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.

A very big jump

this is being claimed as an unofficial world record.


Pretty impressive!

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.

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

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

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.

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

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....