Found an interesting video of a fitness model doing some half-assed one-handed chinups. While they’re not quite one arm chinups (nor are they really complete chinups either), it is impressive to see a woman who can actually come close to the upper body strength of a Lillian Leitzel (who was alleged to be able to perform multiple one arm pullups with both arms).

More about Lillian here - scroll down to her entry in the tables.

BlondeChic has a ways to go yet. So do I.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vVaMiPbtrZs]

In likely the most exciting health news of the year, it appears that there is hope for diabetes sufferers (from Canada, no less). Read about it here:

Not to mention that they can make diabetes symptoms disappear almost instantly (in lab mice, at least).

So what’s the mystery cure? Well, it appears you can inject capsaicin (the compound that makes peppers spicy) into the pancreatic sensory nerves, shutting them down. This caused the lab mice’s pancrei to begin secreting insulin normally. The scientists also isolated an unknown neuropeptide “substance P” that seems to be the key in restoring normal pancreatic function. The article states that some of the lab mice have been producing insulin normally for four months on a single injection.

It certainly is a preferable solution to the problem than a life-long dependence on insulin injections and enevitable organ failure.

In the meantime, prevention (in the cause of type 2 diabetes) is still the best medicine. By curbing intake of products containing high-fructose corn syrup, reducing consumption of refined, highly processed foods, and regularly exercising (*ahem strength training), one can go a long way in preventing the onset of type 2 diabetes.

Those wacky Canadians.

One of my recent guilty pleasures is watching a show called Ninjawarrior on G4TV. The premise behind Ninjawarrior is pitting athletes (and those who fancy themselves opt-notch athletes) against a giant obstacle course - think a Crossfitter’s wet dream. There are 4 “stages” to conquer in this gigantic playground, and beating all 4 stages (which only 1 man has ever done) wins you the title of “Ninjawarrior”.

Sounds like fun? Looks like it - I would love to get a crack at Stage 2 myself. Stage 2 could be renamed “the Grip Challenge”, as the competitors have to scale walls, traverse chasms holding onto thin planks and a curtain, and swing on chains.

One thing I really enjoy about this show is watching real athletes (such as Olympic gold medal winner Paul Hamm) try and fail on the courses, while “Normal Joes” (who obsess over the show and practice at home on makeshift versions of the obstacles) somehow grind through the levels. It only serves to hammer home the concept of specificity in athletics - if you want to excel at an event/sport, practice that event/sport.

Recently Renzo’s niece Kyra Gracie (who taught the women’s class at the academy) was on the show! Imagine how psyched I was to see the clip. But how’d she do? Check it out for yourself.

(This new version of Blogger doesn’t yet support embedded video so I’m afraid you’ll have to click here to view it on YouTube.)

Oh well. The more you see specificity in athletics, the more incredible a Babe Didrikson or Jim Thorpe becomes. I’d better get back to my snowboarding training now.

UPDATED:

I found some more clips of Ninjawarrior on YouTube (just for you, Michele). Enjoy them now before they get taken down:

Olympian Paul Terek defeats the First Stage, barely.

Olympic Silver Medalist Morgan Hamm redeems himself on Stage One.

Alas, not everyone takes this competition seriously. It is Japan, after all.

Above: Maybe Nikita was right; there really is something to this Russian water embued with “human essence.”

This Russian grandmother the next Donald Dinnie or Steve Jeck? Not really - read the whole story here.

Just thought the pic would inspire you to head out to the gym and lift away with wild abandon (and good form, of course).

I previously detailed that cardio makes you hungrier, causing you to eat more calories and to have an overall net calorie gain. Let’s go through some more reasons why doing cardio (aerobics) for fat loss may not be the best approach:

1) It burns fewer calories than you think. So you got on the elliptical machine for 20 minutes and got all jazzed up because the computer readout showed that you burned 417 calories - whew! Well, the whole story is a little less favorable. First off, the computer (if you didn’t enter in your weight) is calculating calories burned from its data on “average user”, so if you’re not a thirtysomething 165 pound male, sorry - that’s not the real number. Secondly, the machine adds in EPOC and BMR to its totals, so as to maximize the number of calories burned.

What’s EPOC and BMR?

EPOC - Excess post-exercise oxygen consumption which is the additional oxygen your body takes in to “right itself” after an exercise bout. If we liken your muscles to a car engine, when you run a car engine, it continues to “burn hot” long after you shut off the ignition. This is akin to the increase in metabolism your body undergoes after performing an exercise bout. As a result of EPOC, you burn additional calories as a result of increased metabolic activity post-exercise.

BMR - Basal Metabolic Rate, which is roughly the number of calories your body burns at rest in order to maintain respiration, keep organs alive, i.e., keep your body alive and functioning.

You would have burned BMR anyway, regardless of whether or not you performed the exercise bout.

EPOC is valuable, but it can be increased far more via (ahem) strength training.

2) It burns much, much fewer calories than you think, actually. If you’re like most people, you do the same cardio at the same pace over and over again, day after day. Well, your body is quite adaptable and learns to do more with less; in other words, it becomes efficient at performing exercise. By becoming more efficient, you burn fewer calories as a result of doing the same workout.

If you began by running 3 miles in 25 minutes, it is likely you burned roughly 300 calories (not including EPOC and BMR - contrary to what Dr. Warden says, I am not a machine:) ).

If you are still running that same 3 miles 6 months later, when you’re more fit, it’s likely that you are burning far fewer calories - probably somewhere around 200 calories or so.

If you continue to run the same 3 miles, you will burn fewer and fewer calories as your body adapts further to the workload.

This is not an acceptable scenario for fat loss purposes.

What can one do?

Well, I’m partial to having clients not do cardio at all for the reasons outlined in the last two posts. However, some clients have extremely sluggish metabolisms, and to jumpstart it, I’ll have them perform intervals in the Tabata style (modified to make it slightly easier, of course). The important thing is that the workloads increase over time to counteract this adaption effect.

So there you have it. Ok, I’m going back to eating; I mean, “fueling up.”