Conditioning Research

The basics It is science but not rocket science.  We need to stop trying to make all of this health and fitness stuff more complicated and difficult than it needs to be.  Be generally active, minimise sitting time, stand and walk whenever you can.  Do some resistance training and vigorous "aerobic" activity.  Work hard and progressively on both so that you stimulate adaptation.  Rest enough to grow and recover so that you improve.  Pay attention to safety. Stay mobile enough to squat and sit on the floor.  Diet is responsible for your  bodyweight, not exercise. It is not about the tools Not mentioned: the tools or the protocols.....because lots of things will work.  The tools: machines, bodyweight exercise,  barbells.  The protocols: one set to failure, 3x8-12,  5x5, Reverse Pyramid etc. intervals or a 400m run.  They are not the important concerns.   Lift stuff, sprint, recover.  Ju...

This gets pretty scary

I've been reading The Cure for Everything by Timothy Caulfield, in which he examines myths about health and fitness and debunks a fair few of them.  I am enjoying it.  If you are knee deep in the blogosphere and the various research then not much will be new to you, but the guy writes well.  The establishment position - although not yet what is hitting the media - is pretty settled: You need to do resistance training High Intensity Interval Training is efficient and effecting Fat loss is about a calorie deficit I liked this quote: You should assess every fitness claim - whether it is about a new form of exercise or an amazing new product - by first asking yourself this question: does anyone benefit financially from creating the perception that this works? If the answer is yes, adopt an attitude of healthy scepticism. 

I just wanted to point to a couple of interesting things I'd come across today on running form.  It is weird how what was once a strange underground phenomenon in the darker recesses of the internet has become almost mainstream.  There are now loads of minimal / zero drop / barefoot shoes on the market, as the shoe manufacturers spotted a new market to exploit. A colleague at work was out for a walk at lunchtime today and - remember it is the depths of a cold snowy winter - when he came back he said that he'd seen a guy out running on the street barefoot.  Then when I was on my own way home tonight, I saw a couple running towards me both with Vibram 5 fingers on. All this minimal / barefoot stuff has hit the mainstream and those of us that were highlighting it years ago have been proved right.....or have we? Nothing is ever as simple as that.  There is undoubtedly a marketing opportunity in minmal sh...

This is good

This blog has been getting a bit quieter of late.  My work has been taking a lot of my focus but also I've been reassessing what I post here and why.   I have been posting fewer of the scientific abstracts that I used to put up.  I have realised that I am not always familiar enough with the science to comment accurately on what I am reading.  There are others who do a great job - Adel at Suppversity or Chris Beardsley for example.  I may still put studies up here, but for the in depth analysis, you need to look elsewhere. I suppose that one of the themes recently has been my own progress and experience. Christmas and New Year saw me add about 7 lbs in weight - fat mostly - as I loosened up on my diet for a couple of weeks.   Back into a routine again, things are settling down and I am returning to where I was at the end of December. My training stays the same: I walk for about 3 miles a day: either to or from work plus time at lunch; I train i...