People don't trust fat doctors

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.

Doctor, every time I do *this*, it hurts!

The correct response is either:-

1) Go to hospital and get that broken finger fixed, or
2) Stop doing *that*!

There seem to be a lot of people out there who are having problems with wheat gluten (gliadin), casein and other proteins. As Matt Lalonde said in The Science Behind the Paleolithic Diet, some proteins are harder to digest than others.

Here's a hard to digest protein:-


It's raw albumin (egg white protein). As mentioned in As sure as Eggs is Eggs....., raw albumin is poorly absorbed, compared to cooked albumin. To digest the above protein requires peptidase enzymes (pepsin, trypsin and chymotrypsin) to break the peptide bonds. This has to be done from the outside inwards, so a large, heavily-folded protein takes a long time to break down into individual amino acids. Cooking albumin changes the 3-D structure - this is called denaturing. Cooked albumin digests much faster than raw albumin, which is why it's much better absorbed. Cooked proteins are generally faster to digest than raw proteins, unless they're burned to a crisp on a barbecue!

In a person with a healthy gut, partially-digested proteins are not absorbed, as the molecules are too large to pass through the tight junctions in the small intestine. They just ferment, producing malodorous wind. In a person with impaired gut permeability, partially-digested proteins pass through the loose junctions and get into the blood, provoking an immune response. This is not good, so Keep 'em tight.

People who suffer ill-effects after eating certain proteins may either have the wrong genes (e.g. coeliac disease), or have impaired gut permeability. The former isn't fixable but the latter may be. In the meantime, if eating "X" hurts, don't eat "X"!

The Comfy Chair?

Because nobody expects...


I'm writing this post lounging like a lounge-lizard on a comfy three-seater sofa. When I'm driving from A to B, I'm sitting in a comfy chair. Basically, I have a cushy life. I go for a walk in the evenings and I go to many music events, but as I'm (a bit of) an information junkie, I spend many happy hours on-line, lounging on my sofa. My bad.

Thanks to technology and energy, many of us have labour-saving devices and horseless carriages. Therefore, many of us don't burn much energy from doing hard physical work and from having to walk everywhere.

Therefore, to maintain energy balance, many of us have to eat little food energy to maintain a reasonable weight and body composition. To get all of the vitamins*, minerals, fibre/fiber etc required for good health from little food energy requires the consumption of foods with high nutrient densities. You know where this is going, don't you?

*Except for Vitamin D, which requires sensible sun exposure between the end of March and the end of September when your shadow is shorter than you are.

If you enjoy irony, see What Did You Expect? Coca-Cola's Newest Anti-Obesity Ad Blames Chairs, Not Coke.

P.S. According to the BBC TV series "QI", the Spanish Inquisition gave thirty days notice of their arrival. Therefore, according to "QI", everybody expected the Spanish Inquisition!

P.P.S. As a cushy life results in muscles burning carbohydrate at a low rate, sedentary people are better-off eating less carbohydrates. See 10 Rules New Low-Carb Dieters Should Follow.

Use and abuse of technology and energy.

Take a look at the picture below.

Samsung Galaxy S vs iPhone 4

Using technology and energy: Oil, ores, minerals and sand are turned into plastics, metals, ceramics and glasses. The latter cost and are worth more than the former. Using more technology and energy: Plastics, metals, ceramics and glasses are turned into smart-phones, computers, TV sets, cars, planes, musical instruments, w.h.y. The latter cost and are worth more than the former. Creating gizmos creates wealth and increases value.

Take a look at the picture below (hat-tip to Beth Mazur).

You know who is really leaning in? Little Debbie. We have enough crap to eat. Dial it back a little.

Using technology and energy: Produce are turned into crap-in-a-bag/box/bottle (CIAB). The latter cost more than the former but are worth less, as nutritional value has been reduced. Creating CIAB creates wealth but decreases value.

I would like there to be more production of gizmos and less production of CIAB.

A very big jump

this is being claimed as an unofficial world record.


Pretty impressive!

BBC Horizon 2013 - How to Avoid Mistakes in Surgery.

I found the following documentary interesting.


Dr Kevin Fong finds out how doctors can avoid making mistakes in the high-pressure, high-stakes world of the operating theatre. He sets out to learn how other professionals make life and death decisions under pressure, from airline pilots facing emergencies, to the Fire Service dealing with lethal blazes, to the world of Formula One pit crews. Kevin discovers how all these fields are helping to make surgery safer.

Tabata hits the showbiz big time

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.

Musings on the Paleo Diet.

Would you ask the man below for advice on how to give up alcohol?

I recently read Patients less likely to trust and listen to overweight doctors, which mentioned Mark Sisson. Sisson and Robb Wolf are good representatives for the Paleo Diet. Some are bad representatives for the Paleo Diet due to poor physical condition or abrasive personality.

The Paleo Diet gets flak from scientists like Marlene Zuk and Christina Warinner and it was criticised in The Paleo Diet (hat-tip to Melissa McEwen).

The thing is that people don't need to eat a Palaeolithic diet to be 90% free from degenerative diseases. A mere 150 years ago, Mid-Victorian Brits who didn't die in childhood managed to live to a ripe old age, as cheap sugar imports, junk food, labour-saving devices and horseless carriages hadn't yet been invented.

Just Eat Real Food.

HIIT - Sprints on the bike

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

Everyone is Different, Part 3.

Cont'd from Everyone is Different, Part 2.

Hat-tip to Bill Lagakos, whose article Missing: 300 kilocalories reminded me of the following graphic from Effects of Dietary Composition During Weight Loss Maintenance: A Controlled Feeding Study.

Lo and behold, even when subjects are bribed to stick to the diets that they are provided with, the effect of eating those diets varies hugely.

So, people like ItsTheWoo and Petro Dobromylskyj (yes, I have to copy and paste the name from his site every freakin' time!) rave about how awful carbs are, while people like Go Kaleo and Matt Stone rave about how awesome carbs are.

Everyone is different for a number of reasons, some of which are unchangeable and some of which are changeable. We can't change our birth weight, what our mums ate when we were in the womb or the chemicals that we were exposed to in the past. We can't change our genes, but we can change the expression of our genes by changing diet, activity and even supplementation. See Influence of Vitamin D Status and Vitamin D₃ Supplementation on Genome Wide Expression of White Blood Cells: A Randomized Double-Blind Clinical Trial.

Victorian Health

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

P90X2 and The Application for Certain People (Even if They Haven't Done P90X)

P90X2 the upgraded version of P90X, can bring you to a whole new level of fitness. It forces you to have excellent command of your form and what you eat. These are two overlooked aspects of workout results.

On the physical movement side, it gets you to work out smarter not harder using “Muscle Integration", a breakthrough in world of sports science. Like P90X it is a collaboration of the similar workouts that are enhanced in a more athletic manner. If you liked P90X you’ll love P90X2 as well since it is made even better in terms of grabbing hold of the science that is now considered the most cutting edge for workout efficacy and results.  The chart below shows the differences between P90X and P90X2:

DIFFERENCES	P90X	P90X2
WORKOUT SCHEDULE	6-7 days a week	5 days per week
CARDIO SESSIONS	Extensive	Less
YOGA SESSIONS	75 minutes	65 Minutes
HIIT (High Intensity Interval Training)	Short Periods	Longer Periods
P.A.P (Post Activation Potential) TRAINING	No	Yes
EFFICIENCY	More	Most
WORKOUTS	DURATION (In minutes)	DURATION (In minutes)
	CHEST AND BACK	52:50	X2 CORE
	PLYOMETRICS	58:36	PLYOCIDE
	SHOULDERS AND ARMS	59:53	X2 RECOVER + MOBILITY
	YOGA X	92:24	X2 TOTAL BODY
	LEGS AND BACK	59:56	X2 YOGA
	KENPO X	55:46	BALANCE + POWER
	X STRETCH	57:32	CHEST+BACK+BALANCE
	CORE SYNERGISTICS	57:27	X2 SHOULDERS +ARMS
	CHEST, SHOULDERS AND TRICEPS	55:44	BASE+BACK
	BACK AND BICEPS	51:36	P.A.P LOWER
	CARDIO X	43:18	P.A.P UPPER
	AB RIPPER X	16:07	X2 AB RIPPER
	*** Both workouts are still completed in 90 days.

As with P90X it also has 3 Phases: Foundation, Strength, and Performance:

• Foundation Phase – preparing the body for a more highly-intense workout, moreover it is suggested that you have completed P90X for better body conditioning. This phase can be done or last within 3-6 weeks depending on your fitness level.

• Strength Phase – this is similar to the “Mastery Phase” of P90X, it is just that additional ROM (range of motion) exercises are added of higher intensity. This phase will last between 3-6 weeks, concentrates on functional training, plyometrics, strength training and upper and lower body post-activation potentiation (PAP). You’ll feel much stronger and a suppleness feeling of the muscles at the end of this phase.

• Lastly the Performance Phase – after all the hard work done with Phase 1 and 2, you’ll find yourself, jumping higher, run faster and produce more force in every move you make. A robust look and great vibes felt at the end of this phase. Last for 3-4 weeks.

A customized, highly flexible Nutrition Guide is included with additional options and variations of meals to choose from, such as vegan and grain-free meals. Menus made to let you pick food balance that work for your body. This is another area where a person who has a solid foundation in nutrition, can actually grow in awareness and results.  If you are fully committed to keeping exacting form and eating correctly, there is no reason you can't take on P90X2 even if you haven't done P90X. The approach differs so greatly.

Truly this is a ground breaking workouts together  with and advanced diet plan which will chisel your body while improving your balance, agility, core strength, and overall athleticism. 

Cheryl Boswell is a writer and researcher on home fitness and health products. You can save time and money by getting FREE in depth news, features, and reviews on home exercise equipment, workout programs, health, and nutrition, including discounts and best prices at her blog. Check out a recent article here: http://bodyslimdown.com/tapout-tries-to-challenge-the-gsp-rushfit-workout-in-the-extreme-home-fitness-market/ Cheryl and her associates have also been writing extensively on the "Three Desired Body Outcomes" and particular suggestions for people to reach the one they want. So check it out! http://www.squidoo.com/body-beast-george-st-pierre-s-rushfit-and-power-half-hour-with-tony-horton

How the Mid-Victorians Worked, Ate and Died.

Hat-tip to Prof. Tim Noakes, who recently tweeted the above study.

See How the Mid-Victorians Worked, Ate and Died.

"The crude average figures often used to depict the brevity of Victorian lives mislead because they include infant mortality, which was tragically high. If we strip out peri-natal mortality, however, and look at the life expectancy of those who survived the first five years, a very different picture emerges. Victorian contemporary sources reveal that life expectancy for adults in the mid-Victorian period was almost exactly what it is today.
.
.
From 1875 on and especially after 1885, rising imports of cheap food basics were increasingly affecting the food chain at home. Imported North American wheat and new milling techniques reduced the prices of white flour and bread. Tinned meat arrived from the Argentine, Australia and New Zealand, which was cheaper than either home-produced or refrigerated fresh meat also arriving from these sources. Canned fruit and condensed milk became widely available.

This expansion in the range of foods was advertised by most contemporaries, and by subsequent historians, as representing a significant ‘improvement’ in the working class diet. The reality was very different. These changes undoubtedly increased the variety and quantity of the working class diet, but its quality deteriorated markedly. The imported canned meats were fatty and usually ‘corned’ or salted. Cheaper sugar promoted a huge increase in sugar consumption in confectionery, now mass-produced for the first time, and in the new processed foods such as sugar-laden condensed milk, and canned fruits bathed in heavy syrup. The increased sugar consumption caused such damage to the nation’s teeth that by 1900 it was commonly noted that people could no longer chew tough foods and were unable to eat many vegetables, fruits and nuts [26]. For all these reasons the late-Victorian diet actually damaged the health of the nation, and the health of the working classes in particular.

The decline was astonishingly rapid..."

See also Who Lives Longest? (h/t to Melissa McEwen)

Importance of neck strength

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

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

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.

Everyone is Different, Part 2.

Cont'd from We are not all the same.

A long, long time ago...


I learned that Everyone is Different, thanks to a study by Julia H. Goedecke, Alan St Clair Gibson, Liesl Grobler, Malcolm Collins, Timothy D. Noakes and Estelle V. Lambert.

Well, stone the flamin' crows! Timothy D. Noakes' name just popped up in Alan Aragon's article 2013 NSCA Personal Trainers Conference: Looking Back at my Debate with Dr. Jeff Volek. Dr. Noakes has had problems with his blood glucose level and has adopted a very-low-carb/ketogenic diet.

What also caught my eye in Alan Aragon's article was (Note: TTE = Time To Exhaustion):-
"However, the authors’ conclusion is misleading since 2 of the 5 subjects experienced substantial drops in endurance capacity (48 and 51-minute declines in TTE, to be exact). One of the subjects had a freakishly high 84-minute increase in TTE, while the other increases were 3 and 30 minutes."

I expect that the subjects with 84 and 30 minute increases in TTE would be praising ketogenic diets, whereas the subjects with 48 and 51 minute declines in TTE would be cursing them and the subject with 3 minutes increase would be "Meh". Vive la difference!

Also note that sprint capability...remained constrained during the period of carbohydrate restriction. As mentioned in It's all in a day's work (as measured in Joules), exercise above a certain intensity (~85%VO2max) burns significant amounts of carbs, no matter how fat-adapted someone is.

Cont'd on Everyone is Different, Part 3.

8 VERY COMMON DIET MISTAKES TO BE AWARE OF ...

8 VERY COMMON DIET MISTAKES TO BE AWARE OF

In the diet of large errors are easy to avoid, but it is still incredibly common. If you're like me diet has become a part of your life. You are on a diet, a diet, or cheating on a diet. Diet or no diet I always seem to struggle to get the results I want to see. Now I know this because I was making some of the big diet mistakes ever. Take a look at these mistakes diet and see if they are the reason that your efforts, diet, not too much.

1. Do Not Exercise

Diet all you want, but you get the weight loss results you want without adding in some exercise. Exercise helps to burn more calories and build muscle. Start little and add up until you find the usual that works for you.



2. Taking Care Of The Scale

Some women do diet mistake of thinking scale. Depending on the number of scale can be daunting. Your weight fluctuates throughout the day. Drinking water, food, or going to the bathroom all the room you can change on the scale. As women our weight even change during the month. If you bloat before your period, the scale may show 2-3 pounds of weight. Instead, focus on the changes in your body and how you feel.

3. Skipping Breakfast

Skipping breakfast is probably the biggest mistake of the diet. You need breakfast. By the time we wake up in the morning to start our day the last time we ate can be like 12 hours ago. We need to fill up our body in order to get everything working properly and to stop us from overdoing it at lunch.

4. Diet Pills

Some diet pills are FDA approved and can help you lose weight, but if they are not used correctly, the weight can not stay with. Diet pills as a crutch instead of weight loss for curb appetite and increase energy, skip the pills and focus on diet and exercise. It is much healthier, and the results will last much longer.

5. Do Not Eat Enough

Another common mistake diet do not eat enough. Your body needs a certain amount of calories to function. There are fewer than 1000 calories can be deadly and insulting to your body. Your body will begin to think that she is hungry and use the muscles to create energy and keep any piece of fat you eat or you. He will also disrupt your metabolism.

6. Part Of The Management

Of course others make a mistake, there is too much, because they do not understand the part of management. Food labels can tell what's good for you is because it has a sufficient number of calories in a serving, but if you're not after the part of the management and measurement of acting that you can actually have two or three times more than you should and blowing your efforts diets.

7. Emotional Eating

Someone ticks you're at work, children stressing you non-stop and do not know if you have enough money to pay the phone bill, what do you do? Grab a bag of chips and drown yourself with food, right? Wrong. Unfortunately, many of us do this, we turn to food to fix our emotions and cope with stress. Find a new way to handle and when you eat, ask yourself if you are eating because you are hungry, or for any other reason.

8. Lack Of Sleep

Sleep is so important for weight loss. If you do not get enough sleep, your efforts than diet may be in vain. Focus on ways to get more sleep and stop this error.

When I was putting together this list, I was amazed at how many of the biggest mistakes I have made diet. It's no wonder I can not get the results or follow any diet plan. Now, I know diet mistakes to see, I think my next go round will be much more successful. How about you, make mistakes what diet you do?

The importance of basic activity. STAND UP

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

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

Nothing to report, so...

...here's a YouTube video of me singing "The time of my life" by Bill Medley & Jennifer Warnes, backed by Jukebox at the Falkners Arms in Fleet on 1st February 2013.

EDIT: The video is temporarily unavailable. 

Why I post less "science" than I used to

This blog has recently been on a bit of a simplicity kick.  I've been  pointing out how desperate we all are for novelty - because we are desperate for immediate results - and how that makes us vulnerable to all sorts of hype and fad approaches to diet and exercise.   The basics - good sleep, real food, daily activity, strength training, stand up straight - are boring but effective.

Each of these elements however also comes with a bunch of sectarianism and argument.  Sleep - in total darkness, with no electronics within 10 metres; real food - paleo or not paleo, high carb, low fat, etc etc etc; daily activity - run or don't run...if you run it better be in minimal shoes POSE style and sitting is toxic; strength training - is vital....but it needs to be SuperSlow (TM), you need to do barbell squats (!) or take note of the unique physical properties of kettlebells; posture - do you Gokhale?

I've been there with all of these trends....and am finding it harder to get as excited about any of it anymore.  I don't think there is any magic (apart from consistency on the basics.  And strength training can do wonderful things)

It doesn't mean that all this debate is not important - it is - but what is more important is simply that people do something. (and do it safely)

Anyway, that was not what I was going to write.

I wanted to point to this piece, which explains why I am less prone to posting random links to scientific abstracts than I used to be.   People throw abstracts at each other in these arguments, yet sometimes these studies do not even say what the combatants think that they do.

Hey, eff-tard with the abstract link. Yeah. You

The rate at which psuedo-information flies around has now reached epic proportions. And not in a good way.

I have been that eff-tard

more Floor Time

I had a post a few weeks ago that looked at the idea of standing up from the floor and sitting to the floor as a good test of general functional ability and health.  I also mentioned the ideas of Philip Beach who has a set of moves built around this that he calls erectorcise.

I am convinced of the value of all that stuff ad it was interesting to read Dan John take up the same idea in a piece he published this week.   He calls it groundwork:

Literally, we need to roll around on the ground more. I have one bit of advice for my older clients: watch all the television you want, but you must be on the floor sitting when you do. Try this. You'll find soon that you roll, pivot, twist, change, and flop the whole show. 

It's a cheap workout. 

When I assess most programs, groundwork is usually a few sets of crunches and that's it. Groundwork, tumbling and wrestling can transform a program in a few weeks, but few will adopt this simple strategy.  Something as simple as the rolling portion of the Turkish get-up is a good start and I suggest everyone begin adding more work from the floor.

Or you can always just crawl....