MALE PATTERN FITNESS: Comment on Monday Link Dump

Home

Archives

Read Lou's email

FAQ

Lou in Print

New Rules of Lifting

Men's Health
Book of Muscle

Home Workout Bible

The Testosterone Advantage Plan

Serving the hypertrophied-American community since 2003

Lou Schuler is an award-winning fitness journalist and author (that's him in the drawing, from the neck up). He began this weblog on menshealth.com in September 2003. If, for any reason, you need to know more about this middle-aged, bald-headed man, click here

Lou in Print
	New Rules of Lifting Buy A Copy!
Six basic moves for maximum muscle. Includes comprehensive workout programs to help any lifter -- from beginner to advanced -- add size, burn fat, and get stronger.
	The Book of Muscle Buy A Copy!
The world’s most authoritative guide to building your body. Includes six-month programs for beginner, intermediate, and advanced lifters.
	The Men's Health Home Workout Bible Buy A Copy!
Everything you need to turn a piece of your abode into your personal war room. Features more than 200 pages of exercise photos for all types of equipment, including a 63-page body-weight-only section.
	The Testosterone Advantage Plan Buy A Copy!
Lose weight, gain muscle, boost energy—a nine-week food-and-fitness breakthrough for men only. This is the book that started it all.

« Iggy Has Two Pops | Main | The Muscle-Loss Diet »

Monday Link Dump

January 29, 2007

Kevin Drum asks if Roger Federer is the greatest tennis player in the universe.

I have a humbler suggestion: Tiger Woods is the best athlete in America right now.

It seems odd to talk about tennis and golf during Super Bowl Week, but really, does anyone dominate any sport the way these two dominate theirs?

The tooth is out there

Straight teeth don't make you any happier, according to this:

A 20-year study found that orthodontic treatment had little positive impact on future psychological health.

But what about future earnings? You can't tell me that having messed-up teeth won't affect your career path. Just try getting on TV without perfectly straight and glow-in-the-dark-white teeth.

Acceptance

I've never once seen an episode of House, but now, thanks to the vagaries of channel-surfing, I've seen Hugh Laurie accept two major awards -- the Golden Globe and one from the Screen Actors Guild.

Speaking of acting awards:

Forest Whitaker is considered the frontrunner for the Best Actor Oscar. As it happens, over the weekend, I saw much of Platoon on cable. He only had a minor role, but you always notice him when he's on screen.

By contrast, he shared several scenes in Platoon with Johnny Depp. But if you didn't know it was Depp, you'd never pay any attention to that character. He's just a guy in the background. Whitaker had a different kind of presence, even then. Even when he's in the background, you notice him.

I can't quantify this is any way -- writing about movies is pretty far from my paying gig -- but I think I can remember more minor roles by Whitaker than by just about any other actor.

The bit he did in Fast Times at Ridgemont High, as the force-of-nature football player, was just a cartoon, like a purely physical version of Sean Penn's Jeff Spicoli (interesting that neither actor ever played similar characters again), but in The Color of Money and The Crying Game, I remembered his scenes more clearly than I did just about anything else in the movie.

And who says there aren't any good roles for overweight black men with weird eyes?

The big picture

In this massive essay in yesterday's New York Times Magazine, Michael Pollan, author of The Omnivore's Dilemma, argues that nutrition science misses the forest for the trees.

I can't argue with his point that eating real food is better than eating anything "enriched" or "fortified." I made the case for "clean eating" in New Rules of Lifting, although I suspect I'm more enthusiastic about protein supplements than Pollan is.

Right on cue, I found a news report this morning that bolsters Pollan's argument that we spend far too much time looking at the bits and pieces of nutrition, instead of the big picture:

Children who eat too little fat can end up overweight, a new study has found. Researchers in Sweden discovered that eating the right sort of fat kept the weight of children down.

Those who were significantly overweight consumed low amounts of unsaturated fat, the type found in fish, olive oil and vegetables.

Another point that could be made is that these bitsy-piecey studies do all tend to point to the same place -- eat more fruits, vegetables, and other whole foods, and skip anything that comes in a box.

Posted by LouSchuler at January 29, 2007 07:22 AM

Comments

Though we won't be seeing him on ESPN anytime soon Pro surfer Kelly Slater just won his 8th ASP world tour title, a feat that had Lance Armstrong giving him big props.

If only surfing were played with a ball...

Posted by: kuri at January 29, 2007 12:38 PM

Good call, Kuri. I guess I put surfing in another category because it's regional, like skiing -- if you don't grow up near an ocean or mountain, you can't excel at those sports.

But then again, tennis and golf are social-class-specific. It's damned expensive to learn either one.

And maybe it's unfair to compare anybody in individual sports like surfing, skiing, tennis, or golf to people who play team sports, where there's a deeper pool of participants and more variables that determine winning and losing.

Then again, being fair takes all the fun out of being a fan. Tiger rules!

Posted by: Lou Schuler at January 30, 2007 07:03 AM

Monday Link Dump

January 29, 2007

Comments

Post a comment