Exercise to activate the core

Not sure how much this tells us.    Basically standing one arm presses cause more activation of the "core" than doing them seated with both arms.

Muscle activity of the core during bilateral, unilateral, seated and standing resistance exercise
Little is known about the effect of performing common resistance exercises standing compared to seated and unilaterally compared to bilaterally on muscle activation of the core. Thus, the purpose of this study was to compare the electromyographic activity (EMG) of the superficial core muscles (i.e. rectus abdominis, external oblique and erector spinae) between seated, standing, bilateral and unilateral dumbbell shoulder presses. 15 healthy males performed five repetitions at 80% of one-repetition maximum of the exercises in randomized order. Results were analyzed with a two-way analysis of variance and a Bonferroni post hoc test. The position × exercise interaction was significantly different for rectus abdominis (P = 0.016), but not for external oblique (P = 0.100) and erector spinae (P = 0.151). The following EMG results were observed: For rectus abdominis: ~49% lower in seated bilateral versus unilateral (P < 0.001), similar in standing bilateral versus unilateral (P = 0.408), ~81% lower in bilateral seated versus standing (P < 0.001), ~59% lower in unilateral seated versus standing (P < 0.001); For external oblique: ~81% lower in seated bilateral versus unilateral (P < 0.001), ~68% lower in standing bilateral than unilateral (P < 0.001), ~58% lower in bilateral seated versus standing (P < 0.001), ~28% lower in unilateral seated versus standing (P = 0.002); For erector spinae: similar in seated bilateral versus unilateral (P = 0.737), ~18% lower in standing bilateral versus unilateral (P = 0.001), similar in seated versus standing bilateral (P = 0.480) and unilateral (P = 0.690). In conclusion, to enhance neuromuscular activation of the superficial core muscles, standing exercises should be used instead of seated exercises, and unilateral exercises should be used instead of bilateral exercises.

Strength as skill

"Strength is a skill". 

That has almost become a cliche, particularly around the kettlebell community, but there is much truth in this simple sentence. 

I first same across this idea when Clarence Bass introduce Pavel's idea of synaptic facilitation, that so much of strength is neurological, an idea that Pavel expounded in his article Greasing the Groove (pdf)

Of course this is related to the ideas of Z health too (check out the material here) and Todd Hargrove had a great post the other day on the brain's impact on strength. 

Linked to all of this I received a fascinating email this morning from Bill who often comments on the blog.  It explains his experience of how practice makes him stronger.  I'll post it all here and would be really interested in your comments of thoughts:

Your recent articles on Z-Health and other neurological aspects of improving performance reminded me of an experiment I did about 6 months ago.  First a little background.

I'm building an experimental airplane, and was fastening parts with a rivet squeezer and noticed something strange.  The rivet hand squeezer is setup to squeeze a solid aluminum rivet to a specific size, and once setup correctly the force required to set each rivet in a row of rivets is identical.  Squeezing them is relatively difficult.  First the squeezer handles (about 18" long) are squeezed with one hand to start setting the rivet, then the other hand is added above that (further out on the handles where there is more leverage) and the rivet begins to compress.  As it compresses, it becomes more difficult and the hand closes to the pivot point of the handles is then moved to the end of the handles and both hands are used to squeeze until the handles touch.

So each rivet requires identical force, and an identical amount of work is done each time.  Long lead in, but here's the thing I discovered:  After riveting for approximately 10 minutes at the rate of 3-5 rivets/minute I noticed it suddenly became easier to squeeze the handles to completion.  The first time it happened I feared the settings on the squeezer had gotten bumped and I was no longer squeezing the rivet to the same depth, but a quick check showed that not to be the case.  For some reason, it suddenly became easier or my perception of the difficult changed.

The rest of the rivets set during that session all felt easy.  The effect was profound enough that I watched for it the next time I riveted, and between 10 and 15 minutes in I suddenly noticed the change again.  The change is SUDDEN.  40-60 rivets are drive with difficulty, and then suddenly the next rivet is easy and all subsequent rivets feel easy.  There is no change to the squeezer, it's as simple as a pair of pliers.

So I began to wonder if there was something chemical (ATP, mitochondrial, etc.) or neurological that was happening to change the real or perceived level of difficulty.  I decided to experiment with a larger movement, and went into my CrossFit gym early to play.

My one rep max deadlift at that time was 405, so I picked just over 60% as my starting point and loaded up a bar with 255 and grabbed a stopwatch.  I decided to do a deadlift every 15 seconds for 15 minutes or until I noticed the change I noticed when riveting.  Talk about a boring workout! 

For the next 12 minutes I pulled 255 off the ground every 15 seconds and dropped it.  I had just about given up, when the pull at 12:30 suddenly felt easier.  It was just as sudden and just as profound as what I had experienced riveting.  So much so that I took at break at 14:00 and started adding weight to the bar.  I added weight every 2-4 pulls and spent minutes 17-19 doing a deadlift every 15 seconds at 365. 

I was shocked and googled to see if anyone had research in this area but came up empty.  I mentioned it to a fellow CrossFitter, who thought it sounded very weird.  But I talked him into doing it with me the following week so we committed to doing deadlifts every 15 seconds with 265 for 15 minutes.  I noticed the sudden shift on the rep at 12:15 this time.  I didn't say anything, and my workout partner suddenly looked up in shock when he did his rep at 13:30.  He said he thought I was full of crap, but he agreed it suddenly got easier.  We just kept going until 15 minutes and he agreed all the deadlifts for him after that point felt easier than all of the reps leading up to it.

Since then I have done it a few more times with additional weight and have also tested it with everything from strict presses to front squats to weighted pullups.  The effect occurs for me between 10 and 12 minutes consistently.  I've also gone from a 1 rep 405 to triples at 415 on the deadlift.  FWIW, my 405 max was at a bodyweight of 205.  My 415 triple is at a current bodyweight of 190.

So, I keep looking for some Z-Health type of approach to understanding what causes this to happen, and how it could be leveraged for greater performance.  Since you're clearly enjoying your research in this area I figured I would send it your way.  It's an easy thing to play with if you're curious, though I don't know if it has any value beyond an interesting observation.

Take care, and let me know if you have any thoughts on this or decide to experiment with it.

Always on line

Is this how we were meant to live?

Z Health - more on Brain Health and movement

 The report that he is talking about is here by the way






by the way, I wonder if neck packing works do to the arthokinetic reflex?

mc has a post here that makes me think that that may be so

The interview that I did with mc has a good overview of Z Health too

Captain Barclay's Gait

I was reading recently about the amazing Captain Barclay.  His most famous exploit was the walking of 1,000 miles (1,600 km) in 1000 hours for 1000 guineas in 1809.  There is good analysis here.

I thought that the way in which his gait was described was interesting.  It is essentially POSE walking.

Walter Thom attributes Captain Barclay's pedestrian powers to his great strength and his walking style that involved bending the body forward to throw the weight on the knees, taking short steps and raising his feet only a few inches from the ground. (from here)

When walking, the Captain took comparatively short steps and had an air of leaning more than slightly forward. (from this book)

Exercise Training & Brain Health

In the past I've posted a few things about exercise and brain health, not least the work of John Ratey, and his book Spark.   I can't remember if I've posted it but there is also the work of Kelly Lambert who looks tmovement in terms of addressing depression.

Anyway, I saw this mentioned on Twitter the other day:


Exercise Training Increases Mitochondrial Biogenesis in the Brain.

Exercise training increases brain mitochondrial biogenesis which may have important implications, not only with regard to fatigue, but also with respect to various central nervous system diseases and age-related dementia that are often characterized by mitochondrial dysfunction.

Barefoot interview

I've mentioned the barefoot running research of Prof Daniel Lieberman before but here is a great interview with him explaining some of his ideas.

While he is known mainly for his ideas on running, given some of the things I've been thinking about recently I thought his bit on sitting was interesting:

Q. People with bad backs often blame evolution for their pain. They say, “My back aches because man was not meant to walk on two feet.” Are they right?

A. If that were true, natural selection would have its toll and we’d be extinct. What is more likely is that many people sit in chairs all day, get no exercise, and thus have weak backs. We did not evolve to sit in chairs all day.

exercise to burn body fat.....

Aerobic exercise bests resistance training at burning belly fat


Not sure what I think of this.....

Dan John Workout

A few day's ago I put up a short review of Dan John's new DVD Intervention. 

I just wanted to point to his recent blog post Lifetime Warrior Workout where he puts some of the principles from that DVD into practice in a simple workout pdf.

Definitely worth a look.  As Dan says:

It’s a very simple sheet, but it contains, in the simplest of ways, the gems of fighting age with weights and stretching.

Intermittent Fasting and brain health

Just to draw attention to this one:

Late-onset intermittent fasting dietary restriction as a potential intervention to retard age-associated brain function impairments in male rats.

More on Walking / Hiking / Trekking Poles - Todd Hargrove

I wanted to follow up on the post from earlier about the effect of poles on gait and how they might impact on balance and proprioception.

A Warning from the British Mountaineers

First of all I wanted to point out something that I noticed this on the BMC (British Mountaineering Council) website:

If you use poles all of the time you’ll lose the ability to balance naturally as you step up, walk over uneven ground or boulder hop. So if you are only taking a short walk with a light pack then leave the poles behind or save them for the steep descents. Youngsters need to develop this skill, called proprioception, before they walk any distance using poles.

Even the premier mountaineering organisation of Britain recognises the danger that poles pole use poses to proprioception!

Todd Hargrove - Better Movement

Anyway, I wanted to get the view of an expert on mobility, proprioception and human movement so I got in touch with Todd Hargrove

Todd has an excellent blog - Better Movement - where he discusses how to learn to move better, which means moving more efficiently and with less pain.

He recently wrote an very good post on the Perfect Health Diet blog about joint mobility exercises explaining their use not primarily to move the tissues and joints but, much more importantly, to develop the brain's sense of the body, its various "maps" of the body.  It is the brain - more specifically its use of the sensory data that the body provides through the mechanoreceptors - that is the crucial element of our movement and exercise.

Having given that introduction, here are Todd's thoughts on the use of walking poles and their impact on proprioception, balance and gait:

_______________________________________________________________________________

Todd Hargrove on Walking / Hiking / Trekking Poles

I saw your recent article on poles, and I thought it was an interesting question.

Shoes

I think you are right about the role of shoes. Proprioceptive information from the feet are a key source of information for the brain to know how to move when walking.  Thick hiking shoes reduce this information in two ways.

• First, it prevents you from feeling the ground. This is inherently threatening and causes you to press the ground little harder in order to sense it. 
• Second, the shoes prevent joint motion, which is a source of mechanoreception.

Poles

As to the poles, you are right that this changes the normal mechanics of walking from that of a biped to that of a quadruped. My guess is that this is probably not the end of the world because we all started as quadrupeds as babies (we crawled as our initial mode of locomotion) and our ancestors were quadrupeds. So while it is  not a disaster but it is a regression.

People use their hands to move when they are babies (crawling), when they are old (walkers, handrails or canes) or when they are in the process of falling.  So the poles may simply be a sign that the hiker is afraid of falling.

And, under the SAID principle, walking with poles will make you better ...... at walking with poles, and worse waking without, just like using a crutch.  Of course  for some people crutches are a good idea -  I would guess that they can take pressure off the knees, just as a handrail does when you ascend stairs.

Proprioception

As to proprioception, the poles increase the amount of proprioceptive information from the arms. Perhaps this extra information is necessary for many people because the feet aren't doing their job. I think you are right that the poles would distract attention from the feet.  Again, you are training yourself to rely on the arms for your sensory data, rather than your feet.

Conclusion

So I guess my basic thought is they are crutch, both mechanically and proprioceptively. I don't know if the poles will "ruin your gait", but they are not  optimal for a healthy person, and I think they will cause you to lose an opportunity to improve your gait.  


______________________________________________________________________________

Thanks for you thoughts Todd!

You can read more from Todd at his blog.  (one of my favourite posts from him is this one on posture)

Walking poles

Another quick thought.

If you are into hillwalking / hiking / backpacking you will have seen people walking with poles.  The usual justification is that it takes pressure off the knees.  My observation is that it seems to mess up people's gait, especially in climbing or descending.

My current theory is that it impacts on proprioception.  This is the way in which the brain senses the body's position in space, through various sensors - propriceptors - throughout the body in nerve endings in muscles, tendons and joints. The brain relies on complex and rich sensory data from across the body to maintain balance and posture as we move.

Perhaps using poles diminishes the way in which weight is carried through the feet and so the sensory input is also diminished ...... and this has a negative impact on balance and gait.

It is similar to the way in which shoes and stiff soled boots blunt the sensory impact and damage gait.

Just a thought.

John Ratey on Exercise and the Brain

More on Balance

I am using this post to gather a few referenes togther for a piece I am writing for TGO on balance.

Is Balance Training Clinically Effective

Balance training can be used prophylactically or after an acute ankle sprain in an effort to reduce future ankle sprains,

Ankles can be strengthened to resist sprain

Sprained ankles can be avoided by those at high risk through a weekly balance training program, according to new research released today at the 2006 Annual Meeting of the American Orthopaedic Society for Sports Medicine at the HERSHEY(R) Lodge and Convention Center.

The Effectiveness of a Balance Training Intervention in Reducing the Incidence of Noncontact Ankle Sprains in High School Football Players

Conclusion: The increased risk of a non-contact inversion ankle sprain associated with a high body mass index and a previous ankle sprain was eliminated by the balance training intervention.

The intervention in this study was simple:

Players balanced for 5 minutes on each leg, 5 days per week, for 4 weeks in preseason and twice per week during the season.

Balance training improves function and postural control in those with chronic ankle instability.

Four weeks of balance training significantly improved self-reported function, static postural control  and dynamic postural control

Proprioception and Muscle Strength in Subjects With a History of Ankle Sprains and Chronic Instability

Conclusions: We suggest that the possible cause of chronic ankle instability is a combination of diminished proprioception and evertor muscle weakness. Therefore, we emphasize proprioception and strength training in the rehabilitation program for ankle instability.

Sir Chris Hoy on the squat

This is the great Chris Hoy talking about the squat.  I saw him in the canteen at work one day a couple of years back being interviewed.

His max is around 500lb.




thanks to Clwb Hen Enw for pointing it out.

Sitting and Health

I just wanted to gather together some of the studies I'd referenced before about the dangers of the modern sedentary lifestyle.

Summary

Our bodies were not built for life in a chair and it is no surprise that research has highlighted the danger that so much sitting poses to health. Scientists have found that time spent sitting was associated with increased risk of mortality. Those who sat “most of the time” were more likely to die during the following 12 years than those who “almost never” sat, even after controlling for age, smoking, body weight and physical activity[2]. Even if they exercised, people who sat for over 6 hours per day had a higher risk of death than those who sat for under 3 hours per day[3]. Sitting watching television for an average of 6 hours a day could shorten life-expectancy by almost 5 years[4].

1. Owen et al. British Journal of Sports Medicine 2009;43:81–83.

 Research on physical activity and health has pointed clearly to increasing the time that adults spend doing moderate to vigorous intensity activities: 30 minutes a day is generally recommended. However, recent evidence underlines the importance of also focusing on sedentary behaviours—the high volumes of time that adults spend sitting in their remaining “non-exercise” waking hours. We provide a brief overview of recent evidence for the distinct relationships between ‘too much sitting’ and biomarkers of metabolic health and, thus, with increased risk of type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular disease and other prevalent chronic health problems. Particular concerns for this new field include the challenges of changing sedentary behaviours in the context of ubiquitous environmental and social drivers of sitting time; examining the effects of interventions for reducing or breaking-up sitting time and identifying the most relevant implications for clinical and public health practice.

2. Katzmarzyk et al. Medicine and Science of Sports and Exercise 2009;41:998-105.

PURPOSE:
Although moderate-to-vigorous physical activity is related to premature mortality, the relationship between sedentary behaviors and mortality has not been fully explored and may represent a different paradigm than that associated with lack of exercise. We prospectively examined sitting time and mortality in a representative sample of 17,013 Canadians 18-90 yr of age.

METHODS:
Evaluation of daily sitting time (almost none of the time, one fourth of the time, half of the time, three fourths of the time, almost all of the time), leisure time physical activity, smoking status, and alcohol consumption was conducted at baseline. Participants were followed prospectively for an average of 12.0 yr for the ascertainment of mortality status.

RESULTS:
There were 1832 deaths (759 of cardiovascular disease (CVD) and 547 of cancer) during 204,732 person-yr of follow-up. After adjustment for potential confounders, there was a progressively higher risk of mortality across higher levels of sitting time from all causes (hazard ratios (HR): 1.00, 1.00, 1.11, 1.36, 1.54; P for trend <0.0001) and CVD (HR:1.00, 1.01, 1.22, 1.47, 1.54; P for trend <0.0001) but not cancer. Similar results were obtained when stratified by sex, age, smoking status, and body mass index. Age-adjusted all-cause mortality rates per 10,000 person-yr of follow-up were 87, 86, 105, 130, and 161 (P for trend <0.0001) in physically inactive participants and 75, 69, 76, 98, 105 (P for trend = 0.008) in active participants across sitting time categories.

CONCLUSIONS:
These data demonstrate a dose-response association between sitting time and mortality from all causes and CVD, independent of leisure time physical activity. In addition to the promotion of moderate-to-vigorous physical activity and a healthy weight, physicians should discourage sitting for extended periods.

3. Patel et al. American Journal of Epidemiology 2010;172:419-429.

 The obesity epidemic is attributed in part to reduced physical activity. Evidence supports that reducing time spent sitting, regardless of activity, may improve the metabolic consequences of obesity. Analyses were conducted in a large prospective study of US adults enrolled by the American Cancer Society to examine leisure time spent sitting and physical activity in relation to mortality. Time spent sitting and physical activity were queried by questionnaire on 53,440 men and 69,776 women who were disease free at enrollment. The authors identified 11,307 deaths in men and 7,923 deaths in women during the 14-year follow-up. After adjustment for smoking, body mass index, and other factors, time spent sitting (≥6 vs. <3 hours/day) was associated with mortality in both women (relative risk = 1.34, 95% confidence interval (CI): 1.25, 1.44) and men (relative risk = 1.17, 95% CI: 1.11, 1.24). Relative risks for sitting (≥6 hours/day) and physical activity (<24.5 metabolic equivalent (MET)-hours/week) combined were 1.94 (95% CI: 1.70, 2.20) for women and 1.48 (95% CI: 1.33, 1.65) for men, compared with those with the least time sitting and most activity. Associations were strongest for cardiovascular disease mortality. The time spent sitting was independently associated with total mortality, regardless of physical activity level. Public health messages should include both being physically active and reducing time spent sitting.

4. Veerman et al. British Journal of Sports Medicine 2011; doi:10.1136/bjsm.2011.085662.

Background Prolonged television (TV) viewing time is unfavourably associated with mortality outcomes, particularly for cardiovascular disease, but the impact on life expectancy has not been quantified. The authors estimate the extent to which TV viewing time reduces life expectancy in Australia, 2008.

Methods The authors constructed a life table model that incorporates a previously reported mortality risk associated with TV time. Data were from the Australian Bureau of Statistics and the Australian Diabetes, Obesity and Lifestyle Study, a national population-based observational survey that started in 1999–2000. The authors modelled impacts of changes in population average TV viewing time on life expectancy at birth.

Results The amount of TV viewed in Australia in 2008 reduced life expectancy at birth by 1.8 years (95% uncertainty interval (UI): 8.4 days to 3.7 years) for men and 1.5 years (95% UI: 6.8 days to 3.1 years) for women. Compared with persons who watch no TV, those who spend a lifetime average of 6 h/day watching TV can expect to live 4.8 years (95% UI: 11 days to 10.4 years) less. On average, every single hour of TV viewed after the age of 25 reduces the viewer's life expectancy by 21.8 (95% UI: 0.3–44.7) min. This study is limited by the low precision with which the relationship between TV viewing time and mortality is currently known.

Conclusions TV viewing time may be associated with a loss of life that is comparable to other major chronic disease risk factors such as physical inactivity and obesity.

Fancy shoes injure you

Here is another one to support the barefoot guys.

An interesting piece on how basketball players who wear shoes with air filled cells building up the heels are more likely to get injured.

Basketball Sneakers, Ankle Sprains and Ankle Pains

Danny Macaskill is back

Maffetone on weight training

I've been a fan of Phil Maffetone for a while.  His philosophy of aerobic training is really useful and makes a lot of sense - moving around at a really easy pace so that you are buring fat not carbs.  I'd like to spice it up with some occaisional sprints, but for most people I think his overall philosophy of health as opposed to fitness is really important.

I also think he has been ahead of his time in his approach to things like stretching, shoes and diet. 

Anyway he has posted a couple of pieces recently on weight training:

Part 1
Part 2

you can go and read them yourself, but a few thoughts I had:

• interesting how the paleo principle means different things to different folks
• his idea of real function movement - pick things up and carry them has echos of some Dan John (The old Get Up idea:  Our mission? To teach everyone: 1. The Body is One Piece 2. There are three kinds of strength training: Putting weight overhead, Picking it off the ground & Carrying it for time or distance 3. All training is complementary)
• the basic routine - squats and deadlifts done for low reps with no fatigue reminds me of Pavel's basic Power to the People routine or even Barry Ross, deadlift approach)

Anyway, they are interesting ideas, worth a read.

Testing the Invisible Shoes (A Review)

I mentioned the other day that I'd been sent some Invisible Shoes to try.  Here is my review


Barefoot is best

Over the past few years on this blog I've often linked to pieces about the benefits of being barefoot.  Our feet are precisely engineered to support our motion, with an elegant arch to provide a great foundation for whatever we do.  Depending on your personal cosmology they have been designed - by God or evolution - to be the optimal solution, the best things that a biped could stand, walk and run on. 

It is not just the engineering either - our feet are full of receptors that feed information to the brain about our body's position in space giving data for your head to work with to keep you balanced and moving efficiently, an idea developed in Becoming Bulletproof.

Shoes interfere with all of this - they mess up the mechanics clamping the complex structures of the foot into a rigid brace and damp out all of the sensory information that should be flowing to your brain.  They ruin gait and lead to injuries.  Incidentally I'd say this goes double for stiff soled walking boots, but that is another argument.



Minimal shoes

I've been reading about this stuff for years now.  I remember reading Barefoot Ken Bob's site about 10 years ago and also reading Gordon Pirie's (free) book which while not explicitly barefoot promoted a style based on barefoot gait.

It has been interesting watching barefoot go mainstream recently prompted I suppose by Born to Run, but also by the recent scientific studies.  Of course as I've said before on this as on lots of other stuff, Phil Maffetone was way ahead of the crowd promoting barefoot or minimal shoes a long time ago in the Maffetone Method and Fix Your Feet.

Vibram Five Fingers also appeared - although for long enough I couldn't find any in my city.  More and more companies are now producing shoes that they claim are minimal or barefoot.  It has become a market....

Interestingly there is also the trend of writers out there saying that barefoot should mean barefoot, that even minimal shoes blunt the sensory data flowing from the feet.  mc covered this in her recent interviews with Mick Wilkinson.

Invisible Shoes

 Anyway enough of a preamble.  What about me?  Over the last few years I've moved more and more towards more minimal shoes - Chuck Taylors for most things, Inov8's for my hillwalking.  I even got a pair of Vibrams which I've been sprinting in.

Then a few weeks ago I was contacted by Gina from  Invisible  Shoes, offering me a pair of their running sandals to try out.  Never one to turn down a free sample (check out my other blog where I am testing stoves, tents and waterproof jackets!) I happily agreed.

After checking that there was no problem in them supplying to the UK, I had to tell them what I wanted:

• the 4mm “Connect”  thickness
• black laces

Then I had to give them the length of my foot so that they could supply the right size.

Within a week they arrived - two soles, two laces and a hair grip for threading the lace.   (The photo is in black and white - my feet looked too scary in colour.)

There area couple of things that you need to do for yourself with these shoes.

Create a toe hole - you need to mark a position on the shoe between your first two toes and make a small hole for the lace.  This really needs a leather punch, which I didn't have so I went to a local tailor and they made me the holes for free using the tool for punching holes in belts.

Lace them - then you need to lace the things.  It looks complex but is pretty simple - toe/ankle inside/ankle outside.  In any case there is a superb little video on the Invisible Shoes site which explains what to do.

I actually enjoyed the constructing of the shoes - it feels like you are really making them yourself.

Trying them out 


So that was it!  I've had them on all day today.  Walking about outside, driving to a country pub for lunch, playing in the garden.

It took a few tries to get a comfortable lacing but I am there now.  Also despite thinking that my gait was pretty good, being in things this minimal - they make the Vibrams feel excessive - really forces you to adopt an efficient gait with less heel strike.  Walking about on hard Edinburgh pavements you cannot let your feet get ahead of you, POSE style walking is needed and I was reverting to the ideas of Lee Saxby in his excellent book - Proprioception.  His key principles are:

•    Your weight should move from heel to big toe, but think of it more as a smooth heel stroke than a jolting heel strike;
•    Keep your strides shorter than normal – this will help keep your body in its optimum alignment for efficient locomotion;
•    Try not to look down; in fact, keep your gaze somewhere above the horizon and ‘lead’ with your chest;
•    Keep your stride relaxed, balanced and symmetrical.

Invisible Shoes in action

OK, this is me in the garden.  The video is only via the iPhone, but it gives an idea of me in the shoes walking and running (and please don't criticise my running gait too much!)



What do I think?

These are true minimal shoes.  If you have become interested in barefoot running or minimal shoes via Born to Run and the Tarahumara, these are as close to their footwear as you will get.  As I said, they make Vibram FiveFingers feel heavy and clumpy!  This is as Zero Drop as possible.

Invisible shoes are fun to make!  The construction of the shoes was part of the enjoyment - getting the hoel right, treading them and playing with the lacing.

Invisible shoes are cheap.  OK I got mine for nothing to review, but a kit for under $30 is great value.  Especially when I recently paid over £80 for my Vibrams.

Highly recommended if you want to get closer to truly being barefoot.


For info, here is their Press Release:

New Minimalist Running Sandal Corrects Stride and Heals Injuries : Invisible Shoes® Provide Healthy Option for Athletic and Casual Barefoot Footwear


Invisible Shoes® provide a true barefoot experience but with a layer of sole protection, allowing for complete natural movement, a lighter stride, foot strengthening and much more. Inspired by Christopher McDougall’s NYT bestseller, Born To Run, Steven Sashen created Invisible Shoes as a high-tech upgrade of the huarache running sandals that the Tarahumara Indians fashion out of used tires. Once he started wearing them, his chronic calf, knee and hamstring injuries quickly disappeared. Sashen then launched www.InvisibleShoe.com in November 2009, began selling Invisible Shoes online, and has since sold over 5,000 pairs in 35 different countries. On July 9th, 2011, Invisible Shoes launched the first and only outsoles specifically designed for barefoot running sandals -- the 4mm thick Connect and 6mm Contact. Both products were co-developed with two former lead designers from Nike and Reebok, and feature the exclusive FeelTrue™ rubber for a great barefoot feel with added style and protection.


Why Barefoot Running?


Empirical and anecdotal evidence shows that barefoot running improves running form, prevents and heals injuries, increases  balance and proprioception, improves posture, strengthens feet and ankles and can develop arches in previously flat feet. Research from Harvard’s Dr. Daniel Lieberman and orthopedic surgeon Dr. Joseph Froncioni shows that when wearing a typical padded motion control running shoe with a raised heel, runners land heel-first and with a relatively straight leg. This heel-strike landing sends a shock wave up to six times the body’s weight through the knees, legs, hips, back, shoulders and neck. Conversely, when running barefoot or in a minimalist shoe, runners land on the ball of the foot with a shorter, lighter, faster, easier stride which is cushioned by the body’s natural shock absorbers – muscles, ligaments and tendons. In short, research suggests running shoes are the very cause of the injuries they are supposed to prevent. With over 85 barefoot or minimalist footwear options on the market from over 20 different companies, minimalist running is being embraced by health and fitness-minded people around the globe. Industry analysts project that minimalist footwear will make up 10 percent of running shoe sales in 2011, $500 million of a $5 billion market.


The Invisible Shoes Story


Now injury-free and with arches in his life-long flat feet, at 49-year-old Invisible Shoes CEO Steven Sashen consistently sprints past runners half his age and has secured a spot as a USA Track & Field Masters All-American sprinter. The constant muscle pulls and tears in his calves and hamstrings, relentless burning pain in his posterior tibialis and throbbing knee pain that plagued him are distant memories.


Amazed that such a simple product could have such a dramatic effect, Sashen muses “I shouldn’t be surprised that mankind’s oldest footwear was the answer for running pain and injury-free.”


Invisible Shoes are perfect for running, walking, hiking, yoga, gym-going, or a casual stroll through town. While the average cost of other “natural movement” footwear is $99.82, built with up to a 12mm heel lift and weights of up to 12 ounces per shoe, Invisible Shoes start at $20, have a "zero drop" (no height difference between the front and rear of the shoe) and weigh in at 3.8 ounces per shoe. Comprised of high-performance, flexible FeelTrue™ rubber sole trimmed to perfectly fit your foot and durable, non-stretch nylon laces, Invisible Shoes let you enjoy a barefoot feel in any environment and on any surface. Customers can also feel good about their purchase because Invisible Shoes are made of partially recycled materials. Invisible Shoes also let you express yourself through your footwear, with colored lace options, numerous tying styles, and dozens of decorative add-ons, a la Crocs’ Jibbitz™.


Invisible Shoes Gives Back to the Tarahumara


To bring its Feel The World™ motto to life, Invisible Shoes donates 10 percent of the profits from its custom-made Invisible Shoes to the Tarahumara Children’s Hospital Fund.

Fatties (ok fat dogs) have lower body temperatures....

....this will encourage Matt Stone.



Association between obesity and reduced body temperature in dogs

Conclusion: These findings document an association between obesity and reduced body temperature in dogs and support the hypothesis that obesity in this and other species of homeotherms may result from an increase in metabolic efficiency achieved by a regulated lowering of body temperature.

More commentary here

Most humans and most animals gain weight because they accumulate fat. That occurs when they take in more energy than they expend. The unused energy is stored as fat.

"The way to reduce energy intake is to eat less, but that means you feel hungry, and a common way to increase energy expenditure is to exercise, but many people lack the motivation," he said.

Refinetti's study explored the theory that obesity may result from a less obvious reduction in energy expenditure: a reduction in body temperature. The idea is that warm-blooded animals spend much of their energy generating heat to keep the body warm. However, some animals have body temperatures that are naturally lower and therefore do not need to use as much energy to stay warm.

The reduced body temperature would be sufficient to account for body weight gain over several months.

"Although not yet replicated in humans, these results suggest that human obesity may be caused by a small reduction in the temperature at which the body maintains itself," he said.

When I am 74...

I would like to be able to do this  (thanks to Ross)

Hacking the body...paleo skills

Fitness in today's chaotic world
 
This post is just a series of thoughts, bullet points so that I can get some ideas down for something that I might develop further....

• We can hack the body with tricks to build muscle, strength and even endurance
• This can be done with minimal investment in time
• HIT type training, even with bodyweight and static contractions
• HIIT intervals, sprints to develop VO2 max and endurance
• That gives you capacity, potential
•  BUT WHAT IS THE POINT?
• We are facing a strange and challenging world that seems to be getting more chaotic and unpredicatable
• natural disaster
• riot
• economic decline
• peak oil.....
• To survive in such a world you need not only capacity but also relevant skills.  You can be strong.....but that is only useful up to a point
• What skills do you need?  What will keep you alive in such a world?
• The paleo meme -  look at the past to be fit for the future.
• Paleo is not just diet
• Hunter Gatherer fitness
• We can use modern technology to build the capacity.....Safely.....
• What skills are needed?
• Fitness is specific - for tasks....
• You can hack strength, endurance....but are you "fit" if you can't
• walk well
• sprint
• carry
• climb
• crawl
• jump
• fight
• Don't neglect the skills......(even in pieces I am writing for a backpacking magazine just now I am stressing the skill of walking)
• Can you hack the skills? 
• learn to walk, sprint, crawl, carry, climb and defend yourself

Key idea - Body hacking like in Ferris' 4 Hour Body is short-sighted if it doesn't produce real world skills.  The world is falling apart or at least changing radically.  Strength and conditioning will take you so far but without skills you will have capacity....and health.....but not useful ability.  Learn to walk, sprint, carry, climb, fight and think to survive. (MovNat)

Invisible Shoes!

I have been sent some invisible shoes to try out!!!

Fantastic.  They came in the post this week and over the weekend I am looking forward to setting them up, fitting them and doing some almost barefoot walking.  These are pretty authentic huaraches.

Being Healthy is a Revolutionary Act

I saw that someone on Facebook had linked to this and took a look.  An interesting approach and nice design.

In an unhealthy society like ours, being healthy has become a revolutionary act.

The Manifesto is worth downloading  and you should browse through the 101 ideas for being healthy.  Nice and holistic.

More Paleo in the mainstream

Well maybe not exactly mainstream but the hipster, IT crowd who read Lifehacker type stuff.

Eating Ancestrally: How To Start Eating and Living Like A Human

The whole basis of eating and living a Paleo lifestyle is to use “scientific evidence and evolutionary clues” to decide how we should eat, exercise, and play.

Which of course is a(n unattributed) quote from Angelo Copolla

Riot Training!

You may be aware that there have been riots in England.  I was going to write "in the UK" but as someone who live in Scotland, there is some sensitivity about this - it has been peaceful up here and we don't want to be lumped in with the animals down south....

Anyway, I think this is a joke, but if you want to be fit for some looting you might want to check out:

“Lifting for Looting” – Your exercise guide for Maximum Riot Performance.

Lumbar rotations

This is a good mobility move for a part of the body that is often too stiff and immobile due to our sedentary lives.  It is also one of the basic 5 daily mobility moves that Colin Gordon recommends

Exercise and Immunity and the brain

Paul Jaminet at the Perfect Health Diet has talked a bit about infection and the impact on the brain. 

This is an interesting report of how:

a small amount of exercise shields older animals from memory loss following a bacterial infection, according to a study in the August 10 issue of The Journal of Neuroscience. The findings suggest moderate exercise may lead to several changes in the brain that boost its ability to protect itself during aging — a period of increased vulnerability.

Here is the abstract

We have previously found that healthy aged rats are more likely to suffer profound memory impairments following a severe bacterial infection than are younger adult rats. Such a peripheral challenge is capable of producing a neuroinflammatory response, and in the aged brain this response is exaggerated and prolonged. Normal aging primes, or sensitizes, microglia, and this appears to be the source of this amplified inflammatory response. Among the outcomes of this exaggerated neuroinflammatory response are impairments in synaptic plasticity and reductions of brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF), both of which have been associated with cognitive impairments. Since it has been shown that physical exercise increases BDNF mRNA in the hippocampus, the present study examined voluntary exercise in 24-month-old F344×BN rats as a neuroprotective therapeutic in our bacterial infection model. Although aged rats ran only an average of 0.7 km per week, this small amount of exercise was sufficient to completely reverse infection-induced impairments in hippocampus-dependent long-term memory compared with sedentary animals. Strikingly, exercise prevented the infection-induced exaggerated neuroinflammatory response and the blunted BDNF mRNA induction seen in the hippocampus of sedentary rats. Moreover, voluntary exercise abrogated age-related microglial sensitization, suggesting a possible mechanism for exercise-induced neuroprotection in aging.

The need to be active

I've said that I am writing a series of articles on fitness for a UK hillwalking / backpacing magazine - TGO. 

I am picking up on some of the things that I've covered here over the years, looking at fitness for the hills in terms of:

• conditioning - intervals / sprints to improve VO2 max etc
• strength - the importance of absolute strength
• skill - i.e. how you walk

I'm also picking up on things like posture

I'm working on a piece now which is looking at the dangers of sitting.  I've posted some links before on this - e.g. this great infographic One of the ideas is that sitting has profound effects on your posture and structure which does not leave you in a fit state to walk.  You are too tight in the wrong places, so we need to address the impact with corrective exercises - glute activation for example and stretching the hip flexors -  and the cause by avoiding so much sitting.

Anyway, the other thing that is relevant is how inactive we are.  Hunter-gatherers - paleo man / Grok etc - was very active.  This paper says that

A large amount of background daily light-to-moderate activity such as walking was required. Although the distances covered would have varied widely, most estimates indicate average daily distances covered were in the range of 6 to 16 km.

How many of us are that active now?  This is no hard exercise - there was that too - but jsut general movement as part of life.

A new study indicates that even regular exercise doesn't help if you spend the rest of your time sat on your fat arse. 

"If people spend the majority of their time sitting, even with regular periods of exercise, they are still at greater risk for chronic diseases," Thyfault said. "If people can add some regular movement into their routines throughout the day, they will feel better and be less susceptible to health problems. In the long term, they may not see big changes in the mirror, but they will prevent further weight gain."

Clarence Bass actually raised similar ideas a couple of years ago - Too Much Sitting Is Risky—Even for People Who Train

For me it is all about lots and lots of easy walking - staying aerobic - plus some occaisional sprints and resistance training.  On top of that, some corrective exercise - stretches, glute activation etc. 

Actually probably not far from Mark Sisson's prescription or that of Art Devany or Taleb.

Dieting makes you fat.....

interesting stuff. 


Does dieting make you fat? A twin study

Grannies on the prowler

we need more old ladies pushing prowlers......

Evidence Based Resistance Training Recommendations

James Steele has had a peer reviewed article published identifying what protocols can be recommended for resistance training based not on tradition or fashion but on evidence!  How novel  ;-)

The full article is available here  and I'd recommend you to download it and have a read.  It challenges some popular  ideas that are out there - like plyometrics - and makes some recommendations based on what the science says.

It is good stuff - similar to the stufy here in fact!

More on brain maps - not good at height

I think I've mentioned before the idea of brain maps.  mc started wrote about this a while ago and pointed me towards the book - The Body has a Mind of its Own

There was a good discussion of the ideas at Paul's Perfect Health Diet blog too recently, with something from Todd Hargrove and a good follow up discussion

It is also a topic on which the excellent Becoming Bulletproof is built. 

Anyway, I spotted this interesting report on how brain maps - at least in rats - are pretty flat.  They are not good at estimating their position with respect to height. 

Read more here

Animal's brains are only roughly aware of how high-up they are in space, meaning that in terms of altitude the brain's 'map' of space is surprisingly flat, according to new research.

In a study published online today in Nature Neuroscience, scientists studied cells in or near a part of the brain called the hippocampus, which forms the brain's map of space, to see whether they were activated when rats climbed upwards.

The study, supported by the Wellcome Trust, looked at two types of cells known to be involved in the brain's representation of space: grid cells, which measure distance, and place cells, which indicate location. Scientists found that only place cells were sensitive to the animal moving upwards in altitude, and even then only weakly so.

Ancestral Health Symposium

I feel quite left out.  Seems like everyone was at UCLA over the weekend having a great time.  I followed the tweets as much as I could and it sounded like a great event.

There are some good overviews from

Richard
Matt
David
Chris
Jamie

I've intereviewed some of the participants on this blog before and it is interesting to see how big and how quickly the paleo movement is growing.

UPDATE - ALL THE POWERPOINT SLIDES ARE NOW HERE

Too busy

Apologies for the lack of action on this blog over the past week.   I've been visiting my parents - Dad has dementia and spending time with him is precious - and working.   Also as mentioned before I am writing a monthly piece on fitness for hillwalking for a UK hillwalking magazine TGO and getting that drafted well takes a bit of effort.

More to come though