Conditioning Research

I think I have posted before about insulin resistance. This is often seen as a problem and may be a step on the road to type 2 diabetes and also to many other problems . If you become resistant to insulin, your body has to produce more to do the job and this can lead to all sorts of problems.... I just can across this article which points out an association between fat on the upper body - chest and upper back - and insulin resistance. There is a commentary on it below, which is an interesting read. "If you have fat up top it is bad for you!" Fat on chest and upper back increases risk of insulin resistance Upper trunk fat –– deposits of fat on the chest and back –– is associated with an increased risk of insulin resistance, a condition that is a precursor of type 2 diabetes, according to a study led by researchers at the San Francisco VA Medical Center (SFVAMC). It is the first time such an association has been demonstrated, say the researchers. The association was equally...

I can see this study on advertising material already.....In case you are wondering, I am not a big fan of supplements. I tend to see them as over priced placebos generaly bought by desperate young men who haven't yet realised that the reason that Mr X or Mr Y is a top bodybuilder or rugby player or whatever, is due to genetics and often a more serious intervention than a protein shake. They also do not fit into my aim of eating a "natural" diet. I suppose there is a lesson here about the value of er.....food! Effects of a multi-nutrient supplement on exercise performance and hormonal responses to resistance exercise Abstract The purpose of this study was to determine the influence of a comprehensive multi-component nutritional supplement on performance, hormonal, and metabolic responses to an acute bout of resistance exercise. Nine healthy subjects ingested either Muscle Fuel™ (MF) or a matched placebo (PL) for 7 days. Subjects then reported to the laboratory, ingest...

This is a study that supports the idea that doing sets of singles can increase your power. I remember years ago in that great magazine HARDGAINER there was a sries by a guy called John McKean promoting training with singles. Art DeVany has his own take on this - what he calls alactic sets. He describes a workout based around this principle here . I described alactic workouts as workouts that did not produce the abundance of lactic acid that my Hierarchical sets were intended to do. After a warm up on the particular exercise to lube the joints and get the muscles ready, I do 5 one reps separated by a 5 second pause. That means I lift a heavy weight one time, put it down, rest 5 seconds, and then do another rep. I continue until I have done 5-1 reps in all. Then I move to the next exercise. Well, this article seems to lend support to this approach for the training of power. Effect of Interrepetition Rest Intervals on Weight Training Repetition Power Output Trent W. Lawton and Rod P...

There seems to be ongoing controversy about the use of caffeine and its healthy - or not so healthy - effects. Some say that it can benefit and improve athletic performance. Others are less enthusiastic. I think the jury is still out on this one. On Tuesday this week I O.D.'ed on a strong double espresso and felt really dizzy. That may have due to the fact that some people say that coffee can cause an insulin spike which may have knocked my blood sugar down a bit. Any way, this article seems to indicate that caffeine has some deleterious effect on the body. This was looking at caffeine supplements - not coffee - but in any case it maybe time to cut back a bit..... Effect of caffeine supplementation on haematological and biochemical variables in elite soccer players under physical stress conditions Objective : To evaluate the effect of caffeine on white cell distribution and muscle injury markers in professional soccer players during exercise. Methods : 22 male athletes compl...

Here is a good one. A study that shows that getting psyched improves performance at the Bench Press. It is true that the mind plays such a huge part in strength/power. SO much of strength is in the mind. **Please have a look after the article on an example of getting psyched..... “Psyching-Up” Enhances Force Production During the Bench Press Exercise David A. Tod School of Biomedical and Sport Science, Edith Cowan University, Joondalup, Australia ABSTRACT Tod, D.A., K.F. Iredale, M.R. McGuigan, D.E.O. Strange, and N. Gill. “Psyching-up” enhances force production during the bench press exercise. J. Strength Cond. Res. 19(3): 599–603. 2005.— We investigated the effect of “psyching-up” on force production during the bench press. Twelve men (mean age ± SD: 27.4 ± 11.2 years) and 8 women (20.9 ± 2.5 years) with strength-training experience performed 5 bench press repetitions on a modified Biodex isokinetic dynamometer during 3 interventions. The interventions were counterbalanced and in...

Vern Gambetta has a principle that states "Train Movements not Muscles". It makes sense. When the body moves all sorts of muscles are firing in sequence to move, stabilise and balance. Isolating a muscle is not how we move in real life. We move in squats, twists, pushes, pulls, bends and lunges. It therefore makes sense to train in those movements too. This study shows that an isolated muscle's strength does not tell much about well you can do everyday activities. It is how that muscle works as part of a bigger movement that is important. Paul Chek has a good article here which explains these basic movement patterns. The lesson is clear - especially thinking about maintaining function as we age, which is the context of this study - focus on training movements, useful movements. Don't do leg extensions.....squat instead. Don't do a cable cross over, do a pushup! Effect of single and multi-joint lower extremity muscle strength on the functional capacity a...

Many of us are a bit obsessive about training. There is a major psychological trauma if we miss a workout. I'm not as bad as I used to be, but there can often be a worry that if we miss workouts we will lose what we have worked hard to gain. This article indicates that it is not a disaster if we are forced to miss our workouts for a while - even up to 5 months - your training still has an effect....you don't lose what you have gained that quickly after all. It has also been my experience actually - if I focus on running for a while I can usually get back to my basic strength levels in other lifts in a couple of weeks. Detraining in the Older Adult: Effects of Prior Training Intensity on Strength Retention Chad Harris, Mark DeBeliso, and Bobbie S. Irmischer Center for Orthopaedic and Biomechanics Research, Department of Kinesiology, Boise State University, Boise, Idaho 83725; Kent J. Adams Exercise Physiology Lab, California State University Monterey Bay, Seaside, California...