Saturday Night Live’s Will Forte visits Late Night with Conan O’Brien to talk about his new film, The Brothers Solomon. But first he tells us about one persons unusual behavior in the men’s locker room at the NBC gym. Band leader Max Weinberg blow dries his nuts!
Technorati Tags: Conan, Conan O’Brien, Late Night, NBC, Max Weinberg, Gym, Locker Room, Will Forte, SNL, Saturday Night Live, Video, YouTube
On June 25th a dog got her day, but not for saving Timmy from the well or her racing abilities. The Canadian newspaper Victoria Times Colonist then published the story about a muscular dog, which has a mutation of the myostatin gene. The owner is now juggling the international media attention and Wendy even has an offer of a role in a sci-fi series! Read the original article and the followup:
Wendy the Whippet has a genetic disorder that has resulted in an exceptionally muscular appearance. You might mistake her for a pitbull with a tiny head, but she is a whippet. Whippets usually are quite muscular, and at the same time petite. Wendy is a 27-kilogram rippling mass of muscle, two times the size of normal female whippets.
I’m a nice doggy. Really, don’t be afraid…
Check out the ham development below! Tom Platz is green with envy…
USA Weightlifting promotes itself and its activities with a funny tv commercial, that will run 25 times on CSTV (College Sports TV, Wikipedia article).
According to the comments on Youtube the lady who cleans the bar is Natalie Woolfolk (profile at Washington Post), the USA Weightlifting National Champion aims to compete in the 2008 Olympic Games. The weights are props, so instead of 145 kilograms, the bar “only” weighs 46 kilograms…
Via Fitsugar.com
Yesterday, a novel attempt in solving the problem with one of the International Space Stations solar panels not folding fully was tried:
The problem lies in a guidewire that is stuck in one of the eyelets, causing the array to billow. NASA will try helping it along by jiggling the array in hopes that will push the wire through the hole.
It plans to move a joint on the panel to shake it, and may also ask one of the astronauts to break a sweat using a bungee bar-like exercise device. NASA officials recalled an incident where the space agency saw an array shaking and found the cause was astronaut Leroy Chiao working the device hard in his squats and lifts.
The attempt didn’t succeed though; Vigorous exercise unable to jiggle solar array into cooperating:
German astronaut Thomas Reiter of the European Space Agency was told to do 30 seconds of robust exercise on a bungee-bar machine in an attempt to vibrate wires on the 115-foot solar array and prevent an unplanned, fourth spacewalk.
Mr. Reiter tried several times, but his exercise did not appear to change the solar array.
How do you exercise by lifting weights in weightlessness? Well, apart from the current set-up on ISS, scientists at Karolinska Institutet in Stockholm, Sweden, is developing the next generation of training equipment to be used - the Yoyo strength-training equipment.
Earlier this year the Swedish magazine which I work for (BODY Magazine) was asked to help recruit volunteers. One of the chosen was our magazines sales chief; Stefan Elfving. Here is a photo of his earning his volunteer fee on the machine:
More about the machine can be read at www.yoyotechnology.com. Also, here’s a two page article from the magazine Medical Science at Karolinska Institutet that explains the “Space Gym”: Space Gym - a health issue for astronauts (PDF, in English):
Stephen King looks at new ways to take off extra weight by:
“I hadn’t found a single diet that tried to scare people thin. Can you imagine? In a society that’s currently going bugwit about anthrax and North Korean missiles? Not one. And that’s just wrong. It was a short jump from there to what follows. Here, then, are the high points of what I call (modestly) the Terror Diet.”
I love the Demotivators® from Despair, Inc.. They capture my kind of humor:
More demotivation can be found at Caught at Work Productions - Demotivational Images. And if you were inspired (how?), you can make your own (de)motivational poster at flagrantdisregard, you need a digital picture and a something to say. You can put the output poster on the web, or even order a printed version via flickr.
Lifehacker had the original tip, and in the comment section Lactoso The Intolerant pointed to an image he made:
Jim Caple, a senior writer for ESPN.com, wrote a Page 2 column called “What we believe in“.
“A recent Harris poll determined that half of the American public believes Iraq had weapons of mass destruction even though the Pentagon and U.S. weapons inspectors strongly deny such claims. Should we be surprised by these survey results? Not really. Just consider the bizarre beliefs we stubbornly cling to in sports:
- We believe we can have six-pack abs with a 12-minute workout just three days a week.
- We believe Barry Bonds got so big by taking steroids, HGH and testosterone but our team’s players got big and strong by eating cans of spinach and working out more. Similarly, we believe all U.S. Olympians are clean but that all European and Chinese athletes are dirty.
- We believe that performance enhancers such as steroids and HGH will kill you but that performance enhancers that can cause four-hour erections, headaches and loss of vision are healthy.”
Since The Smoking Gun released the documents on july 13th, the story has subsequently been picked up by news outlets worldwide… ShortNews.com sums the case up:
“Mark DelCore, a former bodybuilder, is suing for the right to sunbathe nude with his rat terrier, Cheekies with him. His argument states that because he suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder he needs his dog with him.
While leaving a gym in lower Manhattan he was exposed to toxins from the World Trade Center and it caused a skin condition that sunbathing helps. The beach DelCore favors is a “clothing optional” one, yet only allows guide dogs on it.”
Elizabeth Rozner at The New York Times writes about the attention this story has been getting:
“Meanwhile, though, the extent of the news coverage this case has received suggests that there is more than an environmental or legal debate inspiring so much fascination and conversation. I can’t help feeling that titillation is the key. Plovers, dogs, they’re not the point. Most of the talk seems to keep returning to those key phrases about nudity and a public beach.
I’m willing to believe that sunshine offers therapeutic benefit for Mr. DelCore’s skin condition, and that his dog truly provides him with emotional support and comfort. Is it just that we don’t want him (or anyone) to walk around naked where we might see them?”
New York Daily News reports that the man has dropped the suit:
“Mark DelCore withdrew his legal action against the Fire Island National Seashore, citing his poor health.
“I do not possess the stamina or physical continuity necessary to continue this complaint,” he wrote in an Aug. 7 letter to Federal Judge Joseph Bianco of U.S. District Court in Central Islip, L.I.”
Ah, beer. The cause of and the solution to all of life’s problems. More at Radio Prags report “But is beer really good for you?“:
“A beer health spa has opened in the converted cellar of the Chodova family brewery in the Czech Republic. Believed to be the world’s first beer spa, treatments will include beer baths and beer massages alongside beer cosmetics.
The cellar boasts seven large Victorian baths where visitors can immerse themselves in a warm bath mixture of mineral water and dark bathing beer enriched by active beer yeast and a mix of dry, crushed herbs, including hops. They can also enjoy a pint of beer while using the baths.”
An AP news item from Japan caught my eye - sumo and fitness in the same sentence isn’t that usual…
“Exercise videos typically feature svelte, muscular models. But Japan’s latest fitness program sports a figure known more for girth than grace: the sumo wrestler.
“Sumo Health Exercises,” released by the Japan Sumo Association this month, contains 12 sets of stretches, squats and splits demonstrated by professional wrestlers.”
This should make dieting much easier. If you have a taste for food after reading this, you are stone cold! Blogger Lou Minatti asks “You want some human hair with your eggroll?“:
“A team of journalists from the state-run China Central Television (CCTV) investigated the production of the Hongshuai Soy Sauce. The Chinese journalists went to the food seasoning manufacturer in Hubei province. They pretended to be buyers and enquired about the soy sauce ingredients. The source was human hair. But wait, it gets better.
“Because the human hair was gathered from salons, barbershops and hospitals around the country, it was unhygienic and mixed with condoms, used hospital cottons, used menstrual cycle pads, used syringes, etc. After being filtered by the workers, the hair would then be cut small for processing into amino acid syrup.”
The original report can be found in The Internet Journal of Toxicology:
“The reason for the food seasoning manufacturer using human hair to generate amino acid syrup for making soy sauce is economic. Human hair is cheap and rich in protein content, similar to soybean, wheat and bran, which gives the soy sauce its characteristic favour.”
Museum of Hoaxes has another view:
“But what the article doesn’t mention, but which I believe to be true, is that soy sauce isn’t the only food product made out of this cheap hair-made amino acid powder. The stuff is also sold in large quantities to the bakery industry which uses it as a source of L-cysteine to make dough softer and more elastic. Think about that next time you’re chewing on a bagel.”
The blog Medgadget writes about a diving suit, vacuum, and exercise on a treadmill. Sounds like a dream I once had…
“Apparently the Vacunaut works on the theory of hypoxic training which says that difficult fat deposits have decreased blood flow and are therefore less likely to be utilized by the body.
Never mind the fact that exercise increases blood flow or that ‘hypoxic training’ traditionally refers to high altitude induced erythropoiesis, not weight loss. Color me suspicious.”
From the Vacunaut section of the Southwest Hypoxitraining Centre website:
“Vacunaut treatment involves exercising on a treadmill whilst wearing a specially adapted diving suit which places your abdomen in a computer controlled vacuum.”
GreatInventions.tv (a spin-off on MailOrderHusbands.net) has many fake products on their site, such as Stoltz Revolution Razor, Magic Wand Home Tattoo Removal System, and Holistic Harmony Belt. A funny spoof of supplement ads is DeCarbolito (Ingredients: Boldenone Undecyclenate (horse steroid), Acetyl-CoA Carboxylase (hummingbird enzyme))! Just read these warnings:
- Users of DeCarbolito should drink 18 to 20 glasses of water a day to avoid kidney infection.
- Use of DeCarbolito may cause gastro-intestinal discomfort, such as diverticulitis.
- DeCarbolito may cause breath to smell like oysters for up to two hours after ingesting.
- DeCarbolito may cause breasts to grow in males between ages 18 and 49.
- Use of DeCarbolito may cause nose hair to grow at an accelerated rate.
- DeCarbolito may cause voices to lower in females by up to three octaves.
- DeCarbolito may cause people to experience a fear of widths.
- DeCarbolito may cause an extra four to six molars to grow in some cases.
- Avoid taking DeCarbolito within seven days of any medical exam.
The blog Think Progress reports:
“Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger will play a game of table tennis with an 80-year old pingpong champion “who said he would only donate to the governor’s re-election campaign if he agreed to a match,” the AP reports. “The odds appear to be stacked against the governor.””
Even more bacground from The Record in an article called “Arnold vs. the Pong-inator“:
“Schwarzenegger may have made his fortune as a champion bodybuilder, but he’ll need whatever speed his 59-year-old muscles can muster when he faces Lodi resident Byng Forsberg. Forsberg is no ordinary octogenarian: He’s won just about every table tennis trophy available to the senior set.
His first competitive match was in 1950, and he’s played - and won - ever since.
After he retired at age 70, Forsberg branched out into track and field, in-line skating, cross-country skiing, snowshoe racing, even a little weightlifting. A hip replacement ended most of those endeavors, but not pingpong.”
Once again the band OK Go uses viral marketing to get their music spread. Previous they made a video of the band members dancing syncronized in a backyard to their song “A Million Ways”. They are back, and this time they’re dancing on treadmills! More on the video at spin.com. If you like the video, the band asks you to vote on them on VH1’s Top 20 Countdown.
The gymrat (aka Magnus Branzén) works for THE Swedish bodybuilding and fitness magazine. This blog will feature some of the many news items I come across - from my perspective. Most of them should be useful for weight training athletes. Or at least good for a laugh.
Contact me at magnus@body.se.
A small blurb for BODY: “The magazine BODY, formerly B&K Sports Magazine, has written about and developed Bodybuilding and the fitness industry in Sweden since 1981.”
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