Conditioning Research

a good video, recommended by Bill

In the light of that TED talk I pointed to the other day, I thought that this was an interesting report: Body Language, Not Facial Expressions, Broadcasts What's Happening to Us If you think that you can judge by examining someone's facial expressions if he has just hit the jackpot in the lottery or lost everything in the stock market -- think again. Researchers at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and at New York University and Princeton University have discovered that -- despite what leading theoretical models and conventional wisdom might indicate -- it just doesn't work that way.  Rather, they found that body language provides a better cue in trying to judge whether an observed subject has undergone strong positive or negative experiences. The face is not as impressive as the whole body.... it is the gross impression that is important.  We judge not just on first impressions, but on the BIG PICTURE.  It is like in self defence where we are taught to use ...

Interesting but perhaps obvious.  When your muscles are fatigued your balance will be poorer. Effects of exercise-induced fatigue on postural balance: a comparison of treadmill versus cycle fatiguing protocols This is something important I believe in terms of injury prevention, particularly in walking.  When we are stronger, fitter and walking more efficiently (all covered in Hillfit ) walking will be less fatiguing and  so balance will be impacted less.  You will be a more resilient walker, less likely to stumble, less likely to fall and get injured.

Man boobs.  A strange topic, but I have to agree with this piece on the BBC that there seem to be more and more men about sporting breasts. Increase in male breast reduction surgery The piece makes a case that it is not about obesity but about a variety of medical conditions that promote the growth of breast tissue.  Maybe.  However, there are a lot of guys who are developing fat chests rather than breast tissue  or what we used to call bitch tits. When I was fatter I used to have a fat chest and as a teenager  I was made fun of in the changing room for having "tits".  It was fat though.  As I've leaned out over the years, I've lost them.   Surgery is maybe too easy a way out.  Yes there are those with medical conditions that require surgery, but maybe others could do with simple fat loss?

I'm not sure that I agree with this guy anymore....but the video is funny in a South Park kind of way To be honest I am nowadays much more sceptical about the paleo world.. .but that is another story (ask Matt)

Posture....reveals how you feel.....and controls how you feel!

Some amazing strength on display here.

Another study from Varady's group - they've done a fair bit of research on IF in the past.  Interesting how the approach is put together: not a compressed eating window, but a 1 day a week fast with the other days being 2 meal replacement shakes and a normal food but calorie controlled dinner.  I wonder how important the fast was in this.  (the full paper is available) At least the researchers recognise this - they admit that they do not show whether it was the IF or the calorie restriction that caused the benefits: This study is limited in that it did not tease apart the effect of IF and CR on body weight and  CHD risk. Thus, the independent contributions of the IF diet versus the CR diet on these various parameters, are not known. In order to answer these key questions, a future study should be performed that compares the effect of IF combined with CR, to that of IF alone, and CR alone. Intermittent fasting combined with calorie re...

Creatine has typically been promoted for its benefits for strength and power athletes.  Interesting to see this new study indicating that it may have benefits for endurance sports, through decreasing the production of lactate Oral Creatine Supplementation Decreases Blood Lactate during Exhaustive, Incremental Cycling. Abstract PURPOSE: The purpose of this study was to determine the effects of creatine supplementation on blood lactate during incremental cycling exercise. METHODS: Thirteen male subjects (mean ± SD: 23 ± 2 years; 178.0 ± 8.1 cm; 86.3 ± 16.0 kg; 24 ± 9 % body fat) performed a maximal, incremental cycling test to exhaustion before (Pre) and after (Post) 6-days of creatine supplementation (4-doses per day of 5 g creatine + 15 g glucose). Blood lactate was measured at the end of each exercise stage during the protocol, and the lactate threshold was determined as the stage prior to achieving 4 mmol·L-1. Lactate concentrations duri...

I have had things on here before warning that antioxidants supplements are not necessarily a good idea.   Seth Roberts points to an good piece that sums this up : antioxidants, once believed to reduce aging by reducing oxidative damage, have turned out to have the opposite effect. By reducing a hormetic effect, they make things worse. 

While I am recommending books, Bill Desimone's Congruent Exercise is now available for the Kindle. I interviewed Bill here and wrote about Congruent Exercise here . Highly recommended. The Amazon Link is here  or here for the UK

Drew Baye has a new book out:   High Intensity: The Annotated, Uncensored Post Workout Delirium Induced Ramblings.   I have read it, enjoyed it and got a lot from it.  It is interesting to see how his ideas have developed over recent years and how they have changed so little - surely the mark that his basic position has been pretty sound. High Intensity: The Annotated, Uncensored, Post Workout Delirium Induced Ramblings  is a collection of post-workout essays I wrote in the late 1990s covering a variety of bodybuilding, fat loss, health and performance related topics, along with over thirty pages of annotations (169 pages total) which provide additional background information, current perspectives, and recommendations for exercise performance, dieting, workout design, and much more. Ebook: $20 (instant download) It is a good read - you will be entertained and also learn some important things about training safely and effectively

I do not do deadlifts....I am happy with my exercise and how it supports my lifestyle and hobbies.....I have no real interest in deadlifting hundreds of pounds.......It was the deadlift that originally hurt my back 20 years ago...... Yet still I found myself severely tempted by Pavel and Andy Bolton's new book, Deadlift Dynamite ....even the cheesey sales video had me drawn in. I didn't buy it.  I am sure it is a good book, but I am trying to wean myself off the marketing, the products.  Automatically buying whatever promises a new secret.  There are no secrets.

Of course about half way through the video you realise that the guy is actually stood up against a wall.  The magic of turning your camera on its side.

Go Kaleo posted this on Facebook and I thought it was worth sharing further Physical inactivity as the culprit of metabolic inflexibility: evidence from bed-rest studies The full text is at that link Although it is no longer debatable that sedentary behaviors are an actual cause of many metabolic diseases, the physiology of physical inactivity has been poorly investigated for this purpose. Along with microgravity, the physiological adaptations to spaceflights require metabolic adaptations to physical inactivity, and that is exceedingly well-simulated during the ground-based microgravity bed-rest analogs. Bed rest thus represents a unique model to investigate the mechanisms by which physical inactivity leads to the development of current societal chronic diseases. For decades, however, clinicians and physiologists working in space research have worked separately without taking full awareness of potential strong mutual questioning. This review summarizes the ...

Just a quick link to an abstract I saw which draws attention to the potential dangers of drinking too much water during exercise. An important warning given the usual admonition to drink lots! Exercise-Associated Hyponatremia and Hydration Status in 161-km Ultramarathoners Exercise-Associated Hyponatremia  incidence can be high in 161-km ultramarathons in northern California. In this environment, EAH is more common with dehydration than overhydration and is more common in hotter ambient temperature conditions. Because weight loss >3% does not appear to have an adverse effect on performance, excessive sodium supplementation and aggressive fluid ingestion beyond the dictates of thirst are ill-advised It reminds me of elements of this advice given to those preparing for the West Highland Way ultramarathon Notes / slides are here

I haven't posted for a while - too busy with real life I suppose. One thing that has been in my mind the last few days has been the idea of standing or at least not being sedentary.  One of my guilty pleasures is listening to the podcasts of Superhuman Radio .  Carl Lanore has some really interesting interviews, if you can get past the over the top advertising.  I actually like Lanore's style too - he makes me laugh and comes across as a nice guy. Anyway, last Wednesday he interviewed Emma Wilmot: SHR # 1080 :: Get Up! Stand Up!: Sitting For Long Periods Causes Death PLUS So What's The Big Deal About Grass Fed Whey   The show can be  downloaded from here  as an mp3: Dr. Wilmot's group has looked at research done on over 794,000 participants to determine that your lack of activity will lead to your early demise. This is an important interview. Even if you train hard once a day you may be negating the benefits by sitting at your...

via Bret Contreras . Good stuff....somethings are true whether or not you like it!

This is really one for the Hillfit side of things. Search pubmed for "walking economy" and you find some interesting things.  Walking economy is defined as " The rate of O2 consumed per distance covered during walking, which is related to ambulatory biomechanics and cardiac burden. "    So we are thinking about how much oxygen it takes to walk a distance, which of course is related to the  amount of energy that you need to burn to cover that distance.  It is about the efficiency of your gait.  We are back to  walking  as a skill.  The more skilled you are at walking, the more  efficient  you will be, the less energy each step will take. You can get more efficient by practising walking....obviously and skill conditioning is always important, but you can also improve walking economy by getting stronger!  Stronger muscles are more efficient.   You can appreciate that weak, flaccid muscles will waste energy in move...

wow

We often read, and I have often pointed to, reports which stress the importance of sleep to health in general, but also to weight maintenance.    We also read of the dangers of sitting down too much -  our sedentary life is totally unnatural and stressful. I just read this post , where a researcher brings those 2 ideas together - instead of watching your TV...take a nap.  Sleep through the programmes!  Sleep is better than just sitting.... Dr Buman’s work focuses on the relationship between physical activity, sedentary behaviour, sleep and health, and his talk was on a new cross-sectional study which examined the potential health impact of replacing time spent sitting down (e.g. sedentary behaviour) with light activity, moderate-to-vigorous activity, or even sleep. Not surprisingly, he found that replacing sitting time with moderate or vigorous physical activity provides the biggest health benefit.  However,  his analysis of the National Healt...

I have great admiration for ultra runners.  I follow a number of them via twitter and facebook and each year get excited when the West Highland Way Race is happening.   Still, I am not convinced that they are healthy! Extensive inflammatory cell infiltration in human skeletal muscle in response to an ultra-endurance exercise bout in experienced athletes. In conclusion, a low-intensity but very prolonged single endurance exercise bout can generate a strong inflammatory cell infiltration in skeletal muscle of well-trained experienced ultra-endurance athletes, and the amplitude of the local reaction is not proportional to the systemic inflammatory response.

.... is the name of an excellent book....by Alex Hutchinson but also the subject of this study that indicates that cardio before weights might not be as bad as we tend to think.   Then again... .is there any such thing as cardio? Aerobic exercise does not compromise muscle hypertrophy response to short-term resistance training. Abstract This study tested the hypothesis that chronic aerobic and resistance exercise (AE+RE) would elicit greater muscle hypertrophy than resistance exercise only (RE). Ten men (25±4 yrs) performed 5 wks unilateral knee extensor AE+RE. The opposing limb was subjected to RE. AE completed 6 hrs prior to RE, consisted of ~45 min one-legged cycle ergometry. RE comprised 4 x 7 maximal concentric-eccentric knee extensions. Various indices of in vivo knee extensor function were measured before and after training. Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) assessed m. quadricep femoris (QF) cross-sectional area (CSA), volume, and signal intensity (SI). Biopsie...