Saturday, 13 September 2008

1 in 5 men unhappy with their body; should be MORE

According to a BBC report recently, 1 in 5 men are "deeply unhappy" with their body image. 

This is deeply unhappy and disturbing news! 2/3rds of men in this country are overweight or obese. And yet only 1/5th of men are deeply unhappy about it? Thats disgraceful. We should be seeing at least 2/3rds of men "deeply unhappy" with their disgusting, diseased bodies!

According to Dr John Morgan, the number of men with eating disorders is higher than official figures suggest. This is good news; but its still clearly not high enough! We clearly need to learn how to harness the power of the eating disorder and pass it on to MORE men. 

Dr Morgan also states "There are men who have problems with compulsive exercise and excessive bodybuilding...". Again, the majority of men would benefit from having such a 'problem'. And maybe if we could give this 'problem' to a much larger proportion of the male population then we wouldnt have the REAL health 'problems' currently straining our medical system.

The media is apparently doing a good job of pressuring men to be slim; almost as much pressure as that given to women. Again, this is a good start but is clearly still not enough given obesity statistics. I say, no more TV shows with fat, ugly people! I mean, who cares about the problems of fat, ugly people anyway? Other than fat, ugly people who need to look in the mirror and fix themselves!

Bottom line is: 1 in 5 men 'get it'. Which means 4 in 5 men need to take a damn hard look at themselves and realise that they are disgusting! From there the advice is to read every issue of GQ magazine and only watch Brad Pitt movies so that you can develop an eating disorder, exercise compulsively and FIX YOUR FAT-SELF UP!

Thursday, 7 August 2008

New Endurance Drug

A couple of new drugs apparently combine to give sedentary people the endurance fitness of people who exercise hard. Check this article recently published in the Wall St Journal

What staggered me most about this article were the comments about the potential abuse of these drugs by athletes. On the one hand the doctors were HAPPY that they'd found a pill that would allow lazy-ass people to continue to physically neglect and nutritionally abuse their bodies to the limit. But on the other hand they were WORRIED that people who actually look after themselves and live an extremely healthy lifestyle might use the drugs to further IMPROVE themselves???

But I guess its good to see everyone is sticking with the mentality of pouring resources into the lazy, unproductive, dregs of society while continuing to penalise the few people in the world who actually do work.

'Cos the people too lazy to help themselves need our help, doncha' know.

Wednesday, 6 August 2008

What Vitamins, Exactly?

As everyone knows, you MUST eat your vegetables to get your vitamins. Of course, don't press anybody for details; just accept that its a MUST. Like cardio for your heart: don't question it; just accept. Veggies = Vitamins. Nothing left to discuss.

But I like to discuss stupid statements; much to everybody's annoyance. And if ever there was a question to get an offended, defensive retort out of self-proclaimed experts it is: "what vitamins in what veggies do I need, exactly?"

Nobody seems able to answer that question. The best answer I've ever gotten was examples. Like: "well, for instance, carrots give you your vitamin A and broccoli gives you iron". And nobody seems to believe that vitamins and minerals might come from foods OTHER than veggies. So let me tell you how it is.

If you look up 'carrots' on NutritionData.com you will find that, true enough, carrots give you vitamin A. Specifically, 1 medium carrot gives you more than 200% of your daily requirement. Great! But, you know what? I already get my entire daily requirement of Vitamin A from the eggs I eat each day. And, after Vitamin A (and 1/1oth of my vitamin K), a carrot offers less than 1/50th of my daily requirement of just SOME other vitamins and minerals!

So far it looks like the truth to 'carrots provide vitamin A' is absolute - they provide vitamin A and nothing else. So, what? Are we supposed to eat 1 vegetable for each vitamin and mineral we need, each day? Thats at least 25 different vegetables you'd need to cook and eat each day!!! That would cost, literally, hundreds and hundreds of dollars per week.

But what about that nutritional powerhouse: broccoli? 1 cup provides me with a whopping 4% of my daily Iron requirement. In my case, again, my eggs alone provide me with almost 200% of my daily requirement. Of course, a cup of broccoli does provide my vitamin c - 81mg... though I have 1000-4000mg of supplemental vitamin c per day so 81mg sounds a bit pathetic. But broccoli DOES provide me with vitamin K which I don't get from my eggs or anything. Apparently I'll know I'm deficient of K if I bleed profusely... which I don't. So there goes that one.

And apart from C and K there, again, is barely more than a few percent of any of the other vitamins and minerals in a cup of broccoli... unless you fancy consuming around 20 cups of broccoli per day?

Anyway, I could go on. Carrots and Broccoli are actually quite nutritious among the veggies. Most offer so few vitamins and minerals that you would literally need to eat kilo quantities before you achieved the RDA of any ONE vitamin! 

In fact, I calculated that if you had half a KILO of equal parts broccoli, carrot, celery and onion, the ONLY vitamins or minerals you would get your RDA of were A, C & K. In fact, half a KILO of your typical, supposedly nutritious veggies - more than any reasonable person would EVER eat in a day - provides only 0-25% of any vitamin or mineral (other than A, C & K)! And thats before you consider that fibre reduces the absorbability of many of those vitamins and minerals by as much as 95%!!!

Now by comparison, my completely vegetable free, carnivores diet of eggs, meat, rice, whey protein and almonds provides me with an AVERAGE of 343% of every vitamin and mineral. The majors: zinc - 465%; iron - 459%; calcium - 280%; B12 - 1712% etc etc. Only C and K are below 100% and C I supplement in relative megadoses.

Oh, and as for fibre, veggies arent the only source there either. The rice, nuts and whole grain bread in my diet cover me nicely there.

So what was it I need my veggies for again???

Monday, 28 July 2008

Running for Bodybuilding Champion

Right now we are 10-ish weeks out from the major competitive Bodybuilding season. So all over the country guys and girls are training hard to look as bodybuilder-esque as possible by October. And as you would expect, that means they are all reducing their weight-training loads and doing lots of running and cycling training.

Of course, bodybuilders don't refer to it as 'training for running and cycling'. Its just that running and cycling is what they spend all their time doing. Apparently all that running and riding "burns fat". And there are various theories about how to avoid looking like a runner or cycler despite training exactly like one. 

Personally, I just can't fathom the stupidity of this. Runners look like runners. Cyclists look like cyclists. Train like a runner or cycler and you'll become a runner or cycler; and you'll probably look like one. Not even drugs can change that! Hell, we all know the Tour De France cyclists are drugged to the eyeballs with all the same stuff pro-bodybuilders use. Ever wondered why not a single one of them looks like a pro-bodybuilder? Just MAYBE it has something to do with the fact that they TRAIN AS CYCLISTS!!! Is anybody really surprised by this?

Now I know that bodybuilders have never been famous for their intellect; they've worked hard for their reputation as galactically stupid. But how the hell did hardcore bodybuilding get so deeply infested by the most worthless, mediocre, mainstream, training methods straight out of "the Biggest Loser"? 

Why in hell would anybody think that endurance training has any relevance to a bodybuilder? Is it because when its called 'cardio' and done on a stationary machine in a gym it becomes a different thing? What? Like: "A rose by any other name is completely different to a rose"? Stupid is as stupid does. And endurance training by someone trying to impart the look of limitless strength is STUPID!!!

The facts remain: walking is not exercise; its not burning any quantity of energy or fat worthy of mention; its not helping or even bothering the heart of a hard-training athlete; its just a complete waste of time. Can anybody REALLY believe that a person will wind up looking MORE like a cartoon superhero because they engaged in WALKING??? How??? WHY??? Forget all the contradictory science; stop studying the trees, look up and see the forest: walking doesn't help create a muscular physique!

Running on the other hand is endurance training; its training to become a runner and will make you LOOK like a runner. Again, why would anybody think otherwise? Surely even the most cliched 'dumb-bodybuilder' knows that!?

Saturday, 26 July 2008

Genetic Laziness & Smoking

A moments silence, please, for all those people around the world who are genetically lazy. Yes, new research has found that laziness isn't a characteristic based on choice; its preprogrammed in some peoples DNA. Check the link here...

And what a tragedy it is for those people. Their own DNA completely prevents them from being able to choose to do, well, ANYTHING, obviously! How can they do anything? If they are genetically lazy then they are incapable of effort. It is impossible for them to move. They can't work; they can't get out of bed; they obviously can't even eat... though somehow they manage to push past their genetic barriers to eat themselves to a fat-assed-death. And they get also manage to get past their genetic barriers to drink copious quantities of booze. Their genetics also fail to stop them getting their fat asses down to CentreLink where they very unlazily bitch and complain about the money they're owed for somehow, disgustingly, procreating; creating zillions more genetically-lazy trailer-park-trolls!

Much the same sympathy is deserved by the genetic smokers. Yes, smoking is genetic which means you have no choice in the matter either. If your DNA says you're a smoker then its going to happen TO YOU. You WILL BE a VICTIM to smoking. See, some peoples bodies produce proteins that bind their arms behind their backs, form cigarettes between their lips and expand their lungs to take giant inhalations of nicotine enriched smoke. The DNA of these poor souls' then forms cancer in response to the cigarettes they had forced upon them. Its nicotine rape. But the rapist is their own DNA! Its tragic! 

And here was me, all this time, thinking that our genes simply describe how our bodies form and respond to the world we subject ourselves to. Nope. Seems I was wrong. According to the new Science, your genetics don't say that you will turn you into a fat bastard IF you choose to face-slam a million calories of shit per day; your genes say whether you will be fat, or lazy, or a smoker irrespective what choices you make. Very interesting. Useful information that too. Especially if you are a lazy, fat bastard who smokes!

Strength Training in Older People

Some amazing, ground-breaking research is coming out that will make you rethink everything  you once thought. It seems that when old people train with weights they get... STRONGER!!! Even more amazingly, their muscles grow as they get stronger. 

Its crazy; but its almost like old people respond to weight training just like, well... PEOPLE. Like HUMAN people. Even though they're OLD! Its just amazing. Who'd ever think this would be the case? But its true. Check it out here...