Adding a new toy for bio-marker feedback

I have now added a capnometer to my tools of bio-feedback. It is small and light enough to train with and it does not interfere with normal breathing, it seems to be stable enough in running and gym work. I now will have feed back on ETCO2 and breathing rate. Along side a oximeter, lactate analyser and heart rate, I can build a more complete picture of what is going on with my body.

The use of the capnometer for sport is still in its infancy stage, there is very little information available outside of critical care literature about the use of a capnometer with athletes, probably as there is only a handful of people using it as a training/testing tool. For now I will only play around with it to see what it is capable of e.g. It has problems in extreme cold weather with a accurate readings. Mounting it on the frot of my breathing trainer at the outlet rather than mouth piece gives a more reliable reading. As I have no capnograph I am looking at numbers only. For the next few weeks I will be finding base values and trends for different activities. Only once I have this data can I even begin to play around with breathing patterns and integration of ideas which before would have been foolish to play around with when I did not have the ETCO2 feedback.

In the very near future I will be combining a revolutionary NIRs device which will give some very interesting training data. For now this is just ideas but hopefully in the near future I can combine this so that I can train with physiological reactions rather than a numerical value based on distance and time.

Some ideas I am playing with where I can integrate information

Review of ZeroPace Training Log

This is a review for ZeroPace Training Log. I have purchased the ZeroPace (ZP) software so this is a honest review of my experience.

Over the years I have used Polar, Garmin and Suunto heart rate monitors and with the build up of training files I need a training log software where I can view all the data on the same training diary. There are several online training software, Training Peaks being the cream of the crop for online software but if you want all the features this comes with a monthly price tag to match, I found that TP is not so user friendly, but this is a personal opinion. Accent is another software which for GPS based software is good, it is a PC training software so all your files are on your hard drive but you are limited to GPS files, so a watch which doesn't have GPS wont work with this software. There are several other training software but many are outdated and lack features or a wide range in HRM watch support.

As I travel a lot during the race season I don't often have online availability for training logs, so I prefer a offline version where all my data is on my hard drive, plus where bulk uploads are done a offline version runs quicker. This is where ZeroPace comes in. ZP is good value for money and has many if not most of the features that the more expensive training diaries has. ZeroPace also has a online version and a mobile version, the PC version does interact with the online version, but I have not used these two versions of the software so I can only comment on the PC based software.

The customer support for ZP is fantastic, I have seen several of my suggestion incorporated into updates to the software. Currently the software is designed for Windows, as I have a Mac I run ZeroPace on a Boot Camp partition. Installation is simple and quick. Updates are free and a upgrade license is only required  for major updates where the software goes into a new version.

Most Garmin and Polar devices are supported so that uploads of data are uploaded directly from the watch into the software. For other watches you will need to import the data first. I use a Suunto HRM watch and some of my data was on FirstBeat. FirstBeat I found very limiting in features and is only compatible with Suunto and Garmin. FirstBeat files needs to be exported which take a while before being imported into ZP, the files from FirstBeat is also rather large so this is not a long term option. I now use a old copy of Suunto Training Manager for export to ZP which uses a much smaller export file. (If you Google you will find a download link for STM). ZeroPace will do a import of either single or batch imports of files. ZP has the ability to show GPS files which is viewed through Google Earth.

The following file types are supported: 

Polar HRM files, Garmin HST and TCX files, Suunto SDF and FBE files, Timex CSV and PWX files, PowerTap CSV files, SRM TXT files, Specialized SLG files, CompuTrainer TXT files, Tacx RTF files, CatEye CSV files, Ciclotour TXT files, Kettler Tour Concept CSV files, iBike CSV files and Swimovate PoolMate Pro files.

Below is a series of photos which gives a feel for the training diary software.

Calendar view

In the Calendar view you have all the daily training sessions listed with week totals on the right, it is possible to also use the calendar as a training plan. On the bar graph screen the training plan data and actual data can be compared.

There is a option to either take a snap shot of the data or in the list view, data can be exported  into a spreadsheet format. 

List view

The list view contains much more information than the calendar. On this above screen shot  mainly heart rate information is shown, all columns are customisable and can be filtered with uploaded data from eg, power, speed, distance, cadence etc. In the above example you can also see a drop down list where gym workouts are included. Colour codes can be used to compare information. 

Note that with Suunto only heart rate, energy and altitude information is imported. As I don't have the GPS pod I can not comment on Suunto's import of GPS data. I have Garmin data on ZeroPace and all this data has been imported without problems.

Information from Suunto watches such as respiration rate, EPOC and TE are not imported, but then again this data is based on calculations and not actual measured values. So I am happy to live without this data. 

Chart page

Chart page with various charting options such as 2D, 3D view, line graphs etc to view just about any of the downloaded or manually added data. Two separate data fields can be viewed at the same time in the chart, in the above example the following is shown: The bar graph, time in heart rate zone and the long horizontal points is total exercise duration.

Heart rate, speed, altitude, power, speed  screen

Graph with heart rate, speed and altitude.

Heart rate graph, with time in zone on the left , time in heart rate zone at the top, and interval information in the two pop up boxes on the right. In the above graph heart rate and altitude is shown. ZP will also show power, speed, cadence and with some watches temperature. In the top left are options to view cadence, speed and power in a distribution chart.

Another nice feature is that all information columns can be hidden so that the graph is less cluttered, this is a good feature for smaller computer screens. On the graph, notes can be made as on the right.

There is a page where you can enter goals and achievements, multiple athletes profiles can be updated and each sport can have its own heart rate zones entered. 

If I had to be picky the only down side is the limited GPS map features and map analysis, but by using Google maps the guys at ZP are able to keep their price affordable and the other features in the software makes up for the GPS features. I have used and tested around 7 or so different training diaries over the last few years and ZeroPace is the one that has impressed me most. Finally here is a link to the ZeroPace website: http://zeropace.com/

Functional vs Structural changes through training

This blog is about making athletes think about their training, why do certain things and what happens when we try to adapt training programmes to our physiology instead of following the normal cookie cutter approach of just doing. Understanding what functional and structural changes are helps with this understanding of why we see certain changes through training. There is no official definition and these ideas come from FaCT so I have made my own version of the definition here plus given a few examples so you can get a idea of what functional and structural training is.

Don't confuse the definitions of functional training (or functional strength training) which Wiki writes it as, training the body for activities of daily life, which in short is transferring the strengths from one movement with resistance to a sport or activity.

Functional change definition: This is normally a short term result of training and is where the initial changes in the body is seen. Functional changes are often temporary and is gained and lost quickly.

Structural change definition: This is a long term change in the body that results from starting as a functional change and through months and sometimes years of specific training to develop that specific system may see the development of a structural change which supports the human body.

So when the two definition are combined then functional and structural training implies to the development of the human body through specific training which will normally start with functional change, and through specific stresses and adaptions lead to a structural change which will improve athletic performance. The development of the structure of the body which broadly speaking will include the respiratory system, cardiac system, muscular system, hormones, blood system etc.

Here are some simple examples: A professional cyclist who has been cycling for years, has a higher amount of mitochondria growth and capillarization compared to a amateur. Using the same trained cyclist, his muscles have developed from being a amateur cyclist being functionally good to adjusting the muscle fibres structurally so that they can better perform the required activity.

Athletes thus in general have a higher ability to utilise oxygen and pump a higher volume of blood which is developed through training.

You say so what, this is obvious. Here are some more examples to think through: A novice cross country skier will have problems initially learning to ski and use a huge amount of energy learning to balance, after a few days he has learned to balance and found the needed coordination and he will be skiing faster simply by having made a functional change. Now you did some tests as he started skiing and a few weeks later the skier has shown an improvement and you think, great he is fitter, but most likely due to the improved balance and coordination the skier is able to use more muscle to ski faster, which may show a higher VO2, instead of using muscle to balance. The Skier will initially very quickly develop the utilisation ability through capillarization and mitochondria density and the before mentioned improved balance and co-ordination. This is often the big improvements seen in research studies which last only a few weeks versus trained athletes where changes are small as there is very little room for functional changes. To make structural changes which will strengthen the athletes respiratory system, improve cardiac output and stroke volume may take months or even years.

Another type of example: A athlete goes to altitude or sleeps in a altitude tent and is able to raise his blood values, now he goes back to a lower altitude to compete and if he is a responder to altitude, he/her body is simply utilising the extra oxygen available to the body. To make a real altitude adaption takes many years of IHT and altitude training where the body learns to adapt, and to better utilize and deliver.

Some individuals can improve Stroke Volume (SV) through certain training protocols or even exercise which can be due to a plasma volume increase. This again is a very functional change which is temporary. Repeating this functional training over several weeks, sometimes months should (if the correct stimulus is used with the correct timing to stress the limitation) see a structural change in End Diastolic Volume (EDV) as a change in heart size, thus a higher volume ability to pump blood (stroke volume) and a lower heart rate (CO=SVxHR).

So in any system that you are training you need to think, is it development or just utilisation, i.e. capillarization or capillary utilisation, SV through plasma expansion or SV through EDV improvement,   mitochondria density or mitochondria enzyme reaction. Is the sudden improvement weather related, (hot=warmer tarmac=different reactions on bicycle/skate wheels resistance.) or is it true structural adaptation. Another improvement which has not even been mentioned is on the mental side. Once you have done lets say a performance test, you know how it feels, so next time in most cases without any physical improvement you know how to pace it better. Changes in nutrition can make functional changes to blood (e.g. beet root) certain supplements which may buffer H+. Respiratory training with specific devices will initially show great improvements as coordination and general conditioning improves (similar to the idea with the skier) but long term diaphragm strength and transfer of training to sport specific activity may take months.

The key to train structure, you need to find what is the limitation which is creating the weak link in athletic performance.

Further and more in depth reading on functional and structural training go to http://fact-canada.blogspot.de/2008/02/functional-and-structural-training-by.html and the here.

Diaphragm and respiratory training (SpiroTiger).

This is the SpiroTiger (ST) article that I published over a year ago and has been rewritten with a year and a half worth of experience and improvements. Keep in mind that every person is a individual and he or her has their own weaknesses, so there may be different reaction to what I have found.

Background

Most athletes do not even think of training their lungs, they think that they can not train their lungs, that their lungs could not possibly limit their performance. And that their body is limited by how high their heart can beat and how much watts their muscle can push.

When we look at the body in terms of what could limit performance we see that there are a few trainable systems in the body. The muscular system, the cardiac system and the respiratory system. This is a very broad view and obviously each system can be broken down further and interact with each other. When we use certain equipment we can find our weaknesses within these systems and train them. In the case of this article topic, if we find the need to train the respiratory system we have certain means by which we can do this.

What you have found through testing will determine how you can use a breathing device to strengthen your respiratory system. Now there are a few devices out there with which you can train the respiratory system and you can make your own. But the only current one that I am aware of that has a safety system build into it is the SpiroTiger. Any other system you will need a oximeter and capnometer at a minimum to control blood saturation and PCO2 levels, the price of a capnometer would already have overshot the price of a SpiroTiger. The build in sensors for the SpiroTiger monitor the amount of air movement and calculate if you continue at the current breathing rate if you will move into a hypercapnia state in which case the system will shut down as a safety precaution. For Hypercapnia specific work we override the safety features. The bonus is that there is no filters to replace on the ST as with other hypoxi equipment. (hypercapnia and hypoxia work is not supported by the manufacturer and is not recommended unless you have had instruction).

With the ST we can dial in breathing frequencies from 15 up to 60 breaths per minute and change the breathing ratios. Show me another breathing device that can do this and with which you can do endurance work for the breathing muscles? Most work outs on other devices last 30 seconds which will not challenge the respiratory endurance muscles. You may ask why would you use a device and not just go out and train? By challenging your respiratory system specifically you don’t risk over stressing any of your other systems. If your respiratory system is compensating for something else that is a weaker system, you will need to overstress the weaker system first before placing enough stress on the respiratory system, in this way with the ST we can dial in on the respiratory system without stressing other systems that we want to keep recovered.

Training ideas

One idea would be to do a training session, and perhaps you have challenged your cardiac system, but your respiratory system still needs a workout, this is where the respiratory work can come in. But then if you look at it at from another angle if you were perhaps swimming and you were really trying to challenge your lungs by instead of breathing every other stroke and breathing say every fifth or sixth stroke. This could challenge the inhalation and the gas exchange due to the time delay and short period you have to breath, then because your lung are already stressed then it may not be such a great idea to stress them again with the ST.

The idea behind the ST is to train the endurance muscle of the lungs which will train the diaphragm, breathing co-ordination and the inter and intra muscles involved during breathing. By training our respiratory system we may reduce or slow down the effect of the respiratory Metaboreflex (studies from Dempsey).

So the big question that a lot of people will want to know is will breathing training make me faster and stronger? The simple answer to this is it depends on what your limiter is, is your limiter your respiratory system? And then it depends how you use the ST to challenge your limiter?

Diaphragm training

Here are some of my experiences over a year and a half. I used mainly larger bag sizes to challenge my diaphragm strength, with 4-6 ST sessions a week, although I have now reduced this to 3 session unless I am doing hypoxia work. The diaphragm is one of the main supporting core muscles. You can do as many sit ups, planks and traditional core work as you like, but if you can't target your diaphragm all this traditional core work will only make you good at sit ups etc. Plus a six pack is not going to make you race faster. From video footage I know that my technique 'falls apart' from the core area when I am tired at the end of a race. Knowing that the breathing training might have a effect on my core, I decided to totally avoid traditional core work, the only place that I would still target my core is when lifting weight during squatting, dead lift, olympic lift etc. This would allow me to know that any diaphragm strength gain came mainly from the breathing training. Which it did, and it took about 5 months to notice. A year later (still avoiding core specific work) looking at new video footage you can see I do not 'fall apart' from the core anymore, and I am convinced that this is from training my diaphragm with the ST. (I am not suggesting that you do not do core work, but simply that you understand that there are better ways to target the main core muscles).

The biggest challenge in any work out is for this to transfer to the sport that you do, you lift weights so that it would transfer to cycling, you might do cross country skiing in winter to become a better cyclist in summer, you might run and bike to become a better cross country skier. With the breathing training it is the same concept. I want to be able to use a larger portion of my Vital Capacity (VC) so in effect increase my Tidal Volume (TV). But over the past year this work hasn’t really transferred, although I have been able to reduce my breathing frequency (RF). So the plan now is to use a bag size and RF that resembles my TV and RF at the level where things become critical in my body, and in this way challenge my respiratory system which could possibly make a structural change. Time will tell.

Hypercapnia and cool downs

I have misused the ST and used if for hypoxi work, always using a oximeter and pulse watch to check that I control my SpO2. I played with this idea over the summer and took it one step further into my cool downs and recovery in between sessions. What does this mean? I do not do a cool down in the traditional sense anymore. I use hypercapnia. We all know that Lactate is our friend and the body uses it as a fuel. Some background. During exercise, hydrogen ions H+ accumulate in the body which leads to a drop in the body’s intermuscular pH which will affect muscle performance. The more the body relies on glycolysis as the primary energy system the higher the production of H+ and lactate. Although the level of lactate has very little to do with the pH. Lactate gets produced as a by product and helps to buffer the H+ which there fore helps to prolong our workout. (The H+ may have a negative effect on the coupling of Ca++ and Mg-- on ATP production). So by keeping lactate in our system we have firstly a good source of energy plus we have a buffer system for the H+.

Now by cooling down traditionally we are taking away blood from the vital system. Because blood is needed again for the muscle and we are taking away the Lactate needed to fuel our brain, heart and get rid of the bad H+. So this is how I have done it, with out any negative results and keeping lactate and blood available where it is needed for faster recovery.

As soon as I can, after a race when every one else is 'cooling down' I use respiratory intervention to cool down instead, using hypercapnia. This creates a respiratory induced acidosis, (during exercise your body creates metabolic acidosis). Initially this will create some more H+ , but also your body will increase the CO2 level, Increase CO2 will release O2 from haemoglobin which will aid recovery. I do this for some time and it depends on how tired my respiratory system is, I will never push it further based on a time. Simply feeling and generally aim for several minutes. followed by a second session later in the evening. What I will start to add to this idea now is to first load the haemoglobin with O2 directly before the hypercapnia so that there is more O2 that can be released from the haemoglobin and possibly myoglobin. The early release of O2 through CO2 creates a better use of lactate and helps shuttle the H+ out of the system. And that is my recovery, only thing I might ad to at the end is a walk, thats it. 

Hypercapnia and warm up 

I have added hypercapnia in my warm up. Similar to above, so I have done my normal warm up which is up to race pace, straight from this I will go on the ST and go hypercapnic for 5 min.  From here I am ready to go. This season I will experiment with hypocapnia before the hypercapnia then race. The same idea could be used in between intervals. (5 min at hypercapnia is a ball park figure as it is just long enough to get the desired result but not so long that I am sitting around losing the optimal blood flow from the warmup). 

All these ideas are trial and error, and they are individual dependant, some people may respond to it, some may not, the results will depend on your limiters. Some people may benefit from a more hypocapnia versus hypercapnia state just before their race start dependant on the type of race start and how there body reacts. Other people who have more of a respiratory limitation might benefit from doing some race pace breathing before a race or hard session as to avoid or slow down the process of the metaboreflex reaction during the race. I wanted to integrate ST work into my training, so go hiking with it, but I decided against this as a lot of the time my blood saturation is already very low, and adding more stress with breathing which would likely lead to a even further drop in blood saturation would not be the smartest idea if I want to increase the muscle recruitment (this assumes that the blood saturation is a reflection of the muscle tissue saturation which is not always the case).

Lastly, would I recommend buying a SpiroTiger? Put it this way I have bought a second ST, which is a upgrade from the first one I owed. The SpiroTiger is a powerful tool if used correctly. Find your limiter, figure out how it will react, then trial it and apply the physiology instead of following every one else just because they do it. 

FaCT testing

I recently had some FaCT testing done to find my weaknesses. Here are some pictures to give a idea of how versatile and portable the equipment is. 

It can not be seen in this picture but under my shirt I have EKG pads that have a wireless link to the  computer next to me. On my right thigh under the cycling short is a phone size device (NIRS) that gives the tissue saturation information which is also transmitted via a wireless live transfer to the computer next to me.

On the left computer screen is the live hemodynamic feedback, middle computer screen is live blood flow and tissue saturation information, the orange grey box leads to the mask on my face which gives live respiratory info, and finally the small blue device is for lactate info.

Testing is done where ever you want to do it.

The mobile sports laboratory, doing a roller ski to compare treadmill and road results. The equipment has enough range to pick up live blood flow and hemodynamic info from the car following close behind.

The respiratory info needs to be carried in a back pack and can be analysed later.

Here some screen shots from some of the testing where all the information is looked at as a whole, and a better understanding of how each of the systems influences each other. Instead of traditional testing where conclusions are sometimes made based on one system only. 

The aim is to find the Limiter which we can then train so that there is a performance improvement where as traditional testing tends to look at how good you are, comparing VO2 and statistics to other athletes, how much wattage you can push  or testing running economy, all the traditional type test which help you very little in training and finding your weakest system.

From this one FaCT test I now have a much clearer idea of what my body is doing and how to train it than any of the previous traditional tests done over the last 13 years.

I was tested by Duncan Clarke who does level V testing, contact information for him and other test centers can be found on the FaCT Canada website.

How valid is a VO2 test and results?

VO2 max: is the value of the total amount of oxygen used by the body at maximal intensity. It is the oxygen used by the muscle, heart, respiratory system and the brain. The maximum amount of oxygen that the body can use is expressed as a VO2 value.

Traditionally VO2 is used as an assessment for training intensities of which percentage of VO2 Max is most commonly used. Which is based on the VO2 Max and give a performance ability to compare against other athletes.

There are two ways in which we can view VO2 max.

• The typical traditional view: VO2 is the limiting factor to human performance, to improve VO2 max we need to train at or near VO2 max. 

• The alternative view: The weakness of either the cardiac system, the respiratory system or the muscular system will limit the VO2 performance. Finding the weakest link and training the weakest system will improve the efficiency of VO2. 

If we then view VO2 max from the alternative view, then to have the highest VO2, if simplified we require the respiratory system to collect oxygen and transfer it to the blood stream, extract the CO2 from the blood and transport it back to the outside world. The body requires a efficient cardiac system to pump the oxygen and CO2 around the body to and away from the muscle, and finally the muscles require mitochondria which loves oxygen for energy.

Sport where more muscle is involved will have a higher VO2, e.g. cross country skiing versus cycling, as there is a greater requirement for blood getting delivered around the body etc. Assuming technique does not hinder performance (as the extra muscle required to compensate for balance and coordination in technique require more energy) then the harder you go, the greater the requirement for oxygen and VO2 will go up. The faster you go the more you will push one of the limitations in your body which will limit you from reaching a higher VO2 performance.

A higher VO2 means your body requires more oxygen, but is a higher VO2 value always a good thing? Retesting for VO2 max where your VO2 has decreased for the same speed or wattage is often looked at negatively, rather it should be seen as a good thing as the lower VO2 at the same LBP is now more efficient so in theory you should be able to push longer with a more efficient system.

Some problems with VO2 tests:

There are various protocols developed to test VO2 max and each will give a different VO2 value for the same athlete. The problem is that if a VO2 test was truly physiological then you should get the same VO2 value every time for that sport. Some individuals during supra maximal test reached higher VO2 max result than during a standard incremental one (Hawkins et al).

With the VO2 test you are really only getting feed back on the respiratory system and the amount of oxygen that the body can use, and one variable of the cardiac system, i.e. heart rate. The entire test is based on VO2 and at what heart rate this occurs, in some VO2 test (that has been done on me) lactate was not even taken so you do not even have the metabolic feed back. The main problem with only having heart rate for the cardiac system is you have one variable and only know how fast the heart is beating, there is absolutely no information on stroke volume or cardiac output! Yes we could use formulas to calculate Cardiac output (VO2 Max= CO x (a-v) O2 difference), but most VO2 tests last 6 to 12 min and with such a short test time the intensity steps may be to big, too quick and in this case we could miss physiological markers. FeO2, CO2, Lactate, SpO2 etc all have a lag time of about 30 seconds, which means we will miss certain bio markers! Using a device like a physioflow which is non invasive gives you live feed back on hemodynamics and gives a fuller picture of the whole body’s reaction. With live hemodynamics we have information on Left Ventricle function,, Ventricular Ejection time, Stroke volume etc.

More practical and useful information can be gained from a VO2 test by looking at changing body position, RPM, stride length, breathing patterns to see if this changes the O2 and CO2 relationship. How many athletes know their breathing rate at LBP or even race pace? Or their breathing Tidal Volume? Why is this important? This information can be used to plan breathing training with a SpiroTiger to improve core stability, breathing coordination, diaphragm strength, and if you want to explore breathing training further even gas exchange.

A VO2 max test looks for a plateau to find the VO2 max value, Tim Noakes, 2008, demonstrated that in most test this plateau does not occur. Knowing when a test will end, i.e., the length of the test also will effect the outcome value (Baden et al). The first time I do a new fitness test is always the hardest, (e.g. a 60 second jumps test measuring sustained power) because I don’t know what to expect, in a follow up test I know how to pace so I have changed the results with out likely actually really improving). Lactate threshold can be completely missed, probably overestimated during a VO2 max (even standard Lactate test the so called anaerobic point is over estimated in most cases). Athletes training at the same percentage of VO2 max with similar VO2 max values can have huge variants in training outcomes (Scharhag-Rosenberger et al). The entire VO2max protocol needs to be reviewed.

Once again with a training program where training zones are based on VO2 max percentages, we do not have a clue what we are training. What is the cardiac system doing? what system in the body are we stressing? At what point is the Left Ventricle function being challenged which will affect stroke volume? With out looking at the body as a whole we do not have a clue. Rethinking the VO2 protocol to follow physiological reactions would be one step in the right direction. A Lactate Balance Point or Zone test (LBP developed by FaCT) with lactate for metabolic changes combined with VO2 for pulmonary information and cardiac feed back on hemodynamics gives more information than a VO2 max test EVER will. Unfortunately our coaches and physiologist are traditionalist and follow what they were taught in University and these ideas will take time to be accepted until they look at how we can train the body as a whole and instead of training speed, power, endurance rather think train muscle, cardiac, respiratory and how these system react during speed, power, endurance and when they fatigue so that we understand how much overreaching is required.

The LBP idea and testing using respiratory and hemodynmic devices is part of FaCT's continued research. FaCT Canada is actively engaged in researching and continuously testing more reliable ways of assessing the body, currently they are looking how CO2 can be used as a biomarker by using a capnometer. To read more in depth discussions go to their site at FaCT. There is a in depth article on The Fallacy of Vo2max and %VO2max on the site Science of Running.

Drifting slightly off the VO2 subject, this is simply me thinking loud. We often wonder why we get different outcomes with research studies on training ideas and altitude training (or even VO2 training zones) etc where we have responders and non responders to the training load. If research really wanted to have a controlled group, they could simply do a full assessment where they find which people in a control group have what limitation. And when at the end of a study they have there responders and non responders they will more likely have a clearer picture of why certain subjects responded in certain ways because they were limited by there cardiac system or ability for muscle to utilize the fuel given to it etc. At least this is how I would do a controlled physiological study.

Power balance bands exposed

This is a very interesting read and by no means surprising, the follow up articles on this are also a good read.  A piece of plastic with a hologram plate which will improve balance and performance worn by many pro athletes! Sounds too good to be true.  Go to the link to read the complete article.

http://www.sportsscientists.com/2011/01/power-balance-bracelets-no-credible.html and http://www.sportsscientists.com/2011/01/power-balance-placebo-and-perceptions.html

Recovery and adaptation, or is it?

Here are a few ideas on recovery.  When we train we break our bodies down, and we become stronger by adaptation when we recover.  As athletes and coaches we advise a variety of ideas to have a faster recovery so that we can adapt faster and complete the next session sooner but, little do we think, do we hinder adaptation? sometimes there are faster ways to recovery than we already think we know?  Here is a summary.

Antioxidants:  Antioxidant refers to the group of substances which includes vitamins E, C, A, and carotenoids.  When our body cells use oxygen, the body naturally produce free radicals which can cause damage, thus used in sport and general health to prevent cellular damage from free radicals.

The adaptation to stress caused by training is the reactive Oxygen.  So by using antioxidants you are getting rid of the stress trigger before your body can adapt.  So use antioxidants sparingly as the body has its own antioxidant defences.  Eating fruit after training will probably be ok as the antioxidant concentrations are low compared to that of supplements.

Ice baths:  Ice baths are the new in thing, and research although not conclusive generally support its use as a recovery method.  But the body when under stress has a secretion of hormones that aid in muscle repair.  By taking a ice bath the cooling of the muscle is stopping this recovery cycle which will most likely reduce adaptation.  As with antioxidants it is the timing of the ice bath that is important, that it does not interfere with the bodies natural adaptation cycle.  Taking a ice bath directly after a hard interval session would be a bad idea as where if you take it the day after would be better.

Finishing a race:  We get told after we collapse on the finishing line or hard session to stand up even though the natural reaction was to collapse! Perhaps it is our bodies natural response that it is easier for the cardiac system to pump blood laying down than against gravity, thus getting blood round your body quicker.  Makes sense huh?


Stretching:  Stretching has its place in sport when done at the right time and for the right reason, but certain people are naturally more flexible than others and need to stretch less.  It is a proven fact that stretching too much has a negative effect on running economy as the muscle tends too loose its springiness. Think of the muscle as a coiled spring, the more it is stretched the less power it will have and the more energy it requires to produce the same power. We get told too easily for every little thing that we need to stretch. A perfect example is a ITB muscle injury that comes from running where the muscle rubs agains the side of the knee. Every body says, stretch it and let it rest. Well The reverse is actually true the ITB muscle needs to be strengthened! The ITB is rubbing because it is compensating by shortening for its lack of strength! 

Cooling down:  Saving the best topic for last,  it has taken some decades to find and accept that lactate is the indicator of fatigue and not the cause of it, and that lactate helps to delay acidosis.  Any physiologist or coach worth he's pay will know that lactate is the preferred fuel used by the heart.  So if we test lactate we should look at it as a biomaker of fatigue and a indication of energy stores in the same way that we test glucose for fuel stores.

So if we get told to cool down after a hard session what is the first answer when we ask why? "Get rid of lactate"!  Here is another question, would you cool down to get rid of glucose? No! So why get rid of lactate if it is a fuel. Would it not be better to keep the lactate in our system so that the heart and brain can use the fuel.  Our kidneys get rid of the wastes in our body so if we cool down we take blood away from the kidneys and to the muscle, thus slowing down even more the clearing proces of the supposedly bad stuff. 

Here is a reply you might get for not cooling down.  "The next interval session was slower because lactate was still so high".  Answer: perhaps lactate is a indication that the body needs lactate, and the body has not recovered fully because rather the respiratory, muscular or cardiac system is still fatigued from the last session.

Think through some of these ideas, I am not saying that we should not use antioxidants or ice baths or cool down, simply have a think of how our bodies react, and not do something just because everyone else does it. Be a sheep or be a pioneer.

Many of these thoughts come from FaCT Canada who look at physiology from a different angle and make sense of everything.  More on ice baths and antioxidants read these two articles:  Antioxidant supplements are they needed  and When damage is a good thing.

Understanding the weakest link and more ideas.

Some more ideas and thoughts, and why we find LBP and the weakest link. Read Athletes weakest link to get the background on this article.

This is the scenario: A pro cyclist has a well developed leg muscular system which has a good capillary network to delivery oxygen to mitochondria. The cyclist may have a vital organ as a limitation. Now move the cyclist to a rowing machine where his arms are poorly developed and utilisation of fuel to the muscle will be a problem even though he's vital organs are providing sufficient blood and oxygen to the upper body. Make the cyclist do cross country skiing, here will be another scenario where same as rowing the upper body is the limitation involved but coordination may be more of a problem.

In each of these cases LBP will be different and a different system will create LBP. Which is why LBP needs to be tested for every sport activity. To add to the previous paragraphs scenario, using tools such as NIRS and Phisio Flow, a coach can easily find out what system in the body is the weak link, muscular, respiratory or cardiac. Then adapt the training so that the weakest link will improve the LBP which will lead to a faster athlete.

Training the Weakest link if:

The heart is the weak link, then one could perhaps train the heart in a way so that the respiratory system will challenge the oxygen delivery so that the heart has to react. Using Pulmonary Endurance Training PET is a example. If we have a portable device to monitor heart hemodynamics we can monitor stroke volume training. Intervals may have the ability to improve Stroke volume but only if the interval intensity (rest and load) period is so fixed, that we do not create a 'storage of blood' or a occlusion in the working muscles but rather move as much blood back into the system and to the heart to increase circulatory blood volume.

It is muscular limitation where utilization is the problem then work needs to be done on capillarisation and mitochondria density.

The respiratory system is the the athletes limitation then keeping the heart rate low by using SpiroTiger to stimulate the respiratory system.

Blood system is the limitation, then it could be improved with nutrition and IHT (Intermittent Hypoxic Training) and PET.

If the limitation is coordination and stabilisation you might think swiss balls and sit ups! Worst choice, (see my last article why)! A better answer is once again specific diaphragm training. The diaphragm is a vital stabilisation muscle of the core, strengthening of the diaphragm with breathing training will strengthen the core indirectly and stop the 'falling apart' at the core when a athlete is fatigued. The dead lift and squat actively activates the core better than core exercises! Training with specific coordination training is the better answer.

Most of these ideas needs equipment to check respiratory information, heart hemodynamics, and the muscle situation. Even not having access to this type of equipment and just understanding what is happening to the body and why we need to look for certain biomarkers will improve our training programmes. Here is a very basic idea on how we can build training programmes around recovery instead of the recovery around training as the body adapts and becomes stronger when we recover: Test LBP, then do a session where we stress the LBP or a session where we go above LBP, then retest LBP to see if the body has recovered from the session. If LBP is lower the athlete has not yet recovered, if it is back to baseline we are ready to go again. This is the beauty of the LBP assessment over a standard Lactate Test in that the athlete doesn’t need to be pushed to maximum and a LBP assessment can be done before a session to see if a athlete is ready for the next push or needs to just go for a easy bimble.

When we know what the athletes limitation is for each sport activity, then we need to decide what will improve the limitation, and not just do a set of exercises because everyone else is doing that exercise (i.e. sit up for core instead of diaphragm strengthening), once we understand what will improve the limitation then we can focus on structural training rather than functional training.

Overload:

We strive to push our selves to the limit in every training session and sometimes athletes will push so hard that they may see God for a brief few seconds. The question during such hard intensities where overload and stress takes place, is there any point in stressing the system further with more repetition to over stress it? A session that stressed the respiratory system, would it be a good idea to complete another respiratory session with the SpiroTiger so that we have a drop in performance and LBP when we want to do another session the next day? Probably not until the respiratory system has recovered, what if the cardiac system was overloaded then followed by something that challenges coordination or the respiratory system? That would be a smarter idea as you are challenging something which has not yet been stressed. This idea comes from the Austrian researcher, Hans Selye. Except that most coaches will take his idea too literally and push the athlete so that the athlete has to complete the predetermined set of intervals to get the most out of the session, even though (ie cardiac workout) with the same perceived exertion the heart rate can not be maintained, lap times are getting slower and the Central Governor Model (CGM) is kicking in because the body is more interested in survival than performance, the athlete systems is now in overstress mode. The Coach missed the point where the athletes system reached its overload point and the session should have been done for the day. What Hans Selye meant with overload is perhaps not overload but simply change the way we stimulate and challenge the systems. i.e. today we challenge the respiratory system, then the cardiac system which is still fresh, coordination or technique, once a system has recovered it can be challenged again.

Example of listening to the body:

Here is a picture where we follow physiological reactions rather than set intervals, this is a profile from NIRS. Green line is total blood flow (tHB), red oxygenated blood which tell you how much blood is loaded with O2, blue deoxygenated blood. The time frame from 0 to 1400 is where the athlete warmed up to get get blood flow into the working muscle (rise in green line) upto the point (900) where the intensity increased and the blood volume started dropping and deoxygenated blood (blue line) increased as a sign of O2 usage. From line A the the intervals start, blood volume rises dramatically as there is more blood in muscle during the recovery and drops during intensity as muscle tension and occlusion takes place, the last interval by 2400 was stopped due to not reaching the recovery Tisue Saturation Index (TSI%) which was also indicated by a slower rise in the green line, so the session was over. The interval before already, the tHb (Green line) did not drop to the same level as the previous intervals. The athlete ran into ATP delivery problems due to increased intramuscular tension and thus a reduction in blood flow. (The feeling of 'blown up legs' due to a occlusion situation in the muscles).

We will always have a overall programme with a idea of what we are going to do in a session, but a perfect training session will be where, neither coach nor athlete has any idea of the sessions outcome. They do not know how many reps or how long the recovery will be, as this will be decided by biomarkers such as heart rate, glucose, lactate, breathing frequency, tissue saturation etc. instead of a paced workout where we complete 10x400m meters, after the second interval we know how to pace the session and by knowing this we have changed the physiological end result. What if we followed some of the pre mentioned biomarkers and were able to achieved more physiologically in 6 reps than the planned 10 by rather stopping when we reach the same physiological stress as the first interval? Why train for 60min when you can achieve the same result in a shorter period, or perhaps you need longer for the overload, but you will not know unless you start to understand the physiology and look at the biomarkers that is available to you. This is where we start training smart versus being sheep following a cook book.

The case against stability training (throw away the swiss ball?)

Unstable surface training UST is used to improve trunk muscle strength and core activation. But, there is enough research and an excellent article at Science of Running that debunks this idea, here is a summary.

When working with stability exercises on devices such as the swiss ball, bosu balls, wobble boards etc. we will have agonist and antagonist muscles involved. For a positive improvement the agonist muscle needs to be engaged and the antagonist involvement decreased. What research is showing is that UST is doing the opposite. Most of the research has been done by Behm (2002) and the research has shown significant activation in antagonistic muscle when performing exercises with UST which has led to greater reduction in peak power output and a reduction in agonist muscle activation. Thus a negative adaptation.

One of the biggest 'side effects' of UST training seems to be a reduction in force which eliminates the effect of adaptation, as much as 59.6% force reduction. Willardson, 2004, showed that UST will lead to improper muscle recruitment patterns, so UST has no place in sport specific skills. Stanton et al. (2004) found that runners were unable to improve running performance or posture using UST devices compared to non UST runners.

NCAA Division I soccer players performed their normal strength and conditioning programs, except that one group performed the final exercise of each training session on an unstable surface (Cressey et al., 2007). After ten weeks of training, the UST group saw performance decrements in bounce drop jump, countermovement jump, 10- and 40-yard sprint times compared to the group which did the same exact workout except for the last exercise (Cressey et al., 2007).

The core is activated more during a stable floor exercise such as a squat or any other stable floor exercise than druring the same exercise performed on a UST device (Drake et al., 2006). A study done by Kavcic, found that of 8 exercises that focus on the muscles that stabilize the spine. The least effective exercise done was also the only exercise using UST.

The idea that replacing a chair with a swiss ball and that it will improve posture has been proved wrong.

Other research has been conducted by researchers (Anderson & Behm, 2004; Cressey et al., 2007; Drake et al., 2006; Hamlyn et al., 2007; Kavcic et al 2004; McBride, 2006; McBride et al., 2006; McBride et al., 2009; Nuzzo et al., 2008) have found similar results from the combination of UST and traditional resistance training exercise.

The one thing that stability training seems to do positively is that using UST is the only thing that we will become good at using! We may improve our balance but from the research done, core activation and force output is found to be negatively influenced using stabilization devices. If you want to effectively improve the core it seems a squat is still the best option, you may not get a six pack from squatting, but then do you really need a six pack for performance? If you want stability and balance, sport specific is still the best sensible option. Often overlooked is the diaphragm which is a major core stabilization muscle which if weak will lead to quickly 'falling' apart when fatigued. Specifically strengthening the diaphragm with breathing work focused on strength, will do more core activation and core stabilization than traditional core stability exercises performed on UST and dare I say even traditional core exercises.

We are so focused on finding the magic session that will improve us that we so often forget to do our own research into why and how a new activity, training session or device will influence or outcome on performance and that we seem to be happy just to follow the crowd, just because we accept that it is the right thing to do.