Conditioning Research

I heard this mentioned on the radio yesterday - a story in the Telegraph about how men become more masculine if they tilt their head back a bit and look slightly down their nose, according to scientists. There is more in the story .  What intrested me is that this chimes with some of the things about posture that have been here over the last few years. I was thinking of some of the things that Esther Gokhale says and also the instructions of Art DeVany, as explained by Dan John the other day : Art De Vany’s wonderful presentation in Las Vegas (May 18, 2008), and available on DVD, sums a very simple way to follow this idea: Lift your Heart! Not only does it have a beautiful ring to it as a way to live one’s life, it is a simple (elegant) way to move. Allow the heart to rise up to the sky (again, what a great idea for living: Heart to the Heavens!). He also noted to “ look over the cheekbones” as you walk and it ties in very well with Gockhale’s insights. From an evoluti...

Superb I interviewed Erwan here and look forward  to training with him in Edinburgh next week

There is some amazing lifting here from Tom Martin. ( via Sugden Barbell ) 20th November 2010 Tom Martin today pulled 350kg to better Ed Coan's long standing IPF junior world record (347.5kg at 82.5kg bodyweight in Dallas, 1984). The lift took place at the GBPF/BUCS British University Championship .

I just spotted this one while browsing. Delayed-Onset Muscle Soreness Alters the Response to Postural Perturbations. There are maybe some interesting implications - like DOMS could lead to injury through making you less able to maintain a stable and safe posture?   So therefore training that promotes extreme soreness may be counterproductive.

I first came across Patrick Diver via the Body By Science Blog where he was commenting regularly and posting some videos of his training.  I was intrigued at a high level endurance athlete training with  short HIT style sessions.  That led to this interview.  I hope you enjoy it and get as much from it as I have.  There is some great material in here! Patrick , normally in these interviews I start off by asking a little about your background: how you got into training and how you developed your particular approach.  Who are you? Pushing Hard on the bike Hi Chris, my name is Patrick Diver and I’ve had a personal training business, Greyhound Fitness , for nearly 9 years now in Orlando, Florida. I also have a couple other websites including patrickdiver.com a nd fitnessgod.com.  The latter, funny URL and all, has a new weblog I just started (also to be found at patrickdiver.blogspot.com ).   As far as philosophy is concerned, first ...

Now I don't expect you to watch this whole thing.....but if you are interested in deadlifts then you might want to look at this video from the recent world championships in South Africa Lots more videos here (it is worth subscribing to the IPF channel on YouTube )

Sleeping in anything other than a completely dark room could lead to depression, research suggests. reported in The Telegraph this ties in to what Robb Wolf says!

I will get on the bandwagon with this one.  Danny is back.  This is phenomenal.  I live in Edinburgh so know lots of the places featured here, both in the city and further out to North Berwick , the island of Inchmerry.  Then some great highland scenery as he heads home to Skye.  Skye in sunshine is amazing - it is usually raining!

I don't know....the more you read the less I know. Antioxidant supplementation: elevated pre-exercise plasma vitamin C  and vitamin E  concentrations  Vitamin C & E supplementation also affected serum cortisol concentrations, with an attenuated increase from baseline to the peak values reached after 1 h of recovery compared with the placebo group (P = 0.02) and serum interleukin-6 concentrations were higher after 1 h of recovery in the antioxidant group (11.3 ± 3.4 pg ml(-1)) than the placebo group (6.2 ± 3.8 pg ml(-1); P = 0.05).  Combined vitamin C & E supplementation neither reduced markers of oxidative stress or inflammation nor did it facilitate recovery of muscle function after exercise-induced muscle damage. What do you think?

Guess what?  trans unsaturated fatty acids -  big problem meat and other fat - NO problem Consumption of dietary fat and meat and risk of ovarian cancer in the Netherlands Cohort Study.

I bet this study will not get much attention.  If it was finding that wholegrains prevent cancer it would be all over the place but that is not what they found.  The results: Dietary GI, GL, II, or fiber was not associated with risk of total or subgroups of prostate cancer. We observed a positive association between dietary intake of whole grains and total prostate cancer (HR highest versus lowest quintile 1.13, 95% CI 1.03-1.24), which was attenuated after restriction to PSA-screened participants (HR 1.03, 95% CI 0.91-1.17). What do they conclude? These results suggest that long-term exposure to a diet with a high insulin response does not affect prostate cancer incidence. Er.....but what about the whole grains!?   Doesn't your study suggest that they are associated with increased incidence of cancer?

Further to the deadlift video that I posted the other day, I spotted an interesting post from Don of Primal Wisdom. He talks about the squat vs the deadlift in terms of primal / evolutionary movements and refers to   those who think squats are not "evolutionary," but think deadlifts are. He points to Evolution and Training: An Interview with Dr. William Meller  S: I know when we talked before you said that a heavy deadlift isn’t the most natural thing – picking up something heavy from the ground – but you said that squatting was very natural for us. M: Well, look at the size of the various muscles in our bodies, and what’s the biggest muscle? Your quads, your anterior thigh, right? There is a reason for that. It has to do with standing up and jumping, lifting and climbing up rather than bending over from the waist. Before we were upright, two-legged walking primates, we were four-limbed primates and we did a lot of climbing. We probably didn’t stand up at first t...

 What do you do about baldness? This one may seem a bit different from the normal posts, but bear with me:   it is relevant and has lots of connection with the sort of diet and life principles that I tend to highlight here.    The Healthy Hair Diet The other day Danny contacted me to ask if I'd like to review his new book - The Healthy Hair Diet .  Now I've been reading Danny's blog for a while learning of how he had been seeking a valid and effective treatment for baldness.    I was interested in his research and recommendations so was happy to agree to review his new book on this blog.  He has been on quite a journey with stops at a carnivorous diet and also a paleo approach before he got here. So what do you get? THHD is sold as a pdf file, at 109 pages, 20 of which contain the 260 references which Danny uses to support the arguments he is making.  I used to be a bit ambivalent towards pdf books, finding paper easi...

Frank Forencich has just put up a thought provoking piece on his site.  (I interviewed Frank here ) Be Hear Now Find something you’re passionate about and enter into that with your entire being.  Pay the process the respect it deserves. Be. Hear. Now. He is right   -   we live in a world of distraction.  We do not focus on the basics, the simple things and in or distraction we lose so much. Leo's new (and free) book, Focus , is worth reading in this respect  

Phil Maffetone is a thinker ahead of his time.  He has been recommending a low carb, grain free diet for years and was advocating being barefoot or having minimal shoes when most of the recent paleo advocates were still eating tofu 6 times a day. Anyway, I'd recommend checking his new article: Medical Acceptance of the Celiac Pandemic:  Is the Decades-Old Ridicule Ending? Those carrying the gene for celiac disease, about a third of the population, can easily bring out the condition. Just eat enough wheat and you can trigger the celiac gene to express itself, resulting in the illness. This is just what’s been happening. Since 1950, the incidence of celiac disease has increased by almost 500%. It’s not just more recognition and diagnosis of the condition but a worsening of the pandemic. While the experts are still calling this explosion a “mystery,” it seems to be yet another example of environmental pressure – namely diet stress – on existing genes. In particular, it’s p...

This is a great video (more ideas here )

I always find this debate quite interesting.  Is organic food "better".   I just saw this study that reckons that in terms of the antioxidants, organic carrots and onions are no better. The study :  Effects of Organic and Conventional Growth Systems on the Content of Flavonoids in Onions and Phenolic Acids in Carrots and Potatoes  is here.  Well, maybe. Then again my motivation for organic is not really just about this.  I prefer organic for a couple of other reasons: what it means for the wider ecosystem avoiding eating too much in the way of pesticides etc I might be deceiving myself on both I suppose! More here