Mo for Movember

With Movember around the corner I hope everyone is looking forward to growing their mustaches.

What is Movember?
A global movement which inspires men all around the world to grow their mustaches. It occurs every year for November and it challenges men to grow their mustaches, sign up at: movember.com

The brilliance of this is you don't need to sign up to participate, people all around the world participate simply by growing their mustaches in support of this amusing yet thoughtful cause. The cause itself is about supporting mens health and I believe it is an in genius method to raise awareness and spark interest by everyone globally.

Why the Mo?
The campaign is such a clever and unique idea, its popularity and awareness speaks for itself. Millions of people globally participate in this campaign, bit how does growing a mustache help a person support mens health?

Simply put it is a very visible tool used to spread awareness as it is right there as you wear it loud and proud. People see it and even talk to each other about growing their Mustache which spreads interest and that awareness factor of the campaign.

People being aware and interested in the campaign still doesn't mean there is any contribution towards men health. However the global reach of the campaign targets many men and with the larger the reach the more likely a person will contribute to the campaign, because simply the fact of agreeing with its purpose and conducting their own research after noticing many men sporting a mustache for the month can lead them to helping with their own contribution.

There is also the effect of its large interest appealing to businesses. This is excellent for the cause as businesses want to be seen as fun and socially responsible by supporting such a cause, especially if the majority of their target market is males.

Grow the Mo
I hope all you males out there are planning to grow your own Mo this coming Movember. You can contribute to the cause simply by growing your mustache for the month and talking about it. For you females out there support your male friends, Its not always easy socially to grow a mustache so show your support and just have fun with it.

Take it a step further and stylize that mustache fellas, the wackier the better:

I Hate to Exercise, but I Love Running from the Police in GTA5

Grand Theft Auto and Games

So here we are another recently released game where you take on the life of a vicious criminal roaming the streets and causing mayhem. I have to admit I love the games, and as of yet still need to purchase the newest addition to the GTA series.

What interests me from an exercise perspective is peoples mentality towards such games. Here I don't want to focus on how violence could effect kids yada yada yada. But I want to look at the idea that people enjoy games and exercising acts within games but otherwise avoid it at all opportunities outside of it.

An excellent example as illustrated above is riding bicycles and trying to catch moving vehicles or escape from various enemies. Of course the situations in these games are far more unrealistic then the real world and maybe this is why people enjoy it inside games yet despise it outside of it.


Are Kids becoming desensitized towards exercise?

This desensitized term is much more popular in the violence context yet it is very applicable to exercise as well. Movies and video games are becoming increasingly violent which lead to people arguing that kids become desensitized towards it, but what does this mean? Desensitizing is making people less sensitive towards something, meaning they are less likely to react favorably or negatively towards something as it becomes commonplace.

So Why do i think people becoming less sensitive towards exercise is a bad thing? Simply because they don't look on it favorably which is ideally what you want to achieve in order to get people exercising. It becomes commonplace for kids to exercise in games and not think about doing it in real life because maybe its less effective or exciting.

Are there ways to make exercising more exciting and game like then? There is, especially with the advances in technology and the growing popularity of the Xbox Kinnect, and Playstation Move.

Xbox Kinnect/ Playstation Move a step in the right direction for gaming

I believe this is a small but very significant step towards combining exercise with gaming. Yes, I am aware of Wii type games being out for a while now and providing a very active atmosphere for the players. I do feel however the Wii console isn't that used by more serious gamers, I believe that these serious gamers revolve around bigger consoles such as the Xbox and Playstation and even PC.

These serious gamers can be more of a problem to target and the brilliance of providing a chance to move which in turn effects the game is a masterstroke. For thos who are not familiar with the Kinnect or Move these are like cameras being set up which track a persons movement to some degree and this can effect a characters motion within the game.

It is a small movement change but it is a start in the right direction I believe, especially if it becomes popular among gamers. time will hopefully tell that it does and this increase in movement may even be enhanced further with more advanced technology, the possibilities are endless.

What does the Future Hold?

Granted the above clip doesn't show an increase in movement but if you think beyond this room becoming part of the world to a person also joining the mix, standing up running or walking on spot to get to place in the game/room.

There is so much possibilities with the exponential technological growth we are seeing today. Not just in the gaming world but everywhere such as medically helping people who are paraplegic to walk again.

There is also however the flip side to this technological advancement if nurtured wrongly we could see a more lazy society. This I see as the more likely, we as human beings constantly strive to make our lives easier it seems, Technology is arguably a means to this end.

I believe we need to control this technological advancement and focus it in the right places to help society grow but keep people active and healthy at the same time.

If anyone else has seen any upcoming technological advances they believe may have some good or even bad impact on people exercising I would love to see it.

Exercise vs Healthy Eating, Which is the better option?

In an imperfect world we find people are often choosing one or the other.

Ideally people should do both to be healthier and possibly prevent a range of different potential illnesses. However it has been my experience people are happy with simply doing one or the other and expecting results.

So which is better?

I guess this would depend on what you want to achieve, maybe you feel dead on your feet all the time and with no energy in which case food may be the way to choose. on the other hand you may feel you need to lose some weight or cant walk as far as you would like, in which case exercise would probably be the better choice.

I for one eat quite unhealthier yet am a big exerciser. I believe this is the better option then one whom is a healthy eater but does not exercise. I believe it is the better option for a few reasons:

1. Exercise is often far more cheaper then purchasing healthier food.
2. Is more effective at helping losing weight and keeping fit.
3. Helps deal with stress.

Here is 20 great other reasons exercise helps: http://www.health24.com/Fitness/Exercise/20-proven-benefits-of-exercise-20120721
My personal favorite is number 13: Exercise is great for your sex life.


Eat more healthily or exercise more?

Walking to Live Forever

"Walking just 15 minutes a day can extend your life by as much as 3 years." BUPA

Okay so you probably won't live forever by simply walking every day, but it could extend your life. This seems like a pretty big statement to make however there is some connections that can be made.

I can list the health benefits that are linked with this but that is something I'm sure most people are somewhat already aware of. I would instead like to pose a question, Would you walk 15 minutes a day if you knew for certain 3 years would be added to your life?

For me I don't think I would and I feel others are the same. What is another 3 years to someones life?

Sure I feel like this now with a full life ahead of me but ask me again in 30 or 40 years and I may feel different. Then its a trade off of sorts, as we don't wanna walk now because we see no or little health problems while younger but as we age we can feel the effects of ageing.

So do we walk now to better our health for the future or not worry about it till we hit that age when it may be too late?

Make Walking Fun

I came across this video a university lecturer shared with me

I think it is an amazing creative concept to get people using the stairs more often. Today we see stairs next to escalators leaving the consumer two choices the easier choice (escalators) is almost always chose. The reason behind this is simple, both get a person to a destination but one provides less effort and is a lot quicker at getting there. Ask yourself seriously what would you chose?

In buildings today we even see when entering elevators situated right in front of us. The stairs are tucked away at the back of the building and are often ugly concrete type things in comparison to well designed colourful elevators. This is an issue in buildings today, something needs to change in the design of these buildings in order to help promote walking and stair use.

This play theory is one example, obviously not applicable everywhere but simply making the stairs more accessible and colourful could increase the amount of people using it. Anyone else noticed where they work or just in large office buildings how stairs are often tucked away around the back, or even only included for fire escape purposes?