FITNESS

Social media’s push for the perfect muscular body is fuelling a new form of disordered eating — and young men are most at risk From celebrities and influencers to everyday people, social media is full of content that showcases perfectly toned, muscular bodies – and how to achieve them. Having a muscular physique is no longer confined to elite athletes and body builders – it has become a widely popular aspiration. But alongside the rising popularity of this kind of content has been an increase in the pressure that both men and women are feeling to achieve a more athletic, muscular physique. This seemingly healthy trend has coincided with the detection of a new form of disordered eating. Muscularity oriented disordered eating (Mode) refers to a set of disordered eating habits driven by ...

Cardio or weights first? A kinesiologist explains how to optimize the order of your exercise routine. When you enter the gym, which way should you head first? Toward the treadmills and spin studio to get your sweat on with a cardio session? Or toward the free weights and strength-training machines to do some resistance training? The American College of Sports Medicine suggests doing both types of exercise to take advantage of their unique benefits for improving health and daily functioning and reducing chronic disease risk. But what is the optimal sequence to get the best results? The answer to this question is … it depends. I’m an exercise physiologist. Recently in my lab we have been studying the effects of combinations of aerobic and resistance training on improving health-related fitne...

I think 90% of us have been there (I'll leave the other 10% out of this because there are fitness fanatics who seem to NEVER burnout). It's the place where we just dread working out or can't find the motivation to get it in gear and do our daily workout. You push it off till the next day and when the next day comes you find some other excuse to not do it and eventually a whole week has gone by and you haven't done one bit of exercise. I get it. I've been there. I used to spend three hours a night at the gym, everyday, doing the same thing night after night. I was happy with the body I'd sculpted out for myself, but eventually it was too much to sustain. I kept finding excuses not to go the gym, finding ailments or aches to convince my brain that I couldn't get to my exercise. I of course ...

One of the most popular new year’s resolutions is to exercise more. Many of us set ambitious goals requiring a big, regular commitment, but then abandon them because they’re too much to fit in. Plans to exercise more in the new year are often broken within a month. So how can we exercise more regularly in the new year? If the aim is to build long-term fitness and health, the exercise must be sustainable. It may be achievable to resolve to do an extra few minutes of muscle-strengthening exercises every day. Our research suggests even one muscle contraction a day, for five days a week, can improve muscle strength if you keep it up for a month. Why do we need to exercise? Physical activity guidelines recommended we perform 150 minutes of moderately intense exercise a week, as well as at ...