Month: March 2019

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Confession: I spend most of my day staring at glowing rectangles. Even at a publication like Outside, staffers are inside a lot of the time, typing and swiping away.

And those screens emit blue wavelengths of light. We want this blue light during the day: it keeps us awake and alert. But prolonged exposure to it, especially at night, has shown to mess with our sleep patterns. “When the sun goes down, our body is expecting to have darkness, to prepare for sleep,” says Lisa Ostrin, assistant professor at the University of Houston’s College of Optometry. Exposure to blue light decreases the production of melatonin, the sleep hormone in our body. “It releases when it’s dark and helps prepare our body for sleep,” she says. “Now we have all this artificial light while we’re looking into our devices, and it’s telling our bodies that it’s still daytime and we should be awake.”

This epidemic—some would say paranoia—has led to a whole industry of companies trying to prevent screen users from getting overexposed. You can find desktop apps like F.lux, which decrease the blue light from your monitor as it gets darker outside, or physical screen covers, such as Purp’s, which block blue light from your smartphone. For iPhone owners, the built-in night-shift function decreases the device’s blue-light production. 

Then there are companies like Felix Gray, Zenni, and Gunnar, among others, that have developed eyewear designed to filter out blue light. The brands say that their lens technologies—like special polymers and filtering solutions built into the lenses and tinted coatings—block blue light.

These brands also claim that their glasses combat digital eyestrain—one of the effects of staring at screens for long periods of time. Symptoms include headaches, dry eyes, and general irritation. The American Optometric Association has coined this computer vision syndrome. But Ostrin disputes that blue light itself contributes to the problem of eyestrain. There’s “no direct evidence that blue light from digital devices causes damage to your eyes,” Ostrin says. Still, the act of staring at screens for upward of ten hours every day felt problematic any way I approached it, and I wanted to keep my eyes healthy.

I was both intrigued by and skeptical of these glasses. I’d been searching for a solution to the headaches that kicked in after long days in front of a screen (which usually resulted in me gulping down more coffee, providing a temporary fix until the caffeine buzz wore off) and the worry that watching Netflix before bed was frying my eyes and keeping me awake. So I decided to review three pairs in hopes that my test would provide answers to two questions: Will my eyes feel any differently after wearing the shades? And can they help me get better, or at least more, sleep?

The studies are promising.In 2017, Ostrin and her team conducted one to see if blue-light-blocking glasses affected sleep. She had subjects wear the glasses for two weeks from about 8 P.M. until they went to bed. “We measured their melatonin levels at nighttime and in the morning, before and after they wore the glasses at night,” Ostrin says. After two weeks, she and her team found that the subjects’ nighttime melatonin levels had increased by about 58 percent. “Which is huge,” she says. “We also found that our subjects, on average, slept for an extra 24 minutes. Subjectively, all of the subjects—every single one—said they slept better and woke up feeling more rested.”

Additionally, a 2009 study at the University of Toledo found that adults who wore amber lenses that blocked blue light had significantly better sleep over three weeks.

For my own two-week experiment, I tested nonprescription blue-light-blocking glasses from the three brands I mentioned before—Felix Gray, Zenni, and Gunnar—and recorded how I felt. (After seeing a few Instagram ads for these glasses, I did some research and picked these brands since they had a considerable amount of positive customer reviews.) For five days during the week, I wore a pair of blue-light-blocking glasses while at my office computer and then from 5 P.M. until bedtime, which was whenever I felt sleepy. I tried to wear each pair for the same amount of time each week, and I changed frames daily. For the two other days of the week, I left the glasses off and shut down any blue-light-reducing apps on my screens.

The three companies don’t share a standard blue-light-blocking rating, so my subjective take on how much blue light they blocked was measured two ways: how harsh my screen (at full brightness) felt on my eyes and my energy levels after a session of screen time with the glasses on. 

With the glasses on, I noticed some immediate differences: the light from my screens didn’t look as harsh, my buzzing headaches became less frequent, and my eyes didn’t feel zapped at the end of the day. While the glasses had varying levels of blue-blocking intensity, I noticed the biggest changes with Gunnar’s darker, more yellow-tinted lenses. 

Gunnar Mod Glasses ($100)

In my opinion, the Gunnar glasses have the strongest filter of the three, thanks to the custom tint and the lens coating, which softened the look of any light-emitting devices and cut down on screen glare, respectively. If you’re a night owl or often work late, I recommend you try these. Since I tested the Mods with an amber lens tint, everything in view did appear more yellow. Gunnar does offer different lens tints (as well as prescription options) if you don’t want to distort the color of the images on your screen.

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Zenni Blokz Blue Blocker Lenses ($25 and up)

The Zennis, which have a blue-light-absorbing polymer, are handy for checking e-mail in the morning when you don’t need as much blocking power and want a lighter option. But at night, the Zennis were not as effective as the Felix Grays or Gunnars. The light from my screens still penetrated through, and I felt awake even as I was trying to wind down. Still, at $25, they’re an affordable option for easygoing blue-light protection. Zenni also offers a wide selection of prescription frames if you’re looking to add the technology to your everyday glasses. 

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Felix Gray Nash Glasses ($95)

Out of the three, Felix Gray’s glasses were the Goldilocks option. The company bakes a blue-light-filtering solution into each of its frames to prevent any blue-light-filtering coating from wearing off or chipping. The frames are also coated with anti-glare protection, which I found effective when staring at bright screens. I’d choose these for workday wear, not too early in the morning and not too late at night. In terms of fit, they were the most comfortable—sometimes I forgot I had them on. Like Gunnar and Zenni, Felix Gray offers prescription frames for daily wear.

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As for sleep, rarely did I lie awake in bed trying to count sheep. Every night during the two weeks—with the glasses on and off—I was asleep within 15 minutes of turning out the lights. I didn’t notice any huge changes to my sleep quality, despite the experiences of Ostrin’s test subjects. On average I didn’t feel more rested on the mornings after I’d worn the glasses the night before. And the glasses didn’t necessarily make me sharper or work more efficiently throughout the day. 

My eyes felt better with them on, though. And during the periods without the glasses, my headaches crept back, and I found myself heading to bed an hour later each night, on average, compared to dayswhen I wore the glasses.

For context, I called my local optometrist here in Santa Fe, Dwight Thibodeaux. It turns out he sees even less of an impact from blue-light glasses: “They have no effect on my sleep patterns,” he says. He told me that this blue-light-blocking technology will work wonders for some and zilch for others. “Some people are more excitable,” he said, meaning they have a stronger reaction to blue light and may benefit more from its absence than someone who isn’t as susceptible, “but these glasses don’t have a huge impact on eye health.”  

Despite Thibodeaux’s suggestion that blue-light-blocking glasses can be hit-or-miss, he still recommends giving them a try in case you’re one of those people for whom they may work. Ostrin advises wearing the glasses, too.“You might hear a lot of suggestions to turn off all your electronic devices an hour or two before bedtime,” Ostrin says. “So the glasses are kind of a way to get around that and still use your devices and be productive.”

Perhaps what’s most telling is that I’m still using all three glasses after weeks after testing. 

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When you buy something using the retail links in our stories, we earn an affiliate commission that helps pay for our work. Read more about Outside’s affiliate policy.

You can wish for all the holiday gifts you want, but chances are you won’t get exactly what’s on your list. Treat yourself for making it through another year with one of these five products, all of which are under $50.

Beanies are a winter staple. If you don’t have one already, the Watch is a good choice. It’s made from a soft acrylic knit and comes in four subtle colors that will match just about any outfit in your closet.

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The Horween leather strap and Japanese Miyota quartz movement make this watch look a lot more expensive than $100. We won’t tell if you won’t.

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You need a warm fleece jacket for shoulder season adventures. This one features sherpa lining for extra warmth and deep hand-warmer pockets that provide a toasty stash for your fingers. The slightly baggy regular fit means you can layer this piece over a sweater on chilly days.

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Elite runners often compete in shoe prototypes. Should the practice be banned?

At the end of last month, the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) announced that it would be adding a few amendments to its official rulebook. After an update to Rule 143, which deals with athlete attire, the rules now include a clause that states: “Any type of shoe used [in competition] must be reasonably available to all in the spirit of the universality of athletics.” 
 
In an interesting coincidence, the IAAF announcement came the day after Olympic gold medalist Gwen Jorgensen posted a YouTube video about a customized pair of track spikes that she had worn at last month’s USA Track and Field National Championships. The shoe in question was a unique spike version of Nike’s Vaporfly 4% road racing flat, which provided significantly more cushioning than a traditional track shoe.

“I hope Nike decides to put them on the market one day,” one commenter wrote in response to Jorgensen’s video. “I bet so many runners go thru the same dilemma of spikes vs. trainers. This shoe seems to answer that question.”

Perhaps. But in the wake of the latest IAAF rule update, another question arises: If Jorgensen is one of the only runners to have access to this hybrid spike/road racer, does that contradict the idea that competition shoes “must be reasonably available to all?”

One way of answering that question is to consider the simmering controversy surrounding the original Vaporfly 4%, which may have influenced the latest IAAF ruling. 

According to a peer-reviewed (albeit Nike-funded) study, the original Vaporfly 4% can help top athletes “run substantially faster,” by improving running economy by an average of four percent—hence the name. As the shoe was being developed, several elite runners, including Eliud Kipchoge and Galen Rupp, were secretly testing a Vaporfly prototype. But here’s the rub: they weren’t testing it on a treadmill in the confines of a Nike R&D lab—they were testing it in major races. Rupp was wearing a 4% prototype when he won the 2016 U.S. Olympic Marathon Trials. Ditto Amy Cragg, who finished first in the women’s race. Kipchoge, meanwhile, was wearing the 4% when he won the 2016 London Marathon in a time that was only eight seconds off the world record. Despite these impressive results, Nike didn’t make an official announcement about its new product until March of 2017, when the company published a press release touting the 4%’s unique construction as a “paradigm shift” in racing flat technology.

On the one hand, it’s obvious that shoe companies will work with elite athletes when developing new products. However, it does seem like there’s a difference between professional runners wearing secret shoe prototypes in training versus in a race setting. (And it’s not just Nike, by the way. When she won the Boston Marathon last April, Des Linden was wearing an unnamed Brooks prototype. Meanwhile, Wilson Kipsang won the 2017 Tokyo Marathon in an exclusive Adidas shoe that only recently went on the market.) If the prototype ends up working too well, there will inevitably be retrospective questions about whether it constitutes an unfair advantage.
  
With that in mind, I reached out to the IAAF to ask if the latest rule update was intended to prevent runners from clandestinely racing in prototypes. Alessio Punzi, the IAAF Road Running Manager, gave the following response in an email:

The position of the IAAF Technical Committee, supported by the IAAF Council, is that it isn’t realistic to think we can regulate a-priori the design of a shoe. You can regulate number and dimension of spikes, for instance, or the thickness of the sole (like other governing bodies do with other measurables, such as UCI’s 3:1 ratio limit for frame tubes, or the minimum weight limit for bikes, or permeability, buoyancy and thickness for swimwear). But how do you define in logical terms where to place the limit on something that doesn’t exist yet?

In the same email, Alessio alluded to Rule 143 (ii), which states that if evidence is provided to the IAAF that a specific shoe “does not comply with the rules or the spirit of them,” the organization may take steps to prohibit a particular shoe from being used in future competitions. 

Needles to say, the “spirit of the rules” is intrinsically vague. For now, however, the IAAF does not seem to view in-race prototype testing as an issue. 

But why did the organization feel the need to include a clause about shoes being “reasonably available to all?” I haven’t received a concrete answer to this question. It’s worth noting however that it’s not in the IAAF’s interest to levy a reactive ban on a shoe that has already been worn in major competition. Consider this: in the men’s marathon at the 2016 Olympics, all three medalists were wearing a version of the Vaporfly 4%, despite the fact that the shoe didn’t officially exist yet. The aforementioned study that touted the Vaporfly’s alleged benefits wasn’t published until November 2017, at which point dozens of other high-profile races (and hundreds of thousands of dollars in prize money) had already been won by runners wearing the Vaporfly 4%. How incentivized is the IAAF really going to be to cast doubt on the legitimacy of all these results by decreeing that the shoe will now be illegal?
 
One potential solution would be for the IAAF to insist that elite runners can't compete in prototypes. This may go against current norms of how running brands prefer to roll out new product, but it would be a way for the IAAF to live up to its lofty language. 

That said, the extent to which shoes can really impact race day performance is still very much up for debate. Earlier this year, Eliud Kipchoge won the London Marathon in an über-exclusive Vaporfly descendent that Nike has dubbed the Zoom Vaporfly Elite Flyprint. But Kipchoge could win the London Marathon in a pair of Keds. As Outside’s Alex Hutchinson noted last year, the Vaporfly 4% so far hasn’t ushered in an era of ludicrously fast marathon times; the men and women’s world records have stood since 2014 and 2003, respectively. Although it feels more feasible now than before, the age of shoe-enabled technical doping is yet to come. 

In the meantime, if anyone wants to get their hands on a pair of the Zoom Vaporfly Elite Flyprints, there seem to be some available online, starting at around $2,000. Seems reasonable. 

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When I first started traveling over ten years ago, I went alone. Not because it was trendy or to “find myself,” but rather because I just didn’t have anyone else to come with me.

Nowadays you only have to scroll through Instagram for a minute before you’re inundated with perfectly posed selfies in the perfect location at the perfect time of day. These are clearly intended to send the message that solo travel is tidy, glitzy, and flawless. But those carefully crafted images aren’t real. From sleeping on airport floors with your arms wrapped around your bags to prevent them from “wandering off” to being sick without anyone to turn to, traveling alone is messy, hard, and often not the least bit glamorous. And that’s something so-called influencers don’t like to talk about. It doesn’t sell.

But every solo adventurer has to deal with these harsh realities, and knowing what to expect is much better preparation than another perfectly styled Instagram post of a first-class flatbed airplane seat the size of a canoe.

Perhaps the worst part of traveling alone is getting sick. Someone should invent an Uber Eats for doctor and pharmacy visits abroad, because it doesn’t get much worse than dragging yourself out of bed with the stomach flu to ride a scooter in search of questionable meds from someone you can’t communicate with at a dubious Southeast Asian clinic. You only suffer through that once before you build up your own mini pharmacy to cover all manner of illnesses. Plus, nothing builds new friendships like sharing your stash with a hostel buddy in desperate need of Imodium.

Another major cause of solo-travel disasters is simply not having someone to bounce your hairbrained plans off of. We all know that good decisions in our heads sometimes have no basis in reality, and that can result in such type-two fun as winging it and assuming you can sleep in a tiny rural airport two hours outside Paris. Or wandering the outskirts of the city when said airport closes and you’re stuck with nothing but a big touristy backpack and a handful of drug dealers for company. The loneliness certainly kicks in then.

While I’m a proud introvert, that loneliness can hurt. I know what you’re thinking: duh, Liz, of course solo travel gets lonesome. But I would argue that isn’t exactly true. I actually make friends and meet a lot more people traveling alone than I would otherwise. But you have to work for it, and just when I think I have this solo thing nailed down, I am slapped with another reminder of my aloneness, like when my bucket-list dream to dive with sharks required a two-guest minimum. And don’t even get me started on being single in romantic destinations like the Maldives. More than once I’ve had to toss rose petals that were artfully arranged in a heart on the bed onto the floor. At least there’s usually a whole bottle of champagne to keep me company.

For me, the loneliness usually appears when I take myself out to dinner. Surrounded by groups and couples, it’s such a social setting that you often can’t help but feel like you stand out. To keep the isolation at bay, I usually bring a book, but I also smile and make eye contact with other friendly looking patrons. You might be surprised how often people will engage a solo diner in conversation from a nearby table. Another good option is dining at the bar. It’s a magnet for solo travelers, and at the very least, bartenders are professionally chatty.

That’s a good example of how loneliness on the road is often a choice. As soon as you put yourself out there—joining a pub crawl, signing up for a cooking class or a food tour, couch surfing, or staying in a shared Airbnb or hostel—you immediately have the chance to connect with new people. Something fundamental is stripped away when you only have yourself to rely on, and I’ve found myself more able to connect with strangers. You just have to be open to it, and being lonely is the best time to force yourself out of your comfort zone, despite how hard it may seem.

That is until you’re approached by creepy men asking you all kinds of personal questions. While there are a million ways to mitigate risk, you’ll always have that cautionary voice in the back of your head warning you of danger when you find yourself alone in an uncomfortable situation. More than once I’ve had to lie, saying that my partner is in the bathroom or walking right past my hotel when I was being “helped home” by someone I’d met so he wouldn’t know where I was staying. And when my gut gives me bad vibes about a person, I don’t think twice about walking away as fast as I can.

But at the end of the day, while traveling by yourself is full of ups and downs, the peaks are far higher than the valleys, and it’s an experience that will teach you more than you can imagine. Just make sure to pack extra Imodium in case shit hits the fan. 

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When you buy something using the retail links in our stories, we earn an affiliate commission that helps pay for our work. Read more about Outside’s affiliate policy.

Black Friday is just around the corner and retailers like Backcountry, Huckberry, and Amazon are already releasing deals on awesome gear. We picked out our favorites under $50 so you can leave a little something for yourself under the tree without breaking the bank.

Save space in your camping kit with this inflatable solar lantern. It recharges in about ten hours with direct sunlight, or about two hours by micro USB.

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Handmade in Outside’s hometown of Santa Fe, this pocket tool has a turquoise-vein handle on one side and polished wood on the other. 

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With a fully sealed waterproof housing, PowerTap technology, and brightness memory, the updated Storm now features 350 lumens of power, three-color RGB night vision, and improved peripheral lighting for close-range tasks.

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You can never have too many sporks. Stock up with this four-pack. 

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This combo kit comes with two Nanodry towels, one large and one small. The included silicone travel case makes storage easy. 

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Celebrate your favorite peak while sipping your preferred libation from a Whiskey Peaks glass. 

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Handmade in Portland, Oregon, these card wallets are constructed from high-quality English bridle leather.

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This stainless-steel blade is fixed for extra security during hard jobs. Each knife is manufactured in Mora, Sweden, where Morakniv has been operating since 1891.

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Who says corduroy is just for pants? These sneakers are adorned with soft corduroy that’s designed to keep toes toasty.

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This insect repellent is made with all-natural picaridin instead of DEET to ease wear and tear on your gear and skin.

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This waterproof duffel packs down to the size of your wallet yet expands to hold 30 liters worth of gear. 

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At $28, you’ll be hard-pressed to find a better deal on a coveted ENO hammock. 

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This folding serrated knife is perfect for everyday carry, thanks to the 3.1-inch stainless-steel blade that’s perfect for tasks like opening cardboard boxes, cutting rope, and stripping wire. 

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The Squeeze might be the easiest to use water filtration system on the market. Simply fill the bag with dirty water, attach the filter, and squeeze. 

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Now is not the time to mourn the end of all-day playtime, especially if you’re not the one giving birth

Welcome to Tough Love. Every other week, we’re answering your questions about dating, breakups, and everything in between. Our advice giver is Blair Braverman, dogsled racer and author of Welcome to the Goddamn Ice Cube. Have a question of your own? Write to us at [email protected].

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A positive pregnancy test for my partner couldn’t positively be the end of our outdoor ambitions, could it? It wasn’t planned, but we couldn’t be more excited and in love. Plus, considering that it was our mutual passion for adventure that brought us together, I thought it was a given that a kid wouldn’t slow us down that much. I know there will be sacrifices, and I’m more than happy to make them, but she doesn’t seem to share my positive outlook. How do I talk to her about this without coming off as insensitive or naive?

Right now, your partner’s body is infested with a parasite that is sucking up her nutrients and squashing her organs. Yes, pregnancy is a beautiful, sacred process that usually results in a tiny human. Yes, you are a witness to the miracle of mammalian life. But pregnancy is also, under the best of circumstances, uncomfortable. Every second of every day, your partner is feeling an alien grow inside her body, a body that has heretofore been hers alone. It’s overwhelming. It can be terrifying, especially when unplanned. And while it’s wonderful that you’re with her and that you love each other, that love can never change the fact that the physical experience of growing a baby is intimately hers and hers alone.

Imagine you were in a car crash, and you’re lying in the hospital bed with casts on your arms and legs. Lights flash and machines hum. Your family stands around you, and you’re grateful for their presence but also feeling helpless and self-conscious. The doctors say you’ll probably recover fully, but they won’t know for sure until they see how your bones heal. Everything hurts. The room spins as if you had just stepped off a tilt-a-whirl. Then your partner’s face appears above you. She smiles. She kisses your cheek. “Honey,” she whispers anxiously, “you’ll still come hiking with me, right? Right?”

Of course, odds are that once you’re out of the hospital, you’ll still love hiking. But, Jesus, babe! One thing at a time!

The point is that your partner is undergoing an intense physical process, and it’s likely that the last thing she wants to think about right now is outdoor adventure. That doesn’t mean your adventures are over, and it doesn’t mean the values and joys that brought you together will fundamentally change. It just means that now is not the time for you to pressure her for reassurance. Massage her feet. Read books about pregnancy and parenting. Go to her prenatal checkups. Take on extra chores. Tell her every day how beautiful she is, how strong she is, and how lucky you are to be with her. Trust that your shared passion for the outdoors will not disappear, even if it’s not always at the surface of your everyday life.

The time will come, down the line, to talk about outdoor adventures. But in the meantime, the best way to prepare for those future adventures is to show your partner that you are behind her 100 percent. Soon—sooner than you realize—you’ll have the chance to share the outdoors with a whole new human, someone curious and brave and strong-minded who will bring a whole new perspective to even the smallest moments. Soon you’ll be embarking on adventures together that you can hardly imagine, whether you’re feeding ducks or summiting mountains. Congratulations, Dad, and godspeed. You’re going to have the ride of your life.

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Massages are a great way to release tension and speed up recovery after intense workouts. But foam rollers are cheaper and offer many of the same benefits. Foam rolling relieves tight muscles and works the connective tissue between muscles, organs, and bones. Here are eight moves I use to maximize this tool during the rolling class I teach at Railyard Fitness in Santa Fe, New Mexico.

Lay on the foam roller, which should be parallel to your spine. Make sure your head, neck, shoulders, upper back, midback, lower back, and pelvis are completely supported. Let your arms rest beside your body with your palms rotated either up or down. Allow your entire body to relax, and then gently rock from right to left. Stretch your neck by slowly turning your head side to side.

 Lay back onto the roller, which should be perpendicular to your spine, behind your third- or fourth-lowest ribs. Keep your knees bent and your feet flat on the ground, your hips heavy, and your core engaged. Bring your hands behind your ears with your elbows wide, keeping your fingers light and your chest open. Take a deep breath, and on your exhale, extend your back over the foam roller in a gentle arch. Do this movement a few times in sync with your breath, inhaling to prepare and exhaling to arch. Return to the starting position, and bring your elbows in. Press into your feet to lift your hips a few inches from the ground. Keep your spine straight, and roll up to the tips of your shoulder blades and back down to where you started. Do this between five and ten times. From here, lean to one side of your body and roll five to ten times with the opposite shoulder blade lifted. You can straighten out your bottom arm or keep your palm behind your head. Repeat this on the opposite side.

Startby sitting upright on the foam roller with your knees bent and your feet together. Lean both of your knees to the right so that your left hip is lifted. Draw three to four small circles on the roller with your right hip, moving both clockwise and counterclockwise. From here, roll forward and back along the side of your glutes five to ten times. Next, straighten your right leg and cross your left over it, with your left foot flat on the ground. Roll the entire length of your upper right leg—from the outside of your right hip to just above your right knee (do not foam roll your knee). Repeat this five to ten times. You can also pause at the middle of your outer leg and roll your leg side to side.

 Lay the front of your hips on the roller. Keep your feet about a foot apart, and rest your knees gently on the ground, placing your head on your hands. Then press your left palm into the ground and roll onto your right side, stacking your hips. From here, roll forward and back between five and ten times. Repeat this on your left side. To work into your quadriceps, move the foam roller to just above your knees. Rest on your forearms, keeping your knees lifted from the ground, your core engaged, and your hips lifted a bit higher than your shoulders. Roll your quadriceps five to ten times, either working your entire upper leg in one roll or breaking it into smaller sections and gradually moving upward. To intensify this, you can bend your knees, bringing your lower legs and feet toward the ceiling.

Start by sitting upright on the foam roller. With the help of your arms, lift your butt and rest the highest part of your hamstrings, where your glutes connect to your upper legs, on the roller. Roll the entire length of your hamstrings five to ten times. To intensify this, cross one leg over the other, and roll one hamstring at a time. To work into your calf muscles, lower your hips to the ground behind the foam roller. Place the roller underneath the widest part of your right calf and cross your left leg over it. Bend and straighten your right leg five to ten times. Explore turning your right toes to the left and right to work into different parts of your muscle. 

Lay on your back with your knees bent and your feet flat on the ground. Rest your hips on the foam roller, which should be perpendicular to your spine. Take a few deep breaths here. Then slowly lift your feet, and pull your knees toward your chest with your palms. Move your knees in circles clockwise and counterclockwise. From here, keep your right knee bent and allow your left foot to come to the ground. Interlace your palms on your shin below your right knee and hug your right knee toward your right shoulder. Avoid compressing the right side of the belly and the right side of your ribs. Rotate your right foot and ankle clockwise and counterclockwise a few times. Take five to ten deep breaths here. Repeat this on your left side.

Lay on your belly with the foam roller to your left, parallel to your torso. Lean onto your right side and bring your left leg over the foam roller, with your knee bent at a 90 degree angle and your calf and foot resting on the opposite side of the foam roller. Let your leg relax onto on the roller, and square your upper body and hips forward. Take a breath and exhale to roll onto your right side and draw the roller back to you. Repeat this five to ten times before moving to the other side.

 Lay flat on your back, with your legs straight or your knees bent to support your back. Rest your head on your foam roller, allowing your neck and shoulders to relax toward the ground. The foam roller should be three to four inches from the base of your skull, and you can hold either end to keep it in place. Slowly nod your head up and down, inhaling as you lift your chin and exhaling as you lower it to your chest. Do this five to ten times. From here, bring your head to neutral. Take a breath in, and exhale as you turn your head to the right, as close to your right shoulder as is comfortable. Inhale to bring your head back to neutral. Exhale as you turn your head to the left. Repeat this five to ten times.

When it comes to committing seemingly minor infractions while operating a vehicle, it only takes a split second to kill a cyclist

Recently, the Washington Post published an opinion piece entitled, “I Blocked a Bike Lane. So what?” It’s either profoundly clueless or a masterfully executed bit of trollery, depending on how you look at it. Basically, the writer pulls into a D.C. bike lane while waiting for a parking spot, which ends up taking “a really long time,” and when a cyclist calls her out on it, she gets indignant. Her conclusion:

But not every violation is a hazard. We live in a city where things can’t always be orderly. Better to focus on the violators who are making the roads more dangerous. (I’d start with the cyclists, but that’s just me.) And once we’ve gotten actual dangers under control, we can turn to everyone else.

Wow. Cyclists are the ones making the roads more dangerous, really? Here in my disorderly city, we have a succinct response for nonsensical assertions such as this: Dafukouttaheah.

Nevertheless, the Post piece is a perfect illustration of how driving isolates us from our environment and distorts our perception of safety. Consider, for example, the assertion that “not every violation is a hazard.” Actually every violation is a hazard; that’s why they’re called “violations” and not “mitzvahs.” Sure, when you’re behind the wheel of a car, those “No Parking Here to Corner” signs may seem like arbitrary rules placed there merely to annoy and inconvenience you, but the fact is you’re driving a ton or more of heavy machinery around a crowded city, not playing a game of Sorry! So, when you decide to park there anyway because “not every violation is a hazard,” there’s more on the line than whether or not you get a ticket. What you’re really doing is obscuring the sight lines for all the cyclists, pedestrians, and drivers who are attempting to safely navigate that intersection. And the consequences can be fatal.

The same holds true for bike lanes. Drivers seem to think cities festoon their streets with bike lanes as haphazardly as Rip Taylor tosses confetti. However, if a transportation department went through all the trouble of installing a bike lane, it’s almost certainly because there was a demonstrable need for it—like because cyclists were dying. Yet every cyclist who’s confronted a bike lane blocker over blocking a hard-won safe haven knows the default reply: It’s always some variation on “What’s the big deal? Just go around me.”

Drivers: If you’ve never encountered a stopped car while cycling in a bike lane, you have no idea how jarring it actually is. We prefer not to ride in the car lane for the same reason you prefer not to idle in it: Other drivers tend to lose their shit when they think somebody’s slowing them down. So instead you sit in our lane and make it our problem, cavalierly commandeering our lifeline. Using the bike lane as your personal layover zone is basically hitching a ride on a humanitarian aid plane and snacking on the airdrop boxes.

A key reason motorists feel comfortable blocking bike lanes and committing other seemingly “minor” violations is that they equate driving with Serious Business and cycling with frivolity. Consider the writer of the Post piece, who blocks the lane for the following reason:

Late to pick up my son, I noticed a fellow parent about to vacate a spot, so I pulled over to wait for him to leave.

Ah yes, certainly nobody cycling in the bike lane could be doing something as important as picking up a child. People sometimes accuse cyclists of being “entitled,” but there is no road user more entitled than the motorist, and there is no motorist more entitled than one who’s running late for child pickup or drop-off. When the precious offspring is in transit, regular driver selfishness gives way to solipsism, and everyone else must assume just a little more risk in order to accommodate them. For example, every parent who blocks a bike lane or insists on double-parking because they can’t be bothered to find a legal spot and walk a few blocks to the school contributes to the utter shitshow that is the school at arrival and dismissal time, which in turn makes the streets more dangerous for everybody, especially the children.

All of this is complicated by the fact that the automobile completely shuts off our ability to engage in introspection or to question our own behavior. If I ride my bike into Manhattan and get stuck in a downpour, I think to myself, “Damn, should have taken the subway,” and next time I check the weather forecast before heading out. Motorists, however, will steer their cars right into the same traffic jam day after day without ever questioning their poor decision to drive. It’s like Groundhog Day, only without the eventual catharsis. Instead, they’ll look for someone else to blame (cyclists are a popular scapegoat), and they’ll inconvenience everyone else in the process by violating their right of way, to wit:

Still, if we’re going to cite everyone who double-parks for a couple of minutes (with her signal on, to warn everyone behind her), no one will ever get a delivery again. Or be able to drop off a child at a downtown school. That’s the city.

No, that’s not the city. That’s not even the suburbs. People drop children off at school, make deliveries, and do all sorts of vital things by bicycle all the time. No, what slows down drop-offs and deliveries and everything else is your decision to get around in a cumbersome automobile despite the demonstrable impracticality of your decision.

But perhaps the most dangerous notion drivers have is that if they do something unsafe quickly enough, it’s not a big deal. It’s like the five-second rule, only instead of picking up a dropped Cheeto and eating it, they’re playing with your life. Pulling into the bike lane, flipping a quick U-turn, running the light just after it’s changed…no harm, no foul, right? Even New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio had this to say earlier this year:

“If someone’s blocking…a bike lane for 30 seconds while they take out the groceries or to let their kid off, I don’t think they should get a ticket for that,” he said. “If someone leaves their car for any meaningful amount of time, they should be penalized and that should be an enforcement priority.”

On August 10, on Central Park West, an Australian tourist riding in the bike lane was forced into traffic by a livery cab driver who pulled into the bike lane. She was then struck and killed by the driver of a private sanitation truck. In matters of life and death, a “meaningful amount of time” is measured in fractions of a second.

When you choose to drive in a city, you’re not a VIP beset by inconvenience on all sides. You’re a bull in a china shop asking a lot—and sometimes too much—of the people all around you. It is a big deal. Act accordingly.

Kelsey will edit Fitness stories for the website and the print magazine

Kelsey Lindsey is joining Outside as an assistant editor on the Fitness team. She’ll primarily assign and edit stories for the online Fitness channel and for the front-of-book section of the print magazine.  

Most recently, Kelsey worked as a freelance health and science journalist, publishing stories in a wide variety of publications, including National Geographic and Quartz. In 2017, she completed an editorial fellowship at the Alaska Dispatch News, where she traveled to the Arctic to report on new climate research. Kelsey also spent two years as an editor at a B2B publication in Washington, D.C., and earned her Master’s degree from Columbia University’s journalism school, where she focused on health, science, and environmental reporting. Kelsey is a Colorado native and a graduate of the University of Colorado Boulder. She’s relocating from Michigan to Santa Fe to join the Outside team.

Kelsey’s first day in the Outside office is August 13. She will work closely with associate editor Molly Mirhashem and assistant editor Abbie Barronian as they continue to expand Outside’s health, wellness, and fitness coverage. 

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