Bouncing at the bottom of a rep gives you more power. But why? It's due to something called a 'eccentric-concentric movement pattern'. To understand this, you need a basic knowledge of neuromuscular biomechanics. A concentric...
The worst part of injury often isn't the pain but the ongoing psychological withdrawal from exercise. Luckily, there is a way to minimise the strength losses caused by a single limb injury. A large percentage of the strength in a...
Ok, big disclaimer on this one. BE CAREFUL AND COMPLETE AT YOUR OWN RISK. Fall prevention in the elderly is a big one. Falls = inability to exercise = falls. Viscous cycle. A fall occurs when the centre of gravity moves outside...
By using a basic knowledge of neuromuscular biomechanics, we can discover the speed and weight needed to maximise power output. Power is a good thing. It's what allows us to lift something heavy, hit something hard, throw something far, run/row/cycle/swim fast and...
Food with the word ‘diet’ on the packet has been shown to encourage greater consumption. This isn’t because the foods have a higher level of energy, in fact, it’s the lower caloric contents of the foods that makes people eat...
Examining the differences between the lifestyles of modern humans and early hunter gatherers reveals some surprising results. A direct comparison of physical activity levels by Cordain et al. (1997) indicates that the variables...
Click Here To Access The Full Exercise Warm-Up Library. A warm up should not be generic, but rather, specific to the movement being performed in the workout. Aside from the injury prevention benefits of a warm-up, the...
The Crossfit Open. Unknown? Unknowable? Maybe not. For the uninitiated... "The CrossFit Games Open Qualifiers is a six week, worldwide competition in the sport of fitness. The Open is the first step in the CrossFit Games season and takes place from March 15 until...
Research (Gill et. al. 2007) reveals that reported measures of exercise intensity "...show the median level of vigorous-activity is consistently ZERO minutes.” Read that again… zero minutes. That doesn’t even take into account...
It has pretty much been accepted that by eating slowly you end up eating less. Reasons for this are plentiful, including the fact that we base our consumption on time spent eating not amount eaten, and the idea that it gives our...
Ok, so this might sound like the next Terminator Movie - but the truth is, exercise machines could do a lot more damage than Arnie with a grenade launcher. People know how good exercise is. A lot of people exercise. But few...
We know our health is in crisis when words like globesity are being used to describe the extent of world weight problems. When chronic life-threatening conditions are combining their effects, like the recently coined ‘diabesity’....
The body should be trained as it is to be used. If the role of a muscle is to create movement, then completing that movement will in turn train the muscle. The hip extensors should be trained by extending the hip, the elbow...
For too long, mainstream exercise has been characterised by low variation. Similar or identical exercises are completed multiple times a week, if not every day. Not only does this create an overly narrow physical response (an...
I'm all for going food crazy at Christmas, so instead of looking at healthy ways to eat, let's examine some 'less-unhealthy' ideas. If you think about it, the sorts of food we eat at Christmas aren't really that bad. A full roast has plenty of protein from the...
In all fields of science, humans have always searched for a prototype, a model or idea on which all other models or ideas can be based. When we try to solve a problem, we use a heuristic in the hope that by following a narrow set...
Another great strategy for health that involves you making a small change to your environment and reaping the benefits forever. Simply by placing a full length mirror in you kitchen, you are constantly reminded of your...
The exists in Sports Psychology a concept termed the 'Ringlemann Effect'. Basically, this is a form of Social Loafing, where the more people involved in a task, the less effort each of these people will put in. If the Ringlemann Effect can be overcome, team...
Hydrotherapy offers rehabilitation and recovery to a group of people who may otherwise not experience these benefits. Water based exercises allow the user to experience increases in joint mobility and range of motion without the...
Gyms worldwide are characterised by huge floor to ceiling mirrors, framing lycra clad step aerobics devotees. Seems though, that these mirrors actually make it harder to gain the benefits of exercise – harder to lose weight. The...
Self help books preach the power of positive thinking and optimism. Sounds good – but science tells us that this isn’t actually the best way to motivate yourself to exercise. Surprisingly, research tells us that the best way to motivate yourself to exercise is not to...
Sorry, not that kind of spooning... This is a great way to make a change to your environment once and reap the benefits forever. The size of the utensils we use to eat plays a major role in how much we eat. Research has shown...
More and more eating has become a social event – eating has taken second place to what we do while we eat. Watching TV, talking to friends, reading a book. An awareness of our eating habits plays a major role in determining how...
The availability of food is directly correlated with the amount of food we consume. This probably isn’t a surprise. Evolutionally speaking, with food being scarce in our environment of evolutionary adaptiveness, it was a survival...
The vast majority of contemporary occupations are sedentary. Aside from quitting our jobs, there's not a lot we can do about the lack of physical activity in the environment where we spend the majority of our waking hours. We...
Alcohol in moderation has been shown to have a raft of health benefits. The ‘in moderation’ premise however ensures that the negative effects of our usual drinking patterns soon outweigh any positives. So the basic rule is that...
The word we use to describe one of the essential macronutrients is the very same word that we use to describe an unwanted body shape. Fat never stood a chance. How is it possible for anyone to think anything other than the fact that fat makes you fat? Now, we don’t...
Ok, maybe not bad, but definitely not as good as the full thing. Half squats are a lot better than no squats, but with a small change they can be a lot better. In the majority of cases, if Doctors and Health Professionals tell their patients not to squat, one of two...
The first step in the process of postural correction is identifying the factors that need correcting. From this point we can determine what needs doing to correct these issues. It is important to note that assessing your own posture is difficult. A health professional...
Exercise training for sport falls into two broad categories, Specific Physical Preparedness and General Physical Preparedness. Simply speaking, Specific Physical Preparedness identifies what an athlete needs to succeed at their...