The Checkup: Penn Students Bare All in Body-Building Contest

• I know at least two Penn students who haven’t gained the dreaded Freshman (or Sophomore, or Junior, or Senior) 15. Well, I don’t know them know them, but I’ve certainly laid eyes on them, thanks to a write-up and photos posted yesterday on the Daily Pennsylvanian’s website of Wednesday night’s Mr. and Ms. Penn Body-Building Contest. The two winners—who donned spray tans and teeny-weeny outfits for the occasion—were seniors Robert Pless and Erin Beck. The competition included 90-second individual routines, in which contestants flexed on stage to the music of their choice, and a head-to-head “pose-off.” Pless told the student newspaper that he’s “not an athlete, so this is my sport.” Beck is a soccer player. Both winners said keeping super-strict diets is key for maintaining super-jacked muscle definition. The spray tans must help, too. See photos here.

• Okay, so it is one thing to boost your productivity at work by jumping on a treadmill desk right when you’re about to toddle off the edge of the 2 p.m. slump. It is quite another to use performance-boosting drugs to improve focus and don wearable computers (!!) so that you’re physically tied to your desk. But apparently, people are doing this—and experts warned this week that it’s a really bad idea. More here.

• Sorry, George Costanza. No amount of toupees (or semi-permanent hairpieces, as it were) will change the fact that baldness, along with other visible signs of aging, have been linked to an increased risk of heart attack and heart disease, according to a new study. The Los Angeles Times has more.

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