Lately I’ve been indulging in a new hobby. For about an hour each night, after I’ve put my daughter to bed, I read fitness blogs. Yes, it’s a guilty pleasure, which I call my ‘research’, despite the fact that I rarely apply this knowledge in any tangible way. (Ok, so maybe my squatting technique has improved, and I’ve become a bit antsy about eating grains, but that’s about it).
It struck me the other day that as I’ve spent hours and hours reading material about health and nutrition, I should really do something with it, which is why I decided to post this. Many of the larger blogs will provide a weekly round up of popular articles: Breaking Muscle regularly posts lists of top articles, as does The Lean Green Bean, and occasionally Girls Gone Strong hands out some good links. But so far I haven’t found anyone writing a regular summary or analysis of key trends. It might be out there, but if so I haven’t found it yet.
So, bearing in mind that I have zero qualifications as either a fitness professional or nutritionist, here’s a dumbed down version of what the fitness blogs have been saying lately:
Since the New Year, there has been a predictable flurry of articles about making and keeping resolutions. Lots of places posted articles on goal setting, the SMART framework got a lot of mentions, with some funny people standing back and casting a critical eye over the whole thing. Conversely, a smaller number of writers questioned the value of goal setting, with some suggesting that ‘intentions’ were more valuable than precise goals. Yet others stressed that in a fitness journey, the focus should be on consistency not sudden effort.
Like an oversized freight train passing a small country town, the cardio versus strength training debate goes on and on and on. It’s hit the point where people are publishing books called ‘Which comes first, cardio or weights?’. If you think, like I do, that any movement is good movement, particularly when we all spend so much time sitting down, then this debate can feel a bit nonsensical. It reminds me of my former career as a sailing writer, when people used to weigh in passionately in favour of one kind of junior dinghy over another. People! They both float.
Bodyweight exercises are getting solid coverage, with muscle ups and pull ups particular favourites, along with the more glamourous but less attainable flag (I read somewhere that it takes three years of solid effort to achieve). Since the New Yorker published an article titled ‘Why women can’t do pull ups’, there have been a flurry of ‘how to do pull up’ training programs for the ladies, and a number of excellent counter articles.
Finally, there’s been some interesting stuff about nutrition timing post exercise. Some years ago someone passed on to me the lovely idea that a ‘carb window’ exists for a short period of time following exercise, and that if you eat during this time, your body processes food more efficiently, meaning that the value of a calorie actually fluctuates. Like many other optimists, I interpreted this as ‘Great! I can stuff myself immediately after a workout and it doesn’t count!’ It turns out that like free Microsoft laptops, all-you-can-eat Chinese buffets, and emotionally grounded single millionaires, this idea was just too good to be true.
Pull up photo credit here and flag photo sourced from here
Helen Hopcroft: an artist's life 