Conditioning Research

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...

No meaning to the photo....I just like it More Less or Enough? How about re calibrating our attitude towards diet and exercise to one which is focused on the idea of enough? So often in both diet and exercise we find ourselves at an extreme.  More and more of this and less and less of that.  What would happen if we shifted to a focus on sufficiency? Instead of trying to achieve less or more how about aiming for enough? Relax a little. Instead of pushing at the limits live in the middle for a while.  What do I mean? Try to use the word enough a little more.   Eat less and move more?  No eat enough and move enough.  Get more sleep?  Get enough (to wake up rested) Eat more protein? No eat enough (to repair and grow) Eat fewer carbs? No eat enough carbs (to fuel your activity) Eat less fat. No eat enough fat (to keep healthy hormone production) You get the idea Get less stress. No get enough( hormesis) ...

I saw this news story earlier today that blew me away a bit: New Ligament Discovered‬ In the Human Knee Two knee surgeons at University Hospitals Leuven have discovered a previously unknown ligament in the human knee. This ligament appears to play an important role in patients with anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) tears. I find it amazing that anatomists are still finding new structures in the human body.  We tend to think that science knows what are bodies are made of...but there is a new ligament.  This is really exciting! I went to an exhibition recently of Leonardo DaVinci's anatomy and dissection sketches that was really interesting, showing him to be centuries ahead of his time in terms of his knowledge of anatomy and his ability in terms of dissection.  One of the points of the show was that science is only now catching up with the things that DaVinci discovered in his studies.