Conditioning Research

Here is an interesting study - particularly in the light of the stuff I posted from Doug the other day: The abstract is here Here is the report : "If you want to bring about physiological change to help the development and endurance of back muscles, you must focus your training on those specific muscles and not other muscular groups such as hip extensors," says Christian Larivière, a professor at the Institut de recherche Robert-Sauvé en santé et en sécurité du travail (IRSST), who conducted the study with Université de Montréal researchers Bertrand Arsenault, Rubens A. Da Silva, Sylvie Nadeau, André Plamondon et Roger Vadeboncoeur. The investigation requested that subjects aged 18 to 65 – some healthy and others with low back pain – complete various exercises. Electromyography (EMG) sensors were used to measure the level of activity and fatigue in various muscles during the routine. "Thanks to this technique, we can target tired muscles which aren't yet showing a ...

I thought this was an interesting study Dr. Lee S. Berk, a preventive care specialist and psychoneuroimmunology researcher at Loma Linda University's Schools of Allied Health (SAHP) and Medicine, and director of the molecular research lab at SAHP, Loma Linda, CA, and Dr. Stanley Tan have picked up where Cousins left off. Since the 1980s, they have been studying the human body's response to mirthful laughter and have found that laughter helps optimize many of the functions of various body systems. Berk and his colleagues were the first to establish that laughter helps optimize the hormones in the endocrine system, including decreasing the levels of cortisol and epinephrine, which lead to stress reduction. They have also shown that laughter has a positive effect on modulating components of the immune system, including increased production of antibodies and activation of the body's protective cells, including T-cells and especially Natural Killer cells' killing activity of...

Stan points out some implications from a recent study . Conclusion: These findings suggest that dietary intake of menaquinones, which is highly determined by the consumption of cheese, is associated with a reduced risk of incident and fatal cancer.

A couple of videos from Dr Doug McGuff, on how to train the lower back: First the physiology: then the exercises: hat tip

Work is very busy so I'm not going to be posting much for the next couple of weeks. If I spot anything interesting I'll update the " What I'm reading " window to the right - >

I've been thinking about deadlift form and wanted to note down a few things. There are some good points here , especially Mistake No 10 - Starting with the Hips Too LOW : This is the king of all mistakes I see. Too many times lifters try to squat the weight up rather than pull the weight. Think back to the number of times you've seen a big deadlift and thought to yourself how much more the lifter could've pulled if he didn't damn near stiff-leg it. I see it all the time. Someone will say, "Did you see his deadlift?" Then the other guy will comment, "Yeah, and he stiff-legged the thing." Am I telling you to stiff leg all your deadlifts? No, not at all. All I want you to do is look at your hip position at the start of the lift when you pull and watch how much your hips move up before the weight begins to break the floor. This is wasted movement and does nothing except wear you out before the pull. The closer you can keep your hips to the bar when you ...

Rif pointed this out . Look at this guy's lower back musculature. Absolutely amazing.

The full study is available for this one, not just this abstract (which is below) but this is interesting - the effects of a 12 hour fast on physical abilities, specifically balance. What is not clear from either is whether the participants abstained from all liquids - even water. Anyway it seems that fasting diminished balance skills, which is a concern. Fasting is always easier if you are on a low carb diet and running on ketones, so I wonder if that would be an issue - the average person running on sugars needs constant topping up or else blood sugar issues can have effects. I wonder if hypoglycemia affects balance? In any case it is something to bear in mind if you are experimenting with intermittent fasting . The effects of dietary fasting on physical balance among healthy young women. ABSTRACT: BACKGROUND: The study examined the effects of dietary fasting on physical balance among young healthy women. METHODS: This study undertaken involving 22 young healthy women (age=22+/- ...

Just spotted this: Women Who Eat Foods With High Glycemic Index May Be at Greater Risk for Heart Disease High-carbohydrate diets increase the levels of blood glucose and of harmful blood fats known as triglycerides while reducing levels of protective HDL or "good" cholesterol, thereby increasing heart disease risk, according to background information in the article. Even the BBC picked up on it . They report: The British Heart Foundation, said that for women, choosing lower GI foods could be useful in helping them to reduce their risk of coronary heart disease. She said: "They could try broadening the types of bread and cereals they eat to include granary, rye or oat; including more beans, pulses; and accompanying meals with a good helping of fruit and vegetables. Of course the heresy would be to recommend that people - especially women - cut carbs of all sorts and eat more saturated fat and protein. Here is the abstract Dietary Glycemic Load and Index and Risk of Co...

This is something that I've referred to before and frankly something that scares me. I've previously mentioned the importance of sleeping in the dark, but this report stresses how important it is: Artificial light at night disrupts cell division Just 1 'pulse' of artificial light at night disrupts the circadian mode of cell division -- 1 of the body's mechanisms that is damaged in the development of cancer

hat tip to Mark All this for some crap food

Here is Gray Cook on deadlift form. He writes about it here too. Maintain the Squat - Train the Deadlift Most of his focus is on the single leg version. I'm interested that his basic motion is really a still legged / Romanian deadlift - the hips are doing the work, not the knees. It is also the same hip hinge movement that Esther Gokhale teaches as a basic safe way of bending over - thrust the hips back. It is also the key to the swing

Years ago in Iron Man magazine (the old Peary Rader one, not the soft pron thing it became) and latterly in McRobert's Hardgainer there was a great writer called Bradley J Steiner. He focussed on simple straightforward routines. No fluff, jsut progression the basics. I recently found out that he is still writing, now on the web and lots of the material is also about reality based self defence. It is good stuff. Check out Seattle Combatives

Interesting study - looks like interval training has specific benefits for people with high blood pressure Continuous and interval exercise training were beneficial for blood pressure control, but only interval training reduced arterial stiffness in treated hypertensive subjects. Effects of continuous vs. interval exercise training on blood pressure and arterial stiffness in treated hypertension.

This post follows on partly from the last one . I keep getting diverted by novelty. It happened again this week. Thinking back over my training I was starting to realise a few things: I made my best progress in strength and gaining muscle years ago on very basic routines, from Hardgainer magazine . Stiff Leg deadlifts, Dips, Press, Row. Not to failure stuff, but just weekly adding tiny bits of weight. I am getting tired of being sore from exercise. I do not want to be put at risk of injury - I've a demanding job and can't afford to be out of action from training. So Bill DeSimone's ideas will influence my exercise choice and range of motion. I need to do some rehab / posture exercises - TGU, bridging, birddog, plank. I want to be fit for the things I enjoy - Hillwalking and Krav Maga (Krav is fun but for me it is about learning a self defence - I am not bothered about grading, and there are better ways of keeping fit) So I'd decided to get back to something basic....

John Little - co-author of Body By Science - is developing a new training protocol that is based on some interesting ideas. He has called it The Max Pyramid Protocol - blending isometric /static contractions , high intensity training and also the congruent exercise ideas of Bill DeSimone. There is some discussion of the idea in the comments here For some background I have previously interviewed John Little and Bill DeSimone. I have some thoughts on this and may share later...

Eggs for breakfast...... Eating eggs for breakfast helps reduce calorie consumption throughout the day by 18 percent A new study demonstrates that eating protein-rich eggs for breakfast reduces hunger and decreases calorie consumption at lunch and throughout the day. The study, published in the February issue of Nutrition Research, found that men who consumed an egg-based breakfast ate significantly fewer calories when offered an unlimited lunch buffet compared to when they ate a carbohydrate-rich bagel breakfast of equal calories.(1) This study supports previous research which revealed that eating eggs for breakfast as part of a reduced-calorie diet helped overweight dieters lose 65 percent more weight and feel more energetic than dieters who ate a bagel breakfast of equal calories and volume.(2) "There is a growing body of evidence that supports the importance of high-quality protein in the diet for overall health and in particular the importance of protein at the breakfast meal...

Another Z Health video. I've touched on the benefits of being barefoot before and the potential damage from running shoes. Here is another approach on why traditional running shoes can cause problems. Z Health is worth looking at

I have mentioned z health before and the seminar I attended with mc here is a video of the founder of z health talking about the concepts: There are other interesting videos just posted too like this one on the arthrokinetic reflex

I have been reading Never Let Go by Dan John. It is a great book. Down to earth advice and wisdom from someone who really knows his stuff. One of the essays in the book talks about the value of a coach, having someone who can work out a programme and tell you what to do. You don't need to workout what you should do, you jsut do what you are told. You stop dotting from idea to idea and programme to programme. It takes the freedom away and sometimes that is good. I am guilty of it myself. There is so much information out there as I was saying earlier - that I don't just stick to something simple and give it time. I remember years ago I would stick at a routine for months - just simple stuff - squats, dips, deadlift - and would grow and improve. Now I know more but do not stick to things....and I get nowhere. Injuries have something to do with it too, but I do get distracted by the new stuff. Maybe I need to just commit to some programme for a while. Just a simple rout...

I've been playing around with these Simple No equipment needed (just a db) Range of motion is consistent with a congruent exercise approach By the way, I probably look more like the second guy than the first!

Dairy is one of the controversial topics. I tend to agree with PaNu and Peter that dairy is (probably) OK. Interesting to see this though: Stone Age Scandinavians unable to digest milk The hunter-gatherers who inhabited the southern coast of Scandinavia 4,000 years ago were lactose intolerant. This has been shown by a new study carried out by researchers at Uppsala University and Stockholm University. The study, which has been published in the journal BMC Evolutionary Biology, supports the researchers' earlier conclusion that today's Scandinavians are not descended from the Stone Age people in question but from a group that arrived later. I am not making too much of it, just noting it as an interesting bit of news.

This isn't particularly new but Seth just pointed it out and I wanted to make a note of it “Cholesterol levels in men with dementia and, in particular, those with Alzheimer disease had declined at least 15 years before the diagnosis and remained lower than cholesterol levels in men without dementia throughout that period.” Body weight also declines before the diagnosis. The abstract is here . CONCLUSION: A decline in serum total cholesterol levels may be associated with early stages in the development of dementia. Yet everyone thinks that lowered cholesterol is a good thing.

I saw this video linked to the other day via a friend on facebook. It is Dan John - fantastic guy by the way....I'm reading through his book Never Let Go at the moment - and he kicks off the little extract with a statement: The Goal is to keep The Goal as The Goal. That resonates well with me on a number of levels. Why am I training in the first place ? What am I doing this for? To be honest, I am not training to be an elite athlete. I will never play football for Everton, never make the Olympics in anything. My goal(s) - I think - needs to be defined a bit better I want to avoid injury : the old Do No Harm line keeps coming back to me. I am getting tired of hurting myself when training. Sometimes even the the standard DOMS is getting tiresome when I want to performa well at work. So whatever I do I want to feel better not worse as a result Prehab - I'm trying to keep my back right. I think there are some psychological roots to most pain, but there are also physi...

This is not intended to promote " AthleanX " - I know nothing about it (no affiliate payments or anything). What I thought was interesting in the video was the second exercise he demonstrates - a limited range sort of pullover / straight arm pulldown. Interestingly the range of motion he uses on this to me looks similar to that prescribed by Bill De Simone in his Moment Arm Exercise book . I'll have to check I am often on the look out for calisthenics for the lats - pushups, squats are fine but the rear of the body can be hard to hit. His hamstring move looks good too.

This is what it is all about! Get out there and play (more here )

Interesting that the BBC picked up on this as a potential April Fool. Tucking into a fried breakfast of sausages, eggs, bacon, beans, mushrooms, black pudding and tomatoes is a healthier way to start the day than a bowl of cereal, according to a study in the International Journal of Obesity. I wasn't encouraged that the original linked to the Daily Star (a UK tabloid mainly about tits), but had a look at the abstract. It is in mice, but in raises some interesting ideas. The Press Release is here Studies have looked at the type and quantity of food intake, but nobody has undertaken the question of whether the timing of what you eat and when you eat it influences body weight, even though we know sleep and altered circadian rhythms influence body weight," said the study's lead author Molly Bray, Ph.D., professor of epidemiology in the UAB School of Public Health. Bray said the research team found that fat intake at the time of waking seems to turn on fat metabolism very ...