SNEWS best fitness reads from around the web

What did the SNEWS team learn this week that other fitness insiders might find interesting? Read on to find out.

• As you’re reading this, we’re counting down the minutes until the usher at the United Artist theater takes our ticket stub for “Magic Mike.” We don’t know exactly what the movie’s about, but half-naked Matthew McConaughey and Tatum Channing? Yes, please! Read this Access Hollywood story to find out how McConaughey got in perfect shape for the movie, and have it handy for those aspiring male strippers that will be coming into your stores after their girlfriends and wives come home raving about the flick.

• We’ve been keeping our friends on Facebook updated on all the TransRockies run training we’ve been doing. Turns out, according to this CNN story, that’s pretty annoying. For us, and countless others who post their workouts on Facebook (or Daily Mile, which has an option to automatically post workouts to Facebook) it’s somewhat of an accountability tool. For our Facebook friends it’s the reason they hide our posts. Suggest that your customers to post to Facebook about the cool new stuff they bought at your store, but not their daily workouts. 

• We’ve read in several articles during the SNEWS Reads lifetime that gyms are not the most welcoming place in the world for folks who are overweight. Well, according to this New York Daily News story, a gym in Canada is turning skinny people away, saying it only caters to overweight people. We smell a skinny-people class action lawsuit soon.

• The SNEWS team loves nothing more than a good weight-loss chronicle. This one follows a man in England who tried out tons of great fitness gadgets — focusing on one per week for eight weeks — to see if they actually worked. The fellow lost 20 pounds and now lives a healthier lifestyle, after his technologically inspired journey. This is a super-fun, inspirational read. Plus, it gives a shout-out to the Couch-to-5K program (and its iPhone app), which we used to get into running several years ago.

• Turns out that warm weather inspires people to exercise more than cooler temperatures, according to this Huffington Post article. That may seem like a no-brainer, but it’s good news for retailers as the record-breaking heat in some parts of the country can drive these motivated exercisers through your doors.

• While Zumba doesn’t currently sell anything through specialty fitness retailers, it still might be important to know that the Latin-infused aerobic dance sensation is not just a fitness class — it’s now a business empire. This Reuters story chronicles the rise of this craze and what’s made it so popular and profitable.

• After being involved in a lifelong battle with acne, this release on the Houston Chronicle’s website about a workout video released by Ideal Fitness Trends to cure acne piqued our interest. We are skeptical as the video supposedly blames all acne on the type of food we eat. 

• We know why you’re in this industry: You’re a fitness junkie. Admit it. So mosey on over to this Shape slideshow to see which of the many fitness blogs out there were crowned as one of the top 20 Best Blogger Awards.

• We feel like we read this story at least six or seven times, but turns out moderate exercise helps cut breast cancer risk. Women who did even just a small amount of exercise cut their risk of breast cancer by 6 percent, but those who exercised 10 to 19 hours a week cut their risk by 30 percent, according to this Time Magazine article.

• We love mythbuster articles like this one in the Sierra Sun, which dispels the notion that working muscles in isolation is most effective. Though about a year ago SNEWS reported on the rise of instability training products because of this very belief, this article further explains the reason behind it.

–Compiled by Ana Trujillo