Conditioning Research

This one raised a smile when I saw the abstract: The effect of physicians’ body weight on patient attitudes: implications for physician selection, trust and adherence to medical advice Respondents reported more mistrust of physicians who are overweight or obese, were less inclined to follow their medical advice, and were more likely to change providers if the physician was perceived to be overweight or obese, compared to normal-weight physicians who elicited significantly more favorable reactions. These weight biases remained present regardless of participants’ own body weight. I suppose it makes sense.  Why follow their advice if they are unable to achieve something in their own bodies. How does this apply to other areas like fitness or diet gurus?  I think this is where it gets more complex.  I think a diet guru who is promoting a certain approach as leading to health or leanness should really be healthy and lean.  However in terms of f...

this is being claimed as an unofficial world record. Pretty impressive!

So I was reading a standard journalists piece about the Tabata protocol - you know: "Get fit in 4 minutes!!!" and all that.  So far so good - this stuff keeps popping up every now and again as a journalist discovers interval training and decides to break it to the world. Anyway, what was different in this one was that they actually spoke to Tabata himself.  He stressed something that I mentioned in the Wingate post - you need to work very very hard: "....I often go on YouTube and, while I am honoured that people are doing it, some are doing it wrong because they don't realise the intensity you need to work at," says Tabata. Tabata is addressing this by staging his own PR campaign: It's slightly surprising, therefore, that the plan is still the preserve of the serious athlete and musclehead crowd – although that may change now that T abata has agreed a deal with  Universal Studios  that will lead to a network of instructors and a DVD r...

me on Thursday... Walking to work the other day I listened to a podcast from Layne Norton -  Muscle College Radio - where he was discussing cardio and particularly high intensity intervals .  There has been enough on this blog over years about interval training ( e.g. here ) and its benefits, but it was interesting to hear this discussion especially as they got into the different pathways in the muscle that were activated by different types of exercise. There has been a lot of research done on intervals in Dr Jake Wilson's lab where they seem to have a particular interest in bodybuilders looking to gain muscle and lose fat. Anyway in their experiments they tend to use what they describe as a Wingate bike - a stationary cycle set up for the Wingate test .  You pedal to reach a peak revs per minute and then a load is added to the bike to make it harder....then you go as hard as you can for 30 seconds.  This is not just pdalli...

I just wanted to point to this paper on the health, diet etc of the Victorians.  It is fascinating in itself and also in the context of all the discussions of paleo, ancestral health etc. The paper is How the Mid-Victorians Worked, Ate and Died and it was mentioned by Nigel here

If you are going to take hits to the head - rugby, boxing, mma - make sure you have a strong neck. Isometric cervical muscle strength mitigates head impact severity The cervical musculature may play a role in mitigating head impact severity among collegiate football players. Sports medicine professionals and strength and conditioning coaches should continue exploring the potential benefits of cervical strengthening programmes on head injury prevention.

I have not had much shoe stuff on here for a while.  This might seem like old news to those who discovered Born to Run along time ago, but just to note this bit of news: Cushioned heel running shoes may alter adolescent biomechanics, performance Many of today's running shoes feature a heavy cushioned heel. New research presented today at the 2013 Annual Meeting of the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons (AAOS) found that these shoes may alter an adolescent runner's biomechanics (the forces exerted by muscles and gravity on the skeletal structure) and diminish performance.