Myosynthesis

The Unhappy Truth About Positive Psychology

Matt P — Mon, 31 Dec 2012 22:14:23 +0000

The Unhappy Truth About Positive Psychology. This is a wonderful read to kick off the New Year, if you’re into reflecting on arbitrary milestones. Flourishing involves how we live more than what we feel: engaging life whole-heartedly – which includes responding to adversity to the best of our ability – and treating other people honorably. [...]

Effects of aerobic and/or resistance training on body mass and fat mass in overweight or obese adults

Matt P — Mon, 17 Dec 2012 21:20:02 +0000

Effects of aerobic and/or resistance training on body mass and fat mass in overweight or obese adults. This study popped up on the social media yesterday and it’s caused quite an uproar among the pro-lifting crowd, mainly thanks to the last lines of the abstract which seem to say that “cardio is better than lifting [...]

Action before theory.

Matt P — Mon, 17 Dec 2012 20:35:41 +0000

Action before theory.

Set points, settling points and some alternative models: theoretical options to understand how genes and environments combine to regulate body adiposity

Matt P — Thu, 13 Dec 2012 20:28:27 +0000

Set points, settling points and some alternative models: theoretical options to understand how genes and environments combine to regulate body adiposity. This is a paper I’ve linked before, and for good reason. It’s refreshing to see what the fields of nutrition and obesity research are actually doing, as contrasted with the caricatures and kooky pseudoscience [...]

“Because evolution”

Matt P — Wed, 12 Dec 2012 18:00:06 +0000

Evolutionary theory, including all those sub-fields where evolutionary is a modifier, is well on its way to becoming a tool of pseudoscience in performance and nutrition. “Evolution” is invoked not only to explain, but to justify things like behavior, moral judgements, and yes, even what we eat and how we train. Evo-psych is a common [...]

The Fish Oil Dilemma – Panacea or Poison?

Matt P — Wed, 12 Dec 2012 01:00:31 +0000

There’s been a little controversy happening lately over what role, if any, fish oil should have in a ‘healthy diet’. I’ve been taking the stuff myself since around 2003, after reading much the same research that drove everybody else to it. Fish oil, or more precisely the omega-3 EPA and DHA in it, can sometimes [...]

[Link] Steven Shapin reviews ‘The Pseudoscience Wars’ by Michael Gordin · LRB 8 November 2012

Matt P — Sat, 08 Dec 2012 22:15:27 +0000

Steven Shapin reviews ‘The Pseudoscience Wars’ by Michael Gordin · LRB 8 November 2012. This whole piece is a fantastic discussion of contemporary issues in separating science from pseudoscience, and why we should all have a little more ‘epistemic humility’ about what we consider true and factual.

[Link] Nutrition in Three Words. | EAP: The Magazine

Matt P — Mon, 03 Dec 2012 20:59:20 +0000

Nutrition in Three Words. | EAP: The Magazine. This is a beautiful read. The objectifying mindset, and the belief that it is the only way to construct “healthy” dietary practices, is the whole problem. It’s easy to argue about the distribution of the sand and never wonder if you’re in the right sandbox.

Is anything more useless than the “form check”?

Matt P — Sat, 01 Dec 2012 21:31:37 +0000

I’m not sure who thought it would be a good idea to post videos of squats and deadlifts on the internet to get a “form check”. This almost always turns out to be the blind leading the blind, and even when it isn’t, has anyone actually made their form “better” by reading a list of [...]

[Link] Workout by Kelei at BB.com

Matt P — Fri, 23 Nov 2012 19:00:13 +0000

Workout by Kelei at BB.com I dig workout setups like this. May be of interest to bodybuilding types.