Archive for January, 2009

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Greatness

January 30, 2009

I was recently sent a link to a news story by an astute reader. Have a read, and see if you think anything is out of order…

Click this link to get the story.

Kelleher is a brilliant player. He can tackle well, has an excellent pass, is quick, physically strong, never takes a back step, and is passionate. I thought he was a good All Black, and who wasn’t a little moved seeing him with tears in his eyes during the national anthem, or at the front performing the haka with exaggerated arm swings? In fact he is many of the things I love about the All Blacks, and typifies the respect I have for all those that play for them. But was Kelleher an “All Black great”?

Just because you must be a ‘great’ player to become an All Black, and because being an All Black is ‘great’, does not mean that if you are an All Black you are automatically a ‘All Black great’.

To quote directly from Kelleher’s profile on the All Black homepage:

“But [Kelleher] never quite established himself in the top echelon of New Zealand halfbacks, alongside the likes of Des Connor, Chris Laidlaw, Sid Going, David Loveridge, Graeme Bachop and his contemporary, Justin Marshall.”

and more:

“Many of Kelleher’s tests were as a substitute from the bench or when he started there were several when he did not play out the full 80 minutes.”

Time may prove me wrong (it is not too late for a 2011 World Cup comeback keep in mind), but I think in years to come Kelleher will be remembered for the aforementioned traits he displayed, and not necessarily as an “All Black great”.

It seems strange that some people in the media want to celebrate recent sportsmen above recognised performance. What is thier motivation?

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Posted in Rugby, Sport | Leave a Comment »

High intensity is King

January 29, 2009

What is the best type of exercise?

It depends on your goals, right? Well, yeah… kind of.

There is one type of exercise that is appropriate, and best, for almost everyone: High Intensity.

Whether your goal is fat loss, sporting success, or gaining health then high intensity exercise is critical (perhaps literally when it comes to ‘health’ goal-orientated people).

Of course there are some obvious exceptions: Ultra-endurance athletes, high-risk cardiac patients etc, however high intensity exercise should be the key aspect of your most peoples training program.

High Intensity Interval Training (HIIT) has been shown in numerous scientifically controlled studies to benefit endurance training. No longer is long slow running/cycling/swimming the cornerstone of training that it once was. Something top coaches have been practicing for years are slowly making their way into general use: Intervals such as 6-10*3min, or 4-6*4min, or 6-8*5min efforts have become the ‘secret’ weapon of the weekend warrior.

In terms of weight loss HIIT consistently outperforms other type of exercise. There are a few reasons for this, but one often sighted is raised metabolism from HIIT that ‘burns’ calories long after the exercise stops – compared to post-aerobic exercise that raises metabolism only mildly, and for not as long.

And just out this week – 3mins of high intensity exercise each day is a good prevention from developing diabetes.

When it comes to HIIT one of the barriers to the average weekend warrior is being ‘fit’ enough to complete the training. It is a real chicken and the egg situation: HIIT is the best way to increase fitness, and yet you need to be fit to complete HIIT.

Well, it needn’t be that way. My recommendation is to start as many intervals as you can at the ‘desired’ intensity ie an intensity that will enable you to meet your performance goal once you are able to complete a full session. As you gradually adapt to this you will be able to complete more and more intervals, and get the associated benefits.

Posted in Cycling, Diabetes, Exercise, Fat Loss, Fitness, Gym, Health, Recovery, Running, Sport, Swimming, Triathlon, Weight Loss, Weight Training | 2 Comments »

Do you give into Lazy Temptation?

January 28, 2009

A recent study showed that phone calls from counselors were just as effective as face-to-face interviews for people maintaining and trying to lose weight.

This should come as no big surprise.

The personal touch that a counselor, mentor, coach, family member, or training partner offers is crucial to any weight loss or athletic success.

It is because in times of “lazy temptation” (such as not doing planned exercise or eating crap), it is the added burden guilt support of these aforementioned people that keep us on track.

Chose your friends carefully, but simply having a support person who will check up on you from time to time can make a huge difference also.

Posted in Diet, Exercise, Fat Loss, Fitness, Gym, Nutrition, Sport, Weight Gain, Weight Loss, Weight Training | 2 Comments »

Human Weights Workout

January 27, 2009

Everybody should use body-weight exercises, such as a push up, as part of their fitness routine. One of the many advantages is that, because most require no equipment, you can perform them anywhere.  But now Gymbox have taken the term to a whole new level.

Check out the video:

Love it.

Hat tip: Dietblog

Posted in Business, Exercise, Fat Loss, Fitness, Gym, Health, Weight Gain, Weight Loss, Weight Training | Leave a Comment »

World Cup: 500 days and counting

January 27, 2009

Today is 500 days until the World Cup (of Football) kicks off in South Africa – on the 11th of June 2010. You can check out the preliminary schedule here.

New Zealand still has a chance of qualifying. All the All Whites have to do is beat the 5th place team from the Asian group (who is yet to be determined)  in a home and away series, and they are in!

Posted in Football, Sport | Leave a Comment »

You can’t beat a good nights sleep

January 17, 2009

One of the enjoyable things about reading ‘scientific’ studies is looking into the ‘methods’ section of the papers. It is here where the authors outline exactly what they did (often methodically listing steps taken so the study could be easily re-produced). It also often provides light entertainment to see what the study subjects went through.

This morning this involved reading a study about  immunity, sleep patterns, and the common cold. Subjects were “administered nasal drops containing a rhinovirus”.

So they had the common cold virus squirted up their nose. Nice.

The results: Those who slept less than 7 hours were 2.94 times more likely to develop the cold on the subsequent  5 days than those who slept more than 8 hours.

The likely reason is  to be that the immune system is rejuvenated during sleep.

Posted in Fitness, Health | Leave a Comment »

Buger King Facebook Promotion

January 14, 2009

Burger King in the US is running a promotion to get a free “Whopper”: All you have to do to get a free burger voucher is download their application on Facebook, and delete 10 friends!
Any ideas on the link between burgers and getting rid of friends?

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Posted in Fitness, Food, Health, Nutrition, Uncategorized, Weight Gain | Leave a Comment »

Try focusing on volume

January 13, 2009

The volume of food you eat is undoubtedly of critical importance to any weight loss program. We can talk about ‘serving size’ until the cows come home, but what are some practical solutions to overcoming the problem of large serving sizes? Here are a few simple ideas you can try:

  • Using a smaller cup size for beverages.
  • Not clearing finished plates/food too quickly (there seems to be some subconscious mechanism in the brain that regulated energy intake, that may well judge how much you have eaten based on what is left over in front of you).
  • Serve yourself 1/2 as much of any beverage (except water) that you take. Only have the other half if you feel like you really need it. There is a hell of a lot of energy in beverages, and they are so easily consumed. It is an area you can really stuff up, and quickly.
  • Do not finish your plate if you don’t need or want it. It is a sunk cost, and if your host/family/friends can not respect your desire to lose weight and/or be healthy and/or perform well then I suggest you either resign to not achieving your goals, or find new people to eat with.

Occasionally I come across smaller persons who are trying to put on weight (usually muscle). If you are one of these people then simply reverse the above suggestions. ie:

  • Use big cups for every beverage
  • As soon as you are finished clear your plates, forget about what you have just eaten.
  • Fill your large cups to the top, and drink it (relatively) quickly.
  • Always finish your plate.

Posted in Diet, Fat Loss, Food, Health, Nutrition, Weight Gain, Weight Loss, What I'm Eating | 1 Comment »

The focus of your training/eating

January 12, 2009

Defining your goal is crucial to the success of any exercise and/or nutrition intervention. This is because it determines exactly what you should be focusing on. To use an obvious example: is your goal to look good, or perform well? Yes, there are large overlapping aspects of the program, but their prescriptions would fundamentally differ.  Also, do you want to look good once (ie at a wedding, or this summer), or are you looking at the long term? Again, I would approach both scenarios very differently.

Once the goal is decided, spend a good amount of time focusing on your particular strengths & weaknesses. For example:

  • If you want to lose weight: When do you eat well, and when badly?
  • If you want to play better golf: What is the best/worst part of your game?
  • If you want to become a better basketball player: What aspects of your game lets you down, and what do you always do well?

The biggest bang for your buck is often eliminating weaknesses (even though most athletes enjoy practicing what they are good at more).

Failing you having an easily identifiable strength or weakness, then put your time into what gives you the biggest bang for your buck for your specific goal. For example:

  • For someone wanting to lose weight this is undoubtedly what you eat.
  • For an athlete of a sport in which body composition is not important (Snooker, Golf etc): undoubtedly, practicing the skills of the sport.
  • For an Ironman, spend some time on the bike.

Once you have identified what you need to focus on then you need to break the skills of the sport and/or your eating patterns down a little more. For example:

  • If you are like me then most of your bad eating is post dinner – this therefore is where you need to focus your energy. For others it may be lunch time at work, or skipping breakfast.
  • If you play golf then focus on your short game as this is where the most shots are played per round (40% of strokes per round are putts for most golfers).
  • And if you are a fighter, don’t worry too much about your dancing around the ring.

Posted in Athletics, Bodybuilding, Cycling, Diet, Exercise, Fat Loss, Fitness, Food, Football, Golf, Gym, Health, Hockey, Nutrition, Rugby, Running, Sport, Swimming, Triathlon, Weight Gain, Weight Loss, Weight Training | Leave a Comment »

Only the dumb ones get caught

January 11, 2009

Unfortunately the reality of many elite sports these days is that the technology to test and catch drug cheats is, in all but a few cases, going to come after the sporting bodies know an illegal drug even exists.

But is this the governing bodies fault? Not at all. How can these organisations possible compete with companies who manufacture these performance enhancing substances full time? How can they predict what the new, specifically manufactured, performance enhancing drugs are going to be? It is close to impossible, and for this reason there is always going to be a lag before tests are developed to detect new drugs. In some cases this will not be till well after the athlete in question has set world records and retired.

So what is the answer?

Unfortunately there is nothing little governing bodies can do to prevent intelligent, well planned cheats from getting away with it. Only those on lower budgets and/or of lower intelligence will ever get caught.

Perhaps the only answer lies in an ‘open’ drug Olympics, where athletes can take what they like? Some cynics would argue that is not too far from what we have now…

Posted in Athletics, Bodybuilding, Cycling, Exercise, Fitness, Football, Golf, Gym, Hockey, Olympics, Rugby, Running, Sport, Supplements, Swimming, Triathlon, Weight Gain, Weight Training | 2 Comments »

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