Random Thoughts of a Ranting Personal Trainer - Part II
1. Omega 3 eggs are actually bad for you???
The good news is that people are finally eating eggs again. The fear of cholesterol brought about by media hype is slowly dying down. The bad news is that to gain ground in this newly competitive market some savvy marketer created Omega 3 eggs by adding flax to the feed of the chickens producing them.
Although I can’t say enough about the benefits of Omega 3’s in their unprocessed form, cooking them completely alters their structure and creates deadly trans fats. These are even more lethal than saturated fat was ever thought to be. Unless you’re eating your eggs raw like Rocky Balboa you’d be best to switch back to the old fashioned variety.
2. Gasoline is “fat free”.
3. Cocaine is made with “all natural ingredients”.
4. You need to get in shape to run NOT run to get in shape.
Running is an advanced exercise. Each time your foot hits the ground the force generated is equal to at least 2 times your bodyweight. For a 150 pound woman this equals 300 bone jarring pounds of impact. Since most novice runners also haven’t developed the ability to absorb force properly, the brunt is taken by the joints in the ankles, knees, hips, and lower back. What’s worse is that during a 1 mile run there are approximately 1000-1500 of these injury inducing strides.
Does jumping from one foot to the other with 300 pounds of force 1000 times sound like a novice exercise to you?
To quote strength coach Mike Boyle, “Women who run successfully for long periods of time were made to run. They look just like male runners. Good female runners generally don’t look like plus-size models. It’s not a question of cause and effect; it’s a question of natural selection. You can’t run to get that cute little runner’s body. It’s actually reversed. You have to have that cute little runner’s body to survive running.”
5. Convenience stores are terrible.
They primarily sell cigarettes, junk food, and pop. Don’t even get me started on lottery tickets. All of these are probably the last things we need to be wasting our money on.
6. Core training is a gimmick.
There is a time and place for everything. We even have core training exercises in our routines. However, if you hear of anyone whose entire training program revolves entirely around “core training” and stability ball work they are completely uneducated as to how the muscles and nervous system function. It is a completely unnatural movement pattern.
When was the last time you stood on an unstable surface and did squats in the real world?
7. The Biggest Loser creates unrealistic expectations for weight loss.
Let’s face it. Everybody loves The Biggest Loser. Almost everyone on this program loses weight and the weight loss on this program is extreme. This is not to say that it can’t be done, but I don’t think it’s an indication of how most people lose weight in the real world. Besides, there’s more drama than weight loss on this show anyway.
I think that the television show X Weighted with fitness expert Paul Plakas is a much better example of the trials and tribulations most people face during their weight loss journey. I think it demonstrates the real world problems people encounter when trying to lose weight.
I like it because not everyone succeeds on this show. You get to watch hard working people succeed and lazy excuse makers fail. This is more in line with how it really works.
8. Ninety percent of all supplements out there don’t do anything.
9. This has nothing to do with fitness, but it will keep you busy for hours.
Three men go to a hotel room to stay. They receive a bill for $30. They each put $10 on the table, which the bellboy collects and takes to the till. The hotel manager informs the bellboy that the bill should only have been for $25 and returns $5 to the bellboy in $1 bills. On the way back to the room the bellboy realizes that he cannot divide the bills equally between the men. As they didn’t know the total of the revised bill, he dishonestly decides to put $2 in his own pocket and give each of the men $1.
Now that each man has been given a dollar back, each of the men has paid $9. Three times 9 is 27. The bellboy has $2 in his pocket. Two plus 27 is $29. The men originally handed over $30.
Where is the missing dollar?
1 comment March 12th, 2008