Exercise and Cognition

By Edward Laux

Exercise is a powerful tool for enhancing mental performance and cognitive health. Whether you want to improve your memory, enhance your problem solving abilities, reduce your risk of Parkinson’s or Alzheimer’s, or bend metal and shoot lasers with your mind – exercise has an important role to play in all but two of those activities. In particular, richer exercise regimens – regimens consisting of aerobic and resistance training methods, produce the greatest overall improvements in cognitive performance. Note, however, working out for sixteen hours each day won’t turn you into the next Stephen Hawking. There are diminishing returns, and the favorable cerebral environment promoted by exercise is only as good as the active learning that accompanies it. more

BodBot Interview with Download Astro

A brief interview during Covid-19 about BodBot, app development and the needs of our users in an unprecedented time.

Rise of the Hardbodied Woman

By Sergio Prado

Yep.

We've all seen this image on Facebook.

According to this image, voluptuous women used to be the pinnacle of the female form, but now the ideal has shifted to the lithe. To be sure, the BMI of the ideal woman has moved downward. But now, another shift is happening. A new type of woman is becoming the ideal for society: the hardbodied woman. This shift has significant implications for women and their perceived role in society. more

Become a Sex Olympian

By Edward Laux

Sex imposes a unique but rarely discussed set of fitness demands - many of which are easily trained. For the orgasm opportunist, it's important to have excellent cardiovascular fitness, strong and mobile hips, core strength and body control, and of course specific strength and endurance in the muscles of the pelvic floor. Let's examine these in turn:

The need for cardiovascular fitness is obvious – it enables you to sustain sex both for long periods of time and for short but taxing sessions. However, the benefits of cardiovascular fitness in sex do not end there. Vascular fitness in general is important for blood flow to the genitals in both sexes, having the potential to increase the strength of erections in men and the efficiency of vaginal lubrication as well as the facility of orgasm in women. Declining quality of erection in men can, in fact, be a marker for vascular dysfunction, whereas exercise, and aerobic exercise in particular, has been linked to improvements in erectile function... more

Depression and Candied Donuts

By Edward Laux

Candied donuts and modern depression share a common origin. We take simple nutritional and neuronal building blocks, over-process and over-stimulate them – strip out their fiber and social glue – remove the rigorous digestive requirement – and voila! a shining neon metabolic catastrophe! However, as tasty and colorful as that sounds – it is not pre-determined that whole grains, milk and eggs become shiny glazed donuts, nor is it predetermined or irrevocable that pristine neuronal networks become dysfunctional. We still have control over both the building blocks and the processing - you don't have to accept depression. Unlike processed foods, cognitive processes have a tremendous capacity for change and remodeling (literally from the creation of new neurons, to the connections and synapses between them, to the density of neurotransmitter receptors), and numerous methods - including exercise, nutrition and lifestyle interventions - have been shown to favorably impact both plasticity processes and depression itself.... more

Nutrition for Fat Loss

By Edward Laux

To lose weight you need to sustain a caloric deficit.

To preferentially lose fat instead of lean tissues like muscle, it is helpful to also consume a relatively high amount of protein, adequate amounts of healthy fats, and enough carbohydrate to replenish muscle glycogen and support moderate and high intensity physical activities (which will themselves also spare lean tissue)... more

Nutrition for Muscle Growth

By Edward Laux

The nutritional requirements for efficient muscle growth are straightforward: Consume a caloric surplus, an adequate amount of protein, eat an adequate amount of carbohydrate to replenish muscle glycogen, and enough essential and healthy fats... more

Nutrition for Health

By Edward Laux

In general, a diet rich in protein, healthful fats, fruits and vegetables – that minimizes processed foods high in excess sugar, sodium and trans fatty acids – will promote health and reduce risk factors for a legion of diseases.

Note that while calorie management can be an important tool for health, the quality of nutritional intake is still critically important. To illustrate the point, a 2500 calorie diet of pure sugar and trans fats (warning, don’t try this at home) vs. a 2500 calorie diet of protein, fruits, vegetables, whole grains and healthy fats will result in dramatically different health outcomes... more

Nutrition for Cognitive Health

By Edward Laux

As the rate of neuroscientific research continues to increase, the effects of diet and lifestyle on the brain are beginning to be understood in new and very interesting ways. It appears that a properly structured diet can not only reduce the risk of neurodegenerative conditions like Alzheimer’s, but also favorably impact brain plasticity processes like neurogenesis. Of course, while this is very exciting, it is probably best to understand the role of diet in cognitive performance as 1) the prevention of nutritional deficiencies and 2) the prevention of nutritional insults. Evidence for further cognitive improvements beyond these activities is limited, and your personal quest for telepathic omniscience may not be satisfied by diet alone... more

Nutrition for Sexual Health

By Edward Laux

Sexual health is intimately intertwined with cardiovascular health, and for this reason there is a tremendous overlap between this goal and general health. In men erectile dysfunction can be a predictor for cardiovascular disease, and erectile dysfunction is frequently co-morbid with cardiometabolic risks like hypertension. In women a variety of cardiometabolic risk factors are also associated with an increased prevalence of sexual dysfunction. For more information on the high level health recommendations that can improve cardiometabolic health (and thereby sexual health) - please see on the basic health goal. Now, that said, there are a few nutrients worth a slight extra consideration for sexual health: more

Nutrition for Fat Loss and Muscle Growth

By Edward Laux

Losing fat while gaining muscle can be tricky, and many people will get their best results alternating between periods explicitly devoted towards losing fat and periods devoted to gaining muscle. That said, it is certainly possible, and if you are 1) new to resistance training, or 2) coming back to resistance training after a prolonged lay-off, or 3) obese - it may be very achievable (although if you are obese, you might wish to start with fat loss as your goal)... more

Ew. Making chocolate banana pudding out of cottage cheese

By Sergio Prado

1991, rural Missouri. I'm sitting on the floor in my room with a bounty of peanut butter in front of me. I start pouring half a bag of sugar onto the peanut butter as my mother looks into the room. Her mouth agape, she shakes her head, and closes the door.

You can imagine how daunting "eating healthy" was to me when I started. Eating healthy is just code for eating food that tastes like wet sand (although my mother tells me I ate that as well…Sergio for the win.)

Apparently not. At all.

Motivated by my hedonistic love of food and enabled by my lack of shame, I've come up with many recipes/concoctions that are 1) healthy enough to be at the core of my diet, and 2) are effing tasty, almost as good as their unhealthy counterparts. more

First Post!

By Sergio Prado

Welcome to the BodBot BodBlog (the name being inspired by the following clip)

We'll be talking about our thoughts on fitness and nutrition, taking a look at the topics from a scientific, sociological, and psychological perspective.