Conditioning Research

Today was another Kettlebells Scotland Workshop - mobility, bodyweight drills, squats, presses, windmills, snatch, clean and jerk. Then some workouts - a six minute timed set of jerks, then a typical Rannoch circuit of pushups, squats, swings and snatches. A good session - I always learn things from Rannoch . Lee also gives some commentary A few things I noticed about myself: Mobility work is getting more important to me - fitness for the long term; I was holding back on some of the workout sessions - I did not want to be too wrecked for tomorrow's Krav Maga. Remember the post I did about avoiding exhaustion : How useful in real life is such soreness? If a training session leaves you exhausted immediately after it and almost crippled with soreness the next day, is that a practical or useful way of training for everyday life? In light of my recent thoughts about posture I was spending a lot of the session looking at my colleagues and how they were standing. I was trying to...

I recently posted about Esther Gokhale's excellent book - 8 Steps to a pain free back . One of the commenters pointed to a similar book - Ageless Spine - by Kathleen Porter . This is another excellent book, which has a very similar argument to that of Esther's book. Th e idea is to regain a natural posture, with your spine properly supporting your body. In some ways it is a little more easy to read and understand but both books are excellent. Here is a video of Kathleen explaining more: and......here is this knowledge in practice (thanks Davie )

A couple of things to think about in terms of making sure your diet has sufficient selenium - especially if it is a low carb / ketogenic diet. Sudden cardiac death in association with the ketogenic diet. Selenium May Slow March Of AIDS These things actually reminded me of something I read on Barry Groves' site years ago: A Cheap Way to Prevent AIDS and Bird Flu Selenium Selenium is present in a wide variety of foods and it can also be obtained in supplements. The best source of natural selenium is liver and other organ meats , particularly from grass-fed animals, although it does depend on how much selenium is in the soil. Next come fish and shellfish, followed by muscle meats. The soil most likely to have a high selenium content is one that is rich in organic matter, and no pesticides. Organic meats are most likely to be the best. Tuna and eggs are also very good suppliers of selenium and they also contain sulphur, which helps the absorption and utilisation of selenium. Selenium ...

Again I am indebted to Mountain Athlete

Carbs may be controversial to we paleo types - (I'm not that paleo actually - I like my cream and the odd spud!) - but here are a couple of new studies indicating that carbs plus protein after exercise benefits recovery: Co-ingestion of protein with carbohydrate during recovery from endurance exercise stimulates skeletal muscle protein synthesis in humans. Effects of an amino Acid carbohydrate drink on exercise performance after consecutive-day exercise bouts.

Effect of power-training intensity on the contribution of force and velocity to peak power in older adults. Conclusion: Explosive resistance training in older adults results in the ability to produce higher PP outputs with heavier loads without loss of movement velocity. Moderate- to high-intensity training induced a greater relative contribution of force to PP production in this cohort.

we have touched on this before . unlike healthy cells, which generate energy by metabolizing sugar in their mitochondria, cancer cells appeared to fuel themselves exclusively through glycolysis, a less-efficient means of creating energy through the fermentation of sugar in the cytoplasm. The theory is simple: If most aggressive cancers rely on the fermentation of sugar for growing and dividing, then take away the sugar and they should stop spreading. Meanwhile, normal body and brain cells should be able to handle the sugar starvation; they can switch to generating energy from fatty molecules called ketone bodies — the body's main source of energy on a fat-rich diet — an ability that some or most fast-growing and invasive cancers seem to lack. Here is another study which works on the same idea.: ( full text ) Drug/diet synergy for managing malignant astrocytoma in mice: 2-deoxy-D-glucose and the restricted ketogenic diet. ABSTRACT: BACKGROUND: Astrocytomas are largely dependent on...

Thanks for the comments on the last post. Todd - Z Health - I bought the basic DVD and thought it was OK but a bit over priced. Cobb is another one who makes almost mystical pronouncements about joint mobility. Seems like a good guy in general though. I think there is probably enough free material out there on mobility as I pointed to in the last post. It is the peer reviewed research that I'm interested in. Brian - thanks for pointing me towards those videos. They're great. I don't agree with all the CrossFit stuff, but the free resources they've made available are fantastic. Here is the warm up video - joint mobility stuff and then some basic exercises to cover the whole body.

I've been reading about joint mobility a fair bit recently and trying to practice some moves daily. I've either been doing Maxwell's Daily Dozen or Scott Sonnon's free book of Intu Flow moves . I'm finding some benefit I think. The theory as far as I can see is that moving your joints through all their range of motion bathes them in sinovial fluid - oils the hinge if you will. Stretching doesn't always help, but moving does. Mobility is body’s own anti-aging agent. When you bathe each joint in nutritive and lubricative flow, you revitalize “endogenous energy” (an energy independent of outside sources). Mobility removes aches and pains which are the body’s last effort attempt to communicate to your brain that injury is imminent. Mobility halts and reverses accelerated aging which happens not only from physical activities, trauma, and injuries, but also from just daily living in a gravitational field. As such, mobility is the elixir of life, a truly innate fou...

I've posted quite a bit on this blog about intermittent fasting - periods of underfeeding, fasted periods. And there seem to be some positive health benefits to the practice. As I've said before Brad Pillon's Eat Stop Eat is a great introduction and explains much of the science associated with fasting, dispelling some myths about eating in the process. However if you are thinking of fasting make sure that you are aware of the other side of the coin - eating. Fasting too much, chronic calorie restriction is not what it is about. There should be periods of abundance as well as periods of famine. I was thinking of that when I read this release. Apparently those who consume fewer calories during flu season could have a harder time fighting off the flu virus . In a study published in the November issue of the Journal of Nutrition, Gardner showed that mice with a calorie-restricted diet were more likely to die during the first few days of infection than mice with a normal...

This is from Gym Jones : Hamstring flexibility determines the depth of the RDL. Shoulder blades could stand to be pinched together ... And again : How much additional (hamstring) stretching need be done? I wonder what Esther would make of those photos?

A couple of weeks or so ago I posted about Esther Gokhale's book - 8 steps to a pain free back . I know that a few of you found that a useful post. Here is a lecture from Esther talking about her approach to posture.

This is not the usual fare for this blog but I thought I'd share last night's sunset. Beautiful. More photos from the same walk are here .

This one is a bit disturbing..... This study found that women who exercised often but did not get at least seven hours of sleep had an increased risk of cancer. Although exercise has generally been found to prevent cancer, combining it with poor sleep may be a risk factor. Among 4,033 women younger than 65 who had at least 20 hours of physical activity per week, those who slept less than seven hours nightly had a 47% higher risk of developing cancer (95% CI 5% to 105%) within the next 10 years, reported James J. McClain, Ph.D., of the National Cancer Institute. Some warnings: Poor sleep in other women was not a cancer risk factor and high exercise showed a protective effect against cancer in the entire sample. The study was published as an abstract and presented orally at a conference. These data and conclusions should be considered to be preliminary until they have been published in a peer-reviewed journal.

This is (another) interesting video from Rob's Mountain Athlete . It shows Coach Corrin Berg doing some post-rehab work with someone who has a lower back injury. The exercise is one I've seen in Gray Cook's Athletic Body in Balance book. Download some of his articles here .

It is only epidemiology - which some would say isn't a proper science - but: Mean carbohydrate intake (% of energy) was 72.8% (321 g/day), above the DRI for Korean adults (55-70%). A high carbohydrate intake (>70% of energy) was associated with higher BMI, blood pressure, fasting glucose, triglycerides, and LDL-cholesterol levels in women. After adjusting for covariates, such as age, energy intake, alcohol consumption, smoking status, and physical activity, high carbohydrate intakes (>70% of energy) were significantly associated with diabetes mellitus and low HDL-cholesterol (HDL-C) in women. Abstract .

More from Rob "JUST FOR JAN" is a core-focused session I drew up for one of my athletes who happens to be one of the best hill-climbing snowmobilers in the world. Many self propelled "mountain athletes" including hikers, skiers, climbers, etc., discount snowmobilers and moto cross riders as Bud-Light-drinking, country-music listenin', lazy rednecks. And they'd be pretty much right on about the Bud Light, country music, and redneck part, but not the lazy. It is hard to describe how physical and athletic is it to ride a snowmobile gracefully in deep powder, let alone climbing hills with it. I've done just a little of it, and I suck at it, but I have great respect for the physical work and athletic prowess of the sport. Jan has won the Hill Climbing World Championship a couple times, and is sponsored by Arctic Cat. This fall we've worked on her overall fitness and strength, and in "Just for Jan" I tried to get a little more specific by hitting...

When most people think of training to improve endurance, they think of conditioning the cardiovascular system to improve transport of blood to the working muscles. Metabolic conditioning is the other side of the coin - conditioning the muscles to better use what’s being delivered to them by improving the efficiency of the different metabolic pathways. I have been reading a bit around Drew Baye's blog . There is a lot of good stuff in there. He has an interesting piece on Crossfit in which he gives a "high intensity" take on Crossfit . I don't necessarily agree with it all but there are some good points. I also like his 3x3 conditioning circuits: 3×3 is a high intensity strength training routine consisting of three circuits or rounds of three compound (multi-joint) exercises performed non-stop to emphasize cardiovascular and metabolic conditioning. Each of the three exercises targets different muscle groups, usually starting with the hips and thighs, followed by u...

A bad back For the past 16 years or so I've had a "bad back". I originally strained something doing deadlifts and there have been repeated bouts of back spasms ever since. Sometimes they have been severe, leaving me on the floor and almost unable to move. On other occasions it is more of a continual minor ache. Sometimes I'll be OK for months on end and capable of some relatively good athletic performances - big walks in the hills, demanding met con circuits even - when I did more lifting - some heavy deadlifts . That is context for this post. You see I'm always on the look out for thoughts about back health. I get a regular sports massage and have learned that trigger point therapy and stretching the glutes and psoas is really important for me - just to relieve the effects of sitting all day at a desk. I have learned much from Rif for example. In addition to the physical side, I must also say that I believe that there is a big psychological element t...

Take caffeine an hour before your intervals? Effect of caffeine supplementation on repeated sprint running performance. AIM: This study examined the effects of 6 mgxkg(-1) caffeine ingestion in team-sport players (N.=10) on repeated-sprint running performance (5 sets of 6 x 20 m) and reaction times, 60 min after caffeine or placebo ingestion. METHODS: Best single sprint and total set sprint times, blood lactate and simple and choice reaction times (RT) were measured. RESULTS: Total sprint times across sets 1, 3 and 5 (departure every 25 s) were significantly faster after caffeine (85.49+/-5.55 s) than placebo (86.98+/-5.78 s) (P

Lyle McDonald answers a question about insulin levels and fat loss...... Fascinating. Lyle's books are always worth reading.

More agility / plyometric stuff from Mountain Athlete DOT Drill, popularized by Bigger Faster Stronger. We use it as a basic level plyometric exercise, and to develop ankle and knee strength. Read more about the Dot Drill

Metcon . Metabolic conditioning circuits, much beloved of CrossFit as is explained in their free article What is Fitness? Here is a new bit of research that looks at this type of training. It compared circuit weight training with combined circuit training (weight training and treadmill run). The Combined Circuit Training wins...... Acute physiological responses to different circuit training protocols. AIM: The purpose of present study was to compare the acute physiological responses to a circuit weight training with the responses to a combined circuit training (weight training and treadmill run). RESULTS: Comparing circuit training protocols, it was noted that CCT elicits a higher relative and absolute VO(2) and energy expenditure values than CWT for both genders (P UPDATE - as a comment below notes the abstract doesn't really have enough detail to get us anywhere. Does anyone have access to the full paper? Here is a gratuitous metcon video....

Rob uses the Leg Blaster : 4 Rounds Leg Blaster (20x squats, 20x lunges, 20x jump lunges, 10x squat jumps) 30 seconds rest This is basically the template prescribed by Vern Gambetta as a basic leg strengthener.....that I have mentioned before

I don't think I'm old....just 40 and even 44 can look good ( remember Keith !) Still as i am getting older I am aware that it is taking longer to recover between tough sessions. I'm just not interested in being crippled by soreness and exhaustion any more as I explained here . New research you might be interested in some new research on training and the ageing athlete in the latest edition of the Clinical Journal of Sports Medicine . Articles include: Cardiovascular Aging and Exercise in Healthy Older Adults . Conclusions: Lack of physical activity is a major risk factor for the epidemic of chronic disease and disability facing an aging population. Many age-associated changes in cardiovascular function result from physical inactivity. The benefits of regular exercise include prevention of cardiovascular events, disability, and cognitive impairment. Age is not a contraindication to exercise, which can usually be initiated safely in older persons. Is Regular Exercise a F...

A couple more refutations of that statins study.... From Junkfood Science : When the news sounds too good… statin, the new wonder drug From Eugene : JUPITER IS A JOKE From Dr Eades: Truth versus hype in the JUPITER study If you are as annoyed as I was about the biased news coverage of this thing, do what did: complain to the BBC. Their coverage on radio, TV and their news website was free advertising for Astra Zenica and lazy journalism which did not critically examine the facts, but just rehashed the press release. Complain via the BBC Complaints

I received the email below from Steve Liberatti who runs Steve's Club , which is a charity offering young athletes (and non-athletes) of Camden, NJ world-class coaching, community and training techniques used by elite and professional athletes worldwide to help strengthen the foundation of our future. It is a really good outfit. If you are in the States you might what to check out their Paleo kits it is for a really good cause. Our paleo kits are made daily and vacuum sealed for same day freshness. Our athletes swear by them for optimal performance and health. Get a full refund if you are not 100% satisfied. 2 ounces of homemade beef JERKY (free range and hormone-free flank steak) marinated with our secret sauce of a local award winning fresh blueberry wine, sea salt and pepper. Macadamia nuts, cashews, almonds, walnuts, cranberries and strawberries. 1 large kit contains approximately 4 blocks of protein, 2 blocks of carbs, and 7 blocks of fat. *All of the proceeds go to Steve...

I am getting addicted to these mountain athlete videos!

This is What 44 and Paleo Looks Like … Keith has posted some pictures of what the sort of training and diet we discuss here can produce. His principles are: 1. Forget what you previously thought of as diet and fitness Gospel. Wipe the slate clean; be receptive to a completely new paradigm in nutritional well-being and physical culture. 2. Wrap your mind around this one very simple idea: agriculture is a relatively new development (within the last 10,000 to 50,000years, or so) vis-à-vis the human genome. Our bodies (and genotype) have not evolved, and are therefore not adequately prepared to handle, the “modern” onslaught of grain (in all of its multi-varied derivatives) and of other simple carbohydrates. Our thinking may (arguably) be well-advanced from that of our stone-age ancestors, however, our bodies and brains, genetically speaking, are relatively identical to the Paleolithic, hunter-gatherer. 3. Exercise (for health) should be intense, of short duration and highly va...

I woke up to this on the radio this morning.... Statin use 'may benefit healthy' The study of 17,800 men and women with normal cholesterol levels found a new statin drug cut deaths from heart attacks and strokes. Professor Peter Sever, the professor of pharmacology at Imperial College, explains what the study found. As Peter comments it was a free advert for the drug companies. It needs rebuttal. Peter and Dr Briffa do a good job. Cholesterol, heart attacks and JUPITER Statins reduce cardiovascular disease in health people, and why this study is a poke in the eye for the cholesterol hypothesis Also from Mark Sisson - Statin Insanity

Here is another study which attests to the importance of intensity in exercise when you are looking to lose fat. Effect of Exercise Training Intensity on Abdominal Visceral Fat and Body Composition . Abstract: The metabolic syndrome is a complex clustering of metabolic defects associated with physical inactivity, abdominal adiposity, and aging. Purpose: To examine the effects of exercise training intensity on abdominal visceral fat (AVF) and body composition in obese women with the metabolic syndrome. Methods: Twenty-seven middle-aged obese women (mean +/- SD; age = 51 +/- 9yr and body mass index = 34 +/- 6 kg[middle dot]m-2) with the metabolic syndrome completed one of three 16-wk aerobic exercise interventions: (i) no-exercise training (Control): seven participants maintained their existing levels of physical activity; (ii) low-intensity exercise training (LIET): 11 participants exercised 5 d[middle dot]wk-1 at an intensity LT and 2 d[middle dot]wk-1 Results: HIET significantly redu...

PACE book Review Exercising for long periods makes your heart adept at handling a 60-minute jog, but it accomplishes this by trading in its ability to rapidly provide you with big bursts when circumstances might demand. The real key to prevent heart disease and protect and strengthen your heart is to induce the opposite adaptive response to that produced by continuous cardio and increase your heart’s reserve capacity. Bigger, faster cardiac output more immediately available is what you really need. From page 8 of PACE®: Rediscover Your Native Fitness Intervals If you look back through the archives of this blog, you'll find a fair bit about interval training. In particular there is a fair bit of research on its efficiency in terms of improving VO2 max (a sort of measure of getting out of breath when you train hard). CrossFit Endurance is building a whole programme of training for endurance athletes around breif interval based sessions and is worth checking out. The work that D...

Ross is supporting Roy Jones.... I'm behind Joe .

Normal alpine skiing means you'll be crouching a lot of the time. So it makes sense to train in positions that will simulate that. Hence these isometric holds. Rob explains what he is doing in this workout

I have put things up here before about fasting and working out . Brad Pillon the author of Eat Stop Eat (my favourite book on intermittent fasting) has a good little blog post about this today : Fasting Exercise and Blood Sugar Did you know that when scientists studied people who exercised after fasting for 23 hours, their blood sugar levels were actually found to be slightly higher then when the same people exercised after a small meal? (Coyle EF 1985; Dohm LG 1986) I was at a Krav Maga class on Monday when one guy threw up after the warm up. It was a moderately tough session but not that hard. I think the problem usually is when people have eaten too close to exercise. Would he have chucked if he'd been fasting ?

Another interesting new study. People need to be encouraged to be active. Some people are put off exercise because they might find it hard to find the time for say a 30 minute workout. (I think everyone can find the time for a 30 minute walk but....) However 10 separate 3 minute walks are just as good at giving certain health benefits.... Accumulating short bouts of brisk walking reduces postprandial plasma triacylglycerol concentrations and resting blood pressure in healthy young men Background : Physical activity recommendations promote the accumulation of aerobic activity in bouts of 10 min. It is important to determine whether shorter bouts of activity can influence health. Objective : We compared the effects of accumulating ten 3-min bouts of brisk walking with those of one 30-min bout of brisk walking on postprandial plasma triacylglycerol concentrations and resting blood pressure. Design: Fifteen healthy young men completed three 2-d trials 1 wk apart in a randomized, repeat...

I'm not sure where I first came across the Slosh Pipe. I think it was this article by Dan John . It is a great idea and one day - if I get a bigger flat or one with a garden I'll have to build one to play with. The Slosh Pipe keeps getting recommended in different places. Mark Sisson wrote about it last week. The slosh tube makes simple movements difficult. It makes you work hard for motions that you take for granted as a Primal fitness head. Even better, using a slosh tube doesn’t quite feel like a traditional workout. It’s fun and different. And isn’t that what effective workouts are all about? Tricking your body into performing hard work, and enjoying it? Here is Rob putting it to work on one of his athletes. And here is a strong girl walking with the pipe

Vern Gambetta has commented on the NY Times article on warming up (and not stretching) that I pointed to yesterday . Have a look They talked about things in the article some of us figured out 35 years ago (Sorry for the sarcasm) but warm-up is just that, it is movement. Two of the exercises they illustrate in the article the straight leg march and the scorpion are two exercises I would NEVER do in warm-up. I think they are not inappropriate for warm-up and actually set the body up for injury. I was disappointed that nothing was said about the order and sequence in warm-up. I was left to believe that if you just throw a bunch of exercises together and call it dynamic then it is OK. Nothing could be further from the truth. I think warm-up must be orchestrated like a ballet. It should build in tempo from slower deliberate movements to fast dynamic movements leading directly into practice or the game.

CLICK to see the whole thing. From the Boston Globe via Make

We like big jumps on this blog (thanks to Straight to the Bar )

After one of my recent posts about stretching - Don't do it before exercise - someone commented asking how they should prepare for exercise if not by static stretches. The New York Times has the answer today Stretching: The Truth If you’re like most of us, you were taught the importance of warm-up exercises back in grade school, and you’ve likely continued with pretty much the same routine ever since. Science, however, has moved on. Researchers now believe that some of the more entrenched elements of many athletes’ warm-up regimens are not only a waste of time but actually bad for you. There is a good video there too (I've no idea how to embed that one in the blog....)

Every now and again I when asked what I'd recommend to a person who wanted to start to train but had limited experience. I discussed this here with several ideas . Often, I point towards Craig Ballantyne's Turbulence Training . It isn't perfect, but it is a good start and is based on solid science of the sort that I've highlighted here several times. (He has a free bodyweight programme ) Anyway, Craig has a new book out - Just Say No to Cardio . I've not seen it but it looks good value. To read more about the dangers of excessive cardio, check out Mark's writings - Chronic Cardio