I’ve added in some glute-ham raises into my leg workout so that I can make better use of the time between sets of shrugs.  I can’t believe I didn’t think of it before.

***

Self experimentation

I started the following protocols after getting back from the Christmas holidays (so around 2 January):

• Vitamin D – 4,000IU in the morning - no significant changes noted, either from switching to the morning or from doubling the does from 2,000IU.  I am still considering trying increasing the dosage to 6,000IU to see what happens.
• No coffee – I am still drinking green tea constantly but I am starting to wonder how much longer I will keep this up.

I started the following protocols about two weeks later:

• Single set of higher reps after press workout – I have given up doing the higher rep presses after my main pressing workout because I keep forgetting and going straight into doing dips and chins.  I will persevere with doing a lighter set after my assistance presses on bench day but remembering to do it is proving challenging.  I am thinking about doing some higher rep dips and chins instead.
• Sledgehammer levering – I have found that the levering work does make my wrists sore on squats now so I am cutting them down to twice a week.  I may do a bit of gripper work instead but we will see.

***

Workouts plan for the week

Fri: Lower

• Back squat – 8 sets of 2-3 reps – 166kg (1 x 3, 7 x 2)
• Shrugs – 8 sets of 3 reps – 240kg
• Glute-ham raises – blue and pink band – 8 sets of 3 reps
• Hip thrusts – 3 sets of 5 reps – 130kg

Sat: Upper (A)

• Incline bench – 8 sets of 2-3 reps –87kg (1 x 3, 7 x 2)
• Dumbbell incline bench rows – 8 sets of 9 reps – 80kg
• Overhead press – 6 sets of 3-5 reps – 56kg (2 x 5, 4 x 4)
• EZ bar curl – 6 sets of 5-8 reps – 50kg (2 x 7, 4 x 6)

Sun: Lower

• Back squat – 8 sets of 2-3 reps – 166kg (2 x 3, 6 x 2)
• Rack pull from below knee – 8 sets of 2-3 reps – 200kg (8 x 3)

Mon: Upper (B)

• Overhead press – 8 sets of 2-3 reps – 66kg (8 x 2)
• Barbell row – 8 sets of 3 reps – 75kg
• Narrow grip chins – 6 sets of 3-6 reps – 30kg (1 x 4, 5 x 3)
• Dips – 6 sets of 3-6 reps – 35kg (1 x 4, 5 x 3)

Tues: Lower

• Back squat – 8 sets of 2-3 reps – 166kg (3 x 3, 5 x 2)
• Shrugs – 8 sets of 3 reps – 240kg
• Glute-ham raises – blue and pink band – 8 sets of 3 reps
• Hip thrusts – 3 sets of 5 reps – 130kg

Weds: REST

Thurs: Upper (A)

• Incline bench – 8 sets of 2-3 reps –87kg (2 x 3, 6 x 2)
• Dumbbell incline bench rows – 8 sets of 9 reps – 80kg
• Overhead press – 6 sets of 4-5 reps – 56kg (3 x 4, 3 x 3)
• EZ bar curl – 6 sets of 5-8 reps -50kg (3 x 7, 3 x 6)

I have decided I am not working hard enough on my overhead press day so I will probably put in a barbell row.  Might not go in exactly as before (Pendlay c. 130kg 8 x 2-3)  but will have to see.

***

Self experimentation

I started the following protocols after getting back from the Christmas holidays (so around 2 January):

• Vitamin D – 4,000IU in the morning - I am starting to think that this is not having very much effect.  I am considering trying increasing the dosage to 6,000IU to see what happens.
• No coffee – I am still drinking green tea constantly.

I started the following protocols about two weeks later:

• Single set of higher reps after press workout – I have started doing a single set of higher reps after my presses (both the 8 sets x 2-3 reps workout and the 6 sets x 4-5 reps workout).  I was pleased that it didn’t seem to impact on my dips performance.  I haven’t managed it every time, however, because it hasn’t become a habit yet.
• Sledgehammer levering – typically, I do some simple rehab band exercises while resting between sets of presses or squats (like band pull-aparts).  However, I decided to try something different between sets of squats the other day and ended up doing some sledgehammer levers.  This was fun so I am going to give it a run for a couple of weeks and see whether it affects anything else (positively or negatively).

***

Workouts plan for the week

Fri: Lower

• Back squat – 8 sets of 2-3 reps – 160kg (7 x 3, 1 x 2)
• Shrugs – 8 sets of 3 reps – 230kg
• Hip thrusts – 3 sets of 5 reps – 130kg

Sat: Upper (A)

• Incline bench – 8 sets of 2-3 reps –84kg (8 x 3)
• Dumbbell incline bench rows – 8 sets of 8 reps – 80kg
• Overhead press – 6 sets of 3-5 reps – 56kg (6 x 3)
• EZ bar curl – 6 sets of 5-8 reps – 50kg (6 x 6)

Sun: Lower

• Back squat – 8 sets of 2-3 reps – 160kg (8 x 3)
• Rack pull from below knee – 8 sets of 2-3 reps – 195kg (8 x 3)

Mon: Upper (B)

• Overhead press – 8 sets of 2-3 reps – 66kg (8 x 2)
• Barbell row – TBC
• Narrow grip chins – 6 sets of 3-6 reps – 30kg (6 x 3)
• Dips – 6 sets of 3-6 reps – 35kg (6 x 3)

Tues: Lower

• Back squat – 8 sets of 2-3 reps – 166kg (8 x 2)
• Shrugs – 8 sets of 3 reps – 230kg
• Hip thrusts – 3 sets of 5 reps – 130kg

Weds: REST

Thurs: Upper (A)

• Incline bench – 8 sets of 2-3 reps –87kg (8 x 2)
• Dumbbell incline bench rows – 8 sets of 8 reps – 80kg
• Overhead press – 6 sets of 4-5 reps – 56kg (1 x 4, 5 x 3)
• EZ bar curl – 6 sets of 5-8 reps -50kg (1 x 7, 5 x 6)

So it seemed only right to look at resistance training and older people this week.

***

OK, what’s the study?

It’s called Effects of exercise training in the elderly: impact of progressive-resistance training on skeletal muscle and whole-body protein metabolism, by Roger Fielding, Proceedings of the Nutrition Society, 1995.

I think it’s a pretty good basic starting point for any discussion of what happens to people physically as they get older.

***

What’s the background?

A couple of basic points that are raised in the introduction are:

• Age-related decreases in cardiovascular and muscular ability (fitness and strength, to you and me) are paralleled by decreases in the actual physical cardiovascular and muscular systems themselves.
• Age-related declines in fitness and strength impinge on the ability to perform activities of daily living.
• Age-related declines in fitness and strength resemble the change in the cardiovascular and muscular systems that occur with bedrest or reduced activity.

To put that into other words: as you get old, you get weaker and less fit and this happens because of changes to your body.  Your muscles get smaller and your heart and lungs get less efficient.  This makes it harder to do things like carry your shopping, lift things off shelves and open tins.

However, what is happening to you looks suspiciously just like what happens to people when they get ill and have to stay in bed for several weeks without moving.  This makes scientists wonder whether what is happening to you is not really age-related but inactivity related.  In other words, if you got off the couch and did something, you might find you got fitter, stronger and more able again.

***

What typically happens as people get old?

Well, let’s brainstorm a bit and just throw a few random things out there:

• Their metabolism slows down
• Their cardiovascular fitness decreases
• They walk slower
• They can’t open jars very easily
• They suffer diseases, including cancer

These are all things that Fielding discusses and he notes that there is good research to suggest that muscle loss affects all of them, as follows:

• Their metabolism slows down – Fielding explains that the decline in metabolic rate is almost entirely explained by a loss of skeletal muscle mass (Longitudinal changes in basal metabolic rate in man, by Tzankoff and Norris, in Journal of Applied Physiology, 1978).
• Their cardiovascular fitness decreases - the decline in muscle mass observed with age, Fielding notes, can explain approximately 50% of the age-related decline in maximal oxygen uptake (Role of muscle loss in the age-associated reduction in V O2-max, by Flegg and Lakatta, in Journal of Applied Physiology, 1988).
• They walk slower - Fielding notes a study that shows how in a sample of men and women aged 65 years and older, there was a significant inverse relationship between the muscle strength of the foot and age.  Also, the customary walking speed was related to the muscle strength of the foot.  So decreases in strength led to decreases in walking speed (Muscle strength in the triceps surae and objectively measured customary walking activity in men and women over 65 years of age, Bassey, Bendall, Pearson, Clinical Science, 1988).
• They can’t open jars very easily – Fielding explains that the age-related decline in skeletal muscle mass has been shown to partially explain the age-related declines in isometric handgrip strength (The role of muscle loss in the age-related decline of grip strength: cross-sectional and longitudinal perspectives, Kallman, Plato, Tobin, Journal of Gerontology 1990).
• They suffer diseases, including cancer – Fielding is also slightly sheepish about the fact that the loss of lean body mass appears to affect disease outcome in patients with chronic illness.  It is interesting, though, that I was also a bit wary just reporting this, as it seemed somewhat hokey.  However, thinking about it, the more robust and healthy the body is, surely the better the chance it has of surviving something like cancer? (Prognostic effect of weight loss prior to chemotherapy in cancer patients, DeWyss, Begg, Lavin, American Journal of Medicine, 1980).

It’s surprising how much of it comes back to the loss of muscle mass, isn’t it?

***

But does resistance training work on elderly people?

Fielding suggests that the loss of muscle mass and strength “may not be an inevitable part of the ageing process but may, in fact, be more related to changes in habitual activity patterns which accompany advancing age.”

Let’s look at some of the evidence that he has produced…

***

Weightlifters better off than runners or swimmers

Fielding notes a study called Function, morphology and protein expression of ageing skeletal muscle: a cross-sectional study of elderly men with different training backgrounds, Klitgaard, Mantoni, Schiaffino, Ausoni, Gorza, Laurent-Winter, Schnohr, Saltin, Acta Physiologica Scandinavica, 1990.

In this study, the researchers reported that 69-year old men who had been strength-training approximately 12-17 years had muscle mass that was significantly greater than swimmers or runners of the same age.

What’s more, the researchers were surprised to find that the muscle mass of the strength-trained 69-year olds was in fact similar to the muscle mass of the young controls… because that’s not supposed to happen…

***

Muscle is harder to gain than strength for the elderly

Fielding notes that in a study called Potential for gross muscle hypertrophy in older men, by Moritani and DeVries, Journal of Gerontology, 1980 the researchers trained 5 healthy 70-year old men for 8 weeks using a weight that was 66% of their 1RM of their elbow flexors.

The 70-year old men enjoyed a 23% increase in the strength of their elbow flexors but were disappointed that their guns did not get any bigger…

***

But muscle can definitely be gained

Fielding notes that in Strength conditioning in older men: skeletal muscle hypertrophy and improved function, by Frontera, Meredith, O’Reilly, Knuttgen, Evans, in Journal of Applied Physiology, 1988, researchers examined the effects of a high-intensity dynamic-resistance training programme in healthy 64-year old men.

The old men performed knee flexion and extension exercises 3 days a week at 80% of the 1RM, using 8-10 reps for 12 weeks.  The researchers saw that the old men experienced a 107% increase in knee extensor strength and a 226% increase in knee flexor strength.

In addition, the researchers observed an 11% increase in muscular cross-sectional area, clearly demonstrating muscular hypertrophy.

***

Food intake key to muscular hypertrophy in the elderly 

In the same study by Frontera et al (cited above), half the subjects were given a nutritional supplement during the training programme which provided an additional 2343 kJ (c. 580 kcal) per day.

Interestingly, Fielding notes that there were no differences in strength gains between the old men who ate the extra food and those who did not.  However, the old men who ate the extra food had much greater increases in body weight and muscle cross-sectional area.  Fielding concludes that dietary intake may influence the magnitude of changes in body composition as a result of strength-training in the elderly.

I guess we would suggest that this is obvious but I would be intrigued to see a study done with both young and old men, with and without extra calories, to see whether the difference between groups was as great with young men as with the older men.

***

And it works on women, too

Fielding points to the study Muscle hypertrophy response to resistance training in older women, Charette, McEvoy, Pyka, Snow-Harter, Guido, Weswell, Marcus, Journal of Applied Physiology, 1991, which confirmed that dynamic-resistance training in healthy elderly women of 69 years old resulted in significant increases in muscle strength (28-115%) and a 20% increase in muscle fibre cross-sectional area.

***

Conclusions

Fielding says, “the capacity for senescent muscle to respond to overload persists and (resistance training) should be considered an effective strategy for restoring muscle function in the healthy elderly population.”

In other words, doctors should be prescribing resistance exercise to old people.  Why are they not doing?

***

OK but what about really frail, old people?

So you think you’re too old?  Just how old are you?

Fielding is delighted to report on a study called High-intensity strength training in nonagenarians: effects on skeletal muscle. Fiatarone, Marks, Ryan, Meredith, Lipsitz, Evans, Journal of the American Medical Association, 1990.

This study examined 10 frail elderly men and women with an average age of 90 years!  The old men and women performed knee extension exercises for 8 weeks, 3 times a week, using 3 sets at 80% of their 1RM.

Following 8 weeks of training a 174% increase in the 1RM of the knee extensors was observed along with a 9% in muscle cross-sectional area.  The old men and women also improved their walking speed by 48%!

***

That was a small sample size, it might be a chance result…

OK, if you think that 10 people is a poor sample size, let’s look at a bigger one…

Some of the same researchers worked on a bigger study, with 100 frail nursing home residents, called Exercise training and nutritional supplementation for physical frailty in very elderly people, Fiatarone, O’Neill, Ryan, Clements, Solares, Nelson, Roberts, Kehayias, Lipsitz, Evans, in New England Journal of Medicine, 1994.

In this study, the researchers reported a 113% increase in muscle strength and a 2.7% increase in muscle cross-sectional area in response to a 10-week programme of resistance training.

In a delightful, throwaway comment, the researchers noted that “in addition to the measured gains in musculoskeletal strength, spontaneous physical activity in the strength-trained group increased 35%.”  What a great thing to observe!

***

Conclusions

Fielding asserts that these studies suggest that “even in frail elderly subjects, the capacity for muscle strength increases and hypertrophy is still maintained.”

***

Wrapping up

While there will be nothing surprising to many regular readers here, it never ceases to amaze me how we can read reviews or studies like this on the one hand and yet on the other hand allow our parents and grandparents to slide gradually into dependence and inactivity.

At what point will we as a society realise that what we have come to describe as the “inevitable” effects of ageing are in fact simply the effects of inactivity?  At what point will doctors start agitating for their patients to use resistance training?  Why are they not reading the research?  Or are they reading it but they can’t see a reliable way of making it happen?

My squat still languishes in the middle of 160kg but 165kg is not far away.  Perhaps I will finally start doing my work sets with 170kg in February?  This is the third time I have worked through 160kg and 165kg and I have not yet reached 170kg…

***

Self experimentation

I started the following protocols after getting back from the Christmas holidays (so around 2 January):

• Vitamin D – 4,000IU in the morning - I am starting to think that this is not having very much effect.  I am considering trying increasing the dosage to 6,000IU to see what happens.
• No coffee – I am still going strong without coffee but I am drinking green tea in its place (or tea if I am offered a drink out).  I have also started twitching a little bit straight after lunch, which was always my favourite time to drink coffee, but I have thus far resisted.

I started the following protocols at the beginning of last week:

• Single set of higher reps after press workout – I have started doing a single set of higher reps after my presses (both the 8 sets x 2-3 reps workout and the 6 sets x 4-5 reps workout).  I was pleased that it didn’t seem to impact on my dips performance.  I haven’t managed it every time, however, because it hasn’t become a habit yet.
• Sledgehammer levering – typically, I do some simple rehab band exercises while resting between sets of presses or squats (like band pull-aparts).  However, I decided to try something different between sets of squats the other day and ended up doing some sledgehammer levers.  This was fun so I am going to give it a run for a couple of weeks and see whether it affects anything else (positively or negatively).

***

Workouts plan for the week

Fri: Lower

• Back squat – 8 sets of 2-3 reps – 160kg (3 x 3, 5 x 2)
• Shrugs – 8 sets of 3 reps – 230kg
• Hip thrusts – 3 sets of 5 reps – 130kg

Sat: Upper (A)

• Incline bench – 8 sets of 2-3 reps –84kg (5 x 3, 3 x 2)
• Dumbbell incline bench rows – 8 sets of 7 reps – 80kg
• Overhead press – 6 sets of 4-5 reps – 53kg (5 x 5, 1 x 4)
• EZ bar curl – 6 sets of 5-8 reps – 50kg (5 x 6, 1 x 5)

Sun: Lower

• Back squat – 8 sets of 2-3 reps – 160kg (4 x 3, 4 x 2)
• Rack pull from below knee – 8 sets of 2-3 reps – 190kg (3 x 3, 5 x 2)

Mon: Upper (B)

• Overhead press – 8 sets of 2-3 reps – 63kg (6 x 3, 2 x 2)
• Narrow grip chins – 6 sets of 3-6 reps – 30kg (3 x 4, 3 x 3)
• Dips – 6 sets of 3-6 reps – 35kg (3 x 4, 3 x 3)

Tues: Lower

• Back squat – 8 sets of 2-3 reps – 160kg (5 x 3, 3 x 2)
• Shrugs – 8 sets of 3 reps – 230kg
• Hip thrusts – 3 sets of 5 reps – 130kg

Weds: REST

Thurs: Upper (A)

• Incline bench – 8 sets of 2-3 reps –84kg (6 x 3, 2 x 2)
• Dumbbell incline bench rows – 8 sets of 7 reps – 80kg
• Overhead press – 6 sets of 4-5 reps – 53kg (6 x 5)
• EZ bar curl – 6 sets of 5-8 reps -50kg (6 x 5)

Hormonal responses and adaptations to resistance exercise - this big review article covers the basic changes that resistance exercise causes to testosterone, growth hormone, cortisol, insulin-like growth factors (IGF), insulin, catecholamines and sundry other hormones.  As with most review articles, this is a great place to start to catch the basics.

Muscular adaptations to combinations of high and low intensity resistance exercise - this short study investigates the simple premise of using a back-off set of higher reps after the main sets of low reps.  It seems that this single extra higher rep set caused a significant rise in growth hormone.

Effects of heavy-resistance training on hormonal response patterns - this fascinating study compared both the acute and chronic hormone response profiles of young and old men to heavy resistance training and found some amazing results.

***

What have I learned so far?

The basics of hormone responses to strength training

Well, in refreshing the basics, I reminded myself of the following points:

• Most hormones – the beneficial effects of most hormones seem to kick in with long-term, high-volume, high-intensity strength training routines, preferably with lower rest periods.
• Testosterone – there doesn’t appear to be much point in trying to maximise testosterone if you are female.  Men should think hard before performing isolation exercises independently from compound movements and even harder before removing fat from their diets.
• Growth hormone – growth hormone seems to be strongly affected by total work and by shorter rest periods.
• Cortisol – the cortisol response to resistance training seems to follow the growth hormone response but it can be reduced by carbohydrate supplementation.
• Insulin - insulin stuffs cells full of nutrients and is most affected by carbohydrates, so it seems to make sense to take carbohydrates with your protein if you are looking for maxmium protein synthesis (and therefore hypertrophy).

***

Hormone responses to high and low rep sets

After looking into the idea of using a higher rep set after a strength workout for maximising growth hormone, I concluded that this was definitely worth experimenting with.

While I am not really ready to comment properly, I have since started kicking this around on my pressing days and have done it four or five times now.  Provisionally, I do look slightly bigger and strength is up a fraction too.

***

Hormone response differences between old and young men

In comparing the hormone responses that old and young men experience as a result of resistance training, there are a couple of key points, as follows:

• Old men can still benefit - Older men (62 years old) can significantly gain both strength and muscle using resistance training
• Testosterone - Testosterone is associated with greater muscle gain and free (but not total) testosterone can be increased in younger men through resistance training (but note that not many studies show this)
• Cortisol – although the researchers do not tie their work into the work of stress researchers, it seems that HPA axis inflexibility (small changes in cortisol response) may well be associated with less muscle gain (possibly because it is linked to low testosterone, depending on how you read the stress literature)
• Lactate – lactate may be associated with testosterone response after exercise, particularly in older men, suggesting that higher reps (more traditional hypertrophy workouts) might be better for older men

***

OK, so what’s the study today?

Today’s study comes to us courtesy of Mike T Nelson, who kindly brought my attention to it.  It’s called Associations of exercise-induced hormone profiles and gains in strength and hypertrophy in a large cohort after weight training, by West and Phillips, in European Journal of Applied Physiology, 2011.

***

What’s the background?

The researchers start by noting that the rate at which muscle is created in the body is affected by:

• The types of nutrition, and
• The types of resistance exercise.

In particular, in discussing the types of nutrition, they note a previous study that their group performed that demonstrated that “milk consumption after resistance exercise performed over 12 weeks resulted in greater increases in muscle fibre cross-sectional area and lean body mass than consumption of an equivalent amount of soy protein or isoenergetic carbohydrate drink.”

In discussing this study, however, they noted that there must be other factors in play in addition to the types of nutrition and resistance exercise, as some subjects displayed significantly better results in hypertrophy than others.

So what might be the other factor(s)?

The researchers note that some studies have suggested that the size of the acute (directly after exercise) testosterone and growth hormone responses might be responsible for these variances.  So the researchers set out to test whether this is really the case, by looking to see whether individuals who exhibit large hormone responses after resistance exercise do in fact have greater training-induced adaptations.

***

What did they do?

 The researchers took 56 recreationally active young men, who were not actively participating in any weightlifting and subjected them to a 12-week whole-body resistance-training program.

The subjects trained 5 days per week using several upper and lower body exercises.  There were three post-nutrition groups: skim milk, soy beverage and carbohydrate, which was consumed immediately and 1 hour after each workout.

At week 7 of the training programme, blood samples were obtained at rest and at 0, 30, 60, 90 and 120 mins after a workout, for hormone analysis.  The blood draws took place at the same time during the day to prevent diurnal fluctuations in hormones from influencing the responses.  Lean body mass and muscle cross-sectional area where also measured.

***

Limitations on the study

Helpfully, the researchers point out certain limitations on the study, which are important to note, as there are interesting results here that might be taken out of context if we are not careful.

• The hormone analysis was limited to the acute 120 min period after the workout and does not cover later (e.g. 24 hour) changes in hormone levels
• The analysis was conducted at the midpoint of the training period and thus does not address how the acute hormone response may have changed over the course of the training period

These two points are useful to note, as the study we looked at yesterday was most interesting because of:

• The changes in resting hormone levels over a 10-week period, and
• The changes in exercise-induced hormone responses to exercise over the same 10-week period.

Today’s study did not look at either of these variations but concentrated purely on a snapshot of the post-exercise hormone responses.

So, finally, it is also worth considering that if there were significant variances between resting levels of hormones between subjects and if such resting levels have a material effect on lean body mass, strength and muscle cross sectional area (which I bet that they do), the data in this study could be seriously affected because I do not think that this factor was adequately controlled for.

***

What happened?

While the study does not disclose all of the data in the published study that I read, it seems that the researchers found that:

• Post-exercise nutrition - consumption of post-exercise nutrition immediately and 60 min after exercise did not appear to have an effect on the exercise-induced hormone response.  No data is given for this conclusion and I can only assume what they mean is that there were no differences in hormone results depending on whether the post-exercise nutrition was consumed immediately or after one hour.
• Strength - no hormones were associated with change in leg press 1RM strength.  I think this should be expected, as the subjects were not weight-trained and therefore the period under review would be primarily affected by the neural developments and not by hypertrophy.  Also, I don’t mean to be snotty here but, if we’re going to measure strength, please can we use a proper exercise next time?  It surely can’t be too much to ask to use the squat?
• Cortisol - Cortisol was positively correlated with change in whole-body lean body mass, by which I assume they mean that the size of the cortisol response to the workout was correlated with the hypertrophy response.  I like this conclusion a lot, as it fits completely with the Per Bjorntorp idea that obesity is correlated with a blunting of the HPA axis, or an inflexibility in the cortisol response to stress.  The more flexibile your HPA axis, the better you respond to stress (and possibly the greater or more effective (?) your testosterone levels are).
• Growth hormone - the sizes of the growth hormone, free testosterone and IGF-1 responses were not correlated with a change in whole-body lean body mass.  Hold that thought for a moment, because elsewhere we learn that in this study that growth hormone was positively correlated with change in type I fibre cross-sectional area and both growth hormone and cortisol were positively correlated with increases in type II fibre area.  So if growth hormone was not correlated with an increase in lean body mass but it was correlated with increases in both type I and type II cross-sectional area, what is going on?  Answers on a postcard, please because my maths just ran out of steam: I can’t see how you can increase the cross-sectional area of a muscle without increasing your lean body mass.
• Responders – importantly, there were no statistically significant differences in the hormone response between responders and non-responders.  So the study was successful in showing that (if you accept the single measurement point at 7 weeks) the size of the acute testosterone, IGF-1 and growth hormone response is not a factor in how much strength and size beginners are able to gain.

***

So what did the researchers conclude?

Cortisol

The researchers note that the correlation of cortisol levels and type II muscle fibre area is an interesting discovery and suggest that it might be due to the gluconeogenesis that accompanies the release of cortisol.

I have to say that I find this explanation unlikely, given that the subjects were already taking plenty of carbohydrates in their post-exercise nutrition and the isocaloric, pure carbohdyrate drink provided poorer hypertrophy results than the protein drinks.

I think that since Per Bjorntorp has shown that an inflexible HPA axis with little variation in cortisol levels is associated with metabolic disorders and obesity, it makes a simple kind of sense to suggest that a very flexible HPA axis might be associated with the ability to show good gains in lean body mass.

***

Growth hormone

The researchers note that “growth hormone was associated with changes in type I fibre hypertrophy and yet is reported to have no effect on myofibrillar protein accretion.”  They suggest that “as the regulation of growth hormone becomes clearer, it is possible that a shared mechanism, such as neural drive, muscle activation and/or metabolic stress, that could affect both growth hormone and muscle adaptation may explain the association of growth hormone with hypertrophy.”

***

Testosterone

The researchers note that they did not observe any significant relationships between the exercise-induced increase in testosterone concentration and the degree of lean body mass, hypertrophy or strength.  They note that this observation was in agreement with their previous findings, noted below:

Elevations in ostensibly anabolic hormones with resistance exercise enhance neither training-induced muscle hypertrophy nor strength of the elbow flexors, in West, Burd, Tang, Moore, Staples, Holwerda, Baker, and Phillips, Journal of Applied Physiology, 1999.

Hypertrophy with unilateral resistance exercise occurs without increases in endogenous anabolic hormone concentration, Wilkinson, Tarnopolsky, Grant, Correia, Phillips, European Journal of Applied Physiology, 2006.

However, another recent study contradicts this result, as follows:

Physiological elevation of endogenous hormones results in superior strength training adaptation, by Ronnestad, Nygaard, Raastad, in European Journal of Applied Physiology, 2011.

I cannot access this latter study but the abstract reports that:

Nine subjects performed four unilateral strength training session per week on the elbow flexors for 11 weeks.  During two of the weekly sessions, leg exercises were performed to acutely increase the systemic anabolic hormone concentration immediately before the exercises for one of the elbow flexors.  On the two other weekly training sessions, the contralateral elbow flexors were trained without prior leg exercises.  By randomizing one arm of the subjects to serve as a control and the other as experimental, both conditions have the same nutritional and genetic environment.

Serum testosterone and growth hormone was significantly increased during the first type of training session, while no hormonal changes occurred in the second type of session.  Both sessions caused increases in 1RM in biceps curl and muscle volume of the elbow flexors.  However, only the first session achieved increase in cross-sectional area at the part of the arm flexors with largest cross sectional area, while no changes occurred as a result of the second session.

In conclusion, performing leg exercises prior to arm exercises, and thereby increasing the levels of serum testosterone and growth hormone, induced superior strength training adaptations compared to arm training without acute elevation of hormones.

I like the fact that this latter study uses the same subject to test for the acute levels of hormone post-exercise.  This is a very clever way of circumventing the problem of having resting levels messing up your data, as might have happened in the study we looked at today.

However, I would very much like to know for the above studies whether they were done on beginners (as this one was) or experienced trainees.  If anyone is prepared to send me a copy of any of the above studies, I would greatly appreciate it!

***

Wrapping up

I have to say that I love this study and hate it in equal measure.

I really like the results regarding cortisol, in that cortisol was positively correlated with change in whole-body lean body mass.  This fits completely with the Per Bjorntorp idea that obesity is correlated with a blunting of the HPA axis, or an inflexibility in the cortisol response to stress.  The more flexibile your HPA axis, the better you respond to stress and, it appears, the better you respond to exercise.

I really don’t like:

• The way that the study ignores the resting levels of hormones across the period of the training programme,
• The way that the study ignores the differences in resting levels of hormones between subjects,
• The fact that the study uses beginners and then tries to correlate hypertrophy with anything at all.

All in all, though, a great study and great fun to review.  Thanks, Mike T Nelson.

One of the interesting things that popped up in that review article was that greater rises in growth hormone occur by adding a single set of higher reps to your normal low-rep strength sets.  So 5 sets of 3 reps caused a much smaller rise in growth hormone than 5 sets of 3 reps followed by a set of 20 reps with a lower weight.  To get to the bottom of this issue, I looked at a short study on muscular adaptations to different combinations of high and low intensity exercise.

However, there was clearly a lot more to go at, so let’s take a look at a couple more studies on the same subject this week.

***

So what’s the study today?

Today’s study is on a subject close to my heart, resistance training and sarcopenia, or the effect of ageing on muscle mass.  As regular readers will know, I hate the idea prevalent in today’s day and age that people must inevitably become immobile and frail as they get older.  It’s such a horrible waste of life.  Seeing people just shrug and accept it breaks my heart.

The study today is called Effects of heavy-resistance training on hormonal response patterns in younger vs. older men, by Kraemer, Hakkinen, Newton, Nindl, Volek, McCormick, Gotshalk, Gordon, Fleck, Campbell, Putukian and Evans, in Journal of Applied Physiology, 1999.

The ageing process is an unpleasant phenomenon that causes:

• Sarcopenia (muscle wastage)
• Reductions in muscular strength
• Reductions in plasma concentrations of circulating anabolic hormones and growth factors

Fortunately, a number of studies have found that resistance training can address sarcopenia by increasing muscle mass even in older men.  But what about the endocrine changes?  To find out, this study sets out to discover whether the right resistance training programme could also enhance the resting and exercise-induced endocrine responses to resistance exercise.

***

So what did the researchers do?

The researchers took eight 30-year old subjects and nine 62-year old subjects and took measurements before and after a 10-week periodised strength training programme.

The periodized resistance training programme was performed three times per week for 10 weeks.  The workouts were alternated by varying the resistance and the volume over the week.  How did this pan out?

• Monday, sets were performed at 3–5 RM with 2–3 min of rest between sets,
• Wednesday, sets were performed at 8–10 RM with 1 min of rest between sets,
• Friday, the load was 12–15 RM, however, only 6–8 repetitions were performed with the intention of performing these exercises with greater power output or in an explosive manner with 1–2 min of rest.

The programme was a full body workout consisting of squats, knee extensions, lower back extensions, lat pull downs, leg curls, calf raises, bench presses, seated rows, military presses and arm curls.

***

And what happened?

Strength

The strength improvements (1RM squat) were:

• 30-year olds – 139 +/- 22kg to 163 +/- 23kg – an improvement of 24kg (17%)
• 62-year olds – 102 +/- 34 to 113 +/- 37 kg – an improvement of 11kg (11%)

So the 30-year olds improved their strength by more than twice as much in absolute terms in the same period of time, using the same programme.  However, in percentage terms, the improvement was much less marked.

***

Hypertrophy

The hypertrophy improvements were measured using thigh muscle cross-sectional area and were as follows:

• 30-year olds - 186 +/- 16cm sq to 204 +/- 18cm sq, an increase of 18 cm sq (9.7%)
• 62-year olds - 159 +/- 26cm sq to 169 +/- 26cm sq, an increase of 10 cm sq (6.9%)

So the 30-year olds improved their strength by nearly twice as much in absolute terms in the same period of time, using the same programme.  However, again, in percentage terms, the improvement was much less marked.

***

Hormones

Various measurements were taken for hormonal concentrations and the following significant results noted:

• Resting free testosterone rose over 10 weeks – the weight training programme appears to have raised the resting free testosterone (but not total testosterone) significantly for the 30-year olds (but not the 62-year olds) over the 10 weeks.  This is interesting as it did not crop up in the review article I looked at last week.
• Resting cortisol decreased for both groups over 10 weeks – the weight training programme appears to have lowered the cortisol levels of both groups over the 10 weeks, with the 62-year old group having a much larger decrease.
• Testosterone rose in both groups after exercise – after heavy resistance exercise, the testosterone levels of both groups rose, although the levels of the 30-year olds rose higher
• Cortisol rose in both groups after exercise - after heavy resistance exercise, the cortisol levels of both groups rose and remained elevated after one hour and there were no significant differences between groups
• Testosterone levels post-exercise rose more after the 10-weeks – in both groups, the post-exercise testosterone levels of both groups rose more after the 10-week training programme than before.  So the immediate response was increased by the training programme.  However, again, the increase of the 30-year olds was greater.
• Cortisol levels post-exercise dropped more after the 10-weeks – in both groups, the post-exercise cortisol levels was less elevated after the 10-week training programme than before.  So the immediate response was decreased by the training programme.  However, the amount by which the cortisol response decreased was much smaller in the 62-year old group.

All of these significant findings led to the researchers getting very excited about this study.

***

The researchers got excited about testosterone

The researchers appeared to be very excited about the comparatively greater ability of the younger men to elicit a greater relative hypertrophic response in 10 weeks of training.  They believe that this study shows that this greater ability is associated with the differences in the resting and exercise-induced adaptational patterns of the hormones.

In particular, they were excited by the movements in total and free testosterone.  They note that in men, testosterone is a potent anabolic hormone that mediates protein accretion and also enhances neural function.  Their key points are:

• Exercise-induced levels of total testosterone - in their study, exercised-induced concentrations of testosterone were significantly higher in the 30-year old group than in the 62-year old group.
• Exercise-induced levels of free testosterone - area-under-the-curve analysis in their study revealed a greater magnitude of increase in the exercise-induced responses of free testosterone to a resistance training stimulus in younger men.

***

The researchers got excited about the andropause

As a result of their conclusions about testosterone being the driving factor behind the difference in hypertrophy and strength gains between the young and old groups, the researchers assert that these data support the maintenance of an male menopause or andropause, which is characterised by:

• a decrease in testicular Leydig cell numbers,
• reductions in secretory capacity, and
• a decrease in resting episodic and stimulated gonadotropin secretion.

***

The researchers got excited about testosterone and lactate

So if the 62-year old group had suffered the andropause, how was testosterone still being raised by exercises?  The researchers point to another study that may have the answer, Lactate and the effects of exercise on testosterone secretion: evidence for the involvement of a cAMP mediated mechanism, Lu, Pang, Tung, Huang, Chen, Shih, Tsai, Lu, Wang, Chen, Chien, Chien, and Wang, in Medince and Science in Sports and Exercise, 1997.

Lu et al. reported that increased testosterone concentrations in male rats during exercise were at least partially the result of a direct stimulatory mechanism of exercise, with lactate influencing the secretion of testosterone by increasing testicular cAMP production.

This is very interesting, as it provides some support for the idea that older people need to work more in traditional bodybuilding rep ranges to focus on hypertrophy rather than strength.

***

The researchers get excited about cortisol

The two key points regarding cortisol are:

• The older men experienced a resting decrease in cortisol over the 10-week period that was greater than the younger men (this occured without a corresponding decrease in its precursor, the adrenocorticotropic hormone – ACTH).
• The younger men experienced a post-exercise response in cortisol that was muted after the 10-week period compared with the older men.

The researchers draw certain conclusions based on this data, including:

• The resting decrease in cortisol over the 10-week period for the older men without a corresponding decrease in ACTH may be caused by a downregulating of ACTH activity.
• The greater reductions in cortisol experienced by the younger men post-exercise have been thought to provide one possible mechanism by which the younger men gained more muscle than the older men.

I don’t really see these observations as particularly interesting.  I think the results are fascinating, however.  And I think that they may well tie into Per Bjorntorp’s theory of the inflexible HPA axis.  Please let me explain…

***

An inflexible HPA axis causes low testosterone

Per Bjorntorp believed that the key to good health was the flexibility of the HPA axis (i.e. its ability to move up or down over the course of the day) and not whether it was up or down (i.e. whether cortisol was high or low).

For those of you who don’t remember my extensive stress series, the HPA axis is the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenocortical axis and works as follows: the hypothalamus secretes corticotropin-releasing hormone (CRH).  This molecule travels through to the anterior pituitary gland, which responds to its presence by secreting a pulse of adrenocorticotropic hormone (ACTH).  The ACTH signal is carried through the to the adrenal glands, which synthesise and release cortisol.

In talking about obesity, Bjorntorp says: “the perturbed regulation of the HPA axis rather than elevated cortisol secretion might be the crux of the matter in attempts to understand how cortisol secretion is associated with metabolic abnormalities.”  So the inflexibility of the HPA axis may be responsible for poor body composition and the feminising effect of obesity in men.

And furthermore, Bjorntorp explains that “it seems possible that the diminished secretions of sex steroid and growth hormones are involved. Deficiencies in these hormones would be expected to be followed by similar consequences as elevated cortisol.”  So the inflexibility of the HPA axis is linked to low testosterone.

Which makes me wonder whether inflexibility of the HPA axis is causing these observations by the researchers in older men.

***

 Wrapping up

There is a lot to think about in this study.  However, I think there are a couple of key points, as follows:

• Older men (62 years old) can significantly gain both strength and muscle using resistance training
• Testosterone is associated with greater muscle gain
• Free (but not total) testosterone can be increased in younger men through resistance training (but note that not many studies show this)
• HPA axis inflexibility (bad cortisol response) may well be associated with less muscle gain (possibly because it is linked to low testosterone)
• Lactate may be associated with testosterone response after exercise, particularly in older men, suggesting that higher reps might be better for older men

So for me, the take-home points are:

• Testosterone is really important for muscle gain
• Stress may be even more important than I previously thought, insofar as it controls the flexibility of the HPA axis and therefore impacts on testosterone levels
• Higher reps (to create lactate) may be important for older men to generate a better testosterone response

There’s another hormone-related research study coming up tomorrow.  After that, I’m going to look at something else for a bit…

In other news, we are now proud tenants of an allotment in our village.  We were very lucky in that the previous tenant left to take on management of a smallholding and therefore the site was in very good repair and even had some vegetables in place for us to harvest!  Anna has already tried the brussels sprouts and was very impressed with how much better they were than shop-bought produce.  I declined to find out…

***

Self experimentation

I started the following protcols after getting back from the Christmas holidays (so around 2 January):

• Vitamin D – 4,000IU in the morning - So far, I have noticed only a small effect in that I appear to be sleeping slightly better (estimated by number of nights I sleep all the way through without interruptions)  but nothing as significant as epsom salt baths.
• No coffee – I am still going strong without coffee but I am drinking green tea in its place.  I have started twitching a little bit straight after lunch, which was always my favourite time to drink coffee, but I have thus far resisted, even when someone made a cup for me by mistake!

***

Workouts plan for the week

Fri: Lower

• Back squat – 8 sets of 2-3 reps – 160kg (8 x 2)
• Shrugs – 10 sets of 3 reps – 220kg
• Hip thrusts – 3 sets of 5 reps – 130kg

Sat: Upper (A)

• Incline bench – 8 sets of 2-3 reps –84kg (8 x 2)
• Dumbbell incline bench rows – 8 sets of 6 reps – 80kg
• Overhead press – 6 sets of 4-5 reps – 53kg (2 x 5, 4 x 4)
• EZ bar curl – 6 sets of 5-8 reps -50kg (2 x 6, 4 x 5)

Sun: Lower

• Back squat – 8 sets of 2-3 reps – 160kg (1 x 3, 7 x 2)
• Rack pull from knee – 8 sets of 2-3 reps – 190kg (1 x 3, 7 x 2)

Mon: Upper (B)

• Overhead press – 8 sets of 2-3 reps – 63kg (4 x 3, 4 x 2)
• Narrow grip chins – 4 sets of 3-6 reps – 30kg (3 x 4, 3 x 3)
• Dips - 4 sets of 3-6 reps – 35kg (3 x 4, 3 x 3)

Tues: Lower

• Back squat – 8 sets of 2-3 reps – 160kg (2 x 3, 6 x 2)
• Shrugs – 10 sets of 3 reps – 220kg
• Hip thrusts – 3 sets of 5 reps – 130kg

Weds: REST

Thurs: Upper (A)

• Incline bench – 8 sets of 2-3 reps –84kg (1 x 3, 7 x 2)
• Dumbbell incline bench rows – 8 sets of 6 reps – 80kg
• Overhead press – 6 sets of 4-5 reps – 53kg (3 x 5, 3 x 4)
• EZ bar curl – 6 sets of 5-8 reps -50kg (3 x 5, 3 x 4)

***

Goals for the year

I worked reasonably well in 2011 with a single main goal (185kg squat single) and a few subsidiary goals.  So I’m going to go with the same idea in 2012.

• Deadlift – 250kg single
• Squat – 190kg work weight (8 sets of 3 reps)
• Incline bench – 105kg work weight (8 sets of 3 reps)
• Overhead press – 80kg work weight (8 sets of 3 reps)

My squat will need to go up by 30kg to hit that goal, my incline bench will need to improve by 25kg and my overhead press by 17kg.  Realistic, I think, depending on how much bodyweight I am prepared to gain.

***

Deadlift programme

So my main goal for 2012 is to bring my deadlift up by 40kg from 210kg to 250kg.  I was disappointed with my deadlift progress in 2011 so if I achieve no other significant gym-related goal in 2012 then I can live with that.  My squat will go up anyway from squatting three times a week, so it’s not like I am going to fall behind on that lift.

I tested some deadlifts and rack pulls of varying heights at the end of 2011 and I found that I couldn’t pull much more from the knee than from the floor.  So I think I need to try rack pulls again to build the back strength in the right places.

This time I am going to give them the Hepburn treatment of 8 sets of 2-3 reps.  I am going to start from the knee.  Then, after a while, I will drop the height of the pull.

***

Self experimentation

I am going to keep a record now of the various projects I have running, rather than trying to keep records off the blog.  I have just started the following protcols:

• Vitamin D – 4,000IU in the morning - I was interested to read that Seth Roberts found significant benefits to his sleep from taking 4,000IU of Vitamin D in the morning.  This protocol was much more beneficial to him than 2,000IU and was better than taking it at any other time of day.
• No coffee – I have decided to see whether I can do without coffee for a period of time to see what happens.  I have not really considered myself to be particularly susceptible to caffeine in the past but it will be interesting to see if there are any changes as a result of dropping it.

***

WORKOUTS

Fri: Lower

• Back squat – 8 sets of 2-3 reps – 160kg (1 x 3, 7 x 2)
• Shrugs – 10 sets of 3 reps – 220kg
• Hip thrusts – 3 sets of 5 reps – 130kg

Sat: Upper (A)

• Overhead press – 8 sets of 2-3 reps – 63kg (1 x 3, 7 x 2)
• Narrow grip chins – 4 sets of 4-6 reps – 30kg
• Dips - 4 sets of 4-6 reps – 35kg

Sun: Lower

• Back squat – 8 sets of 2-3 reps – 160kg (2 x 3, 6 x 2)
• Rack pull from knee – 8 sets of 2-3 reps – 190kg (1 x 3, 7 x 2)

Mon: Upper (B)

• Incline bench – 8 sets of 2-3 reps –80kg (1 x 3, 7 x 2)
• Dumbbell incline bench rows – 8 sets of 6 reps – 80kg
• Overhead press – 6 sets of 4-5 reps – 53kg (6 x 4)
• EZ bar curl – 6 sets of 5-8 reps -50kg (6 x 4)

Tues: Lower

• Back squat – 8 sets of 2-3 reps – 160kg (3 x 3, 5 x 2)
• Shrugs – 10 sets of 3 reps – 220kg
• Hip thrusts – 3 sets of 5 reps – 130kg

Weds: REST

Thurs: Upper (A)

• Overhead press – 8 sets of 2-3 reps – 63kg (1 x 3, 7 x 2)
• Narrow grip chins – 4 sets of 4-6 reps – 30kg (1 x 5, 3 x 4)
• Dips - 4 sets of 4-6 reps – 40kg (1 x 5, 3 x 4)

Besides, my understanding of sports science, my reviews and this blog would not be where they are today without the generous help and assistance of a huge number of great people behind the scenes, answering questions, recommending books and giving awesome interviews.

So this post is a quick list of everyone I would like to thank for making 2011 a really great year for me and for this blog.

***

So, I would like to thank the following, without whom this blog in 2011 would not have been anywhere near as good as it was:

Bret Contreras, writing at Bret’s Blog, for being a great inspiration in pursuing an understanding of sport science research and for getting in touch periodically throughout the year purely to encourage me to continue my studies.  I can honestly say that, for me, the industry has changed since Bret started writing.

Jamie Lewis, writing at CHAoS & PAiN, for being a great inspiration as a lifter and for writing an entertaining blog to boot.

Rob Newman, writing at Real World Health and Training, for doing a huge two-part interview about his amazingly adventurous and varied life thus far, and for answering my endless, rambling emails about building a personal training business.

Rob Russell, writing at Kettlebell Training for Sport, and Brent Barbe for their continually kind and patient advice on lifting matters despite the fact that they are both easily twice as big and strong as I am.

Juan Lancaster, writing at Sumoman, for his incisive intellect, which he kindly applied to help me with some of the research articles I have reviewed.

Mike T Nelson, writing at Extreme Human Performance, for doing the most detailed and complete interview about metabolic flexibility available by him anywhere on the internet.

Doug Brignole, for doing a great interview about overhead pressing and the alternatives for good shoulder development.

Matt Palfrey, writing at Sandbag Fitness, for a great interview about sandbags and for his good company and friendship.

Mike, writing at Fat Fiction, for being the first nutrition blogger that I interviewed, and for championing the great theory that obesity is actually a disease of malnutrition.

Lee Saxby, for a great interview about barefoot running and for helping me get hold of some research about barefoot running that I wouldn’t have otherwise had access to.

Jeff Noel, writing at A Throw Coach’s Journey, for doing a great interview and for really caring about training, throwing and learning new ways to help athletes.

And of course thanks to all of you readers who read, comment and contact me through the contact form on a regular basis.

I’m not really going to talk about what I’ve learned from books or research, as you can read that in my other posts this week.  This is just from self-experimentation and observation of others.

Feel free to chip in with what you learned in 2011 too…

***

Pure and unadulterated lifting

Here is what I learned about some individual lifts:

Squatting - I have found that your body can take a lot more squatting than you might assume.  I decided to absolutely hammer my squat in 2011 and I have moved it from 8 sets of 2 reps with 125kg (275lbs) (= 1RM of 150kg) at the end of 2010 to 8 sets of 2 reps with 165kg (365lbs) at the end of 2011.

Deadlifting - I have realised that some sort of deadlift training is necessary to improve my deadlift.  I have always been a natural deadlifter and poor squatter.  However, I thought my deadlift would go up with my squat and rows and it didn’t.  I was deadlifting 190kg (420lbs) at the end of 2011 and I have pushed this up to 210kg (465lbs) but this was all while I was pushing my RDLs up to 3 sets of 5 reps with 165kg (365lbs).

Incline bench press - I have discovered that this is a much-maligned exercise.  I have discovered that it has some good carryover to the overhead press, which is my nemesis.  It is also kinder on the shoulders, especially if you work from pins just off the chest, to decrease the ROM slightly.

Partial overhead press -  I have resisted doing partials for a long time, devoting time to the full lifts.  However, as I start to get accustomed to the volume of the Hepburn workouts, I have started to put in some assistance work to have fun with.  I recently started trying partial overhead presses, from just above eye level, and they are great for getting the upper back involved in your pressing.

Rows - I have discovered that the bent over row is not necessarily the best use of my time.  I don’t get the strength or hypertrophy that I get from spending the same amount of time on a lock-and-hold exercise like an RDL or rack pull.  And I don’t get the postural and shoulder health benefits I get from chest-supported dumbbell rows on an incline bench.

And here is what I learned in general:

Consistency – this is the single most important quality that you should be striving for to get results with weights.  Pick a programme for next year and stick with it.  By the end of the year, you will have made progress.

Hepburn routines – I learned this year that my body much prefers Hepburn A routine (8 sets of 2-3 reps) to the Hepburn B routine (5-8 singles).  Right now, I could still stand to gain a fair bit of muscle (I weigh c. 87kg (195lbs) at 5’10″ at the moment) so this is probably why it is giving me best results.   

Gain lean muscle – if you want to gain weight without putting on too much fat, this year I have found a solution.  Simply squat three times a week for 15 – 25 total reps per workout and put more weight on the bar regularly but not every single session.  Putting weight on the bar every session needs serious eating.  Eat just enough to recover from these workouts (it will be more than you are eating at the moment, not less).  If you are physically capable of doing other stuff as well, do that too.   

***

Diet and evolutionary adaptations

Leaving junk food behind – I have discovered that the longer you go without eating junk food, the less enjoyable it is when you do go back to it.  I had a pizza not so long ago and I resolved not to have another because I had to make myself finish it in the end.

Cut fat out at your peril – if you are prone to mood swings or nagging injuries, as I am, cut out fat at your peril.  You may think that it’s a great way to cut calories (and of course all the great bodybuilders used it) but I find that the more fat I eat, the more mentally balanced I feel and the less likely I am to get injured.  Also, I have read a lot of athletic autobiographies this year and I don’t think it is a conincidence that those that start dieting and go low-fat seem to get injured a lot more regularly than those that don’t.

***

Personal training

Reading research – the single best thing I ever did for my understanding of how physiology actually works was to start reading research regularly.  There is something a lot more effective about reading the source material rather than trying to work through the generic statements in a textbook.

People are getting posturally worse – the more people I manage to persuade to go through an assessment with me, the more I realise that very few people are anywhere near balanced or functionally capable.  My expectations for the depth to which people can free squat have plummeted, as the height of the box has shot up.  Most people cannot even free squat to a chair properly.  And we wonder why so many people have knee and back pain!  This is mainly a posterior chain muscular weakness problem but I often find, particularly with men, that kyphosis causes an issue here also.

People are becoming less aware of their bodies in space – I often stand amazed as I find myself having to point out to people that they are massively rounded over during a squat or that their knees are so far forward over their toes that they are at risk of taking an eye out with one.  And they nod, agree to do it differently then go back and do it exactly the same way again.

People are getting weaker – I am continually staggered just how weak people are now.  I am getting to the point where I can guess properly now where a good starting point might be but it floors me to see people incapable of lifting a weight that Anna might use to warm up with.

***

Health

Soft tissue work - I realised (again) that prevention is a lot better than cure when it comes to keeping the knots out.  Squatting three times a week does make me a lot knottier than squatting twice a week.  When I switched back from twice to three times recently, I forgot to step up my rolling and my legs knotted up like string.  When I finally made myself roll out my quads, I was not happy with the resulting experience.

Sleep - I learned that your sleep quality and duration can be improved by taking Epsom salt baths (magnesium supplementation).  I can feel that there is an improvement but I have been struggling to gather proper data on it because of my erratic schedule and work commitments (hence the lack of a follow-up post).

Stress – I have only had two bad bouts of flu this year and both have hit me within a matter of days of getting really stressed about something.  As an ex-swimmer, I seem to get the kind of flu that goes straight to the ears without passing Go or collecting £200.  I know that stress does lower the immune system (I studied it at university) but it is nice (?) to be reminded of the fact.

Zinc – supplementing with zinc works.  Read into that what you will.

That will do, I think.  What did you learn this year?