What are the trends in your part of the world?

First off, I just wanted to say thanks to everyone who has supported this blog in its infantile life: JP, Bill Hartman, Lou Schuler, and all the people who have wandered on by. According to the statistics collected on this site, there are about 50-70 hits per day, 17% of which spend possibly more than one hour in a visit!

My goal for this blog is three-fold: 1) To publish a critical review of a study or topic on a weekly basis, 2) to create informative tutorials on critical appraisal and how study elements affect interpretation, and 3) to use the blog as a vehicle of expression of how I see how research and fitness/training/nutrition interacting.

But just as I want my own research to have immediate effects on practice, I also want the reviews I publish and the articles I write to have relevance to you, the readers. What are the trends in your part of the world? What sorts of fitness topics do you want to know about? Do you have any questions? Drop me a line, or leave me a comment!

Upcoming, if I can dig out the article, is a randomized controlled trial on creatine that was done waaaay back in the early 2000’s. One of the better studies I’ve read for sure, though, with a 2007 critical eye, I guess we’ll see.

Also, I wanted to plug a book (it’s not new..but quite old really), for anyone who has struggled with, or is struggling with introductory statistics. If I were to teach an intro to stats course, this would be my textbook of choice. It’s very well written, entertaining to read, accurate and INCREDIBLY easy to understand. It’s called the “Cartoon Guide to Statistics”, published in 1994 by Larry Gonick and Woollcott Smith.

I found this book in the library while looking for a textbook on survival analysis in my PhD years, and read it cover to cover (and then bought it–it’s thin and affordable!), and found that it _still_ helped solidify concepts! And no, I don’t know Mr. Gonick or Mr. Smith.

Last, but not least, I’ll be at the JPFitness Summit in Little Rock in April. No talkie for me though! I’ll just be listening and taking notes.