Conditioning Research

The Worlds Strongest Man has been on TV this week.  It all seems so much more pumped up and serious than it used to be.  Back in the old days they did stuff like this:

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UPDATE - the book is now available at www.hillift.com   Pretty soon I will be launching a short ebook that I have put together on strength training for the hillwalker / backpacker / hiker.  Walking in the Scottish mountains is my main interest and love.   Much of my training is focussed on making sure I am in shape for that. I've been writing articles on fitness for the UK magazine TGO for a few months.  This booklet will pull together some of the themes from those pieces but focus really on developing strength through a simple bodyweight HIT style routine. It should be finalised in a coulpe of weeks and ready for sale on its own website.  It is about 50 pages with some illustrations and a fairly long appendix of references and research to back up what I am saying.   Writing it is only half the battle  -  and that has been hard enough - but the marketing of it will be a challenge!  I am trying to avoid all of the hype filled sale...

In our little paleosphere endurance exercise is usually characterised as a "bad" thing.  Mark Sission's Chronic Cardio post is the usual basis for all this, but there are other references too.  In general I agree with this view.  However sometimes other bits and pieces pop up that indicate a different viewpoint.  I saw this one the other day: Autophagy-related and autophagy-regulatory genes are induced in human muscle after ultraendurance exercise The purpose of this study was to evaluate whether ultra endurance exercise changes the mRNA levels of the autophagy-related and autophagy-regulatory genes. Eight men (44 ± 1 years, range: 38–50 years) took part in a 200-km running race. The average running time was 28 h 03 min ± 2 h 01 min (range: 22 h 15 min–35 h 04 min). A muscle sample was taken from the vastus lateralis 2 weeks prior to the race and 3 h after arrival. Gene expression was assessed by RT-qPCR. Transcript levels of autophagy-related genes were increas...

Well the book arrived while I was away for Christmas.   I've been reading the Renaissance Exercise blog for a while now, following the interest sparked on the Body By Science forum .  The protocol and indeed the whole philosophy of Renaissance Exercise interested me very much partly because it made sense - it lines up with the position of writers that I have leaned a lot form such as Doug McGuff and Drew Baye - and partly because it appealed to my contrarian leanings. I'd read a fair amount of the SuperSlow articles that were freely available on the internet - there are several here - so I knew roughly what I was getting into.  Renaissance Exercise's marketing strategy was to drip feed blog posts, generating interest and then to launch their machines at a major event following up with the book itself. Well it worked for me, and I ordered the book.  The price put me off initially but I viewed it as a text book / investment and went for it.  I emailed D...

Sorry the blog is quiet just now. Christmas visiting families is taking priority. I have a few things lined up and also an ebook project which should launch in January - Hillfit: strength the missing element in your training, a basic bodyweight HIT routine for hikers / backpackers. It is in draft at the moment but hopefully will be ready in a week or so. Back soon

I've had stuff up here over the years (e.g. here and here )about how cancer cells seem to survive by burning sugar and not fat and so some doctors have tried to starve cancers by using a ketogenic diet , with some success. Anyway, here is a video outlining new research into this same topic: The research is r eported here and the full article is available here Cancer cells tend to take up more glucose than healthy cells, and researchers are increasingly interested in exploiting this tendency with drugs that target cancer cells' altered metabolism. Cancer cells' sugar cravings arise partly because they turn off their mitochondria, power sources that burn glucose efficiently, in favor of a more inefficient mode of using glucose. They benefit because the byproducts can be used as building blocks for fast-growing cells. Drugs or diet, if this knowledge can help find a solution to cancer then that is good.

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Yesterday I posted about George Hood breaking the world plank record with a phenomenal time of 1 hour 20 minutes  and 5.01 seconds.... John Sifferman is a connoisseur of the plank and had a good post today of the achievement , which included this inspirational video: John proposes a challenge: a 5 Minute Plank. .. George Hood. That’s the name of the man who will be entered into the Guinness Book of World Records after holding the plank exercise longer than anyone else ever has – obliterating the world record by nearly 30 seconds…wait…I mean minutes – 30 minutes. Maybe you’ve done a plank before, and maybe you thought you’ve done pretty well. Depending on who you talk to, a three minute plank hold is generally considered the gold standard – and anything beyond that is just gravy. Once you’ve hit 3 minutes and beyond, your core is already plenty strong – or so they say. However, I think a growing number of people have already proven that much of successful planking is all i...

This is absolutely mind blowing. While browsing around looking for images of the plank for an ebook I am working on, I came across this piece of news: a 54 year old man has just set a world record for the plank.  The staggering thing is the length of time that he held the plank:  1 hour, 20 minutes and 5.01 seconds . That is almost unbelievable - I think I am doing well when I get 3 minutes! George Hood broke the Guinness World Record on December 3 for the "Longest time in an abdominal plank position," clocking in at 1 hour, 20 minutes, and 5.01 seconds. The record-breaking took place at Eggsperience Pancakes and Cafe in Naperville, where owner John Sakoufakis created a special venue for Hood.   The full story is here: George Hood breaks Guinness record for plank I liked his comment: “I wanted to raise awareness with regard to the benefits of core strength, for one’s personal fitness and overall health,” said Hood, a personal trainer and former Marine. “I se...

Eat your heart out Denmark!  In Edinburgh we even deep fry butter itself! Deep fried butter goes on the menu in Edinburgh An Edinburgh bar has put a calorific treat to rival the deep fried Mars Bar on its menu - deep fried butter balls. There is more in the Daily Mail. . Sod the diet: Fiddler's Elbow head chef Simon Robertson (right) and colleague Paul Fitchie with the latest item on the menu - deep-fried butter balls in Irn Bru batter Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2076260/Scottish-bar-The-Fiddlers-Elbow-serves-deep-fried-BUTTER.html#ixzz1h6mmUR4P

I was up in the hills this morning to watch the sunrise over the snow.  It was glorious.  Full story here . As I've said before, this is what it is all about really, getting and staying fit enough so I can get to places like this whenever I want.

See what you make of this:  Comparison of urine toxic metals concentrations in athletes and in sedentary subjects Cadmium (Cd), tungsten (W), tellurium (Te), beryllium (Be), and lead (Pb), are non-essential metals pervasive in the human environment. Studies on athletes during training periods compared to non-training control subjects, indicate increased loss of minerals through sweat and urine. The aim of this study was to compare the level of these trace elements, determined by inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP-MS) in urine samples, between athletes and age-matched sedentary subjects living in the same geographical area, although anthropometric and cardiovascular measurements showed that athletes have significantly (P ≤ 0.001) lower BMI, body fat and heart rate, whereas the muscle and bone percentage was significantly (P ≤ 0.001) higher than in sedentary subjects. The validity of the methodology was checked by the biological certified reference material. Trace e...

Just a  quick post just pointing out an abstract that I have noticed over the weekend.   Top of the list is this one:   Heavy Strength Training improved efficiency in cyclists. Cyclists Improve Pedalling Efficacy and Performance After Heavy Strength Training. It was tested whether heavy strength training, including hip flexion exercise, would reduce the extent of the phase in the crank revolution where negative or retarding crank torque occurs. Negative torque normally occurs in the upstroke phase where the leg is lifted by flexing the hip. Eighteen well-trained cyclists either performed twelve weeks of heavy strength training in addition to their usual endurance training (E+S; n = 10) or merely continued their usual endurance training during the intervention period (E; n = 8). The strength training consisted of four lower body exercises [3×4-10 repetition maximum (RM)], which were performed twice a week. E+S enhanced cycling performance b y 7%, which was mo...

 A few months ago I did a quick and dirty review of Becoming Bulletproof and there has been a link to the book in the sidebar of this blog ever since.  I find the brain and ideas of neuroplasticity fascinating and  I liked the way that Tim and Mike addressed these things in their little book. If you want to get further and apply some of the concepts explained by Norman  Doidge and others, this is a great place to start They offer an approach to get the brain working in exercise.   Tim has revisited these ideas in a new book - Pressing Reset Tim says : I've written a small guide book to Becoming Bulletproof called Pressing Reset.  It is a short "How to" book intended to help people implement the "resets" into their daily lives. This guide book has expanded on some of the resets and offers more illustrations on how to perform them. Also, in Pressing Reset, I introduce a new "reset" that might surprise you. In fact, you probably do it ...

One of the basic precepts in Bill DeSimone's Congruent Exercise (I'd encourage everyone to get a copy ) is that : "The absolute first priority for anyone training with weights should be to avoid a catastrophic injury." Bill notes that this should be obvious, but points to a series of tragic and disabling accidents that have left people dead or disabled. I thought this when reading some on the weird thing that is T Nation the other day.  It is a set of tales of catastrophic injuries including a powerlifter who shatters his spine while his pals laugh and triceps torn while benching, trying to present these dangers as acceptable, things to be overcome in a macho drive to success.    Actually it comes across as stupid.  Why the hell glory in disabling movements? strange. As I have said before:  KEEP IT SAFE

I'm still planning my full review of Bill DeSimone's excellent new book Congruent Exercise , but I saw a video the other day that made me think of one of the things he says in the book: "Just because you can move a limb in a certain way, doesn't mean that you should, and it certainly doesn't mean you should move it that way with extra weight." Bill talking about safe exercise choice but his words came back to me when I saw this.  Surely this guy shouldn't keep doing this!

It is rare that I am truly excited by a book, that writing will really stimulate me intellectually, with sets of ideas that connect and make sense.  I like it when that happens, when you find something "new" but which makes so much sense because it is not really new, it is obvious when you put the pieces together.  It is the logic of it I like, when things hold together in consistent ways. Bill DeSimone's new book, Congruent Exercise, is exciting me!  I will put up a proper review in a few days, but I am really savouring it at the moment.  As I read each page there is a pencil in my hand and I am marking up key paragraphs.....then I find that I am marking the whole thing! In this new book, Bill is covering much of the same material that was in his first book - Moment Arm Exercise - but he has refined his presentation and the whole argument is very clearly presented. Moment Arm Exercise fascinated me and I used to study it like a text book, I still dig it out ...

You will recall that in the past I have interviewed the authors of Body By Science - Doug McGuff and John Little . Over on Mark Sisson's blog Doug has a guest post on the Body By Science approach to exercise - Setting Yourself Up to Win: A Body By Science Approach It is a good introduction to the principles of proper exercise, but the reason I am posting this here is jsut to draw attention to his bodyweight training option.  I hoep Mark and Doug do not mind me copying it here: If you cannot go to a commercial gym, you can get started with simple free-hand exercises that I will describe to you now. Chin up : This can be done with a chin-up bar that mounts in a door jam, on a sturdy tree branch or rafter board or playground equipment. If you are not strong enough to do chins, you can set the bar height so you can assist with your legs. If this will not work, simply do them negative only by jumping or climbing to the finished position and lowering yourself as slowly as possi...

Here is a study which looked at treating a common running injury - Chronic exertional compartment syndrome (CECS) - by getting runners to modify their running technique, moving to a forefoot strike.   Although there were only 2 in the study it seemed to fix the injury.  The entire paper is here. Here is the abstract for you. EFFECTS OF FOREFOOT RUNNING ON CHRONIC EXERTIONAL COMPARTMENT SYNDROME: A CASE SERIES. INTRODUCTION : Chronic exertional compartment syndrome (CECS) is a condition that occurs almost exclusively with running whereby exercise increases intramuscular pressure compromising circulation, prohibiting muscular function, and causing pain in the lower leg. Currently, a lack of evidence exists for the effective conservative management of CECS. Altering running mechanics by adopting forefoot running as opposed to heel striking may assist in the treatment of CECS, specifically with anterior compartment symptoms. CASE DESCRIPTION: The purpose of this case...

I am getting addicted to the Khan Academy.  Their stuff on biology is amazing .

Bill is always recommending that I look at Paul Ingrahm's material.  I don't know why but I've only just now checked him out.  Thanks Bill Here is Paul on stretching and the ITB band , both things that I've mentioned here recently! Check out his site:  Save Yourself

My magpie mind came across this study today as I was scanning the various feeds that I look at to spot stuff for this blog.  Psychology is fascinating to me, particularly how we relate in social situations.  I suppose some of that relates to that booklet I pointed to the other day on human combative behaviour , where two different modes of attack were presented - the predator and the alpha male. Today I saw this article reported, which is of a study of MMA fighters, the impact fear has on them and how they handle it.   The whole article is available here:  Managing Emotional Manhood: Fighting and Fostering Fear in Mixed Martial Arts Here is the abstract : Based on two years of fieldwork and over 100 interviews, we analyze mixed martial arts fighters’ fears, how they managed them, and how they adopted intimidating personas to evoke fear in opponents. We conceptualize this process as “managing emotional manhood,” which refers to emotion management that signif...

Well, another week and another study on the benefits of interval training.  This time it is Gibala's team again (they have done other work on intervals in the past e.g. this )  from  McMaster University in Ontario. The news story is here Each session involved pedaling on a stationary bike for 10 repetitions of 60 seconds apiece at about 90 percent of maximal heart rate, interspersed with 60 seconds of rest, capped by a short warm-up and cool-down. Each entire exercise session lasted 25 minutes of which only 10 minutes was spent performing vigorous intensity exercise The muscle biopsies revealed higher amounts of mitochondrial proteins, suggesting that the high-intensity, low-volume training increased the numbers of muscle cell power generators, a marker of improved metabolic health. Although the training regimen didn't decrease body mass in any of the participants, it did increase the maximal workload that each was able to achieve on the stationary bike and decreased h...

Kelly gave me a shout out on his blog the other day .  I've already said that I didn't deserve to be on that list, but it is nice to be mentioned.  It’s a pretty powerful statement that a brilliant Scot (Conditioning Research) and a guy with an Iphone and an obsession with performance (me) are on the same list as the NYT, and WSJ?  Crazy. If you don't know Kelly here he is talking about the importance of maintaining proper posture in movement.

Richard Dimitri of Senshido International posted this photo today.  Does anyone know who this guy is?

One of my interests is self defence....although with work and other pressures recently I've not been along to Krav Maga for several months.   One of the blogs I follow in that area is Adam's Low Tech Combat.  He has just released a free pdf ebook, The Human Combative Behaviour Manifesto .  It is over 8000 words and 40 pages and I've only just downloaded it so  I've not read it yet.  The introduction though has me hooked and I'm looking forward to reading more.  Adam stresses that ultimately self defence is about avoiding violence, so he looks at human behaviour from that perspective. Highly recommended .

I have been reading Alex Hutchison's excellent book Cardio or Weights .  In it he examines the science around a host of fitness and exercise related issues and presents it in a very accessible well written way.  Alex is a top journalist and his skill as a writer is clear in this book. He is giving me lots of ideas for my fitness column in TGO magazine!   One of the things he covers is aging and the effect on your body and fitness.  He explains that there is evidence that: Exercise - particularly running - does not seem to lead to joint damage as you get older.  He writes about it here .  However, if you pick up an injury then you can end up with more pain and aches in the joints than if you had never trained.  The science here is that while the statistics look like sports lead to dodgy knees, that risk is accounted for by the incidence of knee injuries - i.e. it isn't the sports that lead to bad knees, but the injuries that happen as part of the ...

Tom Furman This is a guest post from Tom Furman .  I asked Tom to write something because, on a recommendation from a certain blog , I had bought his ebook: 10 Exercises to De-Age your Body by 10 Years .  I read the book and was really impressed by it - simple straightforward movements that I could give to anyone. I've recommended it to others and even bought an extra copy to pass on to someone else.  For $5 you can't go wrong.  I recently contacted Tom and asked if he wanted to do a post here to promote the book a bit (I am getting nothing out of this by the way).  He has replied with this superb post: Aging injures and injuries age Years ago I heard the saying, "Aging injures and injuries age". It had a powerful effect on me. When you get hurt, you change. For some it is a wake up call to take care of your body and fitness. For others it is a wonderful opportunity to gain attention and rationalize their massive shift from active to sedentary. The fun...

Someone asked me via Twitter yesterday if I could help to find anything on the ITB and in particular anything that would indicate against stretching it.  Not sure when I became the internet guru, but I was intrigued and did a quick search.  I should really have referred her to Colin Anyway, what I found was this article: Iliotibial Band Syndrome (ITBS) Myths One of the myths it points to is this: It’s the result of a tight ITB, so stretching to elongate the ITB is called for. WRONG : the ITB is a very thickened band of fascial tissues that is impliable. Unlike tendon and muscle tissue, the ITB cannot be permanently lengthened by stretching. Stretching can temporarily increase the length of the ITB by 5%, but this apparent change is probably due to a stretching of the two muscles that actually control tension on the ITB, the tensor fasicia latae and the gluteus medius. Tension on the ITB during running results partly from the contraction of these muscles, but when they ...

I saw that Jamie ( that paleo guy) had pointed to this study via Twitter Intermittent, Low-Carbohydrate Diets More Successful Than Standard Dieting They randomly assigned patients to one of the following diets: a calorie-restricted, low-carbohydrate diet for two days per week; an "ad lib" low-carbohydrate diet in which patients were permitted to eat unlimited protein and healthy fats, such as lean meats, olives and nuts, also for two days per week; and a standard, calorie-restricted daily Mediterranean diet for seven days per week. Data revealed that both intermittent, low-carbohydrate diets were superior to the standard, daily Mediterranean diet in reducing weight, body fat and insulin resistance. Mean reduction in weight and body fat was roughly 4 kilograms (about 9 pounds) with the intermittent approaches compared with 2.4 kilograms (about 5 pounds) with the standard dietary approach. Insulin resistance reduced by 22 percent with the restricted low-carbohydrate diet ...

via Male Pattern Fitness

on a day when Scotland has been battered by  a storm, this study made me smile.  Nice to see this sort of research get funded! Perceptions of flatulence from bean consumption among adults in 3 feeding studies

Just a quick pointer to a couple of recent studies on interval traning: Effects of acute sprint interval cycling and energy replacement on postprandial lipemia Low-volume high-intensity interval training reduces hyperglycemia and increases muscle mitochondrial capacity in patients with type 2 diabetes

Can anyone recommend how to create some simple diagrams of calistenics:  wall sit, pushup, hip extension, body row? I've tried to use DazStudio but it is complicated? Any recommendations? This is for a little booklet that I am putting together on strength training for hillwalking / backpacking / hiking

I saw this on Todd's Blog - Better Movement. Superb stuff  - thanks Todd!

Ok, I know all the chronic cardio arguments.... There were three pieces that I saw today that sparked my interest particularly given how they relate to each other: First of all the widely reported study that marathon runners have damaged hearts .   Also on Medpage here . At the same time I saw two pieces that explained how to approach a marathon from a more sensible persepctive: Mark Sisson on how to eat and train for a marathon - from a more primal  / paleo perspective.  Granted Mark warns you off the habit of marathons but accepts some people will still want to. Then Tim Ferris had this post about marathon and endurance training on minimal mileage.  The Painless Path to Endurance   He highlighs someone using a low mileage approach to training: Low mileage. I only ran 30 miles per week in preparation for the 100 miler. The most important training event for ultramarathons is the weekly long run. I kept my heart rate low and breathed through m...

This abstract went across my screen earlier today as I was trawling for interesting tit bits. Again I've just read the abstract so as ever you need to be aware that the full study might say more in different ways, but I thought it interesting that there appears to be this implicit assumption that archaeological evidence is obvious that cereals cause tooth decay. Here is the abstract: Frequency of dental caries in four historical populations from the chalcolithic to the middle ages. The majority of dental carie studies over the course of historical period underline mainly the prevalence evolution, the role of carbohydrates consumption and the impact of access to dietary resources. The purpose of the present investigation was to compare population samples from two archaeological periods the Chacolithic and Middle Age taking into account the geographical and socio economical situation. The study concerned four archaelogical sites in south west France and population samples an ...

I have previously pointed to James' recent peer reviewed paper on evidence based weight training Here is a video of him speaking earlier in the summer on low back pain:

Erwan Le Corre would like this: Food is advertised rather than hunted for... Irene at Human Groove wrote about this in a good post    Indeed it led her on to more thoughts at this later post which has some more exciting movements, with a child having some great fun. Child’s Play and The Void So often we coddle and “baby” our kids, telling them things like, “that’s dangerous”…..”be careful”…..”you’ll hurt yourself”. These statements, over time (can) make it such that a new little human being starts to distrust their own instincts and movement skills. I’ve watched many infants crawl to ledges of staircases and various drop-offs, and if you let them sense the void and distance below them, they’ll back off. Of course there are moments in an infant’s development when you need to set a few boundaries and offer a little guidance, but more often than not, kids, infants especially, can sense danger. They feel it in their insides. Their guts tell them when something is...

Asclepius over at Natural Messiah recently pointed to the videos of Khan Academy and I have been spending some time looking through the material they have.  It is awesome.  If you have any interest in biology or physiology then you will find some interesting educational material over there.  For example here is his explanation of Cellular Respiration which how you derive energy from glucose:

I've had stuff here before about the dangers of being sedentary.  For example  this infographic Anyway, often all that is just association.  Here is a study which seems to offer some mechanism of why sitting around makes you fatter.... Static Mechanical Stretching Accelerates Lipid Production in 3T3-L1 Adipocytes by Activating the MEK Signaling Pathway Sustained stretching brings new fat cells into existence. Eureka have a commentary : inactivity actually encourages the body to create new fat in fat cells, says Prof. Amit Gefen of TAU's Department of Biomedical Engineering. Along with his Ph.D. student Naama Shoham, Prof. Gefen has shown that preadipocyte cells — the precursors to fat cells — turn into fat cells faster and produce even more fat when subject to prolonged periods of "mechanical stretching loads" — the kind of weight we put on our body tissues when we sit or lie down. All very interesting. Of course I know it is just mice....

I mentioned this study a few days ago, but I was away from my computer so couldn't write much. The study is here . Towards the minimal amount of exercise for improving metabolic health: beneficial effects of reduced-exertion high-intensity interval training. It was done here in Edinburgh at Heriot-Watt University.  The protocol that was tested was of 3 easy 10 minute cycling sessions with a one or two hard 10 second sprints thrown in.  The result was an improvement in key health markers - insulin sensitivity and VO2 peak. The researchers see this as a great encouragement -  big benefits can come from relatively modest investments in time: In conclusion, in this study we have shown that a very brief and feasible exercise intervention is associated with improvements in metabolic health and aerobic capacity. Our findings suggest that this REHIT protocol may offer a genuinely time-efficient alternative to HIT and conven- tional cardiorespiratory exercise training fo...

I think I have had videos of Konstantinovs up here before.  The guy is amazing..Watch his squat.   Marc Keys would approve ! Of course the deadlift is superb

The debates about the direction of causality in terms of exercise and leanness go back and forth.  This study has some interesting ideas and implications. In some fat women, exercise past a certain threshold reduced their depression...which seemed to make them better at controlling their eating. As ever there are so many things going on!  Relationship of exercise volume with change in depression and its association with self-efficacy to control emotional eating in severely obese women.

This one drew my attention, given my history of low back problems (which recently have resolved with the help of Colin Gordon , the MWOD , lots of planks and efforts to reduce my stress ).  In any case, the point of this study is that while physcial activity can prevent or reduce back pain.....physical fitness is more potent. So it is potentially a question of intensity.  It is not just doing things, moving the body, physical activity.  More important is focussed intentional activity that improves fitness.  Proper exercise if you like.   Don't just move...get fit. Physical fitness, rather than self-reported physical activities, is more strongly associated with low back pain: evidence from a working population. These findings suggest that physical activity of an intensity that improves physical fitness may be important in the prevention of LBP.

Every now and again a really nice little study pops up as I scan the news.  This morning I saw this bit of research in the International Journal of Sports Medicine: Listening to Music Affects Diurnal Variation in Muscle Power Output. I am only going by the abstract but they had people do the Wingate Test - a set time pedaling at maximum speed against a constant force - either at 7am or 5pm, with a 10 minute warm up..... either listening to music or not listening to music during the warm up. Power was always better in the afternoon if there was no music in the warm up.  With music, the difference in the average power disappeared and the difference in peak power was lessened.  Music in the warm up also boosted both peak and mean power. The researchers suggest that as it is a legal method and an additional aid, music should be used during warm-up before performing activities requiring powerful lower limbs' muscles contractions, especially in the morning competitiv...

I spotted today that this blog had made Outside magazine's list of: THE TOP 10 FITNESS BLOGS The best sites for health advice and commentary, so you can get online and go outside Here is the full list: Within the last year, The New York Times, The New York Observer, and Wired all pondered whether Facebook and Twitter have killed blogging. Phooey. Health and fitness blogs are better than ever—and these 10 provide analysis and voice that status updates and 140 character tweets can’t touch. These are the fitness blogs we find ourselves checking every day. 10. Conditioning Research 9. RunBlogger 8. Core Performance 7. Greatist.com 6. NPR Shots 5. Science Daily Fitness News 4. Mobility WOD 3. Wall Street Journal Health Blog 2. Sweat Science 1. The New York Times Well Blog I can't believe that this blog made that list!  Next to the quality of the material in some of those other blogs my offerings are very weak.  All I've ever claimed to be doing is recording va...