Vitamin D and Prevention of Chronic Diseases

The Best Exercise There Is, Hands Down

The Best Exercise There Is, Hands Down from Mark's Daily Apple

If you ask the AARP, it’s the plank, which is easy on the joints, involves every body part, strengthens the core which can help prevent falls, is very safe for seniors (the intended audience of AARP), and you can do them anywhere without equipment. I have no fault with the plank.

If you ask the NY Times to ask various experts, it’s the squat, or maybe the burpee, or maybe sprinting uphill. These are all exercises that stress the entire body, that can be performed with high intensity to elicit the highest possible training effect in the least amount of time. You could do a lot worse than squatting, doing burpees, or sprinting.

If you were to ask Mark Rippetoe, I’d imagine you’d hear “the low-bar back squat” because it supposedly elicits the greatest hormonal response, builds oft-neglected posterior chain strength, makes your entire body stronger, and simply “makes a man outta ya.”

If you ask Rich Froning (top CrossFit athlete), it’s the barbell thruster, a fairly simple to learn “two in one” exercise combining a squat with an overhead press.

If you ask Charles Poliquin, it’s the snatch grip deadlift done on a platform, which increases the range of motion over the regular deadlift and builds overall strength and size better than any other exercise he’s seen.

Those are good candidates. A person could get and stay very strong, fit, fast, and healthy doing any one of those exercises for perpetuity, even to the exclusion of all others. But a thruster isn’t the best exercise there is, hands down. Nor are squats (of any kind), deadlifts (of any kind), or planks. Sprints are cool, but they aren’t the best.

The single best exercise there is, hands down, is . . . 

Read more: http://www.marksdailyapple.com/the-best-exercise-there-is-hands-down/#ixzz2uRzYZptEs

6 Huge Issues in Athletic Development

6 Huge Issues in Athletic Development, posted by Robertson Training Systems, explains the problems and proposes solutions to each.

(1)  No movement foundation because kids play less and specialize too early.
(2)  Archaic warmups, instead of dynamic, integrated warmups
(3)  Lack of deceleration work
(4)  Horrible strength training programs
(5)  Bad technique
(6)  Inappropriate conditioning, and especially lack of an aerobic base  (See also:  You NEED Long Duration, Low Intensity Cardio)

A Calorie is Sometimes Not a Calorie

A Calorie is Sometimes Not a Calorie by Dr. Jade Teta (T-Nation)

Contrast training for better deadlifts

From Poliquin Live:

"Varying the weights between sets of deadlifts is a great way to add variety to your training and give yourself the confidence to pull heavier weights for more reps. The workout is based upon the strength training principle called post-tetanic potentiation.

 

Let’s say you want to get in several heavy sets of 4-6 reps in the deadlift, and your best result is 305 pounds for one set of 5 reps. Rather than using the same weight each set, load two bars, with one bar having 5-10 percent more weight than the other. Alternate between bars each set, performing sets of 4-6 with the lighter bar and sets of 1 with the heavier bar. A workout might progress as follows: 325 x 1, 300 x 6, 325 x 1, 300 x 5, 325 x 1, 300 x 4. The idea is that every time you go back down to the lighter weight, the bar doesn’t feel as heavy and this gives you the confidence to complete more reps than you could otherwise."

Confirmation Bias

From this article:

Flipped Classrooms and History

From a teacher's blog about flipping the history classroom:

The basic idea of a flipped classroom is that a teacher uses technology to provide student access to foundational knowledge outside of class. This allows more time for inquiry, discussion, debate, collaboration, problem-solving, product development, or guided practice during class time. So rather than kids listening to you during class and doing work outside of class, you “flip” that idea – time outside of class is spent on gathering foundational knowledge and time in class is spent working with that content.

Wait, isn't that what I've been doing all along, except the "technology" I used to "provide student access to foundational knowledge" was called a BOOK?

Another history teacher's recommended resources for flipping.

Summary of Daniel Willingham's "Why Don't Students Like School?"

Willingham Summaries by michelletabor

Plus, I found a great summary by this Amazon reviewer:

Dan Willingham's book Why Don't Students Like School presents a whole bunch of these experimental results. Together, they challenge the notions that:

1. Students need to learn inquiry, argumentation, and higher-level thinking *rather than* tons of facts.
2. Integrating art into other subjects enhances learning; so does integrating computer technology.
3. Children learn best through self-guided discovery.
4. Drill is kill. Multiple strategies in a given lesson are better than a single strategy practiced multiple times.
5. Students learn best when constructing their own knowledge.
6. The best way to prepare students to become scientists and mathematicians is to teach them to solve problems the way scientists and mathematicians do.

The empirical data that Willingham cites show that, in fact:

1. Factual knowledge, lots of it, is a prerequisite to higher-level thinking.
2. Students are most likely to remember those aspects of a lesson that they end up thinking about the most. Corollary: Incorporating art or computer technology into another subject may sometimes cause students to think about the art or the technology more than the lesson content, such that they don't retain the latter.
3. Discovery learning should be reserved for environments where feedback about faulty strategies is immediate: "If students are left to explore ideas on their own," Willingham writes, they may "remember incorrect 'discoveries' as much as they will remember the correct ones."
4. In Willingham's words, "it is virtually impossible to become proficient at a mental task," or master underlying, abstract concepts, "without extended practice."
5. Unlike experts in a field, "students are ready to comprehend but not create knowledge."
6. Novices don't become experts by behaving like experts do. "Cognition early in training," Willingham writes, "is fundamentally different from cognition late in training."

Training for Crossfit Athletes

By Jason Tsypkin at Crossfit Monterey:

Part 1
Part 2

Building a Better Teacher

Building a Better Teacher by Doug Lemov in the NY Times (2010)

E. D. Hirsch

Classroom Research and Cargo Cults

The Roots of the Education Wars

The War Against Boys

The War Against Boys, from The Atlantic (2000)

Carol Gilligan's response

3 Fitness Tests to Assess Your General Fitness and Health Risks

http://fitness.mercola.com/sites/fitness/archive/2014/02/14/3-fitness-tests.aspx

1.  Waist-to-hip ratio
2.  Abdominal plank
3.  Sitting-Rising Test (SRT)

Forget BMI.

How Exercise Makes Your Brain Grow

http://fitness.mercola.com/sites/fitness/archive/2013/10/25/exercise-for-brain-health.aspx

From the original Forbes article cited in Dr. Mercola's post

21st century skills?

From Andrew J. Rotherham and Daniel Willingham:

"A growing number of business leaders, politicians, and educators are united around the idea that students need "21st century skills" to be successful today. It's exciting to believe that we live in times that are so revolutionary that they demand new and different abilities. But in fact, the skills students need in the 21st century are not new.Critical thinking and problem solving, for example, have been components of human progress throughout history, from the development of early tools, to agricultural advancements, to the invention of vaccines, to land and sea exploration. Such skills as information literacy and global awareness are not new, at least not among the elites in different societies. The need for mastery of different kinds of knowledge, ranging from facts to complex analysis? Not new either. In The Republic, Plato wrote about four distinct levels of intellect. Perhaps at the time, these were considered "3rd century BCE skills"?"

"People on all sides of this debate often speak of skills and knowledge as separate. They describe skills as akin to a function on a calculator: If your calculator can compute square roots, it can do so for any number; similarly, if a student has developed the ability to "think scientifically," he or she can do so with any content. In this formulation, domain knowledge is mainly important as grist for the mill—you need something to think about.

Skills and knowledge are not separate, however, but intertwined. In some cases, knowledge helps us recognize the underlying structure of a problem."

"At other times, we know that we have a particular thinking skill, but domain knowledge is necessary if we are to use it. For example, a student might have learned that "thinking scientifically" requires understanding the importance of anomalous results in an experiment. If you're surprised by the results of an experiment, that suggests that your hypothesis was wrong and the data are telling you something interesting. But to be surprised, you must make a prediction in the first place—and you can only generate a prediction if you understand the domain in which you are working. Thus, without content knowledge we often cannot use thinking skills properly and effectively."

Full article:  http://www.ascd.org/publications/educational-leadership/sept09/vol67/num01/21st-Century-Skills@-The-Challenges-Ahead.aspx

Does PD work for teachers?

http://educationnext.org/what-do-we-know-about-professional-development/

Surely, we can all agree that this will never work:

Addicted to Fatigue

http://bretcontreras.com/addicted-to-fatigue/

About Lucy Calkins

Barbara Feinberg, The Lucy Calkins Project

Robert Pondiscio, Readers' Workshop Mashup

On Smarm

On Smarm - Gawker

Calling out Dave Eggers and Malcolm Gladwell.

Follow-up:

Malcolm Gladwell, Gakwer's Tom Scocca Wage War Over Smarm ...

The Measured Man

The Measured Man - Mark Bowden - The Atlantic

The Strongest Man in the World

Brian Shaw, the Strongest Man in the World : The New Yorker

The Blind Faith of the One-Eyed Matador

The Blind Faith of the One-Eyed Matador - GQ.com

Does success spell doom for Homo sapiens?

State of the Species by Charles C. Mann

Undercover in an Industrial Slaughterhouse

The Way of All Flesh by Ted Conover

Excerpt from the beginning:

"The cattle arrive in perforated silver trailers called cattle pots that let in wind and weather and vent out their hot breath and flatus. It’s hard to see inside a cattle pot. The drivers are in a hurry to unload and leave, and are always speeding by. (When I ask Lefty how meat gets bruised, he says, “You ever see how those guys drive?”) The trucks have come from feedlots, some nearby, some in western Nebraska, a few in Iowa. The plant slaughters about 5,100 cattle each day, and a standard double-decker cattle pot holds only about forty, so there’s a constant stream of trucks pulling in to disgorge, even before the line starts up a little after six A.M.

First the cattle are weighed. Then they are guided into narrow outdoor pens angled diagonally toward the entrance to the kill floor. A veterinarian arrives before our shift and begins to inspect them; she looks for open wounds, problems walking, signs of disease. When their time comes, the cattle will be urged by workers toward the curving ramp that leads up into the building. The ramp has a roof and no sharp turns. It was designed by the livestock expert Temple Grandin, and the curves and penumbral light are believed to soothe the animals in their final moments. But the soothing goes only so far.

“Huele mal, no?” says one of the Mexican wranglers: “It stinks, doesn’t it?” He holds his nose against the ammoniac smell of urine as I visit the pens with Carolina.1 We are new U.S. Department of Agriculture meat inspectors, getting the kitchen tour. The wrangler and his crew are moving cattle up the ramp. To do this, they wave sticks with white plastic bags tied to the ends over the animals’ heads; the bags frighten the cattle and move them along. For cows that don’t spook, the workers also have electric prods—in defiance, I was told, of company regulations—that crackle when applied to the nether parts. The ramp really does stink. “Yeah,” I say in Spanish. “Why does it smell so bad?”

“They’re scared. They don’t want to die,” the worker replies. But that’s what they’re here to do, and once on the ramp, they’re just a few moments away from it...."

Bitter Pill: Why Medical Bills Are Killing Us

Bitter Pill:  Why Medical Bills Are Killing Us

Time Magazine, May 2013

Dirty Medicine - Don't use Ranbaxy drugs

Dirty medicine - Fortune Features, May 15, 2013

The epic inside story of long-term criminal fraud at Ranbaxy, the Indian drug company that makes generic Lipitor for millions of Americans.

2 articles on how exercise combats the effects of aging

From WebMD on how exercise affects telomere lengths:  http://www.webmd.com/fitness-exercise/news/20091201/molecular-proof-exercise-keeps-you-young

From the NY Times on how exercise improves mitochondria:  http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/03/02/can-exercise-keep-you-young/?_php=true&_type=blogs&_r=0

Performance Based Fat Loss

Full article -- http://jasonferruggia.com/performance-based-fat-loss/

Key excerpts, on the "Three Principles of Performance Based Fat Loss":

When we look at the three groups we mentioned earlier – weightlifters, sprinters, and gymnasts – they all have something in common besides training for performance:

They train in such a way to access their Type 2b/2x muscle fibers. This is important because these are the largest, strongest, most powerful muscle fibers in your body. Here’s why that’s important for fat loss: They also use the most energy per contraction. 

(1)  Here’s what else you need to know about the Type 2b/2x fibers that pertains to fat loss: There are two ways to use them – train heavy (or generate maximal tension) and train explosively. That’s it.

(2)  That’s why sprinters and Olympic lifters are so lean. They are performing lots of maximal contractions with their Type 2b/2x fibers and as we already saw, that requires a lot of energy.

The other reason they’re really lean is we now know that explosive training increases glucose sensitivity, which means, your body can tolerate sugar – carbs, better than it can with regular forms of training. And what that means is you can actually eat more carbs than you would on one of those normal “no/low carb high-rep fat loss circuit routines.” And that’s good news because more carbs means you can produce more force, which means you use more energy and you burn more calories…

(3)  Here’s something else most great athletes do: They manage their fatigue levels. They’re not training to race the clock like one of the ever-popular girl-named WOD’s. No, they actually rest between sets. That’s because fatigue is like the plague to your fast-twitch muscle fibers – when they’re tired, they don’t contract.

So when you take that set to or past failure, you’re not using the Type 2b/2x’s – they checked out somewhere around rep number 5 or 6 and now you’re using your Type 2a’s and even your slow-twitch Type 1’s. That’s not necessarily a bad thing, but you’re not using maximum amounts of energy and you’re not going to get a lot stronger doing that.

See the full article for recommended programming for putting it all together.

The Secret Life of Nuns

The Secret Life of Nuns

Alex Mar Oxford American Aug 2013

What prompts a woman to exit society and marry God? Inside a modern convent in Texas.

Excerpt:

Animals having fun

What’s the Point If We Can’t Have Fun?

David Graeber The Baffler Feb 2014

Humans play. So do animals. Perhaps that’s why we’re all here.

Excerpt:

Add caption

Ibuprofen causes leaky gut and hampers muscle protein synthesis

http://lifestyleandstrength.com/my-way-does-ibuprofen-enhance-or-impair-muscle-growth/


"As the researchers [Netherlands in 2012] concluded “This is the first study to reveal that ibuprofen aggravates exercise-induced small intestinal injury and induces gut barrier dysfunction in healthy individuals. We conclude that nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs consumption by athletes is not harmless and should be discouraged.”

"Further investigation done in 2002 by the same group showed that muscle protein synthesis was severely hampered when ibuprofen or acetaminophen were combined with strength training. "

You can be overweight, and perhaps even obese, and "healthy"

In response to this NYT article that claims "The idea that there are obese people who are nonetheless healthy may be a myth."

http://www.scilogs.com/next_regeneration/is-it-possible-to-have-excess-weight-and-still-be-healthy/

"This study does not prove that healthy obesity is a "myth". Overweight individuals with normal metabolic health do not yet have a significant elevation in their cardiovascular risk. At this stage, one can indeed be "overweight" as defined by one's body mass index but still be considered "healthy" as long as all the other metabolic parameters are within the normal ranges and one abides by the general health recommendations such as avoiding tobacco, exercising regularly. If an overweight person progresses to becoming obese, he or she may be at slightly higher risk for cardiovascular events even if their metabolic health remains intact. The important take-home message from this study is that while obesity itself can be a risk factor for increased risk of cardiovascular disease, it is far more important to ensure metabolic health by controlling cholesterol levels, blood pressure, preventing diabetes and important additional interventions such as encouraging regular exercise instead of just focusing on an individual’s weight."

Gluten Intolerance Results From a Lack of Gut Bacteria

http://organicfitness.com/gluten-intolerance-results-from-a-lack-of-gut-bacteria/

"As we’re now seeing a widespread destruction of the human microbiome with western diets, modern hygiene, antibiotics, c-sections, and formula feeding in infancy, it’s no surprise that we’re also seeing a rapid rise in non-celiac gluten sensitivity, celiac disease, and other allergies and autoimmune disorders (4,5,6,7). Compared to our hunter-gatherer ancestors, we live in an extremely sterile environment. The urban western lifestyle doesn’t only alter the balance between healthy bacterial commuities and proinflammatory germs in the gut, but it also depletes the diversity of critters in our body. We’ve distanced ourselves from the vast microbial ecosystems found in soil, untreated water, and the rest of the environment, and our health pays the price."

Why eating less and exercising more doesn’t always work for long-term weight loss

http://bretcontreras.com/why-eating-less-and-exercising-more-doesnt-always-work-for-long-term-weight-loss/

Start with the LAW of THERMODYNAMICS; calories in / calories out:   "[I]t’s well established that weight gain results from an imbalance between how much energy we consume and how much we expend. However, this basic fact doesn’t tell us anything about why we actually overeat."

So why is it hard for some people to lose weight?  Because the brain works on maintaining homeostatic regulation of bodyfat levels:  "The amount of fat mass we carry is biologically regulated, and the brain tries to keep body fat within a certain range by influencing our appetite, body heat production, metabolic rate, and whether energy is directed towards fat tissue or lean mass."  (like the thermostat in your house)


But if the brain tries to maintain homeostasis, why doesn't it decrease hunger and increase fat-burning in people who have high levels of fat? 

"Part of the answer to this question is found in the negative feedback system between fat stores and the brain. Signaling hormones travel between fat cells and the control center in our head and enable the brain to measure and regulate the amount of body fat we carry.

The key hormone involved in this process is Leptin. Leptin is produced by the body’s fat stores which then travels to the brain where it produces a response at the receptors in the hypothalamus. A high leptin signal is supposed to ramp up the use of stored energy and trigger less interest in food, while a low leptin signal should initiate food seeking behaviour and energy conservation (3,5).

Since leptin production correlates with with the size of the fat stores, people who carry plenty of fat mass produce a lot more leptin than someone who is lean. So, why isn’t the brain responding to these high concentrations of circulating leptin by decreasing interest in food and burning more stored energy? Studies have made it clear that overweight and obesity are characterized by decreased leptin sensitivity, which means that the brain doesn’t respond adequately to the signal from leptin."

So what can you do to restore leptin sensitivity and lower your bodyfat setpoint?
1.  Avoid the highly-processed, addictive foods that the leptin system is not equipped to manage.

2.  Take care of your gut biome, since it's involved in bodyfat regulation.

3.  Exercise to improve leptin (and insulin) sensitivity.

4.  Eat protein.

5.  And finally:  "Several other factors such as insufficient sleep (35,36,37), high omega-6/omega-3 ratio (38,39,40), low vitamin D levels (41,42) and high cooking temperature (43,44,45) have also been associated with increased low-grade inflammation and/or obesity. While probably not as important as the major factors above, these things also play a role."

Max Heartrate

http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2014/02/10/ask-well-maximal-heart-rate/

The traditional formula (220-age) can underestimate heart rate max.  

Instead:  211 minus 64% of age. 

Or use this calculator online.

Vitamin D supplementation

http://www.precisionnutrition.com/stop-vitamin-d

Tumminello vs. Corrective Exercise

http://nicktumminello.com/2014/01/the-joint-by-joint-approach-claims-vs-the-evidence/

Dan John, too:  http://www.t-nation.com/training/high-performance-no-bs-correctives

Defining Functional Training

http://www.ihpfit.com/functional-training-advanced.html

A great explanation of "Functional Training."

Some key excerpts:

At first glance, functional biomechanics and academic anatomy do not always coincide.  For example, in an anatomy class you are taught that the quadriceps extend (i.e. straighten) the knee and the hamstrings flex (i.e. bend) the knee.  Therefore, every time we look at a movement where the knee is being extending, we think the quadriceps is doing it.  Conversely, every time we see the knee flexing during a movement, we think it is the result of the work of the hamstrings. What they forgot to tell us in the anatomy class is that the quadriceps extend the knee and the hamstrings bend it only when the foot in hanging in mid air; not planted on the ground. 

.... Then, as Gary Gray, PT says, “when the foot hits the ground, everything changes".

Without getting into a complex biomechanical analysis of running, let us look at basic quadriceps and hamstring function during forward locomotion (i.e. walking, stair climbing, or running).  The quadriceps’ primary role in running is to decelerate the leg’s collapse (i.e. the system’s pronation) during the plant phase, stabilize and accelerate propulsion (i.e. the system’s supination), and decelerate hip extension at the end of propulsion. The hamstrings decelerate hip flexion and knee extension during the swing phase, and stabilize and accelerate propulsion.

This oversimplification does not accurately depict all of the tri-planar rotational, stabilization and counterbalancing components involved in locomotion.  Nor, does it represent the complexity and importance of the entire kinetic chain, and its loading and unloading mechanisms (referred to in functional terminology as “pronation and “supination” of a system).  However, it does illustrate the shortcomings of an exclusive single joint approach, as a means of enhancing an integrated movement. 

.... Now, with better appreciation for the functional nature of locomotion, would you select a leg curl to condition or rehabilitate the hamstrings, or a leg extension to condition or rehabilitate an ACL?  I hope not!  If these exercises were functional and effective, hamstring and ACL injuries would not exist.  Most athlete performs leg extensions and leg curls.  Yet, athletic training rooms across the country are plagued by these injuries!   You can isolate all you want, but if you do not soon integrate the move into its functional pattern, you will cause faulty neural recruitment that could actually lead to an injury.

FT revolves around two very basic principles.  The first is the “kinetic chain”, which simply illustrates that the body never moves a single joint in isolation.  Rather, the kinetic chain is a series of joints working synergistically through multiple planes....  The second main principle of FT describes the physical world it deals with gravity, ground reaction forces and momentum. 

Functional training must:
1)    Be specific, or mimic, the target activity.  This includes all of the appropriate joints, as well as the speed and amplitude of movements.  The principle of specificity dictates that you “train like you play/live”.  
2)    Not be restricted or supported by external means.  No machines or artificially stabilized positions.  If you are going to isolate and support for the sake of improving isolated strength (“your means”), integrate it ASAP and regularly into its functional/integrated role (“your end”).
3)    Eventually integrate a significant amount of controlled chaos into the training.  Sports, and life in general, are chaotic and unstable in nature.  The more chaos an individual rehearses, the better they will react under unrehearsed-play conditions. 
4)    Deal with multi-joint, multi-planar movements.  In real life, especially sports, movements do not occur along a single joint or a single plane of motion.  Therefore, the kinetic chain must engage all three planes simultaneously.  
5)    Approach loading and development from the inside out.  Load the system internally (i.e. bodyweight) first, then add external resistance.  Develop the core of the body first, then develop the extremities. 
6)    Have “causative cures” as a rehabilitative, or conditioning goal.  That is, the cause of an injury must eventually be part of its cure, or prevention.  For example, if planting a foot and rotating to change direction injured the ACL, then, planting and rotating must eventually be part of the conditioning program to prevent the injury from reoccurring. It is specificity at its simplest form.
7)    Have an evaluation criterion that is incorporated into the training.  That is, the tests must be part of the training and the training part of the tests.  This way a “test/evaluation” is merely seen as training by the athlete.  Again, specificity of testing and evaluation!
8)    Be progressive in nature.  Basic conditioning and skill acquisition before advanced conditioning and skill execution.  Slow and controlled to fast and chaotic.9)    Be fun and make sense.  If it is not fun, then compliance will suffer and so will results.  If it does not make sense, chances are it’s not functional and not optimally effective. 

 

Functional Foods

Functional Foods:

http://www.nsca.com/Education/Articles/Functional-Foods-Beverages-and-Ingredients-in-Athletics/

Core Training by Stuart McGill

http://www.traindaly.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/10/Core_Training__Evidence_Translating_to_Better.4.pdf

Research on Foam Rolling

It sounds okay, but not revolutionary, according to the evidence presented here.

In summary, these individual studies suggest that foam rolling could reduce arterial stiffness, improve arterial function and improve vascular endothelial function and increase joint range-of-motion (ROM) while not impeding the production of muscular force or rate of force development and having no detrimental effects on athletic performance pre-workout.

Though when this guy sums it all up, it looks much less impressive.

a)    Short bouts of foam rolling do not improve performance measures such as vertical jump, sprint speed, agility.  (not surprising)
b)   Foam rolling is less fatiguing than planking.  (hahah I know. Research is funny sometimes)
c)    An 8 week foam rolling program was ineffective at increasing hamstring flexibility.
d)   2 one minute bouts of foam rolling was shown to increase knee range of motion, and did not decrease force production.
So, is foam rolling harmful to performance?  No.  Will it potentially improve specific physical traits? Maybe.  Is it worth spending the majority of your movement prep on?  Absolutely not.  Find your tender areas and torture yourself for 5 minutes.  Then get off the damn thing and do something that is going to prepare your body for the loaded movement patterns that you plan to destroy.