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January 31, 2019Blog

Yesterday I was chatting to my brother, who himself happens to be a Head Coach and manager with the North Dublin Schoolboy League in Soccer, during a training session and he asked “Why do we always do weightlifting as a means of training?” To which I immediately answered “because its the best way to train for what we’re looking for”, the “what” in question being an improvement in physique and overall health (which for men generally means a slimmer waistline, bigger arms and chest and that coveted V shape, and, in terms of improved health, being able to climb the stairs and run for the bus, or, for the older males, being able to play with kids and grandkids, all without feeling like our hearts are gonna explode!).

“But you’ve become obsessed with bodybuilding”, he claims, ” What about Cardio? Why not throw some High Intensity Interval Training or circuits into your programs?”

“Well there’s a couple of reasons” I reply, “Firstly, you can similar cardiovascular benefits from resistance training as purely cardiovascular training including a stronger heart and improved blood pressure (Fleck, 1988), secondly, high intensity interval training is mentally very challenging for new clients compared to resistance training and can cause quite a lot of drop outs in my experience, thirdly repeated endurance or cardiovascular training can interfere with muscle growth on a metabolic and physiological level (Coffey et Hawley, 2007),which, for most of my clients is the primary goal of their training and finally its simply the fastest and most efficient way of achieving the goals were looking for.”

Now, don’t get me wrong! I’m not Anti-Cardio In any sense of the word. I spent 11 years competing in Boxing. So I know just how vital good cardiovascular conditioning is. And for my clients who are athletes I make sure to include Cardio Conditioning into their programs. But most of my clients aren’t looking to break a 4 minute mile or go 3 rounds with an opponent for a championship belt. So why subject them to unnecessarily difficult cardio training if they don’t need to reach any more than a basic level of conditioning?

But it got me thinking about training programs. Which should take precedence Variety or a Consistent, focused program?

Now, when I talk about variety, I’m not just talking about a slight change in training focus, as happens in Periodization regularly and hence is constantly utilized in my programs (hell, when my brother and I had our conversation we were just coming off a Hypertrophy (Muscle Growth) phase of training and heading into a Maximum Strength (Pure Strength) phase of training) I’m referring to varying the training methods to such a degree that both a different method is being used and a different, relatively unrelated, fitness quality is being trained, e.g. doing resistance training on Monday, an long steady jog Wednesday and some Yoga on Friday. In that case completely different body systems and muscle qualities are being trained. This type of training is called Complex or Concurrent Training (Training with many focuses) by some. With a consistent and focused program, the client would focus on one fitness quality to improve, e.g. Increased Muscle Mass. So a training program would focus purely on improving that one quality, i.e. Hypertrophy based resistance training on Monday, Hypertrophy based Resistance training on Wednesday, and Hypertrophy based Resistance Training on Friday.

So, should we prioritize variety or consistency?

As with every question, the best answer is usually started with “It depends”.

In terms of ordinary clients with the goals of increasing overall health and physique and don’t have a very extensive training background, varying the training, and how much you decide to vary it, really depends on how quickly they want to achieve their goals, as a consistent and focused program will help them achieve greater muscle mass faster than a highly varied program (Verkhoshansky et. Siff, 2006), however both types of programs will help them achieve better overall health and quality of life. The highly varied program could also help their long term adherence to exercise and prevent mental burnout or boredom, although mixing heavy resistance training with high intensity interval training can increase the risk of overtraining if not carefully programmed.

For Athletes, however, the rules change. Consistency, in my opinion at least, is king for all athletes except the beginner athlete with a nearly nonexistent training history. This is because when programming an athletes training, he or she is generally coming to you because there is a specific fitness quality they are lacking. And so it is your job to improve that fitness quality, usually as fast as possible, before their next competition. And so a focused, consistent program with limited (notice how I didn’t say none) variation is recommended. Variation would be reserved for the maintainance of fitness qualities already achieved in a previous training period, i.e. one jog every 1-2 weeks to maintain aerobic fitness, or for recovery, i.e. 1-2 active recovery sessions outside of rest days to aid recovery and development.

For Athletes, however, the rules change. As is usually the case. Unless an Athlete is a relative novice with limited training history, I would recommend keeping variety to a minimum.

When an athlete comes to me, it is usually because he or she is lacking a certain fitness quality.And so it is my job to improve that fitness quality, usually as quickly as possible, before their next competition . Now, if that athlete has multiple fitness qualities that need improvement, I will create a carefully planned program in which a certain time period will be allocated to developing each fitness quality over a long period, but session to session, or even weekly variation in training will be kept low (notice how I said low instead of nonexistent) with variation being kept for either maintaining a previously developed fitness quality, i.e. doing one running session every 1-2 weeks to maintain aerobic capacity, or for recovery, i.e.including 1-2 low intensity active recovery sessions per week during a high intensity cycle of training. Other than that, each training plan is kept as focused and consistent as possible. The same can be said for training clients whose progress has stagnated, along with a possible increase in intensity.

What are your thoughts on Variety and Consistency in training?

Let me know in the comments section below. And don’t forget to subscribe and like us on faceboom for more interesting information and resources on health and fitness.

Until next time,

Stay Fit,

Richie

References:

Supertraining, 6th Edition by Yuri Verkhoshansky and Mel C. Siff, 2006

Molecular Bases of Training Adaptation by  V. Coffey and J. Hawley, 2007

Cardiovascular adaptations to Resistance Training by S. Fleck, 1988

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January 31, 2019Blog

One study showed reduced fatigue when adding a mental task to an endurance drill in Soccer players

Well, in the case of endurance, two studies showed a very profound effect of psychological state and activity on performance. The first study (Greig et. Al., 2007) took 10 semi-professional soccer players and put them on a treadmill, replicating a full football in terms of pace, duration and rest periods, such as including a 15 minute “half time” period in between the drill. They ran two trials, one with just the physical work on the treadmill being done, and another with an added mental task to be completed while carrying out the treadmill running. When measuring saliva, blood, heart rate and the athletes perceived effort they found that when the athletes performed the mental task, their heart rates were lower throughout the exercise, they had reduced blood lactate, meaning less “muscle burn”, and the athletes recorded a lower perceived effort than when completing the physical tasks alone. Showing a clear physiological improvement in endurance qualities. The second study (Albiol et. Al., 2001) they put 18 elite cyclists through a similar endurance exercise both with and without completing a mental task. And again similar results were observed.

And for Speed, a study on tennis players found an decrease in reaction time from players who practiced visualizing potential tennis situation than those who merely physically practiced the sport itself (Singer et. Al., 1994). However research in that area is a little more rare. While skill has a little more peer reviewed research weighing it down. For example, a study in 1985 took thirty college students of equal (perceived) skill and gave them a putting challenge, telling one group to imagine the ball going in the hole, another group to imagine the ball missing the hole, and giving a third group (the control group) no mental task (Woolfolk et. Al., 1985). As you would expect the group imagining a successful shot saw skill improvement overtime with the control also showing improvement, though not as large as the visualization group, and the group imagining an unsuccessful shot saw their performances deteriorate over the test period.

So, does this prove the 90% psychological theory my brother possesses? Actually no, I don’t think it does.

For one, all of these studies were done on experienced sportspeople and athletes, who generally have a fairly good basic level of physical conditioning. Even the experiment on the tennis players explained how most of the beginners were actually experienced players that were accepted into the beginner group anyway. And when looking at visualization in skill improvement there have also been studies showing no significant improvement despite mental training (Epstein, 1980), with the study concluding that the negative results from some female subjects suggested that they could have found the mental training as more of a distraction than a helpful method of training.

On top of this we continuously see a link in cognitive performance and physical fitness, with one such example being shown in the academic improvement of young students after being subjected to physical training and an enhanced level of fitness and physical well-being (Taras, 2009). Showing an increased capacity for cognitive learning as a result of purely physical training. We also see Exercise continuously improve psychological conditions such as depression and anxiety through, and I quote, “a reducing effect on anxiety,…improve(d) self perceptions, and in some cases global self-esteem…and enhanced mood states” (Fox, 1999). And it is well documented that training modalities such as balance and resistance training improves proprioception (the body’s innate awareness of itself in space) and so facilitates learning of new motor patterns on a neural and muscular level (NSCA, 2008).

So while Psychological training certainly seems to benefit athletes, it would seem that physical conditioning has, at the very least, an equal if not greater, impact on the mind and the ability to learn.

So where do I stand now on the Psychological contribution to Sports Performance and Development? In my view the mind and body are invariably linked, that is to say, one can only develop so far without the development of the other. The fact is, it is and always will be, impossible to put a figure such as percentage on the contribution of either the physical or psychological factors of fitness, especially considering that each athlete operates differently and has different views on the matter, a fact that is emphasised in the opening paragraph of this post. But I certainly think it is foolish to consider either factor more important than the other and train as such. In the author’s opinion the most important principle to implement is that of balance in the training program. Particularly in regard to the psychophysiological development of an athlete. So, my recommendations are to screen each athlete individually when possible, both physically and psychologically and apply the appropriate training  methods, be them mental or physical, as needed for the continuous growth and improvement of the person.

However, if an athlete is a beginner with limited training history, then I would certainly recommend an emphasis on the physical side of development, with a more balanced physical and psychological form of training for more experienced and elite athletes.

What are your thought on Sport Psychology and Physical Conditioning in Sport Performance? Let us know in the Comments section. And stay tuned for our Video Blog post on Mental Training techniques and how they can be effectively and practically implemented to improve performance.

References:

Supertraining, 6th Edition by Yuri Verkhoshansky & Mel C. Siff

Anabolic Steroids: The Physiological effects of Placebos, by Gideon Ariel & William Saville, published May 23, 1972, Science in Medicine and Sports

A continuous mental task decreases the physiological response to soccer-specific intermittent exercMarc Matt Greig, David Marchant, Richard Lovell, Peter Clough, Lars McNaughton, published 2007, Journal of Sports Medicine

The effects of positive and negative imagery on motor skill performance, by Robert Woolfolk, Mark Parrish and Shane Murphy, Published June 1985 in Cognitive Therapy and Research

Psychophysiological responses to the Stroll Task after a maximal cycle ergometry in elite sportsmen and physically active subjects, by Luis Moya-Albiol, Alicia Salvador, Raquel Costa, Sonia Martinez-Sanchis, Esperanza Gonzalez-Bono, Jorge Ricarte, Maite Arnedo, published February 2001 in the International Journal of Psychophysiology

The Relationship of Mental Imagery and Mental Rehearsal to Performance of a Motor Task by Martha L. Epstein, published 1980 in the Journal of Sport Psychology

Essentials of Strength Training and Conditioning, 3rd Edition, by The National Strength and Conditioning Association, published 2008

Training Mental Quickness in Beginning and Intermediate Tennis Players, by Robert N. Singer, JamesH. Cauraugh, Dapeng Chen, Gregg M. Steinberg, Shane G. Frehlich, and Ludong Wan, published 1994, in The Sport Psychologist

Physical Activity and Student Performance at School, by Howard Taras, published August, 2005, in Journal of School Health

The Influence of physical activity on mental well-being, by Dr. Kenneth R. Fox, published on 7th of May, 1999, in Public Health and Nutrition

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January 31, 2019Blog1

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January 31, 2019Blog

This is a tale between two coaches. Joined by a singular common goal. To to turn those under them into achievers. To make them better than they were before. And yet these two coaches remain divided. While one coach favors tradition and practical experience, views coaching as an art, and uses these to form his methodology, the other favors scientific theory and new practices, they view coaching very much as a science. A natural disagreement in how to manage those they worked on led to a dispute, and consequently one was labelled the dinosaur, an old-fashoned, inefficient coach and an obstruction to progress, while the other was labelled a lab-rat, a coach with next to no practical experience, a pompous atitude, no grasp on leadership or motivation or “knowing the athlete”, and practices that are about as useful outside the laboratory as they themselves are on the pitch, that is to say, not very. And so, a rift developed that, in many coaching teams, still exist today.

I am of course discussing a relationship dynamic seen between head coaches or managers and Sort Scientists or Strength & Conditioning Coaches. This is clearly not a view that I alone share. As two texts I have read have outlined this as a potential problem in a coaching team setting. The book Developing Sport Expertise: Researchers and Coaches Put Theory into Practice, outlines a gap in outlook between the two types of coaches, with the scientists lack of practicality being cited as one issue, and the head coaches closed-mindedness being cited as another (Farrow, Baker et. MacMahon, 2013). Another text, Youth Development in Football: Lessons from the World’s Best Academies, echoes these sentiments, quoting “the more knowledgeable and experienced the coach or other staff are, the more they know this feels more like an art form than a purely scientific enterprise”, acknowledging that this can “bring a source of misunderstanding and tension into the relationship between some sport scientists and coaches” and that sport scientists can sometimes have the impression that “if we cannot measure it, it doesn’t exist” (Nest et. Sulley, 2015). The book also acknowledges that most great coaches were lauded more as artists and leades than pure scientists, but also confirms the massive contribution of Sport Scientists, quoting Raymond Verheijen as a driving force behind improved fitness and reduced injuries.

It cannot be refuted that the introduction of formal sport science and strength & conditioning has made a huge difference in sporting performance, even from a coaches standpoint. Just look at Arsene Wenger’s efforts with his Youth Squad development and improved player nutrition and training methods. However, whether its a cure for cancer or this week’s lottery numbers, if no-one’s listening, your words hold no value. So it goes without saying that a rift caused by either a conscious or subconscious difference in opinion and methodology can massively damage productivity and hurt the very people whose improvement is the sole focus of both coaches, the athletes.

I’m speaking as a person who has been on both sides. I was, and still am, head coach to the Institute of Technology, Blanchardstown Boxing Club,since 2012, and I’ve been a practicing Sport Scientist for 4 years now, working with well over 100 clients. My best example of a difference in coaching outlooks hurting productivity was when I served as S&C under coaches Bobby Brown and Eoin Leary, two lads who had as much appreciation for science as the pope does. Between forbidding us from doing Injury Prevention training (because they were afraid it would injure the players!) and canceling S&C sessions last minute for no apparent reason, we were more or less rendered useless in working with the team.

While working with the Boxing team I can certainly understand the “artist” view of training. During technical drills, its not about motor learning, it’s not about physiology or biomechanics. Its ablut, does it look right, does it seem right, does it feel right and, most importantly, does it work (get results in competition). However, I have always made every attempt to be as scientific as possible in my approaches and continuously try to merge the science with the art, regularly experimenting with new coaching and training methods. And so, this brings us to how we should go about fixing this unproductive dynamic. And so I’ve outlined a few practices I feel can help when constructing a team of both coaches and sport scientists.

A Better Understanding of Theory and Practice

It goes without saying that both sides have areas that are in need of improvement. The scientist needs to evaluate how practical his or her methods are, particularly in a team setting, and understanding and knowing their athletes, rather than simply seeing them as test subjects, while coaches need to spend more time studying the theory behind their methods, and changing them if need be, change is scary, but so is being sacked because you’re the next coach is promising something newer, shiner and more effective. I’ve had coaches say they don’t have the time to research these things. Thats basically the same as saying you don’t have time to become a better coach! Find the time! No-ones asking you to study molecular physiology, just basic understanding of the body is enough. And studying doesn’t mean reading a college library every evening. Chat with the team sport scientist about why they’re doing what they’re doing. Or listen to a podcast. Or even read an issue of Muscle & Fitness Magazine. Anything!

Improve Team Cohesion

Its like Kiera Knightley said to Benedict Cumberbatch’s Alan Turing in The Imitation Game: “You’re going to need all the help you can get. And they are not going to help you if they don’t like you!” (great film!) And the sentiment remains true for any administration. Team cohesion remains of the utmost importance. Many academies have copped on to this with Bolton FC placing great emphasis on team bonding trip for coaching staff (Nesti et. Sulley, 2015). If a team get along they are much more likely to understand each others decisions and be more prepared to compromise. So get to the administrators: Get the BBQ and paintball guns out! Could save you a lot of grief in the long run.

Go for Experience

Education is learning what parts of a book you need to remember, experience is learning what parts of the book you need to forget. There’s a reason experience is considered a valuable thing. It helps a person learn what can be done vs. what should or could be done (under different circumstances) and allows them to identify those circumstances. Plus, more experienced coaches/sport scientists are usually better at managing and dealing with the people around them, be them superiors or subordinates. So, whenever possible, choose the person who has the more (relevant) experience.

References:

Developing Sport Expertise: Researchers and Coaches Put Theory into Practice: Second Edition, by Damian Farrow, Joe Baker and Flare McMahon, 2015

Youth Development in Football: Lessons learned from the Worlds Best Academies, by Mark Nesti and Chris Sulley, 2015

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January 31, 2019Blog

First off, apologies for the delay in updating the Blog. Been super busy in Chicago covering the PerformBetter 3 Day Summit, which will of course be my next post, along with some kick ass interviews and lots of other cool shit for subscribers. So,with that out of the way, lets get started.

In my very first blog post I discussed Variation and Consistency in training and how, for experienced athletes, a consistent approach is usually best. In the same blog post I mentioned how athletes who needed to develop many different fitnees atributes, e.g. aerobic capacity and strength/power, like footballers or boxers, should achieve this through a long term, periodized plan. This is to minimize the interference effect that occurs primarily between aerobic and strength/anaerobic adaptations to exercise (Coffey et. Hawley, 2007). However, there are certain circumstances in which a long term cycling of different training means is impractical, such as when an important competition, or series of competitions are scheduled very closely after an off-season period, or a period of inactivity. A good example of this is when I had 6 weeks to train for the National Intervarsities after my off-season, and had to get myself in the best shape possible for the championships.

It should be noted that this form of planning is for experienced and relatively conditioned athletes. I had already reached a Resting Heart Rate of 38bom and had already been squatting, pressing and pulling some decent weight before this plan was implemented so I was a fairly experienced athlete in all regards.

I took the idea of Minituarized Block Training (MBT) from Vladimir Issurin (Soviet Coach), who devised Block and Conjugated Periodization, which basically entails dedicating an entire training period, usually a month or two in length, to developing one factor of fitness, such as Strength, Speed, Endurance etc., and then following that block with another block dedicated to developing a related fitness component, so if Block 1 was dedicated to Strength, Block 2 would be dedicated toward Speed or Lower, with minimal work done on Strength in Block 2. The idea being to allow long term super compensation of Strength during the 2nd Block while developing Power/Speed simultaneously to reach a peak at the end of Block 2. So, I figured if this can work over the long term (months) couldn’t it be applied to the relatively short period of weeks?

So I came up with the idea of MBT, which basically entailed a three-to-four day high intensity Aerobic Power & Capacity focused cycle, followed by a two to three day recovery cycle, followed by a three day Maximum Strength cycle, and, finally concluded with another two day recovery cycle. Again, its important to note that the Aerobic development was done utilizing Sport-Specific High Intensity Interval type training such as Bagwork and (very lightly) weighted shadow-boxing, while the Strength/Power development was carried out utilizing complex type training, again using movements that transferred to my sporting activity, such as Medicine Ball Throws and depth jumps/lateral jumps. Another important contribution to the success of this program is that I made sure no single training session lasted longer than 1 hour from start to complete finish, cool down and all. 1 hour and 5 minutes is the absolute longest any session went. Hell, my Aerobic sessions only ever lasted 45 minutes. If I didn’t get all the exercises done in the hour, I’d finish up the session, take a 3 hour break and do the rest of the exercises in a separate session later that day (this really only ever occurred with the Strength/Power sessions).

The craziest thing about my experience with this program is how good I felt all the way through, regardless to the intensity of the program, probably because of the high emphasis on recovery. Speaking of which, my recovery protocols were not that strict, with passive recovery taking emphasis, with occasional active recovery jobs taking place about once every two recovery cycles, or roughly once per week and a half. However, I did use strict monitoring techniques, taking my Resting Heart Rate, Heart Rate Variability, and recorded my sleep quality/quantity via the Heart Rate Variability app SleepRate. So, if it said I wasn’t too beat up from the previous day, I might have an active recovery day instead of a passive recovery day etc.

For the plan itself, check out the table below.

So, how were the results? Well, the title is clear enough but the fact is in some lifts I gained even more than 5Kg, with an improvement of 7Kg on the Bench Press and about 7Kg on the Deadlift. And how did I do in the National Intervarsities? I got Silver. What can I say? The guy in the final was a lanky southpaw and one awkward bastard to fight! But I was never tired or even close to it in any of the rounds which from a fitness perspective proves the program. Either way, for hybrid athletes like myself, who are short on preparation time, I thought I’d share a Periodization plan that worked for me.

My Resting Heart Rate after 6 Weeks.

Until the next post, Stay Fit.

Richie.

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January 31, 2019Blog

With the PerformBetter Summit looming, which will be covered in my very next post (I swear on all that is holy I’m telling the truth this time!) we kicked off my trip to the states with a planned visit to Illinois State University (ISU). I had emailed Dr Laudner, who is head of the Kinesiology (that’s American for Sport Science) Department there, a few weeks before heading to Chicago about visiting the college, getting a tour of their facilities and discussing their Kinesiology programs, comparing them to back home (yep, my holidays are just super fun like that). I’ll save the coke & hooker-filled benders for my next post and skip to the point on this one. So, long story short Dr. Laudner was nice enough to agree to personally show us around the entire Kinesiology department when I arrived (even though it was the middle of Summer and ISU was closed; class act!). So myself and my colleague Dean Donovan (who was nice enough to lend me a section of his floor for the time I spent in Chicago and will be seeing the below photos for the first time when reading this) headed down on a bus to the campus. Let the adventure begin!

Just in keeping with the title of this blog post I’ll note that the written portion of the post will concern the tour and review of the facilities of ISU’s Kinesiology department, with the interview of Dr. Laudner shown in the video at the end of this post, along with a profile on Dr. Kevin Laudner and who he is to the Sport Science Community.

Prior to the tour I had done my research on ISU’s Kinesiology program and actually had a fairly high opinion of the colllege before even seeing it. So how was the facilities at ISU? In two words: Mind Blowing!

Dr. Laudner met us at the bus station and drove us to the Kinesiology building. From there he gave us a quick introduction on how Kinesiology developed as a curriculum in the college. Turns out they’ve taught it since the early to mid 20th century. We were then taken to one of the Exercise suites, a Biomechanics lab, a Sport Psychology lab, an Exercise Physiology lab and an entire studio/lab for physical therapy, so how were they?

The Exercise Suite

In fairness this room was about what you’d expect. We’re talking Powerblocks, Power Racks, Olymic Style half racks, Medicine Balls, Slam Balls, Kettlebells, Treadmills, Stationary Bikes, a Cable machine, and even a  Keiser machine!! (Google it if you’re unfamiliar with them!). In the grand scheme of things this was actually probably the least impressive room of them all. Think a miniature high performance room. What I liked was the quality of the racks, benches and other training equipment! I struggled to lift the Bench it was that heavy (solid steel all the way through), the racks were made of some extremely tough stuff, in fact I’d wager you could have dropped 1000lbs on it and not made a dent. Dr. Laudner basically explained the rooms use as an exclusive gym for the Kinesiology students; a place they could work with patients/clients undisturbed. We then moved on to the exercise Physiology lab. And this is where I start to  Geek out!

The Physiology Lab

This was amazing! For a student who came from a campus whose sole measuring devices were a weighing scales, skin calipers and a jump mat you can imagine how cool it was to see an athletic testing room that looked more like it belonged in a hospital than a college. They had a VO2 Max Testing Treadmill and Bike, a plunge pool for underwater weighing (to test body composition) and A FUCKING BOD POD (Also for body composition). On and their was a pair of skinfold calipers in the corner. I can imagine they got about as much use as an inflatable dartboard (thank my colleague Dean for that comparison). Here, Laudner explained the use the room got; serving as a testing ground to triathletes, NFL players, World ranked cyclists and more, making for a great learning experience for the students and an ideal partnership for both the athletes and the college, he also explained how the students work with military and corporate clients such as Apple and the United States Air Force as part of their degree courses (holy shit, right?). As a bit of an objector to the current belief that VO2 Max testing is a good standard method of Aerobic testing, I asked Dr. Laudner what his stance was on the test’s efficacy. He echoed my sentiments of it being short on presenting a perfectly accurate picture of Aerobic Endurance but did advocate its use as a general guide, quoting how the athletes and coaches like getting actual data on their progress. Gotta say this room was easily the second most impressive on the tour. Only downside was we never actually got a go on the BOD POD (Again, Google it! Trust me its cool!) so my readers will just have to trust that I’m at 3% Body Fat for now.

Snaps of the VO2 Max testing machines.

The Underwater chamber used for Hydrostatic Weighing

The Biomechanics Lab

OK so this where the geek-out levels reached their peak! Seriously, my glasses had fogged up and my pocket protector was in a state! So, Dr. Laudner opens the door to the Biomechanics Lab and we saw something that looked like it came out of a high tech military base. Force Plates, Wall mounted High Speed Cameras, a set of computers and monitors on the wall and even a walkway that had sections that collapsed at random as you walked on them to test dynamic stabilization! Meanwhile the high speed cameras caught every movement and measured its speed, direction and in some cases, velocityvelocity. All this information was fed back to the monitors for the scientists to analyze! In short: This. Room. Was. AWESOME!

Laudner explained the rooms use in testing force, power and velocity in certain movements, with the walkway used to examine muscle activation and response to sudden stimuli such as sudden destabilization when the section collapsed. He actually lamented the relatively unused room too. Saying that Biomechanics was often one of the more neglected practices of under and postgraduate students, hating maths myself (but strangely being a lover of Biomechanics), I could certainly sympathise.

So, that’s it right? Well, actually, no! Turns out one of the walls was a partition, when, if removed, opened up a miniature clinic, complete with a multipurpose Isokinetic Machine as seen below. This could basically be used to test pure Strength or Force production throughout and range of movement. Far from a perfect device, but still a really cool piece of kit and great for purely scientific assessment. So yeah, this room was incredible.

Dr. Kevin Laudner showing off the Isokinetic Machine!

Dr. Laudner explained that the room is primarily used by postgraduate students for Masters programs etc. as we left the room to move across to the next building to seesee the Psychology and Muscle Control Labs and, of course, the Athletic Therapy and Training Lab (though Hall is probably a more suitable word for the therapy room).

The Psychology Lab

So, we travelled across the campus, getting a chance to see the campus’ Sport facilities such as the gym (pictured above) and the indoor court and rock climbing wall. We arrived at the Psychology Lab. Probably the strangest room yet, with a two-way mirror, assortment of balance boards and puzzle structures scattered around the room. Laudner explained the use of the balance boards and cognitive puzzles as devices used in measuring cognitive function and Muscle Control, while the two way mirror was used for observation of subjects (Law & Order style!).

Two Way Mirror and Balance Boards on display in the Psychology Lab

The Athletic Therapy & Training Lab

And so on we went to the final part of the tour. Laudner took us to his stomping ground in the Athletic Therapy & Training Lab. This room could have served as a tour in itself. Complete with ultrasound wave therapy devices, therapy beds, Graston tools (pretty cool devices used for tissue release and diagnosis), it even had a cold water immersion tub! As well as an assortment of therapy devices such as foam rollers, Muscle tape, etc. I couldn’t help but feel that Dr. Laudner enjoyed showing us this room the most. Not that surprising considering its his specialist field. God knows if I had an exercise physiology Lab that was half as impressive I’d probably sleep in the damn thing! So, Dr. Laudner again explained the many uses of the room, telling us how it serves as a clinic of sorts to the college’s, and some private, athletesathletes as well as a lab for the students. He then explained the Graston Tools, as it was my first time even hearing of them, as objects used in the diagnosis and treatment of various soft tissue problems. Apparently, the tools are made with a metal that carries vibrations very easily, allowing the therapist to detect stiffness or resistance in the muscle as he or she runs the blade shaped object along the muscle, with the various shapesshapes of some of the tools allowing the therapist to reach virtually every muscle from any possible angle. The demonstration of the Therapy Lab and the various tools and devices within concluded our tour of ISU, with Dr. Laudner agreeing to the following video interview over a coffee, it was easy to be overwhelmed by the atmosphere of the campus, the incredible facilities and the attitude of Laudner himself (this was a man who spoke of nothing else in the second half of the tour but of how the facilities could improve, lamenting  the  absence of a DEXA machine for truly accurate body composition measurements and future plans for expanding the facilities in the Physiology and Athletic Therapy Labs). Our conversation over coffee following the tour was even more interesting. I could go in more detail but it may spoil the interview below. And so we’ll conclude the first half of the post with a massive thank you to Dr. Kevin Laudner and Illinois State University for the incredible experience! Go Red Birds!

Finally Managed to Get in a Photo in the Therapy Lab

The Interview

And, to conclude, the interview with Dr. Laudner. Apologies for the occasional soun interruption as the interview took place in a cafe. I would recommend earphones to ensure the best sound quality.

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January 31, 2019Blog

And finally, we get to kick off my review of the 4 Day PerformBetter Summit (technically it’s labelled as a 3 Day Summit but offers an extra day free, which of course I attended). Because so much happened over the 4 Days it would take me ages to put it all in one post so I’ll split it into 4 posts, one for each day.

A quick note to say I will of course be sending my subscribers all the recordings and more, so if you haven’t already, get to the Community section and put in your email.

And so I began the conference with a two train and and 10 minute walk to the McCormick Place Convention Centre, which I had just found out was the biggest convention centre in America. Which left me sincerely hoping that they kept all their talks within the one building!

Thankfully, they did and the registration was painless. Credit to PerformBetter for setting up such a great experience. And with the registration finalized, the conference kicked off with Gray Cook and Greg Rose’s talk entitled; “3 Principles you can apply to any movement”. And so begins my review.

3 Principles you can Apply to Any Movement by Gray Cook & Greg Rose

Behind the Magician’s Screen

Okay, so anyone who has known me for more than 5 minutes knows that I’m not a fan of Functional Movement Screen. Hence the subtitle above (See what I did there!). But, when travelling to the talk I made a solemn vow under God, Jesus and Satan (just to cover my bases), to go into Gray’s talk with an open mind. After all, his system has undoubtedly changed the way fitness professionals look at training, and FMS is not without its uses (a fact I’ve never disputed). So I was interested to hear what it’s creator had to say, regardless of any disagreements I have with the system or how its used (or overused) today.

And wow I couldn’t have gotten a more comprehensive experience in the two hour talk. It included Gray’s talk, Greg’s talk, myself being brought up in front of the entire room and being tested with the FMS and assessed by Cook and Rose, and a final Q&A with both speakers.

So Gray started the talk with the usual spiel. Don’t train for ego, ensure good movement quality, don’t load dysfunction. Blah blah blah. My first surprise in retrospect was that he didn’t attempt to address the recent studies that attempted to correlate FMS scores with Injury prediction, aside from merely stating that his tests were not meant to be used for Injury Prevention, merely as a starting point to identify imbalances. However, they then started talking about how safety in developing clients come first and how to apply the three principles of Protect – ensure the athlete remains Injury free, Correct – employ methods to minimize any Muscle imbalances and prevent any future problems, and Develop- Finally when injuries are a distant worry, then work on developing Strength, Speed, etc. A principle I found myself thoroughly agreeing with. They then ran through how to explain to a client why you may have to focus on corrective work so heavily initially, saying to remind them that it’s a long term process that Injury shouldn’t be allowed disrupt. Although I did wonder why they didn’t address the fact that it is possible to include Injury Prevention in a developmental program. Rose then went into recognition of whether a clients pain or issue was a result of the environment the athlete is in (something they’re doing) or due to the athlete themselves (disease, inherited musculoskeletal issue). By the half way point of the talk I was actually looking forward to a great Injury Prevention and movement correction talk. But instead, Gray then jumped into the whole natural movement Bullshit! He actually spent 5 minutes talking about how any of us would have been bested athletically by Tarzan! Tarzan! His justification being that Tarzan survived natures test which were better than any artificial Conditioning created by humans. Let’s leave aside the fact that Tarzan was a fictional character. Even if he wasnt, he would have most likely been killed by polio, the flu, rubella or any of the hundred diseases that we’re vaccinated against. But that’s not what he meant right?! He’s speaking athletically. Fair enough. How long do you think Tarzan’s joints would have held out with all the running jumping and inefficient landing he did? Not to mention if he got an injury. See many clinics in the jungle? Me neither!

This was only the start of where our disagreements began. Cook actually asked for two volunteers to demonstrate the efficacy of FMS testing. And wouldn’t you know it, I got picked. So we ran through the battery of tests, with my left side showing signs of greater tightness than my right (makes sense, thats my jab arm) and my Hamstrings showing signs of tightness, again making sense seeing as how I never do much full range moving with my legs, being a boxer, everything is short steps. But here’s where things got weird. Gray stood me in front of the hall and basically asked what my goals were. I stated it was to improve technical Performance and skill acquisition. I also stated that Injury Prevention was always something I kept in mind. Normal enough. Gray asked me if I felt I was strong enough physically when against an opponent. I said I thought so. He asked if I felt fast enough. I sad yeah. He then asked if I ever had much difficulty with fitness. I said not usually.

But then things got strange. He then asked me how I thought I would fair if I wrestled my opponent to the ground and started a grappling match. I was a bit taken a back but I said I felt I wouldn’t fair that well considering I’ve never trained in grappling techniques before. He nodded as if he was diagnosing a problem and then asked me an even stranger question, how do I feel I would perform in a work thing match with my opponent?! I said I don’t usually Sprint because of my tight Hamstrings and then he nodded again. At this point I couldn’t help but feel I was being asked loaded questions here. He then asked me to perform a few movements and asked if I could feel pain. I said no. He then kept asking if I was sure. I eventually said I felt a bit of tightness bug no pain. Both him and Greg Rose didn’t seem to like those answers because they then went on to explain how some Athletes can be too proud to admit if they feel pain, or try to justify it away. After explaining that I clearly had some Mobility issues (based on my denial, as Gray put it) I was asked to sit down and the other volunteers were assessed in, what I thought, was a similarly biased way. When I brought up the point that I haven’t been injured in 3 years and none of my clients have either, despite performing poorly on some of the FMS tests, they explained how my clients must have been using their poor Mobility or stiffness to “rush through” certain movements like the Back Squat and that problems could occur later on down the road (funny because some of my clients have been with me Injury free for 3 years now). However, Gray did raise an interesting point about Boxers, saying he found they usually have forward flexed necks and that soft tissue work along with farmers carries could help (Although he did recommend Farmers Carries as a remedy for literally every imbalance he talked about. Yet another issue I had with the talk).

Gray and Greg then wrapped up the talk by summarizing the Protect, Correct and Develop Principles, and the importance of ensuring whether the pain or limitation a client is feeling is due to them or their environment. It’s worth noting that there was no mention of hereditary joint shape (such as taking into consideration if a client has deep or shallow hips) or ligament length or joint laxity, every problem regarding posture a person had was labelled as a muscular length tension problem that could be detected with the FMS. Which was a gaping hole in the talk and the subject of body alignment and posture as a whole!

Overall, I was pretty disappointed at how the talk went considering it started so well and the basic principles they were trying to preach arevgood principles, in my opinion. Just a shame that Cook & Rose seemed more interested in overemphasizing the value of the FMS screen over an integrated view of the FMS screen and associated corrective exercise could Augment development.

Rick Mayo: Building Your Dream

Rick brought the Flair

After a fifteen minute break, that was very welcome, the business-oriented talk with Rick Mayo began. Truth be told, going in I didn’t even know who this guy was. Only finding out halfway into the talk that the guy runs the most profitable gyms per square foot in North America (North Point Gyms), not to mention a gym licencing and business consultation company. This guy was arrogant, foul-mouthed, crude and one of the best damn speakers at the entire conference. If he wasn’t maiking a point about business practices, he was sharing his last experiences with certain business tactics or cracking one of many hilarious jokes throughout the talk.

He started the talk by introducing who he was and started into a story about how he came to realise he had finally reached his entrepreneurial goals, by being locked out of his gym (because his staff changed the locks) and having to deal with the police (because they installed a new alarm as well), his point being that his gym had finally become self-sufficient.

He then went into a number of brilliant marketing ideas, from developing a marketing calendar for Facebook Posts on the business page to using emails and texts to try and attract back old clients, via messages offering deals and discounts for past clients and delivering marketing care packages to other businesses under the guise of a “Business of the Month” award.

He then went into the size of a personal trainer’s facility and the best focus for each facility size. For example, if the facility is under 3,000sq. ft. the best play is to run personal training or small group training, however, if the facility is larger, then Personal training AND group classes were recommended.

He also gave a few tips on personal development, one tip being to, each day, write down five tasks that you will accomplish each day.

Fast forward through a few extremely funny videos making fun of current fitness trends and he then went into the process of hiring people, emphasizing that he was “the dumbest person on his team”. Throughout an hour and a half of talking this guy never lost the interest of the audience. Wrapping up his talk with the usual quick company advertisement, it was hard to believe that Mayo had compacted so much into a ninety minute talk. Where Cook’s talk dragged in places, Rick cleverly alternated between humour, sharing experiences and giving solid business tips. Overall, it was hard to stay away from his second talk later that weekend, though I had to because one of my favourite speakers was on at the same time. When it came to giving business talks, Rick may have picked the perfect Secondary job.

nd with the end of Mayo’s talk, that concluded Day 1 of the Seminar. I’ll be writing up on Day 2 soon enough. Though in the interest of keeping things fresh I’ll be posting a few more science and coaching focused articles in the meantime. And if you’re interested in receiving the recording of all the talks I attended in the meantime, just subscribe and add me on Dropbox (rickhedderman@hotmail.com). Just be aware that you’ll need to subscribe first to get the recordings.

So, until the next post,

Stay Fit.

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January 31, 2019Blog

This post is dedicated to my Second Year Psych. Lecturer John Byrne and my arch-nemesis in neuroscience Mollie Richardson. Both of whom deserve some payback after boring the crap out of me with their psycho-babble.

Depression: It’s Origin, Prevalence and What’s Really Going On:

Alright, let’s establish something from the offset. I’m not writing this post to tell you how a holistic, healthy lifestyle is good for your mind and well-being and how should treat your body like a temple blah blah blah.

I’m going to assume your not interested in pursuing a life as a motivational speaker. I’m also not going to be telling you how exercise increases blood to the brain and the release of endorphins will help your mental health either (only parts of that statement is true, plenty of athletes have had depressive episodes with drastic consequences; think Frank Bruno!), I’m going to assume you passed school biology.

I want to give you specific, practical and research-backed guidelines of exercise and nutrition for clinically depressed populations.

So, first thing’s first, know the illness.

Suicide rates, along with other common statistics are open to criticism. And there is a tendency for media and institutions to blow things way out of proportion.

For example, Irish media are currently sensationalising Obesity as a huge problem in the country (even though Ireland’s average Body  Mass Index is 23.1 and 84th in the leaderboard for Obese countries (Nationmaster, 2013), but that’s another rant for another time).

However, when reviewing International suicide rate. It’s clear there is a problem. For example, Ireland is joint 20th in the world for suicide (that’s across all age groups and sexes), with the top 10 all being European countries, and when the demographic is reduced to young (15-24 years old) males or females Ireland is usually 12th, with the U.S.A. usually cracking the top 10 (Nationmaster, 2013).

For Irish readers this means that any young male or female is twice as likely to die from suicide than in a motor vehicle (I say motor because it includes bikes and trucks), pretty good news for car insurance companies, less for the people themselves.

And for the yanks, suicide sits as the 3rd highest cause of death nationwide for 15-24 year old males (Reiss et Dombeck, Anon.), though this statistic should be treated with scepticism, keep in mind not many 15-24 year olds are going to get a heart attack so alternate means of death are not as plentiful as older demographics. Also, economic status doesn’t seem to effect the risk of suicide (Reiss et Dombeck, Anon.).

Either way. Suicide happens. And it happens frequently enough to merit a response. Funny thing is, as much policy and structure that has been out in place for suicide prevention and treatment, and, make no mistake, a substantial amount of facilities exist (just Google “suicide help” and see what comes up), there has been little research into the physiology behind depression.

Any doctor or virologist worth their title can tell you how a virus, like a cold, penetrates the body, bypasses or over runs the immune system and infects the body.

Any immunologist can tell you how immune cells like Interferon alpha stops pathogens from multiplying or how M1 or M2 macrophages engulf and swallow these same pathogens and destroy them with nitrogen, or how Natural Killer Cells burst the pathogens like by burning holes in them and using water to pop them like balloons, or even how an autoimmune disease can cause antibodies to attack brain cells or other cells in the body (I know most of this sounds like it’s over-complicated already, but stay with me).

Yet go ask any of these professionals to help you treat depression, or even how it happens. A cool hundred says they’ll recommend you to the nearest clinical psychologist, who’ll promptly have a good chat with you before prescribing anti-drepessants such as Selective Serotonin Reuptake Inhibitors (SSRI’s) and cross their fingers that the treatment works (and that last bit’s not an exaggeration, considering the remissions rates for these forms of treatment are at about 30% (Krishman et Nestler, 2008).

Picture being told you have a 30% chance of permanently surviving cancer, hardly going to make you want to start planning a pension fund. They certainly won’t be recommending nutrition or a diet plan. And yet, there’s actually been studies showing that exercise is actually superior  to both medication AND a combination of exercise and the medication for treating depression (Babyak et al., 2000), just see below.

It’s also important to emphasise the fact that not everyone who suffers from depression will commit suicide. Putting depression at an even higher incidence than suicide itself, with a 2005 Survey showing that 16% (that’s 1 in 6) of the American population suffered from clinical depression (Kessler et al., 2005),  and even that was only from 18 years or older, as previously shown depression doesn’t seem to discriminate against minors, its actually pretty reliable in that sense.

It should also be noted that this figure could be even higher, due to many people refusing to report their experiences truthfully due to psychological or social barriers like embarrassment (Möller-Leimkühler, 2002).

Here’s the kicker. Until the mid-2000’s research into the physical effects or predispositions for depression were nearly non-existent, credit to Kessler and his team for leading a lot of the first studies on the molecular and genetic processes related to suicide and depression.

Also, to be fair the technology allowing this type of extensive research is only recent. See, what I wanted to know was is there an underlying cause to depression, is it something that can be identified, treated, cured, prevented.

Because, if we don’t know the former, we have feck all (for all non-irish readers, replace the “e” with a “u”) chance of developing the latter.

So, let’s look at Kessler’s work.

Kessler and his team wrote a fantastic analysis piece on the physiological processes of depression back in ’05. Without delving too much into detail, this is what they found:

• Autopsies of suicide victims showed REDUCED brain matter in the Amygdala (the center for emotion processing in the brain), and in the Hippocampus (the brain’s memory center).
• Reduced circulating levels of Serotonin and Dopamine (a hormone strongly linked with the feeling of happiness and euphoria).
• Certain genetic transcriptional factors (these are signals that cause certain genes to ‘switch on’ in the body) were shown to be higher or lower in depressed victims and in studies done on rodents.
• Brain-Derived Neurotrophic Factor (BDNF) was shown to be decreased in depressed victims and rodents (BDNF is a signal that causes brain matter growth) and increased with anti-depressants.
• Specific regions of the brain responded very differently to the same anti-depressant treatments and have very different behaviour trends in depressed populations. What was beneficial treatment in one are of the brain could be detrimental to another area.
• Gluco-corticoids (the cortisone injections you get when you’re injured) showed depression like effects when repeatedly administered in rodents.
• Vascular Endothelial Growth Factor (VEGF) was shown to have neurogenerative (brain matter growing) and neuroprotective effects.
• Both hormones Ghrelin and Leptin (which are also known as hunger hormones) were shown to have anti-depressant effects.
• Reducing inflammation in rodents showed an anti-depressant effect.
• Too much Cortisol (the “Stress Hormone”) showed the promotion of a depression friendly environment in the brain.

Exercise and Nutrition’s impact on Depression:

Alright, so, we know the illness, some theories on what’s causing it and some really cool links with exercise and nutrition. Let me explain, see BDNF and VEGF above showing how they help the growth of brain matter and help protect the brain? Well, they’re also pretty big players in the body’s adaptation to Aerobic exercise (Wackerhage, 2013).

Simply put, regularly participating in Aerobic exercise causes these signalling factors to increase and facilitates neurogeneration, a.k.a. the formation of new brain cells.

Could only be theory though, right? But with a recent study that showed a correlation between VO2 Max (the Aerobic capability or ‘fitness’ of a person) and incidence of depression, with the higher the VO2, the lower the incidences (Tolmunen et al., 2006), it presents some promising preliminary evidence.

Aerobic exercise has also been shown to decrease inflammation in the body (Peterson et al., 2005).

And see the Ghrelin and Leptin hormones mentioned? As mentioned, those guys are really heavily involved with hunger, eating and body weight maintenance.

Ghrelin is known as the Hunger Hormone and, when food is eaten and digested, the hormone goes down, but exercise and inducing a calorie deficit through dieting methods like Intermittent Fasting, causes an upshoot in this hormone.

You know that “I’m Stuffed!” feeling? That’s caused by a combination of Ghrelin suppression and Stomach distension, along with a few other hormones like CCK and Neuropeptide YY, and you know that, “I’m Starving!!” Feeling? That’s also caused by Ghrelin.

Meanwhile Leptin is released from Fat cells, mediating how often we feel hungry during the day (Wackerhage, 2013). However, too many fat cells releasing Leptin causes “Leptin Resistance”, shown in obese populations, which reduces the hormone’s effect. So chowing down on a couple of Big Mac’s won’t be touted as a cure for depression anytime soon.

And vitamins like Vitamin C, Vitamin A and Co-Enzyme Q10 (to a lesser extent) have been shown to be potent anti-inflammatorys in their own right (Middleton et al., 2000).

Okay, so Vo2max=aerobic fitness! So why not just run the shit outta them and give them a bowl of vegetables?!

Not so fast, one of the biggest problems of depression is the distinct loss in patient motivation (Jeong et al.,2009). You know when you come home from a long day and don’t fancy a jog because you’r a bit drained?, multiply that by 10 and that’s what we’re dealing with!

Plus, cardio is not the only way to go, much to the relief of any gym rats who’ve been feeling a bit low, resistance training has shown to be just as effective and even more effective in some studies (Penninx et al., 2002).

Plus, resistance training is much more time-efficient and easier to start with for beginners, as opposed to long steady state cardio or High Intensity Interval Training.

And I personally prefer weight training due to the associated muscle gain and body image change. I also found it more beneficial than cardio for mood in my dissertation study in my (admittedly healthy) subjects.

Also, a simple multivitamin and mineral tablet has been shown to be effective in improving depressive mood (Harris et al., 2011).

Once again, a multivitamin tablet is a lot more client/patient friendly than a bowl of veggies, not to say if they prefer the latter you should insist on the tablet.

And Omega-3 supplementation has also been show to improve the effects of bipolar depression  disorders (Sarris et al., 2012).

Carbohydrates have also shown to increase Serotonin, the feel good hormone that gets blocked off by the cells in depressed populations, in the brain (Fernstrum et Wurtman, 1971) so “carbing up” can’t hurt either.

Practical Application

So, theory done! Let’s get down to the brass tax!

• Aerobic and strength exercise is equally effective! So why not use both?! If you’re client prefers one type over the other then favour one mode accordingly! If not, favour weight training!
• If a client is having problems with motivation start with resistance training! Start small and gradually progress!
• Try get in 3 high quality training sessions per week consistently.
• Supplement with one multivitamin and omega 3 tablet per day and look at improving diet.
• Keep carbohydrates high!
• Experiment with creating a slight caloric deficit through Intermittent Fasting, normal caloric reduction (just be damn careful not to cut down on essential nutrients!!)

Any questions don’t hesitate to drop me a comment! Like this post? Subscribe for more psts and some cool resources here!

References:

Worldwide Statistics on BMI, Health and Disease, 2013, available at: http://www.nationmaster.com/country-info/stats/Health/Diseases/Overweight/Average-Body-Mass-Index-(BMI)

Worldwide Statistics on Obesity, Health and Disease, 2013, http://www.nationmaster.com/country-info/stats/Health/Obesity

Worldwide Statistics on Suicide in Young Males, 2013, available at: http://www.nationmaster.com/country-info/stats/Health/Suicide-rate/Young-males

Worldwide Statistics on Crime, Suicide Rates, available at: http://www.nationmaster.com/country-info/stats/Crime/Suicide-rates/Ages-15–24

Krishnan, V., & Nestler, E. J. (2008). The molecular neurobiology of depression. Nature, 455(7215), 894-902. Available at: http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v455/n7215/abs/nature07455.html

Hasin, D. S., Goodwin, R. D., Stinson, F. S., & Grant, B. F. (2005). Epidemiology of major depressive disorder: results from the National Epidemiologic Survey on Alcoholism and Related Conditions. Archives of general psychiatry, 62(10), 1097-1106. Available at: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/12813115

Möller-Leimkühler, A. M. (2002). Barriers to help-seeking by men: a review of sociocultural and clinical literature with particular reference to depression. Journal of affective disorders, 71(1), 1-9. Available at: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/12167495

Wackerhage, H. (2014). Molecular exercise physiology: an introduction. Routledge. Available at: https://books.google.ie/books?id=8anpAgAAQBAJ&pg=PR5&lpg=PR5&dq=wackerhage+molecular+exercise&source=bl&ots=Uvwa9-BELR&sig=qRthUKgtI_rANVTwWtTuRn1i6k0&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwi6oqGU553KAhWCShQKHeOvCgwQ6AEINzAD#v=onepage&q=wackerhage%20molecular%20exercise&f=false

Tolmunen, T., Laukkanen, J. A., Hintikka, J., Kurl, S., Viinamäki, H., Salonen, R., … & Salonen, J. T. (2006). Low maximal oxygen uptake is associated with elevated depressive symptoms in middle-aged men. European journal of epidemiology, 21(9), 701-706. Available at: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/17048086

Petersen, A. M. W., & Pedersen, B. K. (2005). The anti-inflammatory effect of exercise. Journal of applied physiology, 98(4), 1154-1162. Available at: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/15772055

García-Lafuente, A., Guillamón, E., Villares, A., Rostagno, M. A., & Martínez, J. A. (2009). Flavonoids as anti-inflammatory agents: implications in cancer and cardiovascular disease. Inflammation Research, 58(9), 537-552. Available at: http://pharmrev.aspetjournals.org/content/52/4/673.short

Jeong, J. M., & Cranney, J. (2009). Motivation, depression, and naturalistic time-based prospective remembering. Memory, 17(7), 732-741. Available at: http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/09658210903074673

Harris, E., Kirk, J., Rowsell, R., Vitetta, L., Sali, A., Scholey, A. B., & Pipingas, A. (2011). The effect of multivitamin supplementation on mood and stress in healthy older men. Human Psychopharmacology: Clinical and Experimental, 26(8), 560-567. Available at: http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/hup.1245/abstract;jsessionid=3A86D3403435DF9E7B6C96ADCD8E224D.f04t03?userIsAuthenticated=false&deniedAccessCustomisedMessage=

Sarris, J., Mischoulon, D., & Schweitzer, I. (2011). Omega-3 for bipolar disorder: meta-analyses of use in mania and bipolar depression. The Journal of clinical psychiatry, 73(1), 81-86. Available at: http://europepmc.org/abstract/med/21903025

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January 31, 2019Blog

Let’s go back to the early nineties. A simpler time, when a person actually made eye contact when you spoke and your girlfriend needed more than your Facebook password to find out if you were cheating on her. Back then the internet was dial up, remember whenever you picked up the phone it sounded like it was dying in  agony. It was nowhere near as widespread. Some homes didn’t even have a computer. Imagine! Back then people didn’t know much about diet and exercise. In fact, personal trainers used to be comparatively sparse and they used to RAKE in the money! And then the apocalypse happened….

BOOM! The internet hit! And hit hard! Broadband made internet faster and eventually dial up wasn’t required. Not too long later social networks hit (remember Bebo and MySpace?). Information could now travel faster than ever and was waaaaaaay more accessible. Now all of a sudden everyone was an expert on diet and exercise and, we, as trainers, lost our fucking minds! We turned into internet experts ourselves! Chanting the wonders of the Atkins (low-carbohydrate) diet, low fat diets, juice diets and, more recently, Intermittent Fasting. Finding out what a bench press or a low carb diet plan was meant googling it. And, yeah, in case you didn’t guess it, the going rate for a personal trainer went down faster than an obese skydiver with an anchor for a parachute. But even worse, we’ve now got certification courses being run by trainers who couldn’t coach a blind man across the road, imparting their wonderful biases on students (I’m looking at you Poliquin-ites!). We’ve become the equivalent of religious nuts (which will actually be the subject of my next post) and all of a sudden, losing weight wasn’t just as simple as eating a little less (calorie restriction) and exercising a little more. Meanwhile, the media machine jumped on the health bandwagon, condemning Fat in the early noughties, Carbohydrates over the last 3-5 years and, only the year before last, ran a story about the dangers of protein (Knapton, 2014). I really hope there’s a special place reserved in hell for those morons. They actually compared a high protein diet to SMOKING!!

As Charles Poliquin put it in one of his posts, “so that’s carbs, fats and protein that’s bad for you. What’s left? Water?”. Pretty much. But then again don’t they lace that stuff with Flouride? Guess that’s out too.

As sarcastic as Poliquin was being, he did allude to a valuable question in his post. What is the best diet protocol? Is there a “best” protocol? Is there at least one diet that’s “better” than another for a certain type of goal (i.e. weight loss,weight/Muscle gain, improved Endurance/Strength performance)?

See, there’s nothing new in the spread of misinformation (or disinformation) in health and fitness, with Men’s Health and other fitness magazines preceeding the internet by quite a bit. But its way more widespread now, and the trick has become, not finding the information, but filtering it. What sources are good (peer reviewed articles from Google Scholar and Pubmed) and what sources are bad (most fitness magazines and general media). But the problem is the answer from the good sources are not always so flashy, definitive, or even easy to understand, with all those numbers and symbols. Took me long enough to find out what a p value is and I’m a freaking sport scientist!

So, what IS the best protocol? What does the “good” sources say? Let’s have a look.

Low Carb/Keto/Atkins Dieting

Okay, so let’s start with one of the oldest diet fads. The old low carb crazy, which actually seems to be making a pretty impressive comeback at the moment (Cox, 2016). Let’s clarify. There are two main types of a low Carbohydrates diet:

1. Reduced Carbohydrate or simply a “low” Carbohydrate diet, which basically is when the person reduces his/her Intake of Carbohydrate (usually to under 300 grams up to about 100 to 200 grams being around normal, but there’s no hardcore number).
2. A Ketogenic or “Atkins” (named after a doctor who popularised it) Diet, which is the one that is hailed as the one with all the benefits in research, as it ha the most definitive criteria. Carbohydrates are kept under 25g per day, or, in some cases, under 50g per day. The idea behind this being that when Carbohydrates are kept this low, the liver will produce something called Ketones, which basically help spare glucose in the blood and use Fat as the primary source of fuel for the body. After about two weeks of usually feeling awful, more on this in a bit, your body becomes “keto-adapted” and you use fat as your primary energy source.

So, does it work? Well, “work” is a relative term. Work for what? Improving body Muscle/fat Ratio? Strength gain? Endurance gain? Weight loss?

Okay, so does it work better than a regular diet (around 70% carbs, 15% fat, 15% protein) for improving Endurance? And, just like that it’s time to quote a study that has caused more arguments than that poor tree that fell in the forrest when no one was listening.

Phinney et al, 1983:

Phinney and his boys basically took a couple of Endurance cyclists and put them on a low carb diet, allowed them two weeks to adapt, and tested them. They found the average time to exhaustion (endurance) increased by four minutes for the Keto group. Success, right?

Nope. And this is why studies can be a problem in interpreting if only the abstract is read or if the author isn’t fully disclosing the details in it.

In fairness, Phinney has to be given credit, he got a bunch of trained cyclists to follow a diet that’s very difficult to follow for two weeks, and he did disclose each individual’s results, unlike Lambert and colleague’s study which just gave the averages. And herein lies the issue. Below you can see the table of the results. And what do they reveal? Two cyclists got better, one of them getting really good results, two got WORSE and one stayed the same. Because one of the improved group got such good results, it inflated the average of the group. Lambert and colleague’s did a similar study and found a significant improvement in the Keto group but DIDN’T report individual results, which makes me skeptical. On, and in both cases there was no control group.

Wait, what do you mean “got worse?!” How could decreasing Carbohydrates make someone worse if their body can adapt to use fat as efficiently? There could actually be a few reasons. See when you decrease Carbohydrates for a while, you’re  muscle decreases its production of an enzyme called pyruvate dehydrogenase, which helps utilize Carbohydrates as energy (Putman et al., 1993). Basically, as the body becomes more effective at using fat, it becomes less effective at using carbs, which presents a potential problem for high burst activities like a sprint in cycling/running or Sports like Boxing and football where both explosive movements and continuous activity are needed. This probably explains why another study showed a decrease in muscular power and high intensity work with a low carb diet (Fleming et al., 2003). So that’s answering whether the Keto Diet helps Power.

Another reason could be lying in our genes. Research has recently come out showing that variations in the AMY1 gene can affect how quickly and effectively we break down Carbohydrates and how satiated (“full”) we feel after eating them and could even affect how well we perform when eating them or reducing them (Santos et al., 2012).

And strength? Well, research thus far has shown there to be either no difference (Symons et Jacobs, 1989) or a slight improvement in the low carb groups, with a slight improvement in trained individuals when it comes to 1RM measurements (McCleary et al., 2014). I’ll elaborate below.

But what about cosmetic reasons. Does it help weight loss? Improve body composition?

On hell yeah, it does! Not joking either. Nearly all studies show good results when measuring weight loss. And another article on trained individuals actually found an advantage for Muscle gain in the Ketogenic group (McCleary et al., 2014). Success, right? Well, kinda.

See, I’ve never disputed  the essential nature of fat in the diet, but going all out and eliminating carbs, in my opinion, is flat out ridiculous. “But what about the studies you just mentioned?!”. The biggest problem I have with all high fat diets is one of two things:

1. They don’t control for protein (i.e. the high fat diet was higher in protein than the high carb diet)
2. They didn’t control for Omega 3 Fatty Acids (which, again, are far higher in a high fat diet), which have been shown in numerous studies to improve strength and Body Composition, even when taken as part of a high carb diet (Smith et al., 2011; Jouris et al., 2011; Rodacki et al., 2014).

So, what happens when you do control for these factors?

Alright, well, in terms of weight loss, Noakes and colleague’s did a 2006 study that Controlled for total calorie intake, saturated and unsaturated fats Intake and Carbohydrate Intake (these boys are my heroes!) And what did they find?

• Weight Loss – No difference between groups
• Muscle Loss – 31-32% for the high carb AND low carb diets but only 21% loss for the high unsaturated fats group (which was actually a high carb and high unsaturated fats group; check their diets in the study)
• Increase in LDL cholesterol (the bad cholesterol) in the low carb group relative to the others. But in fairness there was also an increase in the HDL (good kind) of cholesterol as well.

And when protein is equated between groups? No significant difference in hunger (Veldhorst et al., 2010), and muscle?

Looks like Noakes is gonna weigh in again, this time with Luscombe-Marsh and colleague’s, with a study showing that not only was there no difference in fat loss between high protein and high fat diet but the high protein group had less hunger overall (Luscombe-Marsh et al., 2005).

However, due to the fact that fat helps decrease water retention (Malik et Hu, 2007) and can be used in a pre-competition or  photo shoot protocol to temporarily increase the “shredded” look, there is a HSE for this protocol for bodybuilders/fitness models. But, other than that, looks like whether you’re on a low carb or high carb diet, omega 3/unsaturated fats and high protein help strength and Body composition.

Liquid Diets

I’m doing this next just to get it out of the way! As I’m pretty sure anyone who has half a scientific or intelligent brain is gonna see the obvious practical problems of a HUGE lack of fiber and an associated negative effect on the gut and its healthy bacteria (Alverdy et al., 2014). Not to mention the problem with hunger, even when having the same calories and nutrients as its solid food counterparts (Tieken et al., 2007).

“But what about the juice diets?!” read the above paragraph. We’re built to eat food! So eat food! Stop listening to the Kardashians and go have an apple or something!

So, nothing good on this topic…moving on!

Intermittent Fasting

Alright, now we’re getting interesting. This is probably the newest craze to hit the scene. Intermittent fasting, like low carb diets, comes in a variety of shapes and sizes;

1. Lean Gains Intermittent Fasting – Fast for 16 hours, eat for 8. When eating, carry out a training session before you’r due to start your 8 hour feeding period and supplement this session with BCAA’s. Then  eat your biggest meal after your session to kick off your 8 hours and eat until your daily calorie and nutrient quota is hit.
2. Alternate Day Fasting – Basically, eat whatever you want one day, fast the next. Rinse. Repeat.
3. 24hr Fast – Exactly what it says on the tin! One 24hr fast every week!
4. 5:2 Fast – 2 Days fasting (they don’t have to be consecutive, any two days will do) and 5 days eating normally
5. The Warrior Diet – Eat all your daily calories and nutrients in a four hour window each day.

Alright now here’s where we have a problem. You know how they say no news is good news. Well, that’s not really true for fitness. Thing is, for a method of dieting and eating that’s currently being screamed about on the internet, there not really much research on the specific methods themselves (except alternate day fasting, and even that’s pretty sparse). The closes we have is the studies done on alternate day fasting (ADF) and Ramadan studies. In fact, the best reviews and research in this area can be found in Dr. John Berardi’s Intermittent Fasting case study, which is available at his website of precisionnutrition.com, and Alan Aragon’s review, “An Objective Look at Intermittent Fasting” at his site alanaragon.com.

However, aside from the Lean Gains method, no other fasting protocol really has “rules” on how/what to eat. So, with the lack of specific data, let’s look at what little data we do have and breakdown the elements of Intermittent Fasting to see if we can gather any conclusive data on the separate elements that might help crossover conclusions about the protocols themselves.

Intermittent Fasting (IF) is really just the culmination of two nutritional strategies:

1. Nutrient Timing – timing nutrients like protein, carbohydrates, etc. so they’re effect is optimized in the body. This is the same principle that the recommendation to take a protein shake straight after training came from.
2. Meal Frequency and size – remember this?! The whole “6 small meals a day for weight loss” craze? That was a fun time.

So what does the research say? Quite a bit actually. While IF hasn’t really been studied in it’s entirety. It’s components have actually researched to near exhaustion.

Existing Data

At the moment Alternate day fasting stands the same as low carb or IIFYM (which is next) protocols. In that it works, but not really any better than normal calorie restriction (Mengmeng et al., 2014) and while there seems to be a fairly high adherence rate in obese subjects (Varady et al., 2009) hunger seems to be elevated throughout the protocol in non-obese health subjects (Heilbronn et al., 2005). Contrary to some beliefs that the fasting is easier on adherence as there has been a disappearance in hunger with fasting or very low calorie diets (Lapalainnen et al., 1995). But this disappearance of hunger observed could be a reason a lot of people find it easier to use IF over normal calorie restriction. But, the strangest thing yet is that IF doesn’t see to impart it’s benefits to women. In fact, ADF has been shown to have a negative effect on glucose tolerance in women (Heilbronn et al., 2005). This actually ties into a talk Berardi gave at an NSCA conference on IF. He himself said how women don’t seem to reap the benefits as much as men, perhaps due to their higher slow twitch fiber type (they have more endurance type muscle than men) when physically active (Martel et al., 2006).

And with Ramadan studies, which closely replicate the 16 hour fast of the Lean Gains method, there seems to be a similar conclusion, albeit with less hunger issues, but with the added detriment of a decrease in speed and agility performance (Zerguini et al., 2007). Also, a complaint noted by Aragon and shared here, is that none of these studies had a control group that followed a normal calorie restricted diet, so its impossible to compare results.

Nutrient Timing Data

So let’s start looking at the components of the protocols. The timing elements of the Warrior Diet and the Lean Gains diet are obvious. The idea is to have your body utilize fat for energy during the fast and then use the Insulin burst from the sudden feed after the workout, along with the increased sensitivity of the muscle after the workout to maximise protein intake and, hence, muscle growth. But does it work?

In terms of muscle growth, a meta analysis by Brad Schoenfeld, Alan Aragon and James Krieger in 2015 showed that, when protein is equal among the experiment and control group, there was a small-moderate effect on Muscle growth for those who timed their nutrients. So this could explain the physique results.

There is also another theory. One that was brought to my attention by my colleague Menno Henselmans’ article on Circadian Rhythm Protein Timing. You can check out the full article at his site bayesianbodybuilding.com but in it he references one study which showed one group being given either carbohydrates in the morning and protein in the afternoon/evening or vice versa (Jordan et al., 2010). The group fed the protein in the afternoon/evening showed superior muscle protein synthesis. Basically, your Circadian rhthym is your biological clock that determines the cycle of certain hormones, including testosterone. And considering most fasters would utilize their daily feeds later in the day, this could provide a reason to the success of IF.

Meal Frequency

And now we but on to the second element of IF. How often someone eats. Now, research has shown that, when total calories and nutrients are equal, meal frequency doesn’t matter, with some research showing some Lean Body Mass lost (Iwao et al., 1996) and some showing a lower frequency to help Lean Body Mass gains (Stote et al., 2007). So, based on the limjted evidence, one could assume that IF may be beneficial when in calirc maintenance or surplis but not as effective when in deficit.

BUT there is one interesting study worth noting. A recent article showing consuming high amounts of protein in a meal can actually reduce Muscle Protein breakdown (Kim et al., 2016).

So, between meal frequency and nutrient timing we have a POTENTIAL mechanism behind the success that some have had with IF but until proper research is done in the area, Berardi’s case study is the best we have.

“And what about the recent research showing the benefits of fasting in Brain health?”

Yeah, there’s some research there alright (Mattson et al., 2000). But this was based on research done on rodents and there is just as much showing the equal benefits of exercise (Seifert et al., 2010) and normal calorie restriction (Araya et al., 2008) on humans.

So, for now, the jury’s out!

IIFYM: If It Fits Your Macros

Ah yes, the current IIFYM craze. I actually like this “protocol” more so than others for it’s flexibility. If you find you do better on low carb, then cut you’re carbs, you prefer carbs? Keep ’em! Just make sure you stick to your daily calorie limit (which you find by calculating your Resting or Basal Metabolic Rate and adjust it for whether you want to gain, lose or maintain your weight) and get enough protein, vitamins and minerals. It allows for flexibility and unpredictability. And with modern technology you can use apps like MyFitnessPal to record and monitor.

But, even this system is not without its limitations.

As you can see from above, there is some merit, particularly for trained individuals and elite athletes, in certain practices like protein timing and low carb dieting. But IIFYM discredits this and takes a “do what you want, just make the numbers” approach. Which may not give optimum results. Plus, we humans don’t have the greatest consistency track record with monitoring or keeping up with our own diets and activity (Burke et al., 1995).

Recommendations:

So, after smashing through all the protocols, what are my personal recommendations. Let’s break them down by the types of goals you may have:

For Ordinary Joes (or Janes) just trying to get in better shape:

Just increase your vitamins, minerals, omega 3s and protein. You can do this by increasing fish, meat and vegetable intake or by taking a fish oil/omega 3 supplement, multivitamin/multimineral supplement and a protein shake. Get into some weight lifting and the physique will improve. If trying to lose weight a bit quicker, pick your least favorite (and least “healthy”) snack food and cut it out every second day. The more improve ent you want, the more snack foods you’ll need to cut.

For Strength/Power/Aesthetic Athletes trying to increase their 1RMs or Muscle Growth:

So, this can apply to Olympic Lifters, Powerlifters, Bodybuilders or even Sprinters and Jumpers I’d definitely recommend a highER fat intake. For Sprinters, Olympic Lifters and Jumpers I’d say around 40% of the diet being fat intake, with this being reduced slightly when coming up to competition periods due to the repeated bouts of effort required. However, for Bodybuilders and Powerlifters I’d actually recommend increasing the fat intake to about 50% coming up to competition periods, bodybuilders and powerlifters for an increase in steroid hormones and to gradually bring down water retention in the bodybuilders before the pre-competition protocol. Again, I would recommend increasing omega 3s and unsaturated fats for this group (they generally don’t take enough). In terms of protein, I wouldn’t actually worry too much about it, seeing as how trained athletes don’t seem to need as much when in maintenance as untrained populations (Tarnapolsky et al., 1992). I’d also recommend a reduced meal frequency and use of Nutrient Timing.

For Endurance athletes trying to improve work rate:

This includes mixed demand groups like footballers and boxers, who need both explosive capacity and continuous Endurance. For these populations I’d recommend carbohydrate as the dominant food source, but also a slightly higher Fat Intake at around 35-40% total dietary intake for runners while boxers/footballers would probably be better served to keep Fat at 35% and increase protein a bit due to the mixed nature of their sport, not to mention the weight making in Boxing and other combat Sports. For high level combat athletes making weight is recommend Nutrient Timing with whey protein if not cutting weight and leucine or BCAAs if cutting, and a higher meal frequency for combat athletes training more than once per day.

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References:

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January 31, 2019Blog

Alright, let me be clear, this is NOT a criticism of any form of exercise or lifestyle group just like it is NOT a criticism of any religion or religious group. Everyone is entitled to their own opinion on religion and exercise/nutrition.

The title of this post can be attributed to Bret Contreras. I overheard him saying on a podcast, “you know what? Exercise is religion to people”. Got me thinking. He’s right, isn’t he?! I mean, you can actually draw direct comparisons! We have Resistance Training, which, despite being the oldest form of exercise has endured years of social persecution (you’ll get too big, you’ll lose flexibility, the ‘meathead’ stereotypes), sounds familiar.

We have steady state Aerobic training like the joggers, old but not one of the oldest, seems to be the most popular and was portrayed as the “best” group to be in, from a health perspective, for decades in the western world. Of course, more recently, once we looked into it more and more information became available, we found there was a lot of rotten shit going on behind the scenes (joint damage, muscle loss, repeated Muscle strains), and just like that jogging wasn’t so perfect! Also sounds familiar.

And now we got the “Functional Trainers” and Crossfitters, which has spawned radical and militant groups that have been used to, unfairly, characterise the entire crossfit and functional training group. That sounds REALLY familiar!

Then we got the yoga people. Who preach centeredness and inner peace. Do I even need to say who these guys sound like?!

Then we’ve got the agnostics….I mean the casual exercisers! The guys who just go to the gym and do their thing. Maybe sometimes they do some cardio, maybe sometimes they lift some weights. Whatever.

The hilarious thing is this actually transfers to Nutrition. The weightlifters have their high protein diets, the crossfitters have Paleo, the yogis have their juice diets and their all natural gig (I was feeling polite so I replaced “crap” with “gig”) and the joggers have their carbohydrates.

So what happened?! How did exercise become a cult?! How did we end up getting factions trying to convert each other?! The bodybuilders take jabs at the crossfitters, the functional trainers take have a go at the bodybuilders, the crossfitters go at everyone and the joggers too.

I think the answer lies in three factors:

1. Lack of Scientific Evidence
2. Fitness as an Industry
3. Community

Lack of (Conclusive) Scientific Evidence:

Alright, so, before I get jumped on by the Krieger-Aragon-Henselmans-Contreras-Schoenfeld-Norton boys, let me explain. Firstly, I’m first and foremost a sport scientist, so I know the wealth of peer reviewed evidence that exists and the literal journals full of articles written on scientific experiments conducted. But you know what else you start to figure out the more of these journals and books you read?! Is that we don’t know or understand half the shit that’s going on inside our bodies, let alone now they react to resistance or endurance training. We have AN IDEA. And a very detailed and in-depth idea at that. But we still don’t know for sure. For example, there is, at this moment, a raging debate on why Foam Rolling works at increasing flexibility, without a decrease in strength/power. Is it neural? Is it fascial? Is it muscular? Local? Global? Who knows! The problem with conducting studies on complex organisms (especially ones as complex as humans) is different people will respond in different ways to the experiment protocol due to genetics, their environment or even their mental state at the time (ever heard of the placebo effect?!). And even when we isolate cells in labs, there’s no guarantee the results will crossover when the same protocols are tested on a living human. So we may never fully understand the body. Contrast this with natural science fields like chemistry and physics where certain elements are relatively easy to implement, observe and experiment on, and we can see why their is an issue.

So what do we do as humans? What we always do! Same thing we did when we asked ourselves what happens after we die. When we couldn’t find a conclusive answer, we pulled one out of the air. Usually it was an answer that was easy to understand and comforting, i.e. when we die we go to a wonderful place where we will be reunited with all the people we miss and we will live a wonderful and happy life, with a ton of women depending on the religion (a part of me is kinda rooting for those guys to be right). Oh, and there’s usually a price to be paid, i.e. you have to be a “good” person, or, depending on how cynical you are, you gotta give lots of money and service to your chosen religion.

But like I said, this isn’t a critique on religion. But its easy to illustrate my point with it. The easily understood and comforting answer: “If I balance on this stability ball while juggling Kettlebells and eat only butter and bacon it will activate “secret” muscles and hormones that will burn more fat and give me six pack abs, 16inch Biceps and a great ass. And the price to be paid: “I can’t eat any carbohydrates”, ” I can’t eat anything a caveman wouldn’t have eaten”, or my personal favourite, “I cant lift weights because they’ll make me too big”.

On, and just like our local priests, rabbis and sheikhs, we have our very own gurus and leaders of these fitness circles. We got Gray Cooke of Functional Movement, we got Charles Poliquin with his low carb diets and bioprint body fat analyses, and we got Martin Berkham of Intermittent Fasting fame.

Now, don’t get me wrong, the science community has its leaders too. Brad Broenfeld anyone? The difference is in transparency. Alan Aragon and Brad Schoenfeld both openly admit their lack of a complete understanding of the human body and that their are certain areas of the human body their not knowledgeable in. And, above all else, there is a thick body of Controlled research backing their statements. So the information they give out is of a much higher quality and nowhere near as extreme in nature. Simply put, their advice is not only been proven to work, but its generally easier to adhere to in general.

Fitness as an Industry

On how we love our fads. Back when I trained with Katie and Pete Taylor (who I maintain is the sports coach in the world), I remember a club member asking him what he thought of TRXs as training tools. He answered, and I quote, “They’re alright. It’s like everything else, its a fad. Unless you put it into a program its useless. Remember when you used to see Medicine Balls in gyms? Now you can’t find one!”. He was right. Medicine Balls had been relegated to mostly high performance Sports focused gyms. See, with the mentality listed above, there comes the natural tendency for the Del-Boys of this world (<- Only Fools and Horses reference, for any American readers) to try market the latest piece of training kit to the masses, quoting its superiority over other training methods to the world. Because of a lack of understanding of the science of fitness and an overall lack of education in the fitness, and in some cases, medical, community, everyone is looking for the next big thing. New automatically means superior to people and as a result, we’ve started moving in circles; from weight training and kettlebells to circuit training, to jogging, to medicine balls and stability ball trading, to TRX and kettlebells, back to weight training again. TRX isn’t new either. Gymnasts and fitness enthusiasts were using Gymnastic rings for the same purpose for years. Alas, without an increase in education to grassroots fitness clubs, which will likely never happen due to how much they make on their sales of TRX classes and Gluten free protein bars, we will continue to go around and around chasing our tails.

Community (And the need for it):

Ah, and now we hit the big one. The main reason, in my opinion, that Crossfit transformed from a “craze” into a full blown Sporting event powerhouse, with annual games and  prize money/sponsorships up for grabs.

When I visited Las Vegas last summer, I decided to pop down to LA for a day after my friends had flew home a day earlier. And while I was there, I dropped down to the famous Muscle Beach. It was like a playground, and within five minute of jumping on a set of climbing ropes I was greeted by cheers of “you got it, man!”, ” get after it!” and “Come on!” When I made it to the top and got back down I was met with high fives and fist bumps from the same guys who I didn’t even know ten seconds prior. And, yeah. It felt good! See, one thing they got, that the Irish and English, and I would say the Europeans in general (Russia excluded) don’t get, is that the gym is usually a solitary place. Yeah, there’s people there, but its not like a bar! You don’t get a group of guys who’ve never met conversing and mingling, you’re not hanging out at the Squat rack scoping out the talent (well, maybe just on Weekends).

That was what Crossfit did differently. They created a passionate community that supported and willed each other on. Wonder why there’s no TRX World Championships? That could be the reason. Being driven, determined and passionate can be lonely as hell! No-one talks about hitting their macros at a nightclub. Even though it’s something you may have worked your ass off to do. It’s easier to complain about the government, your shitty job or the weather. So, having a community of like minded individuals working together not only makes a fitness product easier to sell, it increases your volume of sales and customer satisfaction too. Same with prayer groups, church gatherings, and, hell, even convents! It’s a place where you feel you belong, and people have paid a lot more for that feeling than the average Crossfit membership.

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