Between the Sheets

If you’d told me that some of the best advice I’d get about what to do between the sheets would come from my grandma, I probably would’ve called you crazy! But that was last week.

This week I know better. What was this advice Granny gave me, you ask? Well, I’ll tell you: sleep with your feet outside the blanket.

Yeah, I know, it sounds like an old-wives’ tale. But it turns out Granny and those Old Wives knew what they were taking about. According to Natalie Dautovich of the National Sleep Foundation, sleeping with one or both feet uncovered may very well allow you to not only fall asleep faster but also to get a better nights’ rest.

Why? Well your feet (and your hands) are biologically designed to help dissipate body heat. So uncovering your feet can channel your body’s heat right out of your body. Dautovich also suggests a warm bath before bed, after which your body will rapidly cool, which in turn primes you for a more restful slumber. Warm beverages tend to have the same effect— which means warm milk before bed really is a good idea.

So get a good night’s rest tonight, and tomorrow call your grandma and thank her!

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Polarized Training

healthy trail running
Attention all endurance athletes! Wanna get more from your cardio? Don’t give it 100%. Instead, give it about 20%

Athletes who repeatedly stress the same energy systems (by using as the common tempo and steady-state runs) generally experience excessive fatigue, hormonal imbalances, appetite loss, and tissue and bone damage.

This is why most elite endurance athletes use polarized training. In polarized training, only one-fifth of total workout time is spent at very high intensity. The other 80% of the time is spent at much lower intensities.

Studies have shown that polarized training leads to greater muscle adaptation as well as a greatly reduced risk of short term and chronic injury to the body than steady-state training.

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Bare Beefcake

So here’s a sexy — and strange— new yoga fusion that you would never have thought of: Yoga meets pro wrestling. Aptly titled “Beefcake Yoga,” this fun new fitness craze was developed by former W.W.E. wrestler Diamond Dallas Page. This fast, ferocious new hybrid, which Page originally called “Yoga For Dudes” was especially designed for men who want all the healthy benefits of this revered Eastern tradition without, as he puts it, “all the namaste bullshit!

Page ditched the flowy music and the fruity Sanskrit names and modified a number of the poses. He added some strength building exercises, stirred it all together and voila, Beefcake Yoga was born. But don’t get it twisted.” This ain’t your Grandma’s yogi!

Exercise Buff can’t wait to bring you our ‘Sexy, Fit, Fun and Naked’ on-line workout version of this workout. So grab your yoga mat and Dare To Go Bare!

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Dare to Be Hangover-Proof

Even the most devout teetotaler has heard that drinking alcohol leads to dehydration, which leads to a hangover. Is this true? Well, yes…and no. If you plan on doing some serious partying this holiday season, then plan ahead and make yourself hangover-proof.

Proof 1: Alcohol makes you sluggish because it diminishes your body’s potassium supply. So super-hydrate before a night of drinking. Guzzle replenishing fluids like coconut water. Also, have an electrolyte tablet or powder for every couple of drinks (our favorite is Emergen-C Super Orange).

Proof 2: Alcohol encourage your body to stop retaining water—which is why the bathroom line is always so long at bars. So avoid coffee, black tea, and sugary sodas before heading out to party. The next morning have a liter of ice-cold water with lemon and Celtic or Himalayan pink salt to aid water retention. Also, be sure to scarf fruits and vegetables with high water and vitamin content like celery, cucumber and watermelon.

Proof 3: Alcohol releases a chemical called acetaldehyde that exacerbates hangover symptoms like headaches, nausea, and diarrhea. So the day after a binge, grab some cysteine. Cysteine is an amino acid that helps the liver break down the toxic after-effects of booze. It is found in poultry, dairy, broccoli and garlic. Toss them all into a salad, or try a cysteine-based cleanse like Hangover Gone, or PreToxx, or Mt. Capra’s CapraClease.

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Truth or Bare: Pin-Up Bettie

Gorgeous and racy, with her trademark blue eyes and bangs, Bettie Page is one of the most enduring sex symbol of the last sixty years. But Bettie was more than just a pretty face. This mysterious creature was a Pin-Up Queen turned actress who was forever known by her many lovers as ‘the One Who Got Away.’ This week we Dare you to explore the pose, the clothes and the expression of the immortal Bettie Page.

Truth: Bettie the Starlet
“Bettie is sexuality in its sparkly cleanest most beautiful charming smiliest!” noted Leonard Maltin. A famed photographer added that she could give you any ‘look’ you wanted, and that she could “smile with her whole body.”

Bare: Set aside time this week to explore the ‘Starlet’ in you. Mix and match light colors and innocent-looking ensembles with sheer, silky garments underneath. Practice posing as sweet, bubbly, and flirtatious. What does it feel like to smile with your whole body?

Truth: Bettie the Bombshell
“God gave her a lovely body, and she knew it,” wrote one admirer. Bettie the Bombshell gave herself permission to be gorgeous. Whether in risqué outfits or posing nude, Bettie was strong and direct. Yet there was always an openness and vulnerability to her pictures.

Bare: What clothes and poses does the ‘Bombshell’ in you long to explore? Perhaps super long black gloves and a haughty smile or a bustiere to match the saucy look in your eyes? And don’t forget, whether posing alone or playing with others, the Bombshell’s vulnerability is her greatest strength.

Truth: Bettie the Goddess
“No one ever dominated Bettie,” said Brigadier General and former lover Charles West. “She was her own person.” Bettie the Goddess was always comfortable with her own body and her sexuality. In fact, a favorite pasttime of hers was the ‘air bath.’ She describes it in her 2012 documentary Bettie Page Reveals All: “You don’t have a stitch of clothes on. You’re running around the house for 15 to 20 minutes, [and] you gotta have the windows open. You oughta try it sometime!”

Bare: Fan the flames of your inner ‘Goddess.’ Strip away all the clothes and the baggage and just bathe in the air. Take five minutes or take thirty. Own the moment. Breathe deep. Let go.

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Go Down to the Water

skinny_dippingOne day, doctors might just order a stressed out patient to take two waves and a long walk on the beach and call them in the morning. The reason is simple: water. According to a recent Psychology Today article, water is one of mankind’s greatest sources of relaxation, renewal and vitality.

Because water is so important to our survival, it benefits us in a bunch of ways. Drinking it ramps up weight loss, removes toxins and supercharges energy. Experts agree that water has the freshest taste at around 42 degrees Fahrenheit—that’s right, water can have different tastes depending on where it was sourced! But drinking such cold water can damage the taste buds, so the ideal temperature is about 50 degrees.

Studies also show that water can spur some of our most awe-inspiring experiences. So, like the man said, go down to the water—a bridge, river, or pool. You can even get right while sitting next to a fountain. Dip a toe in it, if you can. Of course, here at ExerciseBuff, we prefer all of our dipping to be of the skinny variety.

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The Bare and Aware Challenge

BareAware_image

Yes ladies, October is National Breast Cancer Awareness Month
and is all about the Ta-Tas.

All this stress over the lady chest is meant to bring awareness to the staggering rates of breast cancer in America. Breast cancer is the most common cancer among women of all races. About 1 in 8 women will be diagnosed with breast cancer, and 40,000 women will die from it this year alone. Men account for less than 1% of all breast cancer cases but have a higher mortality rate percentage due, primarily, to lack of awareness of symptoms.

So how can you limit your risk of breast cancer?

  • Don’t smoke. Limit alcohol. Research proves that significantly increases your risk of cancer.
  • Have ‘the talk.’ If you’re over 40, it’s time to talk to your doctor about screenings and mammograms.
  • Stay fit. Considerable evidence suggests that obesity and being overweight play a significant role in developing breast cancer.

In addition, October 13 is also No Bra Day (which is also known as Wet T-Shirt Contest Day in some countries). So the folks here at Exercise Buff would like to pose a challenge to all you fabulous women (and yes you men can get in on it too) to the following challenges!

Bare and Aware Challenge:
Challenge #1: Make a donation to the Susan G. Kommen Breast Cancer Foundation like we did ) or your favorite foundation.
Challenge #2: If you’re feeling daring and inspired, we invite you to take the Bare and Aware Challenge. Send us a photo of your bare chest and your breast cancer-related story (if any). Remember, breast awareness is all about the Ta-Tas and maybe your photo and story will be the one to motivate and inspire even one woman to get ‘the’ check-up? Everyone’s welcome to take the challenge.

The Top 3 most inspiring photos and/or stories will win an Exercise Buff workout shirt or tank top of your choice and have their photo and story posted to our BLOG.

How to: Simply send us a photo and story along with your name, contact email address and statement that you are at least 18 years of age to: contest@exercisebuff.com

All content submitted for consideration will become the property of Gymnos Media, LLC (Exercise Buff) and will be used solely for the Bare And Aware ‘Contest and Blog’ and any related relevant social media posts for Breast Cancer Awareness. By submitting your photo and story you agree to these and all other terms of use.

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Buff at Any Age

We just got wind of a new trend down in Lake Oroville, California: Naked Wakeboarding.

That’s right. It’s not your grandfather’s wakeboarding, but your grandfather may very well be the one trying it. One of our friends sent us this pic of himself celebrating his 57th birthday in, well, his birthday suit.

So go ahead and give it a try! But if you happen to fall off just remember to tuck and roll.

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Of Mice and Men-scaping

Have you wondered what it is, in the 21st century, that makes a man a man? Morgan Spurlock’s new documentary “Mansome” tackles just this question.

Spurlock, who received an Oscar nomination for 2004’s “Supersize Me,” gathers together a star-studded cast to help him examine modern masculinity. Celebrities like Judd Apatow and Paul Rudd take up the question with varying degrees of humor and humility. Grooming, fashion, and body image are chief among the topics explored. Spurlock also interviews competitive ‘beardsmen,’ professional wrestlers, and everyday men and women in search of the Holy Grail, er, Holy Male that is.

While “Mansome” does have moments of genuine hilarity (John Waters ponders retiring from moviemaking by shaving off his iconic moustache and eating it in front of a live audience), in the end it’s too thin and shortsighted to be truly engaging. But Will Arnett and Jason Bateman debating masculinity during a men’s spa day, complete with facials and pedicures, is almost entertaining enough to make it worth the video rental fee.

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Rebel Reads

One of the great charms of summer is the number of opportunities to read. Whether lazing on the beach, lying by the pool or taking a long flight to your destination vacation, we’re always happy to share some of our favorite books with you. They’re each under 200-pages and embody that daring, rebel spirit that we here at ExerciseBuff.com worship. Our first book?

Breakfast at Tiffany’s, by Truman Capote (1958). Because of Audrey Hepburn’s grace and beauty in the iconic film, it’s easy to forget just how scandalous Capote’s creation was for the ‘50s. Eternal party girl Holly Golightly is only 18 in the novel, which makes her sexual mores, her wit, and her disenchantment all the more piercing. Holly’s fate at the novel’s end (unlike the film) is both unsentimental and heartbreaking.

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