Conditioning Research

This might be useful for warm-ups or as part of a conditioning circuit.

I think I've previously pointed to Martin Berkhan, who has his own approach to intermittent fasting. He explains in more detail in this interview , but he uses a 16 hour fast period followed by 3 meals in the following 8 hours, without too much focus on carb restriction. He has just put up a post explaining how he used IF to go from a skinny fashion model to a much more muscular athlete, all after starting as a fat youth. It is worth reading. Eat Stop Eat remains a good introduction to some of the science behind IF and would be an accessible starting point if you want to learn more.

For those of you interested in intermittent fasting , there have been a few posts over recent days that you may like to check out: Art DeVany proposes some mechanisms by which fasting may increase mental clarity Robb Wolf looks at two seemingly contradictory studies on IF (also discussed here ) Marc discusses his approach One of Art DeVany's readers explains his approach For my eating, I like to visualize myself in a wild environment. What would I eat if I were trying to survive outdoors? I am personally fasting about twice a week for 24 hours e.g. from 1pm one day to 1pm the next, as explained in the book Eat Stop Eat .

I have had a couple of posts before on Growth Hormone and how to increase your production of it: Intermittent Fasting increases Growth Hormone Melatonin promotes GH release Here is another study that I have come across. Basically it appears that shorter rests between sets increase the secretion of GH in response to exercise. Strictly the experiment was only concerning trained women, so perhaps we shouldn't extrapolate too far, but it is certainly another reason why more intense circuits - for example like the metabolic conditioning workouts from Crossfit or some of Bryce's routines - might have some additional attraction. Effects of rest duration between sets of resistance training on acute hormonal responses in trained women. This study investigated the acute hormonal response to three different rest periods between sets of a traditional lower body resistance training session in young women. Twelve healthy trained females (26.83+/-3.93 years) participated in the study. ...

Here is a little Christmas present for you..... video (if genuine and it looks like it is) of a 2 man 444lb clean and jerk. It is impressive, but you can't help thinking that there is an accident waiting to happen if they carry on like this.

A little while I had a post up reporting a study that found that soccer was more effective for promoting fat loss than was jogging . I talked about soccer being a series of sprints / jogs / walks and speculated that it was this mix of intensities that was important - similar to Art DeVany's thoughts on the power law distribution - lots of easy stuff and a few hard bits randomly scattered in. Here is another study looking at building training for soccer around sprints rather than long runs. In fact this study seems to indicate that repeated 40 metre sprints were more effective than longer intervals (4mins). It makes sense - football is about sprints, that do not usually go on longer than 40 metres. You don't run continually for 4 minutes in a game, so why train like that? Sprint vs. Interval Training in Football. The aim of this study was to compare the effects of high-intensity aerobic interval and repeated-sprint ability (RSA) training on aerobic and anaerobic physiologi...

Here is another one of those pieces of research that seem almost obvious: In summary, if the coach wants to maximize the athlete performance in 1 specific resistance exercise, this exercise should be placed at the beginning of the training session. So if you want to improve your deadlift......do it first before you get tired. OK so far, so good, so straightforward. There is something buried in this abstract that is quite interesting though - the research asserts that "preexhaustion" training - beloved of "high-intensity" bodybuilders etc - isn't worth doing? Our findings suggest that performing pre-exhaustion exercise is no more effective in increasing the activation of the prefatigued muscles during the multi-joint exercise. Effects of Exercise Order on Upper-Body Muscle Activation and Exercise Performance ABSTRACT Effects of exercise order on upper-body muscle activation and exercise performance. J. Strength Cond. Res. 21(4):1082–1086. 2007.— With the pur...

I first posted this months ago when this blog had fewer readers. It is worth posting again. It is a good CD and a good cause. there is stuff from Shaf , Pavel , Dan John and loads of others. Very good value. www.liftstrong.com This is a bit of a break from the research, to point you towards a really good cause and a really good value resource. Alwyn Cosgrove is a top fitness coach, originally from Scotland, but now based in the States. He is also a two time cancer survivor, having twice beaten Lymphoma. He has put together this great CD containing some fantastic material from some of the top fitness and conditioning coaches, with all the proceeds going to medical research. Even without the good cause the material is top rate and great value. I'll quote: As most of you know - I am a two time cancer survivor and underwent a complete stem cell transplant in June of 2006. To find a cure for cancer -- we need to fund research. To fund research -- we need money. Plain and simple....

Over on the Physical Strategies Blog, Tom Furman has put up a really elegant post " Systemic Shock Sequence " He picks three moves (snatch, thruster and swipe) to cover the basic moves: 1.Lower body Thrust, 2. Total Body Flexion, 3.Total Body Extension, 4. Upper body Thrust & 5. Upper body Pulling. He then offers 13 different ways of mixing things up e.g., 1. Go heavy, drop the reps 2. Go light, increase the reps 3. Go superhuman, used timed sets 4. Vary Barbells, Dumbbells, and Kettle bells for variety If you are not sure of what swipes are have a look at the video below. Incidentally I've tried that move with a 10lb sledgehammer and it works fine.

I found that on YouTube. There are a few other videos there from the same guys, most of which are of them doing Olympic Lifts. For example: Goes to show that explosive power and Oly Lifting go together. Then again I was just reading Vern Gambetta's " Athletic Development ": Another argument given for the use of the Olympic lifting movements is that they help with jumping because in biochemical analysis of Olympic lifting, the pattern of force closely resembles the vertical jump. I may be missing something here, but then why not just jump with resistance? Learning and mastering the technical complexity of Olympic lifting movements to improve jumping seems to be a stretch. That said he is still keen on the Olympic lifts - modified where necessary to fit the body type of the athlete. Adapt the method to the athlete; don't adapt the athlete to the method. Remember you are not training Olympic lifters: you are training athletes who use the Olympic lifts and the...

I'm sorry...... A few months ago I had a post called " Fat people walk funny ", which - in terms of hits - was strangely popular. Now this: "Tel Aviv University researchers have published a study that finds a direct link between obesity and bad breath: the more overweight you are, the more likely your breath will smell unpleasant to those around you ." Read more here

Here is an interesting one, showing how strength training benefited performance at cycling. Apparently as the subjects got stronger, they also got more aerobically fit. Their aerobic fitness improved without aerobic training. Strength training improves supramaximal cycling but not anaerobic capacity This study examined supramaximal cycling performed to exhaustion at 120% of peak O2 uptake (120% VO2peak) before and after 8 weeks of strength training. Eight previously untrained men completed 8 weeks of leg-strength training 3 days week−1 on a hack-squat machine; four sets, five repetitions at 85% of one repetition maximum each session. Anaerobic capacity was quantified by determining the maximal accumulated O2 deficit during supramaximal cycling. After 8 weeks of strength training, one repetition maximum for the hack squat significantly increased by 90 ± 33% when compared to before training. However, 8 weeks of strength training did not increase the maximal accumulated O2 deficit. Ne...

I posted something like this a while ago, with Shaf doing a leg matrix . This idea of a matrix or giant set of exercises to hit a variety of muscle fibres has been kicking around a bit recently. Alwyn Cosgrove has a leg matrix of: 24 squats 24 lunges (alternating on every rep for 12 each side) 24 jump lunges (exploding up and switching legs mid-air for 12 each side) 24 jump squats (squat all the way down, jump up as high as you can) ...to be done in under 90 seconds Vern Gambetta prescribes a circuit of : Bodyweight Squat x 20 (Break Parallel) Bodyweight Lunge x 20 (Lunge as long as leg length) Bodyweight step-up x 20 (Touch head at full extension) Jump Squat x 10 Bryce Lane 's B circuits are a similar approach. Gambetta has recently proposed what he calls the Spectrum Squat™ Workout: Isometric Squat – Hold 30 seconds Sandbag Squat (25 – 30 % Bodyweight) – 6 reps Unloaded Fast Bodyweight Squat (1 rep per second) – 6 reps Unloaded Jump Squats – 8 reps The idea behind this workou...

Here we go again....back to the Intermittent Fasting blog! In previous posts I've mentioned the problems with insulin resistance . 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. Here is a new piece of research that looks at the effect of Ramadan style fasting on insulin resistance Effect of Ramadan fasting on some indices of i...

I've had posts up here before about knee injuries, especially ACL tears. We noted that women are more prone to these injuries and that balance (proprioception) training can help. The study below has just been published and is interesting in terms of what activities it says are dangerous for the knees: A meta-analysis of the incidence of anterior cruciate ligament tears as a function of gender, sport, and a knee injury-reduction regimen. PURPOSE : The literature has shown that anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) tear rates vary by gender, by sport, and in response to injury-reduction training programs. However, there is no consensus as to the magnitudes of these tear rates or their variations as a function of these variables. For example, the female-male ACL tear ratio has been reported to be as high as 9:1. Our purpose was to apply meta-analysis to the entire applicable literature to generate accurate estimates of the true incidences of ACL tear as a function of gender, sport, and in...

Anthony DiLuglio in this video gives a step by step tutorial on doing the Turkish Getup (TGU) a fantastic functional move. Don't think that you need a kettlebell for this by the way - you can use a dumbbell, sandbag or even nothing at all and still get a great core workout. on the Crossfit site, Jeff Martone breaks it down even further: Part 1 Part 2 Part 3 Part 4

Maybe this is obvious to you, but I just came across this piece of research that found that the fatter you are the less fit you are likely to be. (It also found that stronger people had better bone mineral density). You could probably argue with some of the methodology but it is an interesting study as far as it goes. Body Composition by DEXA and Its Association With Physical Fitness in 140 Conscripts PURPOSE :: The aim of the study was to determine the body composition of healthy young men and to investigate whether there exists an association between body composition and physical fitness. MATERIALS AND METHODS:: A prospective cohort study of 140 healthy male conscripts (mean age 19.8yr, SD 1.0 yr) was conducted. We examined subject characteristics, aerobic performance, and muscle strength, and we assessed body composition using dual-energy x-ray absorptiometry (DEXA). The association between total body composition and lower-limb composition and physical performance was investigated ...

No not the Punk band .... The Science of Sport blog has had an excellent series recently about muscle cramps - what causes them and what to do about them. It is an interesting read, summed up by the most recent post: What all this means for you which has a review of the series and ideas for both treating and reducing cramping.

Here is a quote from Vince Gironda - one of the great bodybuilders of the 1950s: "You must have self-respect, ego, arrogance and pride. Hold yourself erect - never droop. You'll attract a lot of attention just by holding your stomach in and walking straight. People rarely see that." - Vince Gironda There is so much to that statement, not least about proper posture. Gravity is always pulling us down, and our weak muscles want to crumple us down into a ball, to flex. We need to be upright more, to live in extension.

This comes from Dr Briffa : Conventional medical thinking is that high levels of cholesterol in the blood stream cause ‘atherosclerosis’ – a furring up of the arteries through the build of fatty deposits there. Atherosclerosis is believed to be the underlying process in pretty much all heart attacks, and about 85 per cent of strokes (15 per cent of strokes are caused by bleeding rather than vessel blockage). Logic would dictate that the if cholesterol causes atherosclerosis, then higher levels of cholesterol should increase the risk of both heart disease and stroke deaths. The fact that this appears not to be the case appears to have left the researchers who unearthed this data a little nonplussed. Read more......

.....that was the headline on the BBC . Women who eat crisps or chips every day may double their chances of ovarian or womb cancer, say scientists. The fears surround acrylamides, chemicals produced when you fry, grill or roast a wide range of foods. Dutch researchers quizzed 120,000 people on their eating habits, and found that women who ate more acrylamide appeared more at risk. UK experts say other factors could be to blame, and urged women there was not need to panic. Actually, from what I can see the problem is not in " a wide range of foods ". Acrylamides only seem to derive from carbohydrates. There is an article about them here . An EU spokesman said: "General advice, resulting from this project, is to avoid overcooking when baking, frying or toasting carbohydrate-rich foods. Of course, as with any piece of scientific research, things are not always as straightforward as the headlines suggest. Dr Lesley Walker, from Cancer Research UK said that it was hard...

Some months ago Dr Eades had a fascinating post on his blog about Inflammation and Diet . A few days later he had another on intermittent fasting (IF) and inflammation. The last paragraph of the first post sums things up nicely: Over the past couple of decades just two of dietary changes – eating more and eating more often—have led to a state of chronic inflammation. The changes in diet composition have had an additive effect as well. Numerous studies have shown that while carbohydrates in general cause more of an inflammatory response than other macronutrients, fructose specifically causes the most rapid and intense inflammatory response of all. Polyunsaturated vegetable oils of the omega-6 variety (the majority) are inflammatory, trans fats (all of which start out as vegetable oils) are the worst, and most of the fat of animal, fish and dairy origin are actually anti-inflammatory. Sadly, we’ve been busy replacing the latter with the former. We find ourselves as a nation in the si...

A couple more posts for you on Intermittent Fasting (IF) Firstly, a fairly accessible article - focussed for the public who might not really know much about this - Retune the Body with a Partial Fast (That post also includes an interesting interview you can down load and listen to) Secondly, Art Devany has put up a nice simple summary of his approach to IF - Muscle Mass, EF and IF As I've said before there is an excellent introduction to all this in Eat Stop Eat and a free resource here .