Podium Talk

It's prevalent to encounter lifting advice in the gym. This one is as old as it gets. Let's examine it and see if it is a myth or a scientific truth. In my opinion, the squat is the godfather of all the lower body exercises. It has numerous variations and is an exercise that, once perfected for an individual, can be overloaded very effectively. It’s relatively safe to perform, with some equipment like the safety bar and the smith machine amplifying this quality. Although being a fundamental movement that is so essential to us even in our daily lives, there are many misconceptions around it which I need to face as a healthcare professional and a lifter. Somebody once decided that the knees going past the toes is apparently harmful and risky for the knees. Rationalisation was provided on the basis that this will limit the compressive stress and tension on the tendon of the quadriceps muscle, which in turn should prevent the inflammation of the tendon and knee pain. Even large res...

Many questions come into our minds before we can even take our first step toward fitness. Physical exercise might be the simplest yet one of the most efficient and consistent way to improve mental health, productivity, creativity and prevent illnesses. You might have been told several times about how good it is, and you’ve finally started out. Or you have been exercising for quite a while already. Wherever you are on your journey, I think it's always a great idea to cover the foundation, take a look back and reflect, if need be. The Why First and foremost, you must be aware of the why. Why is it that you are working out? Is there a goal? It can be very specific (eg. to have a body fat percentage below 15), or vague and abstract (eg. to become stronger). There is no golden formula, so pick what speaks personally to you. Having this covered would help you move forward consistently, and we can focus on more technical things from here on. Learning basic movement patterns and mastering ...

The kind of skepticism that can help us from being misled by research with radical and bold claims on topics of nutrition and its health outcomes. What is the perfect diet? How about keto or paleo? Vegan or carnivorous? It’s not that easy to answer. I doubt it is something we even have the answer for. The thing about nutrition is that it is extremely difficult to control diets for a significant period to note their effects. It’s even harder to monitor the consistency of nutrient composition of the same food at different times and places, not to forget about the tedious task of measuring the net weight (which can be either wet or dry weight). Even if all of this is taken care of, we need to understand that different people process the same food differently. There are just too many variables. Many studies are done on a particular population, concentrated on a certain geographic location and supposedly consuming a particular type of diet. You can see how this hardly counts as scientific. ...