craschworks

Via evillin

If you like fitness photos like the above shot of Maggie Diubaldo, may I suggest you check out the photography of John Stutz.

At 51, Establishing a New Body of Work

It was very unusual for someone to begin bodybuilding at my age, but I thought my age was one bit of the challenge,” said Birath, who is now 51. “I think all people have preconceptions, like that bodybuilders are all stupid. I think I probably thought bodybuilders were a bit stupid, too.”

At that first tournament, Birath faced one other competitor in the heavyweight division and finished first. It was, she says now, a bit of a fluke, but it was enough to persuade her to commit to her training as an amateur bodybuilder.

She finished fourth last year at the Swedish national championships, and despite the fact that she is 10 or more years older than most of her competitors, she is one of the favorites to win this year’s event, Oct. 13-14 in Vasteras. As she accompanied her friend and training partner Irene Andersen to a professional tournament here in mid-September (the trips were paid for by a sponsor), she was already cutting down on her carbohydrates to prepare for the Swedish nationals.

Via stumptuous.

A Short Treatise on the Art of Falling Gently and Stretching and Flexibility – How to Stretch

Via Mark D.

The Proper Mindset for Combat

_____

Greetings Everyone,
When you are engaged in mortal combat, the mindset you adopt is the most
important element to your survival. Understand, that the mind controls the
body and that will supercedes skill. I bring this up because a prevalent
problem I see with many self-defense practitioners is that there is no
emotional content in their training. the majority of people are interested
in accumulating techniques and executing them by rote like robots. You can
have all the best techniques in the world; however, they will do you no good
if they are not backed with emotional commitment and pure savagery. It is
akin to having a gun with rubber bullets.

When I used to teach self-defense, I would tell my students about Arthur
Shawcross, the serial killer known as “The Monster of the Rivers.” I would
show them a picture of this scumbag and read a small excerpt of a letter he
wrote which in part stated, “I have been a god unto myself, I’ve been the
judge, the jury, and the executioner. I, dear people, have murdered,
butchered, and totally destroyed 53 human beings in my lifetime. I am like a
predator, able to hunt, able to wantonly destroy at any given time or
moment.” I would then graphically describe what he would do to his victims.
Subsequently, I’d ask them; how many of you could defend yourself against a
man like this? One, sometimes two, would raise their hands. The majority
would just keep their hands down and remain silent.

(more…)

Anyone recommend MMA training videos? Boxing, wrestling, muy thai?

http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2007-07/gumc-sdk062607.php

In what they call a “stunning research advance,” investigators at Georgetown University Medical Center have been able to use simple, non-toxic chemical injections to add and remove fat in targeted areas on the bodies of laboratory animals. They say the discovery, published online in Nature Medicine on July 1, could revolutionize human cosmetic and reconstructive plastic surgery and treatment of diseases associated with human obesity.
…
In the paper, the Georgetown researchers describe a mechanism they found by which stress activates weight gain in mice, and they say this pathway − which they were able to manipulate − may explain why people who are chronically stressed gain more weight than they should based on the calories they consume.

This pathway involves two players − a neurotransmitter (neuropeptide Y, or NPY) and the receptor (neuropeptide Y2 receptor, or Y2R) it activates in two types of cells in the fat tissue: endothelial cells lining blood vessels and fat cells themselves. In order to add fat selectively to the mice they tested, researchers injected NPY into a specific area. The researchers found that both NPY and Y2R are activated during stress, leading to apple-shape obesity and metabolic syndrome. Both the weight gain and metabolic syndrome, however, were prevented by administration of Y2R blocker into the abdominal fat.

“We couldn’t believe such fat remodeling was possible, but the numerous different experiments conducted over four years demonstrated that it is, at least in mice; recent pilot data also suggest that a similar mechanism exist in monkeys as well,” said the study’s senior author, Zofia Zukowska, M.D., Ph.D., professor and chair of the Department of Physiology & Biophysics at Georgetown University Medical Center.

Via futurepundit.

Anyone recommend boxing/MMA gyms in the SF Bay Area?