Conditioning Research

Marc has another helpful post on Squatting which follows up some of the ideas I was discussing with Colin last week . Grooving the Raw Squat - Setting up and Performing a good rep. Again, he stresses breaking at the knees - not sitting back - and squatting between your legs. By reaching with your knees you are creating room for your hips to sit into this will allow you to keep your hips under the bar instead of sitting back and increasing the distance from your hips and the bar.  You should be looking to achieve full depth

I came across this interesting article on how probiotic yoghurt works. It is not about putting more "good" bacteria into your gut.  Rather it is epigenetic.  The yoghurt alters gene expression in the existing microbes in your gut, turning some function on and off. Fascinating stuff. How Probiotic Yogurt Works

John often comments on this blog and he is a good and knowledgeable guy, His stuff on planks is superb The 5 minute set - 15 secs in each of 20 different variations is also a massive challenge

As usual with me, no commentary here.  Just to say that this is interesting in its implications. Rinse your mouth out with a carbohydrate solution and you are likely to perform better interms of endurance capacity, whether you are fasted or fed. Riddle me this Batman......

Occasionally there is something really good on T Nation.  Such as today, where there is a good piece on a favourite exercise of mine - the Dumbbell Floor Press .

I have been training with weights since 1983.  I am a BAWLA certified Teacher and Leader.  I have read scores of books and thousands of articles on exercise.  Yet I am still learning. Which is great. Tonight I went to see Colin for a general maintenance session he is a Deep Tissue Massage therapist, but is himself an athlete with a background in rugby, powerlifting and wrestling.   Like me he is a big fan of Dan John and Kelly Starret and this evening I asked him to check out my squat form. Here is Kelly: I've read a lot about squatting over the years and thought that I had got it.  But recently Dan John's writing about proper squat style has been a revelation - He writes about it  here.   What I did not get until tonight was the whole idea of squatting between your legs.  I've read about it, probably told people to do it.....but I was not getting it myself. We have this idea of sitting back, forcing the bum back, as if...

In the light of the recent stupid tax in Denmark (targeting Saturated Fat)  this study in the Netherlands Journal of Medicine - full pdf available here   -  is instructive.  It is the sugar not the fat......  ( Denise Minger pointed this out on Twitter) Here is the abstract   Saturated fat, carbohydrates and cardiovascular disease. The dietary intake of saturated fatty acids (SAFA) is associated with a modest increase in serum total cholesterol, but not with cardiovascular disease (CVD). Replacing dietary SAFA with carbohydrates (CHO), notably those with a high glycaemic index, is associated with an increase in CVD risk in observational cohorts, while replacing SAFA with polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFA) is associated with reduced CVD risk. However, replacing a combination of SAFA and trans-fatty acids with n-6 PUFA (notably linoleic acid) in controlled trials showed no indication of benefit and a signal toward increased coronary heart disease ...

Sweat Science points out something that I've featured on this blog a fair bit in the past:  “Stretching before or after exercise does not reduce delayed-onset muscle soreness.”   He is commenting on a recent review article in the British Journal of Sports Medicine   While I agree with all that I do think there is some benefit for stretching certain muscles.  I am pretty convinced by the argument of Janda re Tonic and Phasic muscles , that there are certain muscles that tend to tighten up and others that tend to be weaker, especially as we age.  I think Rif once described this in terms of the foetal postion.  As we age we tend to return to a foetal position, gravity is pulling us back into a ball.  The muscles on the fron of the body contract - biceps, pecs, psoas, calves, hamstrings (ok those last two are not on the front) - while those on the back, the postural muscles that hold you up[ against gravity - the glutes, abs, rhomboids - get weaker....

 Mark Sisson, author of The Primal Blueprint, has a brand new book out called The Primal Blueprint 21-Day Total Body Transformation. It’s a practical, action-oriented guide for how to eat, exercise and live Primally – a step-by-step, “cut to the chase” resource to make a smooth and quick transition into a Primal lifestyle. In it he tells you exactly what to do every day for 21 days to take control of your health for the rest of your life. Mark explains what this new book is all about, what’s in it and who it’s for here. Mark is looking to score this book on the New York Times best-seller list to gain exposure for the Primal Blueprint message, so he’s put together a loaded special offer. Basically, you order 1 or more copies between October 18 and 24, email your receipt to a special email address and Mark kicks you back a bunch of freebies. It’s a win-win. You get a great book for less than 15 bucks, and a bunch of free gifts, and you and Mark both get to help take the Primal...

There is a really interesting interview here on barefoot training: Ben Dearman Barefoot Training: Running and Strength and Conditioning Interview Some really good stuff there.  Flat footed people do tend to benefit the most from going barefoot because they no longer have that medial arch support to prevent their foot from crashing to the ground.  Instead the muscles of the lower leg and foot have to control that motion now.  And a foot that has proper motion, stability and mobility is a foot that is less likely to be injured with sprains.      (hat tip to Sprint Strong )

Colin has posted a great little piece about the basic equipment that you need to work on maintaining good posture and alignment. I’m always preaching to my clients of the need to get stronger, that it is fundamental to their goal of pain free movement. From combating the effects of aging to helping make you a better athlete being stronger will help. The stronger you are, to a degree, the more room for error you have in everything from your diet to your ability to deal with injuries. Get over to Edinburgh Deep Tissue Massage and have a read.

Bret Contreras specialises in glute training.   I've probably discussed before how the glutes are fundamental to much movement, especially athletic movement and how many of us are poor at using them for various postural and lifestyle reasons.  It is certainly something I discussed in the piece on the dangers of sitting in TGO this month. Anyway, here Bret  gives a couple of new moves he has discovered (he admits he might not be the first to have thought of these) He also points to a piece on Core Training that he has put together. I've not read it yet so no comment.

  Philip from Wise Traditions asked me to post this.  I am very sympathetic to the Weston A Price movement  which includes great thinkers like Chris Masterjohn more videos here Wise Traditions London 2011 - Conference DVD available now The London Chapter of the Weston A. Price Foundation held its second annual conference this year in London, England, featuring seven speakers from USA and Europe and a special movie preview of Trufflepig Film’s soon to be released “The Moo Man”. We are pleased to announce that the full 14 hours of the conference, with live video and slides, are now available worldwide on four DVDs for the introductory price of just $40 / £25 + free shipping in the USA & Europe, making them the ideal treat for yourself and Christmas/Birthday present for friends and family! Please visit westonaprice.org/london to purchase DVDs, view preview clips, watch free videos of the 2010 conference, to join our mailing list and find our contact de...

A nice report of a study from Norway Peak Oxygen Uptake and Cardiovascular Risk Factors in 4631 Healthy Women and Men Go and read it, but a few quotes: Research from the K.G. Jebsen Center goes well beyond the Dallas findings, and shows that fit 50-year olds can be as fit as 20-year olds who don't exercise much. But exercise -- how much, and how intense -- is the key to maintaining this fitness. When the Jebsen Center researchers looked at the importance of the intensity of exercise versus the duration, intensity was far more important than duration in determining peak oxygen uptake. They have also looked at the benefits of high intensity exercise in the form of interval training -- where four or more short periods (typically 4 minutes) of very high intensity exercise are followed by a similar number of short periods of lower intensity exercise. This approach, called 4x4 interval training, is a quick way to increase your overall fitness, research from the Jebsen Center has ...

from the great Konstantinovs

just a quick one, from the Guardian .  A study in the British Dental Journal , indicates that some of the additives in sugar free products are harmful to teeth. The literature review, by academics from the universities of Boston, Helsinki and Southern Nevada, concludes: "As the use of sorbitol and xylitol containing products increases, the public should be educated on the hidden risk of dental erosion due to acidic additives, as well as the adverse effects of gastric disturbance and osmotic diarrhoea. Especially in sugar-free products, these adverse effects may be more insidious because the public has blind confidence that they are oral health friendly." Real food guys.  Eat real food.

Weird - Certain dietary supplements associated with increased risk of death in older women The authors found that use of most supplements was not associated with reduced total mortality in older women, and many supplements appeared associated with increased mortality risk. After adjustment, use of multivitamins, vitamin B6, folic acid, iron, magnesium, zinc and copper, were all associated with increased risk of death in the study population. Conversely, calcium supplements appear to reduce risk of mortality. The association between supplement intake and mortality risk was strongest with iron, and the authors found a dose-response relationship as increased risk of mortality was seen at progressively lower doses as women aged throughout the study. Less is more..... "Dietary supplementation has shifted from preventing deficiency to trying to promote wellness and prevent disease," the authors write. "Until recently, the available data regarding the adverse effects of ...

This one looks fascinating. Metabolic flexibility is getting some interest in the blogs recently.  (Because of my own interest in walking up mountains , I found JS's account of his fasted walk up Mount Whitney   both inspiring and educational). The idea is that a healthy body has the capacity to switch between fuel sources - fat or sugar - as necessary according to the circumstances. If you can put up with the photos and adverts, Mike has a piece on metabolic flexibility on T nation , presumably culled from his PhD Anyway, it is an interesting topic for you to go and google if you want to find more.  What prompted this post was this abstract that popped up which indicates that basic inactivity itself is  a key cause of metabolic inflexibility and its associated problems. Physical inactivity as the culprit of metabolic inflexibility: evidence from bed-rest studies

This is an interesting looking study ( full text here ) Exercise training increases mitochondrial biogenesis in the brain These findings suggest that 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. Exercise training causes new mitochondria to grow in the muscles.  Mitochondria are fascinating, almost parasitic cells within our cells that now act as “power plants” that use oxygen and glucose to produce ATP, the energy currency of the cell.  Endurance gets better, since you are enabled to keep the muscles aerobically fuelled for longer.  By the way it is not just endurance training that does this, Gibala just this year has shown that sprint training also causes mitochondrial biogenesis.  An acute bout of high-intensity interval trainin...

Researchers have found that short-term sleep restriction in adolescent mice prevented the balanced growth and depletion of brain synapses There is more commentary here

Well that is how the Daily Mail reported it.   It is not quite that simple.  The study looked at whether a plant-derived steroid (28-homobrassinolide [HB]) that promotes plant growth could stimulate protein synthesis and muscle growth. The abstract is here is you are interested:  Anabolic effect of plant brassinosteroid It is an interesting study.  It is in rats, so as usual be careful with it, but the researchers  suggest that: "HB has a different mode of action from anabolic steroids in that it doesn’t seem to have an effect on male hormones; this may suggest to readers that plant-derived steroids could be considered acceptable for use where anabolic steroids are not." Very interesting. There is more discussion at the NHS choices site which disects health stories in the news.

This is interesting.  The whole study is again available as a PDF .  Basically, as you get older your muscles become resistant to the normal anabolic stimulants - resistance training etc.  Maintaining muscle is very important as we age - it is vital to function and to supplying a range of raw materials for the metabolism, not least in terms of immune response.  So we need to understand how to do that, how to keep our muscle. The key recommendation seems to be to combine resistane training with branched chain amino acids.  Incidentally something that Art Devany has recommended for a while. Skeletal muscle protein metabolism in the elderly: Interventions to counteract the 'anabolic resistance' of ageing

A new review has jsut been published looking at the ability of caloric restriction (CR) to improve multiple parameters of health and to extend lifespan. The whole thing is available as a PDF .  I've not read it yet but if you are interested in the subject there might be material of use to you. Impact of caloric and dietary restriction regimens on markers of health and longevity in humans and animals: A summary of available findings

For my own purposes I just wanted to gather some links on the use of the "talk test" and nasal breathing as methods of ensuring that exercise remains aerobic / predominantly burning fat.  (A key source for these ideas is Phil Maffetone - check his articles here and particularly   What it means to be aerobic ,    Want Speed Slow Down and Healthy Hiking ) { I need to add context here to avoid confusing you.  I am writing a magazine article about pacing for hillwalking, where you have to go out and walk for 5-10 hours. You need to stay aerobic, burning predominantly fat or else the limited glycogen will be exhausted. I am recommending keeping to a moderate pace as dictated by the talk test or nasal breathing to stay in that aerobic zone. This is not about weight loss or fat loss or whatever.   And there are also other approaches like training fasted which could be used although my piece is a bit more generalist.  I also think that HIIT / tabata ...

Apologies that this blog has been quiet - I've been spending my free time editig my photos from the last 2 weeks which were spent walking in Spain.  I am writing up the walks on my other blog .  Here is a favourite photo: Click on the photo for a higher res version

Shift Work at Young Age Is Associated with Elevated Long-Term Cortisol Levels and Body Mass Index Interesting study.   I am sure the same arguments from shift work will apply to general messed up sleep patterns.

This little study looked interesting. ......a study looking at systemic effects of local muscle activity in six heart failure patients found that calf muscle training improved overall exercise capacity without affecting maximal cardiac output The abstract is here:  Isolated Quadriceps Training Increases Maximal Exercise Capacity in Chronic Heart Failure and there is a bit of commentary here .

A few weeks ago I posted my review of a pair of Invisible Shoes .   I just noticed that Drew Baye - interviewed here - is also a fan of the shoes.  His review is here.   I've just returned from a couple of weeks in Spain - hence this blog has been quiet for a bit - and wore them a lot in the heat.

A nice little video.  This ties in a lot with the material  that Todd has had  on pain , and with the stuff I've been thinking through on neuroplasticity.