H.E.A.T. Blog

With the long weekend coming up, I'm sure many of you will get in at least a few workouts (as well as a little partying) before I see you again. Keeping that in mind, I thought it was a good time to discuss stretching, a commonly overlooked but really important activity that can prevent injuries, make you faster and stronger, and even make you feel better.

Think about it this way: Whether you've worked out or not, every day you bend, sit, walk and repeat many of the same movements over and over again. Studies have shown that regular stretching -- versus the occasional stretching I'm guessing a lot of you do -- reduces your chances of developing repetitive stress syndrome, keeps your joints limber, helps you find muscle imbalances, and relieves stress. Stretching is for every day! {Read the rest}

If you're like a lot of people -- especially if you're young -- you probably don't think much about your cholesterol. The thing is, your cholesterol level (which is reported in milligrams of cholesterol per deciliter of blood, or mg/dL) is a good indication of whether your diet and exercise regimen is working for you.

This month's issue of Mayo Clinic Health Letter looks at how lifestyle choices can affect "good" and "bad" cholesterol levels. The article doesn't say all cholesterol is bad (it actually helps with digestion and hormone production), but too much cholesterol can narrow blood vessels and put you at risk for heart attacks and all sorts of other icky things. Being active and eating foods that are low in cholesterol -- and high in fiber -- can make a big difference to your body.

The point isn't that you should be in your doctor's office every week asking for a reading, but it's definitely a good idea to get it checked every once in a while, and it helps remind us that the choices we make on a daily basis are affecting more than what we see in the mirror in the mornings. For more info, read the rest -- or check out another great article on the top 5 foods that will help lower your cholesterol.

Camp tomorrow will be held in the Warehouse. Come get a fantastic Saturday workout and stay dry!

Location: The Warehouse
Time: 9 a.m. sharp!

We'll have a small "social" breakfast at Blue Dahlia's right afterward -- from 10:15 a.m. to 11 a.m.! Join us and eat some amazing, healthy food.

P.S. The new schedule's out! Behold its awesomeness!

Can athletes go vegan/vegetarian and still be competitive? They can if they're dedicated to taking in enough calories to keep their energy output up -- especially if they're Scott Jurek, a record-winning, vegan, ultramarathoner who also happens to be the subject of an NYT piece on extreme diets and exercise. Jurek is training for the 24-Hour Run world championship in France, averaging 140 miles or more per week.

It's difficult for most people to fathom this kind of grueling schedule, particularly when they realize that Jurek gets all of his 5,000-8,000 daily calories from plant sources. But he says he just eats "the way people have been eating for thousands of years … Remember, almost every long-distance runner turns into a vegan while they’re racing, anyway -- you can’t digest fat or protein very well."

To hear more about what Jurek eats for training, read the rest. Interested in other vegan athletes? Check out this story about Kenneth Williams (photo above), the world's only vegan bodybuilder!

The growing popularity of weight training has led to a pretty drastic increase in weight training-related injuries over an 18-year period, especially among men ages 13 to 24 -- and mostly with free weights.

According to new research, the most common injury was weights being dropping on a person (which is another reason I always tell you guys never to lift without a spotter, and never to stack weights). In this study, people most commonly injured their upper and lower trunks. (Hand injuries were the second most common.)

Other than providing us with a bunch of random and interesting facts about weight lifting accidents, this article is a great reminder that people get hurt when they don't listen to their bodies and try to overdo their workouts. Remember, it's not about how much you can lift; it's about whether or not you can stand up and walk away without crutches when you're done!

{Read the rest}