Can the placebo effect work with exercise and fitness? Two Harvard psychologists decided to find out, and the results were startling.
84 maids at seven carefully matched hotels [were quizzed on] how much exercise they got. Fully a third of the women said they got no exercise at all, while two-thirds said they did not work out regularly. Langer and Crum took several measures of the women’s basic fitness levels, which indicated that they, indeed, had the poor health of basically sedentary people. Then just over half the women were told an unfamiliar truth: cleaning 15 rooms daily — pushing recalcitrant vacuum cleaners, scrubbing tubs, pulling sheets — constitutes more than enough activity to meet the surgeon general’s recommendation of a half-hour of physical activity daily. [The] control group was left in the dark.
A month later, Langer and Crum checked back with the women to find, as they reported in the February issue of Psychological Science, remarkable results. The average study-group maid had lost 2 pounds, while her systolic blood pressure had dropped by 10 points; by all measures the 44 women “were significantly healthier.” Yet there were no reported changes in behavior, only in mind-set.
The accompanying graphic highlights the findings, and the story was also covered by Ben Goldacre in his Guardian column, Bad Science.
via MeFi
I haven’t had a thorough look through this list of minimalist workouts yet, but it looks like I’ll discover some complimentary exercises to my current regimen (PodRunner and 100 Push Ups). Go calisthenics!
via Link Banana
Coming into the 400m semi-final at the 1992 Olympic Games in Barcelona, Derek Redmond was the favourite to win the gold medal. However 150m into the race, Redmond’s hamstring snapped and his Olympic dream was shattered… but Redmond was determined to finish the race. The Guardian takes us through the emotional race, with commentary from Redmond.
‘Everything I had worked for was finished. I hated everybody. I hated the world. I hated hamstrings. I hated it all. I felt so bitter that I was injured again. I told myself I had to finish. I kept hopping round. Then, with 100 metres to go, I felt a hand on my shoulder. It was my old man.’
Read the article before watching this video of the race.
As The Independent points out, Chinese food has a bad reputation in the UK. But understood and prepared properly, it is healthy, fulfilling, and one of my favourite types of cuisine. These Chinese dietary ’secrets’ have rejuvenated my fervour for Eastern cooking.
Stop counting calories
Think of vegetables as dishes
Fill up on staple foods
Eat until you are full
Take liquid food
Bring yin and yang into your kitchen
Raw power? not necessarily
Use food to keep fit
Drink green tea
Take restorative exercise
I stumbled upon One Hundred Push Ups over a month ago and completely forgot about it ’til now. At the time I thought exactly like Lifehacker: it’s the PodRunner Intervals for your chest.
If you’re serious about increasing your strength, follow this six week training program and you’ll soon be on your way to completing 100 consecutive push ups!