One of my favorite hip hop artists and loyal Urban Active member, Young Jeezy said, “I can sleep when I die.” This use to be my motto. I believed that there were more important things in life besides rest, recovery and sleep. To me it was a waste of time. Now that I am much wiser individual, I see the value of allowing our bodies to recover from life and from exercise. The human body is an amazing machine and with every machine, you have to charge the batteries to make it work.
One of my favorite quotes is by acclaimed fitness pro Mark Vertegen, “Work plus rest equals success.” The value of prepping our bodies for movement and helping them recover from a workout is vast. Our minds, body and soul are already stressed due to work and life but what happens when we add even more stress to through working out? Make no mistake about, exercise is stress and your body cannot tell the difference between physical stress, mental stress or emotional stress. Once it feels a stressor a hormone called cortisol is released from the adrenal glands and sympathetic nervous system (fight or flight) will become overloaded.
Imagine an intense workout from a stressful day at work. Your body would be in influx, unable to recover. Without rest there is no adaptation and there is no attainment of fitness goals. “So what do we do Dr. Bowen?” I never thought you would ask. What I teach my trainers is to warm the body properly and specifically. If you are going to work lower body, we must prepare for the movements through dynamic stretching and increase structural integrity and hydration of the tissues through foam rolling techniques. These applications allow for greater range of motion and a decrease in injury possibility. After workout we must allow the body to recover so post workout we use foam rolling and dynamic stretching to flush the toxins out of the body. High intensity exercise followed by low intensity movement recovery allows for toxins to flush out and be used as a potential energy source. We also encourage that “off days” that our clients are doing movement recovery through yoga, stretching and SMR techniques. This allows us to recover faster from intense exercise and increase the likelihood of results.
Read the rest of… Josh Bowen: Rest is for the Weary? Not So Fast…
By John Y. Brown III, on Wed Sep 26, 2012 at 12:00 PM ET
Idea for bookstores to save the world.
Yesterday in Barnes & Noble book store I browsed three different sections.
Politics section. It seemed like every book title was about blaming somebody or some group or some thing for all of our problems.
Self-help section. All the titles seemed in this section seemed to be about taking responsibility for yourself and not blaming others and making the most of your life.
Humor section. Just fun and frivolous titles that make a mockery of our day-to-day world and help lighten my day and restore my perspective.
So, here’s my big idea to save the world.
Take the Self-help books and place them in the Political section. That way we will help end the blame game and start thinking about what we each can do to make things better.
Take all the books in the Humor section and place them in the Self-Help section. Frankly, having a good laugh or two each day is better than buying and reading an entire new book we won’t act on anyway.
And, finally, place all the books from the Political section in the Humor Section. Those books will then be properly categorized and are frankly a lot funnier than most the books in that section anyway when you take them at face value. And they will stop being confused for books that teach or inform us—and finally serve some useful purpose.
In its four years of re-setting American policy in the Middle East, the Obama Administration has made the following choices: it remained mostly silent when the 2009 Iranian elections seemed to momentarily destabilize the Ahmadinejaid regime; it pointedly called for a reconfiguring of Israeli borders with the tenuous pre-1967 lines as the starting point for negotiation; it has embraced the popular uprisings in Tunisia, Egypt, and Libya without expressing major reservations about the radical, even Al Qaeda based elements on the edges of the upheaval; it has not coupled foreign aid to the emergent regimes to a softening of internal policies that suppress religious minorities; and the White House has visibly tamped down momentum for Israeli action against Iran’s nuclear aspirations.
To President Obama’s allies, this is the carefully calibrated record of a government bent on shoring up American popularity in the Arab world. To critics, it is a muddled, ad hoc realignment of American interests. I lean toward the second perspective. But even the defenders of Obama diplomacy are hard-pressed to deny the obvious: the strategy seems to have yielded far from enough dividends within either the Arab street or its ruling classes in the wake of last week’s violence. And any results have ranged from ephemeral gains (a slight diminution of anti-Americanism and a rhetorical affinity for democracy, both of which have come undone under the recognition that American democracy is not empowered or inclined to censor the Internet) to the outright counter-productive (the appearance of an American/Israeli wedge has isolated Israel’s hawks on the global stage, which must embolden Iran’s conceit that it can militarize its nuclear capacity while the West debates).
Read the rest of… Artur Davis: Obama’s Middle East
Last night, The RP was a featured panelist for the semiannual Worldview Forum at Malone University in Canton, Ohio. The Forum is an academic program that brings in expert proponents to argue for different perspectives on topics that are important for the community.
Last night’s topic was Persuasion or Propaganda? The Effects of Public Relations on Elections, featuring The RP and Ben Porritt, a former senior aide to the McCain/Palin campaign and an official in the Bush White House. The RP focused a great deal of his remarks on the solution to our political mess — No Labels, the grassroots movement he co-founded, and now involves more than 500,000 Democrats, Republicans, and Independents who believe that we need to set aside our labels on occasion and do what’s right for the country.
Additionally, it is very clear from his answers that The RP’s ultimate career goal is standup comedy.
Tune in below to the conversation. And if you are ever in Canton, Ohio, be sure to look up the Hambleton House Bed & Breakfast — wonderful accommodations and hospitality, and the best pumpkin pancakes you will ever eat.
By Lauren Mayer, on Tue Sep 25, 2012 at 1:30 PM ET
There have been so many moments in this election cycle that I hope my kids will remember, and tell my (as-yet-unborn-but-my-kids-had-better-provide) grandkids someday – Herman Cain’s speech quoting the Pokemon movie, Joe Biden’s prematurely spilling the beans about gay marriage, Clint Eastwood claiming an empty chair was swearing at him – I could go on & on.
But no one has provided more of those moments than Mr. Romney – in fact, his missteps and ‘oops’ moments are the stuff of legend, the type of epic ballads that Johnny Cash might once have song. (So this week I’m morphing from the old southern blues singer of last week to a Jewish-mother-version of ‘the Man in Black’)
By John Y. Brown III, on Tue Sep 25, 2012 at 12:00 PM ET
The first of three presidential debates occurs in about a week—three historic debates that will likely determine who will be a next president and which direction our country will take.
Many pundits are looking for clues from the 2008 debates to try to predict who will win and why.
But I am taking a different tack.
I think what Election 2012 really comes down to is whether you were more of fan of Donny Osmond and the Osmond Brothers, or a fan of Michael Jackson and the Jackson 5.
And I have found some historic footage that may be the best preview available of what we can expect when Mitt Romney and Barack Obama take the stage together next week.
And near the end of the video clip they even give a sense of what it will be like to appear with their running mates.
Which returns us to the most important question at hand. Are you more of a Michael or a Donny kind of voter?
Sure, both have music with a good beat, and you can dance to it. But in November, when we enter that voting booth all by ourselves, we can only choose one.
By Nancy Slotnick, on Tue Sep 25, 2012 at 8:30 AM ET
Some of you are too young to be Billy Joel fans. I’m just young enough to admit it, and yet old enough to see it as retro chic. Regardless of the complexity of my Billy Joel fan status, I had to bring him up today because his song Vienna keeps ringing in my head. So it must mean something, despite the fact that I don’t want to recommend you take relationship advice from Billy Joel. But his poetry is another matter entirely.
Vienna waits for you. I’ve never been to Vienna, but I think I know what he means. What is your Vienna? I’m asking myself this lately. What is that dream of yours that you might be missing because you’re “so ahead of yourself that you forgot what you need”? Slow down you crazy child! It’s so weird- we have to slow down so we can speed up our dreams? Hard to understand but it’s true. You can get what you want or you can just get old.
In 2006 I wrote a book entitled Turn Your Cablight On: Get your Dream Man in 6 Months or Less. What does Dream Man mean for you? Can he still be the man of your dreams once he’s a reality? You know how they say—Be careful what you wish for, because you might get it. Once you get it, it’s hard to remember how to appreciate it.
In 1996 when I was single and about to open my dating-café, Drip, I chose an architect for the project who was also a college classmate of mine. We’ll call her Amanda, because that’s her name. I won’t say her last name, because this story could be a little embarrassing but it’s totally flattering. So I’m walking with Amanda and she realizes she has to go to her apartment to get some architectural plans. She invites me up to her apartment, but stops first for some instruction: “When we go up to my apartment, you’re probably going to meet my husband. So, I have to warn you, he’s a babe.” Well, I have heard a lot of things in my life, but that one was without a doubt the coolest thing I had ever heard anyone say. Still is. I really don’t even know why she felt the need to say it but it was so cute. (And, yes, he is a babe.)
Read the rest of… Nancy Slotnick: Vienna Waits for You
By Zack Adams, RP Staff, on Mon Sep 24, 2012 at 3:00 PM ET
The Politics of Pigskin
The big news of the day is that the Jets’ star CB Darrelle Revis is out for the season with a torn ACL. It’s a tough break after the Jets barely eeked out a win over the poorly Dolphins. [ESPN]
An interesting tidbit is that Week 3 marked the first time ever that Tom Brady, Peyton Manning, Drew Brees and BenRoethlisberger all lost in the same week. [Twitter]
More replacement ref wackiness this week as the referee leading the team that worked the 49ers-Vikings game admitted that he didn’t know the rules relating to coach’s challenges. His admission came after scrutiny when he awarded 49ers coach Jim Harbaugh two challenges after he had used all of his timeouts. [PFT]
Raven’s LB Brendon Ayanbadejo was less than subtle regarding the replacement refs on Twitter after the Ravens beat the Patriots Sunday night. [Twitter]
Peter King adds a little legitimacy to Ayanbadejo’s argument and offers his assessment of the referee situation. [SI]
If anyone had any questions regarding the importance of a head coach in the NFL or regarding the potency of of the NFL’s penalties against the Saints they should refer to this fact: “Not only are the Saints 0-3, but the teams that have beat them are 0-6 against everyone else.” [Twitter]
Finally here is your RP Bowl update after two weeks.
This year’s biggest YouTube obsession — earning the recent Zeitgeist-confirming attention of Saturday Night Live — is the South Korean pop sensation “Gangnam Style,” a truly phenomenal phenomenon for those of us who are vocally and lyrically challenged, and for those of us whose best dance move is imitating a jerky horse ride. If you’ve been living under a virtual rock, here are your five minutes of infamy:
Of course, YouTube is besieged with parody versions. Our favorite is “Jewish Style”. To rock in the new year South Korean style, enjoy it here (a bit NSFW):
One of my favorite hip hop artists and loyal Urban Active member, Young Jeezy said, “I can sleep when I die.” This use to be my motto. I believed that there were more important things in life besides rest, recovery and sleep. To me it was a waste of time. Now that I am much wiser individual, I see the value of allowing our bodies to recover from life and from exercise. The human body is an amazing machine and with every machine, you have to charge the batteries to make it work.
