Conditioning Research

Always strive to add another rep, or a pound to the bar or another second to the length of the set!!! You will have heard similar things.  The gurus shout at us and encourage us to try harder to push more to seek improvement and growth at every opportunity.  Nietzsche is invoked as we strive ever harder to get better, stronger, bigger.  I've probably done the same thing myself - urged you to push for that extra rep that next rung on the ladder. Well I am tired of it.  Maybe it is my age or other things going on in my life, but at the moment I am tired with trying to improve.  I just want to keep where I am. Maintenance is progress I was thinking about training and exercise today in the context of the rest of life.  "Life" as the big stuff - lifetimes, relationships, death, decline and age.  With that in the background I was struck with the idea that as we get older, simply staying where we are is progress. Whatever we do we are getting older...

I just wanted to point to this interesting study which I saw a couple of weeks ago, r eported in Runners World by Alex Hutchison . Maximal step-up height as a simple and relevant health indicator: a study of leg muscle strength and the associations to age, anthropometric variables, aerobic fitness and physical function. Really interesting in the light of the stuff I've had up before about floor living and another test for function - simply getting up off the floor . All these things are tests - not exercises.  But they are interesting toys to play with.  If you can step up high, get down to and up from the floor then you are doing OK.  If your training is retaining and promoting such function then you are going in the right direciton

You are better off dwelling in the real rather than wasting time searching for the ideal.  The actual quote is the mature lifter is better off dwelling in the real rather than wasting time searching for the ideal, taken from this post at Dave Draper's forum .     I read that the other day and it has stuck in my mind. Dwelling in the real So much of the health and fitness world is about fleeing from who we are.  Sometimes this is hidden or reframed as achieving a goal, changing our appearance.  Often though it is a case of a deep unhappiness with who we are. There comes a time when we need to stop that and simply dwell in the real, to adopt some reality about who we are, what we can aim for.   There is nothing wrong with seeking improvement but we need to be realistic.  At 45 I will never play professional football no matter how hard I train.   With my bone structure and metabolism I will never be a competitive bodybuilder or powerlifte...

I am no particular fan of Michael Moore's films or politics, but this piece on walking that I came across the other day is very good. Michael Moore on Walking I like his approach that walking is about the experience, the liberty to walk.  It is about the act, not the result.  Process, not outcome.  Yes, there will be changes, but they are not the focus.

Those box jumps that I post on here are not always successful.....

Someone tweeted me this study and I thought I'd share it here. The point that they are promoting is that good sprinters are born that way.  Those who are elite do not achieve that through working hard and hitting the 10,000 hours of practice that seems to have been accepted as the key to achieving elite status.  Sure practice helps, but in reality the true elite are perhaps elite before they really start to practice? I don't think this totally invalidates the idea of developing exceptional ability through practice, at least where that is based on skill.  However perhaps it emphasises that it is worth pickin your field of endeavour to focus on one for which you are ....... gifted. You Can't Teach Speed: Sprinters Falsify the Deliberate Practice Model of Expertise Abstract:       Most scientists agree that expertise requires both innate talent and proper training. Nevertheless, the highly influential deliberate practice model (D...

James Steele was good enough to point this out to me. In the basic Hillfit routine the wall sit is a fundamental exercise.  This is an isometric squat held for time with your back supported by a wall.  I included the wall sit for a few reasons: you do not need any equipment it is scaleable - if you are weaker, hold an easier position for example do not adopt a 90 degree knee position, don't bend your legs as far it is low skill - you don't need to learn a complex move.  Squats are actually pretty complex to perform properly.  I think a good squat pattern is important for health and mobility. it is safe - it keeps you in safe positions for your structure and muscles. ( Bill DeSimone calls it a congruent movement - you use your muscles in a way that they are strongest where the movement is hardest) I also find it an effective move for the thighs and hips in terms of producing strength.  Holding a 2 minute wall sit takes some strength.   I've talk...