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- Portion Size: Effect on Food Intake and Possible Interventions
- Self Control: Not all its Cracked Up To Be
- When Snacks Become Meals: How Hunger and Environmental Cues Bias Food Intake
- They Are Not Smarter Than You: Facts, Knowledge, and Reasoning Skills
- The Impact of Zinc on Human Health: The Essential Toxin
- Amplitude Of Movement, Law of Repetitive Motion, and Plyometrics
- Nutrition is Not a Top Ten Proposition
- Programs and Methods Versus Principles: Wave Loading and Interval Training
- Is Excess Calcium Harmful to Health?
- The Effects of Alcohol on Athletic Performance and Recovery
Recent Blog Posts
- Self Control: Not all its Cracked Up To Be
- They Are Not Smarter Than You: Facts, Knowledge, and Reasoning Skills
- Amplitude Of Movement, Law of Repetitive Motion, and Plyometrics
- Nutrition is Not a Top Ten Proposition
- Programs and Methods Versus Principles: Wave Loading and Interval Training
- Biceps Tears from Deadlifts?
- The Other Side Of Dogma - Alternative a Euphemism for Untested?
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Portion Size: Effect on Food Intake and Possible Interventions
by 
EricT on 1283443298|%c|agohover
The prevalence of overweight and obesity has increased. A strong environmental factor contributing to the obesity epidemic is food portion size. This review of studies into the effects of portion size on energy intake shows that increased food portion sizes lead to increased energy intake levels. Important mechanisms explaining why larger portions are attractive and lead to higher intake levels are value for money and portion distortion. This review also shows that few intervention studies aiming to reverse the negative influence of portion size have been conducted thus far, and the ones that have been conducted show mixed effects. More intervention studies targeted at portion size are urgently needed. Opportunities for further interventions are identified and a framework for portion size interventions is proposed. Opportunities for intervention include those targeted at the individual as well as those targeted at the physical, economic, political and socio-cultural environment….
Comments: 0
Self Control: Not all its Cracked Up To Be
by EricT on 1283355866|%c|agohover
More and more, everyone is learning that "diets" don't work. Sure, people drop weight on diets but they fail to make a lasting change. I don't need to go into this, you know all about yo-yo dieting. Despite this there are still plenty of judgmental folks (who probably wouldn't know a problem if it bit them in the tuchus) who will say stuff like, "jeez, what ever happened to old fashioned self-control"….
Comments: 3
When Snacks Become Meals: How Hunger and Environmental Cues Bias Food Intake
by EricT on 1283347800|%c|agohover
While environmental and situational cues influence food intake, it is not always clear how they do so. We examine whether participants consume more when an eating occasion is associated with meal cues than with snack cues. We expect their perception of the type of eating occasion to mediate the amount of food they eat. In addition, we expect the effect of those cues on food intake to be strongest among those who are hungry….
Comments: 0
They Are Not Smarter Than You: Facts, Knowledge, and Reasoning Skills
by EricT on 1282171971|%c|agohover
Never assume that your “authority figure” is smarter than you. I constantly see trainees accepting everything a certain person says because they simply feel that they are not smart enough to apply any thought to it so they must simply absorb it as gospel.
I was looking around for Mel Siff items on the internet and came across Tony Gentilcore’s “Resource Page”. After the entry on Mel Siff’s book “Facts and Fallacies of Fitness” Gentilcore wrote:…
Comments: 8
The Impact of Zinc on Human Health: The Essential Toxin
by EricT on 1281738553|%c|agohover
Compared to several other metal ions with similar chemical properties, zinc is relatively harmless. Only exposure to high doses has toxic effects, making acute zinc intoxication a rare event. In addition to acute intoxication, long-term, high-dose zinc supplementation interferes with the uptake of copper. Hence, many of its toxic effects are in fact due to copper deficiency. While systemic homeostasis and efficient regulatory mechanisms on the cellular level generally prevent the uptake of cytotoxic doses of exogenous zinc, endogenous zinc plays a significant role in cytotoxic events in single cells. Here, zinc influences apoptosis by acting on several molecular regulators of programmed cell death, including caspases and proteins from the Bcl and Bax families. One organ where zinc is prominently involved in cell death is the brain, and cytotoxicity in consequence of ischemia or trauma involves the accumulation of free zinc. Rather than being a toxic metal ion, zinc is an essential trace element. Whereas intoxication by excessive exposure is rare, zinc deficiency is widespread and has a detrimental impact on growth, neuronal development, and immunity, and in severe cases its consequences are lethal. Zinc deficiency caused by malnutrition and foods with low bioavailability, aging, certain diseases, or deregulated homeostasis is a far more common risk to human health than intoxication….
Comments: 0
Amplitude Of Movement, Law of Repetitive Motion, and Plyometrics
by EricT on 1281657728|%c|agohover
You may have heard trainers and coaches talk about movement amplitude. I often talk about amplitude as being one of those performance characteristics that determine the outcome of a training regimen and one of the factors indicating reductions or improvement in performance.
Amplitude is also part of the "law of repetitive motion" equation developed by Dr. Michael P. Leahy, who is the founder of Active Release Techniques (ART). This "law" is an equation describing the interaction between various parameters of human motion: I=NF/AR where:…
Comments: 0
Nutrition is Not a Top Ten Proposition
by EricT on 1281320911|%c|agohover
I'm going to give you three vegetables. You pick the best one.
- Tomatoes
- Green (Bell) Peppers
- Spinach…
Comments: 4
Programs and Methods Versus Principles: Wave Loading and Interval Training
by EricT on 1281300408|%c|agohover
When is a program a program and when is it programming methodology? Easy. A program is a program when you are doing it exactly as it has been written or planned. And it is "programming methodology" when somebody spins it into one.
The question to ask about "principles" versus programs which which came first. We can use our experience with training to make many observations. While making those observations we may be using programs, or "routines". We can then take these observations and derive philosophies and principles. If the observations are sound and the conclusions we make from them are sound they will apply regardless of the programming methodology. In other words they will have a good chance of being generally true rather than just true if we use a particular way of programming….
Comments: 0
Is Excess Calcium Harmful to Health?
by EricT on 1280700084|%c|agohover
Most current guidelines recommend that older adults and the elderly strive for a total calcium intake (diet and supplements) of 1,000 to 1,300 mg/day to prevent osteoporosis and fractures. Traditionally, calcium supplements have been considered safe, effective and well tolerated, but their safety has recently been questioned due to potential adverse effects on vascular disease which may increase mortality. For example, the findings from a meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials (currently published in abstract form only)1 revealed that the use of calcium supplements was associated with an ~30% increased risk of myocardial infarction. If high levels of calcium are harmful to health, this may alter current public health recommendations with regard to the use of calcium supplements for preventing osteoporosis. In this review, we provide an overview of the latest information from human observational and prospective studies, randomized controlled trials and meta-analyses related to the effects of calcium supplementation on vascular disease and related risk factors, including blood pressure, lipid and lipoprotein levels and vascular calcification….
Comments: 0
The Effects of Alcohol on Athletic Performance and Recovery
by EricT on 1280605705|%c|agohover
Alcohol consumption within elite sport has been continually reported both anecdotally within the media and quantitatively in the literature. The detrimental effects of alcohol on human physiology have been well documented, adversely influencing neural function, metabolism, cardiovascular physiology, thermoregulation and skeletal muscle myopathy. Remarkably, the downstream effects of alcohol consumption on exercise performance and recovery, has received less attention and as such is not well understood. The focus of this review is to identify the acute effects of alcohol on exercise performance and give a brief insight into explanatory factors….
Comments: 0
The Antioxidant Role of Glutathione and N-Acetyl-Cysteine Supplements and Exercise-Induced Oxidative Stress
by EricT on 1280454582|%c|agohover
An increase in exercise intensity is one of the many ways in which oxidative stress and free radical production has been shown to increase inside our cells. Effective regulation of the cellular balance between oxidation and antioxidation is important when considering cellular function and DNA integrity as well as the signal transduction of gene expression. Many pathological states, such as cancer, Parkinson's disease, and Alzheimer's disease have been shown to be related to the redox state of cells. In an attempt to minimize the onset of oxidative stress, supplementation with various known antioxidants has been suggested. Glutathione and N-acetyl-cysteine (NAC) are antioxidants which are quite popular for their ability to minimize oxidative stress and the downstream negative effects thought to be associated with oxidative stress….
Comments: 0
Dietary Protein and Kidney Function
by EricT on 1280430713|%c|agohover
Recent trends in weight loss diets have led to a substantial increase in protein intake by individuals. As a result, the safety of habitually consuming dietary protein in excess of recommended intakes has been questioned. In particular, there is concern that high protein intake may promote renal damage by chronically increasing glomerular pressure and hyperfiltration. There is, however, a serious question as to whether there is significant evidence to support this relationship in healthy individuals. In fact, some studies suggest that hyperfiltration, the purported mechanism for renal damage, is a normal adaptative mechanism that occurs in response to several physiological conditions. This paper reviews the available evidence that increased dietary protein intake is a health concern in terms of the potential to initiate or promote renal disease. While protein restriction may be appropriate for treatment of existing kidney disease, we find no significant evidence for a detrimental effect of high protein intakes on kidney function in healthy persons after centuries of a high protein Western diet….
Comments: 0
Biceps Tears from Deadlifts?
by EricT on 1280349861|%c|agohover
Lots of trainees ask whether they can get a torn bicep from deadlifts. Actually there are three related questions which I will introduce one after the other:…
Comments: 2
The Other Side Of Dogma - Alternative a Euphemism for Untested?
by EricT on 1279732886|%c|agohover
My last post about strength training and nutrition dogma dealt with the downside of the popular and untested beliefs that we cling to in the face of little to no evidence. Even so I pointed out that not all beliefs which appear to be dogmatic are "bad". Well, it just so happens that I think there are worse things than dogma….
Comments: 2
How to Perform the Military Press (Standing Overhead Barbell Press)
by EricT on 1279560095|%c|agohover
The Military Press has also been referred to as Shoulder Press or Overhead Press and while some may claim they are different exercises, we can say that the heart of the exercise is a vertical press with a straight bar.
Having several different names for the same exercise is quite normal in the strength training world. Names like "overhead press" and "shoulder press" are likely an attempt to use more useful and appropriate names for the military press exercise…but they fall short in several ways….
Comments: 12
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