Of all of the waste of time exercises that people do in the gym, calf raises and all of its iterations, are probably the worst of all of these exercises. And of all the machine-based exercises, no other machines are as much of a waste of space, iron and cable as the various calf raise machines.

Stop doing calf raises.

Just don’t do them.

In the abstract, in isolation, the calf muscle may be getting stronger. But this strength gain is meaningless because it there is little, if any, transfer to improving movement or actual function. The goal should be to train movements, not muscles. The calf doesn’t work in isolation to produce any movement that we make, so there is no reason to perform an exercise that isolates the calf muscle, insulates it from the other muscles that it works with to produce functional movement. There is no reason to train any muscle in isolation.

The calf raise is the biceps curl for the legs. There’s an old saying they use in golf that says, “Drive for show, putt for dough.” When it comes to leg training we can adapt it to, “Calf raises for show, squat and lunge for dough.”

Walk into any gym, anywhere and you will see plenty of people doing all kinds of leg raises, but you rarely see the squat and lunge being performed, let alone performed correctly. And for goodness sake, do not superset calf raises with other purposeful exercises like plyometric jumps or squats and lunges.

The calf raise is an less-than-ordinary exercise that should be consigned to the scrap heap of exercises, exercises from a by-gone era when we just didn’t know any better.

The “20-Second Fitness” training program is a riff on the legitimate Tabata Interval method of high-intensity training. As a matter of fact, of all of the marketing-driven/created exercise programs that I have encountered over the years the underpinnings of this “20-Second Fitness” program are as solid as you can get. But that doesn’t mean that you should buy it.

As a matter of fact, the “20-Second Fitness” program gets a “Do Not Buy” recommendation. Here’s why with a little bit of background info.

Tabata Intervals are a totally legit high-intensity training method. Researchers found that performing high-intensity intervals for 20-seconds on a stationary bike, with a 10-second rest, repeated over 4-minutes provided serious results. The original study consisted of highly trained athletes in peak condition who were able to work much harder than the average person over these 8 intervals. During these intervals these subjects maintained a pace of 85 RPMs and their training heart rate was way above what the average person can achieve/maintain.

You should not try any extreme training that will elevate your heart rate beyond prescribed levels unless you are well-trained and are under proper guidance. This is not meant to offend, but there are very few people out there who are capable of performing true Tabata Intervals.

Do a Google search for “Tabata Intervals” and you will find plenty of info.

No doubt in an attempt to capitalize on the New Year’s Resolution crowd, the “20-Second Fitness” folks want you to buy stuff, but you do not really need any equipment to take advantage of the very real benefits offered by Tabata training. You certainly do not need to purchase DVDs and fitness accessories for $100.

This isn’t to say there isn’t a proper progression for regular folks who want to try Tabata Intervals, but the proper application of these intervals does not require equipment or DVDs. As a matter of fact, if you do the Google search for “Tabata Intervals” you will find the site, TabataProtocol.com, which will give interested parties an excellent outline of an interval progression.

The science behind “20-Second Fitness” is sound, but this doesn’t mean you should buy the program.

The Holidays. The time of year when many people start to stress about eating. What should be an enjoyable experience has become a problems for far too many people. And there is no shortage of meddlesome butt-in-skis who want to tell everyone else how they should eat. Talk about your Scrooges! Bah humbug to all these types, I say.

My holiday eating guidelines are very simple; eat whatever you like at parties and family get-togethers. No rules, just right, to steal some company’s advertising slogan.

And please, if you are going to bake don’t embarrass yourself and insult your guests by following any of the depressing alternative, low-fat recipes. Nothing steams my onions more than biting into a brownie that’s been made with low-fat sour cream or some other egregious, ersatz ingredient. Try an experiment; make a plate of real brownies and another of low-fat brownies, label them accordingly and see what happens. You know what happens, admit it.

And Santa knows if you dishonestly substitute these odious ingredients into your baked goods, and will deliver a healthy lump of coal into your stocking if you do so. Even you non-gentiles.

I am on record as saying the Holidays are the wrong time, the worst time, to try and make a change to your eating habits, and that food avoidance is a losing philosophy for both the fit and unfit. I don’t care if it’s this time of year or the summertime cookout season, you shouldn’t try to make a change to your eating habits when the opportunities for great eating are plenty. Trying to prove that you have willpower by changing your diet during this time of year is foolhardy, and is like an alcoholic going to a liquor convention.

For all of the types who say to me, “But Sal, you don’t have to worry about what you eat, so it’s easy for you to say!” I say, “I take care of business for the vast majority of the year so I am going to eat, and eat a lot, of the seasonal stuff that I like.” And actually, I do have sympathy and rachmones for those folks who struggle with what they eat, which is why I advise NOT to try to make changes now. Wait ’til it gets a little easier. But at the same time, I’m not going to be a nutritional goody-two-shoes and not eat what I like because of what other people say or can’t eat.

Christmas cookies and pumpkin pie and eggnog and other holiday delicacies only come around once a year; enjoy them.

So if you are the New Year’s Resolution type, another tradition that I dislike, wait until January 1, 2012. Get it out of your system and enjoy the next month or so; eat, drink and be merry knowing that in 30 days you will be making changes.

“If ever there were an episode which demonstrates the folly of the great European project then this is it.” I really wish I could take credit for crafting this line. I cannot imagine a more appropriate response to the ridiculous measure taken by the European Union in outlawing the product claim that water can prevent dehydration than this line, which was uttered by British politician Roger Helmer.

Mr. Helmer also had this to say. “The euro is burning, the EU is falling apart and yet here they are: highly-paid, highly-pensioned officials worrying about the obvious qualities of water and trying to deny us the right to say what is patently true.” Bravo, cheers, huzzah, etc. Unfortunately, it’s easy to see how this meddlesome, Nanny-State law making came about, as on both sides of the pond a soft-tyranny has become the norm.

Starting in December of 2011, bottled water producers are not allowed to make the claim that water can prevent dehydration and will face a two-year jail sentence if they do.

Thomas Jefferson said, “Ridicule is the only weapon which can be used against unintelligible propositions.” Let the ridicule begin. Don’t engage in trying to reason with the idiots in the European Food Standards Authority, make fun of them.

At a conference in Parma, Italy a group of 21 scientists concluded that not enough water content was a symptom of dehydration and not something that drinking water could effect or control. Really?!? Calling Dr. Fine, Dr. Howard, Dr. Fine…

Mr. Helmer’s line needs to be repeated. “If ever there were an episode which demonstrates the folly of the great European project then this is it.”

If Joe Paterno is half the man he has been advertised to be, he should resign before Penn State plays Nebraska Saturday. I don’t want to hear about how unfortunate it is that his career is going to end over the child molestation scandal involving Penn State and former assistant football coach Jerry Sandusky. Regardless of what actually happened, based on what we know now, Joe Paterno must resign.

I was going to write that he should be fired. But by whom, the hayseed administrators who were complicit in the attempt to cover-up what will go down as the worst sports scandal, ever? For as bad as Joe’s behavior is, if he really is a good guy who royally fucked-up, he should be wise enough to take his medicine and walk away. Come clean, apologize and step down. Give Penn State a sliver of good in this maelstrom of bad.

Penn State is scandalized, and they have only themselves to blame. And the fact Paterno may have followed the proper procedure when he reported the claims of Sandusky’s deviant behavior to his superiors means nothing. The excuse that Paterno did his job, fulfilled his responsibilities and possibly didn’t know the full extent of Sandusky’s behavior doesn’t jive with the facts, and strains credulity to boot. He was arguably the most powerful man in the state of Pennsylvania and – chain of command be damned – could have made sure the right thing was done regardless of the actions of his superiors.

If Paterno felt that the situation was being swept under the rug he could have fired Sandusky. He could have picked up the phone and called any number of people in a position of authority and gotten it done. But he didn’t.

The head coach of a football team needs to be aware of every aspect of his program and is held responsible for everything that is done by members of his coaching staff and his team. The excuse that Joe Pa didn’t know doesn’t cut it, for if he was ignorant of Sandusky’s behavior when there was a full-fledged investigation into the matter, he should be fired for incompetence.

The argument that Joe was covering for an old friend is disgusting, as it equates Sandusky’s behavior of raping 10-year old boys with taking money out of the petty cash drawer or coming to practice after having a couple of early afternoon cocktails. You can be a good friend and a good coach despite being a low-level klepto or a lush. Child rapists don’t get that benefit of the doubt. I don’t know about you, but I won’t be giving any of my buddies a mulligan after they violate some little boys.

The Paterno defenders who say they support the coach because they don’t believe he would do anything that wasn’t the right thing are as “right” as members of the Flat Earth Society.

Coaches of other programs have been fired for far lesser offenses. Coaches have been fired for a variety of ridiculous recruiting infractions and ticky-tack personal peccadillos that are minor in the face of the Penn State scandal. Resign Joe, now.

He wasn’t a doddering old man when he was derelict in his duty.

But’s let’s not lose sight of the fact that the real evil party here is Sandusky. It’s his scandal. The Penn State administrators who have done their best to make sure this situation was handled in the worse way possible all deserve to go. But it’s the Sandusky Scandal.

Sandusky has done irreparable, incalculable damage to the coaching profession. His abberant behavior has destroyed the bond of trust that exists between coaches, players and the players’ parents. There isn’t a parent in the country who will feel totally safe leaving their kids with their coaches, or any kid with any coach. Thanks to Jerry Sandusky. The Penn State administration and Joe Paterno have done their fair share of damage, as well.

It would have been horrible enough if Sandusky performed his preternatural acts, got caught and was fired, convicted and imprisoned. The fact that his employers didn’t do everything they should have, both legally and morally, is an affront to coaches, parents and players everywhere.

Resign Joe, resign.

In the aftermath of Steve Jobs’ death there has been debate regarding the course of treatment that he chose to treat his cancer. Many people have opined that the original course of action Jobs took, featuring an alternative diet, doomed him, and that those closest to him begged him to take advantage of all the conventional treatments at his disposal.

My opinion, from far too many instances of family situations, is that conventional cancer treatments are the way to go, and if people want to supplement this treatment with other treatments, fine. As a matter of fact, according to Jobs’ biographer Walter Issacson Jobs regretted his initial course of action, “He’s regretful about it… Soon everybody is telling him, ‘Don’t try and treat it with these roots and vegetables and these kinds of things…’ By the time they operate on him they notice it has spread to the tissues around the pancreas. He wanted to talk about it, how he regretted it….I think he felt he should have been operated on sooner… He said, ‘I didn’t want my body to be opened…I didn’t want to be violated in that way.’”

Perhaps this is the worst kind of hindsight. And yet Steve Jobs’ death from cancer, and the steps that he took during treatment, has served as a teachable moment for many people in the medical profession, and many doctors have taken this occasion to point out the value and proven track record of conventional cancer treatments. Many have also used this story as an opportunity to point out the problems with the Alternative Medicine approach.

Perhaps I am old-fashioned. I believe in science. I never bought the Alternative Medicine line of reasoning because I have seen how well the conventional cancer treatments work. I have also done a lot of reading and have made up my mind by doing my due diligence. I hope I never have to go through what Mr. Jobs and countless other people – including my family members – have gone through. But if I do, rest assured that I will take advantage of every option mainstream medicine can offer. I will not fall prey to the magical thinking process that exists in the reality distortion field that is promoted by Alternative Medicine.

For anyone interested in learning more about the subject, I recommend visiting ScienceBasedMedicine.org. I have found it to be an extremely valuable site.

Football has been getting a lot of attention over the past few years. Concussion awareness, and the damage caused by repeated blows to the head – concussion inducing or not – has been front page news. However, there are other, much more dangerous and deadly activities that people engage in. I’m sure nobody would be surprised to find out that people get hurt on bikes and skateboards, but I am just as sure that these same folks would be shocked to find out the scope of the injuries and deaths.

My point is not that football is a safe activity. As a matter of fact, I am on record of saying the exact opposite. However, with all the attention being paid to football, I felt a bigger problem was being ignored. I did some quick fact finding and found that, indeed, there are a lot worse activities than football, and passed this info on to a group of colleagues. Check out the me-inspired post on Dustin Fink’s theconcussionblog.com.

So here is what I found. An amazing number of people die every year from riding their bikes. In 2008, 93 kids under 15 were killed and 13,000 suffered injuries. The statistics are sobering. Check out the link.

http://www.bhsi.org/stats.htm

And then there is skateboarding. At the bottom of the post is a list of links to stories detailing accidents that have killed kids, permanently injured them, or at the time of publication brought them to deaths door. Visit the second link in the list and you will read about the parents of a kid with critical head injuries who say they are getting support from the people in the hospital room next door whose son also suffered a critical head injury a few days before.

Here’s an unofficial tally of skateboard deaths from 2006.

http://www.silverfishlongboarding.com/forum/longboarding-concrete-wave-magazine/46038-skateboarder-deaths-2006-report.html

This list is just from the past few weeks, so imagine what the list would look like if we ran a search for the year. Since skateboarding, as are many of the other “X-Games” type activities, is performed in solitude and/or without any supervision or other organizational/safety controls, the injuries – including head injuries – must be severely underreported. Certainly, the helmets used (if used at all) by skateboarders cannot truly protect the head from the repetitive contacts experienced during falls.

These injuries happen in the streets, at skateparks, parking lots and other areas of public accommodation, as well as on private property, and throughout the year; there is no skateboarding season. With the popularity of this activity the real injury numbers, and health care costs, must be staggering. Skateboarding clearly represents an extremely unsafe risk to kids and yet the sports media and their partners constantly glorify this, and other, high-risk, activities.

http://orthoinfo.aaos.org/topic.cfm?topic=a00273

http://www.khon2.com/news/local/story/Skateboarding-accident-victims-parents-speak/Kk1gpa7WGkqI7CzMCxB4lg.cspx

http://www.vagazette.com/articles/2011/10/12/news/doc4e9422c885f35591411208.txt

http://www.mailtribune.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20110923/NEWS/109230348/-1/NEWSMAP

http://www.khon2.com/news/local/story/UPDATE-Salt-Lake-boy-injured-in-skateboarding/OjKf7H-11E-CipA0zbOcqw.cspx

http://www.tulsaworld.com/news/article.aspx?subjectid=18&articleid=20110927_18_A13_OralRo811963

http://redondobeach.patch.com/articles/skateboarding-fall-nearly-kills-boy

http://www.nypost.com/p/entertainment/tv/anderson_cooper_saddened_after_teen_PU0jyFjKc5c18mZ5wjOTiK

France has announced that it will be adding an extra tax to sugary soft drinks in an effort to combat childhood obesity. The childhood obesity cover story is a sham, as this tax is just an attempt to raise revenue for a government that has spent itself into insolvency. Using the childhood obesity epidemic as a ruse to raise money is cynical, perverse and twisted.

French officials are patting themselves on the backs as they announce that this tax will raise 100 million Euros annually for the government coffers and also be used to lower social security charges on farm workers. So how is this going to fight childhood obesity? Here’s a statement from a great example of a full-of-baloney public official, French MP Gilles Carrez, “This project will have both health benefits as children turn away from sugary drinks, and revenue benefits for our core agricultural workforce.” This is the worst kind of political bullshit.

If anything, Monsieur Carrez and the French government now have a vested interest in their kids, and all citizens, drinking as much soda as possible so that they can raise money for stuff and for France’s agricultural workforce. Meanwhile, governments, so-called public health officials and citizen suckers all around the globe will applaud this maneuver. After all, it’s for the kids! If the government really cared about les enfants they would ban the drinks that are causing so much harm, or charge the fat kids and parents and adults more for consuming them. If the French had any intention of helping their citizens they would put the revenues from the sugar/fat tax into a fund that would be used for health related purposes. Yea, right.

The worst case scenario for these French phonies would be for people to truly turn away from soda and, as a result, not collect the anticipated revenue from this tax. This is as oxymoronic as you can get. Think about how foolish Monsieur Carrez’s position is. Institute a punitive tax on an “undesirable” consumable as a way to raise needed revenue, but hope that the tax dissuades people from buying the allegedly unhealthy consumable, thus not raising the needed revenue! How thrilled would the French experts be to find out that their tax really did keep people from buying regular soda?

And there’s more. Do you think the soda companies will stand to see their market share deteriorate over a couple of pennies tax? Of course not, so they will lower their price so that people don’t stop buying their product. These companies are experts at Value Engineering (lowering prices while raising profits) and will wind up making themselves, and the French government, plenty of money.

Don’t kid yourself; these fat taxes are not about health and are nothing more than a governmental money grab.

The good news about the new season of NBC’s hit television show “The Biggest Loser” is that there is no more Jillian Michaels. The bad news is that everybody else is still there.

I have heard all of the defenses of the show; it’s popular, people lose weight, it’s inspirational. These rationalizations reveal just how low we have set the bar, how little we’ve come to expect and how “un-critical” our thinking is.

The show is exploitative and anything but inspirational. A handful of people are hand-picked from a figurative sea of troubled contestants. So-called fitness professionals engage in various forms of physical and emotional abuse, employ the worst kind of pop psychology and get into areas that are beyond the appropriate scope of practice. In short, the trainers behave towards clients in a manner that would get them fired in the real world.

The show worships at the alter of weight-loss and exudes negativity, from the title of the show to the attitudes of the trainers. There have been news stories detailing the methods the show’s producers use to keep past contestants from talking in public about their experiences on the show. If the show, and the contestant experience, is so fantastic and life-changing why not allow unfettered access to those who have been lucky enough to be a part of it?

I would love to hear from the people who went through the entire process and got on the show, only to be voted off the first week because they lost only 15-pounds instead of 20. How uplifting and inspirational do you think the first week’s loser’s story is? How do you think they are doing now.

This year the contestants will have the privilege of working with under-achieving tennis player and pin-up girl Anna Kournikova. The producers of the show have lowered the bar to the point where they aren’t even aspiring to get a “celebrity personal trainer” on staff; being famous and looking good in a tennis skirt is the new criteria. Super.

Actually, since “The Biggest Loser” is an appearance-based show at least the producers upgraded their training staff. I can’t imagine anyone pining for the days of Jillian.

So let the dysfunctional, weight-loss games begin.

NOTE: This item was written on 9/19/2011. On 9/22/11 the writer’s son fractured his left forearm playing football, when attempting to break his fall to the ground after a tackle.

The idea of “safer” football is a pipe dream. Safer football – especially at the highest levels – in the context of eliminating head injuries and concussions, is no more possible than flying a jumbo jet to the moon. While equipment can be refined and improved, these changes are minor when compared to the inherent risks that are involved when big, fast,strong and mean guys run into each other at full speed with bad intent.

The best way to avoid the very real physical risks associated with playing football – at every level – is to not play football. Safer football is like a safer cigarette. If you run around and collide with big people and hit heads – and other body parts – you will get hurt, sometimes really badly. If you put a lit cigarette in your mouth that’s made from tobacco and draw the smoke into your lungs, regardless of the filter, strain of tobacco, strength of nicotine, you risk doing damage to your health. Neither is safe.

Tobacco will never be outlawed, and neither will football. Education has resulted in fewer people smoking, and the attention paid to the risks and dangers will probably have the same effect on football. Will fewer kids play? Probably. Is this a bad thing? Probably not, and for a variety of reasons.

By touting this safer football, the football industrial complex is engaged in a public relations campaign. Anyone who has ever played or coached – or plays or coaches – knows that the only safe football is no football. Despite the public proclamations, privately the football crowd knows this to be so; equipment and technique can be better and there can be rules put in place to protect players, but the game is not, never has been, and never will be, safe.

Anyone who tells you differently is being disingenuous.

I have over 40 years of football coaching and playing experience. My three sons all play football. Yet every summer when I watch the first full pads contact scrimmage I am amazed by the ferocity of the contact and that the kids get up after every play, go back to their huddles and do it again. And I am astounded that there aren’t more injuries.

Forget about head injuries. Have you ever heard a bone snap? Seen a dislocated elbow or kneecap? Heard the “pop” when an ACL blows out or had to put a dislocated finger back into place? And then there are the sprained knees and ankles, fingers and turf toe, painful all. This isn’t to say that one kind of injury is “better” than another, but to point out that the sport is brutal and that players get hurt in all kinds of ways. Most of which are not preventable.

Expecting safer football is akin to wanting safer highways; both can be relatively safer, but never safe. If you disagree check out the definitions of safe.

I am not being trite when I say the safest football is no football. If the possible injury risk bothers you, don’t play, don’t let your kids play. Football is a voluntary activity, not mandatory, not a right. The dangers have always been there and everyone who I know who plays, played, coaches or coached is acutely aware of this. A reluctant football player is a risk to himself and to his teammates. If you or your kid is unsure about playing, or if anybody who you know asks advice about what to tell someone who isn’t sure about playing football, tell them not to.

Football, just like many activities people engage in, will never be safe.