Is your brain holding back your Ironman performance?

I was thinking about the 1992 film Universal Soldier involving resurrected dead soldiers capable or running at any speed without inhibition. They were unsurprisingly prone to overheating and shutting down (also extreem psychosis). Surprisingly this provides a useful tool for explaining the ‘central governor model’ (CGM). The CGM states that under normal circumstances it is…

Increase your VO2max today

A bold claim you might say more likely to appear in an advert for a dodgy fitness supplement than a serious training blog but a recent observation noted in work from the group of Tim Noakes (http://bjsm.bmj.com/content/46/1/23.abstract) suggests that you may be able trick your brain in to releasing the brakes on your VO2max. The…

Alternative FTP prediction

I must admit I have struggled with meaningful prediction of functional threshold power (FTP) for some time. Typically lactate testing shows poor reproducibility and taking 4mmol-1 as a threshold number vastly over estimates 40k TT ability in most athletes. Functional methods to predict FTP such as taking 95% of a 20min maximal test power (CP20)…

Easy means easy

Recently I have been having a lot of discussions on the topic of training intensity. In particular the tendency for athletes on lower volume training programs (whether through choice or necessity) to push too hard on lower intensity aerobic or recovery workouts. This can be bad because of diminished non specific training effects and also…

Training pedaling technique

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/17545890 Four basic drills were performed in four body positions: (1) support on handle bars and saddle (2) no support on handle bars, but support on saddle (3) support on handlebars, but no support on saddle (4) no support on either handle bars or saddle The first drill was to balance on the pedals with…

What is Irisin?

A previously unknown hormone, irisin, released from muscle in resonce to exercise was describe in the most recent edition of Nature (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22237023). Before I completely loose your attention you should also know it has potential therapeutic uses in the treatment of obesity and type 2 diabetes and you will hear a lot more about it…