Muscle Ups

For a big guy he does some impressive muscle ups:



natty?

Abstract thinking

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

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....

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

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

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

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

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

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?

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.