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...
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.
Lesser et. al. (Relationship between funding Source and Conclusion among nutrition-related scientific articles 2007) conducted a study to characterize financial sponsorship of scientific articles addressing the health effects of three commonly consumed beverages, and to determine how sponsorship affects published conclusions. The main finding of the study is that scientific articles about commonly consumed beverages funded entirely by industry were approximately four to eight times more likely to be favorable to the financial interests of the sponsors than articles without industry-related funding. The researchers further suggest:
“We speculate that our findings may relate to one or more of the following possibilities: (1) Industrial sponsors may fund only those studies that they believe will present their products in a favorable light, or their competitors’ products in an unfavorable light. In support of this possibility, all studies funded entirely by industry were characterized as ‘‘benefit’’ or ‘‘antagonism’’ with regard to the product under study (none were characterized as ‘‘no relationship’’). That is, industrial organizations do not seem to sponsor articles about products in which they have no financial interest. (2) Investigators might formulate hypotheses, design studies, or analyze data in ways that are consistent with the financial interests of their industrial sponsors. (3) Industrial sponsors or investigators may choose to delay or not publish findings that have negative implications to the sponsor’s product. (4) Authors of scientific reviews may search and interpret the literature selectively, in ways consistent with the sponsor’s interests. (5) Scientific reviews arising from industry-supported scientific symposia, often published as journal supplements, may over- or under-represent certain viewpoints, if presenters whose opinions conflict with the sponsor’s financial interests are not invited to participate.” When considering the value of specific studies or scientific reports it is important to critically analyze the data. You need to have a basic understanding of research methodology and be sure to acknowledge the funding source. As this study and many others have indicated industry funded studies and articles are often biased. How often do you see studies come to conclusions that would be unfavorable to the funding source? Lesser et. al. found that none of the interventional studies with all industry support had an unfavorable conclusion.
New Book Project
Brian Jones and I are working on a new book that will be broken into three units including 1- Philosophy of Science 2- Logic 3- Research Methodology. I am not sure how many pages or chapters the book will contain. We are also still trying to come up with a title. Any suggestions are appreciated.
The warm weather is here and trainess across the country are getting ready for their summer vacations. With warm weather comes an increase in outdoor sport participation. Some of my suggestions for outdoor sporting activities includes kayaking, hiking, canoeing, kb training, agiliity training, cross country running, and mountain biking. Those are just a few of my favorites. I think most people can find some type of outdoor activity they enjoy if they will just give it a try. I have found that trainees who have became bored with their training all of sudden are excited with exercise again when discovering the joys of outdoor training. Outdoor training may be the key to getting over the boredom factor and furthering your fitness goals. I am not suggesting you give up your gym workout but I am suggesting outdoor activity can be an excellent supplement to your current training regimen.
If you are in the Central Ky area and are interested in Kayaking or Canoeing check out my pal Jeff Cress and his Three Trees Canoe and Kayak Rental www.threetreeskayak.com
