Quick notes for mid May 14, 2015

Updated 5.14.2015
Quick comments derived from reading the various tabs open in my browser currently. Basically what interested me as I did my morning web reading.

Moving 2 minutes per hour offsets effects of sitting

Sitting for long stretches of time increases the risk of premature mortality (early death). A New York Times article reports that moving for 2 minutes out of each hour sitting could mitigate some of that. Standing rather than sitting was not associated with improved mortality, but walking was, which is another vote in favor of the treadmill desk.

However, what I find in using my stationary standing desk is that though I obviously move less than when I'm at the treadmill, I still wind up walking around more than if I would be sitting at a desk.

Push Ups are better than planks

I do both exercises, though I do push ups more often than planks. I was curious as to which was better, and at least according this site, the answer is push ups. Apparently once you can hold a plank for three minutes (I cannot) you've maxed out the benefit of doing a plank. There are a huge variety of different styles of push ups, which means not only will you not get bored with the exercise (an issue with planks) you work many more muscles. Good to know, especially if you're a runner because planks don't work the muscles that runners use.

Planks are said to be good for developing your abs, though, and do strengthen your "core". Push-ups do too, but I'm not suggesting that because push up are better, or that I won't do the planks. Planks are actually one of the exercises that are supposed to be good for people with osteoporosis to do. I agree with this assessment, which is that push ups ARE planks with extra features. That's actually why I went looking. I do both, but prefer the push ups and wanted to know if there was a difference between the two (there is) and if one was better (push ups are). Bottom line here is that doing a one minute plank a day can help build the muscles for better push ups and can stabilize the core, but there's really no need to go planking crazy.

Exercise does help weight loss

As I mentioned in the previous quick notes, there is a trend at the moment in the "low carb high fat" slice of the internet to assert that exercise is not required for weight loss. While it's true that most people can't "outrun their forks," exercise is an excellent idea for everyone for all of the reasons I have listed here any number of times. The editorial that started the latest round of this lamentable assertion was published and then briefly retracted— due to undeclared conflicts of interest, so it was said. However, apparently the text was subtly changed as well. I'm under no illusions as to the influence of this site, however, to the extent that I can, I want this story to gain as wide an audience as possible and so include links to it here.

Perhaps I should tweet…

I suppose the above is a good reason to begin using Twitter more formally again to tweet links, both of my takes and of interesting links. I used to include my Twitter "handle" on this site when I was recording my treadmill desk mileage in 2012. Then I stopped recording, well, anything having to do with diet or exercise in 2014 because I suspected my OCD tendencies were firing a little hard. More recently I only tweet to rant about sports outcomes. Maybe it's time to rethink that.

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