You are showing your pretty pink bottle and all I could see or think was, ‘thats a nice t bar row machine’ . I have a problem. 
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Today’s Workout
Ab Work
Walking Lunge
Push-up
Straight-Arm Pulldown
Tricep Pulldown
T-Bar Row
Bicep Curl
Partial ROM Machine Lateral Raise
If you want to be consistent with hitting abs, do it first in the workout. One of our contributors wrote a tip about that once, and it’s true. I’d link it here if I could remember who wrote that.
But you could get the gist in a sentence: do ab work first if you almost always forget it.
I don’t blame you!! It’s the best machine in the gym.
Crazy Infographic
The infographic asks why but we all would probably have a combination of similar answers for it: less general activity, more hyperpalatable food, more ways to be entertained while sitting, emotional eating, social eating, distracted eating, larger serving sizes, healthy habits are hard to start, unhealthy habits are hard to stop, parents modeling unhealthy behaviors, social contagion and body positivity.
But it’s still ironic because never in history has there been more fitness trackers, step counters, personal trainers, food alternatives, or diets than there are today. And everyone has the ability to work out. Even if it means doing it in your own living room.
In 1987 (top left) I can’t imagine most average people even having gym memberships. They managed to avoid obesity without any intentional exercise.
So it’s interesting that we’re not seeing any decline or even maintenance of the obesity numbers.
EDIT: And another thing, we also have more research to examine than ever before. Back in 1987, there probably weren’t many “science-based” eating or lifting strategies.
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I think this maybe the key - ‘un-intentional exercise’
Pretty sure in 1987 people just moved more and did more physical activity then they do today. Not gym exercise but just movement, cleaning, yard work, walking, playing etc.
In the UK in 1987 with only had 4 channels on TV (the fourth one only launched in 1984). One of those channels had nothing on it for a good portion of the day. I dont mean bad shows, I mean literally a Test Card screen that looked like this
So kids had no option but to go outside and play. Our parents didn’t want us ‘under their feet’ and so outside we went. Our families did things like walks to the park or family bike rides, our parents never sat down, mum was always cooking or cleaning or sewing. Dad was always doing yard work, fixing or servicing or washing the car, building the extension on the house.
Couple all this little or no take away food options and far less packaged and high calorie foods and its easy to see how it had happened. The hard thing is working out how to bring it back from the abyss.
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I’d add one:
The ability buy candy, soda, chips, and other junk foods with food stamps (SNAP). Wasn’t always this way. At one time it was just staples: milk, meat, bread, etc. Coke makes millions from the food stamp program.
Then, convenience stores were allowed to take food stamps, not just grocery stores. That didn’t help either.
I’m all for tax dollars helping people in need and preventing starvation, but come on. We’re just paying twice now: once to feed fat people and again for their “free” healthcare.
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All of what you wrote is spot on. I also have to wonder if the family unit contributed to healthier eating patterns. People ate meals together around a table. But at some point things changed.
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This is another excellent point. The way in which people cook and eat is very different today. I am not sure what the cause is for this and it is most likely a lot of things. both parents needing to work (or wanting to), more single parent families, changes in work hours and habits, changes in food availability especially pre packed or pre cooked foods and I am sure many others.
I also think that the family dinner time can vary greatly from house to house and also country to county. When my wife and I lived in the UK we would eat a few meals a week in front of the TV. Since moving to Aus and having kids we ‘NEVER’ do this. Every meal is at the dinner table and the thought of eating on the couch is just weird now. But we are not the norm I am sure. Plenty of houses have kids eating takeaway in front of the TV.
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That’s a good point. It would be interesting to compare obesity rates among those on and off assistance though. Because even the wealthy can struggle with weight issues. Oprah is an extreme example of this.
Although she’s a lean machine now.
Gotta bring this back up again because it’ll be interesting to see what happens to the wealthier populations who use the GLP-1 drugs for weight loss. Surely they’re working with the best health professionals to minimize all the risks.
But you have to wonder what the future will look like if those become even more widespread and the risks get ironed out or minimized. The SNAP recipients on Ozempic will be like, “Food? Yuck.”
So true. Home cooking is not synonymous with healthy cooking. Chris always says, “the more you cook the better you look,” but that’s only true if you’re trying to be healthy. People can still deep fry food, or add mayo, butter, and cheese to everything.
So we may need to amend that statement.
I know the feeling. As a kid I ate in front of a TV.
But Chris and I have made a ritual out of dinnertime. It’s always at the table, and the TV is in the basement so it’s not a temptation. We often listen to podcasts together while eating, but we pause it frequently to discuss it.
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I’d like to see that, too. Right now we know that the poorer population is the fattest, statistically.
True, true. But now everything is convenient. It used to take time and effort to make fried chicken and cake, so they were special-occasion foods. You’d at least burn some calories making it. Now it’s instantly obtainable and cheap… or free with SNAP.
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Next step… 15 litres (3ish gallons?) with a handy handle. Doubles for suitcase carries… it’s all getting out of hand now!
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A lot of the current heaviest states are pretty rural.
Reasonably priced food can be hard to come by. In my town, a dozen eggs is maybe $3-$4 and a pound of beef is probably $5-$6 at Walmart. In a lot of smaller towns, they don’t have actual grocery stores, so it’s just gas stations and convenience stores. Those food amounts would be literally triple, if not sometimes even more, at those places. I think the last time I saw beef in a certain place I visit it was about $17/pound.
I don’t know if I ever see produce in these places either. Maybe potatoes or apples. Certainly not much supply, very little variety, and it’s all expensive too.
I’m not saying all overweight people are only overweight because food is expensive, but in some places, the basics can be very pricey. A frozen pizza will be much more affordable than beef.
What many people have to do is make biweekly trips to a larger town with a Walmart or real grocery store, which are often 50-100 miles away. So you have the cost of gas included as well. That might be another factor is overweight-ness: it’s not like urban centers where you can walk virtually anywhere you need to go, if you’re willing to. Sometimes frequent destinations (schools, hospitals, stores, etc.) are only reachable by car.
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Raven, I thought you would say something about this !!
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This was info that I never knew about. Thank you for dropping some really thoughtful knowledge here! That’s a really tough situation.
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HA! Now that’s functional training.
Is it? I have no idea how much other people drink. Do you have a normal amount or a certain size bottle you bring to the gym?
Despite my rant against weirdly trendy cups, I’m all for people drinking water or workout nutrition and/or electrolytes, even if that means carrying around something huge.
During workouts, 20-ounces only gets me through the first superset, or the first two regular (non-supersetted) exercises. But that may be because I went to the gym somewhat dehydrated, so my body is trying to make up for what it’s lacking. (Just a guess.)
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As a hockey fan, my news feed is full of all the wrong Stanley Cup news.
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Today’s Workout
This was short as far as the number of exercises, but everything seemed to take a long time.
- Abs
- Leg Press: 4 x 10
- Ham Curl: 4 x failure
- Stationary Bike: Mini-interval session
Workouts are so fun when you add back things you haven’t done in a long time. Direct ham work, abs, cardio… I feel so fired up right now. I’m still being pretty cautious with the cardio. Luckily that’s not hard since I’m so out of shape cardiovascularly; even just a 10 minute session is enough.
Another Weird Health Mystery: Solved
One other reason I’ve been inconsistent with ab work is because of the things it’d do to my hips. It actually used to cause tightness in the hip flexors – probably also exacerbated by sitting too much – but it’d be so strong that it would pull my hips into anterior pelvic tilt. This would then lead to an ongoing pinchy pain in the butt; most likely that tiny piriformis muscle.
The solution for this particular issue is to stretch those deep hip flexor muscles. It’s been the only thing that works. And without doing it, I end up in a world of pain.
No matter how many people say stretching is useless, it works for me. ¯\ _(ツ) _/¯
Yes, obviously, when training abs you want to try and take the hip flexors out of it. But sometimes they get involved even when you have a great mind-muscle connection with the rectus abdominis.
This issue doesn’t seem to happen to most other lifters, so I wonder if it could be related to having an extra vertebrae. But my chiro helped me figure out the hip flexor problem sometime last year and then somewhere along the way I just stopped training abs.
Tight hip flexors are actually a culprit for a lot of people’s low back pain. For me it just transfers to the butt. It’s worth sorting out and there are probably more solutions than just stretching.
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Hahaha that’s gotta be so annoying!
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Yuck. But also not too surprising.
Ah define normal! Just a standard shaker bottle here for water/carbs, so circa 800ml’s (= 27oz? if google is converting it correctly)
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