We’ve been training for this for a little over a year (the prospect of re-qualifying for Regionals), and it’s finally here. At the end of this week, I will be travelling to West Palm Beach, Florida to attempt to qualify for the 2013 Reebok Crossfit Games…if we finish in the top three. We are ranked [...]
Regionals, Here We Come!
This weekend, my teammates and I finished our 5 weeks of worldwide (crossfit) competition; every Wednesday evening, a workout was released and we had until Sunday evening to complete it as many times as we chose. Most of us did it once although I chose to re-do the third one because I had complete muscle [...]
Neural Control of Snacking (in a Rat!)
In grad school, I often felt guilty whenever I gave some hamsters a “last meal” prior to sacrifice; usually some rodent-friendly yogurt-coated treat from PetSmart. Well, last week I learned about specific brain sites that are activated following snacking on potato chips…..in rats!!! I’m still scratching my head as to how this protocol passed the [...]
My Life and Neuroscience (in Blog Form) for 2012
This is my fourth year as a blogger. And I still love it. While some of my friends’ blogging enthusiasms have declined (yes, Montegraphia..this means YOU!!!), I have continued to increase the frequency of posting with each new year. The year began with some exciting, personal news. Montegraphia and I got engaged on New Year’s Eve/Day [...]
The Holy Grail for Publishing in High-Impact Journals
In a recent issue of Science, a group of sociologists tried to unmask the frustrating process of getting published in high-impact journals, particularly the big three: Science, Nature, and Proceedings from the National Academy of Sciences. After some intensive analyses, it was found that the papers in high-impact journals that receive the greatest numbers of [...]
Are Crossfitters Truly the Fittest in the World?
Yesterday, I saw this post shared on my friend’s facebook page. And while I am not a regular user of Twitter, conversation about this post saturated my Twitter feed when I logged on this morning. Further, it seems as though the blog of this post (A Fitness Critic) was created solely to host this “op-ed” [...]
Metabolic Output during Constantly Varied, High Intensity, Functional Movement: Research of Crossfit
At last, exercise physiologists have become interested in crossfit. Who wouldn’t? From anecdotal experience, crossfit has tremendously enhanced my work output and endurance, even with being a highly trained athlete (work out for 2-3 hrs daily) since the age of 13. Also, I’ve noticed that my immune response is heightened and I can do moderate [...]
Survey of Energy Drink Use and Abuse
Within the past week, I’ve seen two articles concerning the rising popularity of energy drinks for recreation, alertness, and performance. In the athletic community, it is well known that caffeine improves endurance in those not tolerant to it. In fact, some collegiate athletes have failed drug tests for having too high amounts of caffeine in [...]
In Search of the Secret Coke Formula
A few weekends ago, I finally visited the World of Coke in downtown Atlanta with some college friends. Like most people who visit the World of Coke, the most memorable exhibit was the tasting room where you can sample 64 flavors of unique Coke-owned products from North America, Asia, Latin America, Europe, and Africa that [...]
A South Park Parody of Sports-Related Concussions
My favorite, long-running show on television is South Park. The show is in its SIXTEENTH season. And while they continue to run out of ethnic and cultural stereotypes to parody, they have been poking fun of current news events this season of which in reality they really do take a serious position on. In a [...]
