Question number 52 in our Scandinavian.fitness School.
Health & fitness is created, and maintained together. Feeding each other in this lifelong symbiosis no matter if we talk about our muscles, heart health, cellular health, biological age, skeletal muscle mass, joint health, and bone mass, hormonal functions, cardiovascular health, body fat levels, gut health, or our brains.
It´s one intricate cause and consequence system, where each individual aspect affect and in turn, get affected by all of the others in various degrees. All of which, in turn, is shaped through our daily choices. Our surroundings, the type of food we eat, it´s nutrients and the amount of it. Environmental pollution, physical activity, sleep, relations, job, society, stress, et cetera.

All combined, this is what determines the trajectory of our health and our fitness.


And the menstrual cycle is, of course, no exception to this at all.
It´s impact on the female body and our highly influental hormonal system is in fact, very big. And as such it is a highly relevant topic for any female that is aspiring to live a fact based healthy life. But which hormones get affected the most during the menstrual cycle?. And how might stress tie into it?. If at all.

Read on beyond the break for fitness school question number 52.

Question number 51 in our Scandinavian.fitness School.
Real Fitness progression requires, as well as creates injury free progression in health, especially, long term speaking.
Likewise, making healthy food choices is just as important for health as it is for our fitness progression.

But is healthy food habits really just about the nutrition our food constitutes and the health & fitness impact that nutrition carries with it?

Some will say that this is all there is to our food choices, and plenty of good nutritional coaches do treat food and nutrition just like that. And that is an ok choice to do. Ok, but also lackluster in its view on the scientific ecosystem that is food and health, people and planet. Yes, as a personal trainer, and nutritional coach and Styrka Master coach mysef, I can not agree at all with that narrow, and incomplete view on health, nutrition and fitness.

You see, eating healthy food is a staple in our personal fitness, and health, that is a given.
The nutritional make up of our food choices is a major pillar in human health and fitness, just as important as the amount of food which we are consuming. But a truly healthy fit life also account for the scientific impact of our choices on our planets health.



After all, if our personal food and lifestyle choices contribute to breaking the health of our entire planet, then we are unavoidably going to harm the health of ourselves since a healthy, sustainable society and planet is essential to the life long health and fitness progression of us all. As individuals, and a society.


Hence todays question pitting good ol potatoes vs rice and the amount of water, and climate, and planetary impact these 2 healthy food staples causes. And just why 'small' stuff like this should matter to you.


So read on beyond the break for the complete question and the correct answer.

Question number 50 in our Scandinavian.fitness School here at 'a Norse View'.
An abundance of body fat sadly does not help with many health and fitness metrics in life.
But, how about Corona?

Will bigger levels of body fat lower your risk of dying from Corona, or will it increase you health risk?

Well, we can, of course not, scientifically deduct every little thing and parameter with 100% certainty when it comes down to Covid-19 right now. It is still a situation that is to fresh and ever changing to conclude some things with clear and certain data.
We can however start to see some trajectories emerging when it comes down to higher body fat levels and Corona.


So read on beyond the break and let us take a look at corona and the correlation with body fat levels.

Question number 49 in our Scandinavian.fitness School here at 'a Norse View'.
Physical activity & fitness exercise of various levels, intensity, and volume improve many aspects of our human health. Including a highly beneficial effect on musculoskeletal health no matter gender or age.
Other factors include improving our metabolic and cognitive health & functions.

As a result, regular life long fitness.....
Reduces the risk of cardiovascular diseases.. Diabetes, and several types of cancer.






Greatly reduced osteoporosis as well as depression and improved volume and capacity of our physical gray matter mass, are other areas of our life long health that benefit substantially from daily physical activity and regular fitness.
But, will intense regular fitness exercise also reduce inflammation throughout our bodies?....
Because if so, that would provide huge health benefits all by itself. Simply put, less inflammation in our bodies reduces heart health risk and the onset of cognitive decline and biological aging amongst other things.


So read on beyond the break and let us take a look at how intense fitness might reduce inflammation too.

Question number 48 in Scandinavian.fitness School of Fitness here at 'a Norse View'.
Most of the time our fitness school questions revolve around the scientific impact of your fitness and or food choices.
But every now and then we dip our toes into the wider ecosystem of things that carry with them a huge impact on our individual health, such as air pollution. Because a truly healthy life has to consider all aspects of our lifestyles.
One area of "air pollution" is smoking. Not only do non smokers hurt their health due to others unhealthy smoking habits. But the smokers themselves harm their own health in even greater strides.






So much so that Tobacco smoking is perhaps the biggest single influencer on a human beings mutational burden, usually adding anywhere between 1,000 to 10,000 mutations per cell inside of the human body. In the end, being a major driver of various cancer forms and fatally damaged lungs. But, the human body is amazing at recovering from almost all forms of injuries and health issues once we start making healthier choices a regular thing.







And now, a brand new 2020 study is shining light on just how well a typical smokers damaged lungs will recover once that smoker chooses to stop their unhealthy smoking habits.


So read on beyond the break and let us dig deeper into the health impact of smoking and just how good our human lungs might recover once a person decides to end their self harming habit.

Question number 47 in our School of Fitness.
Interestingly enough we actually uncover new scientific facts about the human body every single day.
Things we thought we knew sometimes become nothing more than the incorrect truth of yesterday. All while we continually prove that life and nature, and biology itself is endlessly progressive and changing.
So for today, I would like to know if we can still make the fact-based claim that the core temperature of the modern-day human body is still 37c on average?...
Or has this well established scientific fact actually changed in the last 100 years?.


Read on beyond the break and dig deeper into our fitness school question before you pony up the right answer.

So let us get it out of the way right away.
Poor food choices remain a leading worldwide cause of mortality and bad health. But, poor food choices doesn't just harm our own health and longevity, bad food choices and the production that is needed to create the lackluster food that so many bases their entire food life on causes huge, unnecessary environmental degradation as well.

So much so that the much needed (read essential to do) UN’s Sustainable Development Goals and the Paris Climate Agreement is virtually impossible to fulfill unless we, as a global species make the switch to healthier, plant-based food choices.
This article will display how different food groups directly connect 5 health outcomes and 5 aspects of environmental degradation with each other.

Question number 46 in our School of Fitness.
Is it true that visceral adipose mass is associated with increased risk of hypertension, heart attack/angina, type 2 diabetes, and hyperlipidemia?.
And just exactly what is visceral adipose mass?


Read on beyond the break and dig deeper into our fitness school question before you pony up the right answer.

Question number 45 in our School of Fitness.
Most people know by now that healthy fit choices in the gym and the forest trail, at home and in daily life are nothing but a ticket towards increased health and life span, in body and mind.
But, the health of our biological system is made up of near-endless processes and aspects. And that certainly applies to the state of our brain. Hence today's focus on our brains hippocampal capacity and health.


Read on beyond the break and dig deep down in our fitness school question.

Each of us is the mere sum of our unique life choices, our thoughts, and way.
Be it in person, or through the way we shape life around us. This uniqueness is evident even in our own persona, our style and life choices that takes place on this endless every day path that we call life.It is as such, ever-present in the way we build and shape the castle and life which we call our home.
You can feel and see it, in the choices of your clothes, and other peoples fitness regime.
It is persistent through our art choices and the way we train and live our very own healthy fit life.




It is forever present inside our deeply individual thoughts, and it is perpetually stamped in the essence of our unique nature. Read on beyond the break and step into our lifestyle store where you can buy clothes and fine art and other lifestyle products, with art, design and photography by M & M.

Question number 44 in our School of Fitness.
Time for a short and sweet little one.
As stated in the subject line, lean muscle mass has another weight/density ratio than fat, so a body mass that is made up of more fat and less lean muscle mass will display a bigger mass at a lower body weight, while a body that has a greater amount of lean muscle mass will actually have a higher body weight compared to what its body mass might make you believe.


Read on beyond the break and dwell deeper down into today's fitness school question.

Humlesafari, fladdermuslyssning, fjärilsbingo, krypletning och fågelvandring – den 22 maj uppmärksammas den internationella FN-dagen Biologiska mångfaldens dag med en mängd olika evenemang runt om i Sverige.

Den årligen återkommande bmf dagen är numera en av Sveriges största naturhögtider och 2019 arrangerar naturorganisationer, kommuner, skolor, myndigheter,företag och privatpersoner över 200 aktiviteter runt om i landet, från Kiruna i norr till Ystad i söder. Det görs både för att visa upp vår artrika natur och för att uppmärksamma en av vår tids stora ödesfrågor – den oroväckande snabba förlusten av biologisk mångfald.

I Höga Kusten arrangerar Mike från a Norse View och Scandinavian.fitness en dagstur ut i naturen där vi blandar naturfoto i en vacker insjömiljö och faktabaserat prat om kost, träning och hälsa.

At any point in time there is a history of past moments, both lived and never experienced which all lead up to and beyond the here and now.
Strings of time and lives stretching further out from this particular point in time as wilderness own roadside of multiplying pathways reaches out, leading perpetually forward and away into the branching future.

Question number 43 in our School of Fitness.
You already know that getting outside for your daily daylight shower is tremendously good for #VitaminD production and keeping your circadian clock healthy & primed.
But that is not all.


Getting out and about in daylight also boost your t cell capacity.

But what exactly does that mean?, read on beyond the break and dwell deeper down into today's fitness school question.

Question number 42 in our School of Fitness.
Fitness has been established in scientific studies in the last few years as a health-improving daily life painkiller.
Making it even better is the fact that it comes completely free of cost and nerve-wracking & time-consuming doctors appointment and unhealthy side-effects. Lowering pain and debilitating health issues such as arthritis while fortifying your lifespan and health.

But is that tremendous gratis painkiller effect applicable to menstrual pain too?.

Question number 41 in our School of Fitness.
Beneath the tasty, delicious joy and sexiness of a life built on plant-based food and fitness, the weights you lift, the miles you walk and run. The mountains you climb, and the sandbags you punch and kick there is not just a burning passion and increased life quality. Nor is it just a question of the enhanced health and joy you can touch and feel deep inside both body & mind.
No, there is also this marvelously progressive thing called science. Because all the physical fitness things, the sweat and healthy living discipline that others see are ultimately powered by the all-encompassing facts of biological life.

Sugar is a much beloved sweetener. Craved like a lovers touch by most biological beings that dare to ever look into the abyss and allow its tastebuds to grace this natural force of addiction.


But as much as all things living seemingly enjoy the taste of sugar and more modern artificial sweeteners. Scientifically speaking the bad health impact of sugar ( from obesity to diabetes and cancer risk, poor dental health and non existing nutritional value ) and other sweeteners have thankfully turned countless of humans into die hard "no sugar" please sentinels. So let us take a brief look at a brand new 2019 study and let us find out if this study too will add even more reasons to say no to sugar and other sweeteners in your food and beverages.

Question number 39 in our School of Fitness.
I have talked about telomeres in years past, and fitness too obviously :).
But such is the world of fitness, science, and health, it often revisits old "truths" and sometimes upends them because our knowledge has deepened, while new studies at other times will simply fortify and acknowledge what we already knew to be true.
So what will happen today as we travel back to the world of that peachy sounding telomeres thingy that keeps wiggling its cute little tail inside of us? Let us find out.
My Question:.
For this particular study, published in European Heart Journal, Nov 2018, we´ll uncover what happens to the length of our telomeres when we do long distance endurance training, high-intensity sprint intervals, nothing at all or lift weights in a so-so way in the gym ( yeah, color me unimpressed by the strength plan in this study, but hold on to that thought as you read on because I will get back to the fairly inadequate strength training and why that too matters. ).
The question, which option is the best for maintaining the length of our telomeres and what is the worst?.

Nothing fancy or big worded to say today, I am just drinking some tasty fresh black coffee while various death metal songs keep pumping through my livingroom gear.
Yes, what a glorious morning :).
But while I am enjoying my morning routine, getting ready for the gym and my own workouts as well as the health and fitness regimes of today's PT clients I am also reading up on science and sustainability from around the world. And one of the pieces that stand out is a tonally laid-back piece by Swedish outlet DN. They spent the better part of a month or so following Swedish sustainability advocate Greta as she continues her quest to bring much-needed awareness to the sad state of the world and the essential, deep-rooted changes we as a species and global civilization urgently need to undertake.

Question number 38 in our School of Fitness.
Time for a short one.
Obesity is no friend of the bettering of our health and longevity.
Just as how the old school act of serious bulking never did anyone's health and fitness levels any favors. And pointing this scientific reality out is not about fat shaming. It´s about helping the world and its individuals turn the tide toward better health, and better fitness. And doing so does not remove peoples individual right to pick whatever body size and fat percentage that they so prefer.
My Question:.
We already know that obesity ( and a fat powered high BMI ) increases unhealthy factors such as high blood pressure and high cholesterol. And it often increases depression, drowsiness and general sedentary choices. Which indirectly leads to worse health in numerous ways. But if a person with a high fat powered BMI is deemed healthy as far as those traditional markers are concerned is excess fat itself still bad?
Put in another way, will a higher amount of excess body fat still lead to worse health even if your bloodwork turns out ok and you do not feel depressed and drowsy and you do hit the gym?.

Question number 37 in our School of Fitness.
Yes, it is once again time for you to put your thinking cap on before you proceed without hesitation through the hallway of healthy fit wonders and science :).
You already know that keeping fit and lifting your weekly weights and doing your daily cardio is nothing but a rejuvenating choice. It's good for your strength, duh.. It is wondrously good for your harty heart health, and it aids your cognitive and creative processes. It scientifically speaking lowers depression and tardy drowsiness. And if you have been keeping up with me over the years, you also know that keeping fit on a regular weekly basis also lowers your physical age by quite a noticeable margin too.
But even small ordinary things like taking a daily walk carries with it a huge life long health and fitness impact.

My Question:.
What happens with our skeletal lean muscle mass for people above 70 years of age if they take a few thousand steps more or less per day for 2 weeks time?.
Read on to reveal just how big the impact of that tiny change can be below the break.

Question number 36 in our School of Fitness.
All forms of fitness activity is a tiny little pill of good health no matter who you are.
But is the simple act of lifting weights one to three days per week enough to substantially lower the risk of cardiovascular related mortality?.
Yup, that is how easy and straightforward question number 36 turned out to be. And why? Because we have a brand new study to lean back on when it comes down to the (obvious) answer.
Read on to reveal the complete Q and A below the break.

But before we head on over to the meaty real life data of our reckless modern day life, which the 2018 IPCC report painfully laid bare, walk with me as I step out on frosty cold northern shores for my morning walk.

Just a Thursday, spent on northern shores.
And this is the way I started this gorgeous little Autumn day.

Life itself is this majestic mirror world of brilliance and incompetence. Eternally merging and reflected, individually disengaged yet perfectly synchronized and attached to each other and everything else.

Like the leaf that finds itself stranded on the wayward peaks of a stormy ocean. They are each others counterpart, yet entirely different. Individual objects, entwined and interconnected. Disengaged and perfectly unique.

And today, there´s officially a full-blown Autumn song playing out there in nature. Gorgeous and sunny, on a Sunday =). Wind free, except for the tiniest of breeze that you can almost not see or feel as it slowly makes it way through the crown of leaves that towers above.

But it is, none the less, Autumn.
The colors of the trees reveal it. The pale blue September moon that hangs high up in the middle of the day is another telltale.

Fitness is as wonderful for your health as it is for landing you a more sculpted and capable body over time.
But that will never change that even fit people (quite a lot of them) are doing the right things for the wrong reasons. Case in point the fit and good looking girl you can see in the IG video I am linking to, she obviously trains hard and regular while being in great shape, and she does know quite a few things about the body and the science of staying healthy and fit.
Which is wonderful on all counts.
But like so many other gym goers she is seemingly misinformed about a few things too ( on the other hand, so are we all :P ). Allowing wrongful information and knowledge to shape her choices and the choices of other people that gulps up everything we fit people believe to be true. However, if you are willing to listen to it the beautiful science of health and fitness will guide you towards a better body and better health and better workouts if you pay attention to real fitness science instead of personal opinions. You see, there is nothing wrong with the exercises she is doing. But outside of the wonderful world of human anatomy, there is no such thing as an upper or lower butt muscle as far as your exterior appearance goes, nor is there a meaningful difference as far as your practical fitness capacity and workout goes.

Click through and let us talk about Gluteus Maximus, Medius and Minimus.

But what is it exactly? And why is something that sounds so cute something truly terrible that we need to take seriously as a global whole.
To most people, it is more than likely just another ridiculous phrase keyboard warriors throw around once a year while they too waste this world to the point of no return.
But this ever-moving yearly event day is anything but deadly essential.

Every year this day signals the point in that year where we have used up all the naturally replenishing resources of this planet.
And beyond this point, the planet is losing its inventory for the next year(s) ahead and it's capacity to restock.

Which if we are talking about corporations and business leaders is something that would cause pretty much every corporate leader out there to die from a heart attack if it persistently happened to their business. But when its Earth, people just shrug their mindless shoulders and look the other way as if the greenhouse we are subsisting in isn't the singular thing that feeds and house us all.

Right now, if you enter any given gym, the wonderful world of barbells will conjure up as many opinions as there are fitness girls on Instagram, no matter the subject.
And plenty of opinions are exactly that, personal opinions, formed by peer pressure in the gym, on social media, or by fit vixens looking to make a bigger following by posting daily stuff which may or may not be factually correct.

There are out of date school gym coaches still living in the past, badly informed parents, friends, big brothers, big sisters, commercial interests only looking out for the next conference call, as well as uninformed writers working for big tabloids which just happened to draw the assignment to make a puff piece on fitness.

So let us instead look at science and what it actually has to teach us about the range of motion for any particular exercise. And for the purpose of this article, let us focus on a Squat centric use case since legs and ass are thankfully all the rage anyway :).

'Today' (another today ) while enjoying my first cup of coffee standing outside on my sun-drenched porch, I could hear something sneakily make its way through the underbrush and thick tall grass and florals that intermix with the deep dark, and thankfully, untouched old forest at the edge of my property.

Fast forward just a little bit and I could start to see the movement in the thin youngling trees and the tall flowers. Something was out there, touching here and there making the wild plants and florals sway as it drew nearer me.