Conditioning Research

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 ...

Paul Chek can be completely barmy, but he knows his stuff.  Here he is on core strength when lifting

Floating Bones posted a really good comment on my post on Tensegrity . Anatomytrains.com has a 20-page summary of the first edition There are several very good papers on biotensegrity.com why the compression-based model is fundamentally inadequate to explain our musculoskeletal system. Levin has been studying this for his whole career as a MD. Model-maker Tom Flemons has some great models on his site: tinyurl.com/toms-models . I talk about floating compression models on my website floatingbones.com . Part of what I add to the structural conversation is the impact of our nervous system on our structure.

This is interesting....or obvious. Because of their training, climbers end up with the physiques of.....climbers! The best climbers were the most adapted..... Climber's Back - Form and Mobility of the Thoracolumbar Spine Leading to Postural Adaptations in Male High Ability Rock Climbers Abstract In elite climbers, the development of “climber's back” has often been subjectively referred to. However no scientific proof is present. In a cross-sectional cohort study, the spines of 80 healthy asymptomatic male sport climbers were examined. The performance-oriented sport climbers (SC) trained regularly (9.8 ± 4.3 hr/wk) and had a mean climbing ability of 9.7 ± 0.6; the 34 recreational climbers (control group) (RC) climbed less frequently (3.4 ± 2.0 hr/wk) and had a mean climbing ability of 6.0 ± 0.9. Measurement of the sagittal thoracolumbar spine was performed using the “SpinalMouse®”. The kyphosis angle in the erect posture was significantly greater in SC verses the RC. The lo...

I find this one pretty interesting. I'm not immediately sure what the application is but there are some intriguing issues here. The experimenters looked at how many reps guys could do with 70% of their 1 rep max and then correlated this with different measures of the physiological make up of the muscles. Anyway, they found that the fibre type was not that important but that the capilliary density was the important factor. There are trainers out there that make a lot out of the different fibre types. In this - admittedly specific - case that was not the important factor. Application? If you want to maximise your reps at 70% of 1 rep max work to increase the capilliary density in the muscles. Now how do you do that? Fiber Type Composition and Capillary Density in Relation to Submaximal Number of Repetitions in Resistance Exercise. The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationship between skeletal muscle fiber type composition and the maximum number of repetition...

Are you good at chins? Here is a good one - following statistical analysis, this study indicates that short individuals are more likely to achieve maximum chin-up test scores. I am over 6 foot, so that is my excuse for being a bit rubbish at pullups. I can do singles with an extra 20kg, but with no added weight I struggle to get to 6. Chin-up strength tests: does stature matter? AIM : Many organizations place high value on employee physical fitness and use standardized physical fitness tests (PFT) to quantify it. The chin-up strength test is an example of such a test. Participants' anecdotal reports raise some concern that the latter is inherently biased against tall individuals. A demonstration that tall individuals are less likely than short individuals to achieve maximum score on a chin-up strength test, and modified scoring tables that equalize this likelihood across the stature range are sought. METHODS : A statistical summary of 85 chin-up test outcomes is analyzed for lik...

(image from Medline Plus ) Apparently female athletes have a really high incidence of knee injuries - particularly to the anterior cruciate ligament (ACL). That is a real footballer's injury. I'm showing my age and nationality now, but I always remember that as the injury that Paul (Gazza) Gascoigne suffered in the FA cup final in 1991. Mike Boyle in a provocative article says that most women shouldn't run: wider hips mean narrower knees which leads to more injuries for the average female runner. Incidentally there is an interesting response to Boyle here . Eric Cressey prescribes " increasing glute and hamstrings strength and optimizing frontal plane stability is crucial for resisting knock-knee tendencies and preventing ACL tears ". While I am sure that strengthening these muscles and structures will help, an article has just been published that indicates that the issue is about more than simple biomechanics. There is a problem here in terms of patho...