Conditioning Research

I have posted about this before and also mentioned this study in the science posting over at hillfit. Interesting to see it reported and demonstrated. The science is in a PhD thesis here .

I just wanted to summarise a few interesting studies I'd seen recently. Review of recent research The GI approach is flawed. This article explains how the Glycemic Index Values Vary from One Test to the Next. (commentary here ) Emma and Barry Groves have both written excellent pieces on the bankruptcy of the GI approach. Swiss Balls and BOSU’s do not work. I had a post earlier questioning the validity of using swiss balls. This article says a similar thing. Unstable surface training, using inflatable rubber discs worsens performance improvements in healthy, trained athletes. Such implements have proved valuable in rehabilitation, but caution should be exercised when applying this approach to athletic performance and general exercise scenarios. Old people who exercise are perceived more positively. This study examined whether information about an older person's exercise habits influences the impressions formed of them by others…..it does! Is Alzheimer’s just diabetes...

shock news! exercise is good for your joints!!! Somehow I seem to be posting a lot on knees! It is just that I keep coming across articles on knee health that I think are useful; plus I know a few people - especially older hill walkers - whose knees give them trouble. I've noted previously how balance training can help prevent ACL injuries and how appropriate stretching may also be beneficial. This article explains that exercise itself is beneficial to the joints. Among the notable findings, both baseline and current vigorous physical activity— exercise that gets the heart pumping and the body sweating—were associated with an increase in tibial cartilage volume, free from cartilage defects. What’s more, tibial cartilage volume increased with frequency and duration of vigorous activity. Recent weight-bearing exercise was also linked to increased tibial cartilage volume and reduced cartilage defects. Finally, moderate physical activity, including regular walking, was associated...

Bryce Lane put up a good article recently on stress and it made me think. Stress. It is all over the place. From work, relationships and often from our own personalities. Stress is there especially for those of us involved in exercise or fitness training. We tend to set ourselves goals: I want to lose fat, run faster, get stronger, climb more munros ... These goals are not always bad. I think sometimes that without goals and aims I would just become literally aimless....I don't like people who go through life as spectators , tourists. I want to be doing something - walking, cycling, climbing, whatever. Not even anything massive, just something. Going through life as a spectator doesn't appeal.... However...all these goals can just be a source of extra stress. I want to climb all the munros eventually. But sometimes the desire to do that spoils the enjoyment of other things. If the weather or circumstance mean that a day in the hills doesn't happen for a while t...

Do you need an excuse for a glass of red wine? I have been thinking more about this.Barry Groves has a post up saying that a bottle of red wine is better than a statin for your heart . There seems to be plenty written about the antioxidant effect of red wine. (This is not an excuse to go out and get hammered, but in moderation a glass of wine is good for you.) The study below seems to support this idea. However, I have been thinking a lot about Emma's post which considered the role of flavonoids . I am still trying to digest Emma's argument but I think she has a point that flavonoids in themselves may not be good for you. There may be an antioxidant effect from ingesting them, but that may be a byproduct of the fact that your body is reacting against them. The study does indicate that red wine is an antioxidant in effect....but having read Emma's post I am wondering if this is really a good thing..... Red wine consumption increases antioxidant status and decreases o...

I don't really have much commentary to go with this one. I just thought that with all the ongoing debate about intermittent fasting (IF) this is an interesting study. Note that IF allowed these athletes to maintain their intense training and lose body fat. I don't know how much to make of this though - Ramadan fasting could mean all sorts of things. Still another interesting study of which to be aware. Lipid Profiles of Judo Athletes during Ramadan. The effect of Ramadan intermittent fasting (RIF) was studied on a battery of blood lipid markers in 15 elite judo athletes during a period when they were maintaining their training load without competing. Nine-to-twelve hours postprandial serum lipid and lipoproteins were measured on five occasions: before, three times during Ramadan, and three weeks post-Ramadan. Dietary data were collected using a 24-hour recall method for three days before, during and after the Ramadan month. Mean energy intake (12.9 MJ/d) remained similar thr...

In previous posts we have noted the way in which women are more prone to knee injuries but also the way in which balance training and stretching can help to prevent such problems. This study identifies some of the serious implications of an ACL injury in women. It can seriously affect the health of the leg bones. Strong bones are essential as we age. To keep healthy it is essential that you maintain the health of your knees. So : - do some balance training ; and - stretch ! Unilateral chronic insufficiency of anterior cruciate ligament decreases bone mineral content and lean mass of the injured lower extremity Abstract: We studied the effects of unilateral chronic anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) injury on bone size, bone mineral content (BMC), bone mineral density (BMD), soft tissue composition and muscle strength of the injured lower extremity in Japanese 21 men and 12 women aged 15 to 39 years. Bone area, BMD, BMC, lean mass and fat mass of lower extremity were measured using d...

With the same disclaimer as on the post regarding the benefits of red wine - i.e. this is not an excuse to get drunk every night - other alcohol can also have beneficial effects. When we hear about the benefits of alcohol it is invariably in the context of red wine . We are told that the flavonoids and various other compounds in red wine are beneficial. Now as I say here I am not now convinced that the benefits are down directly to the flavonoids, based on what Emma writes . However, this study found that there are also benefits in other drinks: specifically - in this study gin and cava! The finding is that booze to some degree is anti-inflammatory. Inflammatory Markers of Atherosclerosis Are Decreased after Moderate Consumption of Cava (Sparkling Wine) in Men with Low Cardiovascular Risk. Atherosclerosis is considered a low-grade inflammatory disease. Polyphenol-rich alcoholic beverages (red wine) have shown a more pronounced antiinflammatory effect than polyphenol-free alcoholic ...

I've mentioned a couple of times about the importance of the mind in training. We've also mentioned the placebo effect. This study looks at this with respect to an ergogenic drug. believing one had taken the substance resulted in times almost as fast as those associated with consuming the drug itself. In contrast, taking the drug without knowledge yielded no significant performance increment. That is quite an interesting finding. Think about all the drug testing. The drugs might not even work, except by making people think that they will work! How can we tap into this mental power? It makes me think about the Hulk - Banner knew that there was more strength in him than he could normally access. I also put up a post way back about psyching up . There is much in our attitude and belief that affects our performance! "Because I know it will!": placebo effects of an ergogenic aid on athletic performance. McClung M, Collins D. In the perpetual quest for better per...

Controversial title there..... If you ever train in a "health club" or a commercial gym ,you will have seen people training on stability balls or swiss balls as they are sometimes known. The argument is that by training on one of these you are helping your core muscles. The ball becomes an unstable base and to keep your body stable you are forced to use lots of small stabilising muscles. Now I am a fan of functional training. The body moves in three dimensions and I think it is important to train the body through movements in each of those planes. I've also written about the benefits of balance training in preventing injuries to the knee and ankle. I must admit, that I have also previously accepted as axiomatic the basic argument for Swiss ball training put forward by people like the great Paul Chek . Having just come across a new study I am having to revisit my assumptions about this approach. This study seems to indicate that the assumptions that performing an exerc...

Explosive reps....thrusters! In previous posts we have mentioned some of the benefits of explosive reps - there are for example indications that they could be better for promoting fat loss and are also better at developing power . A new study identifies a further potential benefit of explosive reps. It seems that they are better at maintaining bone mineral density in older women who trained. A few days ago we thought about training for old age . If you want to maintain your bone health it appears that there may be some advantages then in performing your exercises explosively! Differential effects of strength versus power training on bone mineral density in postmenopausal women: a 2-year longitudinal study Objectives : To investigate the effect of two different schemes of loading in resistance training on bone mineral density (BMD) and pain in pretrained postmenopausal women. Methods : 53 pretrained women (mean (SD) age 58.2 (3.7) years) who carried out a mixed resistance and gymna...

In previous posts we have looked at the way in which knee injuries might be prevented through balance or proprioception training, at how women's knees are prone to injury and also how stretches should be avoided prior to exercise. This study below is useful in that it indicates how appropriate stretching might also contribute to healthier knees. If you have bad knees you might want to consider adopting a regular stretching routine of the muscles mentioned in this article - quads, hamstrings and adductors. If they are tight they might be throwing out the positioning of the knee. Stetching should be about stretching the tight muscles to restore balance and function to the body. Effect of static stretching of muscles surrounding the knee on knee joint position sense Background : Muscle stretching is widely used in sport training and in rehabilitation. Considering the important contribution of joint position sense (JPS) to knee joint stability and function, it is legitimate to q...

This should really be obvious. Being active promotes health. We have looked before here about at insulin resistance. It is not really a good thing: Insulin resistance is the condition in which normal amounts of insulin are inadequate to produce a normal insulin response from fat, muscle and liver cells. Insulin resistance in fat cells results in hydrolysis of stored triglycerides, which elevates free fatty acids in the blood plasma. Insulin resistance in muscle reduces glucose uptake whereas insulin resistance in liver reduces glucose storage, with both effects serving to elevate blood glucose. High plasma levels of insulin and glucose due to insulin resistance often lead to metabolic syndrome and type 2 diabetes. Mark Sisson's diabetes post explains how eating too much sugar and exercising too little leads via insulin resistance to diabetes. when we eat too many carbohydrates, the pancreas pumps out insulin exactly as the DNA blueprint tell it to (hooray pancreas!), but if t...

I haven't got much time to write anything today, so I think I will just continue the theme of the last couple of posts thinking about low carb diets and what really constitutes a healthy diet. I saw this post the other day which ties together the low carb /healthy eating threads with that about " science " and the need to think critically about what you are told. This is Dr John Briffa talking about the dangers of promoting a starch based diet . Well, if we’re going to recommend starch on the basis of their nutritional content, let’s perhaps look a bit more closely at this. For a start, most starchy carbs are actually really quite un-nutritious [1] when compared to other foodstuffs such as fruit and veg. While the starchy carbs advocated by the FSA are called food, they are actually better described as fodder. If we’re going to recommend foods on the basis of nutrients such as iron and B-vitamins, then why not advocate meat, which contains these nutrients in abundance?...

Repeatedly the media tells us that we should be eating a "Mediterranean diet" because of a range of health benefits that it will bring. For example The Mediterranean diet - rich in grains, vegetables, pulses, fruit and nuts, with little meat, plenty of fish, and olive oil as the main fat - has long been adopted as a model of healthy eating. And not only is it healthy but it has a strong sensual appeal full of rich flavours, aromas and colours which can be adopted for everyday cooking and entertaining. Leaving aside for a second the true definition of the Mediterranean diet, which we will get to, it there any evidence for all this hype? This new study seems to indicate that the benefits may be a bit overstated, at least for overweight people: Mediterranean diet and insulin sensitivity, lipid profile and blood pressure levels, in overweight and obese people; The Attica study Background We aimed to investigate if overweight and obese adults "close" to Mediterranean di...

This is not directly fitness or conditioning related but it is about a low carb diet....so ok, I'll jump on the bandwagon. It seems like just about every blog (even Rif ) I read has picked up on this story from Time magazine. The article is worth a read, but it is not really new stuff. The idea is that you can fight cancer through starving them of sugar. Cancer cells need sugar to survive and grow: unlike healthy cells, which generate energy by metabolizing sugar in their mitochondria, cancer cells appeared to fuel themselves exclusively through glycolysis, a less-efficient means of creating energy through the fermentation of sugar in the cytoplasm. The theory is simple: If most aggressive cancers rely on the fermentation of sugar for growing and dividing, then take away the sugar and they should stop spreading. Meanwhile, normal body and brain cells should be able to handle the sugar starvation; they can switch to generating energy from fatty molecules called ketone bodies — ...

The importance of the mind in all this training. The study below is interesting on a whole series of levels. First of all it notes that endurance training can do damage to the body through oxidative stress. We have mentioned the potential downsides of endurance training previously on this blog . This study though notes that your body seems to be aware that there is potential damage associated with this activity and it produces a protective anti-inflammatory protein. So your body is trying to cope with the danger. However, the really amazing thing here is that your body produces this protein not in response to the exercise, but even before you do the exercise! It anticipates the stress that is coming! Somehow at some level your mind is aware of what is about to happen and it makes sure that the body's biochemistry does what it needs to in order to minimise the damage. The mind affects the body. The interaction of the mind and body is fascinating and a huge untapped area. T...

I recently had a post here called be a bit sceptical about the science . There, I said: We need to be a bit sceptical about the science and the motivation and presuppostions of those who are writing. This is a very well written article on the same topic by Gary Taubes: Do We Really Know What Makes Us Healthy? There is a lot of dogma out there about health, fitness, diet and strength. Think carefully about all this stuff. Weigh up the arguments. Try to see if there is anyone making money out of you! Nothing against business but we need to be careful not to be sold dud information. Anyway, a fascinating and instructive piece.

When I have posted previously about intermittent fasting (IF) it has been about the fast5 / the Warrior Diet style of fasting, i.e., a compressed eating window. You fast or undereat for say 20 hours and you eat during the remaining 4 hours. There is however another approach to IF - alternate day fasting. Eat one day and fast the next - the approach taken by people like Steve Mount . Or the QOD diet . Well a new study has just come out looking at this type of IF, with some interesting findings and implications: * Alternate-day fasting: How good is it for your health? Researchers report that fasting or eating half as much as usual every other day may shrink your fat cells and boost mechanisms that break down fats. Consuming fewer calories and increasing physical activity is usually what people do to lose weight and stay healthy. But some people prefer to adopt a diet which consists of eating as much as they want one day while fasting the next. On each fasting day, these people con...

Can it? I don't know, but this study indicates that there may be a mechanism that would at least help in that direction. Effect of a 12-month exercise intervention on the apoptotic regulating proteins bax and bcl-2 in colon crypts: a randomized controlled trial. BACKGROUND : Cellular proliferation and apoptosis (cell death) are highly regulated in the colon as insufficient apoptosis may lead to polyps and cancer. Physical activity decreases risk of colon cancer in observational studies, but the biological basis is not well defined. The objective of this study is to examine the effects of a 12-month aerobic exercise program on expression of proteins that promote (Bax) or inhibit (Bcl-2) apoptosis in colon crypts. METHODS : Two hundred two sedentary participants, 40 to 75 years, were randomly assigned to moderate-to-vigorous intensity exercise for 60 min per day, 6 days per week for 12 months, or usual lifestyle. Colon crypt samples were obtained at baseline and 12 months. Bcl-2 and...

There is all sort of debate over the nature of "a healthy diet". What is it? The BBC recently reported that Many Britons are unaware how to follow a healthy, balanced diet, the official food watchdog has said. ( The full story is here ) Well while there may be some confusion, there is normally agreement that you need to eat lots of fruit and vegetables. Now I am not going to tell you not to eat your veggies....but it is interesting to try to find the evidence for the common prescriptions, e.g. to eat 5 portions of fruit and veg a day. Barry Groves has an interesting article on this on this which I was reminded of after reading this new piece of research. This study looked at people who had had polyps in the large bowel. They were put on the standard healthy diet - low in fat, high in fibre and lots of fruit and veg. It didn't make a difference to the recurrence of polyps. I personally think that veggies are generally good things to eat, but they are not the panace...

Two of the most popular posts on this blog have been about fat burning: Cardio - burn more fat by doing your weights first ; and Fasting burns belly fat Here is another one about fat burning. It seems that, for men especially, exercise causes you to burn more fat than normal and that enhanced level of fat burning continues for at least 3 hours after the exercise. Lipolysis and free fatty acid metabolism in men and women during the post-exercise recovery period. We sought to determine whether lipolysis, fatty acid (FA) mobilisation, and plasma FA oxidation would remain elevated for hours following isoenergetic exercise bouts of different intensities. Ten men and eight women received a primed-continuous infusion of [1,1,2,3,3-2H5]glycerol and continuous infusion of [1-13C]palmitate to measure glycerol and plasma FFA kinetics. On Day 1 (D1), participants were studied under one of 3 different conditions, assigned in random order: (1) before, during and 3 h after 90 min of exercise at 45...

This study looked at how a short nap after lunch improved the alertness and physical performance of people who were mildly sleep deprived. If you are short of sleep, through overwork, kids or whatever, a nap after lunch could be a good idea if you still want to work and work out well. And you do not even have to sleep - the participants in the study either slept or just sat quietly for 30 minutes. The role of a short post-lunch nap in improving cognitive, motor, and sprint performance in participants with partial sleep deprivation. The aim of this study was to determine the effects of a post-lunch nap on subjective alertness and performance following partial sleep loss. Ten healthy males (mean age 23.3 years, s = 3.4) either napped or sat quietly from 13:00 to 13:30 h after a night of shortened sleep (sleep 23:00 - 03:00 h only). Thirty minutes after the afternoon nap or control (no-nap) condition, alertness, short-term memory, intra-aural temperature, heart rate, choice reaction tim...

This is not referring to a particular scientific study, but is relevant to one of the areas we've looked at over recent weeks. I have previously put up a few studies about intermittent fasting (IF) an approach to eating that has gained a fair bit of attention on the internet recently, e.g. here or here . I also have a link on this site to Fast5 , a free book which is a good basic introduction to IF and ther is an advert for the Warrior Diet. Martin Berkhan is looking at this way of eating, with a few tweaks, primarily for body re-composition purposes - i.e. generally trying to increase muscle mass while reducing fat. Martin's blog has pointed to a really useful interview that he has done with Leigh Peel. It explains a bit of his background, experience with and approach to IF. you can read the interview by clicking here If you are interested in IF, some of my previous posts are at: Fasting burns belly fat Intermittent Fasting and Exercise Another possible benefit of fas...

There is a fair bit written about caffeine intake for athletes. Often it is recommended to increase endurance performance, although I recently put up a post that indicated that caffeine supplementation could enhance the chance of muscle damage in football players. In that post I also noted the potential blood sugar effects of taking caffeine as it can case an insulin spike . What about strength performance? Will a coffee make you stronger or at least more aroused to boost your performance in the squat rack or the deadlift platform? This article says no, it won't: Effect of caffeine ingestion on one-repetition maximum muscular strength Abstract Multiple studies corroborate the ergogenic properties of caffeine (CAF) for endurance performance, yet fewer investigations document the efficacy of acute caffeine intake for intense, short-term exercise. The aim of the study was to determine the ergogenic potential of caffeine during testing of muscular strength and endurance. Twent...

"It is in your DNA!". When people talk like this the impression is given that if it is in your DNA then that is it, end of discussion, this is a characteristic that is predetermined. You are going to be fat or thin, have a dodgy heart or whatever. This is not really how it is. The world is not like that. Theologically I am not a Calvinist - I cannot take the determinism. Scientifically it is the same. Just because you have these genes, it doesn't mean that they will all be "turned on". You can influence these things. This is the idea of gene expression , which wikipedia defines as the process by which the inheritable information which comprises a gene, such as the DNA sequence, is made manifest as a physical and biologically functional gene product, such as protein or RNA. You activity levels, exercise, diet, environment etc can all influence which genes are turned on, how gene expression happens. Art DeVany had a couple of good posts on this a while a...

A couple of things that are linked here - lazy kids with fat families. Fat mum hastens path to childhood obesity Risk factors for obesity in 7-year-old European children: the Auckland Birthweight Collaborative Study A fat mother hastens a child’s path to obesity, finds a study published ahead of print in the Archives of Disease in Childhood. Other factors included too much time spent in front of the TV and rapidly piling on the pounds in early childhood. The researchers base their findings on 571 New Zealand children of European heritage, who were regularly monitored from birth to the age of 7 years. Their percentage body fat, a reliable indicator of overweight and obesity, was calculated at the age of 3½ and 7 years. TV viewing time and the amount of physical activity they took part in were also measured at the age of 7. Children who had acquired a high percentage body fat by the age of 3½ were significantly more likely to be obese at the age of 7 than those with low percentage body ...

now if you are anything like me, you will look at the video in the previous post, be inspired and impressed and try it out for yourself. and fail miserably. That was why I was so glad to see a video posted on the Crossfit site. (I tried to up load it to this site but it was taking for ever. I'll put it up if it ever makes it to You Tube. Just download it yourself from here or play it from the site.) Apart from the whole sergeant-major vibe from the trainer - he reminded me of the nasty instructor in An Officer and a Gentleman - this is an excellent video in that in explains, step by step, how to skip... Applying these methods I just might get somewhere. Here is Ross doing more jumping:

Ok, I'll come clean. This post is a bit contrived. I recently saw a couple of videos that I wanted to put up which featured two amazing athletes skipping rope (or jump rope as the yanks say). To justify that I thought I'd better find some science about jumping rope. So, I'll put one video here...and another in the next post. As we've mentioned a bit recently explosive movements - such as jumps - are really effective at developing power and for fat loss . This is where skipping comes in - it is an explosive movement that also - allegedly - develops great coordination and athleticism. There is a nice study below which amuses me in that it basically says that skipping a rope is hard! Average MET values at the different rates ranged from 11.7 to 12.5, which supported findings from other studies that rope skipping is very strenuous exercise. As an example of this "strenuous" exercise look at this: This is the great Ross Enamait and he has written his own - very...