Conditioning Research

 Is your job making you fat?   Activity: From the 70's to now Juneau and his colleagues used several Statistics Canada databases on the health of Canadians that included 17,000 to 132,000 respondents. He concluded that the lack of physical activity during office hours could explain the fact that obesity has increased 10 percent between 1978 and 2004. A surprise findings was the increased healthy attitudes toward transportation. "As a result of urban sprawl we expected to see more car-dependant people," says Juneau. "Yet, both men and women increasingly adopted healthy behaviours such as walking and biking, which is definitely good news." Quick bursts of activity may be the solution Juneau suggests that to combat the inactivity and rise in obesity it would be best to integrate sport, work and transportation. For example, it may be more effective to exercise in smaller doses throughout the day rather than concentrate the effort. Therefore, walking at bre...

Now this one is interesting.... lots of implications The abstract is below but some comment first (informed from this and this ) the study found that exercise enhanced insulin sensitivity, particularly when meals eaten after the exercise session contained relatively low carbohydrate content. Enhanced insulin sensitivity means that it is easier for the body to take up sugar from the blood stream into tissues like muscles, where it can be stored or used as fuel. Impaired insulin sensitivity (i.e., "insulin resistance") is a hallmark of Type II diabetes, as well as being a major risk factor for other chronic diseases, such as heart disease. Interestingly, when the research subjects in this study ate relatively low-calorie meals after exercise, this did not improve insulin sensitivity any more than when they ate enough calories to match what they expended during exercise. This suggests that you don't have to starve yourself after exercise to still reap some of the importa...

At one level this one comes under the heading of " obvious "! On another level it is worth reminding the world that everyday exercise - walking, cycling etc - has a substantial effect. Many people would do well simply to walk more like Nassim . We are meant to walk. As Kurt says: 7) Walking is an excellent evolutionary activity that we are, simply, evolved to do and doing it is nothing but good. I agree with Sisson on this - lots of low intensity rythmic activity can be good. Anyway here is the study abstract Aerobic fitness and mode of travel to school in english schoolchildren. CONCLUSIONS:: These data confirm findings from countries where cycling is very common in showing that cycling to school is positively associated with aerobic fitness. This study adds to the existing literature by showing that walkers and cyclists are more likely to be classified as fit using recognized cut points. Those who walk and cycle to school may, therefore, be at reduced risk for developing ...

A couple of days ago I mentioned the book Spark that I had ordered, having read about it from Frank Forencich . Bill De Simone commented on the post and summarised the argument: the gist of his book is that running, swimming, etc. benefits creativity, concentration, mood, other brain aspects, more so than weight training and stretching, due to the increased blood flow to the brain. He doesn't devalue weight training/yoga/stretching, just draws a distinction between benefits. Increased heart rate alone, such as from blood pooling during weight training, isn't enough; there has to be the steady increased flow. I just saw this study reported which seems to support that position: In the first study to demonstrate a clear positive association between adolescent fitness and adult cognitive performance, Nancy Pedersen of the University of Southern California and colleagues in Sweden find that better cardiovascular health among teenage boys correlates to higher scores on a range of ...

I read this in the paper today - a new way to test your fitness . The National Fitness Test is the brainchild of Dave Reddin, a fitness trainer for the Rugby World Cup squad and a consultant to Team GB. "I wanted to show people how easy it is to take control of your fitness and get a fair assessment that is relative to age and sex," he says. The fact that the test is home-based and requires little more than a tape measure, a computer (visual and written instructions appear on the screen as and when you need them), a watch with a second hand, and a set of weighing scales certainly make it accessible to all and maximises its appeal. But is the test valid? The site is interesting. The concept of fitness is always a bit puzzling - fit for what? At least it looks at different elements - BMI, strength, flexibility, heart rate recovery. Strength is measured by two isometric moves - wall squat and the plank.....not sure how valid that is but as far as it goes it is interesting.

This is lazy as a blog post, but I was looking back through some of Bryce Lane's articles and there is some treasure there. This article needs some exposure: Fast Iron Everyone I know complains about time, its “The great American excuse”. “I’d love to lift but I can’t miss the bowflex informercial”, I really expect to hear this someday. Anyway here are some workouts that give you some mighty big bang for the buck in fifteen minutes or less, two or three times a week. The tricks are: 1.) Not to think in reps and sets but in time sections 2.) Think of one exercise or compound for the shoulder/arm area, lower back and upper legs if you have something that effectively covers more than one, then great! 3.) Pay attention to loading, make your exercises progress from light to heavy or heavy to light with no reverses so you don’t waste any more time changing plates than need be. 4.) Use the same equipment for everything, That way you you can stay in the same spot and not kill ...

I have just received a copy of Mark Sisson's new book - The Primal Blueprint . I'll do a proper review when I've had a chance to read it properly - life is busy at the moment. It looks superb and he takes to opportunity of the format to expand on the principles he laid out some time ago in what is a classic post: The Definitive Guide to the Primal Blueprint The essence of the Primal Blueprint is this: Most of life is really much simpler than modern medicine and science would like to have you believe. You can have a tremendous impact on how your genes express themselves, simply by providing your cells the right environments. Working from that position, Mark presents 10 basic laws for health: Primal Blueprint Law #1 : Eat Lots of Plants and Animals Primal Blueprint Law #2 : Avoid Poisonous Things Primal Blueprint Law #3 : Move Frequently at a Slow Pace Primal Blueprint Law #4 : Lift Heavy Things Primal Blueprint Law #5 : Sprint Once in a While Primal Blueprint Law #6 ...

I posted a couple of videos ( here and here ) last week from Exuberant Animal . They have just posted a superb essay - Pathology on Parade - that is well worth reading. It is about observations of bodybuilders - and the bodybuilding culture - at the recent Arnold Bodybuilding Festival. where’s the health? In the end, the whole experience brought me to an entirely new level of misunderstanding. For years I have agonized over the state of the modern human body, especially our epidemic of sedentary living and physical apathy. But here I observed something altogether different. The bodybuilders weren’t sedentary and they obviously weren’t obese, but they certainly weren’t healthy. Outside of the convention center, I observed normal Americans as they passed: they were fat and sedentary as usual. As I stood on the sidewalk and looked around, the contrast was stark: On one side of the door, a parade of diabetic adipose tissue. On the other, a parade of obsessive-compulsive muscle and sili...

Metcon . Metabolic conditioning circuits, much beloved of CrossFit as is explained in their free article What is Fitness? Here is a new bit of research that looks at this type of training. It compared circuit weight training with combined circuit training (weight training and treadmill run). The Combined Circuit Training wins...... Acute physiological responses to different circuit training protocols. AIM: The purpose of present study was to compare the acute physiological responses to a circuit weight training with the responses to a combined circuit training (weight training and treadmill run). RESULTS: Comparing circuit training protocols, it was noted that CCT elicits a higher relative and absolute VO(2) and energy expenditure values than CWT for both genders (P UPDATE - as a comment below notes the abstract doesn't really have enough detail to get us anywhere. Does anyone have access to the full paper? Here is a gratuitous metcon video....

Inflammation is interesting and I've previously posted a few things about it . Here is another interesting study. The benefits of physical fitness and the hazards of obesity may result in part from opposing effects on systemic inflammation. The fitter you are, the less likely you are to have systemic inflammation. The fatter you are, the more likely you are to have systemic inflammation. Here is the abstract: Association of White Blood Cell Subfraction Concentration with Fitness and Fatness OBJECTIVE: To examine the association between fitness, BMI, and neutrophil, lymphocyte, monocyte, basophil, and eosinophil concentrations in apparently healthy, nonsmoking men. DESIGN: Cross-sectional study of 452 men from the Aerobics Center Longitudinal Study examining the resting concentration of white blood cell subfractions across fitness (maximal METS during a treadmill exercise test) and fatness (BMI) categories after adjusting for age. RESULTS: Fitness was inversely associated with...

You read a lot about military fitness. Crossfit aligns itself with the US military and often highlights soldiers that train using its approach. A few months ago I linked to a series of booklets which described a British Army Fitness Programme - incidentally some of the most popular posts on this blog! Pavel has also made a lot of his military career and the lessons that he learned in the Russian army. And that is all fine. Soldiers have to be fit and functionally fit. Strong, flexible, resilient. In that light it was interesting to see this study which indicates that when they are actually in theatre, on the battlefield, their fitness suffers. They get less fit, somewhat less explosive and a bit fatter. Now there are probably explanations for this - poor diet, fewer opportunities to train, more stress, less sleep - but it is an interesting issue to consider and perhaps an indication that there is a need to think about training to maintain fitness while on deployment. Physical F...

......here is a study for the Crossfitters: Effect of Concurrent Endurance and Circuit Resistance Training Sequence on Muscular Strength and Power Development. The purpose of this study was to examine the influence of the sequence order of high-intensity endurance training and circuit training on changes in muscular strength and anaerobic power. Forty-eight physical education students (ages, 21.4 +/- 1.3 years) were assigned to 1 of 5 groups: no training controls (C, n = 9), endurance training (E, n = 10), circuit training (S, n = 9), endurance before circuit training in the same session, (E+S, n = 10), and circuit before endurance training in the same session (S+E, n = 10). Subjects performed 2 sessions per week for 12 weeks. Resistance-type circuit training targeted strength endurance (weeks 1-6) and explosive strength and power (weeks 7-12). Endurance training sessions included 5 repetitions run at the velocity associated with &OV0312;o2max (&OV0312;o2max) for a duration equ...

This is a strange study. Or rather there are potentially some strange implications to this study. The inference is that black guys respond better to weight training that whites. Resistance training differentially affects weight loss and glucose metabolism of White and African American patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus. OBJECTIVE: We aimed to identify whether racial differences in body composition and glucose metabolism occur in response to exercise and determine whether aerobic and resistance exercise modalities bring about differential changes in these parameters in African Americans and White persons with type 2 diabetes. RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS: Participants included 36 African American and 23 White men and women with type 2 diabetes who were randomly assigned to eight weeks of either resistance or aerobic exercise. Before and after this intervention, each participant underwent a series of measurements that assessed anthropometrics and glucose metabolism. RESULTS: African...

Mark Twight says: One-Piece Dan John originally said that the body is one-piece, and joked that there is no core . We couldn't see how rolling around on a Swiss Ball could do any more than help stabilize muscles around one's center. However, we learned that many other exercises taught one to initiate movement from the centre without ever being recognized as " core exercises" so we filmed some. Check out the Turkish Get ups at the end.... There is no core......The body is one piece....

Crossfit , circuit training, metabolic conditioning, GPP . Call it what you will it has become popular in recent years. Scott (The Modern Forager) had an excellent post on this a few days ago: Picking the Right Tool for the Job, Part 1: GPP vs SPP I think there is something of a backlash against crossfit at the moment and it is worth reading all of Scott's post and the comments. It does all depend on what you are training for. Crossfit is about being an all-rounder - and probably fitter than 95% of the population - which is fine. Some of the criticism I think is coming from those who are trying to excel in a specialism while using a generalist programme. For example Mark Twight - the guy who trained the actors for 300 - has moderated his training away from pure crossfit stuff and added in a lot more endurance work. But this makes sense because he is an endurance athlete - doing bike racing. He explains here January 2008: Every now and then someone posts an old quote of mine...

Vern Gambetta recently had a good post on his blog . It was short so I'll reproduce it fully here: Everything is connected. Impossible to isolate one system of the body, when one is working then all are working. You may designate a workout as having a metabolic emphasis or a neural emphasis, but there will be profound effects on all systems of the body not just the “targeted” system. I particularly enjoy swim coaches who have all these neat color coded charts with workouts in very specific heart rate zones designed to target specific energy systems – the body is so much smarter than that, it is always seeking to adapt and preserve homeostasis. It is IMPOSSIBLE to isolate one energy system or for that matter one system of the body whether it is neural, cardio vascular, muscular, or endocrine hormonal. Recognize that there is always a spillover effect, for example 3 x 150 meter sprints at 95% with full recovery will maximally tax all systems of the body. You will be working at grea...

I suppose this one is pretty obvious - when you are tired your skill levels decrease. The study here is related to football. A conclusion - applicable to lots of sports - is that without sufficient conditioning, all the skill in the world will not help you perform and win. You can have great skills (boxing, rugby or whatever) , but if your fitness is such that these skills are eroded through tiredness, the fitter but possibly less skilled team will win. Effect of Match-Related Fatigue on Short-Passing Ability in Young Soccer Players. Abstract : Purpose : To examine whether the fatigue accumulated during match play or determined by short bouts of high-intensity intermittent activities affect short-passing ability in junior soccer players. A further aim was to examine the influence of physical fitness as measured using the Yo-Yo Intermittent Recovery Test (YYIRT) on the changes in short-passing ability after a 5-min simulation of high-intensity activities (HIS). Methods : Sixteen pla...

Because when it gets hard they stop enjoying it! The Relationship Between Exercise Intensity and Affective Responses Demystified: To Crack the 40-Year-Old Nut, Replace the 40-Year-Old Nutcracker! BACKGROUND : A causal chain linking exercise intensity, affective responses (e.g., pleasure-displeasure), and adherence has long been suspected as a contributor to the public health problem of physical inactivity. However, progress in the investigation of this model has been limited, mainly due to inconsistent findings on the first link between exercise intensity and affective responses. PURPOSE : The purpose was to reexamine the intensity-affect relationship using a new methodological platform. METHODS : Thirty young adults (14 women and 16 men) participated in 15-min treadmill exercise sessions below, at, and above their ventilatory threshold. The innovative elements were the following: (a) Affect was assessed in terms of the dimensions of the circumplex model; (b) assessments were made repe...

Or (in English) "First, do no harm." Primum non nocere is a Latin phrase that means "First, do no harm." The phrase is sometimes recorded as primum nil nocere. It is one of the principal precepts all medical students are taught in medical school. It reminds a physician that he or she must consider the possible harm that any intervention might do. (From Wikipedia) I recently attended a kettlebell workshop (RKC/Hardstyle) taught by Dr Mark Cheng of Kettlebells LA and hosted by Rannoch Donald of Kettlebells Scotland . The first thing that Mark said at the workshop washed over me a little at the time, but I've been thinking about it more and more since then. The primary thing he wanted us to remember with respect to our training was simple: FIRST DO NO HARM. Training and exercise should not damage or injure. They should enhance your life, health and function rather than diminish it. I've injured myself in the past through exercise - I still suffer from a ...

Over the past 6 days, the Guardian newspaper (UK) has been running a series on the official fitness programme used by the British Army . This exclusive six-part series of booklets has been developed by the Army Physical Training Corps to offer you a comprehensive guide to getting fit. In addition to a Fitness Test and Training Programme , there is some good material here with a set of downloadable booklets covering: Warm up and flexibility Running Upper body Lower body Core Improvised training I might not agree with everything written there but the booklets are definitely worth checking out....