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.

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.

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There are out of date school gym coaches still living in the past, badly informed parents, friends, big brothers, big sisters, commercial interests only looking out for the next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 :).

Question number 33 in our School of Fitness.
Legs and ass and back. That is the holy trinity ( together with the fourth pillar, our abs ) of building a strong and capable and athletic body.
But what about the makeup of our upper legs?
We have the backside of our legs, which we call the hamstrings, and on the front, there´s the thing most people simply call the quads.
But let us dig deeper down into those mighty looking quadriceps and the rest of the anterior side of our legs.
Here is my question:
Can you specify which muscles make up the bulk of what we call our quadriceps and anterior leg muscles?.

The following is a rudimentary overview of my health & fitness life from Jan 1, 2018, to Jan 1, 2019. Some fitness folks think the world of planning ahead, and some absolutely do need a firm plan for the months and even year ahead.
Short term goals firmly lined up and long-term goal posts holding their own further out make a world of difference for some. And your own goals can be about certain PB´s, they can involve reaching a certain body fat % or strength goal. Other common goals have to do with cardiovascular performance and might be focused on improving your lactate levels, running speed, zone levels or maximum heart rate. And for competitive pro athletes, those goals usually involve specific competitions and championships.

So yes, setting up a rough schedule in advance of your fitness year can make a lot of sense.
Just as how a lot of people count daily steps and calories.

Question number 26 in our School of Fitness.
Black coffee, the mere words are capable of sending hundreds of millions of people into a state of Nirvana filled with transcending bliss and harmony :).
But black coffee is also a cup of rejuvenating health for our entire system. It calms the mind with its slowly rising aroma, helps us keep cancer and diabetes at bay, harnesses our creative focus like an arrow in flight, and in enough quantities, it can even boost peoples gym going efforts.
But is there all there is to it?. Well, here is my question:
Is the old saying true that your daily coffee drives so much fluid out of your body that you need to supplement your coffee intake with equal measures water too in order to stay hydrated?.

Question number 22 in our School of Fitness.
2017 came and went in a glorious display of Northern lights. But now that we are all one year older. Let us take a look at that age-old saying that we recover worse and slower after a hard workout in the gym as we grow beyond our 30´s.
Is there any truth to this at all? Or is this just one more thing that people got wrong in the name of lacking insight, age-related fears, and youth-obsessed peer pressure?.
To put it simply.
Will the 22-year-old you recover better after a kick-ass weight lifting workout in the gym doing intense deadlifts than the 50 year old you will be able to do, or can you safely go at it just as hard knowing that you will recover and improve just as good?.

Eating healthy is an essential part of every human beings healthy fit lifestyle.
And like keeping active and healthy at the gym and in daily life it's a daily choice.
Going plant-based with your food choices is one of the better food choices you can do. As long as you keep on top of your protein, your fat ( Omega 3 mainly ), iron, B12, Iodine and creatine going plant-based is very easy to do and super beneficial for health & fitness ( and the planet ).

And in some ways, I can not think about a much better and more current way to emphasize our individual and globally shared responsibility than the Kenyan Ultra Marathon taking place in 2018.
It's like all the other sports competitions ever done about the individual responsibility to shape and form your ongoing life and fitness journey so that you can endure and conquer that particular challenge.
But it is equally much a team effort, to better our planet and to save the Rhino.
As such it serves as a proxy for our own health, and our modern day pollution, the local and global poverty, the gender and class-based inequality, the competition itself, and the endangered wildlife and all the species rapidly going extinct across the entire world.
We are all responsible. Individually and globally.
And in that spirit, this ultramarathon is not just about bringing together runners from all around the world, it is also a marathon to save the endangered Rhino from going extinct, and to better the entire world.

Question number 21 in our School of Fitness.
Doing the daily grind behind a healthy fit life will always continue to do wonders for our well being and physical health in body and mind.
But air pollution is another key factor that is greatly influencing our wellbeing and longterm health. And how do these two modern-day pillars clash and collide?
Will living in heavy air polluted cities flat out destroy all the health benefits you should be reaping thanks to your daily fitness regime?.

Question number 19 in our School of Fitness.
A healthy Fit life keeps the risk of developing Alzheimer as much as possible at bay. But how about Parkinson´s?.
Will keeping fit & healthy help people reduce the onslaught of Parkinson´s or is this one degenerative neurological condition that´s all about genetics and bad luck?.

Health at a Glance is a European health report for 2017. And in it the United Kingdom is revealed to be Western Europes most obese nation.
So, perhaps, fish and chips and beer just isnt the best of national food obsessions.
Another important highlight that bounces right back at you is how obesity in the UK has increased by 92% since the 1990s ( it´s been increasing in every nation btw, but good ol England is leading the pack ).

And since we also know by now that obesity & overweight is not just about a individual increase in body fat %, which would have been perfectly fine and all down to personal preferences in body composition and aesthetics, but instead is directly tied to a huge increase in several health issues, such as diabetes & cancer and severely decreased quality of life and longevity.

New research once again showcases how exercise improves muscle health and, exercise capacity and how that positive mechanism with perpetual fitness regimes in the end greatly improves general health and longevity for each individual.
Allowing continued fitness activity to become one of the finest predictors we have of general mortality and biological health and wellbeing in any given population and individual.
This particular study was published in the journal Nature Communications and it digs deep down inside our bodies as it takes a long look at how exercise helps the body and mind keep healthy and strong by transforming and maintaining our body on a cellular level.

In Europe, 72% of all tap water contains 1.9 fibers of plastic litter per 500ml of water.
That number increases to 94% of all tap water in the USA which contains 4.8 plastic litter fibers per 500ml of water. And worldwide 83% of all tap water contains plastic litter.
But the issue of plastic contamination in our water is not just about tap water, nor is it, as we have previously talked about, only a concern with sea food. This is a growing man-made health issue which has been going on for a very long time and by now it is part of every aspect of society and our natural world.
For instance, scientists found plastics in products in studies on Chinese Sea salt in 2015.

Question number 15 in our School of Fitness.
I like to say that 'Individual health is planetary health & planetary health is individual health'. So today's question will focus a bit on that simple fact.
Here goes. Can something as trivial as adding salt to your food expose you to unhealthy plastic litter ( on top of the many well established unhealthy aspects of consuming too much salt )?

Question number 13 in our School of Fitness.
Today's question, there is a polite saying that goes like this,"fat but fit". And that is certainly a wonderfully inclusive phrase, and as such worth repeating, and respecting, this world has far too much of fat, fit and slut shaming as it is. But how is the simple truth of being fat but metabolically healthy actually looking?

Question number 11 in our School of Fitness.
Today's question is as follows, which muscles are activated when you are busy killing it in the gym with the majestic "Deadlift" exercise.
A lot of people rightfully think of Deadlift as the great full-body exercise. But what do you actually engage and stimulate when you go at it with this bad boy.

Question number 9 in our School of Fitness.
Explain the difference between our chronological age and our biological age.
The question is this, Is it true that you can physically change the real age of your physical system ( body & mind ) depending on the amount of fit and healthy choices you make in your life vs opting for a more sedentary life?.

Question number 8 in our School of Fitness.
Making daily progressive lifestyle choices matters incredibly much for maintaining and improving our health and fitness. But genetics also play a role in our fitness capacity.
The question is this, just how much impact do those genetics play vs our own daily fitness choices?. Will the girl next to you at the gym always crush you in every exercise there is. And if so, is that all down to her being lucky in the genetics department?.

Just a quick hello from my pristine offline vacation.
I am still enjoying a wonderful and productive offline vacation, but life is this endless waterfall of unbridled inspiration in any given day's endless little things.
It comes fully packed ( inspiration ) within the beings that inhabit those days, the separate and connected individual moments and all the everyday stuff.

So I had to pop in for a quick long read post because life inspired me to try and capture the gorgeous real life art which is on full display right in our very own wildlife place, our garden of trees :).

Question number 4 in our School of Fitness.
Is it beneficial in a measurable way for lean muscle mass recovery and protein synthesis to consume 40g of protein post workout instead of 20g?.

Question 3 in our School of Fitness.
Can elderly and sedentary people hold on to a substantially higher amount of essential lean muscle mass simply by eating more protein?.

This is a short and quick educational Q&A category regarding the science of health and fitness. Each article in the "fitness school" category will provide you with a short question and three possible answers.
Make your choice and click to reveal the correct answer to see if you are as well informed about the science of fitness and health as you believe you are.

In a small but important step towards a better world and healthier people EU is launching a positive step forward to promote and subsidize sustainable and locally produced food that is healthy. Such as fruits and greens in schools across all of Europe
The new Europe-wide initiative will help fund up to three-quarters of the cost of serving fruit and greens, locally produced and sustainable food to school students.

Organic food will receive up to 75% help, while traditionally grown fruit and greens will receive up to 65%.

Almost 7 million dead people around the world in one single year ( 2015 ), due to smoking.
Making it account for 11.5% of worldwide deaths during 2015.
Out of the roughly 7 million dead people, 52.2% lived in four countries, China, India, the USA, and Russia.

13 countries, Australia, Brazil, China, Denmark, Dominican Republic, Iceland, Kenya, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Sweden, Switzerland, and the USA have showed significant year-to-year rates of decline of smoking between 1990 and 2015.

But while an increasingly lower percentage of the global population keep up with the filthy and unhealthy habit of smoking, as time goes by due to our global population increase the total number of smokers is still going up, and it is now close to 1 billion people!.

Let us start from the tail of the end. Because we all know that every good tale comes equipped with an end that makes the rest of the story worth reading.
And as such, the developing story of salt is a story of the roughly 2.5 million deaths around the world which could be prevented each year if global salt consumption was to be reduced below the recommended levels.

When it comes down to health and fitness, and the cerebral battlefield of chess the simple truth is that they are very much alike.
There are no unearthly and illogical surprises waiting in the dark of night that will upend and change the actual fabric of the landscape.
Your opponent can not cast fiery magic and summon demons from the netherworld to do their bidding.
Instead what we have is a beautifully defined field of known and still developing, yet for now, unknown for you and me facts and variables, and the vast amount of personal choices those known, but evolving facts allows us to make.

And at every step of that personal journey, chess and fitness will leave you standing as the sole commander, at a vast field made up of pure facts and deductive knowledge and the cause and consequences that every single choice will give birth to.

'The people that bleed' is our own label for a series of videos, all produced by UFC, that I feel show us a more real and nuanced, intimate perhaps view of the actual soul and personality of the real human being that makes up the flesh and bone, heart and thoughts behind the bravado and attitude of the MMA fighter persona.

In this 9 minutes long video, we get to meet Brad Picket (25-14 MMA, 5-9 UFC), a tiny blue collar sized UK based fighter whom retired after his final UFC fight on march 18, 2017 against Brandon Vera.

For most people getting a bit more fit, and healthy by eating cleaner food and less calories and working out more is a great life improving choice.
And for most, that will lead to health improving reductions in unhealthy body fat levels and body weight. But as we previously talked about in another article, when you are already in shape, rocking a fit and toned body, eating healthy amounts of healthy food, doing weights and cardio, there comes a limit where dropping even more in body weight and body fat becomes damaging and unhealthy instead of health and fitness improving.

And beyond that basic reality, you have the insanity of MMA and Boxing weight cuts that far to many pro fighters go through just so they can fight in a weight class that they are to athletic and big to actually be fighting in.
I am saying that because MMA style weight cutting is not something that anyone interested in health and fitness should ever do.
Period.

Neither should pro fighters in my own opinion. In a ideal world you would be the only one doing MMA style weight cuts, allowing you to fight people 20 to 30 lbs smaller than you, with much shorter leg and arm reach, 20+lbs less muscle mass and all the disadvantage that would give them in strength, endurance, strike impact and absorption.
But you see, when every other fighter do the same weight cut, no one benefits, and everybody suffers from the exact same detrimental and unhealthy exhaustion that MMA style weight cuts are. With less fitness come fight night and potentially worse health for the long haul as the only real result.

Time and science continually march forward, and that is a thing of utmost beauty. But that simple fact also requires all of us to keep an open mind towards the way we do our own fit and healthy life so that we can continually adapt and improve as we uncover new layers of scientifically established health and fitness knowledge, and at times, accept that new health and fitness science-based knowledge might force us to change direction and toss out old established "truths".

So today we find ourselves in a brave new world where a comprehensive Swedish study covering the health impact of daily dairy and fruit consumption ended up giving us so much new scientifically based knowledge about our health and food choices that the time has come to update our "dairy for the fit and healthy guidelines".

Organic and sugar-free yogurt is still with us, while milk is completely tossed to the side, yes even lactose-free milk gets the boot out my door.
Why you might ask?
Well, the answer is simply put science baby, adapt or die :).

Milk is as far as we understand it right now causing real health issues over time that simply do not happen when you consume sugar-free yogurt or no dairy at all.
This Swedish study involved close to 200 000 people, and the accumulated data over several years indicates that a high milk consumption shortens individuals life span through increased oxidative stress and inflammation caused by that daily milk consumption.
And as such milk has to go since yogurt provides all the same high-quality nutrition as milk and thus, all the benefits of dairy can be met through organic, sugar-free yogurt without risking the by now, strongly implicated long-term health issues associated with drinking milk.

Science continually spits out more reasons in a never ending string as to why anyone interested in their own health and body should also be caring for a sustainable society and world.
As if it is not already bad enough with modern day life´s annoying sidekick, air pollution, causing cancer, asthma and respiratory diseases and crazy smog in a growing number of cities. We can now add dementia to the list of unpleasant and unhealthy effects that life in any unsustainable society will cause through air pollution.


Swedish researchers at Umeå University have uncovered compelling evidence for a direct link between air pollution and dementia. The run down is that if you happen to live in an area that leaves you exposed to air pollution you will run a 40 percent greater risk of developing Alzheimer's disease and vascular dementia compared to if you would have chosen to live in a city with healthier air and environment.

Making love, off world.
And some of the many wondrous and perhaps flat out strange things you can expect to encounter during your future romantic, space date.
In our rapidly approaching near future and a few fortunate souls present day reality, the perplexing realities of dating far away from planet Earth will no longer be confined to the silvery screens of yesterday.

Soon a rapidly growing number of people will be able to prepare and plan for romantic weekend dates out and away from Earth´s atmosphere. But beyond the tantalizing, and highly romantic aspect of kissing high up above as you look down back on this blue marble. What else is there to going off the reservate and into the dark unknown?. What about the little everyday things when you kiss, hold hands and make love beneath the stars, way out in space.

This is a short 10-second news snippet regarding our individual and global health: WHO, the U.N. health agency revealed in a new report published September 2016 that 92 percent of the global population now live in areas where air quality exceeds what WHO consider safe for your health. Southeast Asia, eastern Mediterranean, and the western Pacific regions are the hardest hit but it apply to the entire world.


The worldwide data broken down to national and regional accuracy was produced from new satellite surveillance as well as traditional measurements of pollution, in about 3,000 places across the world.

Not only is one in nine deaths worldwide in some way caused by air pollution, but perhaps more importantly, beyond that number, hundreds of millions of people are affected in their daily life with various health issues due to human-made air pollution. So the question remains, is it not time we all realized the immense health as well as financial toll of not adopting a far more sustainable and healthy way of life in society. People talk about the cost of going green and clean, but it is quite obvious the other way around.

We all know that seafood has the potential to stand right next to chicken ( and insects :P ) as the by far healthiest meat options. But seafood is not at all an easy choice since it has it´s fair share of major issues. Over fishing, depleted and completely unsustainable fish stocks. Insane amount of human caused pollution in the sea ( which affect both our own health as well as the health of a long range of animal species ), lackluster nutritional information, and even human slavery. There is a lot of reasons why anyone conscious enough to live a healthy and active lifestyle would choose to not include seafood in their daily food choices.


So, how about the best thing? The taste and texture and nutrition of shrimps, but without all the negative side effects of the fishing industry?.
Enter, eco friendly and sustainable algae-based, vegan shrimps.

Keeping fit and healthy requires not just daily physical activity and proper recovery, those activities and your ongoing health demands tasty and healthy food to fuel your body and mind with the needed energy to maintain your own health and fitness level.
And our Scandinavian cloudberry smoothie is just that. Tasty, quick to do, and stuffed with delicious health.

Fresh cloudberries or blueberries. Sugar-free and ecological yogurt and kvarg ( think really creamy greek yogurt, smooth like the sweetest vanilla ice cream ever tasted, and choke full of proteins ).
And if needed, you can spice it up by adding a tiny little bit of luxurious real whipped cream and cacao on top.

Read on to get the super easy and super healthy recipe in full.

Farming 2.0 which makes use of both high tech advancements in technology and science, as well as sustainable, organic principles holds the key to feeding our global population while also preserving our planet.

In a study published earlier this year, scientists making use of 500 different food production scenarios focused in on the task of feeding a global population of 9.6 billion people without expanding our farmland footprint which we already use.

Welcome to the third version of our 7 days long, one-week workout plan for increased health, strength, lean muscle mass, and cardiovascular performance. This round is paying tribute to all those fit and brave old Norse men and women that traversed beyond the boundaries of our known world. So do it like a Viking and kill it in the gym with an unyielding will. 4 days of lifting intense, challenging weights pushing beyond your own limitations each set. Every set will have you using drop sets, and once you are done lifting weights, every workout is followed by 100% 5-minute long sprint interval rushes.

In addition, 2 days of cardio/MMA classes, and 7 days of lower every day paced cardio.  

A short, but hopefully inspirational 7 days long, one-week workout plan for increased health, strength, lean muscle mass, and cardiovascular performance. A truly tried and tested approach to not just a healthier and more fit body, but also increased healthy longevity.

Presented both as a visual daily timeline, and a long form article. 

There is, of course, nothing perfect or news worthy with what I did today. But hopefully, my workouts for the day can serve as fuel for someone to kick up their own health and activity choices for the week and days to come. And if so, me taking the time to write this little write up in the middle of my wonderful but stacked day is well worth it :). In short: Chest + abs and not just one, but 5 cardio sessions kept me one happy, fit and healthy pup today :).

Long thought of as one of few actually working sports supplements for increased anaerobic performance, more and more research is also revealing significant health benefits in body and mind for those that supplement their daily food with 5grams of creatine. Making it an especially interesting option, perhaps even essential, for the active and healthy people that have already reduced their meat consumption in order to further improve their long-term health & fitness level.

It sadly still surprises quite a lot of people around the world that what promotes a healthy body, also promotes a healthy mind. And yes, just as you can strengthen you body all life long, you strengthen and maintain your minds health, performance and youth. All life long. So let us talk about neurogenesis, the science about a healthy mind for all of life.

Once upon a time, yes really, virtually every human being was one way or another also a farmer. Cows in the garden, chickens pooping out breakfast eggs and pigs for the slaughter. The industrial revolution changed that and farming became owned by a few mega-corporations, with animal abuse,  health, and environmental issues in tow. But now, in a world of climate change and awareness, technology have finally come full circle, making us all greener, healthy individual farmers again.

Old age. Such a terrifying word for countless of people around the world. But admittedly, up until now in the long and winded history of our mutual species, it has indeed been quite bleak to grow beyond your 20´s. Not only did people die damn early in previous centuries. But out of those that survived beyond their 30´s very few was allowed to age in a graceful and healthy way. Broken bodies and frail minds came out of an every day life made up of bad and seriously unhealthy, even toxic diets and daily living conditions. Made even worse by incredibly unequal societies. Countless of wars and actual scientific knowledge still being in it´s infancy did not help either.

A brief article of mine where I talk about a short, sweet and accurate post by Neila Rey for one of the many basic things a lot of people still get wrong about their body, health and fitness level/potential. In short, you are not held hostage by your genetic makeup.

Yesterday was all cute frost and frozen berries, and today was rain and misty autumn views being served as breakfast. Yesterday was chest and abs, and today it was all about that mighty back and triceps.

Waking up this morning, the outsides of the bedroom window where as frosty as the ground itself. Leafs and leftover blueberries looking more like frosty status than organic material when I later stepped out.

Welcome back people to part two in our MMA Cardio articles. Your body, mind and overall health benefits not just from lifting weights and eating healthy food.
Cardio is another part of the equation that will greatly enhance your joy of being alive as well as make sure that you are getting to live a long and healthy life.

MMA Cardio is a top notch fun way of getting your health on, and your body sexy lean and fit.

This is the second article to focus on the truly body shaping lower body exercises. In our first one we talked about the properly named "Deadlift", and today it is time to dig deep into its virtual twin "Squats". In many ways, an exercise that is extremely similar to both deadlift and the amazing back exercise Standing barbell row. But just like those two Squats is deserving of you doing this bad boy/girl every single week for the rest of your life.

This is part 6 in our ongoing series of articles that sees us covering all the great compound exercises that should be a permanent part of every fit and active and healthy lifestyle. In this article, it´s all about the classic bench press. A timeless chest exercise that´s stood the test of time for a reason, it works, and it works damn good when it comes down to creating a healthier and stronger upper body.

Welcome to article number five in our series of articles covering the great compound exercises that all should be a permanent part of every fit and active, and healthy life. In this article, it is time for us to talk about dips, we previously mentioned this gruffy old classic in our article about closed-grip bench press and for good reasons, they are put together pretty much everything you will ever need for developing a strong, kick ass triceps.

This is article number four in our series covering all the great compound exercises that more than deserves to be included as a permanent part of your fit and active, and healthy life. In this article, we will take a look at one of the classic back exercises that also happens to be one of the very best things you can do for a strong, well-rounded and healthy body. This apex puppy is called Chins, or perhaps you prefer to call it Pull ups, either way it is the same thing.

Yesterday had me do a 3 workout split that went like this: Morning: coffee and water + a sprint based interval run. Midday: Triceps, Biceps, Abs. Evening: Hiit MMA that consisted of Kicking and punching at a high pace at first, and then followed by body weight squats and a slower, more yoga like approach to slowly moving between various martial art stances.

The gardeners slowly growing strawberries, fresh bananas, and real whipped cream. Lo and behold, our foundation for a tasty and healthy homemade ice cream recipe for warm summer days.

I am quite sure that you guys are busy hanging out like orangutangs in the comfort of your porch, (I am) so here is a short, sweet summer summary for you to scratch that ache you feel for real, and relevant news.

Health Blurbs One, quite a catchy sounding phrase now that I think about it, but it is not a new trademark or something for Nestle to package and sell on a bottle.