Conditioning Research

5 to 9 thinking

noreply@blogger.com (Chris) — Tue, 21 May 2013 19:58:00 +0000

This is not the normal fodder for this blog, but I like this guy and his attitude. Read more from him here.

Muscle Ups

noreply@blogger.com (Chris) — Sat, 18 May 2013 12:21:00 +0000

For a big guy he does some impressive muscle ups:

natty?

Abstract thinking

noreply@blogger.com (Chris) — Sat, 18 May 2013 07:02:00 +0000

This is why I don't do many of the style of posts that I used to get up here - finding an "interesting" abstract, posting it and carrying on. I have realised that without reading the paper you can be very misled..... There is more than the abstract.

Bryan Chung's Evidence Based Fitness blog from where I got that piece is a good resource by the way.

What the Internet is Doing to Our Brains

noreply@blogger.com (Chris) — Mon, 06 May 2013 20:23:00 +0000

I've read Nicholas Carr's book The Shallows. It is superb and a little frightening in its implications.

The importance of strength training as you get older....

noreply@blogger.com (Chris) — Sun, 05 May 2013 06:52:00 +0000

via Save yourself. This is vital stuff, well expressed.

I could quibble over some of it in terms of form or whatever, but the message here is superb.

Thinking hard and its effect on appetite

noreply@blogger.com (Chris) — Wed, 01 May 2013 21:57:00 +0000

This looks like an interesting study:

Thinking hard makes you hungry.....so you eat more. Yet thinking hard doesn't burn calories. So if you are going to think hard then eat, well you better do something to burn the calories that you are going to add.

Exercise and negative energy balance in males who perform mental work.

Abstract

WHAT IS ALREADY KNOWN ABOUT THIS SUBJECT:

Achievement of a stressful mental task leads to increased energy intake over a short period of time. Given that mental work does not increase energy expenditure, a positive energy balance is observed.

WHAT THIS STUDY ADDS:

The single fact of waiting and relaxing after mental work does not reduce energy intake. Thirty minutes of physical activity performed at moderate/high intensity between mental work and a meal is enough to create a energy deficit compare to a situation where the meal directly follows mental work.

BACKGROUND:

Although energy expenditure during mental work is not higher than energy expenditure at rest, a stressful mental task is related to an increase in energy intake. It is suggested that mental work produces physiological changes, thereby influencing food intake.

OBJECTIVE:

Because physical activity can influence hunger, the aim of the study was to determine if the introduction of an active pause could counteract the negative effects of mental work on energy intake and energy balance.

METHOD:

Twelve male students, of normal weight, between 15 and 20 years old were evaluated. All subjects participated in three different sessions realized in a randomized order: (i) without pause = relaxation/mental work/meal; (ii) relaxation pause = mental work/relaxation/meal; and (iii) exercise pause = mental work/exercise/meal. Energy expenditure was measured with indirect calorimetry, energy intake was measured with a cold buffet-type meal of 40 items, and appetite-related sensations were measured with visual analogue scales. The effect of introducing an active pause in energy intake and energy balance was studied.

RESULTS:

The introduction of an active pause did not influence energy intake; although, higher appetite-related sensations were observed (16-26 mm on a 150-mm scale; P < 0.05). After accounting for the energy expenditure related to physical activity, a lower energy balance was measured for the exercise pause visit compared with the visit without a pause (-1137 kJ; P < 0.05).

CONCLUSION:

This study indicates that being active between mental work and a meal could represent a strategy to create a negative energy balance following mental work via an increased energy expenditure and a maintenance of energy intake. Globally, these results could help individuals attain and/or maintain a healthy body weight in a context where mental work is omnipresent.

Broccoli Bread

noreply@blogger.com (Chris) — Thu, 25 Apr 2013 22:22:00 +0000

I'm not quite convinced that bread should involve broccoli....but still this looks interesting and tasty. I've made a few of Anna's recipes - her recipe book is fantastic - and I will make this I am sure.

Check out the whole post.

Hillfit v 2.0

noreply@blogger.com (Chris) — Wed, 24 Apr 2013 19:49:00 +0000

I've finally updated Hillfit - the ebook that I released about 16 months ago. The idea behind Hillfit is that the average person who enjoys hiking, hillwalking and time in the outdoors can have more fun, find every walk easier, be safer and more resilient by getting a bit stronger.

Getting Stronger

Getting stronger shouldn't be a complex matter - picking some simple and safe exercises and doing them consistently can make a huge difference.

The focus of it all is enjoyment - I want you to have more fun in the hills - getting stronger lets you do that.

What is new

Version 2.0 is a lot more than an update. It contains about 70 additional pages, more material and contributions from several other trainers and exercise scientists. The structure is:

PART 1 WHY GET STRONGER
PART 2: HOW TO GET STRONGER
PART 3: APPLYING YOUR STRENGTH TO THE SKILL OF WALKING
PART 4: BEYOND STRENGTH
PART 5: PUTTING IT ALL TOGETHER

Contributors

This time, it is not just me...there are contributions from

Tim Anderson - who writes about the mental and physical benefits of hiking in the countryside
James Steele II - explains how there is no such thing as cardio - proper strength training has a range of metabolic, cardiovascular and cellular impacts that are normally only associated with endurance training
Skyler Tanner - notes how walking is different from exercise
Bill DeSimone - describes how to choose safe exercises
Steven Sashen - looks at how to walk efficiently
Todd Hargrove - outlines some exercises to improve mobility, balance and proprioception
Colin Gordon - writes about mobility and some daily exercises to keep you supple.

Buy it here

The book is for sale via www.hillfit.com or you can just click here:

The price is now £10.

Questions

If you have any questions, please get in touch.

The Human Effect Matrix

noreply@blogger.com (Chris) — Tue, 23 Apr 2013 19:39:00 +0000

The guys behind Examine.com have just released a great new resource: a "Human Effect Matrix."

For every supplement in their database, a handy table tells you what effect each supplement has and how noticeable that effect is.

To see what we are talking about, click through to see what the scientific studies say about:

Beta-alanine or Whey Protein

PULLING SOME THREADS TOGETHER: SITTING, POSTURE AND GRAVITY

noreply@blogger.com (Chris) — Tue, 16 Apr 2013 23:26:00 +0000

I CALL ON YOU TO FIGHT GRAVITY

This might be a bit of a disjointed post but I wanted to pull together a few ideas that I’ve been thinking about recently, prompted by a few things that I’ve read some of which I’ve mentioned here. It is just a case of getting some ideas out of my head, so please do not be too hard on me for a long rambling post.

Over the life of this blog I have looked a few times at posture and neuroplasticity – the idea of how the brain itself can change and modify itself in response to what you do with it and with your body. I’ve also often pointed to the reports of the dangers of a sedentary life. Without necessarily spinning some grand theory I wanted to highlight a few ideas and maybe begin to plot some connections.

MUSCLES THAT TIGHTEN, MUSCLES THAT GET LOOSE

This is an idea that I think I first came across from Mark Reifkind, then Paul Check and then Dan John. I think Chek got it from Janda. They talk of tonic and phasic muscles. Certain muscles tend to get tighter with age, injury, under-use or over-use. These need to be stretched. Others tend to get weaker and they need to be strengthened.

Which ones are which?

MUSCLES THAT GET TIGHTER WITH AGE *Stretch them*	MUSCLES THAT GET WEAKER WITH AGE *Strengthen them*
Upper Trapezius Pectoralis Major (Chest) Biceps Pectoralis Minor (deep chest muscle) Psoas (hip flexors) Piriformis Hamstrings Calf Muscles	Rhomboids Mid-‐back Triceps Gluteus Maximus Deep Abs External Obliques Deltoids

A simple way to picture all this is of flexors and extensors. The flexors – the muscles that bend, that pull bones together – get tighter. All of those muscles in the left hand column: when they get tight, flexed, you end up in a tight ball. Legs bent, toes pointed, knees to chest, arms bent, shoulders hunched up and chest collapsed. You go foetal. The extensors are the opposite. These are the muscles take you from the foetal to the upright. When these are tight you are erect, arms and legs straight, shoulders back.

When we think of an old person, we picture then with the flexors tight – they are bent over, stooped, arms and legs bent. The youthful person is different – they are erect, the extensors are working well.

We have a battle between flexion and extension. Between the foetal position, which becomes the posture of old age, and the erect posture of the child and the athlete.

Incidentally, notice also how the foetal position is the position we adopt in fear, in response to a threat. The brave, resistant fearless position is the opposite.

It is also interesting that the muscles we need to strengthen are often those that we ignore or find boring. We need to be rowing, pressing, hingeing and squatting rather than curling and bench pressing.

GRAVITY AND THE BATTLE

What makes this battle? Gravity.

This is where I come back to the ideas of Philip Beech and his erectorise exercises. It is also connected to the writings of Dr. Joan Vernikos, who notes that sitting and the sedentary life is actually a life in which people minimise the effect of gravity. She compares the impact of weightlessness on astronauts and each of the negative health impacts that are observed in them are evident to a lesser scale in those who spend a lot of time seated.

We tend to forget about gravity. It is always there! Forget about exercises, liftin weights or even lifting your bodyweight. Our bodies are under a constant pressure from gravity. Gravity is always trying to bend us over, push us down and return us to the foetal position from which we started. It never stops. To stand up, erect with legs straight, shoulders back and head up requires work, effort against gravity. It requires the extensors to work……all the time. Unless you keep working these muscles BY SIMPLY STANDING AND BEING ERECT they will get weaker, they will get looser. Gravity wins!

The other muscles? As you stop fighting gravity and you collapse – ultimately into a ball….or a chair – those flexors settle at a shorter length. If you never stand up straight into extension, your hip flexors will never be lengthened. Your hips will always be bent. You will collapse in on your self. You become old, flexed. Weak.

WE ARE IN A FIGHT WITH GRAVITY

As a child develops from back, to roll, to crawl, to sit, to stand, to walk, gravity is slowly battled and mastered. The force that held the baby down is finally overcome until he is able to stand, the muscles keeping the body erect.

We become what we were meant to be – a biped. Upright and erect in command of our bodies. And as such with healthy brains, plastic brains that develop the connections and the maps to govern that movement. As we stand and move all of us gets healthy, even our brains.

But as we abandon the physicality of life, sit down and succumb to gravity that is lost. All sorts of systems in the body suffer including the brain.

RECOGNISE THE FIGHT

We live in a world of gravity, but we don’t notice it. Apart from all exercise and training, concerns about exercise form or protocol, first of all respect the basic truth that we live in a world of gravity. This force is trying to pull you down – literally and metaphorically. Health and simply being human depends on mastering gravity. Stand up for yourself! Stand against the world. Think of all the phrases that signify strength and robustness – the things that you stand for, the things that you stand against. Sitting down, sitting it out – you collapse, gravity wins. Standing up – you assert yourself.

I don’t know where I’ve got with all this!

For more on these ideas, check out Geoff Neupert’s recent posts, or Dan John’s Lifetime Warrior Workout, or Paul Chek on the tonic /phasic concept. Read stuff by Todd Hargrove and Tim Anderson

TAKE A STAND

Anyway if nothing else….start to think of standing as an heroic battle against gravity. Keep up the fight as long and as effectively as you can. Sitting, slouching, poor posture is giving up that fight. Going foetal reeks of fear. Getting erect speaks of character, fight and bravery. (I've also noted on the blog before how posture affects attitude - if you want to be confident then take a confident posture)

Andrew Marr's stroke - HIIT?

noreply@blogger.com (Chris) — Mon, 15 Apr 2013 22:04:00 +0000

I just thought I'd point to this - Is exercise to blame for Andrew Marr's stroke?

Marr is a fairly high profile journalist / TV presenter in the UK. He suffered a stroke a few months ago that he is now blaming on interval training on the Concept 2.

Marr said he had followed the advice to "take very intensive exercise in short bursts – and that's the way to health … I went on a rowing machine and gave it everything I had, and had a strange feeling afterwards – a blinding headache, and flashes of light – served out the family meal, went to bed, [then] woke up the next morning lying on the floor unable to move".

As usual, the NHS piece is pretty balanced, although it is a little concerning the way in which the medics talk about the potential dangers of interval training:

"Regular exercise is an important factor in stroke prevention and recovery. We have heard anecdotally that some activities like vigorous exercise can sometimes cause blood vessels to burst. We need more research on the underlying factors that might make that happen.
"We do know that high blood pressure itself is the single biggest cause of stroke. Until more research is done on specific triggers, we'd suggest getting your blood pressure checked and taking steps to keep it under control – exercise can help with that."

Maybe there was more to it though:

Despite the media emphasis on the stroke risk exercise could pose, it should also be borne in mind that Andrew Marr has said that he had been "heavily overworked". Stress is a known risk factor for high blood pressure, and it is possible that this may have played a part in his condition.

....Feeling like a Heretic

noreply@blogger.com (Chris) — Sun, 14 Apr 2013 21:53:00 +0000

Just an excuse to play some Lloyd Cole:

"Looking like a born again, living like a heretic"

That was the phrase going through my head this weekend as I thought about this post. The heresy? For so long I've been identified with, and I suppose in some ways promoted, certain positions in terms of fitness and diet. There has been a lot of other stuff on the blog: big jumps, neuroplasticity etc, but the recurrent themes are probably diet and exercise. Diet: paleo-ish and fairly low carb. Fitness: HIT style weight training. The thing is, over the last few months, maybe longer, I've moved away from both to some extent.

Such shifts make me feel like a heretic....like I am rejecting some fundamental truths. Not only a set of principles, but the people, the tribe.

Looking like a born again

The change has not harmed me. I am leaner than I used to be when limiting carbs and have more muscle than I did while training once a week to failure.

Giving up the search for the philosophers stone

There is probably more to write about why I've moved on from low carb paleo, but essentially I drifted from low carb - I realised that carbs were not the enemy but often the preferred source of fuel. Then overtime I started to question much of the dogma of paleo, particularly the quasi-religious nature of the whole paradigm, this utopia from which we fell in which we all lived these ideal lives, with optimal diets, social interaction and physical activity.

In terms of exercise I am still walking, spending time in the hills. I am doing balance work and trying the movement rests that Tim Anderson writes about in Becoming Bulletproof and Original Strength (very Feldenkrais influenced). But weights has gone on to 3 or 4 days a week, with the old bodybuilding split of chest/shoulders/triceps & legs/back/biceps. Focus on progression in weight, not going to failure. One exercise "heavy" 3 sets of 4-8, then one exercise at 2 x12-15. This is based on Brad Schoenfeld's paper on the mechanisms of hypertrophy (mechanical stress, metabolic stress and muscle damage) with the heavy move pushing the mechanical stress and the lighter set going for the metabolic stress. A bit like Lyle's bulking routine. I am not rejecting HIT, just talking a change for a while because I actually enjoy training more than once a week.

Gnosticism

The whole alternative, gnostic, hidden knowledge is so attractive. We have something that the mainstream doesn't have. It plays on the same fears and conceit that drives nutty conspiracy theories.

The thing is that all this alternative stuff is not really needed. The mainstream often has the truth, but we do not want to listen or apply it.

The bodybuilders got it right

Increasingly I am coming back to positions that I had 15 or 20 years ago. Maybe longer. The sciencey bodybuilders. Clarence Bass, Alan Aragon, Lyle McDonald. Newer writers too like Go Kaleo.

We are searching for the truth about how to get lean, muscular and fit and the natural bodybuilders have been doing it for years. (Natural I said....drug assistance means lots more latitude). Then build muscle and get lean....often without the craziness. (There is some craziness but there is also some sensible stuff)

The internet led me astray?

I discovered the internet in about 1996 and immediately started searching for fitness stuff. I found low carb then paleo then Art Devany.....and then it was deep into the alternative realms.

The basics stay the same

I still think the basics are the same as I've been writing for a while:

Eat real food
Progressive strength training
Stand up straight
Get enough sleep.

and of course, patience and consistency.

I can't give up

I will keep reading, writing, thinking and hopefully progressing.... of course I can't give up the search to improve, to learn.

No such thing as Cardio

noreply@blogger.com (Chris) — Mon, 08 Apr 2013 21:31:00 +0000

James has contributed a chapter to the new version of Hillfit, which should be out in a couple of weeks, in which he covers the things he goes through in this talk.

Sitting Kills Moving Heals

noreply@blogger.com (Chris) — Thu, 04 Apr 2013 20:48:00 +0000

Just a quick shout out to point you towards this book, Sitting Kills, Moving Heals: How Simple Everyday Movement Will Prevent Pain, Illness, and Early Death -- and Exercise Alone Won't, Dr. Joan Vernikos.

There has been so much recently about the dangers of the sedentary life, but this book joins the dots in a very interesting way. Vernikos was involved in Space projets at NASA and she points out how the impact of weightlessness in space are actually the same impacts - but amplified and condensed - that flow from spending so much time sitting down.

Sitting is our way of avoiding the challenges, the exercise, that are properly delivered by gravity.

Her prescription is expected - move more - but it is the language that is interesting and motivating - the idea of doing more Gravity Exercises.

She points to some good research too. For example it is not just about spending time stood up....but the repeating acts of standing that are important. It reminds me of the floor exercises ideas that I pointed to a few weeks ago.

Highly recommended.

Logical Fallacies and more thoughts on paleo

noreply@blogger.com (Chris) — Thu, 04 Apr 2013 20:41:00 +0000

Consistency and habit

I am sorry that this blog has been quiet recently, but I've just not been finding things to post: either items that I wanted to highlight here or things that I wanted to write. I've been distracted by other things - like climbing hills in the sunshine and snow - but also I have been aware of the fact that sometimes there is not really much to say. In recent posts I've pointed to the idea that consistency and habit, patience and persistence trump most things when it comes to fitness and health. There is only so many times that you can say this before it gets boring.

Logical Fallacies

When I have been thinking about "fitness" issues I've actually been reflecting a lot on how limited my outlook has been for so long and how this might have been affecting my results. A lifetime ago - or so it seems - I did a degree in Philosophy. I did three years worth of formal logic, which was one of the parts of the course that I really enjoyed - the analysis, the equations into which arguments were broken down and expressed.

Recently I've been thinking about logical fallacies - errors in reasoning, arguments that might look valid at first but which on deeper consideration are actually invalid: the conclusion does not flow from the premises. There are lots of lists of such fallacies but Your Logical Fallacy Is... sets out a good few.

For example:

personal incredulity

Because you found something difficult to understand, or are unaware of how it works, you made out like it's probably not true.

or

the idea of an argument from silence: the absence of evidence is not the evidence or absence.....

Your exercise routine / diet is based on an invalid argument

Anyway, I suppose this gets me to some more thoughts on Paleo. The Paleo backlash is now underway with videos like this:

or Marlene Zuk's Paleofantasy (interviewed here)

I actually think the best analysis was done - with a good sense of humour - by Matt Stone in

12 Paleo Myths: Eat Better Than A Caveman

Reading that and thinking through the arguments a lot I came to realise that a lot of the dogma was just wrong. In terms of the logical fallacies we were so often at:

appeal to nature

You argued that because something is 'natural' it is therefore valid, justified, inevitable, good or ideal.

The whole grok thing, spinning an ideal of how we were intended to live.....it sounds good, it sounds romantic but either there is nothing to it or else it is just banal obvious statements.

Common Sense

I was trapped in a paradigm for a while there, seeing everything through the "primal" lens. Now I am realising that I was being stupid to be so limited in outlook.

People don't trust fat doctors

noreply@blogger.com (Chris) — Sun, 31 Mar 2013 20:42:00 +0000

This one raised a smile when I saw the abstract:

The effect of physicians’ body weight on patient attitudes: implications for physician selection, trust and adherence to medical advice

Respondents reported more mistrust of physicians who are overweight or obese, were less inclined to follow their medical advice, and were more likely to change providers if the physician was perceived to be overweight or obese, compared to normal-weight physicians who elicited significantly more favorable reactions. These weight biases remained present regardless of participants’ own body weight.

I suppose it makes sense. Why follow their advice if they are unable to achieve something in their own bodies.

How does this apply to other areas like fitness or diet gurus? I think this is where it gets more complex. I think a diet guru who is promoting a certain approach as leading to health or leanness should really be healthy and lean. However in terms of fitness, the 6-pack is not always a sign that they know what they are doing. Favourable genetics and chemical assistance can often deliver a decent physique despite the particular approach to training. Looking good doesn't mean that you know what you are talking about.....but if you know what you are talking about you should at least look decent.

A very big jump

noreply@blogger.com (Chris) — Thu, 28 Mar 2013 07:59:00 +0000

this is being claimed as an unofficial world record.

Pretty impressive!

Tabata hits the showbiz big time

noreply@blogger.com (Chris) — Mon, 25 Mar 2013 21:40:00 +0000

So I was reading a standard journalists piece about the Tabata protocol - you know: "Get fit in 4 minutes!!!" and all that. So far so good - this stuff keeps popping up every now and again as a journalist discovers interval training and decides to break it to the world.

Anyway, what was different in this one was that they actually spoke to Tabata himself. He stressed something that I mentioned in the Wingate post - you need to work very very hard:

"....I often go on YouTube and, while I am honoured that people are doing it, some are doing it wrong because they don't realise the intensity you need to work at," says Tabata.

Tabata is addressing this by staging his own PR campaign:

It's slightly surprising, therefore, that the plan is still the preserve of the serious athlete and musclehead crowd – although that may change now that Tabata has agreed a deal with Universal Studios that will lead to a network of instructors and a DVD range released towards the end of the year.

So we are facing an official Tabata instructor and DVD programme.

The story is at

The Tabata workout programme: harder, faster, fitter, quicker?

Oh well....here we go.

HIIT - Sprints on the bike

noreply@blogger.com (Chris) — Sat, 23 Mar 2013 13:16:00 +0000

me on Thursday...

Walking to work the other day I listened to a podcast from Layne Norton - Muscle College Radio - where he was discussing cardio and particularly high intensity intervals. There has been enough on this blog over years about interval training (e.g. here) and its benefits, but it was interesting to hear this discussion especially as they got into the different pathways in the muscle that were activated by different types of exercise.

There has been a lot of research done on intervals in Dr Jake Wilson's lab where they seem to have a particular interest in bodybuilders looking to gain muscle and lose fat.

Anyway in their experiments they tend to use what they describe as a Wingate bike - a stationary cycle set up for the Wingate test. You pedal to reach a peak revs per minute and then a load is added to the bike to make it harder....then you go as hard as you can for 30 seconds. This is not just pdalling hard....this is hitting a hard resistance that gets so hard you struggle to pedal. Their intervals are not just a few sprints....they are all out to failure efforts.

There is a video of the standard test here - you can see her hit a peak rpm and then the weight falls and she goes as hard as possible for 30 seconds basically just about failing at the end.

Here is another which explains it a bit

What is striking is that this is not your average sprint....this is tough to failure... hard work. It may be that this sort of intensity is not strictly needed, but it does make you question just how hard you are actually working!

The podcast gave an idea for how to do this on a normal stationary bike

warm up
start to cycle going faster and faster
when you are at a max rpm, pump up the resistance level as high as possible
keep going as long as you can until you fail

It is not a perfect substitute but it works well enough. I tried it yesterday for a series of sprints and it gave a massive leg pump.....

Interesting how hard this is...and how similar - in the to failure aspect - to that other HIT.

Also check out Clarence Bass new piece on intervals with weights

Victorian Health

noreply@blogger.com (Chris) — Fri, 22 Mar 2013 07:47:00 +0000

I just wanted to point to this paper on the health, diet etc of the Victorians. It is fascinating in itself and also in the context of all the discussions of paleo, ancestral health etc.

The paper is

How the Mid-Victorians Worked, Ate and Died

and it was mentioned by Nigel here

Importance of neck strength

noreply@blogger.com (Chris) — Tue, 19 Mar 2013 07:37:00 +0000

If you are going to take hits to the head - rugby, boxing, mma - make sure you have a strong neck.

Isometric cervical muscle strength mitigates head impact severity

The cervical musculature may play a role in mitigating head impact severity among collegiate football players. Sports medicine professionals and strength and conditioning coaches should continue exploring the potential benefits of cervical strengthening programmes on head injury prevention.

Shoe stuff - problems with big heels

noreply@blogger.com (Chris) — Tue, 19 Mar 2013 07:33:00 +0000

I have not had much shoe stuff on here for a while. This might seem like old news to those who discovered Born to Run along time ago, but just to note this bit of news:

Cushioned heel running shoes may alter adolescent biomechanics, performance

Many of today's running shoes feature a heavy cushioned heel. New research presented today at the 2013 Annual Meeting of the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons (AAOS) found that these shoes may alter an adolescent runner's biomechanics (the forces exerted by muscles and gravity on the skeletal structure) and diminish performance.

Beyond the blogs

noreply@blogger.com (Chris) — Sun, 17 Mar 2013 22:03:00 +0000

My posting frequency has falen a bit recently. Along with my desire to keep things simple I think I've mentioned my frustraion with the fad approaches and gurus, which both offer success apart from the basics. Patience, realistic expectations, consistency - they are what matter.

I think I've mentioned before my view that so much of the internet / blogosphere is built on this unhealthy distrust of the mainstream. The assumption seems to be that "conventional wisdom" wisdom is wrong. Sometimes you get the impression that people think that the mainstream is intentionally out to do you harm. The thing is that conventional wisdom is usually the popularised or dumbed down version of the scientific consensus....and the scientific consensus has been arrived at through some rigorous challenge, testing and interrogation. Of course scientists have their own agendas and there is publication bias etc, Kuhn's paradigms are at play etc, but by and large the scientific method is pretty robust. Yes it is fluid and changing but overall there is a position that science develops based on testing and experiment.

Out in the blogs though I sometimes think that we either reject all that - as conventional wisdom.....the Man trying to control you - or else try to reinvent the wheel.

Which is all a preamble to saying that I've been getting less and less from the "amateur" blogs recently and more from those who are addressing the science.

Podcasts

Layne Norton's Muscle College Radio podcasts have been excellent so far, especially the last one on cardio.

Superhuman radio - if you can take the adverts, Carl Lanore has some good guests on his show too. For example, last week's interview with Brad Schoenfeld was very good.

I've just bought Brad's book and downloaded it to Kindle too, so am looking forward to reading it. His 2010 paper on Hypertrophy is a very good read.

The importance of basic activity. STAND UP

noreply@blogger.com (Chris) — Fri, 08 Mar 2013 10:42:00 +0000

Sitting is still killing you and the odd workout will not cure you.

Fascinating piece of research here and the whole paper is available

Minimal Intensity Physical Activity (Standing and Walking) of Longer Duration Improves Insulin Action and Plasma Lipids More than Shorter Periods of Moderate to Vigorous Exercise (Cycling) in Sedentary Subjects When Energy Expenditure Is Comparable

Conclusions

One hour of daily physical exercise cannot compensate the negative effects of inactivity on insulin level and plasma lipids if the rest of the day is spent sitting. Reducing inactivity by increasing the time spent walking/standing is more effective than one hour of physical exercise, when energy expenditure is kept constant.

Thoughts on Paleo 1 - A reiteration of the narrative of the creation and fall

noreply@blogger.com (Chris) — Fri, 08 Mar 2013 10:15:00 +0000

A number of people in the comments have asked for my thoughts on paleo. This blog has been going for quite a few years and during its life, paleo has certainly been an interest and it has often been identified as a paleo blog. Indeed I received a signed copy of Sisson's Primal Blueprint on its release as I was in the paleo gang, which was then much smaller.

However I am increasingly uncomfortable with "paleo" in its application, assumptions and adherents. I may do a few posts on the issues at play here. As a preliminary observation however, I want to comment on something that I have been thinking about recently: Paleo as a reiteration of the biblical narrative of creation and fall.

Creation and Fall

If you are familiar with the biblical narrative man is created in the image of God and placed in a perfect environment, the Garden of Eden. He is given a prescribed diet and operates in a state of the social and spiritual ideal. The Bible tells the story of how through man's choice - initially signified by a disobedience to God over food - he is excluded from this perfect ideal environment. This is the Fall. He is shut out from the Garden and there are consequences for his health (he now becomes mortal), his lifestyle (he now has to toil), his social life - the marriage relationship is messed up - and his spirituality (he loses his relationship with God). The whole world also suffers and is under the curse of this sin.

Jesus takes the punishment for man's sin and in Him - the second Adam - we gain what we lost, ultimately a place in a new recreated earth, a new environment.

Paleo and the fall

I find hints of this narrative in Paleo. There is a perfect environment from which we have fallen through choices primarily about our food. As a consequence we are suffering in terms of health, social life and even spirituality (the Primal Connection?) The whole world is messed up because of agriculture.

This is perhaps why paleo offers such attraction - it appeals to the same deep hungers that are there in the Bible; the feeling that we are somehow in a messed up and spoiled world, the desire for Eden. Some recognition that all of our lives are ruined through our poor choices? We long for better health, food, relationships and society.

Heretics

Maybe this is also why people become so sectarian and obsessed about their Paleo diet - it becomes their route to salvation. What we used to find in religion we now try to get from diet - the hope, the community. Those that disagree with us and our way are not just wrong....they are heretics destined not for a poor state of health but for damnation.

We need to ease up about all this