Power Posers… or is that Poseurs, Get Their Comeuppance.
I always, always get a chuckle when people claim that yoga poses or some other body poses are responsible for mental, and/or hormone changes in people. While I do believe yoga does a body and a person good, as any physical activity would, there are some who go too far in their claims about the good silly things can do.
I happened upon a particular knee-slapper at Powe Line…
In the linked post, the author links to an article on Slate that blows the lid off of “power poses”. It is said by the original power poseur that just by doing a couple of simple “power poses” for a couple of minutes a day one can expect to “change your life and hormone levels”. Honest to God, it takes all kinds. If you believed this possible, your mug shot belongs in the dictionary next to the word “gullible”.
John Hinderaker hits the nail on the head:
Generally speaking, social “science” studies that garner newspaper headlines fall into two categories: 1) they advance a liberal agenda, or 2) someone is making money. The power posing story falls in the latter, more benign category.
There’s more though… I’ve read a couple of posts in the last week or two promoting arm swinging as a way to balance and center one’s life. Honest to God, you just swing your arms back and forth for ten minutes and it’s supposed to help you do anything from center your life and change your outlook on it, to help you lose weight.
Oh, if life were that simple! We could have world peace if we all would simply swing our arms back and forth for a few minutes a day! I wouldn’t actually have to pay those pesky bills, babysit my employees and worry about my sobriety!
Truthfully, the fact that people fall for this stuff astounds me. Yet, I can’t deny this: If it makes them feel better about themselves, as long as they’re not using it as an escape from what really needs to be attended to in life, who really cares?
Looked at in that light, I guess it’s not that big a deal. It still makes me laugh though. Read the whole linked post, it’s worth it for the chuckle.
A perfect 170 mile week…
I love my 5200 now that it looks badass. It’s quite comfortable but it isn’t without its problems. There are two to be specific, but whether they’re bad or not, well that’s up to one’s way of looking at things.
My Venge is on the higher end of 16 pounds. It’s light. It has a ridiculously light headset, a light fork, a light frame and light wheels… a light handlebar, a light stem and a ridiculously light crankset (one of the lightest in the industry). My Trek, on the other hand, is four or five pounds heavier and I can feel every one of those pounds on a longer ride. Add to that, my additional six pounds and after 35 miles my legs are cussing up a storm.
The second problem has to do with the wheels. The wheels on the Trek, which came with the Venge originally, are heavy and slow. The wheels I now have on the Venge are light and fast. The wheels on the Trek are so slow, I can feel the difference riding the two bikes. They’re so slow, I’ve contemplated putting the Venge’s wheels on the Trek just to see how much of a difference it makes.
On the other hand, riding the Trek the way it is now will absolutely help later in the year when I’m pushing a lighter, faster bike down the road. Add to that, the fact that I’ll be six pounds lighter as well and I should be in phenomenal shape.
That said, while it’s fair to say it’s the engine, not the bike, having a fast bike sure doesn’t suck!
The last two months have been phenomenal, but mostly for outdoor cycling. Indoors, I’ve lacked a little bit of want to, especially early in the season. Thankfully I’ve been able to make up for that outdoors though, whether riding mountain bikes or even road bikes. I live far enough north that we’re usually snow-covered and frigid enough that only the toughest (craziest?), most dedicated cyclists are going to bother with riding outdoors. While I can certainly understand the desire to ride outdoors under the gnarliest winter conditions, I can’t justify the cost of the bike and all of the winter gear required to do so comfortably when weighed against the benefits… at least not at this point in my life.
That said, when I started cycling five years ago, my limit was 50 degrees F (technically it was 55 but there was no way I was giving up the chance to ride outside for five degrees, so call it 12 C). Now I can deal with temps down into the 20’s but once it gets below freezing my enthusiasm wanes. This year, with El Nino, our normally brutal January and February have been quite reasonable for cycling. While I can’t ride during the week for a lack of daylight and time, Fridays and the weekend days have been less than perfect but more than good enough to suck it up and put in quite a few outdoor miles.
Last week was my first perfect week of 2016. seven days on the bike in a row – four on the trainer and three on the road for a total of 169 miles and some change. The majority of that, more than 90 miles, was outdoors. In the process I managed to lose two pounds of my seven that have to go by spring.
Things are about to change though… This is Michigan and I knew from the outset that we were never going to ride this great weather all the way to March. We’ve got snow heading our way and the temperature is going to make a nosedive. It was inevitable. We’ll be relegated to the trainer for at least a week.
The problem will be next year though. I’ve been through enough Michigan winters and El Nino’s to know what comes next. We’re going to pay dearly for this winter. We always do.
Fit Recovery 