Sports and Fitness Science

Interesting free apps

noreply@blogger.com (Dr. Marco Cardinale) — Sat, 28 Jan 2012 18:49:00 +0000

Here is a quick article to share with you some recent apps I have been using/trying. The first one is an app developed by Philips called Vital signs which works on an Ipad 2.

The Vital Signs App by Philips, allows for heart rate and breathing rate analysis. Simply place an iPad 2 on a table in a well lit room , place your face inside the box on screen and the app will determine your heart rate and breathing rate.

Heart rate is actually calculated by comparing the tiny changes in colour of your face which occurs as a result of changes in blood flow. The measurement of breathing rates occur via simply detecting and counting the rise and fall of the users’ chest.

The accuracy seems to be pretty good in well lit areas and in normal breathing conditions. I will do more testing in the next few weeks and present some results here.

The other very interesting app is again free and has been developed by Dr. Grant Abt called Training load. Training load allows anyone to record and track the 'dose' of exercise for a single person with two common methods used by sport and exercise scientists - Session-RPE and the Training Impulse (TRIMP). Both methods integrate training intensity and training duration into a single number (arbitrary unit) representing the overall dose of training. The app allows the storage and sharing of the training data and it is completely free. Training load is available on the apple store and works on iphone and ipod touch.

Tapping on 'View Graph' will display the data as both individual sessions (labelled DAILY) and as weekly totals (labelled WEEKLY). The weekly graph for TRIMP also displays the percentage change from the previous week. The weekly graph for Session-RPE also displays the monotony, percentage change from the previous week, and strain. Monotony is a value that describes the variation in the training load, with higher values representing less variation.

Strain is calculated as load x monotony and displayed on the weekly graph as a black circle connected with lines. Strain represents the combined value of load and monotony, so if the load is high and there is little variation in that load then the strain will be high.

The monotony values are colour-coded green (good), orange (caution), or red (danger). As for monotony, the percentage change in weekly loads are colour-coded to show the magnitude of change - green (optimal), orange (high), and red (too high).

It works really well and it is a simple free tool to track the training dose and the perception of loading of your athletes wherever they are.

End of the year reflections and thank you!

noreply@blogger.com (Dr. Marco Cardinale) — Fri, 30 Dec 2011 09:55:00 +0000

We are fast approaching the end of 2011 and another year of blogging is also gone by.

This blog started for fun, mainly to provide freely accessible information for coaches and sports scientists around the World in a simple format and possibly using multimedia. I try to keep it going also because I realised it is a good way to reach students and young practitioners as well as being a good platform for debate on many topics. This year I also joined Twitter and started to link social media with the blog in order to offer more and also be able to debate topical issues in sports and exercise sciences.

This year I also used the blog to write a letter in response to an ill-informed newspaper article and received some amazing feedback. Thank you not only for reading the letter but also for supporting my view that that piece of work was really a lot of non-sense.

The blog has grown an incredible following very fast since starting it in 2009. This means that whatever I write is of interest and hopefully stimulates more ideas in other parts of the World. This is exactly what I wanted from the blog. Develop a platform rather than a forum for discussions. The Internet is full of places to discuss and debate, I prefer this place to be somewhere to read something interesting and use it as a starting point, a stimulus to read further and find out more.

This year the blog received 27,668 visits from 145 countries. A lot more visits and countries than last year. I can only say thank you to you all. I am humbled by such interest in what I have to say.

I hope to have the time to keep writing something useful and interesting in 2012. I have few ideas and hope time will be on my side. Next year will be an interesting one professionally, with the Olympic Games in London. I have learnt so much in the last few years having to work towards a “home” Olympic game and will share some ideas and concepts on these pages when possible.

I wish you all a productive and exciting 2012 and thank you again for coming back to visit this blog so often.

Will it make the boat go faster?

noreply@blogger.com (Dr. Marco Cardinale) — Thu, 29 Dec 2011 20:06:00 +0000

This is not only a great question, it is also the title of a brilliant book from Ben Hunt-Davis and Harriet Beveridge.

Ben is a good friend and colleague at the British Olympic Association. We work in the same department with different roles but with the same aim: helping our athletes and coaches in their quest for Olympic success. Ben is an Olympic Gold Medallist from Sydney Olympics. In this book he writes about his story and how his team was able to win Gold. Most of all, describes the techniques used by him and his crew in preparation for the Olympics. It is a true description of the difficulties of working as a team to reach a goal and accomplish something great.

Ben’s story is brilliant because it shows how a pretty normal guy willing to put a lot of hard work into something can accomplish amazing things in pretty much everything. The Book is divided in 12 chapters. In each chapter there is the story and then a summary with some practical applications of the techniques discussed in the real life example of the winning men’s eight rowing team.

It is easy to read and easy to follow as well as packed with some useful and easy concepts to be applied in every activity. The main motto is the one making the title of this book. In fact, in Ben’s terms everything we do should always be questioned to make sure it impacts on the most important outcomes. In his example, everything was about making the boat go faster. Every activity was questioned and only the ones able to help making the boat go faster was implemented.

Working in high performance sport I can say that we are swamped with possibilities and solutions for our athletes. However we should always look at the impact of every activity (training method, technology, nutritional intervention, logistics etc.) on the end result. Most of all at the likelihood of a positive impact versus the effort needed to implement it. So, since working with Ben, I have adopted and use a lot his usual question in everything I do: “will it make the boat go faster?”.

So if you want to know more, get a copy of this book, I am sure there will be some useful lessons to be learnt and a great story to read.

You cannot be serious!

noreply@blogger.com (Dr. Marco Cardinale) — Tue, 06 Dec 2011 12:57:00 +0000

I have a day off today. I am supposed to chill out and try to avoid work at all costs. There will be few of such days before we get to the Olympics in London so I should make the most of it.

When I am off work, I read. This is what i like to do, reading and learning. I could read for hours about anything and everything. I never get bored.

Today I decided to scan the press first. My fault. I grew up thinking that journalism was about reporting the truth and/or writing evidence-based opinions. We all know this is not the case anymore. Despite sparse moments of well written brilliance, we are now inundated by a sea of absolute and utter bullshit. As well as non-sense involving celebrities being famous for God knows what.

In the sea of badly written nonsense, I came across this one written by Liz Jones on the Daily Mail. Liz is a British Journalist and writer currently writing columns for the Daily Mail, The Mail on Sunday and British Airways' High Life Magazine.

Liz is a woman of style. In fact she writes about fashion mostly. This time her column is about sport and physical activity. Her piece on the Daily Mail is entitled: “Sinewy arms are NOT a good thing - and neither is sport”. It is well written and has style, just like every piece Liz has written. There is only one problem with it: it is so badly wrong and full of nonsense that deserves some serious comments. So serious that I decided to write about this on my blog rather than spending my day off with a good book in hand. It actually deserves a letter, but letters to editors or newspapers most of the times end up in bins, and online comments get lost. So my letter will be on this blog.

I suggest the readers of my blog to read the article and make their mind up. This article on my blog is a reflection of my opinion and I may be wrong, but I decided to put it here anyway. Liz’s article pretty much states that “athletes could have spent their precious time more productively reading or studying maths or helping people rather than exercising” or “ Sport in school is the worst thing you can possibly inflict on children”.

So, here it is.

Dear Liz,

I came across your article on the Daily Mail online entitled “Sinewy arms are NOT a good thing - and neither is sport”. One of the coaches I work with shared the link on twitter (so it’s his fault really!) and I could not resist spending some time reading it. I read it with interest, just like everything I read. However, after few lines of hope, I was hit with your statements and opinions. I am not going to comment on your views about one of our greatest athletes “not being seen as a great advertisement for young women who might be thinking about taking up a sport”. Simply because you totally missed the point.

Sport is about hard work and sacrifice. I grew up being taught that hard work and sacrifice will always make you a better person. I believe in it, this is what I try to teach my son. Physical exercise and sport are about hard work and commitment. Healthy diets are about commitment and hard work. So when someone develops the “sinewy arm” as you call it, after hard work, sacrifice and commitment, without the help of illegal and harmful drugs should not been condemned about being a bad advertisement for young people. It should actually be considered a positive model.

The above is not what worries me, Liz. It is the rest of the article that worries me. An intelligent woman like you, which clearly spent a lot of time reading, studying maths or helping people instead of doing sport should not have been overcome by emotions when writing the article. You seemed to have had quite a sad experience with school sport. I read about your terrible experiences in running in a sea of mud while playing hockey in the winter or your vomit-inducing cross country efforts. Not something I recommend to anyone. What worries me is you being humiliated in public when running cross country. I am not sure about the quality of the physical education programme in Essex at the time you were at school. But I am not aware of public humiliation being part of a cross-country competition. Also, the vomiting bit is not a mandatory experience in a cross country race. It is something which can happen for a variety of reasons, such as stress, wrong timing and content of a meal and lack of training as well as trying to run too fast. I am sure it was a bad experience, but it was your own. I am sure some appropriate advice on what to eat and when as well as more regular exercise would have made your experience a lot better.

Swimming was outside in the cold, gym on thin rubber mats, and in Netball and you were the small one pushed aside by the “bigger girls”. It was tough for sure. It sounds in fact so bad, I urge you to tell us what School you are talking about. It seems to me that a school with such poor standards in physical education and sport could have done some real damage also to your reading and doing maths experience. Your words reinforce even more what I think. I think there should be more money going into school sport. More money to make sure the swimming pools are warm, hockey is played on astroturf instead of mud and women get more choice than just netball (maybe handball, volleyball and basketball if they are into indoor team sports). Most of all, more money should be invested in improving the PE curriculum, the quality of teachers and the possibilities for every child to practice the sport of choice.

Your avoidance of swimming lessons was a choice. A choice you and your mum made. A choice which has not given you the opportunity to appreciate the joys of swimming and the ability to do it safely.

Condemning school sport and physical activity is dangerous and wrong. Your bad experiences don’t necessarily mean that sport in school is everywhere as bad as yours was. Most of all you should know what the consequences of unhealthy sedentary lifestyle are in order to understand better what could be the consequences of what you write.

A woman of knowledge like you should have spent some time doing research. You had been spending a lot of time reading at school after all. Hence, you should know where to find the information. Let me help you. Here are some of the stats about obesity and physical activity published by the NHS.

If you cannot be bothered reading the NHS data, read the summary above and the last point very carefully.

As you can see Liz, kids are getting bigger and bigger. And they are more likely to get overweight if their parents don’t do any physical activity. This is not bad news for how they will look like. It is incredibly bad news for their future health and the taxes you and me pay. If you are interested in serious science (the one you can find in a University library) you should look at this work published on Lancet (one of the most prestigious medical journals). But I am a generous man. I will do the work for you. Here is what you need to know: "the combined medical costs associated with the treatment of obesity are estimated to increase by £1·9-2 billion/year in the UK by 2030".

That’s a lot of money Liz. Money that me and you will have to generate paying taxes.

I like to pay taxes to improve the quality of life, not to fix errors made in policies and choices. I would like to think that the money I pay provides better libraries, better schools, better roads, safer environments for kids to express their talents and better sports and exercise facilities and coaching. Better medicine, better access to arts. Are you keen to spend your taxes on kids that did not do any physical activity at school, Liz? Are you seriously happy for young people not to understand the importance of a healthy lifestyle, physical activity and diet?

Liz, sport, exercise and diet are all part of a healthy lifestyle you should learn in school. Just like reading and maths. Schools should educate young people not only about using one organ of their body (the brain) but the rest of it as well. We humans, in fact have bodies. This is what we use every day. We use our bodies to move, communicate, work and express ourselves. Bodies are not only a means of transport for the brains. We need to take care of them in order to have longevity and quality of life. Sport and exercise don’t do good only to your body. They do a lot of good to your brain as well, in particular when combined with healthy diets.

Schools and parents can accomplish amazing things if they work together. A recent paper published by Swedish scientists has shown that it is possible to promote a healthy lifestyle and a normal weight development among children from low-income districts with relatively limited efforts involving parents.

Unfit kids are bad news not only for their bodies. A recent study published on Medicine and Science in Sports and Exercise suggested that lower-fit children showed poorer recognition memory performance than higher-fit children in some memory tasks. And you should also read a recent review which clearly summarises currently published research in stating that moderate physical activity is important for youth whose brains are highly plastic and perhaps even more critical for young people with physical disability. Or this one which suggests that evidence shows small but consistent associations between sedentary screen time and poorer mental health. Physical activity and sport also have a positive influence on self-esteem, Liz (again for a scientific review, see here). So, what you wrote about avoiding sport is dangerous and wrong.

I have a kid Liz, and I care. This is why I am writing this. When I leave him at the school door every morning, I hope his teachers will ignite his passion for many things. I hope he enjoys every minute he is using his brain and his body and I hope he develops as a confident, competent and most of all healthy individual. I hope he competes in sport to learn about winning and losing, to learn about respect and hard work, to admire other people’s abilities and develop his own to his maximum, to make friends, to travel and see the world and to meet other people which share his passions. This is what sport gave me and I never got anywhere near winning an Olympic medal as an athlete.

In the last part of your article you then state that today you have to be huge, focused, boring and sponsored to the hilt. I am not sure how you can get it so badly wrong. Allow me to help you again and direct you towards useful information. Your reading abilities will come handy when learning about the athletes training every day with no financial support or sponsors in many Olympic sports (here, here, here, here).

Finally, you state that “The Government and Seb Coe might want us all to run around of a Sunday morning, freezing, but these extremes of excellence are not good for us, surely?”.

Liz, the extremes of excellence give us the inspiration we need in every field. I am sure at some point you must have admired an excellent writer. Someone able to win the Pulitzer prize.

I am not sure where your passion lies. I hope you like arts. Just like the extreme of excellence of Picasso or Leonardo Da Vinci tell us that we will never be as good as them in painting, we should still enjoy doing it and be inspired by them as well as admiring what they accomplished.

In sport, in this country, we are blessed with talent. People who work hard every single day to reach excellence. Excellence which inspires and will inspire our children to work hard every day to be best they can be in every field and in everything they do. So, Liz, if you don’t fancy running in the cold mornings (I don’t do it either!), there are lots of other things you can do which will do a lot of good to your health.

However, if you can’t be bothered to exercise or have problems with sports, don’t demonise it, as our health bill is soaring already and we don’t need further incentives.

Lastly, it is probably worthwhile letting you know that many athletes don’t only exercise a lot their bodies. They exercise their brains too and do reading, maths and help people. If you are short of examples, read something about Katherine Grainger and Tim Brabants. You will find out that their “sinewy” arms have been also used for studying and helping people.

Great talk

noreply@blogger.com (Dr. Marco Cardinale) — Fri, 25 Nov 2011 20:20:00 +0000

Dr. Ross Tucker, the author of blog “The Science of Sport” gave a great talk at UKSEM in London yesterday.

I could not attend sadly, but the slides and the relevant information are available on his blog.

Sports Science in 2011 UKSEM on Prezi

He used a fantastic tool to deliver his presentation called Prezi. You can check it our here. It is free if you share your presentations online. It looks like a brilliant software, I have decided to learn how to use it to prepare my next presentations.

Science, scientific papers and the Internet universe

noreply@blogger.com (Dr. Marco Cardinale) — Wed, 23 Nov 2011 23:22:00 +0000

The Internet is a wonderful place, where everyone can freely communicate and write and discuss pretty much about everything. Freedom is a great thing, sadly it also poses its risks. In fact pretty much everyone can put up a website and become a self proclaimed expert in everything as well as writing about sensational theories and claim they have invented something. Last but not least, a website can also be a place where you can pretty much claim you know it all and everyone one else is wrong as well as claim magic effects of applications of your theories. I came across few of these, where self-proclaimed experts with no qualifications try to sell everything, from miraculous training methods, to super-foods and supplement to amazing exercise machines as well as selling their own pseudo-expertise.

(This image is copyright of Ben Tremblay, read his wonderful blog here)

This is all possible simply because everyone can write whatever they want on a website or blog without undergoing the peer review process which is the basis of a scientific publication. I can use this blog in fact to write whatever I want and I totally control the content. However my aim is to write and discuss scientific matters related to sport providing my views on particular issues and/or reporting some interesting (to me) findings published in the scientific literature.

I don’t propose wacky theories, I don’t claim to be the only person on the planet with all the right answers and I don’t plan to build some cargo cult science following unlike so many individuals on the internet.

Some people in fact have websites where they criticize everything and everyone, they claim to have the right theories and they claim to have made inventions as well as stating that scientists (the ones that publish on scientific peer reviewed journals!) don’t get it, are wrong and don’t understand what they are talking about. But such people have never published anything anywhere, have never patented an invention and most of the times do not even have a basic degree in the field.

In this post I want to explain what is a scientific publication, what is the process needed to get a paper published and how a scientific paper looks like.

Scientific literature comprises scientific publications that report original empirical and theoretical work in the natural and social sciences. Scientific research on original work initially published in scientific journals is called primary literature. Patents and technical reports, for minor research results and engineering and design work (including computer software) can also be considered primary literature. Secondary sources include articles in review journals (which provide a synthesis of research articles on a topic to highlight advances and new lines of research), and books for large projects, broad arguments, or compilations of articles. Tertiary sources might include encyclopedias and similar works intended for broad public consumption.

A blog or a website is not considered (quite rightly) scientific literature or a scientific publication. None of the articles I write on this blog can be considered scientific literature.

What is the process to get a paper published on a scientific journal and how long does it take?
The process is quite long and sometimes it can take years from the idea to the publication on a scientific journal.

The basic criterion is that there is a formalized process of peer-review prior to publication – so this presents a barrier to publication that acts as a quality control filter. Typically, the journal editor will give a submitted paper to a small number of qualified peers – recognized experts in the relevant field. The reviewers will then submit detailed criticism of the paper along with a recommendation to reject, accept with major revisions, accept with minor revisions, or accept as is. It is rare to get an acceptance as is on the first round.

The editor also reviews the paper, and may break a tie among the reviewers or add their own comments.

The process, although at times painful, is quite useful in not only checking the quality of submitted work, but improving the quality. A reviewer, for example, may point out prior research the authors did not comment on, or may point our errors in the paper which can be fixed.

This is not a perfect process but at least creates some filter to information. I am and have been a reviewer to hundreds of manuscripts submitted for publication to various journals and always strived to provide a fair and constructive review as well as rejecting work which was not of the right quality.

The value of a scientific publication goes beyond the simple benefit of being filtered by peer review. It’s also a way to communicate your ideas to your scientific peers, and invite them to express an informed view as well as using your findings to advance knowledge in the field.

Peer review is not always perfect. Peer review is often represented as some kind of policing system for truth, but in reality, some dreadful nonsense gets published, and mercifully so: dubious and low quality material can sometimes get published; then the academic readers of this literature, who are trained to critically appraise a scientific case, can make their own judgement. This is the real stage of review in my view.

After publication other scientists will decide. If there are flaws in your case, responses can be written, as letters, or even whole new papers. If there is merit in your work, then new ideas and research will be triggered and your work gets cited. That is the real process of science.

Structure of a scientific paper

The first part is normally an abstract; this is a short summary of the work, and is intended to serve as a guide for determining if the articles is pertinent, and to furnish subject metadata for indexing services.

Abstracts should be read only when trying to find pertinent articles. The real information is NEVER in the abstract. If you only read abstracts you have not read the paper, you don’t know anything about the details of the experiment.

The content is presented in the context of previous scientific investigations, by citation of relevant documents in the existing literature, in a section called an "Introduction".

This section helps the reader in setting the scene, presenting current state of the art and leading the reader to the hypothesis of the research project,

Empirical techniques, laid out in a section usually called "Materials and Methods", are described in such a way that a subsequent scientist, with appropriate knowledge of and experience in the relevant field, should be able to repeat the observations and know whether he or she has obtained the same result.

The methods section allows the reader to understand what happened as well as read the research design and the statistical techniques used.

The results of the investigation, in a section usually called "Results", are presented in tabular or graphic form (image, chart, schematic, diagram or drawing) as well as text.

Interpretation of the meaning of the results is usually addressed in a "Discussion" and/or "Conclusion" section. The conclusions drawn should be based on previous literature and/or new empirical results, in such a way that any reader with knowledge of the field can follow the argument and confirm that the conclusions are sound.

Conclusions must not depend on personal authority, rhetorical skill, or faith but should be based on the results.

Finally, a "References" or "Literature Cited" section lists the primary sources cited by the authors in the format required by the journal.

Lessons

When reading information on the internet try to understand where it is coming from. When you want to know and understand more, always go to the primary sources. Don’t read only the abstract, try to get the full paper and read and study each section to understand the details. Make your mind up and read again, sometimes you might miss important points or relevant papers cited.

New article published

noreply@blogger.com (Dr. Marco Cardinale) — Wed, 16 Nov 2011 08:00:00 +0000

This paper relates is the result of a research collaboration with an Italian group and presents some preliminary findings on WBV in isolation or combined with strength training in female athletes. The most important findings relate to the behaviour of the WBV platform used in this study and the limitations in using such devices for performing strength training exercises with additional mass. Needless to say that more studies are needed with larger sample sizes to improve our understanding of the effectiveness of vibration exercise.

J Strength Cond Res. 2011 Nov 4. [Epub ahead of print]

The Effects of Whole Body Vibration in Isolation or Combined with Strength Training in Female Athletes.

Preatoni E, Colombo A, Verga M, Galvani C, Faina M, Rodano R, Preatoni E, Cardinale M.

Source

1 Sport, Health & Exercise Science, Department for Health, University of Bath, Bath (UK); 2 Dipartimento di Industrial Design, Arti, Comunicazioni e Moda (INDACO), Politecnico di Milano, Milan (Italy); 3 Dipartimento di Bioingegneria, Politecnico di Milano, Milan (Italy); 4 Corso di Laurea in Scienze Motorie, Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore, Milan (Italy); 5 Istituto di Medicina e Scienza dello Sport, CONI, Roma (Italy); 6 British Olympic Medical Institute, London (UK); 7 University of Aberdeen, School of Medical Sciences, Aberdeen (UK); 8 University College London, Division of surgical and interventional medicine, London (UK)
Abstract
The aims of this study were to assess the behaviour of a vibrating platform under different conditions and to compare the effects of an 8-weeks periodised training programme with whole body vibration (WBV) alone or in combination with conventional strength training.Vibrating frequencies, displacements and peak accelerations were tested through a piezoelectric accelerometer under different conditions of load and subjects' position. Eighteen national level female athletes were assigned to one of three different groups performing WBV, conventional strength training (ST), or a combination of the two (WBV+ST). Isometric maximal voluntary contraction, dynamic maximal concentric force, and vertical jump tests were performed before and after the conditioning programme.Vibrating displacements and maximum accelerations measured on the device were not always consistent with their expected values calculated from the display and manufacturers' information (sinusoidal waveforms). WBV alone or in combination with low intensity resistance exercise did not seem to induce significant enhancements in force and power when compared to ST.It appears that WBV cannot substitute parts of strength training loading in a cohort of young female athletes. However, vibration effects might be limited by the behaviour of the commercial platforms as the one used in the study. More studies are needed to analyse the performances of devices and the effectiveness of protocols

Analysing Twitter trends

noreply@blogger.com (Dr. Marco Cardinale) — Sun, 13 Nov 2011 17:29:00 +0000

Twitter is a fascinating tool. It is nowadays one of the best social media when it comes to speed and availability of information. I have been using it for few months now and I am amazed by the information available on twitter as well as how easy it is to communicate and reach a wide audience.

Of course with so much information available on twitter it is now possible to analyse what people write and if there are any trends in the data.

Some online solutions are available to analyse twitter feeds. Trendistic is a popular choice.

I started with some simple analysis of pain and stress to see if there is any pattern. In the last 180 days there seems to be not much fluctuation and constant reference to these words.

The same here with weightloss and strength.

Curiously, analysing the keyword tired, it seems that people are mostly expressing their tiredness in the morning rather than in the afternoon/evening after a long day at work.

So, it seems that we can now analyse people’s behavior studying their tweets. I have few ideas for applications with athletes. Will keep you posted after some longitudinal work.

Got milk?

noreply@blogger.com (Dr. Marco Cardinale) — Sun, 13 Nov 2011 15:39:00 +0000

This week I attended a great conference organised by the dairy council on milk and sport. The Dairy Council is a non-profit making organisation which provides science based information on the role of dairy foods as part of a healthy balanced diet and lifestyle. They organised a brilliant day which reinforced my ideas about milk in sport.

In recent times I have been reading a lot about milk, mainly because it is a something I like to drink a lot, but also because of some recent good research from close friends and colleagues. After having read the recent evidence, I am still puzzled why in too many sports it has not become standard practice to introduce milk as a post workout drink. As I mentioned in my previous post, I like basics. So in this post I will explain why milk consumption is a good idea for athletes (unless one is lactose intolerant).

First of all, what is milk? Milk is a white liquid produced by the mammary glands of mammals. It is the primary source of nutrition for young mammals before they are able to digest other types of food. Early-lactation milk contains colostrum.

Milk is an emulsion or colloid of butterfat globules within a water-based fluid that contains dissolved carbohydrates. The largest structures in the fluid portion of the milk are casein protein micelles: aggregates of several thousand protein molecules, bonded with the help of nanometer-scale particles of calcium phosphate. Milk contains dozens of other types of proteins beside the caseins. They are more water-soluble than the caseins and do not form larger structures. Because these proteins remain suspended in the whey left behind when the caseins coagulate into curds, they are collectively known as whey proteins. Whey proteins make up approximately 20% of the protein in milk, by weight.

The carbohydrate lactose gives milk its sweet taste and contributes approximately 40% of whole cow's milk's calories. Lactose is a disaccharide composite of two simple sugars, glucose and galactose.

Milk in the UK (generally cow's milk) is distinguishable by its fat content.

Whole or full-fat milk contains about 3.5 C fat
Semi-skimmed contains about 1.7 % fat
Skimmed milk contains 0.1 to 0.3 % fat

Contrary to popular belief, lowering the fat content in milk does not affect the calcium content, so an adequate calcium intake can still be obtained from lower-fat dairy products. However, low fat milk contains less energy and lower amounts of fat soluble vitamins and isn't suitable for children under two years.

Some supermarkets have now started selling milk with a 1 % fat content which has almost half the fat of semi-skimmed milk but retains a more creamy flavor. This is a good option for those people who want to lower the amount of fat they're consuming but don’t like the taste of skimmed milk.

This is the nutritional value of common milk brands in the UK.

Waitrose whole milk - Nutrition

Typical values	per 100ml	per 200ml serving
Energy	269kj	538kj
Energy	64kcal	129kcal
Protein	3.3g	6.6g
Carbohydrate	4.7g	9.4g
of which sugars	4.7g	9.4g
Fat	3.6g	7.2g
of which saturates	2.3g	4.6g
Fibre	0g	0g
Sodium	0.06g	0.12g
Calcium	119mg	238mg

Waitrose Organic Semi Skimmed - Nutrition

Typical values	per 100ml	per 200ml serving
Energy	201kj	402kj
Energy	47kcal	95kcal
Protein	3.6g	7.2g
Carbohydrate	4.8g	9.7g
of which sugars	4.8g	9.7g
Fat	1.7g	3.4g
of which saturates	1.1g	2.3g
Fibre	0g	0g
Sodium	0.04g	0.09g
Calcium	124mg	247mg

Cravendale Skimmed Milk - Nutrition:

Nutrient	per 100ml	per 200ml
Energy kCal	37kCal	74kCal
Energy kJ	156kJ	313kJ
Protein	3.6g	7.2g
Carbohydrate	4.9g	9.9g
of which sugars	4.9g	9.9g
Fat	0.3g	0.6g
of which saturates	0.1g	0.2g
Fibre	N/A	N/A
Sodium	N/A	N/A
Salt Equivalent	0.1g	0.2g

Milk to promote anabolism

It is unclear whether proteins from different sources induce a greater anabolic response after resistance exercise. Different milk proteins result in a different time course of hyper aminoacidemia (Boirie et al, Dangin et al.). Proteins, such as soy and whey, which are digested rapidly, lead to a large but transient rise in aminoacidemia, stimulate protein synthesis, and are referred to as "fast" proteins. By contrast, casein protein is considered a "slow" protein because it promotes a slower, more moderate, and longer lasting rise in plasma amino acids and does not stimulate protein synthesis, at least at the whole body level, but suppresses proteolysis (Borie et al). Many studies have suggested that, to promote an anabolic environment for muscle protein synthesis after resistive exercise, a supply of both fast dietary proteins, which stimulate protein synthesis, and slow dietary proteins, which suppress muscle protein breakdown, are recommended. Such a combination of fast and slow proteins is available in fluid bovine milk, which contains ≈80% casein and ≈20% whey protein by mass.

In an elegant study, Wilkinson et al. (2007) compared the effectiveness of skim milk versus an isonitrogenous and isoenergetic soy-protein beverage in promoting protein accretion after resistance exercise.

Both hyper aminoacidemia and resistance exercise have been shown to independently stimulate muscle protein synthesis. Further increases in muscle protein synthesis have been documented when combining resistance exercise with feeding.

In this experiment, the authors recruited 8 subjects well experienced in resistance exercise. The subjects performed 2 trials in random order separated by ≥1 wk. On each trial day, the participants received either a soy or milk beverage after a unilateral resistance exercise bout. The subjects performed a standardized leg workout, i.e., leg press, hamstring curl, and knee extension with a single leg. The workout consisted of 4 sets of each exercise, with 10 repetitions per set for the first 3 sets, and the last set to exhaustion. Exercise intensity was set at 80% of 1 RM with an interset rest period of 2 min. After the resistance exercise protocol was completed, blood samples and muscle biopsy samples were obtained from the vastus lateralis. The subjects then ingested (in a randomized single-blinded fashion) a 500-mL drink that contained either fluid nonfat milk or an isonitrogenous, isoenergetic, and macronutrient-matched soy-protein beverage (745 kJ, 18.2 g protein, 1.5 g fat, and 23 g carbohydrate as lactose for milk and as maltodextrin for the soy beverage). The drinks were made from commercially available isolated soy protein (GeniSoy, Fairfield, CA) or skim milk powder.

As we can see from the results below, drinking milk determined a larger increase in fractional synthetic rate of muscle proteins as compared to soy.

Mean (±SEM) fractional synthetic rate (FSR) of muscle proteins during the resistance exercise time period (Exercise) and 3 h after exercise and the consumption of a nonfat milk-protein beverage or an isonitrogenous, isoenergetic, macronutrient-matched (750 kJ, 18.2 g protein, 1.5 g fat, and 23 g carbohydrate) soy-protein beverage (3 h Recovery). *Significantly different from the soy group at the same time point, P< 0.05. ^†Significantly different from Exercise, P < 0.05. n = 8.

This happened despite the slightly larger increase in total amino acid concentration in whole blood caused by the soy-protein beverage.

Mean (±SEM) whole-blood total amino acid (TAA) concentrations after the consumption of a nonfat milk-protein beverage (•) or an isonitrogenous, isoenergetic, macronutrient-matched (750 kJ, 18.2 g protein, 1.5 g fat, and 23 g carbohydrate) soy-protein beverage (○).

However the chemical net balance of total amino acid remained higher with milk up until 180 minutes following exercise as compared to the soy-protein drink and there was also a greater area under the curve.

Mean (±SEM) total amino acid (TAA) chemical net balance (NB) after consumption of a nonfat milk-protein beverage (○) or an isonitrogenous, isoenergetic, macronutrient-matched (750 kJ, 18.2 g protein, 1.5 g fat, and 23 g carbohydrate) soy-protein beverage (•). Inset: positive area under the curve (AUC) for TAA NB after consumption of the milk or soy beverage.

The primary finding of the current study was that intact dietary proteins were able to support an anabolic environment for muscle protein accretion. The authors observed a significantly greater uptake of amino acids across the leg and a greater rate of muscle protein synthesis in the 3 h after exercise and milk-protein consumption than after soy-protein ingestion. There were no differences in blood flow or in insulin and blood glucose concentrations in response to the drinks. Additionally, the measured essential amino acid content of both proteins was not significantly different. So, overall, drinking milk was better than the soy-protein solution.

Before this study, other authors suggested the potential for milk to be an “anabolic” drink. Elliott et al. (2006) had 3 groups of volunteers ingesting one of three milk drinks each: 237 g of fat-free milk (FM), 237 g of whole milk (WM), and 393 g of fat-free milk isocaloric with the WM (IM). Milk was ingested 1 h following a leg resistance exercise routine. Net muscle protein balance was determined by measuring amino acid balance across the leg. Their results showed that Ingestion of milk following resistance exercise results in phenylalanine and threonine uptake, representative of net muscle protein synthesis. These results suggest that whole milk may promote increased utilization of available amino acids for protein synthesis.

In a recent review by Prof. Stuart Phillips (2009) various studies were summarised and showed that whey protein is more effective than soy and simply energy (as carbohydrate) in supporting muscle mass accretion with resistance training and that milk proteins (including whey) are better than carbohydrate alone.

Resistance training–induced changes in lean mass in studies of subjects receiving supplemental protein sources. A total of 9 studies [1–9] are incorporated (n = 241 subjects for all studies; n = 223 men and 18 women) into the figure with protein supplements of either fluid milk (3 studies; n = 42 total subjects), whey protein (8 studies; n = 91 total subjects), isolated soy protein (3 studies; n = 51 total subjects), or carbohydrate (7 studies; n = 67 total subjects). Studies in which other components were included in the supplement (i.e., creatine or crystalline amino acids) are omitted from this analysis unless these compounds were present in all supplements, in addition to the protein source itself. All studies were at least 8 weeks in duration and up to as long as 16 weeks (mean 11.2 weeks). Mean gains in muscle mass as a result of resistance training and protein supplementation were as follows (means ± SD): milk = 2.7 ± 1.3 kg (range, 1.9–3.9 kg); whey = 2.9 ± 1.6 kg (range, 0.2–5 kg); soy = 1.4 ± 0.6 (range, 1.5–2.0 kg); and carbohydrate (CHO)/placebo = 0.9 ± 0.6 kg (range, 0.3–1.8 kg). The solid line represents the mean change in lean body mass in all of the studies with its accompanying 95% confidence limits (dashed lines).

Rankin et al (2004) had previously shown that Milk was similar to conventional sports drinks in maximising the hypertrophic effects of resistance exercise. In their study, they had two groups; a sport drink group (CHO) and a milk group (MLK). The supplement given to the CHO group provided 5 kcals/kg body weight, 1.25 g/kg carbohydrate and electrolytes (Gatorade; Barrington, IL). The supplement given to the MILK group, low fat chocolate milk (Kroger; Cincinnati, OH), provided 5 kcal/kg body weight, 0.92 g/kg carbohydrate, 0.21 g/kg protein, 0.06 g/kg fat and the natural vitamins and minerals contained in milk. Beverages were served by the experimenters or personal trainers within five minutes following each workout. Post-resistance exercise consumption of MILK and CHO caused similar adaptations to resistance training after 10 weeks.

Recent work from Kammer et al. (2009) compared the effects of ingesting cereal and nonfat milk (Cereal) and a carbohydrate-electrolyte sports drink (Drink) immediately following endurance exercise on muscle glycogen synthesis and the phosphorylation state of proteins controlling protein synthesis: Akt, mTOR, rpS6 and eIF4E. Trained cyclists or triathletes (8 male: 28.0 +/- 1.6 yrs, 1.8 +/- 0.0 m, 75.4 +/- 3.2 kg, 61.0 +/- 1.6 ml O2*kg-1*min-1; 4 female: 25.3 +/- 1.7 yrs, 1.7 +/- 0.0 m, 66.9 +/- 4.6 kg, 46.4 +/- 1.2 mlO2*kg-1*min-1) completed two randomly-ordered trials serving as their own controls. After 2 hours of cycling at 60-65% VO2MAX, a biopsy from the vastus lateralis was obtained (Post0), then subjects consumed either Drink (78.5 g carbohydrate) or Cereal (77 g carbohydrate, 19.5 g protein and 2.7 g fat). Blood was drawn before and at the end of exercise, and at 15, 30 and 60 minutes after treatment. A second biopsy was taken 60 minutes after supplementation (Post60).

The results were quite interesting.

A part from a marked difference in insulin response, no significant difference was identified in the phosphorylation state of proteins controlling protein synthesis.

Milk as a recovery drink?

Milk is an interesting drink, due to its composition and mixture of carbohydrates, proteins, fat and electrolytes. For this reason, it could be quite a useful rehydration solution and a recovery drink.

My friends and colleagues (Shirrreffs, Watson & Maughan, 2007) at Loughborough university were the first group to suggest its effectiveness as a post-exercise rehydration drink when adding 20 mmol/l of NaCl.

In their study they had 11 subjects with a randomised cross-over trial to compare different drinks. The drinks ingested during the experimental trials were milk (0·2 % fat; Tesco Ltd, Cheshunt, UK; trial M) and milk (0·2 % fat) with an additional 20 mmol/l NaCl (trial M+Na), water (Aquapura, Basingstoke, UK; trial W) and a commercially available carbohydrate–electrolyte sports drink (Powerade, Coca Cola Ltd, London, UK trial CE).

Some of the results are below.

Whole body net fluid balance over the course of the protocol ( ., trial W, water; ○, trial CE, carbohydrate–electrolyte sports drink; ▾, trial M, milk; ▿, trial M+Na, milk with added NaCl). Values are means with group standard errors depicted by vertical bars. a,b,c,d Mean values were significantly different from corresponding values in W, CE, M and M+Na trials, respectively (P < 0·05). Post-Ex, post-exercise; Pre-Ex, pre-exercise.

Very interesting data on subjective feelings of thirst, fullness, bloatedness and hunger (a) and mouth taste, tiredness, alertness, concentration, headache, refreshment and energy (b) were reported during the course of the protocol.The subjects reported that the carbohydrate–electrolyte solution was sweeter (P = 0·001) and there was a tendency for it to be more palatable (P = 0·087) than the other experimental drinks.

The authors concluded that milk is an effective solution to promote recovery following mild exercise-induced dehydration, compared to the ingestion of the same volume of either plain water or a commercially available sports drink, and can be considered for use after exercise by everyone except those individuals who have lactose intolerance. The naturally high electrolyte content of milk (Na 38 mmol/l; K 45 mmol/l; Cl 35 mmol/l) used in this study, aided in the retention of fluid and the maintenance of euhydration 4 h after the end of drinking, although differences in gastric emptying rates due to the presence of protein and fat in the milk could be discounted.

Further support to this idea of using milk as a rehydration solution or recovery drink came from recent work from the same group (Watson et al., 2008). Following a 2.0 +/- 0.1% body mass loss induced by intermittent exercise in the heat, seven male volunteers ingested either a carbohydrate-electrolyte solution (CE) or skimmed milk (M) in a volume equal to 150% of body mass loss. At the end of the 3 h recovery period, subjects were essentially in positive fluid balance on trial M (191 +/- 162 mL), and euhydrated on trial CE (-135 +/- 392 mL) despite being in negative sodium balance on both trials and negative potassium balance on trial CE. Despite the effect on fluid retention, exercise capacity was not different between skimmed milk and a commercially available carbohydrate-electrolyte drink 4 h following exercise/heat-induced body mass loss.

In the same year, this group also showed that milk had similar effects to commercially available sport drinks on exercise capacity. Eight healthy males (age 24 +/- 4 y, height 1.76 +/- 0.04 m, mass 68.9 +/- 9.5 kg, body fat 12.5 +/- 2.4%, peak oxygen consumption 4.3 +/- 0.6 L/min) exercised to volitional exhaustion at 70% peak oxygen consumption on four occasions. Subjects ingested 1.5 mL/kg body mass of plain water, a carbohydrate-electrolyte solution, low-fat (0.1%) milk, or low-fat (0.1%) milk with added glucose before and every 10 min during exercise. Exercise time to exhaustion was not significantly influenced by the drink ingested (P = 0.19), but there was a tendency for subjects to exercise longer when the carbohydrate-electrolyte (110.6, range 82.0-222.7 min), milk (103.3, range 85.7-228.5 min), or milk plus glucose (102.8, range 74.3-167.1 min) was ingested compared with water (93.3, range 82.4-192.3 min). The solution ingested did not influence the cardiovascular, metabolic, or thermoregulatory response to exercise.

One of my former students was involved in this study of James et al. (2011) aimed at studying the effects of milk protein on rehydration after exercise in the heat, via the comparison of energy- and electrolyte content-matched carbohydrate and carbohydrate–milk protein solutions. Eight male subjects lost 1·9 (sd 0·2) % of their body mass by intermittent exercise in the heat and rehydrated with 150 % of their body mass loss with either a 65 g/l carbohydrate solution (trial C) or a 40 g/l carbohydrate, 25 g/l milk protein solution (trial CP). The results of this study suggested that when matched for energy density and fat content, as well as for Na and K concentration, and when ingested after exercise-induced dehydration, a carbohydrate–milk protein solution was better retained than a carbohydrate solution. These results suggest that gram-for-gram, milk protein seems more effective at augmenting fluid retention than carbohydrate.

Flavored milk has recently reached the shelves of many supermarkets. In particular chocolate milk and fruit-based milk drinks can be bought easily in most supermarket chains. Some research activities have suggested the effectiveness of these milk-based drinks on recovery.

Karp et al. 2006 studied the differences between isovolumic amounts of chocolate milk, fluid replacement drink (FR), or carbohydrate replacement drink (CR), in a single-blind, randomized design.Carbohydrate content was equivalent for chocolate milk and CR. Time to exhaustion (TTE), average heart rate (HR), rating of perceived exertion (RPE), and total work (WT) for the endurance exercise were compared between trials. TTE and WT were significantly greater for chocolate milk and FR trials compared to CR trial. The results of this study suggested that chocolate milk could be an effective recovery aid between two exhausting exercise bouts.

Recently, Lunn et al. (2011) showed some exciting results.Male runners participated in 2 trials separated by 1 wk and consumed either fat-free chocolate milk (MILK) or a non-nitrogenous, isocaloric, carbohydrate control beverage (CON) after a 45-min run at 65% of VO2peak.

Consuming MILK postexercise resulted in higher mixed muscle FSR with lower whole body proteolysis and synthesis compared to CON. Phosphorylation of eIF4E-BP1 and FOXO3a was higher for MILK, whereas Akt phosphorylation was lower during recovery regardless of dietary treatment. Enzymatic activity assays indicated lower caspase-3 activity during recovery for MILK and higher 26S proteasome activity for CON. Muscle glycogen was not affected by either dietary treatment; however, TTE was greater for MILK than CON. The authors concluded that the effects of consumption of fat-free chocolate milk following endurance exercise on FSR, signaling molecules of skeletal muscle protein turnover, leucine kinetics, and performance measures suggested unique benefits of milk compared to a carbohydrate only beverage.

Ferguson-Stegall et al. (2010) have also studied the effects of chocolate milk on recovery and performance. In particular, in their study, they wanted to compare the effects of chocolate milk (CM), an isocaloric carbohydrate only supplement (CHO), and placebo (PLA) on markers of endurance exercise recovery and subsequent time trial performance in trained cyclists. Ten trained male and female cyclists (5 males, 5 females) performed 3 trials in which they first cycled for 1.5 h at 70% of VO2max, followed by 10 min of intervals that alternated 45% and 90% VO2max. They then recovered in the laboratory for 4 h, and performed a 40 km time trial (TT). The supplements were provided immediately after the first bout and 2 h into the recovery period. Treatments were administered using a double-blind randomized design. Chocolate milk provided during recovery was shown to improve subsequent time trial performance in trained cyclists more effectively than an isocaloric CHO supplement. The authors attributed this effects to a faster rate of muscle glycogen resynthesis with this drink.

The same authors recently published the follow up work. This study compared the effects of a CHO + PRO supplement in the form of chocolate milk (CM), isocaloric CHO, and placebo (PLA) on recovery and subsequent exercise performance. Ten cyclists performed 3 trials, cycling 1.5 hours at 70% VO₂max plus 10 minutes of intervals. They ingested supplements immediately postexercise and 2 hours into a 4-hour recovery. Biopsies were performed at recovery minutes 0, 45, and 240 (R0, R45, REnd). The TT time was faster in CM than in CHO and in PLA (79.43 ± 2.11 vs. 85.74 ± 3.44 and 86.92 ± 3.28 minutes, p ≤ 0.05). Muscle glycogen resynthesis was higher in CM and in CHO than in PLA (23.58 and 30.58 vs. 7.05 μmol·g⁻¹ wet weight, p ≤ 0.05). This suggests that chocolate milk could be quite an effective recovery drink.

Conclusions and comments

The scientific literature seems to suggest that consuming proteins towards the end of a resistance exercise session could be beneficial for anabolism (for a recent review see here). For this reason, protein supplements are probably the most used/sold supplements in sport. Unfortunately, they are also likely to be contaminated and cause banning from competition. Finally, they are expensive.

I will give you some examples of costs. I have picked two random brands and website. no intention here to advertise or discredit any. Just doing the math.

Nutrisport whey protein isolate is sold for £49.99 on a website in a 5kg container which provides 125 servings according to the manufacturer. In order to prepare it you have to add 2 scoops (total 40g) which contain the following ingredients

Energy: 161KCal
Protein: 34g
Carbohydrate: 2.4g
of which sugars: 2.4g
Fat: 1.9g
of which saturates: 1.9g
Fibre: 0.9g
Sodium: 0.04g

Cost is about 40p per drink.

Nutrisport 90+ is sold at £48.75 in 5kg container and provides 96 servings as the manufacturer suggests to add 4 heaped scoops (53g) to 1 pint of water. The nutritional content is below

Per 53g:
Calories: 199.2
Protein: 45.58g
Carbohydrates: 3.6g
Of which Sugars: 2.5g
Fats: 1.48g
Of Which Saturates: 1.48g
Fibre: 1.0g
Sodium: 0.047g

Cost per drink 50p.

The protein content of such supplements is very high. And more is not always good. Recommended daily protein intake for athletes is suggested as a maximum of 1.7g x kgbm x day (see ACSM position stand). So for an 80Kg athlete the daily requirements would be 136g of proteins. The protein ingestion in one shot with the supplement would be therefore quite high. The studies showing beneficial effects of whey protein and casein supplementation have used 20g (e.g. this one by Kevin Tipton). Furthermore digestion rate might be different according to the type of protein assumed.

The data above are from the study of Dangin et al. 2000. Postprandial leucine balance over 420 min after meal ingestion. Between AA and CAS meals (left) and between WP and RPT-WP meals (right), protein digestion rates were different (fast or slow), but amino acid profiles were identical.

The composition of the meals in this study are here. Values are in g/100 g powder. AA, single meal made of free amino acids mimicking casein composition; CAS, single meal made of casein; whey proteins, single meal made of whey proteins (WP) and 13 small meals ingested every 20 min totaling 30 g of whey proteins (RPT-WP)

	AA	CAS	Whey Proteins
Aspartic acid	3.3	3.3	6.0^*
Asparagine	2.1	3.2
Threonine	4.1	4.0	3.3
Serine	3.8	5.0	3.7
Glutamine	12.7	11.6	21.9^†
Glutamic acid	9.2	9.2
Proline	10.6	10.1	10.2
Glycine	1.5	1.7	1.5
Alanine	2.7	2.7	2.5
Valine	6.3	6.0	5.3
Cysteine	0.2	0.3	ND
Methionine	2.9	2.7	2.4
Isoleucine	4.9	4.6	3.9
Leucine	9.2	8.9	11.1
Tyrosine	5.0	5.2	4.6
Phenylalanine	4.8	4.8	4.4
Lysine	7.6	7.3	6.0
Histidine	2.6	2.7	2.3
Arginine	3.3	3.3	2.6
Tryptophan	1.5	1.5	ND

Last but not least, excessive protein consumption causes metabolic acidosis (e.g. here) and this is the reason why we used large amounts of protein supplementation in one of our studies to induce urinary calciuria and metabolic acidosis. So, if you are consuming too much protein not only you are connecting your bank account to the sea, but also compromising bone metabolism.

A pint of whole milk costs 49p in a supermarket in the UK (as you can see on a price comparisons website). Most of all, it is unlikely to be contaminated with banned substances.

49p

The nutritional content is as follows:

Nutrient	per 100ml	per 200ml (serving)
Energy kCal	64kCal	128kCal
Energy kJ	268kJ	536kJ
Protein	3.2g	6.4g
Carbohydrate	4.7g	9.4g
of which sugars	4.7g	9.4g
Fat	3.6g	7.2g
of which saturates	2.2g	4.4g
Fibre	0.0g	0.0g
Sodium	0.1g	0.1g

The semi-skimmed options have the following nutritional values

Nutrient	per 100ml	per 200ml (serving)
Energy kCal	48kCal	96kCal
Energy kJ	200kJ	400kJ
Protein	3.3g	6.6g
Carbohydrate	5.0g	10.0g
of which sugars	5.0g	10.0g
Fat	1.6g	3.2g
of which saturates	1.1g	2.2g
Fibre	0.0g	0.0g
Sodium	0.1g	0.1g

Chocholate Milk or fruit base milk is also easily accessible and slightly more expensive. The one below is £ 1.30 for 1L.

Nutrition

Typical values	per 100ml	per 250ml serving
Energy	317kj	792kj
Energy	75kcal	188kcal
Protein	3.5g	8.8g
Carbohydrate	11g	27.5g
of which sugars	10.2g	25.5g
Fat	1.9g	4.8g
of which saturates	1.2g	3g
Fibre	0.4g	1g
Sodium	0.06mg	0.15g
Calcium	123mg	307.5mg

As someone who likes basics, I have always been a great advocate of diet and real food first and supplements only to “supplement” specific needs. In this particular case, it seems clear that milk and milk-based drinks could be effectively used as post-workout solutions to maximise anabolic responses, facilitate fluid replacement and aid recovery. Of course they can be effective only if the athlete is not lactose intolerant.

However ,considering the cost effectiveness, the quality in taste, the reduced risks of contamination as well as the reduced hygiene risks (large tubs of protein powders/mixers and bottles sometimes present some hygiene challenges with athletes….), I believe it is worthwhile suggesting the use of milk as a post exercise drink. For sure the effects can be beneficial to recovery and performance.

I am sure in some cases there is a place for protein supplements, however as the word “supplement” indicate it should be intended to supplement the diet and provide nutrients that may be missing or may not be consumed in sufficient quantities in a person's diet.

Let’s fix the diet first and then think about supplements if needed.

Reflections on the Italian conference on track and field

noreply@blogger.com (Dr. Marco Cardinale) — Wed, 09 Nov 2011 23:50:00 +0000

I am on the plane back to London returning from Italy after having spoken at a conference organised by the Italian Track and Field Federation’s regional committee of Veneto and the regional branch of the Italian Olympic Committee. I spent interesting 2 days in Abano Terme for a variety of reasons, some of which I will write about here. I also had time to reflect about my career so far and where I started.
First of all, I have to say it is always a pleasure to get back to Italy. I left many years ago to study and further my education (my first “escape” was in 1996 [time goes fast!]). After the USA, Spain, Hungary and bits and bobs around the World, I arrived in the UK in 2001 (yes it is now 10 years) to pursue a career in sports science. First in academia and since 2005 with the British Olympic Association. When I left Italy, It was with a bitter taste, many things happened which helped me decide to “throw in the towel” and move on.
The main issues were: the lack of meritocracy, the lack of vision and thinking big, the lack of jobs and clear career paths, the inability to work in partnership and the constant bad influence on politics in every field. However bitterness was then transformed in pleasantness by the realisation that leaving Italy was not an exile like some Italians think, but in reality a great opportunity to be thankful for. In fact, since arriving in the UK, I have been blessed with continuous opportunities. I have met some fantastic people, I have had the opportunity to work and collaborate with World Class colleagues in many fields in academia and sport and I have the privilege to work towards the London Olympics for the biggest sporting event which will happen in my country of adoption at least for my generation.
Reflecting on the last 18 years since I started this journey, I realised how much I have learnt and and how much I have evolved as a professional thanks not only to my own hard work and sacrifice, but also thanks to the countless interactions I have had and still have with various people in many fields and thanks to the opportunities I have been presented with.
The conference was also an emotional moment. It was primarily organised to discuss athletics in Italy and around the World thanks to contributors coming from Germany and France. But the main aim of the conference was to remember the immense contribution from the greatest Sports Scientist Italy ever had (in my view): Professor Carmelo Bosco. Prof. Bosco was my PhD supervisor, and I enjoyed some years of hard work on the road with him not only working on various research projects but also working on applied projects with athletes and higher education.

(With Prof. Bosco on a trip)

Working with a genius is never easy. It takes effort, it is difficult, it is stressful and requires long hours of “deep” practice and a strong character as well as the willingness to accept criticism and work hard to learn. I feel so lucky of having been working with people like him, Atko Viru, Jozsef Tihanyi (to name a few), because these guys not only were great at what they did (and Josefz still is), but they were passionate about their jobs and were/are totally driven to learn more every day.

(1998, Tartu Estonia – picture credit Bill Laich)

Italy was a difficult place to work at the time. The faculty of Sports Science did not have a library. If you wanted to read scientific literature, you needed to book access to the School of Sport of CONI and you were allowed few hours only few days per month. So if you wanted to have knowledge you had to go and get it and it was not easy to do so (mind you there were no queues…so clearly few people were interested in reading!). Unlike now, knowledge is “on tap” [but so is crap], and there is really no excuse for not trying to learn something new every day. For the young readers, this was the pre-PDF era when you had to go to the library, find the journal, take notes or make photocopies. It was a time when a literature search required a week to be done. You needed to hand in at reception a floppy disk with a list of keywords and come back a week later to receive the files with the literature search outputs. We had an office to do literature search with 1 computer. There were brick walls everywhere. But, as Randy Pausch said in his last lecture, brick walls are there to separate the people that really want something from the ones not willing to overcome the obstacles.
At the conference, I spoke about how great it was to discuss about science and training methodology 24 hours per day for few years. Having strong debates, doing calculations, performing experiments, discussing and arguing with coaches and scientists filled my days at the time. That was proper “deep practice”. Everything was an opportunity for growth and such environment was what made Italian sport successful and innovative in those years. It was great, and I treasure every minute of that time.

Yury Verkchoschanski, Carmelo Bosco and Atko Viru discussing data. A normal day at the office in Rome in the 90s being in the same place working with these guys was brilliant.

In Abano I also met an old friend and had the pleasure of translating his lecture. The old friend is Professor Paavo Komi. Prof. Komi was another inspiring figure in my career. I went to “study” him in 1997 in Denver at the ACSM when I was a student in the USA for my Master. I had read all his papers and books and wanted to see/hear his keynote lecture as well as understand how somebody can prepare a scientific presentation about his data and showcase his work in front of hundreds of people without panicking. I quietly entered the empty auditorium while he was aligning his slides (for the youngsters, at that time PowerPoint was not really an option) and asked politely if I could see him preparing the talk. He was a bit puzzled at first, but then he allowed me to stay. That day I learnt how meticulous preparation has to be in every field and I was inspired to try to reach his levels of knowledge and positive influence on the strength and conditioning and scientific community.
In Italy I was asked to translate his presentation and I loved every moment of it, as the work he has done with numerous collaborators around the world has been truly amazing as well as being totally relevant to strength and conditioning. I also had lunch with Paavo and we chatted about past times as well the origins of the European College of Sports Science and how things have changed in this profession so quickly (for the good) in the last 15 years. We should be thankful to this group of guys. They had a vision and not much money (actually they had none...) and they created a great organisation to foster collaboration, innovation and education as well as a job market for our profession. It is amazing what people can do if their noses are pointing in the same direction.
Few lessons here. People and ideas drive innovation and change and help athletes reaching new heights. Facilities and gadgets help and support people and ideas. Not the other way around. Likeminded people willing to park the ego at the door for bigger achievements than personal self promotion can do amazing things. Lessons from the past are good. Experience helps in framing the path to the future.
There is a tendency these days to discard what happened in the past in every field. As well as a tendency to forget about the people which were there before and got their t-shirts. I guess it is a sign of the times. Old school is perceived to be not relevant anymore. I like old school. In particular if old school means application of basic, sound concepts with attention to detail.
I think we should make sure we know and understand well what happened in the past to learn and we should seek wisdom from the people who were trying to do what we do now years ago so we don’t re-invent the wheel. In our field we have still the same unanswered questions. We still don’t have 100% knowledge on how to individualise and maximise training programmes, we haven’t cracked the code on overtraining and fatigue and we still don’t understand fully what it takes to transform successful young athletes in winning performers.
So, if you are a young sports scientist, make sure you listen to the people teaching and mentoring you. They may sound old school, sometimes pedantic, sometimes a bit hard to deal with. Listen to them, there is a lot to learn and you will thank them ten years from now. Also, make sure you also read scientific papers published many years ago. Not all the recent literature is “recent”, lots of things have been done before and they are “sold” as new.
If you are looking for examples, go and read the work from Professor Angelo Mosso and look at his ergograph developed in 1890. You will find out that the use of dynamometry to measure fatigue is not a new idea after all.

Conference in Italy in November

noreply@blogger.com (Dr. Marco Cardinale) — Sun, 23 Oct 2011 22:55:00 +0000

It is always a pleasure and a surprise to be invited in Italy to speak at a conference. I left Italy many years ago to pursue a career in sports science and research and being invited back home to speak to coaches and sports scientists is always a proud moment and an opportunity to speak my first language again for few days.

The invitation this time has come from the Italian Athletics Federation and CONI for a conference called “Atleticamente”. I have been invited to present in a special session to celebrate my PhD supevisor and mentor Professor Carmelo Bosco. I am very happy about the invitation to this conference and proud also because Bosco’s supervisor, Professor Paavo Komi will be there.

Over the course of my career both Paavo and Carmelo had a great influence. I was always hoping to become as good as they are and have been and to this day they are still a source of inspiration and I feel privileged to have had the opportunity to meet them and spend time with them.

I will talk about my work with Prof. Bosco from the Lab to the field as well as my own research work on the present and the future of sports science in the applied setting.

The conference will be a great opportunity also to learn more about other sporting systems and catch up with colleagues and friends few months before London Olympics.

Good calories, bad calories and weight gain/loss

noreply@blogger.com (Dr. Marco Cardinale) — Fri, 21 Oct 2011 22:09:00 +0000

Time goes fast and I realized the blog has been abandoned for quite a while. I have been reading recently a little bit about weight loss, mainly to update my knowledge, and also for some personal interest, having suffered a broken rib and now trying to recover some shape!

My interest was initially on rapid weight loss. So I wend back to read some old papers on rapid weight loss and performance (e.g. Fogelholm et al., 1993 ) which showed for example that 6.0 +/- 0.6% of body weight was lost in 2.4 days by fluid and diet restriction and forced sweating, and when followed by a 5-h "loading" (food and drinks ad libitum) there was no change in performance with a gradual weight loss programme. However while in experienced athletes such approach might still not produce visible and measurable reductions in physical performance, it seems clear that psychologically they are highly likely to suffer (see Hall and Lane, 2001) as well as having some impairment in cognitive function (see Choma et al., 1998).

However, while looking for some literature on dietary aspects of weight loss I came across some interesting information.

First, two interesting books I just ordered: Good Calories-Bad calories and Why we get fat from Gary Taubes which quite rightly points the finger to carbohydrates and their abundant use as the main cause of obesity. I will read the books and then write a review, as while I am keen to read his summary of the carbohydrate issue, I am not so convinced about his views of the role of exercise on weight management. What pointed me in that direction was a great letter written by Professor Tim Noakes on the British Medical Journal’s blog. As usual Tim has written some interesting comments. Have a look at it and make your mind up!

The internet is always full of surprises and while looking for information I have been impressed by the project of a personal trainer who decided to gain weight before losing it again to learn how it feels to be overweight and then to show how his methods work in getting himself back in shape. He started in May his weight gain plan and is due to start the reverse process in November. If you are curious about it, go read his blog here.

Book now on the Itunes Bookstore

noreply@blogger.com (Dr. Marco Cardinale) — Sun, 09 Oct 2011 16:28:00 +0000

Big surprise today, I found out the book I edited with my colleagues Rob Newton and Ken Nosaka is also on the Itunes Bookstore.

So, if you want the ebook edition, it sounds like you can now buy such format.

Epidermal Electronics

noreply@blogger.com (Dr. Marco Cardinale) — Sun, 18 Sep 2011 12:09:00 +0000

I have been recently reading a lot about epidermal electronics. Pretty soon patients in hospitals (and sports people) should be able to wear skin mounted electrodes to be able to measure a variety of physiological indicators in real time for a prolonged period of time.

The latest innovation comes from the University of Illinois. A new device looking like a tattoo, has been developed and proposed as an innovative smart skin solution. Researchers at the University of Illinois who came up with this device made circuits with a wide array of components, to prove it could work: sensors, LEDs, transistors, radio frequency capacitors and wireless antennas. The devices can draw power from induction or even from mini solar cells!

Inventors say they could be used for various medical applications, especially sensors that monitor heart and muscle activity, which currently require conductive gels and/or relatively bulky equipment. To prove it, they measured electrical activity produced by the heart, brain, and skeletal muscles, some data are reported in Science.

You can also see a video of the technology below. Pretty impressive technology which will be hopefully available soon!

This is impressive technology, pushing the boundaries of wearable sensors and providing incredible possibilities for studying human movement.

(Example of a sensor setup for EEG and other measurements. Photo courtesy of Prof. John Rogers)

(Easy removal of the skin mounted electrode. Photo courtesy of Prof. John Rogers)

You can learn more about this and other technologies developed by Professor Rogers’ group here.

Muscle oxygenation in-vivo

noreply@blogger.com (Dr. Marco Cardinale) — Sun, 11 Sep 2011 12:56:00 +0000

Our paper on the possibility of using Near Infrared Spectroscopy (NIRS) to measure muscle oxygenation in-vivo in elite athletes has now been published ahead of print by Medicine and Science in Sports and Exercise.

This study is the first of a series of studies constituting the PhD studentship funded by the BOA to study the possibility of using NIRS in the field as a tool to understand performance demands and adaptations to training as well as developing innovative portable integrated brain and muscle devices. The research programme is a collaboration between ourselves, the University of Essex with Professor Chris Cooper and Professor Clare Elwell at University College London.

The main author of this work is Catherine Hesford and you can find more info and contact details here.

More work will be published in the next months and I will write more about this fascinating technique soon on this blog.

The abstracts is available below.

Med Sci Sports Exerc. 2011 Sep 3. [Epub ahead of print]

Asymmetry of Quadriceps Muscle Oxygenation During Elite Short-Track Speed Skating.

Hesford CM, Laing S, Cardinale M, Cooper CE.

Source

1 Department of Biological Sciences, University of Essex, UK; 2 British Olympic Medical Institute, University College London, UK; 3 University of Aberdeen, School of Medical Sciences, Aberdeen, Scotland (UK), 4 School of Sport, Health and Exercise Sciences, Bangor University, UK.

Abstract

PURPOSE:

It has been suggested that due to the low sitting position in short track speed skating, muscle blood flow is restricted, leading to decreases in tissue oxygenation. Therefore wearable wireless-enabled Near Infrared Spectroscopy (NIRS) technology was used to monitor changes in quadriceps muscle blood volume and oxygenation during 500m race simulation in short-track speed skaters.

METHODS:

6 elite skaters, all of Olympic standard (age = 23 ± 1.8 years, height 1.8 ± 0.1m, mass = 80.1 ± 5.7kg, mid-thigh skin fold thickness = 6.8 ± 2.2mm) were studied. Subjects completed a 500m race simulation time trial (TT). Whole body oxygen consumption was simultaneously measured with muscle oxygenation in right and left vastus lateralis as measured by NIRS.

RESULTS:

Mean time for race completion was 44.8 ± 0.4 s. VO peaked 20 s into the race. In contrast, muscle tissue oxygen saturation (TSI %) decreased, and plateaued after 8s. Linear regression analysis showed that right leg TSI% remained constant throughout the rest of the TT (slope value = 0.01), whereas left leg TSI% increased steadily (slope value = 0.16), leading to a significant asymmetry (p<0.05) in the final lap. Total muscle blood volume decreased equally in both legs at the start of the simulation. However, during the course of subsequent laps there was a strong asymmetry during cornering; when skaters travelled solely on the right leg there was a decrease in its muscle blood volume whereas an increase was seen in the left leg.

CONCLUSION:

NIRS was shown to be a viable tool for wireless monitoring of muscle oxygenation. The asymmetry in muscle desaturation observed on the two legs in short-track speed skating has implications for training and performance.

Free reference manager and PDF organiser

noreply@blogger.com (Dr. Marco Cardinale) — Sun, 28 Aug 2011 10:10:00 +0000

I have not had much time to write on the Blog recently. London Olympics are approaching fast and there are too many things to do and too little time!

Anyway, I will write a short article to praise a recent addition to my software tools. Of course this is another freeware. All of us continuously struggle to organise all the PDFs of the scientific articles we read and also make sure we can site while we write articles. Commercial software packages are of course available, however I came across a great freeware solution: Mendeley. If you want to look at a short video to explain how it works, have a look at this video:

http://vimeo.com/user5499963/what-is-mendeley

I have downloaded and used the software for few days now, and it has been very easy to create specific folders and import PDF files arranging my references by topics.

The folder syncs with server space, so it is possible to keep all the documents and libraries if your computer crashes or if you lose it, as well as push the content to other devices.

It is also possible to annotate, highlight and share comments with others.

Also, it is possible to create shared libraries so everyone can add and share comments as well as share the PDF contents. Finally, it is possible to create an online group to share knowledge on a particular area.

A great tool for anyone to use. The free version provides 500MB of space free and 500MB to be shared as well as the possibility to have 5 private groups ad 10 users. More space and more options are available for reasonable fees.

Curious? Download the software and find out more about Mendeley here:

Free online issue of Biomedical Basis of Elite Performance

noreply@blogger.com (Dr. Marco Cardinale) — Tue, 09 Aug 2011 08:27:00 +0000

In anticipation of the London 2012 Olympics and as a build-up to the opening of registration for The Biomedical Basis of Elite Performance Meeting, The Journal of Physiology and Experimental Physiology have just launched a free online issue on The Biomedical Basis of Elite Performance.

Experimental Physiology: http://ep.physoc.org/site/misc/virtualissue.xhtml
The Journal of Physiology: http://jp.physoc.org/site/misc/virtualissue.xhtml

Papers selected for this special online issue draw attention to exercise and training as extreme physiological variants. A considerable breadth of physiology is covered, including genes and human performance, the regulation of muscle protein and collagen turnover, tendon responses to exercise, fatigue (local and central), age and sex differences in response to training, vasodilator function, oxygen transport and oxygen demand, motor drive and motor unit recruitment, respiratory fatigue and mitochondrial and fuel metabolism.

Papers were selected by Paul Greenhaff (JP) and Michael White (EP).

Interesting things at the ACSM

noreply@blogger.com (Dr. Marco Cardinale) — Tue, 05 Jul 2011 22:48:00 +0000

I promised to write something about the ACSM conference in Denver and then lack of time did the rest….and never got around writing anything.

So, with a bit of time available I will write few reflections about the conference.

The topics covered in the sessions were quite diverse as usual, ranging from obesity to military medicine to sport performance and there were loads of parallel sessions which makes it impossible to follow everything happening. I will provide few notes on the ones I attended, but my overall impression of the conference was that sport performance research is becoming more and more rare and there is a lot of emphasis on exercise science clearly due to funding opportunities. Also, I sense a bit of staleness in the scientific community as I keep seeing a lot of experiments repeated over and over again and few innovative approaches/ideas. I have discussed this topic on my article on “the Leader” newsletter, and will not replicate it here, but I sense that the disconnect between the lab and the field is getting bigger.

Nutrition in rehabilitation

Professor Kevin Tipton from Stirling University (http://www.sports.stir.ac.uk/staff/kevin-tipton.php) provided a good overview for the use of protein for muscle remodelling. Kevin wrote a great chapter in my book on strength and conditioning and presented his work in a very elegant manner.

Some good evidence was provided on the negative effects of a reduction in energy intake when injured. This in fact, may be bad news as it might slow down muscle recovery. So nutritional advice for athletes in rehab should be carefully planned as while it is true that excess energy intake will lead to weight gain and alterations in body composition, it is also true that reducing energy intake too much might slow down muscle remodelling.

He also suggested the use of Omega 3 Fatty acids to facilitate recovery as indicated in recent papers from Bettina Mittendofer’s Lab (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21501117)

Professor Stuart Phillips gave also a good talk on protein metabolism and suggested the Omega 3 FA approach as well (4g of FDA approved Lovaza http://www.lovaza.com/). I am sure more research will be published soon on the use of Mega 3 FAs for muscle remodelling.

Dr. Ferrando talked about a “Cocktail” of supplements showing great promise (so not a single product) in his very-applied talk on how to speed up recovery following hip replacement. He suggested that in the real world we want to use all we know from research and apply it for our patients/clients. Showed some data of reduced day in hospital using a drink made of all compounds suggested to have beneficial effects on muscle remodelling (e.g. creatine, proteins, Omega 3, etc etc).

New Techniques

Some very interesting work was presented by Dr. Minoru Shinonara’s Lab. Dr. Shinonara is doing some work with a new ultrasound technique able to quantify muscle stiffness http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed?term=%22Shinohara%20M%22%5BAuthor%5D%20and%20muscle%20stiffness

A very interesting technique as you can see here: http://www.supersonicimagine.fr/product_0_1_shearwave-elastography,en.htm

Overtraining

There was an entire afternoon session on overtraining.Consensus is that there is not a single marker, but a variety of things which can be measured to assess if an individual is at risk of overtraining or already overtrained. It was pretty much a series of presentations of data already available in the literature.

The most interesting talk was from Dr. Bradley Nindl. In particular some new techniques and some data recently published:

Some practical data showing the effects of extreme physical training in army recruits. This interesting transdermal method to measure IGF-1 following exercise. As well as blood spots technique to measure IGF-1.

Dr.Nindl talked about the concept of “fit to fight” which is very similar to the sport concept of readiness to train or compete.

Creatine

There was a good update on the status of research on creatine, which still is perceived to be a “bad supplement” in the media. However, the recent work from Kley et al 2011 clearly showed there are no issues with creatine supplementation.

Recent data show also a reduction in pain in muscle dystrophy with creatine and also that brain creatine can be increased from 4 to 9% with supplementation.

We do not know well if it works in older adults; however basal brain creatine seems to be inversely related to uptake. So the more you have, the less you are likely to gain with supplementation. Recent work suggests the potential use of creatine supplementation for a variety of pathological conditions indicating that more work on its effects on the central nervous system will shed more light on other potential uses.

Very interesting recent work from my dear colleague and friend Dr. Christian Cook has shown the potential for creatine to counteract the negative effects of sleep deprivation.

Recent work on creatine safety from Dr. Gualano was also mentioned here.

One of the speakers in this session mentioned the IOWA accident (http://www.businessinsider.com/exertional-rhabdomyolysis-iowa-football-players-hospitalized-after-their-workout-2011-1), with reference to the public health report showing that Creatine had nothing to do with what happened to the athletes. However, creatine was mentioned causing the media to then speculate about the possible influence of creatine intake on the health of the athletes.

Muscle atrophy and sarcopenia

Good tutorial lecture from Professor Marco Narici from Manchester Met. University (http://www.shs.mmu.ac.uk/staff_list/staffbiog/?StaffID=740). Marco gave a good overview of what happens to muscle and tendon with immobilisation. He also showed data on concentric vs. eccentric loading and the effects on muscle fascicles and tendon stiffness.

He showed that with immobilisation, muscle size decreased 0.4% per day! And you can lose about 2700 sarcomeres after 10 days of immobilisation. Some good data to keep in mind next time an athlete is in a cast!

Barefoot running

Possibly the most interesting session of the conference. Some great speakers and great arguments/data to support barefoot running.

It was all generated by recent work from Lieberman (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20111000). However when you look at the data carefully the obvious conclusions is that it needs to be introduced slowly with athletes as there are some risks of injury. But, if the technique is mastered could potentially be a great methods to strengthen the muscles controlling the foot and the ankle and eventually also lead to performance as well as reduction of injuries.

One of the most interesting data was the actual lack of evidence of effectiveness of running shoes in reducing injury risk. That is, there is not a single study that has shown that shoes reduce the risk of injury. In fact, there is now evidence that the risk of injury is unchanged, maybe even higher in the expensive shoes. Injury rates haven't come down even a little bit since the 1970s, the period which has seen the explosion in the running shoe industry. Back in the 70s, the shoes resemble today's minimalist shoes, but about 70% of runners were getting injured, the same rate as today.

Russ Tucker has written a good review of the session on his blog if you want to know more about this issue:

http://www.sportsscientists.com/2011/06/barefoot-running-shoes-and-born-to-run.html

Pacing and fatigue

Dr. Ross Tucker gave an elegant talk on how the brain controls how hard you go during a time trial and how it controls your pacing. More details on www.sportsscientists.com

I really enjoyed the excellent work done by Dr. Markus Amman. I really like his model to study fatigue and if you want to know more you should really read some recent work published from his lab:

Amann M, Secher NH. (2010). Afferent feedback from fatigued locomotor muscles is an important determinant of endurance exercise performance. J Appl Physiol, 108, 452-454.

Amann M, Secher NH. (2010). Point: Afferent feedback from fatigued locomotor muscles is an important determinant of endurance exercise performance. J Appl Physiol, 108(2), 452-4; discussion 457; author reply 470

Prof. Romain Meeusen provided a good overview of the central aspects of fatigue using human and animal models.

However the highlight for me was Dr. Schneider from Germany.He presented some interesting data on a new approach to EEG to study human performance in a variety of settings. His recent work on music and exercise is quite amusing http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20845211 as well as the link between exercising and neurocognitive function with astronauts http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21654620.

There was a lot more going on with more than 6000 delegates attending the conference. But the above is what made it interesting for me. It was of course a great opportunity to catch up with old colleagues and friends as well as meet new people and learn more about the fascinating work they are doing and the challenges currently faced by academics in this field struggling to attract significant funding to conduct research projects.

Unfortunately I will not be able to attend next years’ conference in San Francisco, but I hope to be able to make the 2013 annual conference in Indianapolis.

New visualisations of interesting data

noreply@blogger.com (Dr. Marco Cardinale) — Fri, 01 Jul 2011 18:19:00 +0000

I just came across the wonderful infographics of the Cure Together blog. Alexandra Carmichael and Daniel Reda launched CureTogether in July 2008 to help the people they knew and the millions they didn’t who live in daily chronic pain. Starting with 3 conditions, it quickly expanded as people wrote in to request that their conditions be added to this ongoing study. CureTogether is currently funded by its founders and angel investment, and has partnered with several universities and research organizations.

They provide some excellent infographics on common conditions. The graphic below shows the most effective treatments for chronic fatigue expressed by popularity and effectiveness. A really nice way to express findings. It should be said that the findings are generated by people filling in questionnaires online.

Below is the result of a questionnaire aimed at understanding the effectiveness of various common colds remedies. Here are the results:

TO generate the data above, at CureTogether, 139 people who have experienced the Common Cold have come together to share 1,079 data points about treatments they had tried and how well they worked or didn’t work.

Last but not least, David McCandless and his team have updated the snake oil infographic. And the results are of course very interesting, showing some more supplements with potential.

Curious tools: Google Correlate

noreply@blogger.com (Dr. Marco Cardinale) — Fri, 27 May 2011 14:55:00 +0000

Google Correlate is an experimental new tool on Google Labs which enables you to find queries with a similar pattern to a target data series. The target can either be a real-world trend that you provide (e.g., a data set of event counts over time) or a query that you enter. Google Correlate contains web search activity data from January 2003 to present. The data is updated weekly.

So this is pretty much a great tool to look at real World trends as it uses web search activity data to find queries with a similar pattern to a target data series. Some of the findings can be quite interesting.

Let’s look at this example searching for “losing weight”

The highest correlation coefficient is with the search “burn calories” and you can see not only the worrying trend of increase in such search trend, but also the seasonality of the search if you zoom into the graph.

And you can clearly see that between December and January is when new years’ resolutions kick in as well as the bikini sindrome in the summer months.

Now, let’s try something a bit more relevant to sport. Let’s try “doping”, as you can see, there are peaks of searches and the highest correlation coefficient is with “what is doping”.

with peaks in May 2010….when Landis admitted taking performance enhancing drugs and pointed the finger at Lance Armstrong.

The word “Testosterone” has the highest correlation coefficient with “Natural Levels”. And there seems to be a growing interest in such search word, I hope only because people are interested in the science….

The search for “Strength training” really worried me. A part from the highest correlation coefficient with “Exercise” what worries me is the decline in its use for web search. Does it mean we should expected a reduction of interest towards this form of exercise?

So, to double check I looked at the search word “Bodybuilding”…and I got really worried as the highest correlation was with “death index”….whatever that means

Really an interesting tool. You can look at it yourself on: http://correlate.googlelabs.com/.

Another tool is Google Trends. Even cooler, as it allows you to study search volumes and look at specific media-related events. Again, when searching for volumes of searches of the keyword “Doping” specific events where highlighted.

Brilliant stuff from Google Labs. Keep them coming!

ACSM in Denver

noreply@blogger.com (Dr. Marco Cardinale) — Wed, 25 May 2011 20:41:00 +0000

I will be attending the 58th annual meeting of the American College of Sports Medicine (http://acsmannualmeeting.org/) next week. I am looking forward to learn new things and hear the latest on research in sports and exercise science.

Will try to blog from Denver and highlight the most interesting talks!

Cool graphics

noreply@blogger.com (Dr. Marco Cardinale) — Sun, 01 May 2011 12:30:00 +0000

With so many energy drinks out there containing caffeine it is a bit of a jungle to give advice to athletes and coaches and/or educate everyone about different options.

This Caffeine Poster was developed by Randy Krum and it is available on his great blog coolinfographics.

I think this is just another great example of how to present data in a meaningful way. Well done Randy!

Nintendo wii fit can be used as a force plate?

noreply@blogger.com (Dr. Marco Cardinale) — Thu, 21 Apr 2011 21:29:00 +0000

Apparently it is possible to use the Nintendo Wii Balance Board as a measurement device. In fact, the Nintendo wii balance board is a simple force platform capable to sampling data at 100Hz.

The Wii Fit offers for a low cost price a simple platform with four measuring sensors and can be used with very little effort as a simple and inexpensive force plate, even without the corresponding game console. Clark et al. (2010) suggested that the Wii Fit balance board could represent a valid cheap solution to measure standing balance. Furthermore they have recently suggested the use of the infrared cameras in the hand controllers as a possible alternative to expensive timing light systems (http://www.jsams.org/article/S1440-2440(10)00913-8/abstract). Recent work from Young et al. (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21087865) also suggests the possibility of using this technology for developing bespoke diagnostic or training programmes that exploit real-time visual feedback of current Centre of pressure position.

The Wii Balance Board is certified for 300 pounds (136 kg) in Japan and 330 pounds (150 kg) in the U.S. The Wii Balance Board has four sensors, so each sensor is certified for up to 136 kg / 4 = 34 kg per sensor in Japan or 150 kg / 4 = 37.5kg per sensor in the United States.The following Wii Balance Board calibration information from WiiBrew will make more sense.

If you are interested in Linux, you can see here how to extract the force data. I am sure this is not something useful to measure high performance athletes. However it could represent a fun and simple tool for diagnostic measurements in some populations.

If you have one and are able to use it for this purpose let me know!

More freeware biomechanical software

noreply@blogger.com (Dr. Marco Cardinale) — Wed, 20 Apr 2011 18:49:00 +0000

I was looking for some freeware or open source software for some biomechanical analysis and came across two software solutions developed by video4coach.
The two solutions are quite interesting and very good quality. The first software is called Skill Capture

SkillCapture is designed to capture video clips which can be directly associated with the athlete also by means of a radio frequency ID system (skillchip).
Video capture can be started by:

Motion detection
SkillChip registration
SkillChip registration and Motion detection.
Pressing keyboard shortcut
Using wireless presenter

After video capture it can be automatically displayed for coach interaction directly with the athlete. With the video playback its possible to:

Adjust playback speed (0.5 - 2.0 of normal speed)
Rate performace
Mark for upload
Draw angle to show body positions
Freehand drawing

SkillCapture will automatically compress the video to improve storage and improve faster upload to external servers.
The other solution is SkillSpector.

SkillSpector is a video based motion and skill analysis tool for Windows. SkillSpector is freeware and can be downloaded and installed on any computer.
SkillSpector features:

Video overlay for direct video on video comparison
2D and 3D analysis
Standard model definitions for fast analysis
Semi-automatic digitizing using image processing techniques
Easy advanced analysis of linear and angular kinematic data
Calculation on inertia
3D representation of movement
Simple video calibration

So, two software packages completely free which I am sure can be of help for many sports scientists in the field not able to access the expensive professional software solutions currently available on the market.
I have just installed the software and I will write something more about them after I get the chance to experiment with them a bit more.

Microsoft gives Kinect starter kit for academic research

noreply@blogger.com (Dr. Marco Cardinale) — Mon, 11 Apr 2011 16:30:00 +0000

This is excellent news. Now scientist will be able to access a software development kit to develop innovative solutions for using Microsoft Kinect a new gaming device developed by Microsoft.

What is special about Kinect? Kinect allows a controller-free gaming. Which means full body play. Kinect responds to how you move as it is a motion sensing, optical device.

If you have never seen one, have a look at the video.

I predict a large number of new applications developed for sports and rehabilitation!