Conditioning Research

.....it improves their running economy. In fact old school weight training is better than "explosive training". Effects of Strength Training on Running Economy The objective of this study was to compare the effect of different strength training protocols added to endurance training on running economy (RE). Sixteen well-trained runners (27.4 ± 4.4 years; 62.7 ± 4.3 kg; 166.1 ± 5.0 cm), were randomized into two groups: explosive strength training (EST) (n = 9) and heavy weight strength training (HWT) (n = 7) group. They performed the following tests before and after 4 weeks of training: 1) incremental treadmill test to exhaustion to determine of peak oxygen uptake and the velocity corresponding to 3.5 mM of blood lactate concentration; 2) submaximal constant-intensity test to determine RE; 3) maximal countermovement jump test and; 4) one repetition maximal strength test in leg press. After the training period, there was an improvement in RE only in the HWT group (HWT = 47.3 ± 6...

Rob is still experimenting with functional drills for his skiers.... Training eccentric movement in the gym without specialized equipment is tricky. We attempt it today in the second part of this session - the eccentric kettlebell drop + box jump at end. Grap one kettlebell in both hands, farmer carry style, and slowly descend down into a squat on a 5 second count. Go all the way down until the kb's touch the ground, then stand up and repeat. Do this 10 times. At the end, drop the kb's and jump onto a 20" box, then jump off. That's 1 round.

Vern Gambetta has been putting some excellent stuff on his blog in the last few days! Check out Basics and Functional Path Manifesto

I've raised this idea before but I've been thinking about it a bit more. Do no harm! Training should enhance your life and your performance rather than exhaust or injure you. Sure, train hard. But do not go mad and hurt yourself. I have been there myself. Pushed and pushed and ultimately injured myself creating issues that are still problems for my training. When it comes down to it, most of you reading this are not elite athletes. We are normal guys with jobs and family and other commitments. Whatever we do should not be detracting from our lives. We need simple appropriate routines that will deliver health and improved performance within the context of the rest of our lives. Anyway, I've read a few things recently that have put some pieces together around this stuff: Rannoch made some great points : So many of us weekend warriors kid ourselves as we thumb through the latest routines in the glossy fitness mags (they're no slouches, they've cottoned on, the...

I love these Mountain athlete videos: I think I want to move to the states and train with these guys!

Or so this new study says..... It is interesting to look at the background: Ketogenic diets are an effective healthy way of losing weight since they promote a non-atherogenic lipid profile, lower blood pressure and decrease resistance to insulin with an improvement in blood levels of glucose and insulin. you don't hear that very often in the mainstream! The whole article is currently available as a pdf Here is the abstract: Spanish Ketogenic Mediterranean diet: a healthy cardiovascular diet for weight loss Background Ketogenic diets are an effective healthy way of losing weight since they promote a non-atherogenic lipid profile, lower blood pressure and decrease resistance to insulin with an improvement in blood levels of glucose and insulin. On the other hand, Mediterranean diet is well known to be one of the healthiest diets, being the basic ingredients of such diet the olive oil, red wine and vegetables. In Spain the fish is an important component of such diet. The objective of ...

Well done to all the participants in this years OMM . BBC gives the details o f the event and the appalling weather leading to it being cancelled for the first time in 41 years. There is more here and here too but this video gives an idea of what the conditions were like!

....from Mountain Athlete . Rob has begun to train his guys for the ski season. He calls this routine Bustin Glory and you can learn more about it on his site . "Bustin' Glory" is our first foray of this sport-specific gym training for skiing/snowboarding that we will be hammering again and again over the next six weeks. I've got three basic goals: (1) Prepare my athlete's eccentric leg strength for the demands skiing and snowboarding will place upon them their first day on the mountain. (2) Prepare my athletes for the mode-specific endurance hit of boot packing and skinning uphill that comes with backcountry skiing and ski mountaineering. (3) Get strong all those little muscles which get hammered when legs are strapped into heavy boots and onto skis or a snowboard. We're going to do this by wearing our equipment in the gym, and exercising with it on. Now I admit, some of this stuff may look a little silly (se...

Well that is what this study seems to say The association between sleep duration and obesity in older adults Background : Reduced sleep has been reported to predict obesity in children and young adults. However, studies based on self-report have been unable to identify an association in older populations. In this study, the cross-sectional associations between sleep duration measured objectively and measures of weight and body composition were assessed in two cohorts of older adults. Methods : Wrist actigraphy was performed for a mean (s.d.) of 5.2 (0.9) nights in 3055 men (age: 67–96 years) participating in the Osteoporotic Fractures in Men Study (MrOS) and 4.1 (0.8) nights in 3052 women (age: 70–99 years) participating in the Study of Osteoporotic Fractures (SOF). A subgroup of 2862 men and 455 women also underwent polysomnography to measure sleep apnea severity. Results : Compared to those sleeping an average of 7–8 h per night, and after adjusting for multiple risk factors and medi...

We have touched on this before , but Matt has found an excellent study about the benefits of being barefoot.

Here are a couple of new studies which give support to the use of protein supplements for athletes and also for those sick and maybe needing bed rest. Coingestion of Carbohydrate and Protein Hydrolysate Stimulates Muscle Protein Synthesis during Exercise in Young Men, with No Further Increase during Subsequent Overnight Recovery We investigated the effect of carbohydrate and protein hydrolysate ingestion on whole-body and muscle protein synthesis during a combined endurance and resistance exercise session and subsequent overnight recovery. Twenty healthy men were studied in the evening after consuming a standardized diet throughout the day. Subjects participated in a 2-h exercise session during which beverages containing both carbohydrate (0.15 g·kg–1·h–1) and a protein hydrolysate (0.15 g·kg–1·h–1) (C+P, n = 10) or water only (W, n = 10) were ingested. Participants consumed 2 additional beverages during early recovery and remained overnight at the hospital. Continuous i.v. infusions w...

Chek - Some of his spirituality leaves me a bit puzzled, but you have to love his enthusiasm!

The whole text of this study is available. Here is the abstract: Background End-stage renal disease rates rose following widespread introduction of high fructose corn syrup in the American diet, supporting speculation that fructose harms the kidney. Sugar-sweetened soda is a primary source of fructose. We therefore hypothesized that sugary soda consumption was associated with albuminuria, a sensitive marker for kidney disease. Methodology/Principal Findings Design was a cross-sectional analysis. Data were drawn from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES), 1999–2004. The setting was a representative United States population sample. Participants included adults 20 years and older with no history of diabetes mellitus (n = 12,601); after exclusions for missing outcome and covariate information (n = 3,243), the analysis dataset consisted of 9,358 subjects. Exposure was consumption of two or more sugary soft drinks, based on 24-hour dietary recall. The main outcome mea...

Straight to the Bar pointed this out and it is a great idea.... simple but challenging

I like Barry Groves . It was through his book Eat Fat Get Thin: Eat As Much As You Like And Still Lose Weight! that I first started learning about low carb high fat diets. Much of the material for that book is available on his website and it is worth browsing around there if you are interested in this sort of thing. Anyway, he just sent me an email regarding a new book: Trick and Treat: How Healthy Eating is Making Us Ill: How Healthy Eating Is Making Us Ill My latest book, "Trick and Treat: How 'healthy eating' is making us ill", which I started in 1989, will be published in 11 days time (28 October), but it is already attracting a great deal of media attention. Trick and Treat, takes the lid off the corruption, misinformation and fraud within the 'health industry', focusing on the misleading 'healthy' diet and lifestyle advice we are all given by 'the experts', and detailing the vast amount of harm it is doing. The title was chosen as t...

Inflammation is interesting and I've previously posted a few things about it . Here is another interesting study. The benefits of physical fitness and the hazards of obesity may result in part from opposing effects on systemic inflammation. The fitter you are, the less likely you are to have systemic inflammation. The fatter you are, the more likely you are to have systemic inflammation. Here is the abstract: Association of White Blood Cell Subfraction Concentration with Fitness and Fatness OBJECTIVE: To examine the association between fitness, BMI, and neutrophil, lymphocyte, monocyte, basophil, and eosinophil concentrations in apparently healthy, nonsmoking men. DESIGN: Cross-sectional study of 452 men from the Aerobics Center Longitudinal Study examining the resting concentration of white blood cell subfractions across fitness (maximal METS during a treadmill exercise test) and fatness (BMI) categories after adjusting for age. RESULTS: Fitness was inversely associated with...

Mobility is really important. Scott Sonnon has a nice little free booklet of mobility moves - Are you free to move? - which explains the benefits of keeping mobile. Here are a couple of hip mobility drills from Mountain Athlete HIM: HAM:

I think we should all have got the message now - there are enough studies out there, several of which I have posted - static stretching inhibits muscular power. This study tried to assess whether the negative effects of stretching were removed if there was a bout of activity following the stretching. They found that a second exercise bout does not reverse the effects of static stretching and is still detrimental to power. Effects of secondary warm up following stretching Abstract Evidence suggests that static stretching inhibits muscular power. However, research does not reflect practice whereby individuals follow up stretching with secondary activity. This study investigated muscular power following stretching, and after a second bout of activity. Participants (n = 13) completed 3 randomized testing sessions which included a 5 min warm-up, followed by a vertical jump (VJ) on a force platform; an intervention (static stretching, dynamic, or control), followed by a second VJ. Participa...

I like Dan John Here is a new article of his Using dead stop movements to blow past a sticking point; how ab work has nothing to do with building a six-pack; and how you should blow-torch the treadmill and burn fat in a way that works. If you like his stuff, check out his magazine - Get up! , especialy if you like strongman / highland games type stuff. The Mission is stated clearly: Our mission? To teach everyone: 1. The Body is One Piece 2. There are three kinds of strength training: Putting weight overhead Picking it off the ground Carrying it for time or distance 3. All training is complementary

I like this quote : Don’t you just love that feeling of your heart thumping in your chest when you are free to exercise again after a few days of being way too sedentary? There is a visceral joy about being alive that has to be almost as good as the feeling of removing an annoying bit of dental plaque that has been there for days when you can't find the floss. I digress – the paper sheds light on the physiological process that probably makes the difference between longevity and an early grave for many, many folk. Read about it and then turn research into practice Here is the article (well the abstract of the article) about which he is talking: Physical activity throughout life reduces the atherosclerotic wall process in the carotid artery Background: Good cardiorespiratory fitness has been associated with a reduced risk for clinical events of atherosclerotic vascular diseases. It is still unclear how this relates to a slower progression of the early atherosclerosis wall process. M...

More potential benefits from intermittent fasting . I am not going to pretend to understand the science behind this one! Cellular damage due to stress is an important factor in ageing processes. It is, thus, amazing that starving, which is a stress factor per se, decelerates ageing processes and extends the lifespan of organisms. It has long been known that proteins from the sirtuin family contribute to this mechanism. To date, the exact function of the seven members of the sirtuin family in mammals has, however, not yet been clarified. Read more here . The abstract is here If you are interested in more on fasting as ever I'd recommend Brad Pillon's book Eat Stop Eat . You will certainly find it more understandable! Modern Forager's series What happens to your Body when you Fast is also worth checking out.

Rob from Mountain Athlete has posted a video of one of his sessions Good stuff.

I've had a few posts in the past casting doubt on the oft-repeated mantra that we need 8 glasses of water a day (for example here and here ) However that is not to say that water intake / hydration is not important. If you don't have enough water in your system you are likely to have more stress hormones - (cortisol and norepinephrine) less testosterone altered carbohydrate and lipid metabolism at least according to this study . I'd still tend to think that thirst is the key. Drink what you need to keep thirst at bay. I like what Joe Friel says : Over the last few weeks I’ve been rethinking what I understand and believe about hydration during exercise. In a single sentence, here is what I’ve come to believe endurance athletes should do during exercise in regards to hydration: Drink when thirsty; don’t drink when not thirsty. For shorter endurance events – those lasting less than, let’s say, four hours – that’s a not a huge change. And the shorter the event the more lik...

This is what the scientists say: (the full article is available ) The position of the Society regarding nutrient timing and the intake of carbohydrates, proteins, and fats in reference to healthy, exercising individuals is summarized by the following eight points: Maximal endogenous glycogen stores are best promoted by following a high-glycemic, high-carbohydrate (CHO) diet (600 - 1000 grams CHO or ~ 8 - 10 g CHO/kg/d), and ingestion of free amino acids and protein (PRO) alone or in combination with CHO before resistance exercise can maximally stimulate protein synthesis. During exercise, CHO should be consumed at a rate of 30 - 60 grams of CHO/hour in a 6 - 8 % CHO solution (8 - 16 fluid ounces) every 10 - 15 minutes. Adding PRO to create a CHO:PRO ratio of 3 - 4:1 may increase endurance performance and maximally promotes glycogen re-synthesis during acute and subsequent bouts of endurance exercise. Ingesting CHO alone or in combination with PRO during resistance exercise increases ...

Readers seem to like the videos of jumps The actions starts about 1:13

I've recently been to a couple of Krav Maga classes . I'm not a fighter but I do think that self defence is a useful skill and Krav is supposed to be simple to learn and very effective. Last night the focus was on escaping from an attack which ends up with someone sat on top of you either punching or choking you. A big thing was the bridge - thrusting your hips up and to the side to force the attacker off you. I've often seen the bridge described as a good posterior chain exercise. For example as described by Craig Ballantyne below: This never seemed to me like a really useful exercise. Ok - it is about the only real posterior chain move that you can do with just bodyweight - especially if you just use one leg at a time, but it didn't seem useful..........Last night however things fell into place. This is a really important move! The videos below explain how important this motion is to get someone off you: We drilled this a lot last night and I am sore today!

Ross pointed this video out and it is all pretty inspiring. However what I like best are the jumps at 4:40

Probably the most useful post I've read on the topic of inflammation was by Dr Eades : Inflammation and diet , but the most comprehensive accessible treatment is in Phil Maffetone's booklet Don’t think YOU have it? Think again. Most people who have chronic inflammation don’t know it. There is a full spectrum of problems caused by chronic inflammation – from fatigue, hormone imbalance and reduced immunity, to osteoporosis, Alzheimer’s heart disease and cancer. Inflammation is typically thought of as a swelling, painful or otherwise uncomfortable situation – perhaps in your joints, sinus or intestine. But for most people, inflammation occurs without any symptoms. Inflammation is defined classically as a protective reaction by the body, in response to some physical or chemical injury. Acute inflammation is typically accompanied by pain, swelling, redness, and heat. A closer look at the area of inflammation reveals that the small blood vessels are dilated, which brings in more bloo...

Carbs are not evil ....but the evidence is mounting that a low carb diet while might have some advantages simply in terms of health.....Calories are important - you need to eat fewer calories to lose weight. But a low carb diet of equivalent calories seems to bring some advantages, such as better levels of insulin.... Low-carbohydrate (low & high-fat) versus high-carbohydrate low-fat diets in the treatment of obesity in adolescents. Abstract Aim : To compare the impact of low-carbohydrate diets of different fat content to high-carbohydrate low-fat diet on weight and metabolic parameters in obese adolescents. Methods : Fifty-five patients aged 12-18 years with a body mass index (BMI) above the 95th percentile were randomly allocated to one of three isoenergetic diet regimens. Anthropometric and metabolic measurements were taken after overnight fast, at baseline, after the 12-week intervention and after nine month of follow-up. Results : No significant differences were found among ...

This looks interesting..... pdf available too Milk: the new sports drink? A Review . There has been growing interest in the potential use of bovine milk as an exercise beverage, especially during recovery from resistance training and endurance sports. Based on the limited research, milk appears to be an effective post-resistance exercise beverage that results in favourable acute alterations in protein metabolism. Milk consumption acutely increases muscle protein synthesis, leading to an improved net muscle protein balance. Furthermore, when post-exercise milk consumption is combined with resistance training (12 weeks minimum), greater increases in muscle hypertrophy and lean mass have been observed. Although research with milk is limited, there is some evidence to suggest that milk may be an effective post-exercise beverage for endurance activities. Low-fat milk has been shown to be as effective, if not more effective, than commercially available sports drinks as a rehydration beverage...