Conditioning Research

Anthony has put together a great line up of speakers for this year's conventions.  Click here to visit The 21 Convention LLC. I don't know about the pick up guys, but on the exercise front he has managed to bring together some innovative  thinkers and writers: In London he has:   Dr John Briffa , Simon Whyatt , Simon Shawcross and James Steele II . Austin Texas will feature: Doug McGuff , Robb Wolf , Drew Baye , Dave Asprey and Keith Norris   I've interviewed a few of these guys, follow all of them through their blogs, twitter etc and think that these events will be like my RSS dumping its contents into a conference suite.  Anthony always does high quality video of the events, so even if you can't make it look forward to some excellent presentations.

Lots of runners were doing a 54 mile ultra in the West of Scotland yesterday.  John Kynaston has a great account of the race on his blog: Hoka Highland Fling Race report

This is disturbing.  I used to go to a chiropractor but I gave it up as woo . Chiropractic manipulation of the spine may cause strokes and even death A study by American neurosurgeons adds to evidence suggesting chiropractic can damage arteries supplying the brain

Carb cycling is something that I am playing with at the moment with the help of Andy at Ripped Body. ..but that is for another post.  Anyway, I saw this post on carb cycling for runners.  Good stuff: Carbohydrate Cycling For Runners Athletes learning from bodybuilders again.

I've been busy recently with work and that meant I had forgotten to post a link to this excellent piece by Colin Gordon of Edinburgh Deep Tissue Massage on Flexibility and injury : When we talk about the need for improved flexibility in injury prevention we are not talking about the need to develop the range of movement demonstrated by a gymnast merely that we have the normal range of movement for our joints.... If we are to tackle flexibility issues fully with we need to think beyond simply stretching, in any form, as to why we lack ROM within a joint but that whilst stretching will not prevent injury, there is no evidence that it does, there is no reason not to utilise various stretching type techniques to help regain our normal range of motion. Go and read the whole thing

I thought this was an interesting story about Napier University here in Edinburgh..... Researchers find watercress can help with stress of tough workouts "The increased demand on the body for energy can create a build-up of free radicals which can damage our DNA. "What we’ve found is that consuming a relatively small amount of watercress each day can help raise the levels of important antioxidant vitamins which may help protect our bodies and allow us to enjoy the rewards of keeping fit. "It’s an interesting step forward in sports nutrition development and research." OK, all well and good. I also saw the story elsewhere - Leafy Greens Help Prevent Damage Caused by a Workout, Study Suggests - with this interesting little comment: The study was sponsored by Vitacress Salads, one of Europe's growers of watercress.  It doesn't invalidate it of course, but did make me smile! Acute and chronic watercress supplementation attenuates exercise-induced p...