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Paleo Banana Bread
After starting the paleo diet, I started craving the exact foods I wasn’t allowed to eat. This is my first...
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Apologies for the terrible image quality - I’m lacking scanner access at the minute so I had to take these photos on my phone
I was...
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Extended Standing Leg Stretch Utthita Hasta Padangusthasana
One of the biggest myths about...
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This is my favorite part of racing - all the supporters. And I always high five all the kids :)
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If you think that the nice guy ranting only happens on the internet, you’ve never had to deal with your thoroughly drunken friend shouting about how...
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Photos from “Athlete” by Howard Schatz
Excerpt via Re-Examining – And Re-Defining – The Athlete’s Body
First, don’t get suckered into defining something as broad as “athlete” – especially when “athlete” can refer to everything from gymnastics to sumo wrestling – by marketing that never even mentions a sport. It’s disrespectful to and discounts those who don’t fit that visual description – it excludes them from their rightfully earned title of “athlete” because they don’t look the way an uninformed public says an “athlete” should look – and doesn’t give them the credit they deserve.
Second, these are extremely – extremely – successful athletes. There are Olympians in this photo set. If they’ve got what you consider to be amazing bodies? Guess what – they’re not taking pills to get them. They’re putting in work. The only people who believe you can get “something” for “nothing” are those who have nothing. In fitness, you have to work. You want that body? Let’s see several hours a week – maybe even several hours a day – of commitment toward achieving it.
Lastly, if you can see how foolish society’s standards are for fitness…. then the logical question must be “where does this standard come from?” If you can’t answer that question immediately, and be satisfied with your answer… perhaps you should question why you hold yourself to such a standard in the first place.
Just a thought.
Want to see more? Book: Athlete, by Howard Schatz
‘Success Kid’ & Olympic Weightlifter
Caption: ‘Grew Up. Got It Done. Was AWESOME.
I mean really. Who can blame her? :)
Hilarious!
Have you heard about Steeplechase? It’s an Olympic hurdling event that includes water pits and long jumping.
It’s not without it’s dangers (check out the video above), but it seems like a fun, mixed event that few people have heard of.
Steeplechase…
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Combines different skills into one race: distance running, hurdling, and long jumping. The race is 3000 meters long, which is just shy of two miles (or seven-and-a-half laps around the track).
- Throughout the 3000 meters, runners must clear 28 hurdles and seven water jumps. After the first lap, that’s four hurdles and one water jump per lap.
- The steeplechase originated in England, when people once raced from one church’s steeple to the next. (They were used as markers due to their high visibility.) Runners would encounter streams and stonewalls when running between towns, which is why the hurdles and water jumps are now included.
Hope Solo In Training (via Hyper Ice)
Want tools to train like Hope? Got you covered!
Speed Resistance Training Parachute
Team USA Trick Shot Complilation
Pretty fun compilation from the Dude Perfect guys! Love it!
Thought this was cute, lol!
Michelle Jenneke isn’t going to London this year, but she made headlines yesterday when she danced around pre-race to loosen up and shake off her nerves. It’s a funny, cheerful little bob around, and hardly made her look like a threat. She then proceeded to KILL the competition, hurdling over like a gazelle.
Girls just wanna have fun I guess! Lol, I like her bow!
Competitive yoga is a concept I’ve only recently become acquainted with, and I feel kinda mixed about it.
Seemed interesting enough at first: flexible yogis from all around the world coming together to show their stuff. They’re certainly athletes: toned, strong bodied folks who’ve spent years devoted to their practice. And yoga is everywhere these days: it seemed like the next natural step I guess.
But as far as a ‘competition’ goes, I still don’t get it. In a practice that encourages self-reflection and personal growth, it seems bizarre for yogis to ‘compete’ with one another. That said, the competitions themselves are pretty awesome to watch (see video below of L.A. yoga winner Joseph hitting a Scorpion pose that’ll make you squirm…. umm, WOW).
But now, some devoted yogis want to take things to the next level.
Bikram Choudhury (the founder of Bikram Yoga) has come out in support of the idea of including competitive yoga in the Olympics. And he’s not alone. Many yogis consider themselves athletes and would love the opportunity to compete against each other. Similar to Olympic sports such as ice skating and gymnastics, the scoring would be subjective with judges scoring each athlete. The poses would be pre-determined I imagine? There’s no scoring for breathing or endurance: just how they look in the pose and how well they can do it.
Now some would say that people who are double jointed or naturally flexible would have an advantage. It’s kinda true. But many athletes have natural advantages: basketball players have height, gymnasts tend to be smaller, pole vaulters tend to have longer legs etc. We all use what we have to make the most of it, and these advantages may be the reason we tend to gravitate towards certain sports or hobbies (basketball was NOT my favorite and because I’m at a vertical disadvantage I probably avoided it more than I would have if I were taller. Which means I never practiced and never got good at it. Sigh. I’ll never be a basketball star, lol). I don’t think natural advantages are necessarily unfair: it’s just human. We all get what we get, and work with what we have.
Personally, I don’t see anything WRONG with including yoga in the Olympics, and while I’m sure not every yogi wants to compete this way, there are MANY practitioners who should be given the opportunity to do so if they wish. Yoga competitions have been held around the world for hundreds of years, afterall. Still… something bugs me about it. I’m worried about possible injuries from people who are suddenly ‘competing’ in their yoga sessions. Plus, I’d be scared it would turn some people away from yoga, intimidating them if you will. Not all poses are possible for everyone, or even safe, no matter how much they practice.
But on the other hand, I kinda love seeing yogi’s do their flexy thing. I can’t look away! It’s mindboggling.
Read more via Blisstree.
Thoughts? Should yoga be included in the Olympics?
This gets me EVERY TIME! Such an important thing to learn: you don’t have to come in first to finish a winner.
Tears. Weep. Josh Groban. Sigh.
Excerpt from CNN.com
Atlanta, Georgia (CNN) - Kulsoom Abdullah is a 35-year-old with a doctorate in electrical and computer engineering. But it’s her passion outside of work that has put her at the center of a debate - one that could affect athletic competitions worldwide, even the Olympics.
Later this month, the International Weightlifting Federation will take up the question of whether Abdullah may take part in officially sanctioned tournaments while keeping her entire body covered, aside from her hands and face, in keeping with her Muslim faith.
“It’s what I believe in. It’s what I’ve chosen to do,” Abdullah tells CNN of her decision to wear modest garb. “I’ve always dressed this way publicly.”
Abdullah is not an Olympic athlete, but enjoys lifting weights. She can deadlift 245 pounds (111 kg) and get up 105 pounds (47.5 kg) in the snatch, in which the competitor lifts the barbell from the floor to over her head in a single motion. She likes to compete with other women in her weight class - she generally weighs in the 106-pound (48 kg) or 117-pound (53 kg) classifications.
“It guess it’s empowering,” she says. “There’s a lot of technique involved, so someone who’s this big muscular person - it’s possible I could lift more than they do. There’s speed and timing to it - you have to be explosive. I think it’s great just for confidence building … I guess I got hooked.”
The Atlanta resident wants to take part in tournaments in the United States, including one coming up in July. But USA Weightlifting informed her that those events are governed by IWF rules. And those rules preclude her dressing in keeping with her beliefs.
Abdullah generally wears loose, long pants past the ankles, a long-sleeve, fitted shirt with a loose T-shirt over it, and a hijab, or head scarf, covering her hair.
The outfits - officially called “costumes” - worn at competitions must be collarless and must not cover the elbows or knees, according to the IWF’s technical and competition rules.
The IWF constitution also states that no distinction is made among individuals based on religion.
Read MORE.
