Renounce the Bounce! Holiday Sports Bra Review and Giveaway--Heart and Core

Sorry dudes, you may have little interest in hearing about the features, performance, and clever engineering of a new line of sports bras and tank tops from Heart &Core.

On the other hand…this post is all about large breasted women and their undergarments!

So here ya go:  a totally gratuitous image of female boobage NOT encased in a supportive brassiere from the Heart & Core Catalog.

You're welcome.

Also, if you're a guy, you could try to win a bra or top for your wife or girlfriend or mom or, well, for yourself if you are the owner of particularly jiggly moobs. We won't judge.

For gals, especially those who are C cups or larger, or who have post-surgical medical needs, you’ll have the chance to tame those tatas and enjoy exercising even more in the coming year. And it'snot just for U.S. residents. International folks are eligible too; we'll have 2 winners one of whom is NOT from the U.S. for a change!

Random Friday

Stop Grinning & Get to Work!

[By Crabby]

So yep, it's that time of the week again...

Happiness: Hey, Go Easy There, Will Ya?
A new study found that people who rate themselves as moderately happy actually tend to be more successful and have higher incomes than those who give themselves ten out of ten on the happiness scale. But insanely enough, most of the reports about this study (including the press release) take this to mean: don't try to be too happy. God forbid you should be less successful or have a lower income, and settle for silly old happiness instead!

As I've said before, I think self-measures of happiness are bogus. Many people who rate themselves 10/10 are not rating their actual happiness--they're just demonstrating their tendency towards social conformity and black & white thinking. I'm not surprised 10's are not as successful as the more realistic 8's or 9's. But I don't think it's because 10's are actually happier. (Note: I'd take absolute delirious happiness over "success" any day).

More Reasons to Exercise:
Yeah, there's a new study like this every week saying you're screwed, health-wise, if you don't exercise. This one's especially interesting though, because it says that people who don't exercise have shorter telomeres in their dna. (Note: shorter telomeres are a bad thing--they're sort of a shorthand for our biological age. When telomeres get too short, cells can't divide anymore).

Another odd finding though, was that exercise only helps when it's leisure time exercise, as opposed to hard manual labor. The theory is that psychological stress plays into cell aging as well. (Just don't tell the hotel maids about this, okay?)

Department of Duh:
According to a recent news story, lots of people think meat is a good source of fiber. The National Fiber Council (there is one? Really?) says that 62 percent of people surveyed think meat is a source of fiber. Not coincidentally, "sixty-five percent of respondents said they try to eat foods that are high in fiber." (via That'sfit).

Bring On the Googlers, It's Another Breast Item!
As many other female bloggers have no doubt discovered, all you have to do is mention the word "breasts" in a post to lure hordes of mammary-seeking males over to your site. ("Big Bouncy Breasts") works even better. So, hi guys! (And, um, sorry. False alarm. No naked flesh here; try again later, when hell freezes over).

Anyway, this strange breast item was stolen from is courtesy of Marijke. She found a new study that links increased diabetes risk to larger breast sizes. So at least for certain health risks, it's no longer "the bigger the better the tighter the sweater." (Am I the only one old enough to remember "we must, we must, we must improve our bust?")

Speaking of Marijke, check out this great new food-hurling utensil she just found for us, the zing!

And to make this 3 Marijke-related items in a row... want to help out her at her great new blog, Help My Hurt? There's some sort of February comment contest going on at her blog network, so if you've been meaning to stop by and share your thoughts, this is a great month to start doing it!

Crabby's New Digs?

(Photo by Semanchuk.com)

Nah, but Jennifer at Offbeat Homes found this for me and, my goodness it's... um... different! (Offbeat homes has tons of bizzaro houses, many of them way prettier than this one. It's a great place to fantasize about what you'll do with those lotto winnings that should be coming in any week now.)

Risque T.V. Commercials:
Just how I like my commercials--if I have to see them, I'd prefer they be at least a little bit dirty. I'm classy like that.

If it's not your native tongue, here's a very good reason to take English lessons. (Warning: NSFW unless you keep the volume low.)

Guys Like Big Manly SUV's , apparently, though we're not sure women care quite as much.

And finally, this one demonstrates The Many Advantages of Reclining seats.

So have at least a Moderately Happy Friday, everyone!

Random Friday!

Research Time, Let's Get Serious!

Fit and Fat beats Thin and Lazy!
This study, published in The Journal of the American Medical Association, was going to be the subject of a whole post. Why? well, it's just the sort of research Cranky Fitness loves! It rewards good behavior, not just the blind luck of the genetic draw. But Crabby's buddy Jim over at Diet Blog got to it first and summed it up nicely, so Crabby will send you over there for details. Key finding: Fit older men and women who were obese had a lower risk of death over a 12 year period than unfit people of normal weight.

BMI Slideshow
So "BMI" or "Body Mass Index" is one of those measurements that researchers and insurance like because it's so convenient. Using only height and weight, they come up with a number you can use to traumatize classify people with. (They don't even use friendly words like plump or chunky or lean or buffed or curvalicious either, it's all "underweight," or "obese" or even "extremely obese." "Normal" is the best you can do, and what's the fun in normal?)

Anyway, the problem is, (duh) height and weight alone are not enough to tell you what sort of shape someone's in. People have all kind variances in bone structure and muscle mass and boobage and whatnot, so for any number of reasons a BMI number can be a total load of crap really misleading.

So Kate Harding is all over it with a great slide show that points out how ridiculous the categories can be. Check it out!

Men: Want Kids? Better Get Crackin'!
Mary discovered this interesting article which totally challenges a common conception about ticking biological clocks: that only women have them. But men, it turns out, have a biological clock too!

"With each passing decade of their lives and with each insult they inflict on their bodies, men's fertility decreases, while genetic risk to offspring slowly mounts." Older men have more fragmented DNA in their sperm, increasing risk for infertility, miscarriage and birth defects. Risks for low IQ, schizophrenia, autism, and even certain cancers increase for offspring of older men.

More Word Power:
Cranky Fitness readers are a literate bunch, judging by the popularity of the Free Rice link featured previously. So Mary, being a more literate creature than Crabby, found us another worthy wordy link to try. It's a dictionary that...

Well, to be honest, Crabby is not sure exactly what it does, but it has pretty arrows. It also has a "random" function, and the first entry it generated for Crabby was "cucumber-shaped!" Sadly, the cucumber-shaped results were not the least bit bawdy. But serious writers and linguists might appreciate the fact that this online, er, tool, analyzes the hell out of words.

And More on Bras and Butts!

Remember Ass Cup Sized Jeans? Well, now you can buy an actual bra for your butt!

Crabby was all ready to make fun of this product, because, well, she's not the sort who wear an ass-bra herself if her life depended on it. But then she read the heartfelt letter from the product's inventor. "The story of the Biniki is one that began with a personal cheek lifting need..." she starts, and how can Crabby be mean after that? [Note: Item discovered via Back in Skinny Jeans; photo courtesy of Biniki].

And Mary discovered that at least one British retailer has now started selling bras in larger cup sizes -- up to a "J." Remember when there used to be just A, B, and C? Well Marks & Spencer recently went from G to J, responding to demands for bigger sizes. Mary also found this interesting NYT article on bouncing while exercising. (And Crabby has an old post of her own about that too!)

When is Sex So Bad it's Good?
Laura at Women of Mystery alerted us to this Literary Review "Bad Sex in Fiction" award winning passage. The recently departed but Very Famous Norman Mailer penned this, and, well, what do you folks think?

"His mouth lathered with her sap, he turned around and embraced her face with all the passion of his own lips and face, ready at last to grind into her with the Hound, drive it into her piety." [Note: the complete excerpt is longer and racier and, in Crabby's opinion, just as terrible].


And This Stuff is On A Health and Fitness Site Because... Why Exactly?
No reason at all, especially this last link! It just amuses Crabby though she has no idea why. Yes, it's a site full of pictures of (mostly) famous men who look like old lesbians. (Some of them... not so much. Others? Bingo.)


And Finally, A Gratuitous Endorsement of Antioxidant-rich Beverages:




moar funny pictures


Have a great Friday!

Breast-Feeding: Indecent?

So buried within this Newsweek article was actually a bit of good news: more states are passing protective laws giving women the right to nurse in public.

But why on earth would we even need such laws? Isn't it sort of a no-brainer that breast-feeding is not "indecent exposure?"

Apparently not. Despite all the health benefits to mother and baby that come from breast feeding, people still freak out when they see it in public. And as a result, the Newsweek authors claim, breast-feeding is starting to decline again. They cite a study saying that 48 percent of women "would feel uncomfortable" nursing their babies in a park, store or mall.

This is crazy.

Crabby is going to trust Newsweek's fact-checkers on the health research behind this; they're a big Fancy-Pants Authoritative news magazine. Here's what they say:

"Nursing reduces a baby's risk of diarrhea, ear infections, urinary-tract infections and bacterial infections," as well as possibly "food allergies, obesity and diabetes." It also lowers the mother's risk of breast and ovarian cancer, burns 500 calories a day, and saves about $1,500 a year in formula costs.

Gosh, we sure wouldn't want to encourage that!

Breast-feeding isn't right for every mother; Crabby isn't saying every mom should. But it seems clear that overall it's a healthy thing, a normal thing, and something we shouldn't be making anymore difficult than it already is.

Squeamishness about breast-feeding seems so adolescent. Crabby is beginning to think modern Americans are idiots. Brutal violence is acceptable entertainment for everyone, including children--but the human breast is obscene.

Crabby could rant about this subject at great length but she will try to restrain herself. Do any of you folks have any interesting experiences or thoughts about any of this?

Got Mammogram?

So a new study says that women aren't being quite as good as they used to be about getting their regular mammograms. The Experts all float various theories as to why this might be, but none of them sounds too confident they know what the deal is.

There's always been some controversy over when a woman should start getting mammograms, and how often she should have them. But most researchers agree that whatever schedule you and your doctor settle on, following it is a smart thing to do.

(In fact, in yet another creepy and depressing recent report, researchers found that more than 200 chemicals, including some in stuff like shampoo and French fries, caused breast cancer in animals. One of the researchers summed it up thusly: "exposure to mammary gland carcinogens is widespread.")

Of course mammograms are no fun. Did you get that jokey email years ago explaining all the ways you could "practice" for one? Crabby couldn't find the exact list she remembered, (there's one version here) but her favorite went something like this:

"Visit your garage at 3:00 a.m. when the temperature of the concrete floor is below 32 degrees. Take off all your clothes, invite a stranger in to observe, and lay comfortably on the floor with one breast wedged tightly under the rear tire of the car. Ask a friend to slowly back the car up until the breast is sufficiently flattened. Turn over and repeat for the other breast."

But while mammograms aren't pleasant, they're not that awful. Crabby just had hers (digital this time, and not quite as uncomfortable) and she's a notorious slacker. She's dreading her first colonoscopy way more than a mammogram.

Is paying for it the problem? Crabby has really crappy health insurance, but it pays for most of it. She knows, though, that not everyone has the luxury of even crappy health insurance.

What do you folks think is going on? For those of you female and old enough to be getting them, do you? Do you guys get whatever mysterious male screenings you're supposed to be having? Why or why not?

(And btw, Crabby does know that the picture above is not the right machine, it's just a regular xray. She's too cheap to fork over real money for a picture of the actual equipment. She hopes you will use your imaginations).

(And one more further aside: the spell-check thinks a "colonoscopy" should actually be a "cloudscape" or a "kaleidoscope." So does Crabby!)

Quickies

Martha over at Thatsfit, (whom we like very much not only because she has sensible advice, but because she comes over here and visits us sometimes), has heard us whining recently about how tiresome it is to lift weights. Unlike Crabby, who basically said "get over yourself and do it anyway," Martha has actually come up with some alternative suggestions.

And Crabby couldn't help saying "WTF" at this perplexing advertisement for Breast Implants, via BitchPhD and Stay Free! Daily. Crabby is too chicken to copy the ad photo here, so she'll let one of those fine blogs do the heavy lifting.

Bigger Bouncy Breasts! And Technorati Rankings!

Note to nonbloggers: please bear with Crabby once again. More Health & Fitness news served fresh (or only slightly stale) here daily! Or at least fairly regularly.

So having entered her third week of blogging, Crabby can't help but write the obligatory "google has finally found me" post. It's just too irresistible! Old hands may yawn and scoff and skip this post, but to Crabby it is all still so New and Amusing that she must take a few moments to share her experiences.

Dawn, a witty blogger who visits here frequently and favors cream-filled apple donuts, predicted that Crabby's post on "Great Big Bouncy Breasts" might indeed catch Google's attention. (It was a post about sports bras and leotards). Dawn observed that her own post on Technorati Ratings brought her a spike in traffic.

Crabby went along with the joke, but the premise seemed unlikely. In an internet world filled with pornography, how would anyone ever end up on Crabby's poor little blog looking for breasts? There are breasts everywhere! Cranky Fitness, though it has the best of intentions, is brand new and not widely read. Of the 75 million blogs out there, it is probably number 74,999,999.

Yet she is starting to get a few google hits from people looking for Big Breasts.

How is this possible? These searchers must be on page 86,032 of their search results, compulsively clicking on each entry on every page. These poor guys (I'm assuming) would have to be absolutely insatiable in order to end up here.

Why not just buy a magazine or find a cozy porn site filled with humongous mammaries and wallow there all day? Seems much simpler. However, Crabby supposes that they must fuel their addictions with Brand New and Different Breasts every few seconds. Or something.

As a grumpy aside, Crabby is not on speaking terms with Technorati right now. She hasn't been able to log on and tech support will not get back to her. So she can't claim her blog and put it in the proper category. Also, she hates them because they don't care how well-intentioned and fussed over a blog is, they're only interested in how many people link to it. In Crabby's case, it's quite an unimpressive number. Technorati is messing with her self-esteem which makes Crabby very Crabby indeed.

Great Big Bouncy Breasts!

Should Google ever discover Crabby's blog, future arrivals to the site are going to be very disappointed to discover this is a post about sports bras. But she promised readers we'd return to Steaming Hot Throbbing Health and Fitness news soon, and she's afraid a vaguely salacious post title is the best they're going to get.

Actually, the post isn't even about bras per se, because Crabby (who is afflicted with a mild version of GBBB), can't even remember the heavy-duty brand she wears. This is more generally about the problem of bouncing while exercising.

Not only is it uncomfortable, but for some women it can attract unwanted attention. A good friend of Crabby's also has GBBB, and she happens to be pretty and has long blonde hair. When she goes running, random men turn right before her eyes into total assh*les. There's a hostility behind their leering catcalls, too, as though she has recklessly caused their testostronic discomfort by daring to run with bouncing boobs.

In any event, Crabby discovered a helpful method to calm down a good percentage of this unwanted motion: in addition to a serious sports bra, wear a snug leotard over it. The leotard eliminates at least half the bounce.

Of course finding a proper fitting leotard is insanely difficult, at least for Crabby. She has the damnedest time finding one that will cover her entire ass. And if there is anything less dignified than racewalking, it is breaking stride to rummage around your posterior and find the edge of the leotard creeping up your butt and move it downward.

This high-riding leotard situation is puzzling. When Crabby puts on poundage, she wears it on her belly, not her butt. So she does not have a particularly large ass. Why then, is it so hard to find a leotard (or swimsuit, for that matter) that can spare enough fabric not to ride up her rear? What do larger women do?

Since the women's apparel industry is market-driven like any other, Crabby can only assume that most women want leotards and swimsuits to crawl up their asses as they move. Quite perplexing.

So readers, do not feel you must limit comments to GBBB, a problem you may not have. Weigh in about anything!