Conditioning Research

I have this guy's DVD on Splits and Flexibility which is pretty good. This is a trailer for one he is doing on kicking. Flexibility helps but this guy is quick!

Robb Wolf discusses the dangers of high insulin levels.... . This is only part of a bigger lecture which looks like it would be quite helpful.

(Photo courtesy of Leangains ) Over at the IF Life there is a great post up with a round table discussion among some of the key proponents of intermittent fasting . Martin of Leangains , Brad of Eat Stop Eat and Mike of the IF Life share some valuable thoughts. One of the points Martin makes is important and something that he has really taught me: Question #2: “What are some of the Biggest Mistake you see people (currently or potentially) doing with IF?” Martin: The biggest I see is still making poor food choices in relation to their goals and what they wan’t to achieve. Using a haphazard approach despite having clearly defined goals (i.e. people want to get ripped yet don’t have any clue about the amount of carbs, protein and fat they’re eating). If you have ambitious goals, count on having to invest time in getting your nutrition in check. I also don’t think people should be training completely fasted when it comes to weight training. Proper pre- and post-workout nutrition is im...

I have previously pointed to the Mountain Athlete site. Rob uses a hybrid / Crossfit influenced approach to train climbers. There is strength stuff, but also metabolic conditioning always with functional movements. I think it is fantastic. Rob had an interesting post the other day in terms of how his training equpped him for a big day in the hills. Basically Only Multiple long days in the mountains prepares you for multiple long days in the mountains . ......Again, I think I've recovered better than many of the other recreational climbers I met on Teewinot yesterday, but relatively short training sessions in the gym has not prepared me for multiple long days in the mountains. Only Multiple long days in the mountains prepares you for multiple long days in the mountains. The point is to understand the limitations of gym training and their application to out-of-the gym activities. My gym work has given me a really high level of general fitness, strong legs and core for injury re...

I've noted before that a ketogenic diet (low carb, high fat) is often used to treat epilepsy in children. It is also potentially a healthy diet , as I've also pointed out before. For those worried that a ketogenic diet might not be healthy, here is an interesting study: High cholesterol levels drop naturally in children on high-fat anti-seizure diet, Hopkins study show Elevated cholesterol levels return to normal or near normal levels over time in four out of 10 children with uncontrollable epilepsy treated with the high-fat ketogenic diet, according to results of a Johns Hopkins Children's Center study reported in the Journal of Child Neurology. The study appears online ahead of print here . Here is the abstract : A prospective study was performed of all children started on the ketogenic diet at our institution for intractable epilepsy from January 2003 to March 2007 (n = 137), examining for baseline and follow-up total cholesterol and triglyceride levels. Interventions ...

If you are interested in intermittent fasting (for example Eat Stop Eat or Leangains ) you might want to check out some discussion boards and mailing lists: This IF Board has just started so is fairly quiet. I'm sure that Suz would like some other people to drop in The Yahoo Fasting Group has some very knowledgeable people This group is devoted to intermittent fasting and its effects on physiology and health. We expect that both practitioners of intermittent fasting and scientists with an interest in the physiological effects of intermittent fasting will want to join. The founding members are both practitioners and scientists. We are interested in the idea that intermittent fasting may be a preferable way of obtaining the health benefits associated with caloric restriction. Although we are interested in many aspects of fasting, including styles, effects and reasons to fast, this group is not about multi-day fasts, colonics, the purging of toxins or the attainment of spiritual ...

I had a post recently about the protective power of happiness: Happiness does not heal, but happiness protects against falling ill. As a result, happy people live longer. The size of the effect on longevity is comparable to that of smoking or not While I agree with what some commenters said about the deficiencies of such studies I really think that there is something in this. (....which is interesting given my increasingly morose outlook on life at the moment!) Anyway, here is a study that says that women exposed to negative life events at greater risk of breast cancer: Happiness and optimism may play a role against breast cancer while adverse life events can increase the risk of developing the disease, according to a study by Professor Ronit Peled, at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev in Israel. The BBC also noted this one There is of course another side to this .

BBC news reports the case of a Bodybuilder whose steroid use gave him some really ....... really bad acne. He also had shrunken testicles and a very low sperm count. Even after treatments with antiseptic and antibiotic therapy, scarring from the lesions remained. more here and here .

one for Dr Duncan .... This makes sense. If you want to train football....then play football. Sprints, balance, calisthenics etc are all fine, but the functional training is in the game Heart Rate Responses During Small-Sided Games and Short Intermittent Running Training in Elite Soccer Players: A Comparative Study. The purpose of this study was to compare heart rate (HR) responses within and between physical controlled (short-duration intermittent running) and physical integrated (sided games) training methods in elite soccer players. In conclusion, these findings showed that some small-sided games allow the HR to increase to the same level as that in short-duration intermittent running. The sided game method can be used to bring more variety during training, mixing physical, technical, and tactical training approaching the intensity of short-duration intermittent running but with higher intersubject variability.

We have touched on this before . Here is another study - this time in the context of football - which identifies that you should not do static stretching as part of your warm up..... The Effect of Static Stretching on Phases of Sprint Performance in Elite Soccer Players . Static stretching before sprinting resulted in slower times in all three performance variables. These findings provide evidence that static stretching exerts a negative effect on sprint performance and should not be included as part of the preparation routine for physical activity that requires sprinting.

Here is a piece of research that you could put into practice fairly easily: Cold Drink Ingestion Improves Exercise Endurance Capacity in the Heat. Conclusion: Compared with a drink at 37[degrees]C, the ingestion of a cold drink before and during exercise in the heat reduced physiological strain (reduced heat accumulation) during exercise, leading to an improved endurance capacity (23 +/- 6%).

Warp Speed Fat Loss Here is another product review. “ Warp Speed Fat Loss ” a new e book from Alwyn Cosgrove and Mike Rousell. What is it? Well you can get an idea from the title. It is a combination of diet and training that purports to deliver fast fat loss - weight loss of 8lbs in the first week and up to 21lbs in 28 days is possible…... It is a very prescriptive programme in that you are told day by day and meal by meal what you should eat and how you should train. There are two main aspects to the programme - diet and training. The diet lays out a 28 day diet plan based on your current weight and the training similarly lays out a series of workouts – interval sessions, metabolic style weight training and cardio. Who is it for? Now you could create your own programme with all of these elements. There are enough resources out there on the interwebs to tell you what to do – e.g. one part of this plan is very similar to this . However, most people do not have the time or the incli...

Perhaps. Here is a press release from Monash University (I'd never heard of it either. It is in Australia ). Anyway this is published in Nature - a very prestigious journal - so it must have some rigour. Basically the idea is that this guy has identified a mechanism by which eating carbs can lead to you overeating. It is not about insulin this time but rather about the way in which carbs damage appetite control Dr Andrews found that appetite-suppressing cells are attacked by free radicals after eating and said the degeneration is more significant following meals rich in carbohydrates and sugars. "The more carbs and sugars you eat, the more your appetite-control cells are damaged, and potentially you consume more," It would be interesting to read the full paper if any one has access to it? Killer carbs -- Monash scientist finds the key to overeating as we age UPDATE Here is the abstract . The gut-derived hormone ghrelin exerts its effect on the brain by regulating neur...

All you low carb dieters out there will probably be aware of a new study: Systematic review of randomized controlled trials of low-carbohydrate vs. low-fat/low-calorie diets in the management of obesity and its comorbidities Evidence from this systematic review demonstrates that low-carbohydrate/high-protein diets are more effective at 6 months and are as effective, if not more, as low-fat diets in reducing weight and cardiovascular disease risk up to 1 year. Both Eades and Briffa has commentaries on the study. By the way, I am becoming less dogmatic about low carb than I used to be. I have started to introduce some more carbs - mainly potatoes and oatmeal - to my diet especially around my workouts and Stephan's recent posts on the Kitava study are explaining that high carb inteake per se is not necessarily a bad thing: In my opinion, the most important finding in this paper is that a high-carbohydrate diet does not necessarily lead to elevated fasting insulin. This is why I th...

Fruit juice could reduce the effectiveness of some medicines I've previously had posts that pointed out that fruit juice was far from being a health food . Mark Sisson explained some of the concerns the other day in an excellent post - Mark what's wrong with juicing? The take-home message is this: juice can offer a decent source of nutrients on days when it’s hard to work in your usual amount of fruits and veggies, but it’s just not an adequate substitute for the real/whole source. (Note: It also requires that you recalibrate your overall carb load that day.) Here is something else to consider : Research presented at a US conference suggested a chemical in grapefruit juice could stop anti-allergy drugs being absorbed properly. A University of Western Ontario team said oranges, and possibly apples, had similar ingredients. Grapefruit juice is already known to interfere with blood pressure drugs. There are more details in a press release from the University of Western Ontario ...

You read a lot about military fitness. Crossfit aligns itself with the US military and often highlights soldiers that train using its approach. A few months ago I linked to a series of booklets which described a British Army Fitness Programme - incidentally some of the most popular posts on this blog! Pavel has also made a lot of his military career and the lessons that he learned in the Russian army. And that is all fine. Soldiers have to be fit and functionally fit. Strong, flexible, resilient. In that light it was interesting to see this study which indicates that when they are actually in theatre, on the battlefield, their fitness suffers. They get less fit, somewhat less explosive and a bit fatter. Now there are probably explanations for this - poor diet, fewer opportunities to train, more stress, less sleep - but it is an interesting issue to consider and perhaps an indication that there is a need to think about training to maintain fitness while on deployment. Physical F...

Two studies in the new Journal of Nutrition This one is not an excuse to binge on chocolate but here is a new study that indicates that the flavanols in dark chocolate can have some real beneficial effects on health, reducing blood pressure and increasing insulin sensitivity. Blood Pressure Is Reduced and Insulin Sensitivity Increased in Glucose-Intolerant, Hypertensive Subjects after 15 Days of Consuming High-Polyphenol Dark Chocolate Then there is also a study which proposes an explanation for the beneficial effects of moderate wine intake on ischemic cardiovascular disease. Resveratrol, at Concentrations Attainable with Moderate Wine Consumption, Stimulates Human Platelet Nitric Oxide Production

Although I've mentioned this site before, I just wanted to give a shout out to Joel's excellent blog The 20 Minute Fitness Solution. Everyday, Joel posts a 20 minute workout, requiring little or no equipment to complete. He explains the purpose of the workouts: The Twenty Minute Fitness Solution is a general physical preparation program using bodyweight exercises and requiring just twenty minutes per day. It is a total fitness system, broad enough to be used as a stand alone exercise program but concise enough to be used as a complement to sports specific training. The TMFS requires little or no equipment, and the exercises are simple to learn and perform safely. It is a fitness routine you can take with you anywhere, and with a daily commitment of only twenty minutes, even the busiest individual can find time to improve his health and fitness. The TMFS develops general physical preparedness (GPP), but GPP for what? The TMFS won’t make you a world champion athlete, but it can ...

Joe Friel is the co-author of the Paleo Diet for Athletes. Recently on his blog he threw out this idea that there are three types of athletes: Artists - who go by how it feels, they do what seems right; Scientists - who like to analyse the numbers and then make changes to see what happens with performance; and Accountants - who love numbers, tables, graphs and charts. I was thinking of how this also applies to diet. There are the artists who go by feel, by the big picture. I was thinking of many of the paleo guys here - they have a big picture template within which they operate. Some low carb people are the same. There are the scientists who will experiment with different combinations of nutrients, meal frequencies etc and see what works. There are the accountants who measure everything, recording how many calories are consumed, how many grams of protein/carbs/fat etc. They keep records in fit day and can chart their macro nutrient percentages. I suppose I am artist / scientist...

Great photo of the TGU from Mountain Athlete . You can see the impact on the core....

Vern Gambetta - as ever - has some very interesting ideas in this blog post. Strength and conditioning creates two images, heavy lifting all the time and running until you puke conditioning;.......Athletic development addresses all components of the individual athletes and a team’s development based upon the needs of the sport, the position or the event and the qualities of the individual athlete. At the risk of offending people it is easy to get strong in the weight room and fit for a running test, but the real art and science is to apply that strength to the sport and the fitness to the game. ........I believe in strength training as part of a bigger picture........Game fit is a cumulative process that incorporates all elements into building the complete athlete. Arbitrary “fitness” tests that do not reflect the demands of the game have no place in a good athletic development program. As we have said before, it is all about developing real functional, useful fitness. The ability to...

Happiness does not heal, but happiness protects against falling ill. As a result, happy people live longer. The size of the effect on longevity is comparable to that of smoking or not We need to reflect on this. As I have pointed out often, psychological outlook and an avoidance of stress is a really important element to health. When I was growing up my parents' career guidance to me was - "It doesn't matter what you do, as long as you are happy." That may sound shallow, but maybe it was a very healthy and wise thing to say. Healthy happiness: effects of happiness on physical health and the consequences for preventive health care Is happiness good for your health? This common notion is tested in a synthetic analysis of 30 follow-up studies on happiness and longevity. It appears that happiness does not predict longevity in sick populations, but that it does predict longevity among healthy populations So, happiness does not cure illness but it does protect against be...

First the abstract, then the commentary: Egg breakfast enhances weight loss Objective: To test the hypotheses that an egg breakfast, in contrast to a bagel breakfast matched for energy density and total energy, would enhance weight loss in overweight and obese participants while on a reduced-calorie weight loss diet. Subjects: Men and women (n=152), age 25–60 years, body mass index (BMI) 25 and 50 kg m-2. Design: Otherwise healthy overweight or obese participants were assigned to Egg (E), Egg Diet (ED), Bagel (B) or Bagel Diet (BD) groups, based on the prescription of either an egg breakfast containing two eggs (340 kcal) or a breakfast containing bagels matched for energy density and total energy, for at least 5 days per week, respectively. The ED and BD groups were suggested a 1000 kcal energy-deficit low-fat diet, whereas the B and E groups were asked not to change their energy intake. Results: After 8 weeks, in comparison to the BD group, the ED group showed a 61% greater reduction...

An interesting study. Resistance training trumps endurance training in these specific circumstances. Acute exercise-induced changes in basal VLDL-triglyceride kinetics leading to hypotriglyceridemia manifest more readily after resistance than endurance exercise Resistance training is considered less effective than endurance training in lowering plasma triglyceride (TG) concentrations. Acutely, however, a single bout of strenuous exercise, whether endurance or resistance, increases the efficiency of very low-density lipoprotein (VLDL)-TG removal from the circulation and leads to hypotriglyceridemia. The comparative effects of these two types of exercise on VLDL-TG metabolism are not known. We therefore examined basal VLDL-TG kinetics by using stable isotope labeled tracers in 7 healthy, non-obese, untrained young men in the post-absorptive state, the morning after a single 90-min bout of either low-intensity endurance exercise (~30% of peak oxygen consumption) or high-intensity resista...

I started adding videos to my website in 2003. Within this video, I've created an abbreviated compilation from the videos at rosstraining.com. Full videos and articles with exercise descriptions, sample workouts, and more are available at the link below (free): http://www.rosstraining.com/articles .... This compilation video is the only video within this channel that is not associated with a specific article. All other videos have full articles that correspond directly with the video content. Refer to the link above for complete details. Train hard!

Fat burning secrets.....build muscle fast!!! Yeah right. You'll have seen the adverts! Usually you have to sign up to a newsletter to get any information and then your in-box will be permanently occupied with sales letters masquerading as research updates or fitness tips. There are many self-proclaimed experts in the area of strength and conditioning out on the interwebs, usually selling you a course with a long sales letter and special offers that are always just about to expire. (To be honest, I actually point to one such programme on this page - and while I think the advertorial stuff is dire the material is actually pretty good for beginners). There are however a few excllent coaches out there putting out good material. They do not go in for the corny marketing, but the material is there and it stands up for itself. Dan John is an obvious example, but I wanted to point you to another - Bryce Lane. Bryce is a strength and conditioning coach / trainer working from so...