MILO BRYANT: Women, watch what you read

OK, women, it's just me and you again - a little one-on-one time, if you will. Let me tell you something I've been meaning to tell you for a while.

I love the way you attack fitness. Really, I do. You see a problem, and you want it gone yesterday. That's gusto! Love that stuff.

But, I'm having an issue here. I just can't seem to get you to stop reading those fitness magazines when you work out. It hurts me to my core to see you on the treadmill or the bike, reading about how some impossibly good-looking (read: airbrushed and Photoshopped) woman got such an impossibly good-looking body.
It hurts me because it's hurting you.

I know it's hurting you, and I wouldn't say it if there weren't proof. A recent study found that women who hit the treadmill or stationary bike and read "those" types of magazines suffered from post-exercise depression, had more anxiety and were simply in worse moods - and we should never be emotionally stressed after a workout. All that does is keep our cortisol levels high, which is the last thing we want. We want to reach a level of homeostasis as soon after leaving the gym as possible.

Ann Wertz Garvin, the study's author, is a professor of health and physical education at the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater. She said magazines with images of ultrafit people might cancel out the positive effects of exercise.

On the other hand, the 92 women who were given Oxygen magazine, O - the Oprah magazine, or nothing to read and spent 30 minutes on an exercise bike at whatever intensity level they wanted had improved moods after their workouts.

Garvin did a similar study two years ago that involved men and women. That study showed the same results as the more recent women-only study.

I think we all appreciate beautiful bodies. Many of us want one of those bodies. But few will get them.

A majority of the people we see in those magazines are models. Looking good and having a paucity of body fat is their job. Often it's their only job. They don't have to worry about taking the kids here and getting them from there. They don't have to shop or cook for five. There are no school subjects to study, no spouse to appease. All they have to worry about is making the most of the genes mom and dad gave them.

And here we are - parents, working folk and students - and we're comparing ourselves with them while we're doing things to try and look like them! How crazy are we?

Here's an idea. Let's read the magazines before the workout. Let's get a few tips from them that we can use during the workout. Let's follow up after the workout.

Let's concentrate on being the best we can be while we're actually doing something about it.

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Bryant is a former Gazette reporter now living in San Diego. He holds training certifications from the National Strength and Conditioning Association, USA Weightlifting and the Titleist Performance Institute. Reach him through the contact link at www.nobullfit.com