Ironman Fitness: Craig Alexander On Music, Tracking Tech And Ageing 
10 Stubborn Exercise Myths That Won't Die, Debunked By Science 
How Sitting All Day Is Damaging Your Body, And How You Can Counteract It 
Upgrade Your Health And Fitness Routines This Weekend 
Five Best Fitness Tracking Web Sites And Services 
How To Get A Full Body Workout With Nothing But Your Body Dear Lifehacker,
I’ve recently hopped over the initial hump of getting myself exercising regularly, but I’m having trouble finding a balance between pushing myself too hard and not pushing hard enough. Is there a way to find a sweet spot where I’m working out hard enough, but not killing myself?
Sincerely,
Hard(ly) Working
Fitocracy, your favourite fitness tracking site, is now out of private beta. To celebrate the public launch, the team behind the site has completely redesigned the site and revealed a new, feature-packed iPhone app to help you track your activity and participate in challenges on the go.
Over the weekend, five-time world champion ironman Craig Alexander won the inaugural Melbourne Ironman triathlon challenge, setting an Australian time record in the combined swimming, cycling and running event. He chatted to Lifehacker about how music choice and technology can improve training, and the advantages of being an older athlete.
A team of researchers at the University of Colorado in Boulder measured the metabolic burn of a dozen experienced barefoot/barely shod runners and found that, contrary to current trends in running, running with lightweight shoes actually burned 4 per cent less energy than running barefoot.
Standard advice for anyone working at home is to have a dedicated area, get dressed for work, and separate the whole process from your home life. Novelist Jeanette Winterson has an unusual way to ensure that happens: she “cycles” to work on a stationery bike before she begins the writing day.
“No pain, no gain!” “You’ll never bulk up without supplements.” “Crunches are the key to six-pack abs!” It seems there are more questions and half-truths in the market about healthy exercise than there are clear, definitive facts — but the exercise industry is a multi-billion dollar business, built partially on selling gadgets and DVDs with incredible claims to people desperate to lose weight or look attractive. Meanwhile, good workout plans and simple truths lurk in the background waiting for their time to shine. All of this results in lots of misinformation about exercise. We’re taking some of those commonly-held exercise myths to task, and we have science to back us up. Let’s get started.
iOS: Not motivated to start running? Would it help if you were trying to escape a pack of brain-hungry zombies? If the possibility of a gruesome death is enough to get your legs moving, Zombies, Run! is an app that will get you going.
As ridiculous as it sounds, I completely wore myself out this weekend by performing a series of exercises that I found on YouTube using a single medium-sized towel. If you’re looking for a simple exercise routine you can do almost anywhere, that requires very little time and basically no equipment, you’ll want to give this a try.
Dear Lifehacker,
According to the New York Times, interval training is the Lifehacker’s shortcut to exercise and fitness. If 20 minutes of exercise a day is enough to seriously improve my fitness, I’m game, but I’m not sure what interval training is all about or how to get started. What do I need to know?
Sincerely,
Workout Shortcut
When we lift free weights, we like to take a weight in each hand to keep ourselves nice and balanced, but according to health and fitness site Livestrong.com, this isn’t an ideal strategy. An imbalance of weight can actually provide a better workout and exercise more than just the muscles you’re currently targeting:
