Monday, June 15, 2015

Whatever She's Doing, It's Working

Salma Hayek revealed to People magazine on Thursday that she doesn't really exercise.

Instead, the 48-year-old mother-of-one maintained that she just has great posture. 'I don't exercise... I just hold my body in a way that activates muscles all day long,' the wife of fashion executive François-Henri Pinault said.


Just holding herself upright is plenty of work. . .

Maybe she's too young to have heard about one of the exercise fads from the golden age of my youth "isometrics", where you don't actually move the muscles to be strengthened; you work them in opposition to other muscles or unyielding objects:
Isometric exercises are contractions of a particular muscle or group of muscles. During isometric exercises, the muscle doesn't noticeably change length and the affected joint doesn't move. Isometric exercises don't effectively build strength but can help maintain muscle strength — often in a rehabilitative setting.

Because isometric exercises are done in one position without movement, they'll improve strength in only one particular position. You'd have to do various isometric exercises through your limb's whole range of motion to improve muscle strength across the range. In addition, since isometric exercises are done in a static position, they won't help improve speed or athletic performance. They can be useful, however, in enhancing stabilization — maintaining the position of the affected area — since muscles often contract isometrically to aid in stabilization.
Sounds perfect for an actress whose job might not be particularly athletic, but which might entail holding poses and repeated attempts to shoot scenes.

Wombat-socho has the weekly compendium up at The Other McCain: "Rule 5 Sunday: Pipe Dreams."







1 comment:

  1. In the words of the greatest Mexican of all, El Kabong, "Ho-LAY!".

    I imagine a lot of guys wouldn't mind holding her body for a while to give her a little breather.

    PS "isometrics", a word I haven't heard since the early 60s/

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