Friday OS 18: Health News Roundup: Finasteride or Turkey? A hip strength health hack; seed oil-free pizza in NYC; Chet Hanks bald?
All the wellness demonic or otherwise news that's fit to print
FRIDAY. Shabbat on the way, the Ottawa Senators (team of destiny) waxing the three best teams in the Eastern Conference and playing like dogs possessed. Worked out at Columbus Park on Thursday and washed down the sweat with a bowl of pho (with the crap in it) and lychee drink. Open Secrets. Nice out finally. Cutting weight otherwise every day and then bulking around Labor Day so I can look like this guy in December (except no red hair). Open Secrets. The ONLY health aggregation email that surfs between the lines of full health psychosis and being completely normal.
What we cover here, for those new to the program: peptides, CASEIN protein powder, other (animal) protein (powders… not powders), running, SPRINTING, gelatin, linoleic-acid removal mechanisms (for health), citrus-peel to the face and maybe blended up with some water, skincare as diet, nicotine patches, nicotine tabs and the people that love them, nerve flossing AKA reverse Tai Chi aka high-level band work, thoracic spine mobility, lower back strength (super strength) post-DHT/bloodflow theories of hair growth, post-calories in/out models of fat loss, severe macros mastery, GHk-Cu and Wolverine, Dr. Raymond Peat, sunlight titration, understanding written coverage of obscure and basic fitness and dark wellness concepts, EMOM workouts (look it up), pleasant-looking zero-drop shoes, vibratory therapy (movement), cotton head to toe, cave-person skincare, strength, curly hair, eye color lightening and more. Nobody who understands these topics writes about this. Snake Super Health Open Secrets.
Today’s newsletter covers: a guide to low-glyphosate beers (surprising); an artistic remake of a stone cold classic sports movie; a Canadian province finds a way to make grocery store shopping morally acceptable; the most Ray Peat coffee there is (more than the gelatin version); a sick new way of competing at the gym—and a measured argument about getting over broads-only gyms; The Second Sex, looksmaxxers, trans women, male bodybuilders and the testosterone continuum; one of the Kardashians takes over a haircare line; my new hack that’s better than a standing desk; this week’s best fitness writing on Substack and the best seed-oil free slice shop in New York. Plus: Calisthenics.
Onto it:
Snake Super Health group workout at Columbus Park on Sunday at noon ET. Substack won’t let me embed IG post but info is here:
Calisthenics, all levels welcome. Ten folks last week lifting in the rain; running it in Chinatown again for dry weather. (Location.) All welcome, new people dropping in all the time, everyone breaks a sweat and gets a nice safe TOUGH workout whether they can do a pull-up or not. I’ll have bands for warmups and assisted work.
Next week is Calisthenics Week on Snake Super Health: a post a day involving everything you need to know about the sport: diet, programming, spots, literature, what it is, etc. More action in the chat. Ask a question in there and I’ll cover it:
New to Snake Super Health? Start here:
Full list of news updates; the latest covers a baldness cure, a new sick toothpaste, peptide legislation, tanning and silica’s beneficial effectts on keratin and collagen synthesis
Podcast archive. The latest episode is about looksmaxxing.
More news:
PRK Grub Street Diet: shout outs this quite healthy list: obscure sourdough, Greek yogurt, ceviche, and a go-to (if mid-plus) seed oil-free slice shop Upside Pizza. Effortlessly elite; not a surprise coming from Patrick Radden Keefe. There hasn’t really been a psycho GSD in a while, though.
Waiting for the first GSD that narratively contends with vegetable oils—an all seed-oil free Grub St. Diet. Or a seed-oil forward GSD: seed oil maximization. I mean honestly… if you have a health psycho GSD, maybe we do it here? Should we?
I have one in the works honestly with another Substacker (I logged my diet for a week; she’s supposed to eat what I eat) but she’s pregnant now so it’s been tabled. Mine might be either too boring or demonic to publish. Tuesday: 18 hard boiled eggs and a pomegranate. Wednesday: 16 hard boiled eggs and four kiwis. Thursday: 7 Big Turk bars (freeze dried) and a thimbleful of bee pollen. Friday: fast. Shabbat: steak. Sunday: I place a beer stein of canola oil across from my desk to scare me into working harder; six apples. Monday: chili.
Your move, NY Mag.
I enjoyed reading about Hyrox here in the Times. Hyrox is, effectively, a licensed functional circuit race, like crossfit but more structured and without the workout changing by day: it’s SkiErg (awesome), sled push and pull, burpee broad jumps, rowing, farmer carry, sandbag lunges and wall balls. You gotta do it in a Hyrox gym I believe. The story frames the competition as something like Tough Mudder but for more regular people; they interview the owner of The Fort gym in Manhattan (first OG like $6K/m gym; a decade ago styles) who says as much.
It seems great. More competently programmed than CrossFit. It’s kind of safe, esp. compared to CrossFit. XF is kind of…injury prone because it programs neurologically complex exercises, like barbell snatches, for speed (and shearing exercises like kip pullups). This a problem since when you get tired and speed things up, form breaks down and the wrong muscles take over. If it’s a neurologically complex exercise with no safe bail, injury rates can skyrocket, especially for gen pop people. (Don’t ever do multiple snatches for speed.) But the eight Hyrox exercises here seem safe even when rushed. Maybe the lunges are tricky—but provided a warmup they seem OK. Even with farmer carries, you can just drop the weight. Above this, the lifts are quite functional. Most impressive to me is that it seems fun. I like the idea of gen pop people going after internalized goals—win a race, improve—over chasing ones set by society (weight loss?) or a trainer or doctor. Nothing wrong with the last two, it’s just more enjoyable, and has the same results. The related business-side story is that Hyrox signed a deal with a number of independent gyms.
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A few Substack pieces I liked this week:
This by Mikala Jamison that argues against women-only gyms—that “the intimidation factor of the gym….came from me not knowing what I was doing yet and seeing a lot of people (often, a lot of men) who did”—and that “I’m well within my rights to move around some dudes, grab the weights, and stand there in the same square footage to do my workout. It is not impolite or annoying for me to ask a man how much time he has left on the machine because I’m waiting for my turn.”
Deeply true. Coming from someone who’s been working out at gyms for a couple of decades, at different sizes and capability: The gym is for everyone. It’s especially for people just starting to lift weights, or run or get strong. It’s especially for small people. I think it also has to be noted: any really big intimidating guy lifting in a commercial gym might be selling themselves short, and would be best off upgrading their membership to a real black iron gym, or a PL gym where they’re the weakest one there. That they’re not is probably them being intimidated as well. Don’t ever get shook from a big mover at a gym.
This one about sports bras not being innovated quickly enough. Not my area of expertise but fascinating. We’ve “innovated” athletic clothes from cotton (good enough for rugby players) into synthetic demon poly; but those things aren’t better, they’re just newer. But sports bras, which are actual performance-affecting apparel, get short shrift.
This thorough Twitter thread by Dr. Howard Luks about tendon health; also in this Substack post and, I have to mention, roughly similarly addressed by this calisthenics influencer/head I’ve linked to before.
Been buying home gym stuff; a weighted vest for mobbing around, gym rings, grip strength straps, that foot balance board (no pic). Set up my rings at home: