A12| Monday, October 28, 2019 THE WALL STREET JOURNAL.
LIFE & ARTS
WHEN A DOCUMENTARYcalled
“Fantastic Fungi” came my way, I
met it with modest expectations. As
a shiitake mushroom addict, I
hoped for good recipes along with
edification. In fact, recipes aren’t on
the menu, and there’s too much edi-
fication to be digested in one view-
ing. The film was made by people
who want to spread the word about
their beloved subject in the over-
achieving way that fungi spread
spores by the billions. But oh, the
gorgeous photography! Time-lapsesequences of mushrooms blossom-
ing forth could pass for studies of
exotic flowers growing on another
planet. (The filmmaker, Louie
Schwartzberg, has long been a ti-
lapse specialist.) The narrator, Brie
Larson, clearly had fun with the
highfalutin introduction. How often
can a Hollywood star speak for all
the fungi of our planet and say
things like “We are the wisdom of a
billion years, we are creation, we
are resurrection, condemnation and
regeneration—we...are...mush-
rooms”? Once you see what she’s
talking about, though, you’ll believe
anything she says.
Fungi lie between animal and
vegetable. There are, we are told,
more than a million species, and we
of the animal kingdom divided from
them about 650 million years ago.
In an intellectual and emotional
sense, however, several of the ex-
perts in the film, including the my-
cologist Paul Stamets and the
scholar of forest ecology Suzanne
Simard, haven’t divided from them
at all.
That’s not to say these scientists
have gone moldy, though after
watching “Fantastic Fungi” I’ll have
new respect for the mold that’s
been known to afflict the oranges in
my fridge. It’s that their proselytiz-
ing spirit knows no bounds, and
they make a fascinating case forfungi as the digestive tracts of the
forest, breaking down dead and dy-
ing organisms aand returning them
to the cycle of life as nutrients for
new growth, as well as potential
sources of compounds that could
fight pandemic viruses (having al-
ready given us penicillin), or miti-
gate Alzheimer’s disease. There’s
even a case to be made for the
“stoned ape hypothesis” of magic
mushrooms having been a catalyst
for explosive brain growth in early
hominids. (The theory is illustrated
by animation that could be con-
fused with “2001: A Space Odys-
sey,” except that these apes are
scarfing psilocybin instead of hurl-
ing bones.)
Magic mushrooms get a lot of at-
tention, and respect, in Mr.
Schwartzberg’s film, which finally
focuses on renewed research in
medical psychedelics, a field that
has fallen out of favor during the
nation’s war on drugs. “Focuses” is
a relative term for a documentary
that dispenses lots of information
without organizing it very well, but
“Fantastic Fungi” is never uninter-
esting, and often startling in the
natural beauty it reveals. Its distri-
bution pattern is patchy, but a
quick web search will reveal
whether it is playing, or will play, at
a theater near you. As for mush-
MOVING ART (2) room recipes, get a cookbook.
A bridal veil mushroom, above, and Paul Agarikon with mushroom
stones, below, in Louie Schwartzberg’s ‘Fantastic Fungi’Katie Gibson is hooked on her fitness app’s high-intensity sculpt workouts,
above. She also ramped up her treadmill routine, below, at her local YMCA by
streaming workouts from the app.W
hen it comes to building real
endurance, sometimes piling
on miles outdoors isn’t the best ap-
proach, says Tiffany Larson, owner
of the Mill SV, a gym and run studio
in Ketchum, Idaho.
“Running distance alone wears the
body out,” she says. “Sprinting causes
you to fatigue faster, so if you pair
that with recovery periods, you can
build endurance without the distance.”
The ability to easily adjust the
speed and incline on a treadmill
makes it an efficient training tool,
Ms. Larson says. She notes that in-
cline training is a great way to build
strength in larger muscle groups like
the quads and glutes. If you’re new
to running on a treadmill, look
straight ahead rather than down,
she says, and don’t run too close to
the center console. You’ll know
you’re running too fast if you need
to hold on to it.
To avoid injury, make sure you’rewearing the right shoes. “Unless you
have been prescribed running shoes
with arch support, go for flexibility,”
Ms. Larson says. “You should be
able to twist your shoe in your
hand.” Also, never step on or off
while the treadmill is moving, says
Lisa Niren, the New York-based chief
content officer and head instructor
at Studio. “This is one of the big-
gest causes of injury,” she says.
“Slow the machine to a reduced
speed and lower your incline before
stepping off.”
Ms. Niren says treadmills are a
great options in months with bad
weather and less light outside.
“There is no uneven terrain, no pos-
sibility of being on a dark street
questioning your safety or in the
colder months running through
snow or patches of ice and possibly
falling,” she says. “Not to mention
there is no risk of cars, busses and
outdoor vehicle traffic.”No Need to Fear the Treadmill
In September, the app intro-
duced video, making it easy to
mimic the instructor. “I never get
bored and it takes the guesswork
out of what I’m supposed to do at
the gym,” she says. “Sometimes I
wish I could fast forward through
the start of classes so I could get
straight to the exercises, but just
like a real class, you don’t have
that option.”
Once a week she does a Studio
treadmill workout. Runs are 10 to
60 minutes long and might focus
on hills or intervals. “It’s one thing
to run up a hill outside, but mak-
ing yourself run uphill in place is
hard,” she says. “I feed off the en-
couragement from the teachers,”
she says. She also takes a spin
class at the YMCA one day a week.The Diet
Ms. Gibson, who is 37, embraced
carb cycling February and eats a
low-carb, high-fat diet on cardio
days and a low-fat, high-carb diet
on strength days. “I love carbs, so
I wasn’t ready to cut them out of
my life,” she says. She’s lost 10
pounds and tracks her nutrition
with the MyFitnessPal app.
Some days she practices inter-
mittent fasting and skips break-
fast. “It’s basically a fancy wordfor not eating,” she jokes. Other
days she has eggs and turkey sau-
sage or oatmeal. Lunch might be
pizza with cauliflower crust or a
turkey sandwich on multigrain
bread. She grabs a protein shake if
she’s on the go, and salads are her
go-to restaurant order. She’s the
cook of the house. Family favorites
include fish tacos and chicken par-
mesan. Pizza and beer are her
splurge. “Cake is my favorite
food,” she says.The Gear and Cost
“I held out buying Lululemon
leggings for years,” Ms. Gibson
says. “I never saw the value in
$100 leggings, but then I tried a
pair and thought, damn, my butt
does look amazing.” Her tops are
from Target and she is loyal to
Brooks running shoes. She uses an
Apple Watch and Apple AirPods.
An annual Studio membership
costs $99, including a two-week
free trial. She pays $30 a month
for her YMCA membership.The Playlist
“I need loud music when I work
out,” says Ms. Gibson. The instruc-
tor dictates Studio class playlists.
themes range from ’90s hip-hop to
boy bands.KATIE GIBSON’Sphone was get-
ting in the way of her workouts.
Looking to spend more time with
her two children, she left her job
as a speech pathologist and
launched a skin-care company six
years ago from home. The down-
side: She lived on her screen, even
at the gym.
“When my endorphins would
start going, I’d get ideas and pull
out Notes or start emailing,” she
says. “I had a hard time compart-
mentalizing work and personal
time. Plus, my workout felt stale,
so I was easily distracted.”
After she posted about her work-
out dilemma on Facebook in 2018, a
friend suggested she try Studio, an
app that streams group treadmill,
strength and stretching classes. Ms.
Gibson lives in Muncie, Ind., where
boutique fitness options are limited.
“We have two YMCAs that offer
spin, but nothing like Orangetheory
[Fitness] or Pure Barre,” she says.
“When I go to big cities, I love the
energy of a class atmosphere.”
With her phone streaming her
workouts, she stopped checking in
on work. Similar to Peloton, a live-
stream spin class, Studio has a ros-
ter of instructors with personal-
ized class playlists and a real-time
leaderboard that allows users to
measure their results with other
class participants. A section of the
app connects users to instructors
and workout buddies. “The instruc-
tors give shout-outs to users on
the leaderboard, so you really feel
you get to know people,” she says.
“I’ve even made business connec-
tions from Studio.”
Studio got her running intervals
and running on an incline on a
treadmill for the first time. Eight
months ago Ms. Gibson, a self-de-
scribed cardio nut, did something
she never imagined: cut back on
cardio. The sculpt classes on the
app turned her on to strength
workouts. “I always focused on
running and never left time for
weights,” she says. “I work out
less but have noticeably lost
inches, am more toned and have
more endurance.”The Workout
After she drops her children,
ages 6 and 7, at school, Ms. Gibson
heads to the YMCA in Yorktown,
Ind. She has a basement gym, but
because she works from home, pre-
fers to get out of the house. Three
days a week she streams a Studio
sculpt class, propping her phone on
a kettlebell. The circuit-style classes
never exceed 30 minutes and re-
quire little or no equipment. Her
week might include a 20-minute
body-weight class, 10-minute core
sculpt session, and 20-minute
power, stability and balance class.
Classes are high-intensity and
could include repeating a three-
minute circuit of burpees, lunges
and mountain climbers, followed by
a second circuit of biceps curls,
dumbbell flys and triceps exten-
sions. Instructors demonstrate
proper technique. If you still have
questions, the app has an exercise
library that explains various moves.WHAT’S YOUR WORKOUT?| JEN MURPHY
Without Boutique Gyms, She Streams at the Y
A mom working from home in Muncie, Ind., fine-tunes her fitness with help from an exercise app
FILM REVIEW| JOE MORGENSTERN
Magic Mushrooms
A documentary is an eloquent paean to an underexplored kingdom.
AJ MAST FOR THE WALL STREET JOURNAL (3)