Conditioning Research

I want to talk about alcohol.  This post was prompted by a number of things: Rearranging the Deck-chairs Tom Furman had a good post recently which hit a nerve with me.  He spoke about how too often we major on the minors.  We ignore the really important stuff and fiddle with minutiae.  We might have everything right, all the right things in place.....but then we sabotage it with something else we are doing. You might be eating well and training well.....but are you also smoking?  Are you watching your diet, counting calories and macros....but drinking a bottle of wine a night?  Are you training hard, eating well but not getting more than 5 hours sleep a night? You get the picture. By avoiding the real problem, you can pretend to be courageous. You perhaps act as if you are uninformed, but you are mimicking a child who closes his eyes and believes he is invisible. You really aren’t fooling anyone. Not even yourself. - See more at: http://ww...

In 2012  I pointed to the research of Samuele Marcora on how facial expression impacts on fatigue in his psychobiological model of fatigue .   His study here showed how the onset of frowning indicated the point at which things were starting to feel hard, but in discussions by email we chatted about the possibility that things could work the other way - smiling might make everything feel easier and ward off fatigue. I was reminded of this when I saw this video from Eric Cobb It is a simple trick but I think it is worth trying.

How to get swole A lot is written about how best to train to make your muscles grow.  You can go to T-Nation or do a google search for hypertrophy training and get confronted with scores of routines illustrated by photos of the top bodybuilders (generally the genetic elite with pharmaceutical assistance).  There will be prescriptions of certain techniques....rep ranges....exercises and diet.  It is confusing and complicated. What does the evidence say? Why should you trust all these recommendations?  Surely they must be right because they are on the internet (yeah right).  This routine must be the best because Mr Olympia says so.....  or because everyone at the gym trains like this (yet they still haven't improved for months).  These are not good reasons.  We will not get into epistemology, but lets take a different tack.  What does the evidence say? It is not fashionable....but when you look at the evidence (in terms of scient...

Ecclesiastes 1:9 (ASV) That which hath been is that which shall be; and that which hath been done is that which shall be done: and there is no new thing under the sun. It is Christmas, so here is a reminder of a key truth from the Bible which is very relevant to our obsessions with health, diet and fitness.  There is nothing new! Every time you read of some new diet, supplement, exercise protocol or secret technique remember that it will have been done before.  10   Is there a thing whereof it may be said, See, this is new? it hath been long ago, in the ages which were before us. Just ask each time.....is this new?

I don't think I've shared this on this blog, but mentioned it on Facebook. Impressed by an athlete A few weeks ago while at work I bumped into a mate who is a veteran sprinter - Scottish 100m and 200m champion for the over 50s.  He is a proper athlete  -  runs internationally, trains with some Olympic and Commonwealth Games athletes.  That sort of thing. We often bump into each other at the gym at work and chat.  He is always interested in what I am doing and I ask a lot about his training. Anyway, this day he was going to be doing some sprints at lunchtime, in the car park.  Dragging a car tyre.  He invited me to join him for the session.  It sounded fun and I was a bit flattered to be able to train with him. Sprints Lunchtime saw me changed and in the car park.  A brief warm up and then we started.  He gave me some tips on form and then it was a 50 m sprint, while dragging this tyre, pulling it attached by a rope to a weigh...

The frequency of posts to this blog has diminished quite a bit recently.   My work is busy and when I get in I'm more likely to read or vegetate in front of the TV to relax rather than think about putting stuff up here.  Also you will have picked up the theme in recent months that I am trying to keep things simple.  Sometimes there is little to say.  There is not a lot to add:  move, sleep, eat and relax. I became disillusioned with the contrarian world of health and fitness on the internet, especially as regards diet.  It is not as complicated as we try to make it...paleo, low-carb, low fat or "real food" or whatever become dead-ends sometimes, cultish little communities where any dissent is akin to heresy.  I've been banned from at least one Paleo Facebook group for questioning their orthodoxy. Anyway, the point of this post.... Terracotta soldiers I saw a documentary this week about the Terracotta Soldiers .  A couple of thousand years ...

This is one that I would like everyone to listen to...   Nick Tumminello of Performance University – How To Do Science Nick Tuminello Way back....27 years ago....I started my course at the University of Leeds to study Philosophy and Economics.   The first year I did philosophy of science and for 3 years I did courses in formal logic.  Great fun, although a long way from what I now do for a living. I've always been fascinated by this idea of how we know what we know....why we believe what we believe. This is not some vague mystical thing...it is vital to everyday life and definitely to this whole area of health and fitness.  There are so many people out there telling us what is true...what is the best diet or training regime.  How do you decide what is really true, what is really worth investing your time and effort in? As I've discussed here in the past, so much of this stuff is not based on solid critical thinking but on principles more related to g...