The Skinny on Fitness Mags

Choose your gym-time reading material wisely

by Peter Gilstrap
Posted June 30th, 6:00am | Science/Health

Want to do a little pre-shopping prep? You peruse Vogue. Concocting an interesting entrée and vino combo? Reach for Food & Wine. Considering breaking out the rod and rifle for a bit of blood sport? You pick up Field & Stream. Obvious examples of how a magazine can inspire and compliment an action, but just where you’d expect a glossy to pump your pumping up—a trip to the gym—it doesn’t.

In fact, a copy of some fitness publication featuring images of cut, glistening, aerobicized women can be a girl’s worst friend come gym time, according to a study conducted by University of Wisconsin health and physical education professor Ann Wertz Garvin. The prof asked 92 college coeds to spend 30 minutes on a stationary bike reading either health pub Oxygen, Winfrey pub Oprah, or nothing at all.

Instead of being energized by what they saw on the pages, the huffing and puffing Oxygen group “were more anxious, depressed and in an all-around poorer mood after exercise than before.” Guess what? The Oprah readers found their post-exercise mood improved. The muscle at Oxygen is apparently unfazed. “Oxygen recommends against reading books and magazines, or chatting away on cell phones, which will merely deflect from maximizing effort and meeting one’s goals,” stated group editorial director Jerry Kindela.

He shouldn’t feel too bad; the women who read nothing at all during the study felt as good as the gals who read Oprah.

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