Conditioning Research

A great interest of mine is hillwalking in the Scottish mountains and so I read a few blogs related to that. One of them is by a funny writer PTC who as well as being a plumber also tests and reviews outdoor gear. Today he was talking about a new source of Jerky that he had found. Locally produced from decent animals - venison is as grass-fed as it gets. Great for snacks during long walks /climbs and a lot better than a bar of chocolate or some peanuts. Beef Jerky and Venison Jerky from the Highlands of Scotland : Produced from prime Scotch Beef and wild Highland Venison , Delivered directly to you! Jerky is a low fat, low carbohydrate, high protein tasty snack that you eat straight from the pack. We produce beef jerky and venison jerky in four great flavours, in the Highlands of Scotland, using 100% pure Scottish grass fed cattle and wild deer reared on Highland estates. We slice our beef jerky pieces straight from whole pieces of topside and venison jerky from top grade haunches...

Here is another piece of research into intermittent fasting (IF) . If you have read the various studies on this that I have already put up here and also considered the experiences of those undertaking occasional short fasts (18-36hours) you will have noted that in addition to the obvious fact that you consume fewer calories through fasting there are also key hormonal mechanisms that are activated by fasting, mechanisms that have a lot of health benefits. This study follows up on the previous studies that have shown that IF can protect against cancer. Effect of every-other-day fasting on spontaneous chromosomal damage in rat's bone-marrow cells. Dietary restriction in experimental rodents, either by calorie restriction (CR) or by every-other-day fasting (EODF), was shown to protect against cancer and increase lifespan. One of the suggested hypotheses to explain the beneficial effects of dietary restriction is that the diet stabilizes the integrity of the genetic information. The ...

an oly lifter called Shane Hamman

The LA Times had a couple of articles on Intermittent Fasting today. Fasting strategies and pitfalls For some, it was trial and error before finding the right regimen. The benefits go beyond losing weight. Running on empty: the pros and cons of fasting Fasting restricts calories and may benefit your body. Is it a safe way to lose weight? As ever I tend to point to Brad Pilon's Eat Stop Eat as a great introduction to the science behind fasting.

Recently I have been doing more and more mobility training. Lots of times it is just Maxwell's Daily Dozen but more often I will use Scott Sonnon's Intu-Flow moves, many of which are in a free ebook . After mentioning my use of Intu-flow, Adam Steer got in touch and offered to write a post explaining a bit more about this system and how it integrates with other physical training. I agreed, happy to learn more about the background to this system. Thanks Adam! Here is the post: The Circular Strength Training® System’s Integrated Approach To Joint Mobility & Health In my early teens, my grandfather did everything he could to encourage me to participate in sports and physical conditioning. As he put it, he was trying to keep me out of trouble, but he set me on a path of physical culture which has shaped my personal and professional life ever since. A fascination with movement and with physical development led me first to a career as a ski coach. Then, as I contin...

Interval training. Periods of harder exercise separated by periods of rest or easy movement. I've written about it a lot on this blog. Over the last 10 years or so it has been touted at the panacea to all training problems. If you google "tabata" you find over 2 million pages. Admittedly lots of these are about Japanese people called Mr Tabata, but most are about the exercise protocol. In some corners of the internet there has been a bit of a backlash recently, with people like Mark Twight and Rob Shaul noting that while intervals can do a lot to benefit aerobic capacity, if you want to go long, sometimes you will need to train long too. ( I point to some of the discussion here ). There was even a study recently that I saw some people jump on to say that intervals were nothing special or at least that they had been over hyped. Effect of High Intensity Interval Exercise on Lipid Oxidation during post exercise recovery The scientists compared intervals with a steady...

As we have been saying already . Dr Briffa here discusses the danger of cutting your cholesterol .... and there is also this new review of the nasty adverse effects of statins: First comprehensive paper on statins' adverse effects released: Provides evidence for reported side effects including muscle and cognitive problems "The risk of adverse effects goes up as age goes up, and this helps explain why," said Golomb. "This also helps explain why statins' benefits have not been found to exceed their risks in those over 70 or 75 years old, even those with heart disease." High blood pressure and diabetes are linked to higher rates of mitochondrial problems, so these conditions are also clearly linked to a higher risk of statin complications, according to Golomb and co-author Marcella A. Evans, of UC San Diego and UC Irvine Schools of Medicine.