Conditioning Research

Instead of dying I'm flying.....

noreply@blogger.com (Chris) — Sun, 08 Nov 2009 23:34:00 +0000

scary....a guy free climbing the Eiger and falling off (with a parachute)

Hat tip Martin

Stop obsessing about your training

noreply@blogger.com (Chris) — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 23:25:00 +0000

I read this in an article by Doug McGuff. It reminded me of something Skyler wrote the other day.

From THE GEEKS SHALL INHERIT THE EARTH

Several non-training circumstances seem to offer the millieu in which proper training can be most productive. While non-scientific and anecdotal at best, these factors were universally present during my own periods of rapid progress as well those of my clients. Personally, I was able to make these observations because my growth seems to occur all at once on a very intermittent basis. It usually occurs in the early morning and will actually awaken me from sleep because I can feel it occurring. It can best be described as “feeling like rice crispies sound when you pour milk on them”. I’ve had as much as 3/4 inch arm growth overnight. Such results never seemed to correlate to the previous workout, but several factors over time can be noted in my journals.

1. Happiness-in general I was not elated or extremely happy. Rather, I was simply contented with life in general and had a sense of peace. There was no current issue that was troubling me or occupying my mind.

2. Lack of preoccupation with training-universally I was involved in activities that precluded me from thinking about my training or progress. I hadn’t looked at a muscle magazine in months or read any books, articles or visited any internet sites related to training.

3. Busy Professional Life-usually I was fairly busy with my professional life and absorbed in it. However, I was not overly stressed by this absorption…it was truly immersion rather than anxious rumination.

4. Laziness-it seemed I retained the skill of being able to lay around and do nothing for at least an hour each day.

5. Sleep-in general I was getting about an hour and a half of extra sleep per night during a period when I was on the same shift rotation. In addition my sleep seemed to be filled with pleasant dreams.

6. Lack of body awareness-in general I had recently spent very little time assessing my appearance in the mirror or taking measurements. My only impetus to do so was after the sensation of sudden growth had occurred.

7. Season-gains seem to occur in early Spring and late Fall. I seem to be dressed in such a way that my body awareness is less, and I also think the lack of heat stress is more conducive to growth.

8. Hydration-this is without exception the strongest correlate I have found. I originally noted this when I tried Ellington Darden’s recommendation for superhydration (drinking at least a gallon of water a day). My largest growth spurt ever took place while superhydrating and every subsequent improvement has occurred during periods when I used this technique. Recently one of my clients began superhydrating and added an entire minute to her TUL’s for every set of her workout.

In general I think the best most concise advice (other than superhydration) that can be offered to most HIT enthusiasts is the following: First, stop obsessing about training. Stop spending hours on the internet discussing and debating training. Stop having arguments with people. Stop visiting all the web sites and calling the facilities around the country on a daily basis. Second, decrease your level of body awareness. Take some time off from tape measures, skin fold calipers and scales and wear clothing that conceals your body from your concern. There is truth in the old saying “a watched pot never boils”. Finally, be content and happy with the hand that nature has given you and achieve within your capabilities.

It is an important point. Sometimes I spend so much time reading crap on the internet that I do not get enough sleep. It is totally self defeating. Training is simple - push it hard, rest and recover. There is only so much to learn....

In Body by Science Doug talks about Training angst:

Ketogenic Diet as a cancer treatment

noreply@blogger.com (Chris) — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 20:38:00 +0000

I've had stuff on this on the blog before - e.g. here.

Via facebook - thanks Richard - I learned that Jimmy Moore has posted an interview with

Dr. Thomas Seyfried, a researcher from Boston College who runs the Seyfried Laboratory dedicated specifically to taking a closer look at such diseases as epilepsy and brain cancer.

you can listen to the interview here - Definitely worth it.

I'd given up reading Jimmy's blog for a few reasons (his whole folksy style irritates me and his diet winds me up - lots of artificial sweeteners / low carb products and little real food) BUT he works hard on the blog and gives some great information for free.

Just wash your face in cold water......

noreply@blogger.com (Chris) — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 23:22:00 +0000

An interesting study! Speed recovery by dunking your face in cold water

Influence of cold water face immersion on post-exercise parasympathetic reactivation

The aim of the present study was to investigate the effect of cold water face immersion on post-exercise parasympathetic reactivation, inferred from heart rate (HR) recovery (HRR) and HR variability (HRV) indices. Thirteen men performed, on two different occasions, an intermittent exercise (i.e., an all-out 30-s Wingate test followed by a 5-min run at 45% of the speed reached at the end of the 30–15 Intermittent Fitness test, interspersed with 5 min of seated recovery), randomly followed by 5 min of passive (seated) recovery with either cold water face immersion (CWFI) or control (CON). HR was recorded beat-to-beat and vagal-related HRV indices (i.e., natural logarithm of the high-frequency band, LnHF, and natural logarithm of the square root of the mean sum of squared differences between adjacent normal R–R intervals, Ln rMSSD) and HRR (e.g., heart beats recovered in the first minute after exercise cessation) were calculated for both recovery conditions. Parasympathetic reactivation was faster for the CWFI condition, as indicated by higher LnHF (P = 0.004), Ln rMSSD (P = 0.026) and HRR (P = 0.002) values for the CWFI compared with the CON condition. Cold water face immersion appears to be a simple and efficient means of immediately accelerating post-exercise parasympathetic reactivation.

Pistols from an HIT guy

noreply@blogger.com (Chris) — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 21:30:00 +0000

This is Patrick Diver - the trainer at Greyhound Fitness - doing pistols.

He is a proper HIT guy - just like Doug McGuff and John Little who were interviewed here - so it is interesting to see his training give him the strength for this.

sleep more or get fat?

noreply@blogger.com (Chris) — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 19:34:00 +0000

Basically short sleep is associated with obesity....

Sleep Duration and Obesity in Middle-aged Australian Adults

However....you can't just have a lie in on the weekend to catch up for late nights in the week:

THE FACTS Chronic sleep deprivation is a given for most Americans. But paying off a sleep debt is not as simple as sleeping late on a Saturday.......

......scientists examined the cognitive effects of a week of poor sleep, followed by three days of sleeping at least eight hours a night. The scientists found that the “recovery” sleep did not fully reverse declines in performance on a test of reaction times and other psychomotor tasks, especially for subjects who had been forced to sleep only three or five hours a night.

Patterns of performance degradation and restoration during sleep restriction and subsequent recovery: a sleep dose-response study.

Daytime performance changes were examined during chronic sleep restriction or augmentation and following subsequent recovery sleep. Sixty-six normal volunteers spent either 3 (n = 18), 5 (n= 16), 7 (n = 16), or 9 h (n = 16) daily time in bed (TIB) for 7 days (restriction/augmentation) followed by 3 days with 8 h daily TIB (recovery). In the 3-h group, speed (mean and fastest 10% of responses) on the psychomotor vigilance task (PVT) declined, and PVT lapses (reaction times greater than 500 ms) increased steadily across the 7 days of sleep restriction. In the 7- and 5-h groups speed initially declined, then appeared to stabilize at a reduced level; lapses were increased only in the 5-h group. In the 9-h group, speed and lapses remained at baseline levels. During recovery, PVT speed in the 7- and 5-h groups (and lapses in the 5-h group) remained at the stable, but reduced levels seen during the last days of the experimental phase, with no evidence of recovery. Speed and lapses in the 3-h group recovered rapidly following the first night of recovery sleep; however, recovery was incomplete with speed and lapses stabilizing at a level comparable with the 7- and 5-h groups. Performance in the 9-h group remained at baseline levels during the recovery phase. These results suggest that the brain adapts to chronic sleep restriction. In mild to moderate sleep restriction this adaptation is sufficient to stabilize performance, although at a reduced level. These adaptive changes are hypothesized to restrict brain operational capacity and to persist for several days after normal sleep duration is restored, delaying recovery.

Getting older helps recovery

noreply@blogger.com (Chris) — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 19:15:00 +0000

we old guys have some advantages....

Effects of Age and Rest Interval on Strength Recovery

The purpose of this study was to compare the effect of two different rest intervals between sets of isokinetic knee extension exercise on peak torque (PT), and Total Work (TW) between untrained younger and older men. Seventeen young men (24.22±2.58 yrs) and 20 older men (66.85±4.02 yrs) performed 3 sets of 10 unilateral isokinetic knee extension repetitions at 60°/s. The rest intervals between sets were 1 and 2 min. There was a significant decline in PT when 1 and 2 min rest intervals were used for young men, but not when a 2 min rest interval was applied for old men. There was also a significant decline in TW among the 3 sets when 1 and 2 min rest intervals were applied for young men, whereas the decline in TW in older men occurred only between the 2nd and 3rd sets. PT and TW in the 3rd set were significant greater following a 2 min rest interval than a 1 min rest in both young and older men. The present study indicated that non-resistance trained young men may require longer rest interval to recover full PT and TW when compared to older men.

Fat kids

noreply@blogger.com (Chris) — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 19:07:00 +0000

There was a bit of discussion on the radio this morning debating the "good news" that kids are not getting as fat as we thought they were.

Child obesity is levelling off - reports the BBC

Maybe they are drinking more full fat milk?

The thing is though that there is still a big problem, especially for kids from poorer families. A study I saw today concluded:

Childhood obesity and overweight prevalence among school-age children in England has stabilized in recent years, but children from lower socio-economic strata have not benefited from this trend. There is an urgent need to reduce socio-economic disparities in childhood overweight and obesity.

The Guardian had a good piece too:

If the calculations are correct, it is suggested that "only" about 30% of youngsters will be overweight or obese – and remarkably the government's revised target of reducing the scale of the problem to year 2000 levels by 2020 might well be achieved. That assumes no improvement in the situation over the next decade and still leaves obesity among young children at twice the level it was in 1990 – the baseline for all the calculations.

It is all about genetics - your toes are too short!

noreply@blogger.com (Chris) — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 19:04:00 +0000

When it comes to sporting performance, you know ultimately it is all about genetics - the hand that you were dealt by your parents.

There is a lot of talk about how to train, how to eat etc but when it comes to it it is about things that you really cannot influence.....like the length of you toes!

Longer toes, unique ankle structure aid sprinters

Longer toes and a unique ankle structure provide sprinters with the burst of acceleration that separates them from other runners, according to biomechanists.

"At the start of a sprint the only way a runner can speed up is through the reaction force that results from the action of leg muscles pushing on the ground," said Stephen Piazza, associate professor of kinesiology, Penn State. "Long toes provide sprinters the advantage of maintaining maximum contact with the ground just a little bit longer than other runners."

Piazza and his colleague Sabrina S. M. Lee, former Penn State graduate student now a post-doctoral fellow at Simon Fraser University, Vancouver, Canada, studied the muscle architecture of the foot and ankle to look at the differences between sprinters and non-sprinters.

Read the rest

Crap makes you depressed?

noreply@blogger.com (Chris) — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 19:00:00 +0000

Maybe.

The BBC reported this the other day

Here is the study

Dietary pattern and depressive symptoms in middle age.

BACKGROUND: Studies of diet and depression have focused primarily on individual nutrients. AIMS: To examine the association between dietary patterns and depression using an overall diet approach. METHOD: Analyses were carried on data from 3486 participants (26.2% women, mean age 55.6 years) from the Whitehall II prospective cohort, in which two dietary patterns were identified: 'whole food' (heavily loaded by vegetables, fruits and fish) and 'processed food' (heavily loaded by sweetened desserts, fried food, processed meat, refined grains and high-fat dairy products). Self-reported depression was assessed 5 years later using the Center for Epidemiologic Studies - Depression (CES-D) scale. RESULTS: After adjusting for potential confounders, participants in the highest tertile of the whole food pattern had lower odds of CES-D depression (OR = 0.74, 95% CI 0.56-0.99) than those in the lowest tertile. In contrast, high consumption of processed food was associated with an increased odds of CES-D depression (OR = 1.58, 95% CI 1.11-2.23). CONCLUSIONS: In middle-aged participants, a processed food dietary pattern is a risk factor for CES-D depression 5 years later, whereas a whole food pattern is protective.

I am not sure that I'd class full fat dairy as processed crap though. Especially in the light of news like this:

Children who often drink full-fat milk weigh less

Eight-year-old children who drink full-fat milk every day have a lower BMI than those who seldom drink milk. This is not the case for children who often drink medium-fat or low-fat milk. This is one conclusion of a thesis presented at the Sahlgrenska Academy at the University of Gothenburg, Sweden.

The study showed that children who drink full-fat milk every day weigh on average just over 4 kg less.

Moment Arm Exercise

noreply@blogger.com (Chris) — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 21:05:00 +0000

So what do the biceps do?

fasciating stuff from Bill DeSimone

Seth on Fat

noreply@blogger.com (Chris) — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 07:36:00 +0000

Seth has some good thoughts on animal fat:

for best health I need much more animal fat than I usually get — is plausible:

1. As Spector said, butchers cut the fat off meat. The odds that our Stone-Age ancestors, living when food was sometimes scarce, did the same thing: Zero. Perhaps our meat is unnaturally low in fat. If for a long time in our evolutionary past we ate a lot of animal fat it makes sense that our bodies would be shaped to work best with that much fat.

2. Many video games, which boys enjoy, resemble hunting. I think this reflects an evolutionary past in which men hunted. If so, for a long time humans ate meat. That they ate a lot of meat is suggested by the fact that when big game went extinct (probably due to hunting) human health got worse.

3. American culture demonizes animal fat. The conclusion that animal fat is bad rests on epidemiology. Once something becomes heavily recommended or discouraged, a big problem for epidemiologists arises: the people who follow the advice are likely to be different (e.g., more disciplined, better off) than those that don’t (the healthy-user bias). As I blogged yesterday, an example is vaccine effectiveness: Those who get vaccinated are different than those who don’t.

4. Fat tastes good. Which implies we need it. We like whipped cream, butter on toast, milk in tea, and so on. Butter vastly improves toast even with my nose clipped. Long ago, when this fat-pleasure connection evolved, dietary fat was mostly animal fat and fish oil.

IF definitely works...

noreply@blogger.com (Chris) — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 07:20:00 +0000

I had a post the other day saying that intermittent fasting works. I often point to scientific studies on IF but it is also interesting to see the results of the approach. Of course this proves nothing....but Martin has achieved some amazing results with his approach to IF (described in various bits here).

Great stuff.

Improving your chin ups

noreply@blogger.com (Chris) — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 23:21:00 +0000

Superb video from Mike T Nelson

National Fitness Test

noreply@blogger.com (Chris) — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 22:58:00 +0000

I read this in the paper today - a new way to test your fitness.

The National Fitness Test is the brainchild of Dave Reddin, a fitness trainer for the Rugby World Cup squad and a consultant to Team GB. "I wanted to show people how easy it is to take control of your fitness and get a fair assessment that is relative to age and sex," he says.

The fact that the test is home-based and requires little more than a tape measure, a computer (visual and written instructions appear on the screen as and when you need them), a watch with a second hand, and a set of weighing scales certainly make it accessible to all and maximises its appeal. But is the test valid?

The site is interesting.

The concept of fitness is always a bit puzzling - fit for what? At least it looks at different elements - BMI, strength, flexibility, heart rate recovery.

Strength is measured by two isometric moves - wall squat and the plank.....not sure how valid that is but as far as it goes it is interesting.

Egg yolks....good for your eyes!

noreply@blogger.com (Chris) — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 20:14:00 +0000

Of course eggs are good for you

Conclusions: Consumption of 4 egg yolks/d, and possibly of 2 egg yolks/d, for 5 wk benefited macular health in older adults with low MPOD. Serum HDL cholesterol increased without an increase in LDL cholesterol in this study population,

Intermittent Fasting Works

noreply@blogger.com (Chris) — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 20:06:00 +0000

This has just been published:

Short-term modified alternate-day fasting: a novel dietary strategy for weight loss and cardioprotection in obese adults

Conclusion: These findings suggest that ADF is a viable diet option to help obese individuals lose weight and decrease CAD risk

I know I go on about intermittent fasting a lot - and usually try to sell Eat Stop Eat at the same time - but there is science behind this.

Here is another one:

Intermittent fasting does not affect whole-body glucose, lipid, or protein metabolism

The Myth of Core Stability

noreply@blogger.com (Chris) — Mon, 19 Oct 2009 21:22:00 +0000

Drew Baye pointed to this

The Myth of Core Stability by Professor Eyal Lederman

The principle of core stability has gained wide acceptance in training for prevention of injury and as a treatment modality for rehabilitation of various musculoskeletal conditions in particular the lower back. There has been surprising little criticism of this approach up to date. This article will re-examine the original findings and the principles of core stability and how well they fare within the wider knowledge of motor control, prevention of injury and rehabilitation of neuromuscular and musculoskeletal systems following injury.

It is a long article....so here is the conclusion:

Weak trunk muscles, weak abdominals and imbalances between trunk muscles groups are not pathological, just a normal variation. The division of the trunk into core and global muscle system is a reductionist fantasy, which serves only to promote CS. Weak or dysfunctional abdominal muscles will not lead to back pain Tensing the trunk muscles is unlikely to provide any protection against back pain or reduce the recurrence of back pain.Core stability exercises are no more effective than, and will not prevent injury more than, any other forms of exercise.

Core stability exercises are no better than other forms of exercise in reducing chronic lower back pain. Any therapeutic influence is related to the exercise effects rather than CS issues.There may be potential danger of damaging the spine with continuous tensing of the trunk muscles during daily and sports activities. Patients who have been trained to use complex abdominal hollowing and bracing manoeuvres should be discouraged from using them.

Traditional diet is best for Eskimos

noreply@blogger.com (Chris) — Mon, 19 Oct 2009 20:41:00 +0000

This reminds me of that documentary my Big Fat Diet

Dietary Patterns are Linked to Cardiovascular Risk Factors but Not to Inflammatory Markers in Alaska Eskimos.

Our data show that the traditional diet is related to a better profile of cardiovascular disease risk factors and should be encouraged.

The traditional diet is described as:

fish, native sea and land mammals and their fats and oils, wild greens, stew with mostly meat, stew with mostly rice or noodles, native birds, wild berries, and native berry agutuk. This diet scored low in candy bars, sugar, syrup, store-bought nonhydrogenated vegetable fats, peanut butter, milk, cheese, ice cream, and nondairy creamer.

(not sure how rice or noodles are traditional to the Eskimo....but we'll let that one go)

Click on image to make it bigger.

Roughly 50% carbs, 15% protein and 35% fat..... still not sure abou all those carbs.

To be honest looking at the diets the macro percentages are not that different....one thing that does stand out is that the traditional diet is the least processed. The "healthy" one has more grains and beans.

Not quite sure what this one tells us to be honest!

The wonder of science

noreply@blogger.com (Chris) — Mon, 19 Oct 2009 20:34:00 +0000

Scientists do some great studies.....

Effect of Sleep on Excessive Belching: A 24-Hour Impedance-pH Study.

or this one about fart gas

Methane and the Gastrointestinal Tract.

Exercise index

noreply@blogger.com (Chris) — Mon, 19 Oct 2009 19:36:00 +0000

Just wanted to flag this up. Joe DeFranco has started posting some useful exercise demonstration videos on his YouTube channel.

There is a lot of useful stuff there worth checking out. For example:

This is just one of many ways to increase the difficulty of a basic plank. By taking one arm off the ground and touching the opposite shoulder, you increase the load/stability requirements of the abdominals/obliques. Try not to "rock" too much from side to side when touching the opposite shoulder.

Use a 6-12" box for this exercise. Because you're balancing completely on one leg, more proprioception, balance and stabilization is required (so activation is greater)! Make sure your "off" leg remains completely straight and the "off" ankle remains dorsi-flexed the entire time...just SLIGHTLY touch your heel to the ground. (This ensures that the leg that's on the box is doing ALL the work.)

Or for some conditioning work:

DB goblet squat, DB swings, unilateral curl + press, squat jumps

Sport Specific / functional training

noreply@blogger.com (Chris) — Sun, 18 Oct 2009 07:41:00 +0000

There has been some debate here in the past on "functional training" - e.g. Luke's Carlson's interview here.

Rob from Mountain Athlete has some good comments today:

QUESTION
I have started your 2 weeks of strength training for skiing... pretty cool!!

I would have maybe one recommendation/question. I got an ACL reconstruction about 18 months ago and the quad on which I had surgery is still a little smaller than the other one (on the inside side of the leg). Now, I can do everything I was doing before without even thinking about it, but sometime it feels like something is still not moving right (a lot of "poping" and tendonitis feeling). One exercise that I discover recently is the "pistol" (single legged squat). It is a great exercise for me because it trains each leg separately, it is surprisingly hard and it works a LOT on the balance and the stability of the knee. Furthermore, I found that it improved the way my injured leg is now absorbing the impact after jumping...

Anyway, I think it could be a great exercise to include in your ski workout program... Do you have any thought on this exercise?

Also, if you have any thought on getting the muscle mass of my injured leg back, please let me know?

Regards!

- A.

ANSWER
I think the pistol exercise is mostly a circus trick .... what I mean by that is it's not strength dependent. Once you "figure it out" balance wise, or through bunches of practice, the athlete can do it. But I question its transferrabilty. In other words, does doing pistols make you good at doing anything other then pistols?

I don't argue that it takes bunches of balance and stability, and I'll have athletes with injuries do single leg squats.... but only if they can't do double leg.

Also, I question the single limb theory in general -- that somehow training single limbs individually increases overall strength.

Finally, I don't believe in training "balance" in the gym using pistols, BOSU balls, foam pads, etc. I feel this is an inefficient use of gym time. First, again, I question the transferability of gym balance skills to the real world.

Skiing balance, in this case, is very sports specific - it's really a technical skill that is most efficiently "practiced" by skiing.

The gym is best used, in my opinion, for strength and conditioning. I want to send my athletes to the slopes strong, with the understanding that their technical skiing skills will be rusty. But if they are strong, they won't need to use those vital first few weeks of ski season just getting in ski shape - they can get right to working on their technical skills. The earlier they can work on their technical skills and wash away the rust, the faster they can begin to improve those skills.... and thus become better skiiers.

Just like the gym is an inefficient place to "practice" technical skills, the ski slope is an inefficent place to "train" strength and conditioning. The best use of the slope is to practice technique.

Add mass to your legs? Lift heavy. Drink 2-3 protein shakes/day.

- Rob

Eat your fruit with cream

noreply@blogger.com (Chris) — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 21:33:00 +0000

I love Barry Groves.... in a manly respectful sort of way.....

Stan makes some great comments on the same study

Shoulder health

noreply@blogger.com (Chris) — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 18:57:00 +0000

My left shoulder sometimes bothers me a bit...tight muscles in the upper back I reckon - and as i've got older, exercises for joint health rather than ego big muscles have become more important.

I now regularly include face pulls (described here) with a resistance band, YWLTs, stick ups (as prescribed here) and rotator cuff exercises which Rob from Mountain Athlete calls the Shoulder Hand Job.....er right

Low carb lecture

noreply@blogger.com (Chris) — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 06:33:00 +0000

Dr Eades points to this. I haven't found an hour to watch it yet but hope to tonight.

The video below shows Chris Gardner, Ph.D., researcher from Stanford University, giving a presentation about the data he generated when he compared the Atkins diet to the Ornish diet, the Zone diet and the LEARN diet. You all probably remember this study, which he published in JAMA in 2007, showing the low-carb diet brought about greater weight loss and better lab value improvement than the other three diets.