Jumat, 15 Juni 2012

resistance training and / or aerobic exercise...what do they do to middle age muscle?

Phillips lab at  McMaster university churns these studies out!

Concurrent resistance and aerobic exercise stimulates both myofibrillar and mitochondrial protein synthesis in sedentary middle-aged men

Here they look at the impact of :
  • resistance training alone;
  • aerobic exercise alone; and
  • resistance exercise and aerobic exercise together;
in sedentary middle-aged men.  (I'm 44.  Am I middle aged yet?)

The way that I read it is that doing both together is equivalent in effect  - in most measures they were looking at, protein synthesis in the muscles mainly) to doing either resistance exercise or aerobic exercise.

Questions for discussion....

  • Why was the resistance exercise 8 sets of 8 reps?  Why not something simpler?
  • What is more time efficient?
  • Why do they always pick leg extensions?

Interview with Slimkicker

In the last couple of days I was interviewed by the boys at Slimkicker. 

The interview focuses on my book Hillfit:Strength and it was good to have a chance to explain more about the philosophy and the rationale behind the programme and the exercises that were chosen.




Slimkicker have been pulling together interviews with some great guys so I am in good company!   Appearing in the Nutrition section immediately after Paul Jaminet is an honour!

Anyway, please check out the interview and have a look round the rest of Slimkicker too - it looks like a fun community and useful approach to tracking your diet.

Weird Filters.

Here's a weird picture.
Why is it that some people see the world through weird cognitive bias filters? It makes discussion with them impossible, as what I write is remixed with weird filters into something completely different. They then argue against something completely different, not what I wrote. This is the classic Straw Man argument.

Here are some examples of remixing with weird filters, taken from Insulin, the Un-dead and coffin nails.

1) ""A" is..." is remixed into "I believe that "B", "C", "D",..."Z" do not exist".

2) ""A" is caused by "B"" is remixed into "A is only caused by "B"". This is similar to 1).

3) "As cells are emptied (of glycogen)..." is remixed into "Once cells are completely emptied (of glycogen)...". The "As" at the beginning of the sentence signifies an ongoing process. Next time, I'll write "As cells are depleted (of glycogen)..." EDIT: Rewritten using c/p'ed text.

4) The statement "eating too much and moving too little" is remixed into "Gluttony and Sloth". Gluttony and Sloth are conscious actions. Eating too much due to ravenous hunger and moving too little due to lethargy/sleepiness are unconscious actions. Anybody who thinks that I mean/insinuate the former rather than the latter is an idiot/insane.

Having remixed what I wrote into something completely different, I am then accused of intellectual dishonesty. Oy!

Rabu, 13 Juni 2012

Psychological Stress impairs muscular recovery

This one popped across my screen today.  Stress is always an issue with all sorts of impacts on health.  Interesting to see this study of its impact on the muscles and how they react to training:

Psychological Stress Impairs Short-Term Muscular Recovery From Resistance Exercise

PURPOSE:
The primary aim of this study was to determine whether chronic mental stress moderates recovery of muscular function, perceived energy, fatigue and soreness in the first hour following a bout of strenuous resistance exercise.
METHODS:
31 undergraduate resistance training students (age = 20.26 ± 1.34 y) completed the perceived stress scale (PSS) and Undergraduate Stress Questionnaire (USQ; a measure of life event stress) and completed fitness testing. Following 5 to 14 days of recovery, they performed an acute heavy-resistance exercise protocol (10-RM leg press test plus six sets: 80-100% of 10-RM). Maximal isometric force (MIF) was assessed prior to, following, and at 20, 40, and 60 min post-exercise. Participants also reported their levels of perceived energy, fatigue, and soreness. Recovery data was analyzed with hierarchical linear modeling (HLM) growth curve analysis.
RESULTS:
Life event stress significantly moderated linear (p = .013) and squared (p = .05) recovery of MIF. This relationship held even when the model was adjusted for fitness, workload, and training experience. Likewise, perceived stress moderated linear recovery of MIF (p = .023). Neither USQ nor PSS significantly moderated changes in energy, fatigue, or soreness.
CONCLUSION:
Life event stress and perceived stress both moderated the recovery of muscular function, but not psychological responses, in the first hour post strenuous resistance exercise.


I think this may well have relevance to the work of Marcora that I've poined to before.   so much of this stuff is mental.  Perceptions are so important.  When you feel stressed everything will feel harder and of course your performance will be impacted

Fitness and Health

Naturopathy teaches that physical and mental fitness is equated with a long and healthy life. Body exercises, one aspect of fitness helps prevent disease and strengthen the self-healing powers of the body perfectly. Proven to be people who are actively deal with the issue of fitness and healthy living, statistically speaking, longer.

Regular physical activity, combined with a nutrient-and fiber-rich diets are based on fitness and a healthy immune system. The risk of developing lifestyle diseases like heart attacks and obesity can be reduced by a targeted workout, increase concentration and learning through a healthy diet combined with exercise.

What is the relationship between fitness and health?

Not everyone can get excited about hiking, knee and sit-ups in the morning at the open window and cereals and raw vegetables. But that a healthy lifestyle with a rhythm of activity, relaxation and a healthy mind and body contributes is undisputed.

The testimony of the Father Jahn turn that into a healthy body a healthy mind is still relevant today. Sports and exercise, even 20 minutes a day, the immune cells up to speed. Every person wants to do every day without pain his day's work. To do this you need to muscles and joints, possibly, his entire body, can be used daily. Because can rust as unused machines, accumulate in human metabolism to inactive slag to be removed only by motion. So this may actually leave the body, regular sports-fitness or yoga exercises are necessary. This can, depending on personal preferences, are at home, performed in a club with friends or in the gym. At home, the practitioner is left unattended in the club or with friends, he has training partners, but must adhere to certain times. The training in the gym can be customized.

Ensure the success and the resulting wrong actions make you sick and destructive stress prevents the person can enjoy good health. For this reason, a call is counseling or psychotherapy as well yoga into a comprehensive health program.

Which sports are most healthy?

In fitness training, there are fads and trends. Basically, the increase of health-conscious to his fitness, will choose a sport they like. These points can be two to three times a week, for half an hour to exercise alone in the club or at a fitness center. To increase the body's defenses are swimming, cycling, brisk walking, running, dancing, yoga, particularly well suited.

Swimming is a sport that is first of all like to exercise in the summer. It makes for a use as many muscles. The movement in the water makes a lot of fun. Cycling is the fitness enthusiasts throughout the year. The route is selected depending on your mood and driven. Brisk walking is preferred by people who have previously operated rare sports or suffer from physical problems. They usually choose short distances depend on the daytime functioning. Regular walking, even over long distances is something for people who want his head to run freely. You only start times and realize after a while they will not want more time with himself. Who wants to maintain togetherness in his sport with a partner to dance well advised. The joint movement not only strengthens the connective tissue but also the relationship.

People seeking a holistic fitness method, like yoga. It includes mental and physical exercises, combined with a healthy diet. Of course, a combination of various sports is possible.

What are your risks and benefits?

In principle, anyone who has never run the sport, start with an aerobic exercise. After 45 years it is reasonable to be carried out before training a health check. After a thorough examination, the doctor may also in heart and vascular patients give training recommendations. In the zeal to quickly get fit again, many people tend to overwhelm her body. As long as the practitioner can not breathe without exaggeration a conversation, it is not overloaded.

The fun factor is increased over time, the good mood rises. Man is more balanced.

As sports and fitness will help you lose weight?

Who takes fewer calories each day than it consumes decreases inevitably. Eating less or lower-calorie diet, but only the basal metabolic rate. This means that the body adapts to the times of privation, but it will also build muscle. Sports will ensure that the trainee burns calories and building of muscles. The cravings will soon after a dietetic treatment brings back the pounds on the hips as kept in check. When running sports with friends, in clubs and gyms is that he sells boredom that often leads to an immoderate eating. Many overweight people are missing the motivation to practice sports. You remember many of the gymnastics squads in school, the teasing classmates. This can be through sports with like-minded people or small workouts with familiar people prevent, for example, in the seclusion of the forest.

Anyone who appreciates even pay attention to his fitness, takes his meals in good company, indulges in the evening to relax, be inspired to learn, interested in others and pushes his decisions to better fitness is not long on the bench.

Dirty Rotten Scoundrels.

Who, these guys?

No. I'm referring to Manufacturers of Crap-in-a-Bag/Box/Bottle (CIAB), or MOCIAB for short.

In Obesity is multi-factorial, spectra and other stuff, I mentioned Mayor of NYC Michael Bloomberg's ban on the use of cups larger than 16oz for the sale of sugary sodas. Note that Mayor Bloomberg is not trying to ban sugary sodas or tax anything. People are still free to buy as many cups of sugary soda as they want. However, the whining from people is deafening!

Surprise, surprise! MOCIAB have retaliated with the usual dirty tricks.

1) Lies, damned lies and MOCIAB statistics.
Cherry-picked studies, much?
2) Have a number of MOCIAB/pro-MOCIAB groups/sites drown-out good advice with bad. This is a standard marketing trick pioneered by Edward Bernays. Some examples of MOCIAB/pro-MOCIAB groups are:- Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics, http://www.ameribev.org/, http://www.consumerfreedom.com/, http://www.letsclearitup.org/ and http://www.livepositively.com/.


In Psychological manipulation, there was a link to a story about a hypnotist who used his freedom of speech to influence women into "freely" handing him cash. So, why is he not allowed to use his freedom of speech to influence people (Italian police were hunting him) whereas MOCIAB are?

EDIT: I'll repeat it here, in case you missed it in the other post. Confessions of a former Dirty Rotten Scoundrel.

Selasa, 12 Juni 2012

Again, strength training improves cardiovascular fitness

Following on from the paper last week from James Steele, here is another study which says that strength training improves cardio fitness:

Effects of two different quadriceps strengthening exercise approaches on cardiovascular fitness in healthy female subjects: A single blind randomized study.

Objective: There are limited number of documents showing the relations between cardiovascular fitness and muscle strength. This study aimed to determine the effects of two different quadriceps strengthening exercise approaches on cardiovascular fitness in healthy female subjects.

Methods: Forty female university students participated in this study on a voluntary basis. The participants were randomly assigned to do either isokinetic exercise (IE) or progressive resistive exercise (PRE) in two different groups. Both training schemes were performed three times a week for a period of two weeks. The subjects were given a maximum symptom limited exercise test on a treadmill before and after (each) training period.

Results: Total exercise duration increased and Borg scale level decreased significantly after training in the two groups (p < 0.05). Maximal systolic blood pressure, recovery heart rate, and recovery diastolic blood pressure decreased significantly in the IE Group (p < 0.05). Resting and recovery systolic blood pressure decreased significantly in the PRE Group (p < 0.05). Compared to PRE group, improvement for Borg Scale level, recovery heart rate and recovery diastolic blood pressure were more obvious in IE Group (p < 0.05).

Conclusions: This study demonstrated that both quadriceps strengthening methods have displayed improvements in cardiovascular fitness. Further research with larger sample groups may need to be carried out.