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Some of you may or may not know Antigone - Tig as she’s known around the gym - as she is one of our loyal and consistent 6am crew. Always early and always ready to go. Now don’t get me wrong, she is tired like the rest of us and by far is the most mentally fried. You see, for the past few months she has been pulling her hair out and bashing her face into her monitor staring at her thesis. But now she is done (sort of…just finishing her revisions). Thesis is defended, PhD granted and you can call her Doctor Oreopoulos.
I’ve watched her show up day in and day out and punish her body to get better. She is one of the most critical judges of self I’ve seen as she uses every opportunity to hone her skills as a lifter. Not new to a weightroom, Tig is a former Powerlifter and wrestler at the U of A and is now a full blown SPARKer. While she seeks perfection on her skills I will continue to use her to hone mine. She always has questions, always wants that next step and critique and I get answers to lots of my questions through her…I get her to ask her boyfriend stuff about lifts for me as he is a competing Powerlifter himself - and if I’m not mistaken also a doctor. MD, not PhD. You know, the real kind of doctor (HA HA, just kidding Tig, I tease my Brother in law like that all the time).
Anyway, Phd is done and she just got a little media play because of her research. She just got some page time in a U of A newsletter and in the Edmonton Journal (thats where I got these pictures from so credit to them) as she is getting published in the journal Mayo Clinic Proceedings. Tig did a little debunking on the good old BMI charts and has shown they are not the best determinant for body fat for heart failure patients - and in my humble opinion for anyone.
You can read the articles Here and Here.
Don’t let this go over your head, you all know what BMI charts are…they’re on the wall of pretty much every doctor’s office. It’s the colorful chart that looks like a growth chart but determines if you are overweight or not. I call Bullshit but insuance companies love it. As a male at 5′9″ tall and 200lbs that chart considers me obese which means my life insurance premiums are higher than they would be if I stopped lifting and became a skinny bastard.
Congrats Tig! Keep debunking all the crap out there.
Post Thoughts to Comments.
July 22nd, 2010 at 10:15 am
Congrats Antigone! Your hard work and drive at SPARK is definitely an inspiration for us 6 am-ers
July 22nd, 2010 at 10:19 am
Thanks Karie!
And thanks very much for this Kim. As I always tell people I am twice the person I would have been otherwise from wrestling for 5 years, I also believe I am a better person (and athlete of course) for training at your gym and under your instruction.
And by the way I have the answer to your last powerlifting question, courtesy of the ‘real doctor’.
Antigone
July 22nd, 2010 at 10:38 am
Fantastic job Antigone! You always inspire me at the gym as well. Keep up the awesome work!
July 22nd, 2010 at 11:51 am
Thanks Michelle!
By the way Kim, I showed this to my dad (my best pal), and he thinks you are “very clever”.
July 22nd, 2010 at 11:54 am
“the real doctor!” hahaha.
Antigone, this is a great article about your research and you deserve all the props from the media….and from Kim too! Thanks for all the 6am tips (ie. skipping) it’s a pleasure to work out with you.
July 22nd, 2010 at 12:46 pm
Holly - likewise…you make me try to run faster to keep up with you and I appreciate that :p But thank you so much for the comment.
July 22nd, 2010 at 3:43 pm
Congrats! We may never meet, as 6am does not exist in my life, but rock on!!
July 22nd, 2010 at 4:07 pm
Congrats to you, and all your hard work. Interesting that just today at work we took a guy to the Royal Alex. They had a scale and a bmi chart, according to the chart im at risk.
July 22nd, 2010 at 5:46 pm
Great work Antigone
July 22nd, 2010 at 5:56 pm
Thanks guys. Darren - you’re missing out on the 6am workouts. We’re a special bunch
July 22nd, 2010 at 8:35 pm
Congrats Antigone. I read the article first thing this morning. Great insight and keep plugging away at those 6am’s with Jonny or Kim. I might swing by sometime if I’m on my way home from an all-nighter.
July 23rd, 2010 at 8:04 am
Thanks very much Sliv. Yeah you should come to a 6am class!!!
July 23rd, 2010 at 10:48 am
WOW Congrats what an amazing feeling that must be!!! When I’m waiting for my 7am to start you and your “guns” inspire me and also make me jealous
July 23rd, 2010 at 11:25 am
Tig’s guns make ME jealous! Way to go Antigone!
July 23rd, 2010 at 3:06 pm
haha thanks very much. I have my genetics to for the guns, except when dress shopping and they prevent me from fitting the shoulders, and then I curse the genetics.
July 23rd, 2010 at 4:51 pm
So the story got picked up in quite a few places…I browsed through the headlines, and the best one yet is “Antigone Oreopoulos solves the Obesity Paradox in heart failure (approximately)”. Pretty funny I think, yet creative. But I panicked when I saw it at first, then noticed the “(approximately)”. It’s interesting to me how when you talk to a reporter - you do not get to see the final product before it gets printed, and that can cause anxiety hoping they don’t twist your words or say something that isn’t true and could get you in trouble.
July 24th, 2010 at 7:03 am
Very impressive….Congatulations!!!
July 24th, 2010 at 7:00 pm
i cant wait to show this to my mother who has always beileved according to the charts she reads in the Drs office that i should be 125 lbs….lol could you imagine!!!!