Rucking vs Vests
• I have written a lot about weighted walking or rucking. Michael Easter wrote an informative post on Vests vs Backpacks. TL;DR – backpacks might be safer and of course cheaper because most of us have one laying around.
• A new study went into more depth on this topic, equiping people (of various sizes) with backpacks or vests and having them walk on a treadmill. Alex Hutchinson wrote an articule summarizing the research (he posted a calorie estimator in the past on the same website).
• The main take home points: 1) weight on your back clearly burns more calories than weight distributed to front and back, and 2) you can use their calculator to determine how many calories you burn.
Anxious Generation
• I have mentioned author and psychology professor Jonathan Haidt on several newsletters. This post from September 2018, included the “Great Untruths” that Haidt and coauthor Greg Lukianoff described in their book Coddling of the American Mind: 1. What doesn’t kill you makes you weaker 2. Always trust your feelings 3. Life is a battle between good people and bad people.
• Haidt’s newest book builds on the goal of Coddling, how to have mentally healthier kids. In The Anxious Generation, Haidt summarizes the unequivocal research on the mental health crisis in Gen Z. The book’s website (https://www.anxiousgeneration.com/) offers numerous materials: research, resources, multiple Google docs, every figure and schematic from the book.
• Haidt has appeared on many podcasts and other media. This episode on Rich Roll was excellent. He distilled his message into Four Rules for healthier kids:
1. No smart phones before high school.
2. No social media before 16 years old.
3. No phones at school.
4. More independence, free play and responsibility in the real world.
Kettlebells
• Some people swear by kettlebells. Other people use them as doorstops (they do work). Instructional articles tend to present a bunch of complex movements and different exercises, making kettlebell workouts technically challenging.
• Trainer Dan John wrote this article about the 10,000 Kettlebell swing challenge. One month, 20 workouts (2 days on, 1 day off), 500 swings per workout. Adds up to a total of 10,000 swings.
• He recommends one lifting movement in between kettlebells sets, but you can do the challenge without any other exercises. One piece of equipment, one movement, no fancy protocols. You just have to be able to count. Try it.
Dogs
• Dogs are awesome athletes. Especially when running in the arctic and not in 95 degree Louisville heat.
• Sled dogs have higher VO2max (fitness level measured in mL/kg/min) than most mammals (standard lab mice roll at 140, pronghorn antelopes fall somewhere 200-300, and blind shrews reach 400 due to such small body size). No human has ever exceeded 100 (Lance Armstrong’s highest was about 85).
• In cold temperatures, sled dogs can run a 4 minute mile, for 100 miles!
• Dialetheism (from Greek di- ‘twice’ and alḗtheia ‘truth’) is the view that there are statements that are both true and false. More precisely, it is the belief that there can be a true statement whose negation is also true. Such statements are called “true contradictions”, dialetheia, or nondualisms. Sometimes the world is more “both/and” than “either/or.”
• Reminds me of this quote from Niels Bohr in a past newsletter:
“The opposite of a fact is falsehood, but the opposite of one profound truth may very well be another profound truth.”
Quotes
A 12-year-old aspiring composer once asked Mozart, “How do I write a symphony?” Mozart replied, “Go to music college, study the works of great composers, start by writing simpler compositions, and eventually you will write a symphony.” The boy says, “But you were writing symphonies at the age of 10.” “Yes,” Mozart replied, “but I wasn’t running around asking people how to write symphonies.”
In this early phase there are many children who earnestly seek for some meaning in life that could help them to deal with the chaos both within and outside themselves. There are others, however, who are still unconsciously carried along by the dynamism of inherited and instinctive archetypal patterns. These young people are not concerned about the deeper meaning of life, because their experiences with love, nature, sport, and work contain an immediate and satisfying meaning for them. They are not necessarily more superficial; usually they are carried by the stream of life with less friction and disturbance than their more introspective fellows.
Carl Jung, Man and His Symbols
