When Jamie was in the beginning stages of writing Knowledge & Nonsense, I encouraged him to cover as many misunderstood & uninvestigated topics as possible. What resulted was an amazing brainstorm of ideas that could barely be contained within a manuscript more lengthy than many college texts. Read More...
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Welcome to Max Condition
Everything and everyone has fitness or nutrition advice to offer these days-websites, television, newspapers, your best friend, college professors, barbers, mechanics, personal trainers, dietitians, and so on. The debate rages on between low carbohydrate and high carbohydrate fanatics. Advocates of high reps or low reps swear by their methods. I could go on forever citing examples of the various arguments running rampant in the fitness industry. All of this conflicting information makes it difficult for people to figure out what's right or wrong.
This website takes the work out of figuring out what's right and what's wrong by combining "in the trenches" knowledge (28 years of experience) with scientific data. Some will be surprised to learn that what they've believed about nutrition and exercise all of these years has been dead wrong. A statement isn't necessarily correct just because your fitness coach, college professor, or favorite magazine said it. How many times have you heard "well they say" or "everybody says"?
When someone tells you something or everybody says something, you accept it is as gospel without any question, especially when it came from someone with a highly respected degree or certificate, a reputation for always being right, or any other trusted source. I highly recommend that you change your way of thinking. If you're worried about offending people or possibly upsetting some of your heroes, you should probably stick to a robotic style of thinking and accept that you most likely will never find the truth. Like everyone else, I once assumed that certain statements were correct without really scratching the surface. When writing Knowledge and Nonsense: the science of nutrition and exercise, my views changed on many topics. Once you read the material on this site and in that book, I'm sure yours will too.
A question on a popular fitness forum recently caught my eye. The question was, "What makes an expert?" There were numerous replies to the topic. Some of the fitness gurus (as they and others like to call them) were highly offended and vowed to no longer post on the forum because their guru status was questioned. Have you ever wondered why the fitness industry seems to have more gurus and experts than any other industry? I don't think you need me to answer for you, but in case you need some help, the answer is because there is a potential to make big money if you're an expert in a world full of people who are looking for an easy way to get fit. Ask yourself, what makes an expert? My answer is that there are no true experts. There are too many different topics related to fitness and nutrition (no one can know it all or possibly look at all of the research). The other way to answer this question is by realizing that everything is relative. A person may be an expert on exercise relative to someone who has minimal interest or little knowledge. You might be a protein expert according to the fitness magazine that you write for, but compared to KD Tipton, you are probably ignorant on the subject. Expert status changes as the people you are discussing a topic with changes. Do I consider myself an expert? I don't consider myself a true expert because I don't believe there are any true experts. I do consider myself a person with a fair amount of experience and a substantial amount of knowledge (relative to most people I have came in contact with in the industry- read more about me). I can back up my statements with analytical reasoning and/or references to scientific data. I'm not one of those people who like to use the "so and so said," "I have a degree in," or "I have always done it that way" arguments. Those statements are ways to disguise the fact that they have no clue of what they are talking about. At the same time, I learn new things on a daily basis. I also speak with people from time to time that have fitness and nutrition knowledge far more extensive than mine. Those are the people that make me feel like I need to study and experiment more. Those are the people that motivate me to educate myself further.
This website is not a collection of my opinions. Rather, a compilation of thousands of hours of investigating, and analyzing Scientific Research and over two decades of real world experience. This site covers many uninvestigated and misunderstood topics. This site is a great educational tool for anyone interested in nutrition, exercise and critical thinking. The site also features information on outdoor skills, and the science of wilderness survival. But don't take everything said on this site (or any other site or source for that matter) with blind faith learn to be critical. Investigate all claims.
Note: Maxcondition has a NO-REFUND POLICY. ALL SALES ARE FINAL.
Energy expenditure in adolescents playing new generation computer games. Lee Graves, Gareth Stratton, N D Ridgers, N T Cable. Br J Sports Med 2008 42: 592-594
ABSTRACT Objective: To compare the energy expenditure of adolescents when playing sedentary and new generation active computer games.
Design: Cross sectional comparison of four computer games.
Setting: Research laboratories.
Participants: Six boys and fi ve girls aged 13-15 years.
Procedure: Participants were fi tted with a monitoring device validated to predict energy expenditure. They played four computer games for 15 minutes each. One of the games was sedentary (XBOX 360) and the other three were active (Wii Sports).
Main outcome measure: Predicted energy expenditure, compared using repeated measures analysis of variance.
Results: Mean (standard deviation) predicted energy expenditure when playing Wii Sports bowling (190.6 (22.2) kJ/kg/min), tennis (202.5 (31.5) kJ/kg/min), and boxing (198.1 (33.9) kJ/kg/min) was signifi cantly greater than when playing sedentary games (125.5 (13.7) kJ/kg/min) (P<0.001). Predicted energy expenditure was at least 65.1 (95% confi dence interval 47.3 to 82.9) kJ/kg/min greater when playing active rather than sedentary games.
Conclusions: Playing new generation active computer games uses significantly more energy than playing sedentary computer games but not as much energy as playing the sport itself. The energy used when playing active Wii Sports games was not of high enough intensity to contribute towards the recommended daily amount of exercise in children. Full study http://bjsportmed.com/content/42/7/592.full.pdf
The participants in the study were athletic and lean, and regularly competed in sports. I would suspect energy output would be higher in a sedentary population when playing these video games.
Wii Sports Games offer more physical activity than sedentary computer games, but these games should not be used as a replacement for traditional sports or physical activity.
The information below is an excerpt from Dr. Dipasquale's newsletter- Dr. D’s Elite Performance Newsletter Volume One, Issue Three, August, 2010 You can sign up for the free newsletter www.ElitePerformanceNewsletter.com
"The abstracts below show that static stretching can be counter productive and that dynamic stretching and warm-ups, whether in lifting or track, can have performance benefits.
Pediatr Exerc Sci. 2010 May;22(2):266-77. Influence of recovery time on warm-up effects in male adolescent athletes. Faigenbaum AD, McFarland JE, Kelly NA, Ratamess NA, Kang J, Hoffman JR.
Abstract The purpose of this study was to examine the influence of recovery time following a dynamic warm-up (DY) and a static stretch warm-up (SS) on power performance in adolescent athletes. Following baseline measures, 19 males (16.5 +/- 1.1 yrs) performed the vertical jump (VJ) and seated medicine ball toss (MB) at the following time points after DY and SS: 2, 6, 10, 14, 18, 22 min. Analysis of variance revealed that VJ was significantly greater following DY than SS at 2, 6, 10, 14 and 18 min. Main effects indicated a significant increase in VJ from baseline at 2 and 6 min following DY (2.6-3.9%) and a significant decrease in VJ from baseline at 2, 6, 10, 14 and 18 min following SS (-3.2% to -7.0%). No significant interaction effects between DY and SS were observed for MB. These findings indicate that lower body power performance in male adolescent athletes can be enhanced following DY as compared with SS during the first 18 min of the post warm-up period.
J Strength Cond Res. 2010 Jul 30. [Epub ahead of print] The Acute Effects of Static Stretching on the Sprint Performance of Collegiate Men in the 60- and 100-m Dash After a Dynamic Warm-Up. Kistler BM, Walsh MS, Horn TS, Cox RH.
Abstract The acute effects of static stretching on the sprint performance of collegiate men in the 60- and 100-m dash after a dynamic warm-up. J Strength Cond Res 24(X): 000-000, 2010-Previous research has shown that static stretching has an inhibitory effect on sprinting performances up to 50 m. The purpose of this study was to see what would happen to these effects at longer distances such as those seen in competition. This study used a within-subjects design to investigate the effects of passive static stretching vs. no stretching on the 60- and 100-m sprint performance of college track athletes after a dynamic warm-up. Eighteen male subjects completed both the static stretching and the no stretching conditions in counterbalanced order across 2 days of testing. On each day, all subjects first completed a generalized dynamic warm-up routine that included a self-paced 800-m run, followed by a series of dynamic movements, sprint, and hurdle drills. At the end of this generalized warm-up, athletes were assigned to either a static stretching or a no-stretching condition. They then immediately performed 2 100-m trials with timing gates set up at 20, 40, 60, and 100 m. Results revealed a significant slowing in performance with static stretching (p <0.039) in the second 20 (20-40) m of the sprint trials. After the first 40 m, static stretching exhibited no additional inhibition of performance in a 100-m sprint. However, although there was no additional time loss, athletes never gained back the time that was originally lost in the first portion of the trials. Therefore, in strict terms of performance, it seems harmful to include static stretching in the warm-up protocol of collegiate male sprinters in distances up to 100 m."
There is no need to perform static stretching pre-dynamic competition or pre-dynamic workout. However, from my observations, the practice of static stretching pre-event is prevalent in most sports. I cover the topic extensively in MaxCondition (book).
