Conditioning Research

This is just a mind blow

how long is it since that Tabata study?  The BBC finally discover intervals I commented on this over at the Body By Science site Just watched the BBC Horizon programme and the key bit was about what they called HIT but was really HIIT - interval training on an exercise bike. This benefitted the subject who improved his insulin sensitivity but - due they said to his genetics - did not improve his VO2 Max. They explained how this intense exercise had an impact on his glucose metabolism, emptying his muscles of glycogen so that they were able to absorb more glucose form the blood. This was good in that we are inching along towards an understanding of the benefits of intense exercise, but disappointing in that we never seem to go the whole way from interval training to intense resistance training. If you really want to empty your glycogen stores and have some intense exercise, then go for BBS style HIT! The other thing was that I found it disconcerting that the scientist wh...

Z Health have a thing about the impact of the visual system on strength - basically if you look up it facilitates extension, while looking down facilitates flexion.  I wrote about it in a post a ways back - The eyes have it...   This idea that eye position corrolates with muscle action: flexion is enhanced by looking down; extension by looking up came to mind when I saw this report /  study: We make our eye movements earlier or later in order to coordinate with movements of our arms, New York University neuroscientists have found.

There is more to me than what I eat or what I believe about what I eat. The whole debate about carbs is worrying me.   People are not getting it as Dr Kurt Harris says we need to be macro agnostic.  Remove the bad stuff - primarily gluten grains and vegetable oils - then you have a lot of leeway.  But people become so identified with their diets that change becomes a challenge at an ontological level

Image from Scott Sonnon

This is a post copied from Nigel , but it is powerful.  My own Dad has dementia and the reality of it beings all this stuff to life.  I hope he excuses my hijacking of his material but it is very important.  I've seen those things too..... Discrimination is bad, mmmkay? : What do the following three images have in common? Images found with Google Image search. They are all unable to fend for themselves or express how they feel. They all need a lot of care and attention and can be very demanding. The last two also have to be fed & toileted. So why is it that the first two images make people go "Squeeeeeeee!" but the third one doesn't? Is it because the first two images give you something to look forward to but the third one doesn't? We're all going to end up old one day if we're "lucky". Just hope and/or pray that when you get there, you either have caring partners and/or relatives to look after you, or independent care for...

For all you workaholics and stressed out students and executives....sleep deprivation is never worth it! Via: Online Colleges Guide

I am an amateur at all this.  My day job is nothing to do with this stuff, but | remain fascinated by science, physical fitness and human performance.  I read all around the subject and daily scan the latest research, often posting abstracts here that interest me.  But my expertise is limited.  I look to others with a deeper background to really dissect the research and explain it to me.  There are a few people on the internet that do this regularly and helpfully and it is fantastic that two of them have teamed up to launch Strength and Conditioning Research. A new monthly review Chris Beardsley and Bret Contreras have just launched this  monthly, 50-page publication summarising the latest  research in strength and conditioning, biomechanics, physical therapy, and physiology.  Now both of those names should make you interested.  Chris has a really good blog where he dissects research studies explaining their implications and Bret while k...

The health paradox of occupational and leisure-time physical activity Conclusion The hypothesis was rejected. In a dose–response manner, occupational physical activity increased the risk for LTSA (Long-term sickness absence), while leisure-time physical activity decreased the risk for LTSA. The findings indicate opposing effects of occupational and leisure-time physical activity on global health. Interesting.   We are always told of the benefits of activity, but in the context of "work" it seems that it is not as healthy.  There will be lots of factors here - the repetitive nature of work, the psychological stress, the fact that physical jobs tend to be low paid and  so other elements of health may be missing - but I like to think that this illustrates the value of what Mark Sisson talks about in terms of play.  Work by definition is not playful.

Yesterday I pointed to a study that said that muscular fatigue impairs coordination .  As usual I just did a hit and run post - highlighting the study and then letting you make your own conclusions. Todd Hargrove picked it up and made some excellent points  (Todd always makes excellent points!) 1. To optimize motor learning, minimize fatigue 2. Skill under fatigue may be a skill in itself 3. To avoid skill deterioration from fatigue, work on your fitness   Read the detail in his post.

I made a quip the other week that at the moment the perfect study would mention mitchondria, the microbiome and epigenetics.  A comment added that neuroplasticity would help too.  These are the sexy subjects that are getting funded just now. Well, this new study ticks one box at least. Increased Mitochondrial Biogenesis in Muscle Improves Aging Phenotypes in the mtDNA Mutator Mouse Interesting.  So how do you get more mitochondria?  Exercise including sprints and resistance training

The Effect of Muscle Fatigue on Position Sense in an Upper Limb Multi-joint Task When your muscles are tired you are less able to sense where your limbs are in space.  Think of the implications of this for complex skills.  Trying to use complex skills as strengthening moves is risky. That is why I favour big simple movements with low skill levels.  Skill conditioning is something different.  I apply this in Hillfit

So as you get older there is a loss of muscle, sarcopenia.  That can be reduced by exercise, but still the older body is not as good at synthesising muscle.  Also as you get older people tend to eat less protein.  You can give them protein supplements....but  people don't always like to take them. This study gave them Leucine supplements instead: Leucine supplementation chronically improves muscle protein synthesis in older adults consuming the RDA for protein. It looks promising.

This fits in with a lot of the studies I'd had before about the way in which lack of sleep can contribute to obesity....through messing up your brain and how it reacts to desires for  food.  Also it fits in with Stephan's work on food reward . Sleep restriction leads to increased activation of brain regions sensitive to food stimuli. RESULTS Overall neuronal activity in response to food stimuli was greater after restricted sleep than after habitual sleep. In addition, a relative increase in brain activity in areas associated with reward , including the putamen, nucleus accumbens, thalamus, insula, and prefrontal cortex in response to food stimuli, was observed. CONCLUSIONS : The findings of this study link restricted sleep and susceptibility to food stimuli and are consistent with the notion that reduced sleep may lead to greater propensity to overeat.

When it comes to strength training I am an enthusiast.  More than that I aspire to be an evangelist .  I want people to understand and realise the benefits that come to everyone from basic strength training.  Yes, athletes benefit but so do non athletes, the office worker, the elderly and the sick.   Strength training can be simple but will benefit in so many ways - improved balance, fewer falls, better insulin sensitivity, better leptin sensitivity, better energy metabolism.  Yet all these benefits are a mystery to the average person.  Exercise is a brisk walk when some modified pushups and squats could do so much. That was one of the ideas I am trying to get across in the Hillfit book - basic, simple strength training for hiking and backpacking . This is another study that highlights the benefits of strength training for stroke survivors: Maximal Strength Training Enhances Strength and Functional Performance in Chronic Stroke Survivors. After...

This is fantastic from Steven Sashen

We haven't had any combative's on this blog for a while.  Let's put that right:

I have had Esther Gokhale on this blog before ....but it was a while ago.  She is still going

Ok the next instalment of my thoughts on Bill's book .  (The series started here ) Summary of Chapter 2.  "Full Range of Motion" : Biomechanics or Buzzword Fibre recruitment is not based on range of motion.  Rather fibre recruitment is proportional to the load and/or the speed .  It is not related to the joint angle! Thinking about how muscles contract, they are weaker at the extremes of the motion where there is either active or passive insufficiency.  It it through the middle of a muscle's contraction that it is strongest.  We need to train the strongest range of the muscle, which will also mean avoiding lockout where the muscle is under no stress - there is zero lever and the bones take the strain. We look to work the biomechanically strongest range, the joint angle for peak muscle torque;  we want to match the muscle's strongest postion with the most challenging part of the exercise, usually the sticking point or position of maximum moment ...

This is good. In Hillfit I use the pushup plank as a test.  If you cannot hold this position for at least a minute then you have no business doing pushups - your core will fail so that you will not be able to keep the pushups going in proper form.

I normally can't stand the hypocrisy and self-righteousness of the Mail (plus its on going cancer chronicles ) but this is an interesting account of someone that stopped being a vegan, started eating meat and got healthy. Damn your low fat diet: How a reformed vegan gorges on all the foods his granny enjoyed... and has never felt better

Ok the next instalment of my thoughts on Bill's book .  (The series started here ) Summary of Chapter1 - Avoiding the Tragic Accident: Biomechanics you need to know You need to avoid injury.  Some exercises, even those promoted in magazines, books and website make injury almost inevitable.  There are basic rules that need to be recognised Free weights get heavier as you bend - this is basic mechanics and leverage.  When the lever arm is longest - the maximum moment arm - it will feel the heaviest....so get into that hard position to start the movement;  go from hard to easy or else you may go from easy to hard and never get out of that position You can lower more than you can lift - so start with the positive movement not the negative.  Lift first, don't lower.  If you lower first you might be handlin a weight that you will not be able to lift. The spine is not designed to support top heavy loads - the bones of the spine are set up as a pyrami...

So it was a long day at work with a variety of stresses and challenges.  At the end of it I sat back, drank a glass of wine and thought about the day in the context of the rest of my life.  This is what resulted: It is ok to be nice. Alphas are overrated and the true alphas are the good guys. In the nursing home the winner is the guy with the smile,  the alphas burned out long ago or are sitting there alone with no visitors.  Humour, being cheeky, being human is right and can be professional.  I like you.  I want to help.   If you do not see the humour then you are lost. You still need to know your subject. Honesty beats confidence.  Don't talk rubbish with confidence.  The ones who know their stuff will realise that you are empty. You buy from those you like and that includes buying ideas. So be likeable. Nothing is really that important.   Stand back for a minute, think of your best moment then return to your proble...

I have been meaning to write a long review of Bill's book - Congruent Exercise (now on Amazon ).  I have already done something short , but it deserves something longer and more detailed.  However I am struggling for time at the moment.  What I might do is a series of short posts.  Pulling out some of the profound wisdom from the book.  However, I'd still recommend that you buy and read the thing, both to support Bill and to make your training safer and more effective.  It is certainly something that I have tried to apply in my book Hillfit on fitness training for hiking . Summary of the introduction The book is about delivering the benefits of weight-training without the risk of ether acute or chronic injury.  This risk can be minimised by applying the most appropriate joint movements, posture and leverage (moment arm) in other words, biomechanics.  This approach is not specific to any equipment - it is a filter through which to shape exe...

The brain is at the centre of it all.  Tim Anderson's work in Becoming Bulletproof , Todd Hargrove 's work, Feldenkrais, Somatics .....all of it comes back to what the brain is doing, learning and modelling. This is a good article that outlines the background to all this work: The Brain: How The Brain Rewires Itself

I thought this was an interesting infographic..... Via: Medical Billing and Coding Guide

An interesting one in line with the impact of mind, attitude and social factors on our overall health. The report is here - Does depression contribute to the aging process? Stress has numerous detrimental effects on the human body. Many of these effects are acutely felt by the sufferer, but many more go 'unseen', one of which is shortening of telomere length. Telomeres are protective caps on the ends of chromosomes and are indicators of aging, as they naturally shorten over time. However, telomeres are also highly susceptible to stress and depression, both of which have repeatedly been linked with premature telomere shortening. The human stress response is regulated by the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis, or HPA axis. This axis controls the body's levels of cortisol, the primary stress hormone, and it generally does not function normally in individuals with depression- and stress-related illnesses.

My posts on the stretching research often prompt some reaction.   Mike Robertson has a really helpful post which pulls together a lot of the research on stretching:  Q&A: Is Static Stretching Good? It is not a simple as don't stretch, the issue is when and why: This is perhaps the most important question – not only is it important that we choose the right type of stretch, but we also need to perform the right stretch at the right time. For example, I love dynamic stretching – but doing it before bed isn’t a great idea. Who wants to be fired up and neurally primed right before bed? Don’t answer that Or imagine an elite athlete getting ready to hit the field – do they want to static stretch (and calm their nervous system and relax their muscles) right before they go out and sprint, run or cut explosively? Here’s a general framework of when you should use each type of stretch: Use static stretches immediately before bed. This will not only help you relax but...

Short sleep duration in association with CT-scanned abdominal fat areas Shorter sleep duration is associated with higher BMI, WC and SFA in men. Further research is needed to explicate the biological mechanisms behind these relationships and to see whether interventions addressing inadequate sleep could treat or prevent obesity by taking gender differences into consideration. I suppose I should go to bed now.   There have been lots of studies showing this association now.  The mechanisms might not be clear but there is certainly something here.

Just a quick post prompted by spending the weekend with my Dad.  He has dementia.  Last week he got a bad infection that meant he had to be taken to a different hospital for treatment.  While there he picked up a dose of noro-virus.  Great.  It is one thing after another when you enter care. I did get a chance to spend time with him though, which was great.  What struck me most in those conversations was the way in which my Dad is living totally in the NOW.  Yes he is confused about the past and his location, but his own immediate past means nothing to him.  All that matters is where he is NOW, who he is talking to NOW, who is holding his hand, laughing with his jokes, helping him dress.....NOW.   It is Zen-like I suppose and made me think about the nature of time, eternity and our experience of it.  Lots of philosophies talk about mindfulness and the need to be aware of the present moment as all we have.  Even in Christian t...

Like, er ...... wow. This guy is amazing.  But of course we knew that.

This one amused me, especially in the light of Matt Stone's recent post! In the past I've had a few posts up on this blog which had tried to state that the meme of 8 glasses of water a day had no basis in science - for example the Water Myth! Then this news release pops up on Eureka: Cranky today? Even mild dehydration can alter our moods Scary stuff. But of  course if you read further you get this interesting bit of information: The dehydration studies were supported by Danone Research of France Danone?  Oh that's right, Danone sell Evian and Volvic water ..... is it any surprise that they want you to drink more of it?! Get real folks.   The modern obsession with water is a marketing trick.

This is just  a marker to remind myself to do a post on some of the interesting things I've been reading about the mind, particularly the work of Dr Marcora and the psychobiological theory of exhaustion .

I like this nice careful conclusion. Looking at a couple of veteran power lifters they find better than average bone density..... But the conclusion is tentative. Although these results do not prove any causal relationship between long-term high-intensity strength training and elevated BMDs among women, they do raise questions that some type of relationship may exist. The study is Case Study: Bone Mineral Density of Two Elite Senior Female Powerlifters

Not orthodox superslow or RenEx, but this shows a lot of strength.....

I love this guy's videos..... I did not realise that sprinting was about differential calculus!  I wish he had been teaching me maths 25 years ago.

Over on the Hillfit site I've started to post a few short articles which fit in with the them of the book. Get in shape for hiking - get strong!  Looks at the importance of basic strength for hiking backpacking and hillwalking Should hikers stretch?  looks at why stretching as a warm up is not necessarily a great idea Both link in to themes that I've explored on this blog but both are intended to arouse interest in my book Hillfit:Strength. Thinking about stretching, Jamie Scott helpfully pointed me towards an interesting new review of static stretching and its impact on performance.     Does pre-exercise static stretching inhibit maximal muscular performance? We applied a meta-analytical approach to derive a robust estimate of the acute effects of pre-exercise static stretching (SS) on strength, power, and explosive muscular performance. A computerized search of articles published between 1966 and December 2010 was performed using PubMed, SCOPUS, and We...

Ken Hutchins of Renaissance Exercise makes a good point about t hat study about the incredible old triathletes  . "There are amazing CAT scans contrasting the muscularity of triathletic and sedentary elder men. It is apparent that destroying your body in a triathlon can, at least, maintain your muscularity. Or, perhaps the difference is completely due to a genetic aberration whereby the above-average muscularity of the elder man merely enables him to destroy his body in the triathlon. Of course, it is also true that such activities are sarcopenic. " I had not thought of that when I saw the study but logically he is right. There may be survivor bias going on.   Those still training at 70 are those that have survived....how many have not managed to make it that far through injury or whatever?  What can we really conclude from that study?

An interesting review on the impact of Vitamin D supplementation on muscle strength, gait and balance in older adults Effect of vitamin D supplementation on muscle strength, gait and balance in older adults: a systematic review and meta-analysis. Supplemental vitamin D with daily doses of 800 to 1,000 IU consistently demonstrated beneficial effects on strength and balance. An effect on gait was not demonstrated, although further evaluation is recommended. So one to give the old people....

Sitting on the edge of science watching these reports of studies coming at me, just now I think that the sexiest study you could publish at the moment would involve mitochondria, the microbiota and epigenetics.

This looks interesting Protein Ingestion Prior To Sleep Improves Post-Exercise Overnight Recovery INTRODUCTION : The role of nutrition in modulating post-exercise overnight recovery remains to be elucidated. We assessed the impact of protein ingestion immediately prior to sleep on digestion and absorption kinetics and protein metabolism during overnight recovery from a single bout of resistance type exercise. METHODS : 16 healthy young males performed a single bout of resistance type exercise in the evening (20:00) after a full day of dietary standardisation. All subjects were provided with appropriate recovery nutrition (20 g protein, 60 g carbohydrate) immediately after exercise (21:00). Thereafter, 30 min prior to sleep (23:30 h) subjects ingested a beverage with (PRO) or without (PLA) 40 g specifically produced intrinsically [1-C]phenylalanine labeled casein protein. Continuous intravenous infusions with [ring-H5]phenylalanine and [ring-H2]tyrosine were applied with blood an...

When I interviewed Erwan Le Corre a couple of years ago , one of the things I asked about was sleep.  I was expecting an answer about the importance of sleep to health and recovery but while that was there, he also talked about where and how to sleep: Sleeping enough, resting frequently, going to bed early, leave a window open to make sure air is renewed, avoiding synthetic fabrics. I personally like to sleep on the floor, not in a bed, not even on a real mattress. To me it's more comfortable this way, and this way I can sleep about anywhere without experiencing discomfort whenever I'm travelling. I thought of Erwan's answer today when I was on Facebook and saw that Mark Reifkind had posted a link to a really interesting study of how hunter gatherers sleep.  The paper is a few years old but it is fascinating: Instinctive sleeping and resting postures: an anthropological and zoological approach to treatment of low back and joint pain The whole paper is there and is...

I suppose this one is for Hillfit ?  Nothing very exciting - walking in the mountains is hard work and neither BCAA nor arginine supplementation have much impact. Energy expenditure during 2-day trail walking in the mountains (2,857 m) and the effects of amino acid supplementation in older men and women We compared relative exercise intensity and active energy expenditure (AEE) on trail walking in the mountains, with those of daily exercise training, and whether branched-chain amino acid (BCAA) and arginine supplementation attenuated the release of markers indicating muscle damage and declines in physical performance. Twenty-one subjects (~63 years) were divided into two groups: amino acid (AA, 51 g of amino acids and 40 g of carbohydrate, male/female = 6/4) or placebo (PL, 91 g of carbohydrate, male/female = 6/5) supplementation during 2 days of trail walking in the mountains. We measured heart rate (HR), AEE, fatigue sensation, water and food intake, and sweat loss during wal...

Reading through a few abstracts today I was noticing how lots of research is looking at epigenetics - how environmental factors affect the status of genes - which ones are turned on or off to over simplify things. Here is a typical one Effects of mild-exercise training cessation in human skeletal muscle Stoppage of endurance exercise training leads to complete loss of maximal oxygen uptake (VO2max) gain but not submaximal exercise blood lactate concentrations. However, the detailed mechanisms are still unknown. Thus, we investigated the effects of exercise-training cessation at lactate threshold (LT) intensity on physiological adaptations and global mRNA expressions in human skeletal muscle. The VO2max, muscle capillaries density and global gene expression were measured after 12 weeks of LT training, and after 12 weeks of detraining. Twelve weeks of detraining reversed the effect of 12 weeks LT training on VO2max and VO2 at LT intensity, although the later value was higher than the...

I saw this get picked up in a few places but no one was linking to the actual study.  The takeaway message is that building and maintaining muscle strength is vital to all for overall health and this extends to surviving cancer.  It is not getting old that is the problem, it is getting weaker! Researchers studied patients with advanced melanoma to understand the illness as it related to muscle strength. They looked at CT scans of the psoas muscle in order to measure core muscle density. The authors then correlated the core muscle density with the risk of metastasis, or spreading of the cancer.  Patients with higher muscle density were found to have significantly better survival rates and less metastasis.  The authors concluded that decreased muscle density was an important predictor in the outcome of the disease. Furthermore, they stated that “frailty, not age, was associated with decreased disease-free survival.” Here is theabstract Sarcopenia as a Prognostic F...

Marc from Feel Good Eating pointed me towards this one from yesterday's NY Times: Does Foot Form Explain Running Injuries? But, says Mr. Daoud, who was himself an oft-injured heel-striker during his cross-country racing days, "if you have experienced injury after injury and you're a heel-striker, it might be worth considering a change." (If you're unsure of your strike pattern, have a friend videotape you from the side as you run, he suggests, then use slow motion to watch how your foot hits the ground.) If you do decide to reshape your stride, proceed slowly, he cautions. Many people who abruptly switch to barefoot running or a forefoot running form get hurt in the process, he says. The body's tissues adapt to the forces generated by long-term heel striking. Change your form, and the forces will affect different parts of the leg, leading to soreness and, potentially, injury. Try landing on the ball of your foot "for five minutes at first at the ...

This one has been brewing for a while but now it seems fairly solid -  antioxidant supplements are, at the least, useless.  Stumptuous would like it (beware of the bad language).  This is an amazing letter TO THE EDITOR: In a recent paper by Higashida et al. (5), the authors report that very large doses of antioxidant vitamins do not prevent the exercise-induced adaptive responses of muscle mitochondria, GLUT4, and insulin action to exercise. As clearly stated in the paper, their data disagree with those reported by three independent research groups from Germany (14), Australia (17), and Spain (4). Using a significantly different experimental protocol regarding exercise training intensity and duration, antioxidant supplementation (doses and types of antioxidants), and molecular parameters analyzed (mRNA vs. protein levels), Higashida et al. compared their data with ours and came to exactly the opposite conclusions, i.e., that antioxidant vitamin supplementation does...

  Fasting Weakens Cancer in Mice Man may not live by bread alone, but cancer in animals appears less resilient, according to a study that found chemotherapy drugs work better when combined with cycles of short, severe fasting. Even fasting on its own effectively treated a majority of cancers tested in animals, including cancers from human cells. The full study is here, well the abstrac t anyway

OK, so today I am 44.  I am not going to give one of those daft macho posts about how I will kick old age in the arse.  It is coming to us all and we cannot stop it. I am sure we can delay and cut the risk of disease, but believe me one day you will be old and disabled or you will be dead.  Today is what you have.  NOW!  Live it right now and prepare for eternity. Bah Anyway tonight was a meal to celebrate my birthday and we went to Wedgewood on the Royal Mile, my favourite Edinburgh restaurant.  The dining room has been redecorated and refreshed recently and it has made a difference to the feel of the place.  (I'd recommend this place or Le Sept to a visitor to Edinburgh.  Le Sept is my regular lunchtime haunt, while Wedgewood is for special occasions)  It was   - as ever - well presented.  It all tasted fantastic too. the amuse bouche Rabbit terrine with piccalilli and sweetcorn ice-cream Salmon, mash, shrimp...

My article in t his month's TGO is called Hills not Pills and looks at the psychological benefits of exercise in the outdoors. (some references for the piece are here ) Others have written about this recently - like Chris Kresser - but one of the things that prompted me to write was learning just how many people rely on antidepressants.  It is true here in the UK but also across the world as this graphic shows. Created by:  MedicalBillingAndCodingCertification.net Just go outside for a walk

I had a post up the other day on the inflammatory effects of social stress.   Here is another one for your consideration.  Comparing yourself to others can have health impacts although this one just indicates that things are...complicated (as ever)

No, this is not about an obscene gesture.  Rather I just wanted to point to this fascinating report of a study that I saw today.  The role of the brain in movement is fascinating and I've become increasingly interested in the whole area of neuroplasticity.  Todd Hargrove continuously writes compelling and intriguing material on the role of the bran and nervous system in movement and through him I've been reading around Feldenkrais.  Z Health and its ideas about proprioception and the arthokinetic reflex are another area that I would like to lose myself in with study if I had the time.  Then there is the work of Tim Anderson with Becoming Bulletproof and Pressing Reset which give practical prescriptions for work to enhance this set of skills and senses, thinking about how movement is at the root of all of who we are.  I always find it interesting that in Christian theology there is no place for disembodied spirits.  We are body , soul and spirit....

Like everyone else I was quick to jump on the abstract of that massage study at the weekend.  Paul at Save Yourself is a lot more considered and his analysis is first rate.  Nothing against massage - it is good and it works for certain things - but we need to be careful about the science.  Paul's stuff is always well thought out and well researched.  He puts me to shame. Take the time to read his analysis of the study and the way it has been reported: Massage reduces inflammation and promotes mitochondria? Some interesting new scraps of basic biology evidence are scientific miles away from proof of therapy

This is an interesting study.  It is a bit of a cliche, but everyone talks about the mitochondria being the powerhouse of the cell.  They are where ATP, the energy currency of the cell is produced.  The more mitochondria you have the more fuel you will be able to generate in your muscles. (OK I am over simplifying) Studies into interval training have found that high intensity training can induce mitochondrial biogenesis - i.e. grow new ones. This new study indicates that the heat generated by exercise in muscles could be responsible for generating new mitochondria.   Mild heat stress induces mitochondrial biogenesis in C2C12 myotubes During endurance exercise, most (≈75%) of the energy derived from the oxidation of metabolic fuels and ATP hydrolysis of muscle contraction is liberated as heat, the accumulation of which leads to an increase in body temperature. For example, the temperature of exercising muscles can rise to 40°C. Although severe heat injury c...

I've added a new page to the Hillfit Website - the Hillfit Manifesto .  The aim is to explain what it is all about, to summarise the drive behind the book. Check it out and let me know what you think

This is fascinating - the impact of stress from competitors and general social interactions can promote inflammation. Negative and competitive social interactions are related to heightened proinflammatory cytokine activity These findings suggest that daily social interactions that are negative and competitive are associated prospectively with heightened proinflammatory cytokine activity. It is all about environment .....but that is not just diet,  social interactions, other stresses are important too.  Getting your stress under control - work, relationships etc - is as vital as diet.  You can get diet and exercise dialed in but if you are chronically stressed from other things then you will still suffer.  I am like this at the moment from work and family pressures There is a good commentary here.

Excellent stuff from the Natural Running Centre Lots of good stuff here on posture, gait, mobility and stability thanks to Jim Hansen for pointing this out

This came via a very good post from Marc Keys. He talks about skill development.  As we have said before strength is one thing, skill development is another.  Get strong and then apply it to your chosen skill, something I talk about in Hillfit Natural Messiah had a great discussion of this video a few months ago

Continuing the theme of keeping older brains healthy....I've had stuff before on how exercise increases insulin sensitivity (which we saw was a good thing) and how resistance training benefits older people.   Now this study which sees better brain performance in the elderly following intense exercise. Acute moderate exercise enhances compensatory brain activation in older adults.

Watching my Dad's dementia, brain health is becoming a real interest.  Here is a study which shows that reduced insulin sensitivity is linked to smaller brain size and deteriorated language skills in the elderly.  "We found that in elderly whose insulin sensitivity was still high, the brains were larger, and they had more grey matter in regions that are important for language skills, compared with those who had diminished insulin sensitivity. We also observed that higher insulin sensitivity was associated with better scores on the language test. Our findings offer a possible explanation for why methods that improve insulin sensitivity, such as exercise, are promising strategies for counteracting cognitive aging late in life," says Christian Benedict. Of course insulin resistance is complex - not just about eating too many carbs - and Stephan's series is a great outline of the issues.  Again, environment, genetics, gut flora are all kicking around but a real food di...

At the moment everything seems to be about  epigenetics, mitochnodria or the microbiome. Here is one about epigenetics - turning genes on or off: Scientists at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) have identified nearly 200 genes in the healthy prostate tissue of men with low-grade prostate cancer that may help explain how physical activity improves survival from the disease. Vigorous exercise linked to gene activity in prostate

I've mentioned before that I get a regular session of bodywork from my pal Colin at Edinburgh Deep Tissue Massage .  I enjoy the chat, he sorts out any strains or spasms that are going on and he also gives me some good coaching in general on posture, movement and exercise. It seems that there are real clinic benefits to all this too.  I spotted this report of a new study on massage which explains : While massage is well accepted as a therapy for relieving muscle tension and pain, the researchers delved deeper to find it also triggers biochemical sensors that can send inflammation-reducing signals to muscle cells. In addition, massage signals muscle to build more mitochondria , the power centres of cells which play an important role in healing. "The main thing, and what is novel about our study, is that no one has ever looked inside the muscle to see what is happening with massage, no one looked at the biochemical effects or what might be going on in the muscle itself...

This was interesting Created by: Cosmetology School

a nice technique.... from Martha Peterson