Conditioning Research

I've added a new page to the Hillfit Website - the Hillfit Manifesto .  The aim is to explain what it is all about, to summarise the drive behind the book. Check it out and let me know what you think

The ebook is getting closer.....Final edit is under way and there are a few more photos to take. 

www.hillfit.com I mentioned the other day that I have written an ebook on strength training for hikers / hillwalkers / backpackers.  My aim was to get it up for sale in the next week to catch all the new year "get fit" resolutions.  It is about 50 pages and centres around a short bodyweight / calisthenic HIT style routine. Writing an ebook sounds straightforward and to be honest it didn't take me that long to rattle it off.  However, what is taking longer is editing and getting the presentation right.  I've sent a draft  /  review copy around a few friends and contracts and some of them have come back with great comments and testimonials.  I also gave a copy to my partner who is a professional scientist and science writer. ( Also available for any editing / proof reading work if any of you need an expert .)   She is going through it with a fresh eye as an editor and making sure that the whole thing is consistent in style, language, layout and ...

Sorry that this blog is quiet - I've been writing up some hillwalking trips on my other blog.   Here is a video of where I was a week or so ago:  Blaven on the Isle of Skye I am also thinking through the next hillfit article for TGO.  It will be on the proper tecnique for walking....taking some ideas from POSE

As I said in the last post , I am just back from a week hillwalking in the Highlands.  I've been spending some time writing up the week's walks on my other blog - Cairn in the Mist - where I record my walks and more. Looking to Skye The other thing going on is the articles that I am writing for TGO magazine - a UK backpacking and hillwalking magazine.  The series is called Hillfit and I am trying to apply the sort of paleo / evolutionary fitness stuff that we talk about here to a more mainstream audience.  It is quite a struggle to translate these ideas into something that actually reads well as a stand alone introductory article.  I know that there is something overarching, a meta narrative (effectively the primal blueprint ), but I am not sure that this is coming across in the articles. The first one was an introduction to the philosophy.  The second - yet to be published  - was on interval training, mentioning Gibala's research and explaning how ...

I  have mentioned the Hillfit pieces that I am working on.  Thay have got me studying a varirty of interesting things as background for the different articles.  For example, Keith Norris post the other days got me reading things about the theories around muscle hypertrophy.  Keith pointed to a fascinating study ( abstract ) which Tom Kelso summarised here . Anyway that is not the point. The complexities of that got me thinking.  Exercise science is complicated.  As you delve deeper into the biology of it all things get ever more complex.  Metabolism and the cell biology is deep and difficult but also wonderful ( check out this video )  Muscle growth is driven by mechanical loading of the muscle, metabolic stress and muscle damage / trauma.  The precise pathways get more and more complex the deeper you look. However sometimes I wonder how much you need to understand.   In the afterword to Art Devany's book Nassim Taleb talks...

I've already mentioned that I have got a monthly column in a UK hillwalking / backpacking  magazine - TGO It is called Hillfit.  I will share some of the ideas here occaisionally.  The paradigm that I am promoting is: A template – the Hillfit Paradigm There is science behind what I recommend, but be aware that the same data can be interpreted differently depending on the presumptions of the reader. I will present a paradigm through which to view the data, to make sense of what you see. Let’s apply a “template”: “Hillfit” : minimal, foundational and functional. Minimal – getting the maximum effect from a minimum investment of time and effort. Most of us have jobs and families. Time and money are precious. We will be efficient. Foundational – What are we built for? How were we designed to move? Looking from the perspective of our ancestors, who for example would have walked or run but rarely jogged, many fitness programmes are too regimented and use “unnat...

Now my work has quietened down I'll be turning back to this blog more seriously. My focus for a while will be formulating ideas for my hillfit articles

Here is some of my current thinking: A template – the Hillfit Paradigm There is science behind what I will recommend, but science is fickle – the same data can often be read differently depending on the presumptions of the scientist. You need a paradigm under which to view the data, a lens to give some sense to what you see. I’ll be discussing through my own template. “Hillfit” is essential, foundational and functional . Essential – we are looking at efficiency and economy. Getting the most effect from a minimum investment of time and effort. It is Lighten up all over again! Foundational – coming back to basics about what is natural? What are we built for? How were we designed to move? There is a lot to learn here and modern fitness prescriptions - uniform and regimented - are often “unnatural” from the perspective of our ancestors who randomly would walk or run but not jog. Functional – Training is not an end in itself. It should facilitate FUN! My ideas might m...

I have been asked to write a series of articles in a UK backpacking magazine on fitness.  I might use this blog as a place to record some of the ideas that I want to remember to include.  It is hard because there is so much to say.  Yet the focus I want is simplicity.  The template I am using is Efficiency - best bang for buck, do more with less Fun -  fitness facilitates fun, more important than fancy gear Nature - doing what we are built for / designed for (the whole EvFt / paleo thing) In effect it will be sprints / simple calisthenics (slow or statics) for metabolic conditioning / strength and then developing the skill of walking.....and it is a skill. There will also be something on looking at what works, not what the successful do.  The successful can be such despite their training. I am taking some ideas from lightweight backpacking too: use of appropriate technology (e.g sprints) efficiency - use what you need, multipurpose gear c...