Conditioning Research

Because when it gets hard they stop enjoying it! The Relationship Between Exercise Intensity and Affective Responses Demystified: To Crack the 40-Year-Old Nut, Replace the 40-Year-Old Nutcracker! BACKGROUND : A causal chain linking exercise intensity, affective responses (e.g., pleasure-displeasure), and adherence has long been suspected as a contributor to the public health problem of physical inactivity. However, progress in the investigation of this model has been limited, mainly due to inconsistent findings on the first link between exercise intensity and affective responses. PURPOSE : The purpose was to reexamine the intensity-affect relationship using a new methodological platform. METHODS : Thirty young adults (14 women and 16 men) participated in 15-min treadmill exercise sessions below, at, and above their ventilatory threshold. The innovative elements were the following: (a) Affect was assessed in terms of the dimensions of the circumplex model; (b) assessments were made repe...

I've noted before that stress is an under-appreciated factor in health - and may be responsible for a lot of heart problems . Here is a study which highlights the importance of stress to metabolism - especially in the obese: Stress and metabolism. Obesity, lipid disorders, type 2 diabetes, high blood pressure and coronary heart disease are frequently encountered in wealthy populations. All these disorders frequently occur as clusters, constituting the metabolic syndrome. It is currently admitted that insulin resistance plays a central role in the pathogenesis of this syndrome. Stress responses include activation of the sympathetic nervous system and stimulation of epinephrine and cortisol release. These hormones may over the long term reduce insulin sensitivity. Cortisol may also favour the development of central obesity. In healthy individuals, mental stress increases heart rate, but simultaneously decreases vascular resistance in skeletal muscle. This results in a moderate increa...

Actually stretching is OK but not as a warm up - that seems to be the view of both scientists and coaches now. For example, Vern Gambetta comments : I want to make sure that people do not get the impression that stretching is not important. Stretching as a means to improve functional flexibility is very important. It is a separate training unit. Stretching is not warm-up! This New York Times piece concludes: Another systematic review, by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, was published in the journal Medicine and Science in Sports and Exercise in 2004. It looked at multiple studies and found that stretching “was not significantly associated with a reduction in total injuries,” but also concluded that more research was needed. For now, many experts say that what may work is a quick warm-up, like low-impact aerobics or walking. It also helps to ease into an activity by starting off slow and then increasing speed, intensity or weight (for lifting). So how do you warm up, if ...

These two studies are both dated in 2003, but they have only appeared in Pubmed over the weekend (unless my regular pubcrawler search is playing up). Anyway, both look interesting for those of us that are sympathetic towards a low carbohydrate diet. The first looks at the treatment of childhood obesity and found that a low carb diet was more effective and easier to stick to. Effect of low-carbohydrate, unlimited calorie diet on the treatment of childhood obesity: a prospective controlled study. Conclusions : A high protein, low carbohydrate, unlimited calorie diet was superior to a restricted calorie protocol for weight loss in obese school age children; moreover, compliance was better. I spotted that Barry Groves has recently posted another similar study: Unlimited calorie, low-carb diet better and healthier for obese children , which shows something very similar. He comments: Although this a new study, and it calls for yet more studies of an unlimited calorie, low-carb diet in wei...

I am not sure what I think of this..... I have learned a lot from Paul Chek and enjoy his writings , for example this on abdominal training . Mark Reifkind , whose knowledge of rehab and physio I rate highly, has written about the influence that Chek had on him here and here , in two excellent posts. The point Chek makes in this video is quite pertinent - if someone is purporting to be an expert in training, diet or conditioning then they really should look the part . Some of the New Agey stuff he is into does not really fit with me, but I think I can forgive the apparent madness as enthusiasm! See what you think! There is a whole series of his videos on Youtube.

Barry Groves has put up an interesting new article Unhealthy dogma means unhealthy food: Milk and dairy produce is thought to cause cancer and other diseases. But it is only low-fat dairy which does; full-cream dairy actually protects us. Today, it is increasingly difficult to buy fresh, wholesome food. What used to be healthy, no longer is. There are many examples: Meat is so lean today that Mrs. Beeton would regard it as being of very poor quality indeed. I normally buy meat straight from the farmer, but recently I tried some beef that I bought from a supermarket; it was dry, tasteless and tough. That doesn’t make it unhealthy, necessarily, but other changes brought about by ‘healthy’ dogma do. There are so many such examples that I’ll just give one in detail: modern milk I have been thinking a bit about milk recently after a couple of other posts on blogs: Why going ‘dairy free’ may bring relief to kids who stop breathing in the night Book Review - Devil in the Milk Milk is not ...

This study looked at the effect on the body of standard pushups compared to pushups on a labile (unstable) surface. Suspended pushups worked the abdominals and upper back (lats) a lot more. However, the researchers caution that this extra work could potentially overload the lower back. Maybe - if you already have a dodgy back - we are back to caution.... do no harm Great video too! Muscular contribution to low-back loading and stiffness during standard and suspended push-ups. Push-up exercises are normally performed to challenge muscles that span upper extremity joints. However, it is also recognized that push-ups provide an effective abdominal muscle challenge, especially when the hands are in contact with a labile support surface. The purpose of this study was to compare trunk muscle activation levels and resultant intervertebral joint (IVJ) loading when standard and suspended push-ups were performed, and to quantify and compare the contribution of trunk muscles to IVJ rotational ...

Metabolic Adaptations to Short-term High-Intensity Interval Training: A Little Pain for a Lot of Gain? I've talked about intervals before. I spotted this new article; there wasn't much in the abstract, so have bought the whole thing and will comment more when I've had a chance to read it. Exercise & Sport Sciences Reviews. 36(2):58-63, April 2008. Abstract : High-intensity interval training (HIT) is a potent time-efficient strategy to induce numerous metabolic adaptations usually associated with traditional endurance training. As little as six sessions of HIT over 2 wk or a total of only approximately 15 min of very intense exercise (~600 kJ), can increase skeletal muscle oxidative capacity and endurance performance and alter metabolic control during aerobic-based exercise.

In previous posts about running shoes I came to the conclusion that shoes should be as simple as possible to avoid interfering with the natural "barefoot" style of walking/running, the gait which we naturally adopt when unencumbered by shoes. There was an interesting article in the Guardian the other day about walking barefoot: Get your socks off - Walking barefoot over different types of terrain is said to be beneficial to one's health. To test the theory, Alice Wignall braves the Barfuss trail - mudbath and all Running barefoot has some interesting material too.

If you thought that GM food was a little sinister, then you will be appalled by the implications of an article in the Guardian today. It looked at the science of nanotechnology and how it could revolutionise food. How do you fancy tucking into a bowl of ice cream that has no more fat than a carrot? Or eating a burger that will lower your cholesterol? If you are allergic to peanuts, perhaps you'd like to fix your food so that any nut traces pass harmlessly through your body. Welcome to the world of nanofoods, where almost anything is possible: where food can be manipulated at an atomic or molecular level to taste as delicious as you want, do you as much good as you want, and stay fresh for ... well, who knows? A world where smart pesticides are harmless until they reach the stomachs of destructive insects; where food manufacturers promise an end to starvation; where smart packaging sniffs out and destroys the micro-organisms that make good food go bad. In short, a food heaven to th...

Or (in English) "First, do no harm." Primum non nocere is a Latin phrase that means "First, do no harm." The phrase is sometimes recorded as primum nil nocere. It is one of the principal precepts all medical students are taught in medical school. It reminds a physician that he or she must consider the possible harm that any intervention might do. (From Wikipedia) I recently attended a kettlebell workshop (RKC/Hardstyle) taught by Dr Mark Cheng of Kettlebells LA and hosted by Rannoch Donald of Kettlebells Scotland . The first thing that Mark said at the workshop washed over me a little at the time, but I've been thinking about it more and more since then. The primary thing he wanted us to remember with respect to our training was simple: FIRST DO NO HARM. Training and exercise should not damage or injure. They should enhance your life, health and function rather than diminish it. I've injured myself in the past through exercise - I still suffer from a ...

I just wanted to point to a couple of recent blog posts on fat. In the past I've pointed to a few resources on cholesterol explaining that I am a bit of a sceptic regarding the "lipid hypothesis" (i.e. in simple terms, the idea that dietary cholesterol raises blood cholesterol which is bad for your health). Still, people continue with this idea that fat is bad for you..... First of all, Brian has a nice post Is the omega-6:omega-3 ratio of beef relevant? in which he questions some of the assumptions about the fatty acid profiles of different meats. Stephan has also posted a good piece on a very healthy fat: lard. The L Word - some interesting ideas there, e.g., Lard from pasture-raised pigs is the second-richest food source of vitamin D by weight, after cod liver oil. If you are interested in other high fat science, have a look at Peter's Hyperlipid blog in which he explains his approach: ...... I eat a high fat diet, approximately 80% of calories from anim...

“We’ve found something new that insulin does and it has to be considered when we think about how insulin is affecting our cells and bodies,” said Dr. T. Keith Blackwell, senior investigator at Joslin and author of the paper. “This has implications for basic biology since under some circumstances insulin may reduce defense against the damaging effects of oxidative stress more than we realize. ” This is extrapolating a little bit, but it another reason why we want to keep our insulin levels low. Insulin inhibits a master gene regulator protein (SKN-1). Increased SKN-1 activity increases lifespan - SKN-1 controls what is called the Phase 2 detoxification pathway, a network of genes that defends cells and tissue against oxidative stress -- damage caused by elevated levels of free radicals (byproducts of metabolism) -- and various environmental toxins. So you want increased SKN1 activity. But insulin turns it down. What drives insulin secretion? Blood sugar i.e., ingesting carbs (and ...

Mark's Daily Apple has posted a guide to intermittent fasting . It must be a good post, since it links to this blog! Thanks Mark. He identifies different approaches to IF: Skipped Meal: Condensed Eating Window: (Like Fast5 ) Early and Late: Single Twenty-Four Fast (like Eat Stop Eat ) Alternating Day Fast for Week (or more): Let your choice(s) fit with your personal/family schedule, natural rhythms, and your personality (some of us are meticulous planners and some are more spontaneous – “and that’s O.K.”). The point of IF is this: episodic deprivation takes your body “off the track” for a while and allows systems to reinvigorate and recalibrate (also known as up-regulating and/or down-regulating gene expression). Mike had a similar post on his IF life blog: Intermittent Fasting 101 - How to start If you are interested in some of the relevant science I still recommend Brad Pilon's Eat Stop Eat book.

Zola Budd I've had one or two posts about running shoes in the past, the ultimate message of which was that simpler shoes are better. As I was reminded this weekend at an RKC kettlebell workshop this is also a principle worth bearing in mind for some types of lifting. Thinner shoes - or even going barefoot - allows your proprioception to improve: there is better feedback in terms of balance. That at least is the position of the Pavel / RKC school. Anyway, Ross and Jonathan over at the Science in Sport blog have had a couple more posts on the science of running shoes. I really enjoyed yesterday's post: Running shoes, barefoot running and muscle tuning: The intelligent biomachine and implications for running They make some interesting points and note that the business aspect of the running shoe industry might sometimes produce its own problems! Of course, problems do develop and injuries do happen, and when they do, it's fascinating to wonder whether in fact the cau...

One of the themes I keep coming back to is health. Extreme performance is all very well and can even be fun, but for many people doing sets of tabata squats or sprints is not an option. Maybe they have no desire to work that hard, or maybe they are simply unable through age or disability. Sure, I'd like to see people working hard, with intense functional exercises (you could do worse than to start with the basic routines that Joel suggests ), but for most people even a low level of exercise would do them some good. I was reminded of this by a couple of studies that I saw today: Routine stair climbing in place of residence and Body Mass Index: a pan-European population based study - This study examined the association between daily stair climbing, as measured by floor of residence in buildings without elevators, and body mass index (BMI). Among men, residence on a higher floor was significantly associated with lower BMI (P=0.003); BMI of men residing on the fourth floor or abov...

This is a lazy post, but Peter at Hyperlipid has put up an excellent piece: Diabetes and Hunger or....carbs make you hungry. Carbs also make you sleepy as Brad Pillon pointed out recently: Why am I so tired? I can't recall the last time bacon and eggs made me sleepy. But I know that anytime I have a big "sugar bomb" type of meal, I'm out like a light about 30 minutes after I'm done eating. At thanksgiving, its not the turkey that gets me, its the stuffing

I have another blog that I write to more occasionally - " Cairn in the Mist " - where I put up photos of my hillwalking trips in the Scottish mountains, as well as other photos and thoughts. The idea of the title is that often when you get to the top of a hill you do not see anything - just a cairn in the mist....but that is not the point. The point is the walk, the process. I've climbed lots of hills where, at the top, all you see is a cairn in the mist. Sometimes enjoying the climb, the journey, the process is more important than getting to the goal. That idea is actually a rebuke to me to stop me being so focussed on getting the goal, the tick in my book. I need to slow down sometimes and avoid the stress that comes with being driven to get to a target. I need to appreciate the journey not just the achievement. Anyway, all that is just to give some context to this link: Lyle McDonald has put up a couple of really useful and thought-provoking posts on this topic: Go...

I've written a little bit in the past about balance - an over looked and under appreciated aspect of fitness. Essential in sports but also in everyday life, especially as we age and the prospect of a fall with its consequent potential for injury grows. In a recent post on knee injury I noted that I was always on the look out for new balance training ideas and resources. Scott Sonnon 's blog today had a balance programme - the Four Corner Balance Drill - that is simple, yet with the progressions he suggests, suitably challenging, through each plane of motion. Developing coordination can be achieved much more effectively using the following drills for trainees of all skill levels. They combine strength, muscular endurance, muscle control, agility, soft tissue strengthening, dynamic range of motion, and dynamic flexibility along with, of course, coordination training. They are listed in order of difficulty: Basic (1-3 months of training) Intermediate (4-6 months of training...

Popular Energy Drinks Cause Tooth Erosion, Study Shows I was thinking of this study today while watching the 6 nations rugby matches, the cameras often showing the players slurping down bright blue (!) Powerade. I've posted before about some of the dodgy science behind these energy drinks. Art DeVany also had something good : You are slightly insulin resistant after a work out because growth hormone is an antagonist of insulin. Hence, any glucose that makes it into your blood stream will not be well-controlled and you will have excessive blood glucose, with all the consequences that this entails. It will be a mild form of elevated blood glucose, but it will be there nonetheless and it is to be avoided. Sports and gainer drinks are sold on the theory that exercise drains glycogen from the muscles and you must refill those stores. Nonsense. You want to drain the glycogen from your muscles, which you do through the glycolytic exercises that are part of the Evolutionary Fitness work...

In the context of all the recent debate over intermittent fasting, Matt Metzgar has a post that points to a fascinating article suggesting that people who eat more meals per day have a higher incidence of colon cancer. The comments on the post are also interesting to read. While the study doesn't look at the type of food eaten, I wonder if there is a relation to some of the things I've written recently talking about the way in which cancer can be treated with a low carb diet? Cancer cells thrive on glucose, if you have ongoing constantly elevated blood sugar due to constant eating, that cannot be good?

Jeff Martone has done a series of videos recently on the Crossfit site demonstrating kettlebell exercises. I have already pointed to the Turkish Get up tutorials . Here he takes the basic kettlebell swing (which I showed him demonstrating here ) overhead, into what Crossfit call an American Swing. The basic swing taught by Pavel and others sees the kettlebell stop at around shoulder level, what Crossfit call the Russian swing. Their contention - explained in this article (pdf) - is that: When we swing the kettlebell to overhead, the American swing, we nearly double the range of motion compared to the Russian swing and thereby double the work done each stroke. For any given time period, the power would be equivalent only if the Russian swing rate was twice the American swing rate. One thing I've noticed is that if you do a swing with a dumbbell, for me the natural end point is with the bell overhead, possibly received with a slight dip in the knees or even a split stance. That ...

Vern Gambetta has a really good couple of posts up today on the need (or not) for an aerobic base for sprinters: Building an Aerobic Base For some strange reason the myth that you must build an aerobic base for sprinting still lives. All over the country now as high school track practice is starting sprint coaches are working hard to get their sprinters ready. I have had several emails in the past ten days asking me about the need to build an aerobic base for sprinters. It is not necessary to build an aerobic base, you need to build a work capacity base, not an aerobic base. Taking a group of sprinters and running then for 30 or 40 minutes continuously will have no positive effect on their development. In fact everything about that is negative: 1) The kids get turned off, they are in the sprints because they are faster and explosive – fast, explosive people do not tolerate running slow 2) Irrefutable empirical and scientific evidence tells us that continuous slow aerobic work signific...

Lyle McDonald has started a blog . I really enjoy Lyle's writing - he is obsessed with nutrition and exercise science and regularly analyses new research putting it into very understandable language. His Ultimate Diet 2.0 is a fantastic book, not primarily for the diet it proposes but also for the accessible introduction to the biochemistry of fat loss. If you like the sort of science that I post here, but want to see it explained in a bit more detail by someone that knows what they are talking about, check out Lyle's blog. I probably won't always agree with Lyle, but he is always thought provoking and always tries to look at the full range of relevant science. For a sample of his writing look at this post on How many carbohydrates do you need?

I've previously posted about research indicating that ketogenic diets can be used to treat cancer ( here and here ) Here is another story that might add support to that idea. Study helps explain fundamental process of tumor growth: Unique metabolic process first identified eight decades ago is found to be key Read through the article and towards the end you find this: The findings are consistent with the idea that tumor cells preferentially use glucose for purposes other than making adenosine triphosphate (ATP) , the energy currency used by normal cells. “We suspect that this mechanism evolved to ensure that fetal tissues only use glucose for growth when they are activated by appropriate growth factor receptor protein-tyrosine kinases,” adds Cantley. “By re-expressing PKM2, cancer cells acquire the ability to use glucose for anabolic processes. This is the same idea as in the ketogenic diet treatments - starve the cancer of glucose through a very low carb diet and you can stop i...

How about that for the title of a post! OK, this morning there were two stories about this research, one on Science Daily and one on Eureka Alert . The fight against obesity -- a new insight - Mitochondrial uncoupling demonstrated in human skeletal muscle With obesity still on the increase, it appears that the main weapon in the fight against it - reducing energy consumption by eating less - is ineffective. There is evident need to search for new treatment strategies dealing with the opposite aspect of the energy balance: increasing energy consumption. Researchers at Maastricht University have now found a way to increase cells’ energy consumption: mitochondrial uncoupling. The findings are published in this week’s PLoS ONE. PhD candidate Sander Wijers and his colleagues Patrick Schrauwen, Prof. Wim Saris and Wouter van Marken Lichtenbelt have shown that this process occurs naturally in human skeletal muscle cells when exposed to mild cold. They carried out muscle biopsies on 11 lean, ...

One of the readers of this blog - thanks Bob - pointed this out to me: CBC Newsworld TV tomorrow night, (Tuesday 11 March) 10 pm ET and 10 pm PT "My Big Fat Diet" This from the webpage: Supersize Me meets Northern Exposure in My Big Fat Diet when a First Nations community off Vancouver Island gives up sugar and junk food, returning to a traditional style of eating for a year to fight obesity and diabetes. Together they'll lose over 1200 lbs and are now calling on other First Nations to take the weight loss challenge. My Big Fat Diet chronicles how the Namgis First Nation follows a diet study led by Dr. Jay Wortman and sponsored by Health Canada and the University of British Columbia. Through the stories of six people, it documents a medical and cultural experiment that may be the first of its kind in North America. Now I am in Scotland not Canada, so this being a show on CBS I put it on the back of the pile of things to think about. However, in a quiet moment today I had...

There was an article in the NY Times today about pushups. An Enduring Measure of Fitness: The Simple Push-Up It was explaining that: The push-up is the ultimate barometer of fitness. It tests the whole body, engaging muscle groups in the arms, chest, abdomen, hips and legs. It requires the body to be taut like a plank with toes and palms on the floor. The act of lifting and lowering one’s entire weight is taxing even for the very fit. “You are just using your own body and your body’s weight,” said Steven G. Estes, a physical education professor and dean of the college of professional studies at Missouri Western State University. “If you’re going to demonstrate any kind of physical strength and power, that’s the easiest, simplest, fastest way to do it.” Now I wouldn't say that they are the ultimate measure of fitness - I think fitness is a bit more complex . However it was what the article went on to say that interested me. Push-ups are important for older people, too. The abilit...

Just a few things I've spotted recently that I wanted to highlight but not really to write about in any more detail. Basically coffee might have some good effects and exercise is good for you.... Coffee Consumption and Coronary Calcification. The Rotterdam Coronary Calcification Study - the study suggests a beneficial effect of coffee drinking against coronary calcification, particularly in women. Caffeine Effects on Short-Term Performance during Prolonged Exercise in the Heat. - When combined with water and carbohydrate, caffeine ingestion increases maximal leg force by increasing voluntary activation (i.e., reducing central fatigue). Exercise and diet enhance fat oxidation and reduce insulin resistance in older obese adults - exercise (and potentaily IF ) is good for you - these data show that exercise training improves resting substrate oxidation and creates a metabolic milieu that appears to promote lipid utilization in skeletal muscle, thus facilitating a reversal of insuli...

The other day I pointed to the Crossfit " World Class Fitness in 100 Words " as a good summary of where I am getting to in my thoughts about training and diet. I noted that there are some modifications that I might make but overall it is an excellent précis. One of the things that I think is not that well developed in the Crossfit manifesto is the idea of training frequency and indeed the relationship between frequency and intensity. All their statement says is : Five or six days per week mix these elements in as many combinations and patterns as creativity will allow. Routine is the enemy. Keep workouts short and intense. Fair enough, but from my own training experience, the research and the ability to live a normal life, I think that training hard and intensely "5 or 6 days" a week is not the best solution. This is where I think the thoughts of Art Devany are useful. One of the ideas that he proposes in his essay " Evolutionary Fitness " is that w...

Keep active, keep moving. Walking or vitamin B for cognition in older adults with mild cognitive impairment? A randomized controlled trial. OBJECTIVE : To examine the effects of aerobic exercise or vitamin B supplementation on cognitive function in older adults with mild cognitive impairment (MCI). DESIGN : Randomized placebo-controlled trial. SETTING : General community. PARTICIPANTS : community-dwelling adults aged 70-80 with MCI. INTERVENTIONS : The 152 participants were randomly assigned to two interventions: 1) a twice-weekly, group-based, moderate-intensity walking program (WP, n=77) or a low-intensity placebo activity program (n=75) for one year; and 2) daily vitamin pill containing 5 mg folic acid, 0.4 mg vitamin B12, 50 mg vitamin B6 (FA/B12/B6, n=78) or placebo-pill (n=74) for one year. OUTCOME MEASURES : Cognitive function, measured with neuropsychological tests at baseline and after six and 12 months. RESULTS : Median session attendance to the exercise programs (25th-75th p...

This is a bit different for this blog, but mental attitude is important. This video is doing the rounds in the blogosphere so you may have already seen it, but worth thinking about:

It is a bit dumbed down, but the teacher here begins to explain a lot of what I am coming to believe about diet - it is ultimately a question of hormones . I might even buy the journal to get the rest of this lecture. I hope I am not a disciple of any particular fitness guru or school - I try to take the good bits from lots of sources, avoiding the " cultic " tunnel vision that can sometimes come with adherence to a single philosophy. That being said I think that the Crossfit Fitness in 100 words sums up a lot of what I have come to believe about fitness and diet - especially the first 14 words about diet. (They explain more in this pdf ) , and develop their ideas about nutrition a bit more here . I might argue with some bits and pieces, e.g. I might say to eat eggs (and butter and cream!), put IF in the mix and maybe add in more easy days, but I think as a 100 word summary, this is pretty good. World-Class Fitness in 100 Words: Eat meat and vegetables, nuts and seeds...

This study came through yesterday . The researchers were looking at the effects of a very-low-carbohydrate, high-saturated-fat weight-loss diet (LC) on brachial artery flow-mediated dilatation (FMD). Reduced flow-mediated dilation, as measured in this study, is an early indicator of cardiovascular disease - the vessels are not opening up as the blood flows though - they are not "flexing". The researchers found that this study showed that a low carb diet does not impair FMD and actually had benficial effects on most other markers of cardiovascular health. The full abstract is copied below for you to look at. Now that might be enough to write. However, a few days ago I put up a fairly innocuous post " Low Carb Brief " In the comments to that someone pointed me to a study reported here , the abstract of which is found here The shock horror headline was that "Low-fat Diets More Likely To Reduce Risk Of Heart Disease Than Low-carb Diets" as those research...

UPDATE Dr Eades comments in this study here I couldn't really resist this one....it seems like a "healthy diet" - whole grains, fruits and vegetables accompanied by vegetable oil - makes people fat...... Vegetable-rich food pattern is related to obesity in China Abstract Objective : To investigate the association between a vegetable-rich food pattern and obesity among Chinese adults. Design : A food pattern rich in vegetables is associated with lower risk of obesity and non-communicable chronic disease in Western countries. A similar food pattern is found in the Chinese population but the cooking method is different. A cross-sectional household survey of 2849 men and women aged 20 years and over was undertaken in 2002 in Jiangsu Province (response rate, 89.0%). Food intake was assessed by food frequency questionnaire. Factor analysis was used to identify food patterns. Nutrient intake was measured by food weighing plus consecutive individual 3-day food records. Height, we...

It is probably obvious from this blog that I find the whole area of diet, exercise, fitness etc absolutely fascinating and reading and researching this material is a great pleasure. I'm always on the lookout for new information on these things that interest me and one of the areas of my particular interest is i ntermittent fasting . I recently came across another blog - Spartan Training / the way is in training - which has - among the workout records of its author a couple of interesting articles on IF. The two blog posts are: Intermittent Fasting or caloric restriction ; and Intermittent Fasting facilitates learning These are two really well thought out and well written posts that will repay some study. The first does some thinking - based on several studies - about the similarities and differences between IF and CR and the various mechanisms that are at play. The second looks at a study which suggests the idea that long-term intermittent fasting can lead to improved cognit...

While referring to rats, this is still an interesting study regarding the potential benefits of calorie restriction - of which Intermittent Fasting (IF) is a form - and exercise. Basically there is a problem that as we get older we tend to lose muscle. This study suggests that you can avoid that problem (and its consequences) through lifelong, voluntary exercise combined with mild (8%) caloric restriction. Anyway, the relevance here is that IF has been shown to have similar results to caloric restriction (CR) which itself has been demonstrated to increase lab rat lifespans more than 20%. I often post IF studies here and am also a fan of resistance exercise. Brad Pillon's Eat Stop Eat , that I've pointed to before, also proposes IF coupled with resistance training. Lifelong exercise and mild (8%) caloric restriction attenuate age-induced alterations in plantaris muscle morphology, oxidative stress and IGF-1 in the Fischer-344 rat Abstract Muscle atrophy is a highly preva...

I have had a previous post about co enzyme Q10. Here is a new study on this supplement, which again suggests some benefits.... Effects of acute and 14-day coenzyme Q10 supplementation on exercise performance in both trained and untrained individuals Background To determine whether acute (single dose) and/or chronic (14-days) supplementation of CoQ10 will improve anaerobic and/or aerobic exercise performance by increasing plasma and muscle CoQ10 concentrations within trained and untrained individuals. Methods Twenty-two aerobically trained and nineteen untrained male and female subjects (26.1+/-7.6 yrs, 172+/-8.7 cm, 73.5+/-17 kg, and 21.2+/-7.0%) were randomized to ingest in a double-blind manner either 100 mg of a dextrose placebo (CON) or a fast-melt CoQ10 supplement (CoQ10) twice a day for 14-days. On the first day of supplementation, subjects donated fasting blood samples and a muscle biopsy. Subjects were then given 200 mg of the placebo or the CoQ10 supplement. Sixty minutes fol...

I've posted a couple of tutorials before on the Turkish Get Up (TGU) here and here . Scott Sonnon has just posted another variation which is specifically aimed at developing speed-strength. He trains fighters, so that is a particularly useful fitness element. The describes the move and its context in a blog post here . The video below shows the style: I like the shin roll to the squat.

There are quite a few of us now that have an interest in Intermittent Fasting (IF). I have just seen this abstract which looks at another mechanism associated with IF. This mechanism could add to the fat-burning effect of fasting. You may have heard of l-carnitine - it has been sold as a supplement allegedly to increase fat burning and prevent fatigue. The description below is from Wikipedia: Carnitine , also known as L-carnitine or levocarnitine, is a quaternary ammonium compound biosynthesized from the amino acids lysine and methionine.[1] It helps in the consumption and disposal of fat in the body because it is responsible for the transport of fatty acids from the cytosol into the mitochondria. It is often sold as a nutritional supplement. One of the supplement advertisements explains: L-carnitine transfers long-chain fatty acids, such as triglycerides into mitochondria (a cell's energy powerhouse), where they may be oxidized to produce energy. L-carnitine is a very popular...