Do I Have To? On Warming Up, Cooling Down and Stretching

There are lots of virtuous angels out there who don't just do some form of cardio and strength training, but are also religious about always warming up, cooling down, and gently stretching their various hard-working body parts.

Others may think all that sounds like a very good idea, and do it sometimes... while frequently blowing it off and just feeling guilty about it instead.

And then there is a third camp--those who just jump in cold, exercise as hard and as long as seems warranted, and then... screeech! ... come to a complete stop when they feel done. They then head straight for the shower, or more stinkily, back into their cars or jobs or lives, without doing any of that sissy in-between stuff that makes exercise take so much longer without really "counting" as exercise.

I've generally been in the second group, the guilty-semi-slackers, though as I've gotten older I've been getting closer to the first angelic-anal-compulsive category. So I was all prepared to jump right in with some tips about how to become better about doing all that stuff.

But, I figured first I better warm up with a little research, just to be able to scare you with a good list of Horrible Consequences that might ensue if you skip these pre and post workout rituals.

And guess what?  Well... crap!  Turns out it's all more complicated than I thought. I had to really stretch to reconcile my discoveries with the "expert" advice I've been reading for decades.  How annoying! But then I cooled down a bit and decided I did not actually need to report every damn conflicting research study or expert opinion on the matter. Reading and then ignoring research is something of a specialty here at Cranky Fitness.

(Especially since for some reason the malevolent blogger platform has recently been refusing to save my drafts, but passively-aggressively failing to tell me that before I innocently shut down the computer to go raid the refrigerator. So I'm now starting this over for the third f--cking time and hunting down the links all over again. Grrr.)

Anyway, here is some of the shocking information I discovered about stretching, warming up, and cooling down, as well as some thoughts on doing or not doing them.

Same Ol' Story... Hooray?

(Same Ol' Story is a great Cyndi Lauper song, although the chorus is actually Same Ol' F--cking Story, which makes it way more fun to sing along to. That was the original title of this post too but I edited as that seemed like asking for trouble. Oh, and obligatory copyright disclaimer below if you're an attorney with a mean streak.)

So labor day weekend has come and gone, summer is over, and for many people this may mean going back to old familiar routines.  The party's over!  After various adventures, vacations, celebrations, and a multitude of both reasonable and ridiculous excuses for doing things we might not "normally" do, it's time to get back to business.

I'm psyched! Anyone else?

Because as much as I believe that shaking up your routine every now and then is crucial to long-term health and happiness, it's equally crucial to have an awesome routine to shake up in the first place.

And this is not to say that I didn't have an absolutely fantastic summer.  Between travel and various festivities, I had a boatload of fun and a lot of fantastic excuses for consuming too much of the wrong things and exercising too little.

In fact I'm still buzzing from last night, where we attended the euphoric insanity that is the "Last Dance" at the Boatslip.  This is our preferred method for marking the end of the season, which we do in a most undignified fashion, packed like sweaty sardines on a dance floor shoulder to shoulder with other crazed revelers, jumping up and down, screaming, laughing, and having a grand ol' time.

Wanna see what I mean?   (Of course you don't give a crap, and I know that, but I'll post a minute and a half of last years "Last Dance" anyway to give you an idea--takes about 25 seconds for the nuttiness to ensue, and even though we were there you can't see us.  Ah, the tedious oblivious narcissism of bloggers with invisible readers!) 



Anyway, do you have some favorite healthy routines to go back to that make life easier?  Or do you find yourself making unsatisfying compromises and screwing around and being all inefficient or self-indulgent in ways that aren't even fun?

Here are a few thoughts and suggestions, all of them totally obvious 'cause that's how I roll, so I'm hoping some of you have some to ideas to share as well.

Heading Home

What better way to wind up a fantastic Scottish adventure than by enjoying a rendezvous with Shauna Reid, her lovely husband Gareth, and... an armoire full of tasty desserts??

Shauna, as many of you know, not only wrote the must-read book Amazing Diet Girl, but also keeps her great blog Diet Girl humming along, has another wonderful blog What's New Pussycat, has done informative and entertaining podcasts with the awesome MizFit as part of Two Fit Chicks and a Microphone, and she's part of an inspiring online program Up and Running that helps women just starting out become happy healthy runners. WHEW!

As I expected, Shauna and Gareth (the mad cyclist) were totally delightful. (I have a cute picture of the two of them as well, but you will just have to imagine it. It's not really polite to go around snapping innocent blogger's family members and broadcasting their images all over the web where any random crazy googler can find them! But trust me, Gareth is adorable).

Unfortunately though, whilst I was in the middle of consuming a vast and delicious slice of chocolate cake at Lovecrumbs, Sneaky Shauna mentioned the upcoming Fitbloggin' 2012 conference, damn her. Now I'm totally jealous and want to go. All the cool people will be there! I could put together an impromptu lecture on how to leverage a grumpy personality and a complete lack of work ethic into a health blogging empire, can't you just envision it?  Sigh.

So I'm cursing myself that somehow it totally slipped off my radar. Being a cheap crab and contemplating last minute plane or train fares, booked-up hotel rooms etc, this is alas, not looking too likely, but what the hell, I'll put it out to the universe. Perhaps there is a sponsor of some lovely product, service, website or whatever that also didn't think ahead about the conference either and needs a lazy fitness blogger be their ambassador! I could spread the word to my 6 twitter followers, 3 Facebook fans and legions of "1 rule for flat stomach" and "fitness porn" googlers! Or maybe someone's best blogging pal who was going to be their roomate got plague or... wait, that's too mean, let's say they got appointed to a cabinet post or won a round-the-world-cruise, and so there's an extra room or bed or spot in a Partridge-Family style bus going from Boston to Baltimore or... well, obviously the possibilities are endless.

C'mon Get Happy at Fitbloggin '12! I'll bring snacks!

Photo: Telstar

Oh, and in other news, the lovely folks at Blisstree (which is a great health website with an actual sense of humor) ran an interview of Crabby McSlacker! Read all about the care and feeding of a crabby health blogger and learn her shocking and amazing motivational secrets.

So we start the journey home in a few hours, which will take a couple of days and involve various planes and ferries and automobiles. Once the huge duffle bags full of smelly laundry are done, I'm hoping to get back to blogging about actual health and fitness issues.  Although hmm, there are still a few vacation photos left...

Thanks so much all of you who stopped by while I was traveling, I really appreciated it!

Time Management Secrets for Self-Employed Slackers

 

Cartoon by: Natalie Dee

OK, so it may seem ironic that someone who has done nothing on her blog for the last month other than to explain why she is not posting would presume to give advice on time management.   But hang in there, that's actually Secret Number 7.

And hey, did I call this post "Time Management Secrets for World-Dominating Super-Achievers?" No I did not. Super-Achievers do not need time management tips, other than the usual "stop and smell the roses for f--ck sake, you accomplishment-obsessed workaholic chore-whore. "

Wait, that's not how you're supposed to help super-achievers? Oh well, sorry go-getters, all 2 of you who hang out at Cranky Fitness.

Note: you may, however, read this post if you are not self-employed. No alarm bells will go off or anything.  It's just that several of these tips presume some sort of flexibility in how you plan your day, which could be extremely annoying to people who have bosses (or spouses, pets and children) who do not permit such liberties.

So what are the secrets already? 

Are Low Fat Foods Making Us Fat?

Hey kids, it's Crabby!  Who is once again not posting while on vacation. So yes, this is a guest post, as you can tell by the fact that there is actual nutrition research involved. If I'd written it, there'd just be a bit of nagging about not trusting slick advertising campaigns, followed by some whining about the lack of healthy convenience foods for lazy people, and then perhaps some gratuitous pictures swiped from icanhascheezburger.

(Photo credit: icanhascheezburger.com)

Whoops, sorry--not sure how THAT got in there!

So thank goodness this post is by Brendan Wilde, who is a health and wellbeing writer over at www.familyhealthguide.co.uk and the UK National Register of Personal Trainers (where you can learn more about personal trainer courses if you're so inclined). While he does the hard work of explaining the metabolic implications of various dietary variables and particularly the impact on insulin resistance and weight gain, the Crab and Lobster will be kicking back enjoying their final days in Scotland.  Which, as it turns out, has a more incredible scenery than any human can absorb without exploding, plus many delightful ways to screw up your metabolism six ways from Sunday.  Um, unless beer and shortbread cookies have been declared health foods in my absence?

Anyway, I'll shut up now.  Take it away, Brendan! 


 
Is the low fat food fad all it is cracked up to be?

Do reduced-fat foods help us lose weight? Or could they actually be contributing the rise in obesity?

Processed foods may well be low in fat, but we all know that does not mean they are low in calories.

In fact many low fat foods have just as many calories as their full fat counterparts. And furthermore, many low fat foods are ‘adulterated’ with additional, high glycaemic carbohydrates, to improve the taste. Especially popular and troublesome is the controversial sweetener high fructose corn syrup.