Tag Archives: strength

New study: high intensity exercise on a low carb diet.

Switch an athlete from their standard carbohydrate-rich diet to a low carb ketogenic one and suddenly performance tanks.  It is known.  Give them a few weeks to adapt, however, and it recovers.  This much was established for mainly endurance-related performance parameters by Steve Phinney and colleagues in the 1980’s (eg, Phinney et al., 1983).  Then, along came Antonio Paoli, Dominic D’Agostino, and others who showed a similar phenomenon in gymnasts, a population that routinely exercises at higher levels of intensity (Paoli et al., 2012).  Notably, in these studies the athletes were allowed adequate time to adapt to the new metabolic milieu – sometimes referred to as ketoadaptation.  Three weeks appears to be the minimum amount of time required for ketoadaptation; ie, studies of shorter duration generally show: low carb = poor physical performance.

…which is why I was surprised to see this one:

Effects of a short-term carbohydrate-restricted diet on strength and power performance (Sawyer et al., 2014)

These researchers subjected ~30 strength-trained individuals to a battery of performance assessments before and after 7 days of a low carb [ketogenic] diet.  Usually I would’ve stopped reading at this point because 7 days is too short.  But there were some nuances in the way this particular study was designed which piqued my interest.

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Sarcopenia has little to do with aging

It has to do with the duration of time spent being sedentary.

They say a picture is worth a thousand words, but luckily enough today you get both.

Sarcopenia: “poverty of flesh,” or the age-induced loss of skeletal muscle mass, strength, and function = reduced quality of life.  Sorry old-timers, but I hereby officially revise the definition from “aging-induced” to “sedentary-induced.”  Herein, I present evidence that sarcopenia is not a phenomenon of aging per se, but rather of disuse atrophy.  Dear Webster’s & Britannica, please revise accordingly.

Skeletal muscles: use ‘em or lose ‘em #TPMC

Thanks to Julianne Taylor & Skyler Tanner for directing me to these images.

divide and conquer

Exhibit A. Chronic exercise preserves lean muscle mass in masters athletes (Wroblewski et al., 2011)

This study evaluated “high-level recreational athletes.”  “Masters” just means they were over 40.  And “high-level” doesn’t mean “elite,” it just means they exercised 4-5 times per week.  These weren’t super-obsessed gym rats… it’s probably who I’ll be in 7 years [sigh].

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Milo of Croton vs. concurrent training

Lesson 1.  Milo of Croton

Every day since a very young age, Milo would drape his calf over his shoulders and do his daily exercises.  As his calf grew, so did Milo’s strength.  Many years passed and by the time of the Olympic games, Milo’s calf had become a full-grown bull and Milo’s strength became unparalleled in all the land (or so the story goes).

This is how strength-training works.  Increasing the amount of weight you lift progressively, consistently, and frequently makes you stronger.

Lesson 2.  Concurrent training

Resistance training builds muscle and strength.  Endurance exercise is good for the heart, burns fat and muscle, but doesn’t make you stronger.  Endurance exercise hinders the gains reaped from resistance exercise, not vice versa.  Interpretation: runners should lift; lifters shouldn’t run (sprints don’t count).

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