Conditioning Research

What I also like is Kelly's effortless squat

I think we've heard this before now|: Stand Up: Your Life Could Depend On It ScienceDaily (Mar. 27, 2012) — Standing up more often may reduce your chances of dying within three years, even if you are already physically active, a study of more than 200,000 people published in Archives of Internal Medicine shows. The study found that adults who sat 11 or more hours per day had a 40% increased risk of dying in the next three years compared with those who sat for fewer than four hours a day. This was after taking into account their physical activity, weight and health status.

    In response to my Pale(Br)o Science post Sol pointed to his (?) website Examine.com which I have been checking out.  Examine.com is a science-focused compendium on supplements, nutrition, fitness, and health.  Akin to Wikipedia, we are a site that allows people to contribute to the site. Unlike Wikipedia, we have editors that oversee and approve all content. There is all sorts of stuff on there, well referenced and researched and well worth reading and referring to.

I just wanted to point to this new resource: I am getting a bit bored with the podcasts that I have been listening to recently - I think that most things that can be said about paleo have now been said - so I was checking out these little mp3s So far I've listened to Tim Anderson on crawling and Tom Furman on the ability to move .  Both were really well produced, explained the topic well and came with a pdf transcript. Good stuff.

Someone shared this on Facebook the other day.  While you might wonder about the safety of the kid - that is a big fall - it is amazing to watch pure natural movement

Colin has posted a really good article on the role of the abs and lumbar musculature in pelvic stabilisation: Abdominal/lumbar musculature and pelvic stabilisation

BroScience is a term used by some bodybuilding communities: Broscience is the predominant brand of reasoning in bodybuilding circles where the anecdotal reports of jacked dudes are considered more credible than scientific research. A sarcastic term implying that the time tested, muscle building wealth of knowledge developed and utilized by successful, experienced bodybuilders is inferior to the continually shifting hypotheses of articulate, textbook-savvy 155lb. chemists with little or no real world first-person experience to substantiate their conclusions. The term "Broscience" is oft repeated on bodybuilding and fitness oriented internet forums in an attempt to demonstrate online dominance as a substitution for success in the arena of actual bodybuilding. There is even a site called Broscience.com   which highlights how science conflicts with popular myth in the bodybuilding world. I think there is some similar stuff in the paleo world.....Palebro science perhaps.  Pe...

I think I've had stuff up before warning you off antioxidant supplements.  Here is another  study -  a Cochrane Review - which says that  current evidence does not support the use of antioxidant supplements.  Indeed certain of them seem to increase mortality. The abstract is below: Background : Our systematic review has demonstrated that antioxidant supplements may increase mortality. We have now updated this review. Objectives : To assess the beneficial and harmful effects of antioxidant supplements for prevention of mortality in adults. Search strategy: We searched The Cochrane Library, MEDLINE, EMBASE, LILACS, the Science Citation Index Expanded, and Conference Proceedings Citation Index-Science to February 2011. We scanned bibliographies of relevant publications and asked pharmaceutical companies for additional trials. Selection criteria: We included all primary and secondary prevention randomised clinical trials on antioxidant supplements (b...

I saw this report pass over my Google Reader today, based on a study just published in the Journal of Experimental Biology: Wired to run: exercise-induced endocannabinoid signaling in humans and cursorial mammals with implications for the ‘runner’s high’ Humans report a wide range of neurobiological rewards following moderate and intense aerobic activity, popularly referred to as the ‘runner’s high’, which may function to encourage habitual aerobic exercise. Endocannabinoids (eCBs) are endogenous neurotransmitters that appear to play a major role in generating these rewards by activating cannabinoid receptors in brain reward regions during and after exercise. Other species also regularly engage in endurance exercise (cursorial mammals), and as humans share many morphological traits with these taxa, it is possible that exercise-induced eCB signaling motivates habitual high-intensity locomotor behaviors in cursorial mammals. If true, then neurobiological rewards may explain variation...

I spent the weekend visiting my parents.  My Dad has dementia and is currently in a hospital ward.  His mental state oscillates, but when he is well he is still funny, loving, caring and sharp.  It is just the dislocation from reality that is difficult to witness. Anyway, I was struck again by how basic and essential it is to be able to stand up from a chair.  There is balance involved, but so much more is the need for basic strength in the hip extensors, back and thighs.  Occupational therapy is fine, but it would be fantastic if we could get them on a leg press a couple of times a week. I have got my Mum to start giving him coconut oil each day now, especially after listening to this podcast.   Podcast #13: How To Upgrade Your Brain with Coconut Oil & Ketones

This looks like a fascinating study.  The longer that men were breastfed as babies, the stronger they were as old men.   Muscle Strength in Older Community-Dwelling Men Is Related to Type of Milk Feeding in Infancy. BACKGROUND : There is a growing literature that links greater duration and exclusivity of breastfeeding to beneficial effects on adult health outcomes. Muscle growth in the neonatal period may be very sensitive to variations in early nutrition, but little is known about long-term effects of infant feeding on muscle strength. METHODS : In 2,983 community-dwelling older men and women born 1931-1939, we examined the relationship between their type of milk feeding in infancy and their muscle strength in adult life. Information about milk feeding for each participant was abstracted from their infant record; grip strength was measured using a Jamar dynamometer. RESULTS: Sixty percent (1,783) of the participants were breastfed only, 31% (926) were breast- an...

This is scary to watch via Mud and Routes

Ok, this one is a bit overblown but it will justify your dislike of work.... >

I think I have remarked before on this Trinity of sexy themes at the moment in research in health and fitness: Microbiome Mitochondria Epigenetics This is one for the epigenetics thread:  remember you have genes but the key thing is which of those genes are turned on  and which are turned off.  You are not programmed by you DNA, it is far more complex than that - you have a complex set of switches that react to your environment. And that applies to your obesity.  You are not programmed to be fat.  Even if you have certain genes that are associated with fatness, they can be overridden.  The environment, epigenetic factors, the signals that you send to your cells,  are so much more important.  So to the study: Getting Active Blunts Fat Genes Physical activity appears to dampen the effect of fat-increasing genes, while inactivity allows the genetic disposition to unfold, a longitudinal study found. Each additional gene variant linked wi...

Today I came across this new and very interesting study: Preventing motor training through nocebo suggestions Here is the abstract: Although placebos have repeatedly been shown to increase physical performance and endurance, much less is known about the effect of their negative counterpart, nocebos. Here, we employ negative suggestions and a sham electrical stimulation as a nocebo conditioning procedure in healthy subjects performing a leg extension exercise to total exhaustion. Using two different protocols, we analyze the contribution of expectation alone or the combination of conditioning and expectation to the nocebo effect evaluated as the change of work performed and rate of perceived exertion. We find that it is possible to negatively modulate the physical performance in both cases, and we argue that this effect can effectively offset the outcome of training programs. The discussion in the paper is instructive: The main finding of this study is that it is possible to ne...

Sorry that the blog is quiet at the moment.  My work is busy so when I get home I am tired and have no had the time or space to post much.   I will keep posting whatever I find of interest as I get the time. Work is busy and as someone said in an email to me the other day, it always takes more from us than we give.  But I keep smiling through it and have started to walk in and back for the space and to avoid the bus.

I meant to blog about this last week, but didn't get round to it.   There were lots of new stories a couple of  weeks ago that  babies born even a couple of weeks early have more health problems. Babies born a few weeks early 'suffer health risks' Babies born just a few weeks early have a higher risk of poor health, including asthma, than those born later, research suggests. I think they missed a big confounding factor in this analysis - caesarian birth.    Lots of those early births are due to C sections and that brings us back to microbiota.  Babies born by C section miss out on being exposed to a bunch of healthy bacteria from the birth cana l......maybe that is causing the health problems? Babies delivered via cesarean section show different microbial profiles than those born vaginally—whereas vaginally delivered infants are colonized at first by fecal and vaginal bacteria from the mother, infants born through cesarean section are exposed in...

An interesting piece in Scientific American on the runner's high which looks at different explanations for why it happens - interestingly scientists seem to be in the dark on this one..... It hurts so good: the runner’s high

Jez is an amazing athlete

Via: Online Courses News

Another study that says dynamic stretches rather than static stretches are appropriate for use before exercise. Relative static stretch-induced impairments and dynamic stretch-induced enhancements are similar in young and middle-aged men.

this is from the Daily Prep

I will return to my notes on Congruent Exercise soon, but I just thought I'd post this.  I am all for making exercise accessible and part of your day, but really..... From Nano Workout - Itchy feet is a good exercise to do during the day if you work in an office and get back pain after long hours in front of the computer and need to stretch your back. Lean forward and grab on to your left foot with your right hand. Arch your back and pull upwards to stretch the right side of your back. Switch sides.

There is an interesting story on the BBC news website today about the way in which rugby players are getting bigger and bigger and the impact it is having on the tactics of the game. If we combine those figures to give us the average weight and height of an England player, the trends are even clearer. Someone who pulls on the white shirt in 2012 is on average almost three stone heavier and three inches taller than their predecessors of 50 years ago. They are well over a stone heavier and an inch taller than the XV which completed a second successive Grand Slam in 1992 and have 4.5lbs and almost an inch on the team of 2002 that went on to win the World Cup 18 months later. 1962: 85.7kg, 1.80 m 1972: 90.7kg, 1.85 m 1982: 89.9kg, 1.82 m 1992: 96.8kg, 1.85m 2002: 101.9kg, 1.86m 2012: 104kg, 1.88m "Some of the collisions are like car crashes," he says. "When you get George North running flat out into a Manu Tuilagi, the forces involved are incredible. You get s...

So back to another sexy term.  Not epigenetics this time but the microbiome.  There are studies out there that show that the gut midrobiome of the obese differs from that of the lean (and fecal transplants from lean to obese can make them lose fat).   This study seems to show that saturated fats shift gut microbiota profiles toward those typical of obese individuals, and that dietary fatty acid saturation influences shifts in gut microbiota independently of changes in body mass. Oh noes, don't tell me that my saturated fat bias is being challenged? Gut bacteria profiles of Mus musculus at the phylum and family levels are influenced by saturation of dietary fatty acids.

Vaccination response following aerobic exercise: Can a brisk walk enhance antibody response to pneumococcal and influenza vaccinations? A brisk walk does not do what high intensity exercise can

You might need to go and look up telomeres to get this.  (There is a simple explanation here :  Telomeres are relatively short sections of specialized DNA that sit at the ends of all chromosomes. One of the Nobel Prize winners, Elizabeth Blackburn, Ph.D., of the University of California at San Francisco, has compared telomeres to the plastic tips at the ends of shoelaces that prevent the laces from unraveling.  Each time a cell divides, its telomeres erode slightly and become progressively shorter with each cell division. Eventually, telomeres become so short that their host cells stop dividing and lapse into a condition called cell senescence. As a result, vital tissues and important organs begin to fail and the classical signs of aging ensue. ) So longer telomeres protect from aging. This study showed that long-term exercise altered telomere dynamics, slowing age-related decreases in telomere length in cardiac and liver tissue but contributing to shortening in exer...

Of course you need more sleep.  I wrote a piece for TGO last month on the importance of sleep.  This infographic puts it all well: Created by:  MedicalBillingAndCodingCertification.net

This study looks interesting.  We often tell people that strength will let them do al things better, being stronger makes everything easier (well I say that in Hillfit anyway) This abstract is of a study that wanted to test the impact of weak muscles on gait.   They did it through various simulations, but it is still instructive.  Note that you can apparently get away with weak hip and knee extensors but when the plantar flexors (feet), hip abductors, and hip flexors get weak then your walking will be in trouble.  Think about elderly people if we just got them doing some basic training for these muscles to strengthen them then we could really get their function up.  How robust is human gait to muscle weakness? Abstract Humans have a remarkable capacity to perform complex movements requiring agility, timing, and strength. Disuse, aging, and disease can lead to a loss of muscle strength, which frequently limits the performance of motor tasks. It is ...

I've had a fair bit of stuff on this blog about neuroplasticity - the way in which our brains change in response to how we use them, what we call on them to do.  This infographic looks at the way in which computer games affect the brain and that includes neuro plastic changes: Clink on it to make it bigger if you like Via: Online Universities Blog

My Dad has dementia and anything I see about it has special impact.  First off, Vitamin D looks like it has potential here as often elsewhere: How Vitamin D Boosts Amyloid Beta Removal From Brain - which points to this at Eureka : s cientists pinpoint how vitamin D may help clear amyloid plaques found in Alzheimer's the early findings show that vitamin D3 may activate key genes and cellular signaling networks to help stimulate the immune system to clear the amyloid-beta protein. Previous laboratory work by the team demonstrated that specific types of immune cells in Alzheimer's patients may respond to therapy with vitamin D3 and curcumin, a chemical found in turmeric spice, by stimulating the innate immune system to clear amyloid beta. But the researchers didn't know how it worked.  Then this one which I don't fully understand (but thanks to Colin for sending it on) Antibodies that block the process of synapse disintegration in Alzheimer's disease have be...

Back to our sexy themes...this time it is epigenetics: Acute Exercise Remodels Promoter Methylation in Human Skeletal Muscle Highlights Transient promoter methylation occurs after an acute exercise Ex vivo muscle contraction mimics exercise-induced hypomethylation Caffeine mediates DNA hypomethylation in myocytes, implicating a role for Ca2+ release Summary DNA methylation is a covalent biochemical modification controlling chromatin structure and gene expression. Exercise elicits gene expression changes that trigger structural and metabolic adaptations in skeletal muscle. We determined whether DNA methylation plays a role in exercise-induced gene expression. Whole genome methylation was decreased in skeletal muscle biopsies obtained from healthy sedentary men and women after acute exercise. Exercise induced a dose-dependent expression of PGC-1α, PDK4, and PPAR-δ, together with a marked hypomethylation on each respective promoter. Similarly, promoter methylation of PGC-1α, PDK...

via fitbomb Via: YourLocalSecurity.com

I've been doing some reading for an article that I am writing on the nature of fatigue and the Brain's role in exhaustion. Once the article has been published I'll post some of it here, but for now I just wanted to point to the work of Samuele Marcora There is a good interview with him here - Perception is everything and his key studies are  ·       The limit to - Marcora SM , Staiano W . Eur J Appl Physiol. 2010 Jul;109(4):763-70. Epub 2010 Mar 11. ·       Mental fatigue Marcora SM , Staiano W , Manning V . J Appl Physiol. 2009 Mar;106(3):857-64. Epub 2009 Jan 8. ·       The face of fatigue de Morree HM , Marcora SM . Biol Psychol. 2010 Dec;85(3):377-82. Epub 2010 Sep 9. In his model, fatigue is a psychological issue, not a physical one.  When the perception of effort excedes the reward from that effort we give up.  The key is in modifying our perceptions.

you sort of get the impression that these guys must be drunk? Thanks to James Steele

Given all the current interest in the Food Reward theories of obesity (check out Richard's post with a phenomenal number of comments ), I thought I'd just point to this study that popped across my screen this morning: Aerobic exercise reduces neuronal responses in food reward brain regions Exercise reduced neuronal responses in brain regions consistent with reduced pleasure of food, reduced incentive motivation to eat, and reduced anticipation and consumption of food. Reduced neuronal response in these food reward brain regions after exercise is in line with the paradigm that acute exercise suppresses subsequent energy intake. If Food Reward is an issue and I think it obviously is then we also need to think about exercise.

From The Weston A Price Foundation London Chapter: ACTION ALERT - Government moves to enforce their dietary guidelines upon schools, prisons, hospitals and all other public bodies. Please lobby your local MP and interest groups. Details below. The Public Bodies, (Sustainable Food) Bill has just passed its second reading in the Houses of Commons. This bill will force all public bodies, i.e. schools, prisons and hospitals to comply with the government's low fat, low salt, nutrient deficient dietary guidelines. This will bring Britain in-line with USA, where Federal Funding is dependent on compliance with the USDA's dietary guidelines which have caused so much harm. That drive is coinciding with corporations having their food certified as being one of your five a day. So we see baked beans and pizza being certified in order that they gain catering contracts if this legislation is passed. PLEASE CIRCULATE MY RESPONSE TO THE BILL TO YOUR LOCAL MP AND INTEREST GROUPS : http:...

This is another study that points to the the relevance of your gut microbes to health.  The finding is that certain strains of microbe in the gut are associated with obesity-related Metabolic disorders. Women With and Without Metabolic Disorder Differ in Their Gut Microbiota Composition

I have had stuff up here before about the dangers of being too sedentary .  Here is a new one about its link to diabetes Diabetes Risk from Sitting Around  "This study provides important new evidence that higher levels of sitting time have a deleterious impact on insulin resistance and chronic low-grade inflammation in women but not men and that this effect is seen regardless of how much exercise is undertaken. This suggests that women who meet the national recommendations of 30 minutes of exercise a day may still be compromising their health if they are seated for the rest of the day.

I am not even going to pretend that I have read this, but I spotted it earlier today and just wanted to get it out there It is a review article on Vitamin D, but focussing on the way in which it impacts muscle and performance.  The abstract is below and the whole thing is available as a pdf . VITAMIN D AND ATHLETIC PERFORMANCE: THE POTENTIAL ROLE OF MUSCLE Vitamin D deficiency is a worldwide epidemic, with well known impacts on calcium metabolism and bone health, but increasingly recognized associations with chronic health problems such as bowel and colonic cancer, arthritis, diabetes and cardiovascular disease. In recent years in the Sports Medicine literature, there has been an increased focus on the potential impact that inadequate Vitamin D levels may have on athletic performance.      In the early 20th Century, athletes and coaches felt that ultraviolet rays had a positive impact on athletic performance, and while remaining limited, evidence is acc...

stress....sitting......and more Created by: Online University

Can we just make drugs which remove the need to exercise?  Perhaps , but I hope not. "No one can deny that the human body was meant to move, and to move often," said Gerald Weissmann, M.D., Editor-in-Chief of the FASEB Journal, "but the reality is that many of us don't move enough, whether because of disease, injury, or simply a busy schedule. This discovery is another important step towards the treatment of muscle wasting in cancer, severe infection or aging – or to maintain our muscle mass to help face the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune." The abstract is here

Maybe.  But maybe particularly if you are not used to running. Post-Exercise Cardiac Troponin Release is Related to Exercise Training History Average miles run per week in the last 3 years, a marker of total training experience, encompassing training volume and duration, was negatively associated with post-marathon cTnI release (p<0.001).