Athlete In The City

There’s an interesting article in the NY Times talking about how obsessed people can get in their training. For Those Not Running, Training Can Be Just As Taxing.

One guy is a running-obsessed husband who despite his family being a bit cash strapped, buys a new $900 electronic muscle stimulator.  His wife is understandably frustrated.  Another guy trains triathalons and never has time for his wife.

To be sure there are a few rare ones who are that obsessed, but for the rest of us, we have to keep pushing!!

I guess as obesity becomes a bigger epidemic, the major news outlets are doing more and more fitness related shows.  The new section I just saw on CNN is Dr. Sanjay Gupta’s Fit Nation.  Looks pretty good.  There are health articles, quizes + charts, video, and top-10 checklists.  Great site I think.

MapMyRun just came out with their own iPhone app.   It’s called iMapMyRun and you can download it from the iTunes store for free! It’s pretty slick, and the concept is awesome.  So I thought I’d give it a try.

The app is super cool.  It has all the right bells and whistles to be really useful, including syncing your data right to their website, keeping a log of your data, and providing further details.  It even offers a button to “twitter” your run, ie throw up details of your recent workout as a record on twitter.

My first impressions lead me to think that the GPS on the iPhone may not be accurate enough for an app like this one.  As they suggested, I waited for the GPS status to turn green.  Nonetheless I had some trouble.

My first try, I walked from a cafe on 13th street, west to 4th avenue, south to

12th street, and then west again to my final destination on 12th between Broadway and University.  But checkout the erratic lines.

I have yet to try this for a long run, so 60 minutes of data may average out better than five minutes.  Also in the city, there are a lot of buildings in the way, which may prevent the iphone GPS from being super accurate.  I’ve had the same problems with my Garmin GPS Running watch, although on the whole it is quite good.

As they say, your mileage may vary.

Hoola hooping is getting big, apparently.  Somehow I hadn’t noticed.  Ok it’s popular at burning man, but still…   While in London though, I saw this article at the Guardian - Give it a twirl.

“The retro art of hula hooping is making a comeback on both sides of the Atlantic.  And no wonder, says Lucy Atkins:  as well as being a lot of fun, it will tone your body in all the right places”

If you’re interested in hooping in NYC, checkout Groove Hoops.  They have classes…

I’ve harped on about weightbearing exercise before.  It’s very important.  The force of gravity upon the skeletal system stimultes bone growth, and health.

I was just watching CNN today, and Sanjay Gupta was interviewing some scientists at NASA on the affects of weightlessness on the astronauts bodies.

Here’s the article:  Making Gravity Work For You by Dr Sanjay Gupta

Some hightlights…

I learned how beneficial gravity is for us on Earth. Doctors call it axial load. You can think of it as a slight tension on our bodies, more importantly our ligaments, tendons and bones. Turns out, this slight pulling of gravity slows down the loss of bone mass, which in space accelerates 10 times faster than a post-menopausal woman.

and more importantly…

The message for the rest of us is to embrace gravity. In addition to your aerobic exercise, which you should do most days of the week, add some axial load to your routine. And, this is a message for everyone, especially women in their 40s and 50s who will have to deal with menopause. Pick up some dumbbells, park yourself under a bench press or learn how to use a cable system. It’s good for your health and for your bones.

For the rest of us into bodyweight training, all the different types of pushups, handstands, pullups etc all count as weightbearing exercise too.