•Hippocrates, he of oath-ic fame, was a direct descendent of the god Apollo.  That's just one of the many new ones on me that appear in this BBC piece on the famous physician's oath.  

•More on stretching, picking up from Friday:  I suppose I should be happy when stuff that fitness geeks have been saying for years finally hits the mainstream, but whenI read an article like this one, I feel like eating bon-bons and watching daytime TV:   The New York Times has a piece that basically says "Don't static stretch before a workout," a solid fitness tip that's going on ten years musty.  Good on them for spreading the word, because not enough people know about the alternative, dynamic stretching (I fielded a question about it in the comments from Friday's entry).  

I understand that if you work for the Times, you've probably got to wait at least  a few months to see if a given fitness trend sticks around or is disproved before you trumpet its benefits (stability balls, I'm talking to you!).  But come on, guys.  We knew that pre-workout dynamic stretching is useful and effective (and that static stretching before exercise isn't) a good half-decade ago.

I'd be remiss not to point out that although the authors include some valuable, if shy of revolutionary, information about dynamic stretching, they also recommend "The Scorpion," as part of their suggested warmup, and I think that's a mistake.  I've become convinced of late--primarily by Michael Boyle--that deliberate and aggressive low-back twisting, of the kind this exercise requires, is counterproductive and potentially dangerous, and that before long you'll be reading as much in Shape, Muscle and Fitness....maybe even The New York Times.

So:  you heard it here first, folks, and not from those liberal East Coast media conspirator elites!  Pretty soon there's going to be an anti-low-back twisting groundswell out there, and moves like "The Scorpion" will fall out of favor.  So I'm disagreeing with the New York Times.  Hear that, sis?  

•The other thing you'll be hearing about a lot is thoracic mobility, another Mike Boyle concept.  So be the first among your friends to visit this website and start doing the exercises they recommend.  Even if you don't get a date out of it (and seriously, how could this information not score you a date?  Thoracically mobile is the hip thing to be!), you'll feel great, and your back will thank you.  Way more than if you did a lot of scorpions.