Conditioning Research

So what do the biceps do? fasciating stuff from Bill DeSimone

Seth has some good thoughts on animal fat : for best health I need much more animal fat than I usually get — is plausible: 1. As Spector said, butchers cut the fat off meat. The odds that our Stone-Age ancestors, living when food was sometimes scarce, did the same thing: Zero. Perhaps our meat is unnaturally low in fat. If for a long time in our evolutionary past we ate a lot of animal fat it makes sense that our bodies would be shaped to work best with that much fat. 2. Many video games, which boys enjoy, resemble hunting . I think this reflects an evolutionary past in which men hunted. If so, for a long time humans ate meat. That they ate a lot of meat is suggested by the fact that when big game went extinct (probably due to hunting) human health got worse. 3. American culture demonizes animal fat. The conclusion that animal fat is bad rests on epidemiology. Once something becomes heavily recommended or discouraged, a big problem for epidemiologists arises: the people who follow the...

I had a post the other day saying that intermittent fasting works . I often point to scientific studies on IF but it is also interesting to see the results of the approach. Of course this proves nothing....but Martin has achieved some amazing results with his approach to IF (described in various bits here ). Great stuff.

Superb video from Mike T Nelson

I read this in the paper today - a new way to test your fitness . The National Fitness Test is the brainchild of Dave Reddin, a fitness trainer for the Rugby World Cup squad and a consultant to Team GB. "I wanted to show people how easy it is to take control of your fitness and get a fair assessment that is relative to age and sex," he says. The fact that the test is home-based and requires little more than a tape measure, a computer (visual and written instructions appear on the screen as and when you need them), a watch with a second hand, and a set of weighing scales certainly make it accessible to all and maximises its appeal. But is the test valid? The site is interesting. The concept of fitness is always a bit puzzling - fit for what? At least it looks at different elements - BMI, strength, flexibility, heart rate recovery. Strength is measured by two isometric moves - wall squat and the plank.....not sure how valid that is but as far as it goes it is interesting.

Of course eggs are good for you Conclusions : Consumption of 4 egg yolks/d, and possibly of 2 egg yolks/d, for 5 wk benefited macular health in older adults with low MPOD. Serum HDL cholesterol increased without an increase in LDL cholesterol in this study population,

This has just been published: Short-term modified alternate-day fasting: a novel dietary strategy for weight loss and cardioprotection in obese adults Conclusion : These findings suggest that ADF is a viable diet option to help obese individuals lose weight and decrease CAD risk I know I go on about intermittent fasting a lot - and usually try to sell Eat Stop Eat at the same time - but there is science behind this. Here is another one: Intermittent fasting does not affect whole-body glucose, lipid, or protein metabolism

Drew Baye pointed to this The Myth of Core Stability by Professor Eyal Lederman The principle of core stability has gained wide acceptance in training for prevention of injury and as a treatment modality for rehabilitation of various musculoskeletal conditions in particular the lower back. There has been surprising little criticism of this approach up to date. This article will re-examine the original findings and the principles of core stability and how well they fare within the wider knowledge of motor control, prevention of injury and rehabilitation of neuromuscular and musculoskeletal systems following injury. It is a long article....so here is the conclusion: Weak trunk muscles, weak abdominals and imbalances between trunk muscles groups are not pathological, just a normal variation. The division of the trunk into core and global muscle system is a reductionist fantasy, which serves only to promote CS. Weak or dysfunctional abdominal muscles will not lead to back pain Tensing the...

This reminds me of that documentary my Big Fat Diet Dietary Patterns are Linked to Cardiovascular Risk Factors but Not to Inflammatory Markers in Alaska Eskimos. Our data show that the traditional diet is related to a better profile of cardiovascular disease risk factors and should be encouraged. The traditional diet is described as: fish, native sea and land mammals and their fats and oils, wild greens, stew with mostly meat, stew with mostly rice or noodles, native birds, wild berries, and native berry agutuk. This diet scored low in candy bars, sugar, syrup, store-bought nonhydrogenated vegetable fats, peanut butter, milk, cheese, ice cream, and nondairy creamer. (not sure how rice or noodles are traditional to the Eskimo....but we'll let that one go) Click on image to make it bigger. Roughly 50% carbs, 15% protein and 35% fat..... still not sure abou all those carbs. To be honest looking at the diets the macro percentages are not that different....one thing that does stand ...

Scientists do some great studies..... Effect of Sleep on Excessive Belching: A 24-Hour Impedance-pH Study. or this one about fart gas Methane and the Gastrointestinal Tract.

Just wanted to flag this up. Joe DeFranco has started posting some useful exercise demonstration videos on his YouTube channel . There is a lot of useful stuff there worth checking out. For example: This is just one of many ways to increase the difficulty of a basic plank. By taking one arm off the ground and touching the opposite shoulder, you increase the load/stability requirements of the abdominals/obliques. Try not to "rock" too much from side to side when touching the opposite shoulder. Use a 6-12" box for this exercise. Because you're balancing completely on one leg, more proprioception, balance and stabilization is required (so activation is greater)! Make sure your "off" leg remains completely straight and the "off" ankle remains dorsi-flexed the entire time...just SLIGHTLY touch your heel to the ground. (This ensures that the leg that's on the box is doing ALL the work.) Or for some conditioning work: DB goblet squat, DB swings, u...

There has been some debate here in the past on "functional training" - e.g. Luke's Carlson's interview here . Rob from Mountain Athlete has some good comments today : QUESTION I have started your 2 weeks of strength training for skiing... pretty cool!! I would have maybe one recommendation/question. I got an ACL reconstruction about 18 months ago and the quad on which I had surgery is still a little smaller than the other one (on the inside side of the leg). Now, I can do everything I was doing before without even thinking about it, but sometime it feels like something is still not moving right (a lot of "poping" and tendonitis feeling). One exercise that I discover recently is the "pistol" (single legged squat). It is a great exercise for me because it trains each leg separately, it is surprisingly hard and it works a LOT on the balance and the stability of the knee. Furthermore, I found that it improved the way my injured leg is now absorbing the...

I love Barry Groves .... in a manly respectful sort of way..... Stan makes some great comments on the same study

My left shoulder sometimes bothers me a bit...tight muscles in the upper back I reckon - and as i've got older, exercises for joint health rather than ego big muscles have become more important. I now regularly include face pulls ( described here ) with a resistance band, YWLTs , stick ups (as prescribed here ) and rotator cuff exercises which Rob from Mountain Athlete calls the Shoulder Hand Job.....er right

Dr Eades points to this . I haven't found an hour to watch it yet but hope to tonight. The video below shows Chris Gardner, Ph.D., researcher from Stanford University, giving a presentation about the data he generated when he compared the Atkins diet to the Ornish diet, the Zone diet and the LEARN diet. You all probably remember this study, which he published in JAMA in 2007 , showing the low-carb diet brought about greater weight loss and better lab value improvement than the other three diets.

This is interesting. Supervised strength training is more effective . I think it ties in with things I've thought about and written before about the social aspect of training. That is one thing anyway. Another thing it may imply is that in some circumstances you do need expert help. Having someone plan your training and particularly your rehabilitation work is often essential. I've read a lot about this stuff, but when I'm injured I look for expert help.

Bryce pointed out this excellent video I've got a couple of Geoff Thompson's books. Well worth the read.

I have mentioned Brad Pilon before and have interviewed him on this blog . Brad's main area of interest is intermittent fasting, but his interest in that grew out of his work in the sports/bodybuilding nutrition industry. It also prompted an interest in all the little rules that people build around their eating habits.. In this little Book - The Dirty Dozen - Brad talks about what he calls the DIRTY DOZEN - 12 major pop culture rules of supposed ‘healthy eating’, and how they can be examples of obsessive compulsive eating. Some of the most dramatic examples of Obsessive Compulsive Eating (OCE) came from my friends and me back in our bodybuilding days. In fact, I believe that the bizarre eating habits endorsed by bodybuilders and fitness competitors are what drives the recommendations on healthy eating and weight loss in today’s popular itness and nutrition culture. Being in the heart of the bodybuilding supplement industry (I used to work in Research and Development), I cou...

This debate seems to keep going. One minute everyone is talking about EPOC and Afterburn and the advantages of interval training....then it is back to the advantages of long low intensity cardio to burn fat..... Lyle McDonald had a good series on this recently ....Anyway, here is another study...which seems to point towards the advantages of low intensity exercise. Then again...it is not as straightforward as that.... Fat oxidation rate during and after a low- or high-intensity exercise in severely obese Caucasian adolescents Abstract The objective is to study the effects of low-intensity (LI) or high-intensity (HI) equicaloric exercises on energy expenditure (EE) and substrate oxidation rate during and after the exercises in severely obese Caucasian adolescents. Twenty obese boys (BMI-SDS 3.04 ± 0.52, %Fat Mass 38.2 ± 2.1%) aged 14–16 years (pubertal stage >3) participated in this study. Maximal oxygen uptake (V′O2max) and maximal fat oxidation rate were determined with indir...

Research is catching up with what people like Bernstein have been saying for years.... Therapeutic role of low-carbohydrate ketogenic diet in diabetes. INTRODUCTION: Changes in dietary habits influence the glycemic level. Preliminary studies using the low-carbohydrate ketogenic diet (LCKD) were found to be quite promising in controlling diabetes mellitus. Therefore, the objectives of this study are to investigate the therapeutic effects of LCKD in experimental diabetic rats following the administration of streptozotocin (STZ). MATERIALS AND METHODS: Adult rats were divided into three groups: normal diet, LCKD, and high-carbohydrate diet. Each group was subdivided into normal, sham, and diabetic groups. Diabetes was induced by a single intraperitoneal injection of STZ (55mg/kg). Specific diets were given to each group of animals for a period of 8 wk and then the animals were sacrificed. The rats were monitored daily for food and water intake, whereas body weight, urine output, and bloo...

There is some good stuff here. This guy ( Mark Davies ) was down at Krav Maga Edinburgh last week ( as reported here ) and he is a good teacher....

Embedded video from CNN Video I wrote about this guys book before. Hat tip to Frank

This is a set of 10 minute workouts (pdf - right click and choose "save as") originally designed to keep you busy and training over the festive period. There are some good basic circuits here: intervals, bodyweight exercises and ideas with dumbells. My own training more and more is centred around stuff like this. Turbulence Training 10-Minute Workouts

here is a good one from the great Joe DeFranco Whenever someone asks us what they should do if they don't have a Glute-Ham or Reverse Hyper, we tell them to do THESE! This is a great bodyweight movement to strengthen your hamstrings & glutes - even if you don't have any "special" equipment.

indulging my interest in big jumps....

Some good ideas from Craig Ballantyne (there is a free programme from Craig here Right click and choose Save As to download)

So you have a couple of thugs, pissed up and working through town having a go and whoever they like. They spot a couple of guys in dresses and decide to have a dig..... Fortunately the guys in dresses were MMA fighters out in fancy dress and they floor the neds. Superb. Full story here . (apparently they were cage fighters )The guy in the black dress with the dark wig gets two great right hooks in at 1:20. Heh.

Nice piece of research - fits in with some of the stuff we've pointed to before . Shoes need to be as simple as possible. Cushioning is not important and the less cushioning there is the healthier your gait will be..... Running in new and worn shoes: a comparison of three types of cushioning footwear Objectives: In this study, the effect of shoe degradation on running biomechanics by comparing the kinetics and kinematics of running in new and worn shoes was investigated. Three types of footwear using different cushioning technologies were compared. Design: Longitudinal study. Setting: Pre- and post-tests on overground running at 4.5 m s–1 on a 20-m laboratory runway; performance measured using a force platform and a motion capture system. Participants: 24 runners (14 men and 10 women) Interventions: 200 miles of road running in the same pair of shoes. Within-group factor: shoe condition (new/worn); between-group factor: footwear type (air/gel/spring). Main outcome measurements: S...

Steve Maxwell 's plank complex.

People sometimes ask me where to start with their training. There are all sorts of things out there but for the average person I think Craig Ballantyne's material is good basic stuff - strength training plus intervals. Yes there are other things we could recommend, but for most people I think this is fine. Simple and straightforward. (His advertising copy gets a bit excessive....but the material is actually pretty good) Here is a free (yes free...) programme from Craig for you to download. This is Craig's 4-Week Bodyweight Program basic, but good material. Click the picture above or this link and download the pdf. Just right click and choose "Save As'

This is a guest post from Brad Pilon, the author of Eat Stop Eat (I interviewed Brad a while ago) You may have read a few times that fasting causes your body to enter starvation mode, which shuts down fat burning as your body tries to hold onto its precious fat stores.....that is all rubbish as Brad explains! The theory of Starvation Mode is something that fuels Obsessive Compulsive Eating in North America and throughout the world. To use a very basic definition, Starvation mode is when your metabolism supposedly slows down when you don’t eat enough calories. More often than not this definition is used to support very complex diet programs. These diets will tell you that not eating enough food will cause you to store more fat. Right after delivering this pseudo-science message of fear they then tell you the only solution is to keep eating, and here is the catch, you must eat the special foods they recommend. This is just another example of fear mongering and confusion created by the ...

Does anyone have access to this full paper? It looks interesting: Low-carbohydrate diets: an update on current research. The diabetes and obesity epidemics have stimulated research to assess the benefits and potential risks of low-carbohydrate diets. Carbohydrate comprises less than 45% of calories in carbohydrate-restricted diets, but very low carbohydrate ketogenic diets may restrict carbohydrate to 20 g initially with variability in the carbohydrate level subsequently. Some research suggests that low-carbohydrate diets may achieve better early weight loss than comparison diets higher in carbohydrate. Studies of up to 1 year suggest that weight loss on low-carbohydrate diet is comparable with fat-restricted diets with higher carbohydrate content. Limited research has been conducted to evaluate low-carbohydrate diets in managing type 2 diabetes. Although science continues to advance in this field, current research suggests that low-carbohydrate diets can be a viable option for achiev...

I've not posted much over the past few weeks and my posting in general I think will be slowing down For some of the time I was visiting my Dad who is not well at the moment - various problems including sudden onset dementia. It is quite frightening to witness and puts all this stuff into perspective. Perspective in a number of ways What is really important is family and friends (and faith I might add) , not obsessing about training / diet. Keep it simple. BUT...health is so important and it is vital to do what you can to keep it and build it However....you are not immortal. We will all die one day and this body, no matter how well built, how fit, how healthy it once was will decompose. Reflect on that I love this stuff, don't get me wrong, but in some ways it doesn't matter at all.

I've written a fair bit in the past about intermittent fasting, usually pointing to Brad Pilon's book Eat Stop Eat as a great introduction and explanation. (Though the results produced by Martin are worth noting) Here is a new bit of research. The fast day here isn't even a full fast, just 25% of normal similar to the Up Day Down Diet I've also mentioned before. Short-term modified alternate-day fasting: a novel dietary strategy for weight loss and cardioprotection in obese adults. BACKGROUND : The ability of modified alternate-day fasting (ADF; ie, consuming 25% of energy needs on the fast day and ad libitum food intake on the following day) to facilitate weight loss and lower vascular disease risk in obese individuals remains unknown. OBJECTIVE : This study examined the effects of ADF that is administered under controlled compared with self-implemented conditions on body weight and coronary artery disease (CAD) risk indicators in obese adults. DESIGN : Sixteen obe...

Who says that you can't train when you have kids? Hat tip Rannoch at Simple Strength

This is a toughie.

I do this exercise fairly regularly as a warm up... Eric Cressey has a post on it today