Holiday Grabbag
Something about the holidays brought lots of interesting stuff across my desk. Or maybe it's coincidence. In either case, here's the trove from the last few days:
Jim at Beast Skills has updated his beginner guide to handstand pushups, and has also added a new intermediate guide and a new freestanding handstand pushup guide. Great stuff, as usual.
Art De Vany on Diabetes, Alzheimer's, and obesity. He concludes:
If this isn't enough to convince you of the need to return to the simple, low-glycemic foods of our ancestors and to work out and stay lean, then you aren't getting your new year off to a promising start.
Crossfit just made The New York Times: "Getting Fit, Even if it Kills You". Coincidentally, Crossfit linked up this great PDF, "Sports Conditioning (a comparison: moderate-intensity continuous activity and high-intensity intermittent activity)" by Mark J. Smith: Some money quotes:
It is also accepted that low- to moderate-intensity activities are useful in recovering from high-intensity exercise and is a necessity in some sports that require repetitive practice to acquire skill. However, while the contention is not that low- to moderate-intensity continuous exercise can improve cardiovascular conditioning and weight loss, the need for significant quantities of this type of training for the field and court sport athlete is indeed challenged.
...and:
It has been demonstrated that low-intensity, long-duration exercise results in a greater total fat oxidation than moderate-intensity exercise of similar caloric expenditure15. However, when endurance training is compared to high-intensity intermittent training, the findings differ. The effect of a 20-week endurance-training program (mean estimated energy cost - 120.4 MJ) upon body fatness and muscle metabolism was compared to a 15-week high-intensity intermittent-training program (mean estimated energy cost - 57.9 MJ)16. Despite the lower energy cost of the high-intensity program, it induced a more pronounced reduction in subcutaneous fat compared with the endurance program. When corrected for the energy cost of training, the reduction induced by the high-intensity program was nine-fold greater than the endurance program.
...and (out-of-context disclaimer attached, however - you really should read the whole thing):
The acknowledgment that the activity did not need to be continuous was a major shift from the initial recommendations of the ACSM. It was even stated, "accumulation of physical activity in intermittent, short bouts is considered an appropriate approach to achieving the activity goal". This concept was validated in another study that demonstrated that three 1-minute bouts of maximal intensity exercise, separated by 1-hour recoveries, constituted 74% of the oxygen uptake of 20 minutes of low- to moderate-intensity exercise.
Three minutes gets you 74% of the benefit (in terms of oxygen uptake) of 20 minutes. Yow.
Finally, Fitness Blueprints is my latest blog subscription.