Obesity Weighs More Heavily on Women Than Men.

In the latest American Journal of Public Health, Dr. Peter Muennig and his colleagues posit a novel new approach to determining the health risks of obesity - the QALY (Quality-Adjusted Life Year). Most epidemiologists take the approach of looking at death (it’s easier to quantify), but Muennig et al. examined years of health lost due to obesity. Pretty neat concept, although there is a definite subjective quality to it (in defining the degree of “quality of life” lost).

According to the study US women lost 1.5 million more QALYs than men, attributable to being obese. Being just overweight cost US women almost the same, about 1.5 million more QALYs. Does this mean that women become more susceptible to disease as a result of being overweight? Or perhaps does carrying the extra weight affect women’s bodies in different (read: more negative) ways than men’s bodies? Is there something in lifestyle differences between men and women that amplifies this effect?

The article is a nice teaser but I’ll be glad when I can get my grubby little hands on a copy of the actual study to get the answers. Guess I’ll have to wait till September.

The most hilarious part is the end quote from Muennig where he relates,

You mean that worrying about being overweight is killing women? Give me a break.

I think I may have found a sport suitable as a snowboarding substitute for the off-season. That doesn’t carry risk of sharkbite, that is.

Above: It only took me a minute to learn, but it will take me a lifetime to…wait, that’s something else. Skimboarding at Long Beach.

Stay cool and well hydrated out there!

Thought I’d ring in the country’s birthday with some interesting anecdotes about the physical conditioning of our past Commanders-in-Chief.

-George Washington had incredible grip strength. It was said he could crack a walnut shell with one hand. (Note: This is much harder than it sounds. Try it.)

-John Quincy Adams took a daily swim in the Potomac River before attending to his presidential duties.

-Abraham Lincoln was a great wrestler. There is an oft repeated anecdote from his younger years regarding a bout he had with Jack Armstrong in 1832 where he “picked the man up up the neck, held him up at arm’s length, and shook him like a child.”

-Being a sickly, asthmatic child, Teddy Roosevelt took up sports at the behest of his father. He studied both boxing and judo and even had a regular boxing coach on call at the White House during his presidency. During his term he was visited by Mitsua”Count Koma”Maeda, the Japanese judoka who taught jiujitsu to some kid named Carlos Gracie in Brazil (who, in turn, taught his brothers Osvaldo, Gastao Jr., Jorge, and Helio, and so on, and so on…).

-Dwight Eisenhower was the last President (that I know of, anyway) capable of performing one-arm pullups. He was able to do at least one at the age of 56 (during his presidency). He also established the President’s Council on Youth Fitness (which just celebrated its 50th anniversary this past May. What? You mean you weren’t invited to the party?).

-JFK, having sustained a back injury in WWII, suffered from debilitating back pain. His abdominal muscles were reportedly so weak that he was unable to perform a single sit-up. However, an Austrian-born surgeon, Dr. Hans Kraus, put Kennedy on an exercise regimen that helped to rehab Kennedy’s back (Incidentally, it was this same Dr. Kraus who pushed Eisenhower to establish the President’s Council on Youth Fitness).

Well, that’s all I can think of for now. Feel free to post your own presidential feats of strength (or otherwise) in the comments section below.

There’s nothing new under the sun, as they say. Exercise has probably been around as long as the human race has been, albeit not in the systematized, efficient, psuedoscientific manner it exists in today. One no doubt has heard of the now legendary Milo of Croton, the Greek wrestler who “invented” progressive strength training sometime around 540 BC by carrying (or lifting, depending on the source) a calf everyday until it grew to maturity (and growing his muscles along with it).

Above: That’s what you get for “demonstrating strength” instead of “building it.” Milo of Croton Attacked by Wild Beasts, oil on canvas, Giovanni Antonio de Sacchi, 1534-1536.

Ever wonder about the origins of personal training, or who the first personal trainer was?

Exercise historian David Landau tells us that if there is one man directly responsible for the idea of a one-to-one physical instructor (in the modern age, at least), it would have to be Pehr Henrik Ling.

Ling is known for a great many accomplishments; he is cited as both “the father of physical therapy”, or more commonly, “the father of Swedish massage.” He was a member of the Swedish General Medical Association, a member of the Swedish Academy, and a professor and fencing-master at Lund University, where he completed his study of the medical cirriculum of the time, as well as extensive study in anatomy and physiology.

But for our purposes, we are concerned chiefly with his creation and implementation of his system, which he called “medical gymnastics.” Sounds quite all-encompassing, and it was: it is estimated that the entirety of the techniques of Swedish Massage (you know, that budding massage therapists go to the Swedish Institute for two years to learn and get certified in) comprise a whopping 10% of his system. The other 90% is comprised of military training (fencing and gymnastics), gymnastic exercises accepted as “cutting edge” techniques of the time, and a logical, progressive system of interpersonal exercise - or manual resistance exercises.

Landau says:

Imagine, indeed (for all you trainers out there reading this).

It was Ling’s system, as taught in the Royal Gymnastic Central Institute (Ling’s government-sponsored school) that comprise the both the genesis of physical therapy practice and the notion of one-on-one individualized exercise instruction. Ling’s system dealt both in rehabilitation of acute and chronic conditions (Ling himself was said to be frail and weakly, suffering from rheumatism) and in improving the physical conditioning of the body, primarily through manual resistance techniques and weird toy-like apparatuses, like hoops, clubs, and balls.

Which underscores the idea that history does indeed repeat itself. Well, historically speaking, Zander came next, so at least I have that to look forward to.

Enjoy the Fourth, everyone.