Harvard's Women Only Gym Hours: Fair or Unfair?
curves, wacky finds
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This story dates back to March, but did anyone else hear about Harvard segregating its gym in order to comply with famale Muslim demands?
Apparently, several months ago, the Harvard Athletic Department reacted to requests from Muslim female students to create a female-only environment so that they may workout while still abiding by their religious rules. They feel uncomfortable wearing workout clothes around men, and therefore, they claim, have missed out on hitting the gym.
The solution... The Quadrangle Recreational Athletic Center has restricted, female-only hours from 8am to 10am on Tuesdays and Thursdays, and from 3pm to 5pm on Mondays.
Ola Aljawhary - a student at Harvard - said the women only gym is a necessity.
"These hours are necessary because there is a segment of the Harvard female population that is not found in gyms, not because they don't want to work out, but because for them working out in a co-ed gym is uncomfortable, awkward or problematic in some way," she told Boston University's Daily Free Press.
My Thoughts:
It's important to respect others' religions - to an extent. The simple fact is that everyone attending Harvard is paying money which goes toward the gym. It's not fair that men are restricted from using it at certain hours. Suppose someone has a religious believe that doors are evil? Would all doors have to be removed during certain hours of the day?
Harvard, and all universities, should put forth a legitimate effort to accommodate everyone's religion - but if religious beliefs restrict you from using a gym which allows both sexes, then maybe a gym which is PUBLIC to all students is not for you.
If the women are that intense about those religious beliefs, then they can join the local Curves near Harvard.
What does everyone else think?
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on 6/24/2008
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13.7
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Stay Slim to Fly: Airlines Charging Extra for Overweight Flyers
obesity epidemic, wacky finds
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Could you be charged extra to fly based on your weight?
With the rising price of fuel, airlines are making all sorts of moves to cut costs and snatch extra money from their customers. Simple math and common sense shows that a heavy person costs more to transport than an Olson Twin, which has airlines discussing a fat surcharge.
Airlines are now discussing the incorporation of surcharges based on weight. While luggage has always had weight limits, people have not – but that might be changing.
An airline spokesman stated that they average a person and their luggage to weigh 220 Lbs. That is how they crunch their numbers to project profit. Most likely, that will be the magic number used to determine whether your paying standard or extra to fly.
I’ve heard two arguments to this new idea:
The first argument is obvious – Overweight individuals are outraged that there are plans in the works to discriminate and charge extra for being large. I’ve heard some say they wouldn’t fly due to embarrassment, and others claimed they would purposely fly just to sue them for discrimination.
Then there are those consumers that somewhat like the idea. These proponents of the idea claim that the airlines will be raising prices in some way, and it would only be fair to base it on weight. If shipping a package is based on weight, why isn’t it the same to ship a person? If you were shipping a 3 lbs package, how would you feel if you were paying the same price as someone shipping a 20 lbs package?
My Opinion
I am one of those people who can almost always see both side of an argument. I could see where it would be very embarrassing to travel with friends and have to explain how you’re being charged extra because of your weight.
Meanwhile, the "delivering a package" example really makes you wonder if that shouldn’t apply to shipping people as well. In that respect, is it actually discriminati... read entire entry
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on 6/5/2008
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29.5
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Resistance Training and Pain Killers - Could this Mix Help You Bulk Up?
pain killers, wacky finds, ibuprofen, muscle mass, resistance training
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A new study shows that taking pain killers with resistance training can help you build muscle.
The study was performed over 12 weeks with all elderly subjects, so it may not have much effect on younger people (but they have not ruled that out). Each person was either given a ibuprofen, acetaminophen, or a placebo and worked out 3 times a week.
"We used 1200 milligrams a day for ibuprofen and 4000 milligrams per day of acetaminophen, which is the maximum over-the-counter daily dose," Dr. Trappe explained told Reuters.
He also stated that subjects taking ibuprofen experienced 40 to 60 percent more growth than those taking the placebo. The scientists were shocked by the results because they had expected the opposite, negative reaction from the pain killers.
Should we take pain killers before we workout?
If you're older than 60, I'd say definitely give it a try. The study showed big time improvement from taking pain killers before resistance training. If you're younger than that, you might want to try it, but they haven't proven any increase in muscle size with younger adults.
I'd use caution when taking too many substances which can damage the liver. I assume most serious bodybuilders are already hopped up on 50 different supplements before hitting the gym.
Here's more info about pain killers affecting muscle growth.
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on 5/27/2008
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19.1
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Antioxidants May Decrease Longevity
health watch, wacky finds, vitamins, nutrition, antioxidants
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A new study argues that vitamin supplementation does not increase life expectancy. In fact, the study shows that you may be more likely to suffer premature death as a result of vitamin supplementation.
The study, conducted by Cochrane Collaboration, was based on 47 trials with over 180,000 people. According to the study, "antioxidant supplements significantly increased mortality". They specifically picked out Vitamin A, Vitamin E, and beta-carotene as making you more likely to die before your scheduled trip to the afterworld.
Apparently, Vitamin A was linked to 16% increased risk of dying, Vitamin E increased risk by 4%, and beta-carotene increased risk by 7%. Vitamin C and selenium showed no risk, but also showed no benefit in longevity.
Since these vitamins are commonly referred to as "antioxidants" - research has suggested these chemicals underlie some of the beneficial effects of eating fruit and vegetables because they soak up harmful byproducts of metabolism which can damage cells and cause aging.
While the evidence of a beneficial effect of a diet rich in fruit and veg is solid, the Cochrane data suggest antioxidant supplements are either useless or detrimental.
What they seem to suggest is that anti-oxidant supplementation has byproducts which cause you to age faster. So it may cause you to look older, sooner, and possibly die... sooner.
I have to say that I'm somewhat skeptical about this. People seem to be able to prove anything with a study, and once you say the word "death" everyone seems to give it more than a glance. This could be a case of scientists trying to get some shine with an attention grabbing study.
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on 4/20/2008
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11.7
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ProAna sites: Health Support with Bizarre Twist
wacky finds, health watch
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Despite researching health and fitness thoroughly, when a girl mentioned that I should try to pull some girls away from proana sites and get them to join FitConnect. “They need some serious help, they’d probably like FitConnect.” Serious help? What are you talking about?
“They’re support sites for weight loss, you should advertise on them”
Well that makes sense, we’re always trying to get more weight loss oriented individuals to our site, but I was confused why she first made it seem almost like a rescue operation. She told me to just google it and I’ll find out.
So after googling for a few minutes I soon realized that Pro-Ana is slang for Pro-Anorexia – the sites are forums and blogs where anorexics (mostly female) post extreme weight loss tips, moral (or, immoral) support, and write rants of frustration. Commonly I came across message boards stating “I gained 5 lbs back and I hate myself.”
I also found many proanas that claimed, “I barely ate anything all week and I’m down 5 lbs.” And along with posts like this, the girls would post their mood as being happy. Then reading on I would find posts from the same girls at a later date stating, “I binge ate a lot today and I’ve gained 10 lbs this week”. No surprise - the mood here was quite unhappy.
So what now for our little friend who just put on 10 lbs and probably thinks she looks like a whale? She’ll probably double her non-eating efforts this week and cut her typical dinner of 2 rice cakes down to merely 1 rice cake. And half way through she might get an extra burst of motivation (from her friends on proana sites) and throw the 2nd half of her rice cake in the trash.
Doesn’t sound very healthy does it? Well, it’s not. Binge dieting – and the proana sites that support it, are not healthy and are very controversial. There are many people and organizations that are trying to get these sites shut down because of their immoral nature. Some hav... read entire entry
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on 3/24/2008
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48.5
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Dr Jarvik Exposed as not being so Doctorish
wacky finds
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I’m sure you’re all familiar with Dr. Jarvik, the creator of the artificial heart. He’s the guy on all of Pfizer’s Lipitor commercials blabbing about how he invented the artificial heart and then he goes off running with his son or he rows a boat down a river… Or does he?
Pfizer is now under intense scrutiny by the media and the U.S. Congress because they actually used a Stunt Double to perform the boat rowing scene in the commercial that we’re all familiar with that boasts the health benefits of taking Lipitor. Dr. Jarvik, who portrays himself on the commercial as being just a step or two away from competing in the X Games on ESPN, didn’t even have the energy to row a boat for a few seconds during a commercial.
Speaking of DOCTOR Jarvik… He is not licensed, or qualified, to practice medicine in any of the US States. Here’s a blurb from the WSJ Health Blog regarding Jarvik’s qualifications.
“NBC's science guru Robert Bazell wrote last year that while Jarvik is an M.D., he doesn't have "the strongest credentials." His grades as an undergrad at Syracuse University weren't good enough for U.S. med school, so he attended the University of Bologna in Italy, leaving after two years. In 1976, Jarvik graduated from the University of Utah's med school, but he never did an internship or practiced medicine, Bazell wrote.”
Personally, this does't have any affect on my life because I am not in the market for medicines like Lipitor. But I just think it’s funny how almost everything out there is a marketing game. I see his commercials all of the time, so finding out this bit of information made me chuckle.
WSJ Health Blog
http://blogs.wsj.com/health/2008/01/07/
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on 2/8/2008
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5.9
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