Minimal fitness

No time to post properly just now but I wanted to briefly mention a study I spotted this morning done at Heriot Watt university here in Edinburgh.

Three 10 minute exercise sessions a week of very easy cycling with a couple of all out sprints thrown in had significant impacts on insulin sensitivity and vo2 max. That is 10 mins including warm up and cool down.

The threshold for an effect from intervals gets lower and lower....

Of course I reckon they might well get a similar effect from an intense set of resistance exercise. Still tapping into the glycogen and all the same pathways and signals.

Everyone can do a few hard efforts each week and get benefit.

Pose Walking

how to walk......

Quiet

Sorry that this blog is pretty quiet just now.  Three reasons for this:

• Work is quite busy
• My parents live 240 miles away and my Dad has dementia.  I am spending a lot of time trying to support them and sort out care from a distance.  That is taking a lot of mental energy
• I am drafting some ideas together into a short booklet on strength training for hillwalking.

Overall I've not had much time or interest for searching for the normal stuff that goes up here, but normal service will be resumed

Drew Bay Interview

A few months ago I had an interview here with Drew Baye.

There is a great new interview / podcast up now with Drew over on Jimmy Moore's blog.  Drew makes some great points about the nature of real exercise as opposed to activity or recreation. 

Definitely worth listening to (although as with any Jimmy Moore interview I tend to fast forward through the first few minutes of commercials and folksy DJ stuff)

Check it out here

Dynamic Flexibility

It is interesting to watch how the elite warm up.  It is something I've been reading about for a while - static stretches for warm up are not helpful.  Rather they can harm performance.  Instead dynamic moves are best.






via recover your stride

That is not to say that there is no roel for static stretches of course, just not necesarily for warm up.

460 kg Squat (Unofficial World Record)

It looks really easy!  Nice to see him walk out with it too rather than the monolift thing. 

via Martin Berkhan

Explosive training doesn't make you explosive revisited

A title like that is usually guaranteed to prompt outrage in the comments.  Whenever I've had things like that up here -  like this - before guys pile on with their assertions that explosive traiin has to make you explosive....look at Olympic lifters or something.

The HIT school tends to say that the key is to get stronger and then learn to apply that strength explosively if that is what you sport requires.  Luke Carlson in my interview with him stated it like this:

A last question – what about explosive training? This is another tactic that often comes up – “train explosively to improve speed and power”. So we see people doing Olympic lifts, bounding, doing depth jumps. Is this just a waste of energy or is there any real benefit?

I think every athlete should train explosively; but this does not mean they should perform Olympic lifts, depth jumps, etc. Improvements in "explosiveness" are stimulated by the INTENT to move explosively; the outward demonstration of fast movement is not important (or desirable). For example, if a trainee is performing the barbell bench press, he/she should perform the initial repetitions in a slow and controlled manner. This minimizes momentum and maximizes muscle tension; muscle tension is the most important element in muscle fiber recruitment. As the lifter begins to fatigue, he/she can in fact attempt to lift the weight as fast as possible - attempt to "explode" through the weight. However, the weight will not move fast because the trainee is fatigued and the weight is heavy. However, from a motor unit/muscle fiber standpoint, the "explosive" stimulus has been provided. This approach can and should be applied to all exercises/muscle groups. If the weight actually moves fast during strength training, momentum is introduced and muscle tension is reduced (as the musculature is essentially unloaded); this is the exact opposite of the goal of strength training and the requirement for muscle fiber recruitment.

Anyway, that is just introduction.

Traditional sports science has also promoted explosive moves.  However I spotted this abstract yesterday and the full paper is available here.

A Comparison of Ballistic and Non-Ballistic Lower-Body Resistance Exercise and the Methods Used to Identify Their Positive Lifting Phases.

As I read it the researchers are saying that one of the issues with the traditional approach is that the way in which the metrics were measured skewed the results.  The usual methods of measuring power made the ballistic exercise seem to produce more power.

No significant differences were found in mean force or mean power between ballistic and non ballistic exercises.   

Their conclusion is that


These results challenge common perceptions of Ballistic superiority for power development.

Intervals (HIIT) and the Heart

Just a quickie before I go to work. I spotted this abstract pop up this morning.

High intensity interval training alters substrate utilization and reduces oxygen consumption in the heart

Aims: although exercise training induces hypertrophy with improved contractile function, the effect of exercise on myocardial substrate metabolism and cardiac efficiency is less clear. High intensity training has been shown to produce more profound effects on cardiovascular function and aerobic capacity than isocaloric low and moderate intensity training. The aim of the present study was to explore metabolic and mechanoenergetic changes in the heart following endurance exercise training of both high and moderate intensity.
Methods and Results: C57BL/6J mice were subjected to 10 wk treadmill running, either high intensity interval training (HIT) or distance-matched moderate intensity training (MIT), where HIT led to a pronounced increase in maximal oxygen uptake. Although both modes of exercise were associated with a 10% increase in heart weight-to-body weight ratio, only HIT altered cardiac substrate utilization, as revealed by a 36% increase in glucose oxidation and a concomitant reduction in fatty acid oxidation. HIT also improved cardiac efficiency by decreasing work-independent myocardial oxygen consumption. In addition, it increased cardiac maximal mitochondrial respiratory capacity.
Conclusion: This study shows that high intensity training is required for induction of changes in cardiac substrate utilization and energetics, which may contribute to the superior effects of high compared with moderate intensity training in terms of increasing aerobic capacity.

John Sifferman on pushups

After the post yesterday on pushups I noticed that John Sifferman had posted this video on proper technique

New Snatch World Record

Behdad Salimi snatches 214kg with his 3rd attempt at the World Weightlifting Championship 2011, held in Paris last week.  The previous record was 213kg held by Hossein Rezazadeh, also of Iran.  Superb.



Tim Egerton of Sprint Strong, had pointed to this video and noted:

Interestingly, a new technique seems to be adopted here whereby he performed a 'pre-lift' before his actual attempt at performing the Snatch. This is legal so long as the bar does not break the line of the knees. I expect this 'pre-lift' will have provided a slight potentiation effect.

Is anyone aware of this technique having been adopted previously? I wonder if it will become commonplace now.

Do we need all this therapy?

Bret Contreras pointed to an interesting post by Nick Tuminello.  Nick is questioning the way in which so much of the current training wisdom seems to be watered down rehab / physiotherapy.  He points out that most of the things that are to be addressed by physical training are actually  straightforward.

For most people things are pretty simple:

If we can all agree that:

• People don’t move enough (possibly because they’re plain lazy)
• They don’t get enough variety in movement (from always performing the same work or sporting movement pattern)
• They sit too much
• They’re overweight
• They’ve got Poor Postural habits
• They lack of a well balanced training program (from maybe performing too much chest strength work w/o much high-quality mid-back strength work, etc:)

Then we can also agree that these are simple problems, which have these simple solutions:

• Move more
• Sit less
• Loose that gut!
• Get a more balanced workout
• Get more variety of movement
• Enjoy moving so it becomes a regular part of your life

Wise words.  It is all really pretty simple.

Stretching.....here we go again

I've had stuff here before that questions the value of static stretching.  Here is more:

Effects of Dynamic Warm-up on Lower Body Explosiveness Among Collegiate Baseball Players.

It is the same again.....static stretching makes subsequent performance worse, while dynamic stretches improve it.

A good commentary here from Mike Reinold. 

A Bowflex killer?

Keith Norris should not be a new name to you - his Theory to Practice blog is superb.  Anyway, here is Keith (physical culturalist, author, and general manager at Efficient
Exercise (Austin Texas)), giving the world premiere of the ARX Fit Omni at The 21 Convention 2011 of Orlando, Florida, united States of America.






The video notes explain:

The ARX Fit Omni © is a revolutionary new home-exercise machine that
employs motorized resistance across a wide range of movements, providing
a perfectly (and uniquely) matched strength curve across a complete -- or
limited -- range of motion.

Called "the bowflex killer" by 21 Convention architect and founder Anthony
Dream Johnson, the ARX Fit Omni © machine is making waves in the universe of proper exercise, strength training, and sport performance.

Supplying a level of effectiveness, efficiency, safety, and intensity found in no
other machine in the world, the ARX Fit Omni may just be the machine to put
the nail in the coffin of the outdated and ineffective BowFlex © home exercise
machine.

The Pushup

The more I think about it, the more I get to like the pushup (as I've said before).  It is the fundamental exercise that everyone should be doing, not just for the upper body, but for everything - posture, core, the lot.  You need solid hips / glutes and upper back/traps.  You need to be able to hold the plank position before you can do the exercise. 

Yet rarely do you see a decent pushup.   People move too fast, but don't move enough.  They rarely hold the plank. 

I sometimes think that in terms of basic strength, a pushup and a proper squat (or a wall sit) would be enough for most people.

Anyway, Greg Everett has a superb post today on the pushup and the need to develop it as a basic exercise:

The Push-up: Why Is This So Hard?

Free Your Feet: Why Running Shoes Do More Harm Than Good

Created by: X Ray Technician Schools

Elite marathoners run very fast.....

Jim Hansen posted this on his blog (which is always worth reading)  earlier and I thought I'd put it up as well.  It is really stunning just how fast an Olympic level marathoner runs.

Jim says:

This is in a subway station in New York City. People are trying to keep up with Ryan Hall for 60 feet. This is his pace for a full marathon. Even Ryan had a hard time keeping up in street clothes. I think it is a neat way to make people aware of how fast the elites do run.

James Harris

as directed by Damien Walters

Damien Walters....wow

Rethinking cholesterol

about time too

Rethinking dietary cholesterol.

The lines of evidence coming from current epidemiological studies and from clinical interventions utilizing different types of cholesterol challenges support the notion that the recommendations limiting dietary cholesterol should be reconsidered.

Project 1111

Cairngorm on the way to 1111m

Just thought I'd post to something on my other blog.

Beguiled by today's very neat date - 11/11/11 - I decided to go one better and climb a hill so that at 11:11am I was at 1111 metres.

Utterly pointless but I enjoyed it!   I've written it up here.

Interview with Dan John

Good stuff from  Dan John.  Lots of his ideas here are covered in his Intervention material.

Part 1



Part 2

Another support for real food! Antioxidants should come from food not supplements

Here is another study in the same style as the one I pointed to yesterday.

Antioxidant Supplementation during Exercise Training: Beneficial or Detrimental?


........a growing body of evidence indicates detrimental effects of antioxidant supplementation on the health and performance benefits of exercise training. Indeed, although ROS are associated with harmful biological events, they are also essential to the development and optimal function of every cell.......We recommend that an adequate intake of vitamins and minerals through a varied and balanced diet remains the best approach to maintain the optimal antioxidant status in exercising individuals.

Sitting and mental health

I've pointed to things before about the association between a sedentary life and poor health.  I saw this abstract today which indicates that the impact can also be on mental health

Non-Occupational Sitting and Mental Well-Being in Employed Adults.

A new "What I am reading" widget

I've put a new widget on the right to try to duplicate what I used to be able to do in Google Reader.  A reader suggested that I try this.  It is using Twitter and the hashtag #conditioningresearch

Let me know if you think this is worth doing

Eat slowly.....

This is one that sounds like the advice you mother used to give, but there are lots of reasons why eating more slowly and deliberately can be a good thing, including allowing the saliva to get at the food to let it start digestion and better chewing to break it down and increase the surface area for the digestive enzymes to work on.

Anyway, this is worth thinking on:  

studies found that men eat significantly faster than women, heavier people eat faster than slimmer people, and refined grains are consumed faster than whole grains, among other findings.

 (Not to promote whole grains or anything).  It would be interesting to think of how all this feeds (sorry for the pun) into the idea of food reward as a primary driver of obesity, as Stephan has been writing about.

Real Food - more thoughts

This is not a recent study - it goes back to 2006 - but it is interesting with respect to all our thoughts about eating real food rather than supplements or processed food.

The 6-a-day study: effects of fruit and vegetables on markers of oxidative stress and antioxidative defense in healthy nonsmokers.

The abstract is here and the whole study is available here

In addition to some interesting commentary on the whole area of antioxidants, some of which may now be a bit out of date, the conclusion is that :  Fruit and vegetables increase erythrocyte glutathione peroxidase activity and resistance of plasma lipoproteins to oxidation more efficiently than do the vitamins and minerals that fruit and vegetables are known to contain.

It is the WHOLE FOOD that is important, not the elements of it.  You could take habdfuls of supplements to mimic the content of liver or an apple, yet never gain the nutrional benefits that would come from the real, whole foods.   It is not complicated, but it is worth noting.

(Thanks to Mike for pointing this study out, and congrats on the newbaby)

Drug Use today

I thought that this infographic was interesting


Via: Guide to Criminal Justice Careers

Health and Strength

I am still thinking through things in response to watching my Dad's sad decline through vascular dementia.  It has given me perspective as I said and makes me think of how I train, move and live to stay healthy and happy.

Strength is key.  Maintaining strength, muscle and function.  But the trick is to do it safely, without causing damage.

Linked to that is play, movement, activity, where possible in the outdoors to take advantage of the general psychological benefits of green exercise.  This is to be complex to work on brain health, generating "brain density", thinking about the material I've been reading on neuroplasticity, so I continue to try to learn to juggle.

Function too - maintaining, all the basic movements patterns: gait, squats, hinges, pulls, pushes.

So I am mixing up HIT,  Dan John and hillwalking.....

Sharing interesting posts

I have been thinking through how to cope with the removal of the Google Reader feature that used to let me highlight interesting articles in the box over on the right headed "What I am reading".

I think the easiest thing would be for you to follow me on Twitter  (@chrishighcock)

Follow @chrishighcock


Reader lets me post interesting things to Twitter, so I will experiment with that,,,,

Robb Wolf's 30 Day Total Transformation

I wanted to highlight and recommend Robb Wolf's new ebook.  I have bought this myself and think it is a good investment.  It looks at

• Food
• Exercise
• Real Life issues like sleep and stress.

I'd still recommend it if you already have Robb's book - the Paleo Solution - because (a) there is new information here; (b) there is a new way of presentation - he links to audio files, videos and background documents; and (c) he lays out a day by day approach to implementing his ideas, both for diet and exercise.

I like Robb's ideas and approach and the material he puts out there for free - especially his podcasts - are superb.  As such I am happy to buy his products and to recommend his material for others.

Click here or on the images below to find out more

Google Reader has messed up my blog

A quick word of apology.

Over on the right of this blog there used to be a widget : What I am reading, which displayed a list of links to pieces that I had read and found interesting.  I know that a lot of readers used it and clicked through the the things that I had highlighted.  This was done through Google Reader - I'd see something I liked in the RSS feeds and click "Share".

Unfortunately, Google has removed that feature from Google Reader, so there is no longer any point in that widget.  Sorry about that, I enjoyed using it.  Google apparantly are trying to drive users to Google+ and this feature seemed to be one that they wanted in G+ rather than Reader.  Unfortunate.

The best and most important position....

wow....it even features the great Brian MacKenzie

"I've got things to do and life to live"

Marc from Feel Good Eating posted this as a comment on my last post.  I wanted to post it here because it deserves to be read widely.  Read this and take it in!





My dad had a stroke this summer in august. He's 79. He made it through pretty good.

It affected me profoundly.

I'm 44.

Since August, my stress has pretty much disappeared. What on Earth is there to even worry about??

I love my kids...but I don't worry about them anymore. I just love the shit out of them.

My mum and dad, yup, they will be in another place a few years from now. I don't worry about them, I just love the shit out of them.

My amazing girlfriend...I'm getting married to her as quickly as possible...I don't worry about her our future or us, I just love the shit out of her.

As to work...I have left every day at 17:30 since august. When others look at me or frown at me for being the first one out the door when the "bell rings", I don't worry about it.  I smile and say "I've got things to do and life to live"

I don't worry about work anymore. I do a good job and I give it my best when I'm there...If they don't like me or fire me, so be it, there will be other jobs.

I cook delicious real food, sometimes I eat a bit too much and sometimes I don't stop after 2 glasses of wine. I excercise the way I LIKE regularly, I don't worry about it any of it at all.

Life is to be enjoyed!

I'm sad you have to see the struggle that your Dad has to endure...I'm happy that you wrote this post as it shows clearly what's important...you pointed out and understand the only things that truly are and the only things that matter!

CHEERS!!!!!!!!

Marc

It does not matter....but it matters a lot

I have spent the last week with my parents. My Dad has dementia - mixed Alzheimer's and vascular - which is a cruel condition.

It is painful to watch his bewilderment at the world, terrible to see my mum's heartbreak at losing her man, yet wonderful to see them both retain such tenderness towards each other.

It made me realise that so much of all the drama in life does not matter, including all the petty debates around diet and exercise. All the energy that we all expend studying and writing on training and eating mean little in the end. 75 or 80 years on this earth are pretty short.

But I am also thinking of what does matter.

• Love and relationships
• Happiness
• Health and function.

It is that last one that keeps me going here on this blog. Health and function If there is any thing that I can do to avoid ending like my dad I want to try to do it. Brain health, sufficient strength, balance, functional movement (climbing stairs, getting out of a chair) good bowel function, life without a catheter - you don't often see those as goals on your training blogs but when we look to our 70s or 80s they are what is important.

Further up that list: happiness. Dad said to me in a moment of clarity, "Get out and enjoy the world son."

I will.

That means training and mountains. It means fewer 10-12 hour days at work. More walks. More laughing.

Love and relationships.

The most important. And that includes the spiritual side of life. Lots to write there.

Och well. Back to reading about exercise and whether a potato will kill me.