This calls for celebration! My first ever guest posts can now be found at Balancing Tenderfoot, which is a health and lifestyle blog written by my friend Karla :)

What started as a post about why everyone should do resistance training grew into two separate pieces; one about the health benefits of human growth hormone, and the other about how to do resistance training efficiently in order to stimulate its production, without spending a ton of time in the gym.

While at it, I'd also recommend checking this great post about how self-image can be a burden, and how to improve it. Another one of my favorites on Balancing Tenderfoot is about the physiological effects of being criticized, and what to do in order to lessen the tension caused by negative feedback.

I think this is a good opportunity to also highlight some other blogs that I subscribe to, or otherwise follow regularly. I'll give a brief description about the blog itself and couple of my favorite articles as an example of what you might expect from reading that blog. I tried to pick ones that I feel would be the most interesting to my readers.

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There is a single possession that you will have from birth to death. Something that you cannot leave behind and will always follow you. The way you take care of this thing will also have an effect on everything else that takes place during your life. I am, of course, referring to your body.

Considering the importance of this marvelous machinery that has evolved during millions of years, wouldn't you agree that it's worthwhile to make sure it functions at an optimal level throughout your whole life? Your body is much more than just a means of transportation for your mind. It has an enormous impact on your self-image, mood, mental and physical performance, and how others perceive you. So are you taking good care of it?

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Couple months ago, I stumbled upon some articles arguing that expensive running shoes are actually not good for you. Now, what interests me in this topic is, that I have been running actively since I was 14 years old. However, some time around my 18th birthday I strained my knees during one run. It started at first with a slow pain on both sides of the kneecaps (I can't remember anymore which leg), and then started to get more intense and spread around. I tried to keep running back home, but the pain became so severe I just couldn't anymore. In retrospect, I would have been much better of if I had just stopped running at the point when the pain started to emerge and walked back home.

For the following week I was barely able to walk. My knee had become so stiff that bending the leg was a chore on itself. As time went by I started to slowly gain back mobility, but ever since I have not been able to do any long distance running. My knees are simply way too unpredictable; sometimes they start hurting after 20 minutes, whereas sometimes I can go for an hour or so without any signs of pain.

The first article made a case in point, that expensive running shoes are actually worse for you and cause more injuries than cheap alternatives with less cushion. With overly cushioned running shoes many of the feet muscles do not develop normally as you gain strength and endurance, and when you increase the distance or intensity of your runs this becomes a problem.

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