives can cause blood clots, migraines and even seizures. Mercola.com lists a whole bunch more. Just because you’ve been taking birth control for years and you’re fine now, who knows what kind of damage that birth control is causing in your body that you’re not even aware of.

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Veggie Burgers, Meatless Chicken and Paleo Bread

I’ve actually had people ask me why I sometimes eat meat alternatives. I don’t know why it’s so hard to understand that I grew up with burgers and wings just like everyone else. They are comfort foods. Vegans and vegetarians eat alternatives because it reminds them of foods they grew up loving while in turn not having to worry about animal cruelty. And paleos do the same thing with breads and crackers and pizza crusts. Diabetics do it with cookies. Everywhere we look people are looking for a healthier (or ethical or safer), but similar, alternative to a food they grew up eating. Sorta puts things into perspective, huh?

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New evidence on how fluoride fights tooth decay

So there actually are benefits to fluoride. I was starting to wonder because it seems like all I ever hear about fluoride these days are how bad it is. Most of the anti-fluoride stuff seems to be theory and not proven, but I suppose you can never be too careful.

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Weekend binge drinking could leave lasting liver damage

A lot of people save their partying for the weekend but a recent study shows why that could be detrimental to our health. Not only can weekend binging cause permanent liver damage, it can also cause damage to many other important organs in the body.

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Sleep Deprived? There’s an App for That

This isn’t just a post about sleep hacking apps, but sleep hacking technology in general. There are some really cool devices here that I’ve never heard about, like earthing sheets or outfitting your mattress with sensors that can track breathing rate, heart rate, presence and motion. Very cool!

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12 Lessons For The Weightlifter

I don’t plan on ever competing in any kind of weightlifting competition but I watch a lot of lifters videos on YouTube and Olympic lifting just seems like so much fun. Even if the routine here isn’t Kendrick Farris’, it looks solid enough to me. I’d like to try it for one week to see if I can handle it.

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Are Back Squats REALLY Necessary? The Legs, Hips, and Ass Issue

This is an awesome article and provides some alternate exercises you can do if back squats are not an option for you. I actually do back squats regularly along with all of the exercises mentioned in this post, except for the front squat. I’m thinking about switching out the back squat for the front squat for a while though.

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The Three “Longevity” Tests

Dan John performs these to determine where you are in life as it relates to your health in addition to where your form is at and if you should be regressing to simpler exercises and working your way back up. These are some great tests.

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How to Do Sumo Deadlifts

Great demonstration of the sumo deadlift from Bret Contreras. Looks like I’m doing it right!

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Muscle in a Bottle

A friend sent this to me and asked if I’ve heard anything about either of these supplements. I haven’t heard of these and to be honest after reading this article, I feel like it’s an advertisement disguised as a report. I don’t trust it, but I hope my friend tries it out so that I can see his results 😉

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Effects of Static Stretching on 1 Mile Uphill Run Performance

Because of it’s huge reach and popularity, P90X is one of the first places people learn about the the negatives of static stretching before a workout, but it’s a fitness program and Tony obviously doesn’t have the time to go into the science of why. Here’s a study showing how detrimental pre-workout static stretching can be, at least pertaining to short endurance bouts.

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Joint Mechanics: The Hip

This video goes into joint mechanics of the hip, self-diagnosing typical issues, and simple exercises you can do to fix those issues.

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Stop Doing Corrective Exercises!

This post makes the great point that instead of doing corrective exercises, you should be doing exercises with proper form, which will often fix the pain issues that cause people to start doing corrective exercises in the first place. There are some great tips here on getting into proper squat form too.

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Cheap Deadlift Bar Jack Alternative: 2 Ton Jack Stands!

I love this idea! I already have some jack stands that I use when I work on my Jeep, so I might give them a try. My stands are heavier duty than 2 ton, so they might be too tall. If I see a deal at Harbor Freight on 2 ton stands, I might pick them up, along with some jack stand rubber pads to protect the bar.

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

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Mushrooms can provide as much vitamin D as supplements

Vitamin D is good for bones, muscle strength and strengthening the immune system, so it’s something everyone should be getting plenty of. This study shows that mushrooms grown under UVB lights can produce Vitamins D2, D3, and D4. I’m not sure what the best mushrooms are to get these benefits, but from some quick research I see that wild mushrooms have 400-500 IU of Vitamin D per serving. If you don’t have access to wild mushrooms, you can set store bought mushrooms in the sun or under a UV light for 5 to 10 minutes to increase vitamin D levels. It works both pre and post harvest.

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System allows multitasking runners to read on a treadmill

I don’t do much cardio these days, but I have in the past and yes, I’ve tried reading while running on the treadmill, because treadmill running is BORING! If you’ve tried reading while running, you know that it’s not easy. Well it looks like a new device called the ReadingMate might be the answer. The ReadingMate can account for the runner’s motion and will move the text in unison with head movement. Cool!

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Interval Training and Intermittent Fasting: A Winning Combo

HIIT training and intermittent fasting is really popular these days and you get more benefits if you do both. The idea is to fast for 12-18 hours – stop eating 3 hours before bed and try not to eat for the next 12+ hours after your last meal. You want to workout in a fasted state and eat a recovery meal 30 minutes after working out. For HIIT training, you want to warmup for 3 minutes, exercise as hard as you possibly can for 30 seconds and recover for 90 seconds at a slower pace. You repeat this for up to 7 more times if you can. Check out the video on this page to see an example. He does it on treadmill, but there are lots of other HIIT workouts you can do. Just search Google.

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Blood, Berries or Butter: Maverick Wellness Highways

This is a crowdsource campaign to raise funds to create a documentary featuring people like Dave Asprey, Rich Roll, Nicholas Perricone, Abel James, Steven Fowkes, Justin Mager, Jim Kean, Chris Berka, Patrick Drake, James Hardt, Sarma Melngailis and a bunch of other biohackers. This is going to be one amazing documentary!

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Cold Thermogenesis Easy Start Guide

I can do the face dunking and I can probably do 20-40 lbs of ice on my chest with a compression shirt on, but I’m not sure how I feel about cold water immersion. Who knows though, I just might end up trying it sometime this summer.

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The Red Meat Scapegoat: The New York Times, Carnitine, Heart Disease and Science

You might have heard all the news recently about red meat causing increased risk of stroke, at least according to sensationalist journalism on sites like Forbes and the New York Times. I’m not saying that the study is wrong, but here’s a write-up from Dave Asprey on where the scientists who performed this study might have made some mistakes. Dave makes some interesting observations, but at this point his theories are still only theories and they don’t prove that red meat doesn’t cause increased risk of heart disease. I definitely think another study needs to be done though.

Here’s a recap of the best health and fitness articles I’ve read over the past week. I might as well have called this the Ben Greenfield edition because I’ve linked to several of his articles this week. He just consistently puts out awesome content.

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Why Vegetable and Nut Oils Suck

According to this article, it sounds like the only good plant-based oils worth consuming are MCT oil and coconut oil. He also mentions one of the benefits of coconut butter, which is that it contains stearic acid, which helps prevent cells from collapsing.

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Ben Greenfield’s Macronutrient Green Smoothie

Ben Greenfield posted this awesome green smoothie recipe on his Facebook page. I’ve already made this a couple times. I should warn you, it’s a very “green” smoothie that some people might not have the taste buds for yet. I’ve been making green juices and green smoothies for two years now, so it’s not a big deal to me. I’m all about it for the health benefits.

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New Uses For Creatine

According to the latest research, there are many reasons to use creatine daily, outside of its typical use as a bodybuilding supplement. I wonder if daily use would result in it becoming less Effective for bodybuilding.

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Turmeric equals exercise in its ability to prevent aging

Studies show that consuming turmeric can be just as good as working out in terms of preventing aging. And if you do both, you’ll get even better results! Ahh, the miracles of plants.

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How Much Fiber To Eat

Konstantin Monastyrsky seems to be quite the expert in fiber, although there are some skeptics online, which you can find by searching his name in Google. If what Konstantin is saying is true, we definitely shouldn’t be consuming foods that are intentionally fortified with bran and fiber. He also recommends peeling all fruits and vegetables before eating them, not only because of fiber but because the skins are what protect foods from bugs and the environment and we shouldn’t put that into our bodies. This is one of the most interesting podcasts I’ve heard in a while. Konstantin also answers everyone’s questions in the comment section too, where you can get all sorts of great additional info.

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NEW P90X HOST!!! THIS GUY’S NUTS!! – YouTube

Has Tony Horton been replaced? Now way! It’s too hard to match the awesomeness and funniness of Tony Horton.

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What Are The Best Biohacks?

The tips here kinda suck, not because they aren’t good but because they aren’t anything special. But I’m linking to this post anyway because these are people in the bio hacking community worth following.

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

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Xylitol Research

Xylitol is a great alternative sweetener but what’s really interesting about the information from this study is that the damage caused by sugars can be stopped just by consuming xylitol, such as in a xylitol-based chewing gum. It also mentions that the digestive issues some people have with xylitol go away after a period of adaptation, usually about 4 weeks. I have a coworker that won’t consume xylitol because of digestive issues. I’ll make sure to let her know about this.

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How to Use Up Almond Pulp

These all sound like awesome ideas. I hate throwing away pulp after making almond milk do I will definitely be trying all of these out.

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My 5 Favorite Exercises…right now

These are no replacements for heavy traditional lifts but they are great additions to an already solid program. I actually don’t do any of these, but I have done most in the past and can vouch for their effectiveness.

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Verifying that sorghum is a new safe grain for people with celiac disease

This is probably welcomed news to celiacs since it won’t cause a reaction to their immune system, but I still wonder about the other possible negative aspects of sorghum, such as high carbohydrate content and all of things Dr. William Davis says about it, like that it causes teeth decay and iron deficiency. Dr. Davis uses extreme examples, but it’s still worth being cautious.

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Litvinov Workout

I heard the Litinov method quickly mentioned in a podcast with no explanation given about what it was, so I looked it up. The original Litinov Workout, created by olympic hammer thrower Sergey Litinov, consisted of doing fronts squats of 405 lbs. eight times and immediately sprinting a 75-second 400-meter run and repeating two more times. Obviously we can’t all front squat 405 lbs. but the idea here is to lift really heavy. This article takes Litinov’s method a little further with various alternatives. I would really like to try this in the park with a sandbag sometime this Spring.

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Ankle Mobility and one of the Big Ten

Here are two ankle mobility exercises you can do to help get deeper squats. One really cool thing I learned from this video is that it takes a minimum of two minutes to cause change in soft tissue.

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Your Hidden Source Of Strength: 3 Steps To Better Breathing

I’ve performed the Vasalva breathing technique during lifts before but I didn’t know that was its name. It works but I’ve always been cautious about it because of how fitness professionals always warn against holding breath during lifts.

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Monsanto’s Dirty Dozen

Do you consume sweeteners that contain saccharin or aspartame, such as Sweet’N Low, NutraSweet or Equal? Do you consume foods packaged in polystyrene plastics? Do you eat non-organic meat or vegetables? If you do any of those things, you’re poisoning yourself with cancer-causing chemicals manufactured by Monsanto. Monsanto is the most disgusting business ever. How they haven’t been shut down is a mystery to me. Damn our corrupt government and money-hungry businessman who keep these evil people in business. Stop buying GMO foods!

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10 Tips for Making the Best Coconut Butter Ever

I’ve made coconut butter in my vitamix before and it really is delicious. I did it entirely from scratch though. I scraped a fresh coconut, dehydrated it and then turned it into butter. Wayyyy too much work. I definitely recommend buying shreds from the store 😉

Here’s a recap of the best health and fitness articles I’ve read over the past week. I’ve been doing a lot of reading recently, so my update is bit long. I hope you can make some time to at least check out a few of these.

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Most Vitamins Are a Waste of Money

Great post on why we need to research the supplements we take before taking them. The author of this article mentions one of my favorite supplement researchers, which is ConsumerLab.com. Most of my supplement decisions have come from the research they’ve done.

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Five Ways to Fix Your Deadlift Today

If you want some tips on doing the deadlift from a coach who knows real weight training and physiology, this is a post for you. This post explains a little about fixing hip hinge, performing rack pulls to perfect form, improving hip mobility, improving spine mobility and learning how to breathe properly. I need to work on every single one of these things.

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Hips Don’t Lie: 3 Drills To Nail The Hip Hinge

Just as I was reading about the hip hinge in the article above, I came across this. The hip hinge is something I’ve never tried to work on, although I wouldn’t doubt if it needs some adjusting.

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Build Your Own Self-Watering Planter – Step by Step

Garden season is right around the corner and now is the time to start getting everything together. A planter box is nice, but a self-watering planter is even better. I don’t have the money to build one of these this year, but I really wish I did.

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Yoga For Starters Infographic

I knew there were several yoga styles but I didn’t realize there were as many as are listed on this infographic. This handy chart tells you which types of yoga are best for things like stress relief, energy, meditation, and even vegetarians. I don’t know how they determine which type of yoga is best for vegetarians, but I guess I’ll just have to trust them.

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The Cortisol Challenge

DH Kiefer suggests working out at night when cortisol levels are low and skipping breakfast, since early morning is when cortisol levels are high. According to this article, cortisol levels are highest around 6-8 a.m and begin to drop from 8-11 a.m., so you probably want to hold off eating your first meal as close to 11 a.m as you can. I can do the skipping breakfast part, but I just can’t stick to a routine when I try to workout at night. If I don’t workout in the morning, I don’t workout at all.

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It’s getting science-y in here: Everything you need to know about sugar

This really is the all-you-need-to-know guide to sugars and sweeteners. Get the rundown on the best and worst sweeteners around and how they effect our bodies. Looks like the safest sugar is xylitol, which is actually what I use most based on Dave Asprey’s Bulletproof diet.

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So You Want to Start Sprinting?

I wanted to incorporate sprinting into my routine last year, but I never did. I’m definitely going to do it this year and I’m starting with the information here. The foam rolling drills and mobility exercises are great too, and not just for sprinting.

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Dynamic Effort Training: BS or Legit?

Ready to geek out on exercise science? This one is about determining whether speed work is beneficial towards powerlifting efforts. The topic remains up for debate but according to the original author of the article, powerlifter Mike Tuscherer, from which this article from Bret Contreras stems, it sounds like speed work is best for beginners to lifting. Bret doesn’t provide an opinion on the matter but does go into some science that could help you make a decision on whether you should be doing speed work or not.

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Kettlebell Training Manifesto: A Beginner’s Guide to Kettlebell Training

This article provides a short history lesson of the kettlebell, a basic understanding of how kettlebells work, the different types of grips, and some exercises you can do. This is a great guide and goes into quite a bit of detail. Very well put together.

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An Alternative to Willpower for Losing Weight

Alex Lickerman, MD is a physician that has found a way to get his patients to stick with the slow-carb diet, despite the fact that most people who go on diets and successfully lose weight, end up gaining a lot of it back later. The key is psychology. Check out Dr. Lickerman’s seven point plan to not only remove bad foods from your diet, but any other vice you might have.

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7 Ways to Fix Weak Hamstrings

I just started working on my hamstrings about 4 months ago after reading an article similar to this one, explaining all the reasons why strong hamstrings are important. I haven’t incorporated a whole lot into my routine that focuses on the hamstrings but I probably will now.

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11 Reasons to Ditch Processed Foods

This is everything I’ve been learning from the book, Rich Food Poor Food. Here are just a few takeaways – dont eat foods with phosphates as an ingredient, don’t consume foods containing dyes and be careful of foods labeled as “natural.” The FDA has far too many loopholes for food manufacturers and destructive businesses like Monsanto. If you don’t want to poison your body or pass down busted genes to your children, avoid GMO and buy organic.