A 2007 report from an elementary school in Aspen, Colorado has a pretty bad controversy regarding religion and exercise. The type of exercise here is Yoga.
In 2004, $3B were spent on Yoga classes in the United States, and by 2006, more than 3 million adults were involved in Yoga. But the problem here is that Yoga has a religious roots, Hindu.
This one school in Aspen included Yoga as part of the curriculum; "Yoga Ed." That has since followed on to various schools, public or private. One of the conflicts dictate that since Christianity shouldn't be part of the regular school curriculum, should Yoga be also disallowed since it is technically a religious practice in Hinduism?
The Yoga Ed program has helped kids focus better in school, seemed to improve behavioural skills, and as a result it has helped grades. Not only that, but young yogis averaged better fitness than non yogis.
So what do you think? Which one are you? Should public education only have programs without any form of religious overtones whatsoever, or should we stick with the trend that Westerners only mostly see Yoga as primarily about fitness and stress relief?
Source: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/16859368/ns/health-kids_and_parenting/t/yoga-causes-controversy-public-schools/
Saturday, August 6, 2011
Monday, July 25, 2011
A tasteful experiment.
So going back to my previous post about balancing exercise and diet, here is a research article done by S.M. Willbond, M.A. Laviolette, K. Duval and E. Doucet, from the School of Human Kinetics in University of Ottawa.
The experiment has two things to measure:
1) To find out if people can accurately guess how much energy they are using
2) To find out if people can compensate the right amount of food for energy they used
Eight men and eight women, moderately active, normal weight, aged 20-35 years were randomly assigned into two independent variables of exercising a total amount of either 200kcal or 300kcal workouts on a treadmill. Afterwards, they would be asked to guess how much calories they expended and they would be asked to eat the same amount of calories they lost in the workout with food.
It was found between these two groups that they thought they expended more energy than they actually did. The 200kcal group estimated that they burned off 825kcal as an average, while the 300kcal group thought they burned off an average of 897kcal. That trend of overestimation of energy used in workouts followed over in the eating portion of the experiment. The 200kcal group averaged a consumption of 557kcal while the 300kcal group averaged consumption of 607kcal.
These findings suggest that most people overestimate how much energy they burned off when they exercise; as well as overestimating how much energy they’re taking in to match energy burned off after exercising. This is a problem for people who regularly exercise but don’t monitor their calorie intake. Overestimation of used energy is 3-4 times more than the actual loss in kcal, and 2-3 times more calories in food to match their own energy use.
The take home message for this is to make sure you know how much calories you’re actually burning compared to how much you’re eating if you want to maintain or lose weight. Remember! Working out for 30 minutes does not equal a Big Mac!
Reference:
The Journal of sports medicine and physical fitness
Vol/Issue: 50 (4), Date: Dec 2010, Pages: 377-384
Normal weight men and women overestimate exercise energy expenditure.
Authors: Willbond, S M; Laviolette, M A; Duval, K; Doucet, E
The experiment has two things to measure:
1) To find out if people can accurately guess how much energy they are using
2) To find out if people can compensate the right amount of food for energy they used
Eight men and eight women, moderately active, normal weight, aged 20-35 years were randomly assigned into two independent variables of exercising a total amount of either 200kcal or 300kcal workouts on a treadmill. Afterwards, they would be asked to guess how much calories they expended and they would be asked to eat the same amount of calories they lost in the workout with food.
It was found between these two groups that they thought they expended more energy than they actually did. The 200kcal group estimated that they burned off 825kcal as an average, while the 300kcal group thought they burned off an average of 897kcal. That trend of overestimation of energy used in workouts followed over in the eating portion of the experiment. The 200kcal group averaged a consumption of 557kcal while the 300kcal group averaged consumption of 607kcal.
These findings suggest that most people overestimate how much energy they burned off when they exercise; as well as overestimating how much energy they’re taking in to match energy burned off after exercising. This is a problem for people who regularly exercise but don’t monitor their calorie intake. Overestimation of used energy is 3-4 times more than the actual loss in kcal, and 2-3 times more calories in food to match their own energy use.
The take home message for this is to make sure you know how much calories you’re actually burning compared to how much you’re eating if you want to maintain or lose weight. Remember! Working out for 30 minutes does not equal a Big Mac!
Reference:
The Journal of sports medicine and physical fitness
Vol/Issue: 50 (4), Date: Dec 2010, Pages: 377-384
Normal weight men and women overestimate exercise energy expenditure.
Authors: Willbond, S M; Laviolette, M A; Duval, K; Doucet, E
Sunday, July 17, 2011
I’m physically active…now what?
Well this is just one step of being healthy, remember that health is more than just not being sick, but it also is the complete state of being able to grow as a person. There is no point in being physically active no matter how committed you are if you aren’t matching that up with a good diet. One thing I learned in my Kinesiology class so far is that my calorie intake has to match up to my energy use.
If you eat a McDonald’s meal weighing in at about 1000 calories thinking that you can burn it off at the gym later that day. In my experience burning even half of that in 30 minutes is already a task on the bike! Of course I’m not recommending eating at McDonald’s even if you CAN burn off its total amount in calories, you also have to remember that you’re getting most of those calories from fat!
Combining good habits in physical activity and diet will ultimately lead to healthy weight. A balance is required as well; obsession on diet may cause you to miss out on some nutrients. So basic rule of thumb to a completely healthy lifestyle is to have not too much, not too little.
Combining good habits in physical activity and diet will ultimately lead to healthy weight. A balance is required as well; obsession on diet may cause you to miss out on some nutrients. So basic rule of thumb to a completely healthy lifestyle is to have not too much, not too little.
Monday, June 13, 2011
Credibility.
Say that you've contemplated about working out, and now you're finally preparing yourself for it. Chances are you don't know what to do unless you've hired a personal trainer. You'd probably look online for something to start with. More likely than not, being a beginner, you'd probably want an easy and short workout.
So let's say you search up a "quick and easy workout guide". I found this website called www.freeworkoutsguide.com. Let's grab a look at the first page. First of all, I quickly notice the second paragraph, "The workouts on this site are more effective than workouts you'll find on other sites because they are based on the latest, cutting edge research, as well as extensive experience working with real women and men just like you." So, what research? What experience? There is no reference anywhere explaining those two things.
Right after that, you'll also quickly see that THE number 1 step is to sign up for their newsletter, with the incentive of receiving killer workouts. Sounds enticing right? Now look at the left side. Notice that the words "secrets" and "quick" appear. Click those and you'll hit a page with a lot of links, a good chunk of them being 3-15 minute workouts. It all sounds great but nowhere does it say in any of those workouts any warnings, any precautions, nothing.
It doesn't have research references, no documented experience, and incompletely detailed "quick/secret" workouts. So who wrote this website? Let's click the "About Us" link. The first paragraph reads, "I'm Monica Neave an ISSA Certified Fitness Therapist, fitness writer for various websites, and owner/editor of FreeWorkoutsGuide. I also have a B.A. in Psychology..." ISSA stands for International Sports Science Association, a distance education provider. B.A. in Psychology where? Fitness writer for which websites? All of those are just signs that question the credibility of this website.
Sound sketchy enough for you? Let's check out the disclaimer link. It reads "This website and its contents are provided "AS IS" without warranty of any kind...including fitness for a particular purpose..." What's that supposed to mean?
The main reason behind me pointing out all of these mistakes is for the credibility of the website. The things mentioned in it might be accurate, and actually useful, but how do we know that? There are no references to anything. Here is a website that takes care of two things that I've pointed out earlier: http://www.rps.psu.edu/0009/fitness.html
First of all, there is a complete and detailed portion at the bottom that tells us who these people are, where they're from and what they have studied, as well as where to contact them. The second thing that you'll notice in the article that it mentions that a certain exercise is not for everyone, something the previous website did not mention. Instead, the previous site just mentioned to do this, this and that, while hiding in the disclaimer that they're not responsible for what they said.
Neave, M. (2011). Fatloss workouts, toning workout routines & workout plans. Best Fatloss Workouts Toning Workout Routines & Workout Plans That Work. Retrieved June 13, 2011, from http://www.freeworkoutsguide.com.
Holding, C. (2000, September). Ultimate fitness. Ultimate fitness. Retrieved June 13, 2011, from http://www.rps.psu.edu/0009/fitness.html.
So let's say you search up a "quick and easy workout guide". I found this website called www.freeworkoutsguide.com. Let's grab a look at the first page. First of all, I quickly notice the second paragraph, "The workouts on this site are more effective than workouts you'll find on other sites because they are based on the latest, cutting edge research, as well as extensive experience working with real women and men just like you." So, what research? What experience? There is no reference anywhere explaining those two things.
Right after that, you'll also quickly see that THE number 1 step is to sign up for their newsletter, with the incentive of receiving killer workouts. Sounds enticing right? Now look at the left side. Notice that the words "secrets" and "quick" appear. Click those and you'll hit a page with a lot of links, a good chunk of them being 3-15 minute workouts. It all sounds great but nowhere does it say in any of those workouts any warnings, any precautions, nothing.
It doesn't have research references, no documented experience, and incompletely detailed "quick/secret" workouts. So who wrote this website? Let's click the "About Us" link. The first paragraph reads, "I'm Monica Neave an ISSA Certified Fitness Therapist, fitness writer for various websites, and owner/editor of FreeWorkoutsGuide. I also have a B.A. in Psychology..." ISSA stands for International Sports Science Association, a distance education provider. B.A. in Psychology where? Fitness writer for which websites? All of those are just signs that question the credibility of this website.
Sound sketchy enough for you? Let's check out the disclaimer link. It reads "This website and its contents are provided "AS IS" without warranty of any kind...including fitness for a particular purpose..." What's that supposed to mean?
The main reason behind me pointing out all of these mistakes is for the credibility of the website. The things mentioned in it might be accurate, and actually useful, but how do we know that? There are no references to anything. Here is a website that takes care of two things that I've pointed out earlier: http://www.rps.psu.edu/0009/fitness.html
First of all, there is a complete and detailed portion at the bottom that tells us who these people are, where they're from and what they have studied, as well as where to contact them. The second thing that you'll notice in the article that it mentions that a certain exercise is not for everyone, something the previous website did not mention. Instead, the previous site just mentioned to do this, this and that, while hiding in the disclaimer that they're not responsible for what they said.
Neave, M. (2011). Fatloss workouts, toning workout routines & workout plans. Best Fatloss Workouts Toning Workout Routines & Workout Plans That Work. Retrieved June 13, 2011, from http://www.freeworkoutsguide.com.
Holding, C. (2000, September). Ultimate fitness. Ultimate fitness. Retrieved June 13, 2011, from http://www.rps.psu.edu/0009/fitness.html.
Monday, May 30, 2011
So. What's this all about?
Hey, welcome to my blog, and my name is Marc.
Well there's always questions about being healthy and being active, and I'm hoping to answer some questions regarding issues with this topic while I take this Kinesiology 104 course at Simon Fraser University.
There are all sorts of information out there about being active, but there are some information that are just misguided and misinformed. Just how much of your advice is actually a proven fact when you tell someone to do something for their health? I believe it's important to point this out because not only does it help a person directly, but everyone else that one person talks to about being healthy.
For myself, I'm definitely expecting to learn things from this. More often than not, I'll be surprised by some things I'll be learning. Not only will I learn about different things, but hopefully I can share any of those in this blog.
The main thing for me about physical activity is, well, what is really the core meaning of it? I've gone to the gym on occasion, but I never really paid attention to exactly what I'm doing. This is what I would do when I hit the gym:
Well there's always questions about being healthy and being active, and I'm hoping to answer some questions regarding issues with this topic while I take this Kinesiology 104 course at Simon Fraser University.
There are all sorts of information out there about being active, but there are some information that are just misguided and misinformed. Just how much of your advice is actually a proven fact when you tell someone to do something for their health? I believe it's important to point this out because not only does it help a person directly, but everyone else that one person talks to about being healthy.
For myself, I'm definitely expecting to learn things from this. More often than not, I'll be surprised by some things I'll be learning. Not only will I learn about different things, but hopefully I can share any of those in this blog.
The main thing for me about physical activity is, well, what is really the core meaning of it? I've gone to the gym on occasion, but I never really paid attention to exactly what I'm doing. This is what I would do when I hit the gym:
- change
- pick a machine
- set a time for me to stay at that machine or set how many reps/sets
- leave after an hour or so.
There's probably a more efficient way to do this, and a more regular way to do this. I've hit the gym probably once last semester since I've had a heavy load of courses. I believe this is because I haven't made it part of my life, but something extra, and that is probably not doing me any favours.
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