Conditioning Research

Here is a new video from Erwan of MovNat (I interviewed Erwan earlier this year) In the Youtube notes Erwan says this: I feel it is important to remind that even though the practice of MovNat should include free, exploratory sessions in nature consisting in purely random and adaptive natural movement and spontaneous action, MovNat is above all a training method which involves principles, techniques and programming. The Natural Movement Coaching System that is MovNat is fully scalable and enables practitioners to make faster, broader and safer progress in the practice of natural movement, regardless of experience. To optimize practice and for coaching efficiency reasons, i.e offering a broad range of training variety in a limited space and shortening the learning curve while ensuring full scalability and injury-prevention, it is essential to practice in a custom-built facility first. It is especially true for beginners, people that are out of shape, that risk to injure themselves or ...

We've mentioned Crossfit Endurance before . They use short intervals to train athletes for long distance endurance efforts. Interesting but controversial . Some guys here in Scotland are about to test the Crossfit endurance approach. On the 17th and 18th of October 2009 we’ll be conducting a wee experiment in human-powered distance covering. The West Highland Way, at just under 100 miles, is the ideal venue. Two road cyclists, two mountain bikers and two runners will leave Fort William on Saturday morning. The roadies will follow the A82 (including the detour to Kinlochleven, no slacking here) and the others will be sticking to the WHW route. The mtb and running records are around half an hour apart, so although the roadies will be sitting waiting with their feet up by the fire at the Real Food Café at the half way point, the rest is an unknown. While we’re not expecting to break any records, it’s still very much a test. The runners have trained using Crossfit. High intensity wei...

I'm still thinking about the importance of concentrating on the basics . It is so easy to get diverted onto superfluous stuff that doesn't really matter and only distracts you from the basics of movement and consistency. These thoughts were encouraged by a superb post that I read this morning from Seattle Combatives - Learning From Animals Read the whole thing, but this is what struck me: WHAT IS IT THAT WE CAN LEARN AND UTILIZE FROM THE IN WHICH ANIMALS FIGHT? Consider the following: 1. Animals have only a very limited number of “natural weapons”, and only a very simple “technique” for utilizing them. One or two natural “built in” weapons is it. And one or two certainly do seem to be quite adequate, when you observe the efficiency with which they use them! Would you rather face a black belt in some martial art who had learned many hundreds or thousands of techniques, or a charging tiger who had “only” two claws and one mouth? The leopard is a ferocious and formidable jungle c...

Click to enlarge I'd recommend this to anyone who is within easy traveling distance of Edinburgh. Marcus and Lee are great instructors.

Some of Rannoch 's comments on recent posts have got me thinking. He is right. So much of what you read is written as if the average trainee is an elite athlete training for the national championships. In general that is not true. Most of us are just average guys wanting to keep fit and healthy. We want to be better than average but we also are not elite. We do not need the routines of the champions. We need to move more, to do the basics and get better at basic movements. Here are the comments, which are worth a post of their own: On Craig Ballantyne Whilst CB's sales pitch is relentless, here offers simple effective methods for average people. And this is the key. You talk about training enrgy systems and training geared towards specific activities. well I am afraid that applies to a very small percentage of folks out there. In fact ,if I were to identify one thing that stops people making progress it is trying to adhere to routines and protocols that are beyond the aver...

If you have followed this blog for a while you'll have seen the discussions of "functional training". The High Intensity Training position more or less is that there is no such thing. Everything is specific. You can develop strength and fitness, but the sports specific skills must be developed separately by practising those skills - i.e. bench presses will make you stronger but to be a better puncher you must punch well. Luke went through all this in the interview here . Vern Gambetta had a good piece on his blog today on this area: General or Specific Jay Johnson asked me to comment on balancing specificity and generality in training. Jay is a middle distance and distance coach, but I will broaden this to include all events and all sports. Obviously the highest degree of specificity of training and the most direct transfer occurs when you do the activity itself. Frankly this is where training has advanced significantly over the last sixty years. We realized that stayin...

...that is what I make of this study. Fat is not great.....but fat fit and active helps because the type of fat and its location is changed. Fat distribution in men of different waist girth, fitness level and exercise habit Background : The risk of chronic disease is lower in obese men who are fit and active than obese men who are unfit and inactive. Methods /Objectives: Magnetic resonance imaging and spectroscopy were used to assess total and regional adipose tissue in 13 men who were slim, fit and active (the slim-fit), in 12 men who were slim, unfit and inactive (the slim-unfit), in 13 men who were fat, fit and active (the fat-fit) and in 12 men who were fat, unfit and inactive (the fat-unfit), in order to investigate the hypothesis that visceral fat and liver fat are lower in the fat-fit than the fat-unfit. Waist girth was used to distinguish slim men (90 cm) and fat men (100 cm). Maximal oxygen consumption was used to identify fit men (above average for age) and unfit men (avera...

It is worth reading Tom Naughton's excellent post Bogus Science is Draining

you know, I tend to think that Craig's sales pitches are way over the top, but to be honest his programmes - Turbulence Training - are pretty solid.

Wonderful. When you get the weather you cannot beat this country.

Whatever...it was fantastic. Fresh prawns from the local loch, with a caviar mayonnaise.

Up north for a few days. Superb weather - I'll post more photos later.

Sorry that things are quiet around here at the moment - I've just not come across that much that I wanted to post or that was of interest. Just this interesting piece on the placebo effect. Once again, be aware of the power of the mind. The placebo paradox - Placebo healings can't be eliminated by the progress of medicine. In fact medical progress can only strengthen them Away from the internet for a few days now, but will be back soon.

Mike and Scott have just launched their free workouts - Bodyfitburn:Bodyweight Revolution - 3 times a week they are publishing a scaleable bodyweight workout . Sort of a bodyweight simplified crossfit I suppose. Joel has been doing something similar for a few year's with what is now called the Daily Fitness Solution Blog. The Daily 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. TDFS 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.

Anthony (Dream) Johnson talks about his view of proper exercise and nutrition . Interesting stuff. He talks about Body by Science and the Primal Blueprint, both books that I've discussed here before now. The post includes a link to his power point slides which is useful.

Davie pointed to this.... When asked to train with a MMA i agreed , if this happens to you say NO ... HA HA

hat tip I linked to this a while ago but was not able to embed it then

Given my interest in intermittent fasting I found this article and report interesting. ( some modes of IF - e.g. the Warrior diet - sees you just having one big meal at night) The BBC reported that: Late-night snackers are more likely to gain weight, research suggests. Although strictly speaking, that is not really what the science said. The study says this : Studies of body weight regulation have focused almost entirely on caloric intake and energy expenditure. However, a number of recent studies in animals linking energy regulation and the circadian clock at the molecular, physiological, and behavioral levels raise the possibility that the timing of food intake itself may play a significant role in weight gain. The present study focused on the role of the circadian phase of food consumption in weight gain. We provide evidence that nocturnal mice fed a high-fat diet only during the 12-h light phase gain significantly more weight than mice fed only during the 12-h dark phase. A bet...

This is an interesting looking discussion paper. Lack of adequate appreciation of physical exercise's complexitiescan pre-empt appropriate design and interpretation in scientific discovery. I've not read the whole thing, but this statement stood out in the abstract: Normal physiological processes are dynamic, integrated, periodic, and therefore, it is difficult to define normal physiological function by looking at a single time point or single process in a non-stressed subject. The paper is challenging this idea of an exercise pill - this concept that a drug could be developed to mimic the beneficial effects of exercise. The authors object: The concept of an "exercise pill/exercise mimetic" demonstrates an inadequate appreciation for the complexities in integrating cell, tissue, organ, and systems during both acute disruptions in homeostasis by a single bout of exercise, and longer-term chronic adaptations to different types of exercise such as resistance and endura...

OK, so you agree to do a 5 minute time trial....but how do you pace it for the best performance? Particularly how do you start off? Fast then slow down, slow then speed up or just try to keep it even..... 5 minutes is a really difficult distance - like the mile in a run: not a sprint but not a long slow thing either. This study says it is better to go off fast..... Effects of starting strategy on 5-min cycling time-trial performance. The importance of pacing for middle-distance performance is well recognized, yet previous research has produced equivocal results. Twenty-six trained male cyclists (VO(2peak) 62.8 +/- 5.9 ml . kg(-1) . min(-1); maximal aerobic power output 340 +/- 43 W; mean +/- s) performed three cycling time-trials where the total external work (102.7 +/- 13.7 kJ) for each trial was identical to the best of two 5-min habituation trials. Markers of aerobic and anaerobic metabolism were assessed in 12 participants. Power output during the first quarter of the time-trial...

maybe...... An inverse relationship between plasma n-3 fatty acids and C-reactive protein in healthy individuals High sensitivity C-reactive protein (hs-CRP) is a marker of low-grade sustained inflammation. Omega-3 (n-3) fatty acids have anti-inflammatory properties and are associated with reduced cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk. The aim of this study was to investigate whether plasma n-3 fatty acid concentration is related to hs-CRP concentration. A total of 124 free-living adults, were divided into tertiles of plasma hs-CRP ( 3.0 mg/l). Body composition and anthropometric measurements were recorded. Hs-CRP was analysed using immunoassays and fatty acids were measured by gas chromatography. Plasma hs-CRP concentration was negatively correlated with total n-3 fatty acids (P=0.05), eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA; P=0.002) and docosapentaenoic acid (DPA; P=0.01). The highest hs-CRP tertile (>3.0 mg/l) had significantly lower concentrations of total n-3 fatty acids, EPA and DPA, when com...

It is worth checking out Monte Hueftle's comment to Koen on the post here .

So apparently while beer might (ok will) make you fat, it will not cause a specific beer belly..... Beer consumption and the 'beer belly': scientific basis or common belief? Background/Objectives: The term 'beer belly' expresses the common belief that beer consumption is a major determinant of waist circumference (WC). We studied the gender-specific associations between beer consumption and WC (partially in relation to body weight and hip circumference (HC) change). Participants/Methods : Within the European Prospective Investigation into Cancer and Nutrition (EPIC)–Potsdam study (7876 men, 12 749 women), cross-sectional associations were investigated applying general linear models. Prospective analyses of baseline beer consumption and an 8.5-year WC change were assessed using multivariate general linear models and polytomous logistic regression. To test the site-specific effect of beer consumption on WC, an adjustment for concurrent changes in body weight and HC was c...

An interesting video from the Exuberant Animal crew. Human Development: Kids and sports from Lauren Muney on Vimeo .

Interesting..... So it is healthy to be fat and fit ?