Maggie's Farm

This guy says these are good muscle conditioning routines for those over 60 but they are perfect for beginners too. He is good to offer progressions in these exercises.

Mind you, this is about beginning muscle conditioning. It's preparation for stronger muscle movements, but this sort of thing can get your muscles ready for more challenging exertions after a month or two. All the same, you never want to quit pushups even when you get strong with bench presses.

Nobel Psychologist (whose Nobel was in Economics) Donald Kahneman explains why in a podcast interview.

Article is here.

With all of the other things we do to stay fit, sturdy, nimble, and generally functional, is there any need to do specific core exercises?

Yes and no. 

But first, let's clear up some common misconceptions.  First, "core" is not just abs. Consider "core" to include all of the muscles that exist like a column wrapped around your body from just below your chest down to your hips. Back muscles and oblique muscles are just as much "core" as abs. "Core" is what holds you up, and stabilizes your physique for doing most everything else you do. Muscle pedestals on the sides, front, and back. Otherwise, we would collapse. You can see collapsed cores in nursing homes.

Second, we'll assert that sit-ups and crunches are a waste of time.  These are not balanced core stressors and, contrary to popular belief, will neither burn belly fat nor build a 6-pack (a 6-pack comes from low body fat, and is more about vanity and sex-appeal than fitness. If you are a youthful athlete, or a male model, go for it).

What are the best core exertions?  Probably deadlifts and barbell squats. The demands on core for stabilization for those is heavy, even if not noticed while executing them. 

Fitness-oriented people often fit in accessory core exercises to help their deadlifts and squat performance, for posture, and to sturdify (?) all other exertions we undertake. What are the two best uses of precious time?

Planks and wheel-rollers are. They do not take up much time to do twice weekly, either as calis or as a side dish to a weight session. If you're on the floor anyway doing mountain climbers or pushups, you can superset 3 sets of 30-45-second elbow planks with 10-20 roller rep sets. Planks are the gold standard but rollers are second. To make planks tougher, put a sandbag on your back.

Correct plank form is FLAT. No sag, no arch. For correct roller wheel form, this youtube:

Asylums for the "moral treatment" of the mentally ill emerged in the early 1800s. I put moral treatment in quotes not to disparage their efforts but because Moral Treatment was a new medical movement at the time to treat the mentally ill compassionately, protectively, and respectfully. That movement continues today.

-  Stanford professor who changed America with just one study was also a liar

-  A Cultural Historian Explores an Old Mental Hospital

The giant old state mental hospitals are mostly abandoned now.  

When we walk into a patient’s room, we are entering a story.

That's the correct medical attitude. It doesn't apply to the purely technical specialties, though. 

Why Hard Belly Fat Is More Dangerous Than Soft Fat

People always say "Diet and Exercise." Unless you hike 10 miles daily, or work out 2 hrs/day, I just say "Nutrition" to lose bad fat. Not "diet," "nutrition" because diets fail but appropriate nutrition is a way of life. Just enough of pretty good things for the fitness you want. That article more or less says the same thing. 

Daily exercise is great for fitness, but not for fat. The bonus is that the less fat you are carrying, the better your exercise and activity endurance. 

That's enough annoying preaching for today. 

Brief article here.

Never forget that pain relief is one of the miracles of modern medical practice. 

What is life like for people like Kayla Mueller's parents to know that their daughter was abducted, kept as a sex slave by al-Baghdadi until he tired of her, then tortured including having her nails pulled out, and then beheaded?

I have spent many hours with parents whose children have had tragic experiences, catastrophic lives,  or met tragic ends. Life must go on, but the mental images and the agony that accompanies them can never be erased.

A vale of tears. People like me can sometimes offer no relief, only companionship in suffering.

Joseph Henry Green  (1791-1863), an English surgeon who became the literary executor of Samuel Taylor Coleridge.  The word was spoken upon checking his own pulse.

Joseph Henry Green, a surgeon and professor of anatomy, suffered from inherited gout and died of an acute seizure at his house in 1863.  

An account of his final moments has been given by Sir John Simon:

“I would show that not even the last sudden agony of death ruffled his serenity of mind, or rendered him unthoughtful of others. No terrors, no selfish regrets, no reproachful memories, were there. The few tender parting words which he had yet to speak, he spoke. And to the servants who had gathered grieving round him, he said, ‘While I have breath, let me thank you all for your kindness and attention to me’.

Next, to his doctor, who quickly entered – his neighbour and old pupil, Mr. Carter – he significantly, and pointing to the region of his heart, said – ‘congestion’. After which, he in silence set his finger to his wrist, and visibly noted to himself the successive feeble pulses which were but just between him and death. Presently he said – ‘stopped’. And this was the very end. It was as if even to die were an act of his own grand self-government. For at once, with the warning word still scarce beyond his lips, suddenly the stately head drooped aside, passive and defunct for ever. And then, to the loving eyes that watched him, ‘his face was again all young and beautiful’. The bodily heart, it is true, had become more pulseless clay; broken was the pitcher at the fountain, broken at the cistern the wheel; but, for yet a moment amid the nightfall, the pure spiritual life could be discerned, moulding for the last time into conformity with itself the features which thenceforth were for the tomb.”

You have to admire someone who takes his own pulse and pronounces himself dead.  Now that’s cool.

"To lengthen the life, lessen the meals."

Benjamin Franklin 

That's in Bill Bryson's excellent new book The Body: A Guide for Occupants. Even doctors can enjoy it.

There are several reasons even if fat loss is not a goal, including your insulin functioning.

Of course people should. It might be the best way to maintain sturdy bone and muscle while time, nature, and entropy are doing their best to destroy you.

Should You Be Lifting Heavy Weights After 50?

By heavy weights, we refer mainly to the basic powerlifts (barbell squat, deads, bench press, dumbell row, overhead press), plus pullups/pulldowns.

Also,  How To Build Muscle Mass After 50

Everybody knows that most of "homelessness" is about dysfunctional people rather than lack of a roof. Given the complexity of humans, and the complexity of modern society, it's remarkable how few there are.

The great reformer Dorothea Dix recognized the need for "humane asylums" for the mentally ill and incapacitated. By the 1970s, the "miracle drugs" were supposed to treat serious mental illnesses. JFK led a movement towards "deinstutionalization". You all know this.

As things turned out, we found excellent treatments for bipolar ailments but really only symptomatic treatments for the Schizophrenic spectrum of low-functional, marginally-functional, and non-functional people. (Addicts are highly-treatable, but addicts do not always want that and it's a free country.)

So, for the chronically mentally ill (mostly Schizophrenic variants who might be as much as 1% of the population), there is either family support, street life, or asylum of some form. "Asylum" should not be a dirty word. It should be a beautiful word, and asylums can be good places. But nobody is building them or coming up with creative ideas about it.

 How The Loss Of U.S. Psychiatric Hospitals Led To A Mental Health Crisis

An Interview with Heather Mac Donald

Seven Reasons Why Most Major Depression is Probably Not a Brain Disorder

Note that they say "most," not all. Bipolar depression sure seems like a brain disorder of sorts, as do depressive symptoms related to peripartum, hypothyroidism, some GI cancers, etc. 

To my mind, it's best to think of "depressive symptoms" rather than of a unitary phenomenon. Many acute depressive events I have seen are, in fact, reactive to events and could be viewed as grief. 

As researchers unravel the molecular machinery that links exercise and cognition, working out is emerging as a promising neurotherapy.

Bell curve chart is from No One Is Born in ‘The Wrong Body’

The terror of medical opioids is on an upswing. I have seen the upswings and downswings during my career. I wish we could find a middle course, because medical opioids are a blessing to suffering people. Yes, I include Oxycontin in that because it is an excellent medicine.

Of course opioids are habit-forming. For refractory pain, they are also life-giving. For people with life-impairing chronic pain, there is something called "pseudoaddiction."  AGAINST AGAINST PSEUDOADDICTION

These days, I have seen people in that category treated like drug addicts. Sooner or later, there will chemicals with the pain effects of opioids but without the habit-forming effects. Not yet.

Every food can be correlated with increased mortality risk!

 Diet Reporting—the Real Fake News

The one thing that is known for sure is that overeating is not helpful for fitness or survival. 

Kettlebells add good variety to cardio and/or calisthenics workouts. There are plenty of ways to use them, but they seem most often used for swings. Swings are a total body exercise.

With lighter weights, swings are more cardio. Go with heavier weights for total body toughening. 30-60 seconds per set is good.

Everybody knows we do not use that term anymore in public. It's been a kerfuffle this past week.

Interestingly, "Mental Retardation" was introduced as a euphemism for uglier terms, as it seemed to imply slower, but not unable. The currect correct term is "intellectual disability". 

However, in casual conversation, people still say "I'm retarded" after foolish actions. 

Most of us fitness buffs want all we can get of both. However, the training for each is different partly because muscle endurance/aerobic fitness is based on Type l muscle, and strength on Type ll - the power fibers.

High frequency, repetitive exertions train for endurance (eg jogging, biking, high-rep lighter weights, calisthenics), while heavy weights (things you can only do 4-8 times at most) train for strength.  

 Strength vs. Endurance Exercises

If you won't do weight training or HIIT cardio, the least a person can do to maintain functional fitness, energy, balance, and general athleticism is daily calisthenics for 50 minutes.

It's the best way to start the day with a good state of mind. Classes might be best because of the group spirit and energy, but, if disciplined, alone can be good too. Part of that discipline is limiting the rests between sets to 6-10 seconds to make the most of the cardio component.

Are Burpees the best all-round calisthenic?  Maybe, in the same way that the Deadlift is the best total-body weight exercise. The usefulness and "fun" of calisthenics, though, is variety. There is some fun in doing them in 3 sets of circuits of 3.

Readers know our list of common calisthenics: Burpees, Jumping Jacks, Side shuffles, Heavy Ball throws, Sandbag slams, Body-weight Squats and Wall Sits, Lunges, Jump Rope, Box Jumps, Step-ups, Rowers, Mountain Climbers, Dips, Pushups, Pullups, Inclined pullups, Leg Lifts, Sled pushes and pulls, planks, combat ropes, kettlebell swings, etc.

Mix and match for an hour early each morning and you will feel great. It's not strength, but it's fitness. 

NB: I am well-aware that far more people choose to do cardio (especially long, relatively slow endurance "cardio" like jogging and swimming) than those who do calisthenics, HIIT, and weights workouts combined. That is certainly better than nothing, or walking, but our readers know what is optimal: 2 days of heavy weight training, 2 days of calisthenics, and 2 days of mixed HIIT and endurance cardio with a good heart rate stress.