Conditioning Research

So what do the biceps do? fasciating stuff from Bill DeSimone

Seth has some good thoughts on animal fat : for best health I need much more animal fat than I usually get — is plausible: 1. As Spector said, butchers cut the fat off meat. The odds that our Stone-Age ancestors, living when food was sometimes scarce, did the same thing: Zero. Perhaps our meat is unnaturally low in fat. If for a long time in our evolutionary past we ate a lot of animal fat it makes sense that our bodies would be shaped to work best with that much fat. 2. Many video games, which boys enjoy, resemble hunting . I think this reflects an evolutionary past in which men hunted. If so, for a long time humans ate meat. That they ate a lot of meat is suggested by the fact that when big game went extinct (probably due to hunting) human health got worse. 3. American culture demonizes animal fat. The conclusion that animal fat is bad rests on epidemiology. Once something becomes heavily recommended or discouraged, a big problem for epidemiologists arises: the people who follow the...

I had a post the other day saying that intermittent fasting works . I often point to scientific studies on IF but it is also interesting to see the results of the approach. Of course this proves nothing....but Martin has achieved some amazing results with his approach to IF (described in various bits here ). Great stuff.

Superb video from Mike T Nelson

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.

Of course eggs are good for you Conclusions : Consumption of 4 egg yolks/d, and possibly of 2 egg yolks/d, for 5 wk benefited macular health in older adults with low MPOD. Serum HDL cholesterol increased without an increase in LDL cholesterol in this study population,

This has just been published: Short-term modified alternate-day fasting: a novel dietary strategy for weight loss and cardioprotection in obese adults Conclusion : These findings suggest that ADF is a viable diet option to help obese individuals lose weight and decrease CAD risk I know I go on about intermittent fasting a lot - and usually try to sell Eat Stop Eat at the same time - but there is science behind this. Here is another one: Intermittent fasting does not affect whole-body glucose, lipid, or protein metabolism