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From the category archives:

Exercise Science

To Stabilize, or Not To Stabilize?

November 14, 2008

A reader from the UK recently commented on an admittedly tongue-in-cheek post I made on the usefulness (or not) of stability balls:
I have to disagree with your point about strength gains on the ball. Whilst the instability initially means you are limited in the force you can create, the recruitment of more muscles and the [...]

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How Aging Affects Exercise.

November 5, 2008

In light of recent events and client queries, here are some quick blurbs about how aging affects exercise:
Greater chance of injury. As I wrote about in a recent post, injuries tend to accrue rather than occur.  In other words, by gradually wearing down your joints due to activity and as an inevitable result of aging, [...]

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How People Get Injured (From Exercise).

October 8, 2008

Ask someone about “exercise-related injuries” and what you’ll get most often is a hazy description of some traumatic event:
“I fell in a hole jogging and tore my Achilles.”
“I blew out my knee and ankle going for the rebound.”
“Pulled a groin muscle playing jai-alai last week.”
Accidents do happen, and some sport activities are certainly higher risk [...]

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A Basic Model of Recovery.

September 24, 2008

A client of mine recently had a sit-down with her doctor; seems the doctor was alarmed at her recent hypertension (high blood pressure) and elevated heart rate and wanted to do more bloodwork.  While I’m no doctor, one thing became apparent to me after talking to this client for a minute or two – she [...]

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About Blood Sugar.

July 30, 2008

A client of mine asked me about his blood sugar yesterday and it occurred to me that writing an overview of blood sugar is in order (since I rant so about keeping insulin levels low, avoiding concentrated sources of carbohydrates, etc.).
First, what’s normal blood sugar?
The normal range for a fasted state is between 80 to [...]

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Dark Knight.

July 29, 2008

Above: Could he really medal in any event in the Olympics? Dr. Paul Zehr would say so.

Ronen sent me this neat-o article on the physiological basis of Batman. Don’t take it too seriously; it’s just some light-hearted conjecture (real science, of course) on Batman’s physical abilities by an associate professor of kinesiology and [...]

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How Strength Training Improves Bone Density.

June 5, 2008

Ken (a very spry 70 year old) asked me, “How does strength training increase bone density?”
Well, the basic mechanism is very simple: Think of your skeleton as the framework of the body, the base upon which the body is built. Load up that framework with weight, and the body, being that dynamic organism it [...]

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More Than You Ever Cared To Know About The Repetition.

May 15, 2008

What is the magical allure of a 5 x 5?  Or a well performed set of 15 reps?  How do I choose how many reps to do in a given set and what is the rationale for using one or the other?
Moreover, why do you never (intentionally) see a set of 17? Or a set [...]

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ASP, LPL, HSL, and Other Acronyms of Enzymes You Could Care Less About.

May 6, 2008

Peter’s latest post on his blog Hyperlipid is simply incredible; if you’re science-minded at all (or fancy yourself idiot savant in biochemistry) check it out.
For the rest of you, here’s a summary:
A question – If insulin acts as a gatekeeper for fat storage (by increasing levels of alpha glycerol phosphate), then how is it possible [...]

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You Are What You Eat – Part 2.

April 24, 2008

Matt points to a highly compelling study in the American Journal of Endocrinology.  I think the title says it all:
Insulin-resistant muscle is exercise resistant.
Consider the study’s findings for a minute: Eating poorly is a double whammy.  Not only are you impairing your body’s ability to mobilize fat for energy (instead causing it to store that fat [...]

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