Conditioning Research

I've mentioned this book before . Highly recommended. Here is the author explaining more. Hat tip to Recover your stride

I like vertical jumps this is an interesting variation. Jumping out of a pool...... update someone just pointed me to this one!

A few days ago on a blog I saw an old book mentioned that looked interesting. As I tend to do, I had a look on Amazon and ordered it and it has been a fascinating read that I am mulling over to see how I can test out or apply some of its ideas. The focus of the book is about planning your training and rest so that you don't end up burnt out, ill or injured. Rather your training builds you up not tears you down. You need to rest and recover. So far so good, but the template that the book develops are pretty interesting, particularly if you think about some of the premises of DeVany's Evolutionary Fitness. DeVany in his essay talks about Power Laws as the pattern of human movement: 9. An evolutionary activity pattern is mixed and varied. It contains brief, in- termittent episodes of highly intense physical action mixed with languid pe- riods and play. Healthy activities mimic the patterns of wild animals and contain elements of chaos and order. Power laws that are typical of ...

So it seems that a low carb diet beats a low fat diet when it comes to healthy blood vessels. .... Effects of dietary carbohydrate restriction vs low-fat diet on flow-mediated dilation. We previously reported that a carbohydrate-restricted diet (CRD) ameliorated many of the traditional markers associated with metabolic syndrome and cardiovascular risk compared with a low-fat diet (LFD). There remains concern how CRD affects vascular function because acute meals high in fat have been shown to impair endothelial function. Here, we extend our work and address these concerns by measuring fasting and postprandial vascular function in 40 overweight men and women with moderate hypertriacylglycerolemia who were randomly assigned to consume hypocaloric diets ( approximately 1500 kcal) restricted in carbohydrate (percentage of carbohydrate-fat-protein = 12:59:28) or LFD (56:24:20). Flow-mediated dilation of the brachial artery was assessed before and after ingestion of a high-fat meal (908 kcal,...

I saw this study today which - if I am reading it right - seems to indicate that - if you want to avoid a fat belly - you should eat: red meat ; vegetables; fruit; butter; and high-fat dairy products and avoid snack foods; poultry; potatoes; and processed meat BACKGROUND: Previous studies on the association between macronutrient intake and the development of abdominal obesity, which carries an increased health risk, have not shown a consistent pattern, possibly due to mixed effects of other aspects of the food intake. OBJECTIVE: This study investigated the association between intake from 21 food and beverage groups and the subsequent 5-year difference in waist circumference. METHODS: The study population consisted of 22,570 women and 20,126 men, aged 50 to 64 years at baseline, with complete data on baseline and follow-up waist circumference, baseline diet (192 items food frequency questionnaire), body mass index, and selected potential confounders (eg, smoking status, sport activiti...

hat tip to Crossfit Fife

This one is a definite "Do not try this at home" (although some people are trying it!) ouch

I noticed recently that "Tabata has gone mainstream ". Lyle MacDonald has an excellent piece de-constructing the (in)famous study behind the protocol . Worth the read for sure. High-intensity interval training and the Tabata protocol specifically are one tool in the toolbox but anybody proclaiming that intervals can do everything that anyone ever needs to do is cracked. That’s on top of the fact that 99% of people who claim to be doing ‘Tabatas’ aren’t doing anything of the sort. Because 8 sets of 20″ hard/10″ easy is NOT the Tabata protocol and body-weight stuff or the other stuff that is often suggested simply cannot achieve the workload of 170% VO2 max that this study used. It may be challenging and such but the Tabata protocol it ain’t.

Just to point this out if you miss it: Healthy fat link to bowel disease A high intake of polyunsaturated fat in the diet, while good for the heart (er maybe, maybe not) , may lead to inflammatory bowel disease, say researchers. People have a phobia about perfectly healthy natural saturated fat - read Mark or Stephan for the truth - yet they stuff themselves with unnatural manufactured products - margarine ! - which are novel to the human diet and have all sorts of unpleasant effects. Pass me the butter! (and t he fish oil )

Mark Sisson pointed this one out!

Coach Sommer pointed this one out. In terms of pure strength few can compete with gymnasts. French Olympian Danny Rodrigues, the first athlete in history to compete what many considered an impossible strength element on the still rings; the Victorian. In fact he is so incredibly strong, that he has two variations of the Victorian in his routine. Be prepared for a little drama in the middle of the clip.

Here is another study on a low carbohydrate diet and its impact on weight loss and alleged cardiovascular risk factors. The full text is available too. A randomized controlled trial on the efficacy of carbohydrate-reduced or fat-reduced diets in patients attending a telemedically guided weight loss program Background We investigated whether macronutrient composition of energy-restricted diets influences the efficacy of a telemedically guided weight loss program. Methods Two hundred overweight subjects were randomly assigned to a conventional low-fat diet and a low-carbohydrate diet group (target carbohydrate content: >55% energy and Results In both groups, energy intake decreased by 400 kcal/d compared to baseline values within the first 6 months and slightly increased again within the second 6 months. Macronutrient composition differed significantly between the groups from the beginning to month 12. At study termination, weight loss was 5.8 kg (SD: 6.1 kg) in the low-carbohy...

Dairy is one of those things that is somewhat controversial on a paleo diet , but most low carb people are quite happy with it - Barry Groves for example thinks minimally processed milk is great I just spotted this new research Research undertaken by the Universities of Reading, Cardiff and Bristol has found that drinking milk can lessen the chances of dying from illnesses such as coronary heart disease (CHD) and stroke by up to 15-20 %. UPDATE here is the abstract: REVIEW The Survival Advantage of Milk and Dairy Consumption: an Overview of Evidence from Cohort Studies of Vascular Diseases, Diabetes and Cancer Objectives: To conduct a detailed evaluation, with meta-analyses, of the published evidence on milk and dairy consumption and the incidence of vascular diseases and diabetes. Also to summarise the evidence on milk and dairy consumption and cancer reported by the World Cancer Research Fund and then to consider the relevance of milk and dairy consumption to survival in the UK, a ...

I've put up things previously about the impact that emotional factors can have on health, particularly the idea that much back pain is actually driven by psychological factors. My interview with Monte discussed this and Adam also did a guest post. Here is a new study which looks at how stress can make us sick. ABSTRACT—How do stressful events and negative emotions influence the immune system, and how big are the effects? This broad question has been intensely interesting to psychoneuroimmunology researchers over the last 3 decades. Many promising lines of work underscore the reasons why this question is still so important and pivotal to understanding and other advances. New multidisciplinary permutations provide fresh vistas and emphasize the importance of training psychologists more broadly so that they will be central and essential players in the advancement of biomedical science. I've got hold of the full article and it is interesting stuff. Eureka makes some comments : ...

"Conditioning Research". When I started this blog my idea was to highlight academic research related to athletic conditioning. There you go, (athletic) Conditioning (scientific) Research . However, there are other blogs that do that much better than I (check Lyle out or - for diet - Stephan ). While I have done some courses to teach weightlifting and weight training and have read about the field voraciously for 20 odd years, my formal academic training is in Economics, Management and Philosophy. This blog has in fact become something else - a repository for all the weird and interesting bits of information that I come across related to health and fitness; ultimately things that are filtered to find that which interests me. That others find these things interesting and useful too is rewarding. The material also reveals I think my own prejudices and preferences with respect to diet and exercise. Eating and Moving as you were meant to. Evolutionary / Primal / Paleo I supp...

You know that I can rarely pass the opportunity to put up a video of a big jump! Here is Skyler - who writes a superb blog - with a 55" box jump. (the still shows the vid sideways, but it plays normal.) All in Vibrams too 55" Box Jump from Skyler Tanner on Vimeo .

Just a couple of great resources if you are interested in finding out more about the benefits of going barefoot .... or almost barefoot: Damien has a great series which includes a video John has a written a definitive guide to going barefoot . Also check out the Antidote !

Mick Dodge is associated with Frank Forencich 's Exuberant Animal group What do you think?

This is an interesting study that goes back to some of the issues that I discussed with Doug and Luke . Luke explained: If you want to get better at jumping, you need to strengthen the muscles involved in jumping according to their biomechanical and anatomical function. Secondly, you need to practice jumping. It is that simple. Of course, the strengthening portion is not "simple" - simple to understand, not simple to actually perform. The skills are very specific. If you want to get better at say punching....them punch. Punching while holding a weight will not help - it is a different movement. Similarly if you want to get better at swinging a standard bat.....then swing a standard bat...not a heavier one. Sure train to get stronger so you can swing harder....but swinging a heavier bat is a different skill. Perhaps that is what this study is saying: Effect of Warm-up With Different Weighted Bats on Normal Baseball Bat Velocity. Traditionally, baseba...

About a month ago I promised a review of Mark Sisson's new book " The Primal Blueprint " . I've been chewing over what to say about the book. I've read it and re-read sections. I've smiled at parts, been stimulated, learned things and been refreshed by the simple wisdom. The sort of things I've been writing about here for the last couple of years - adequate sleep, intermittent fasting, sprints/intervals, walking, weights, a low carb diet, minimal chronic stress, play - are pulled together into a meta narrative, a big story that makes sense of fitness, food, stress and more. I don't want to be accused of sycophancy (again) but this really is a great book - accessible without being dumbed down. If someone wanted to read something that would sum up what I think is the cutting edge in health and fitness, this is where I'd point them. The science is there - I think Mark expects intelligent readers - but it is well presented and explained so that...

This is great. Hat tip to Nick McKinless David Morgan is a 5 times Commonwealth Games Olympic Weightlifting Champion, 3 time Olympian and current Masters World Record Holder....44 years of age. Kong is a crossfit workout - 3 rounds of a single rep with a 455lb deadlift, 2 muscle ups on rings, 250lb squat clean for 3 reps and 3 handstand pushups. David increased the barbell to 500lbs for the deadlift and 275lbs for the squat clean.

I've just been away for a few days climbing hills up north. Absolutely superb. The sort of weather that doesn't happen often. Hot, clear and with a gentle breeze. Of course on Sunday it poured with rain and we were trudging through cloud and rain, but that is Scotland for you! There are more photos and a full account here . Over my left shoulder there you can see the island of Rum, floating on a calm blue sea that looked Mediterranean! What a day

That may not be the way in which he would present it, but I have just read a really interesting piece by the great Clarence Bass , which I think illustrates on of Art Devany 's principles about physical training: the power law. Art Devany explains it thus: The power law shown here (frequency is on the y axis and intensity on the x axis....so you have a high frequency of low intensity stuff, while you have a low frequency of high intensity stuff) is the signature of nature's strategy of organization and one humans followed for millenia. It is one I follow today. Note the frequency versus intensity scaling and the lack of a central tendancy. The mean is not a good indicator of the typical activity, in fact the mode is over at the far left where languid ease is the rule. The variance is infinite, which is the same thing as saying it does not exist. Constant variation but within a pattern of constrained novelty is the human condition until very recently. Mix brief, intermittent ...

I thought I would just put up a post which listed some of the interviews I've done so far this year. I am amazed to have been able to get in touch with these guys and to have been able to learn directly from them. Some of these guys seem quite different and come from different perspectives. However, interestingly, they have each been really helpful, open and willing to share their experience. I think they also share a common fascination for and love of movement and physical training, of the benefits of training the body and the mind. Evolutionary / Paleo Interviews Frank Forencich - Founder of Exuberant Animal Erwan Le Corre - the athlete behind MovNat Tamir Katz - a medical doctor who writes on hunter gatherer diet and exercise Intermittent Fasting Brad Pilon - the Author of Eat Stop Eat , an accessible but scientific book in intermittent fasting General Fitness Training Rannoch Donald - a top kettlebell trainer and conditioning expert from here in Edinburgh High Intensi...

I think this is the most amazing tumbling / parkour video that I have ever seen. Hat tip to the Extreme Human Performance blog - which is carrying an interview with this guy (Damien Walters)

Last week I posted an interview with Monte Hueftle , a runner and writer who specialises in running injuries generated by emotional factors, following in the teaching of Dr John Sarno There are other writers that have traced their own pain to emotional factors too. This is a guest post from one of them - Adam Rostocki . Adam is a martial artist who has battled with pain and finally conquered it through following Sarno's approach. I am convinced that much pain is emotional at its root. Mind Body Conditioning Physical Conditioning vs Psychological Conditioning I welcome the opportunity to speak to you about conditioning. As a serious martial artist for over 34 years I am well aware of the demands we all place on our bodies. In the course of training, I learned to use physical conditioning to make my body strong and increase my endurance and overall physical abilities. However, the type of conditioning I want to share with you today has nothing at all to do with the body. Inste...

Previously on this blog I've featured some material from Frank Forencich - author of "Play as if you life depends on it" and founder of Exuberant Animal . My friend Rannoch Donald of Simple Strength is bringing Frank to Edinburgh to do a seminar in September and I thought it would be a good time to interview Frank to find out more about his approach and what we can look forward to at the seminar. I've read Frank's books and lots of his articles and they have inspired, refreshed and excited me. It has been good to interview him and learn a little more of his thinking and background. There is some great stuff in here, from the placebo effect to the need for a tribe! Read on..... 1. Frank could you tell the readers something of your background in health and fitness? Actually, I got into this more than 30 years ago and back then, there really wasn’t a “fitness industry” to speak of. I was doing martial art (karate), which completely turned me on. I w...