The HMB-FA randomized trial: Not Sure If….

Wow. It finally happened.

On first glance, I haven’t seen data this promising about a supplement since…ever. HMB (beta-hydroxy-beta-metahybutyrate) has been so _unpromising_ since its emergence back in the late 1990’s/early 2000’s, that I had basically stopped reading about it. And then Andrew Vigotsky mentioned me on Twitter and…well, consider me initially genuinely excited. Which is rare. Like, the next thing that might happen is a rain of frogs. But then I dug a little bit. Read More...

Just because it’s brown, doesn’t mean it’s chocolate

This blog entry comes courtesy of John Woodslave who posted the link on my Facebook page.

Martin Bland’s “How to Upset the Statistical Referee” should be mandatory reading for all researchers. It’s short, gets to the point and, if everyone paid ACTUAL attention to it, would kill this blog. Read More...

This study makes no claims. But I bet other people will.

In the fitness industry, everyone’s trying to get or stay ahead. And while there are lots of ways to do that, tapping into published research is one of the more common ways to “reveal” something new and come across as being more leading edge than the next guy/girl.

I would argue that most people who post links to PubMed haven’t read the actual study, but are just browsing abstracts. I’ve written about what abstracts are good for in the past. But it’s been a while since I’ve really taken the theme up.  Read More...

Aerobic exercise vs weights. Who will win?

There is no question that diet and exercise both play a role in fat/weight loss. Schools of thought range from the “it matters more what you eat” camp to the “it matters more how much you move with subgroups ranging from the “it matters how many calories you eat” camp to the “it matters if you do weights” camp and then the all-popular, “just move more” vs. “move, but move really really fast in short intervals of time” camps.

Jen Sinkler of Experience Life magazine brought this study to my attention, because I belong to the, “it matters if you do weights and probably doesn’t matter much if you move more, whether at a steady pace or really really fast in burst intervals.” camp ((mostly out of laziness and abhorrence of “cardio”) Read More...

It was bound to happen

This blog entry is courtesy of Fran Mayo who read an article in “Runner’s World” about some of the benefits of drinking pomegranate juice. It was fairly inevitable that I would get around to talking about pomegranate juice. It is, after all, all the rage right now and POM is currently in the media regarding some dubious health claims.

There are lots of reasons to drink pomegranate juice. Personally, when it first came out as a commercial product, I thought it was a pure novelty. I mean, have you ever EATEN a pomegranate? It takes FOREVER. The whole idea of juicing enough fruit to make a whole bottle of pure pomegranate juice was just unfathomable. So from my perspective, one of the reasons to drink pomegranate juice is because you can. All that pomegranate-y taste without the painstaking work. Read More...

Six people. One study. No practical outcomes. You drink protein before working out.

There is a neat research tool that I use a lot. It’s called the Web of Science. A lot of you use PubMed to find articles. You punch in a topic and it spits out a list of studies about that topic (roughly). Web of Science is a similar database, but it’s like a reverse lookup for studies. I punch in a study and Web of Science tells me about all the studies that have citied that study (i.e. have listed it in the references). This is an extremely useful tool when looking for follow-up studies.

We’ve already talked about very recent evidence about pre-workout protein and energy expenditure, so this week, I wanted to find the most recent evidence of using pre-workout protein for muscle growth, since that’s probably the REAL reason you’re drinking protein before a workout. While there are some studies that have looked at post-workout protein as well as both pre and post-workout protein, surprisingly, there haven’t been many studies on just pre-workout protein use and muscle growth. Read More...

An iPod Shuffle! For almost free! (Oh, and protein timing)

Eating protein before and after workouts has been touted to be one of the most important things you can do to decrease DOMS, increase protein synthesis, prevent protein breakdown, and in this article, increase your resting metabolic rate. The other claims…maybe I’ll tackle those another day (This post is hellishly long enough) Read More...

More is not better–when statistics turn bad (it’s just not as entertaining as when animals do)

As with everything, more is not usually better. In statistics, more actually makes you more prone to being accidentally wrong (or, in statistics-lingo, spurious). Today, I’d like to talk about a basic concept that is taught to students in their introductory statistics courses (and hence, you would think, most researchers): The effect of multiple significance testing. Read More...

Beta-alanine revisited: Failing to plan, or planning to fail?

In the past 2.5 years, a few more studies on beta-alanine have emerged. As I’ve written before, my goal isn’t to become the anti-beta-alanine blogger, but I do feel that watching this supplement develop from its relative inception to its current state does provide an interesting prototype for how similar products develop a strong following despite the limitations on the research available to support (or not support) its use. Read More...

Rest vs. Active Recovery

Lots of stuff happens when you’re not doing anything. It’s amazing. Your muscles rebuild (hopefully stronger than before). Your bones deteriorate less (if you’ve been doing weight bearing exercise). Britney does something silly (again). All while you’re doing nothing! Rest is an integral part of any training program. Certainly, we know that inadequate recovery is responsible for a myriad of bad things, like decreased performance, and an increased risk of injury. But what about this thing called “active recovery”? Read More...