Caffeine and exercise: metabolism, endurance and performance

In the news
I was recently interviewed by MC about graduate student life, exercise for busy people, nutrition on the go, home gym set up and much more!
Check it out here
Also check around her blog for some excellent info!

In the lab
I am working hard on a protocol for a new study in the lab, but in the process I found a review I've read in the past and probably one of the best on caffeine and exercise performance. The abstract is below and unfortunately there is not a free copy of the entire review, but if you are a student or university faculty you can probably get it through the library.

Enjoy!
Mike N

Sports Med. 2001;31(11):785-807

Caffeine and exercise: metabolism, endurance and performance.
Graham TE.

Human Biology and Nutritional Sciences, University of Guelph, Ontario, Canada. terrygra@uoguelph.ca

Caffeine is a common substance in the diets of most athletes and it is now appearing in many new products, including energy drinks, sport gels, alcoholic beverages and diet aids. It can be a powerful ergogenic aid at levels that are considerably lower than the acceptable limit of the International Olympic Committee and could be beneficial in training and in competition. Caffeine does not improve maximal oxygen capacity directly, but could permit the athlete to train at a greater power output and/or to train longer. It has also been shown to increase speed and/or power output in simulated race conditions. These effects have been found in activities that last as little as 60 seconds or as long as 2 hours. There is less information about the effects of caffeine on strength; however, recent work suggests no effect on maximal ability, but enhanced endurance or resistance to fatigue. There is no evidence that caffeine ingestion before exercise leads to dehydration, ion imbalance, or any other adverse effects. The ingestion of caffeine as coffee appears to be ineffective compared to doping with pure caffeine. Related compounds such as theophylline are also potent ergogenic aids. Caffeine may act synergistically with other drugs including ephedrine and anti-inflammatory agents. It appears that male and female athletes have similar caffeine pharmacokinetics, i.e., for a given dose of caffeine, the time course and absolute plasma concentrations of caffeine and its metabolites are the same. In addition, exercise or dehydration does not affect caffeine pharmacokinetics. The limited information available suggests that caffeine non-users and users respond similarly and that withdrawal from caffeine may not be important. The mechanism(s) by which caffeine elicits its ergogenic effects are unknown, but the popular theory that it enhances fat oxidation and spares muscle glycogen has very little support and is an incomplete explanation at best. Caffeine may work, in part, by creating a more favourable intracellular ionic environment in active muscle. This could facilitate force production by each motor unit.

Mirror Neurons

I find the study of mirror neurons facincating! What are they? Below is a great link to a short NOVA program you can watch or save some of the audio files to your mp3 player for later.

In short, watching an activity lights up the same area of the brain as ACTUAL MOVEMENT!

Thanks to Dr. Cobb for pointing this out at the (level II) I Phase training. Click below for links to the I Phase series.
Z Health Level II Update part 1
Z Health Level II Update part 2
Z Health Level II Update part 3
Z Health I Phase In Practice Update

Here is the Nova link below
Mirror Neurons on Nova

Be smart, exercise your heart: exercise effects on brain and cognition

Here is some great info about exercise and the effects on the brain and cognition. More evidence that exercise is good for your ENTIRE body! There is a growing body (pun intended) of evidence that exercise can increase neurogenesis (aka more new cells in the brain!) Here is just one study.

Unfortunately the link below will not get you to the whole article, but if you are a student you can gain access through your library and it will be worth your time.

Enjoy

Mike N

Science and society: Be smart, exercise your heart: exercise effects on brain and cognition

Charles H. Hillman¹, Kirk I. Erickson² & Arthur F. Kramer² About the authors

Abstract

An emerging body of multidisciplinary literature has documented the beneficial influence of physical activity engendered through aerobic exercise on selective aspects of brain function. Human and non-human animal studies have shown that aerobic exercise can improve a number of aspects of cognition and performance. Lack of physical activity, particularly among children in the developed world, is one of the major causes of obesity. Exercise might not only help to improve their physical health, but might also improve their academic performance. This article examines the positive effects of aerobic physical activity on cognition and brain function, at the molecular, cellular, systems and behavioural levels. A growing number of studies support the idea that physical exercise is a lifestyle factor that might lead to increased physical and mental health throughout life.

SAID Principal, Recovery Tips, ....

Most stuff coming very soon! Enjoy these tidbits in the meantime.

SAID Principal--Specific Adaptation to Imposed Demand
Here is a simple tip from Dr. Cobb again---the SAID principal can apply to EVERYTHING. You either believe in it or you don't; so apply it to training, rehab, body work etc. When you go in for some body work, most will lay you down flat on your back and work on you. Does that transfer to even standing up? Maybe/Maybe not, but if I do work on you while standing I have the greatest chance of transfer to standing (seems simple I know).

Breathing and Z Tips
In regards to breath work while moving, I find that for most it can be too much to start. I initially focus on long (tall) neutral spine and hitting the exact target on the Z joint mobility drills. Once they get good at the drills I will work in breath coordination. Again, it all depends on the person. I may give them specific breath retraining separately to work on relearning abdominal breathing though as this is needed in most people. The SAID principal applies here again too!

Z works to neurologically retrain movements via joint mobility work (initially) and to decrease SMA (sensor motor amnesia) thus increase biofeedback at the same time. Pretty cool!

You can get the R Phase from the upper right link.


Wise Words from Frankie Faires on Overload
Frankie says "I don't think the overload principle is precise enough in telling the story of adaptation. I think it is useful to define adaptation as "learning." I think this dovetails nicely with Motor Learning Theory.

We are always learning, we are always adapting. Some things we can learn in 1 rep. Other things require more reps.

Not everything we learn becomes permanent. Some things we learn are more short term than long term. That doesn't negate the fact that doing something just one single time has an effect.

For every cause, there is an effect. For every stimulus, there is a response. This doesn't mean the effect or response is permanent or hard wired."

DOMS and Z Health
n relation to DOMS (delayed onset muscle soreness) I don't think it matters a whole lot since most people are looking at performance (athlete to run faster, powerliferts to lift more, bodybuilders to get bigger), and sometimes a result of the approach needed to achieve your goal is some muscle soreness.

If there is too much soreness, this can interfere with correct training though due to pain.

Also, as Rif has pointed out in the past, pain is HIGHLY variable from one person to the next. This is also a huge problem for pain researchers using the VAS as a way to quantify pain (although it seems to be repeatable, REF http://repositories.cdlib.org/postprints/1579/)

Also, there are some studies to show decelerated glycogen resynthesis after heavy DOMS inducing eccentric exercise (REF http://www.springerlink.com/content/xp99bj5nkhqn01la/ )


Soreness and Inefficiency?
I also think that where you are sore may indicate the location of some inefficiencies. As your body becomes more efficient, you are able to recruit more motor units, thus more muscle so you are "spreading the load" over a great surface so that stress (force/area) on an individual contracting fiber should be less and theoretically less chance of micro trauma.


Practical Tip (aka why you should care)
Notice where you or your athletes are sore! If you did heavy squats/deadlifts and they complain that their adductors are sore, that is a hint that something may be not firing correctly. If they are ONLY sore on ONE side after a symmetric lift (bench, squat, deadlift) that is a red light that something is really not right and you will need to evaluate it.


Frankies' Tips for Recovery
I can tell you how I deal with myself and my clients. Let's go ahead and do the obvious stuff first:

Anti-Inflammatory Diet
Manual Therapy
Proteolytic Enzymes
Epsom Salt Baths
Castor Packs
Homeopathic Compounds
Contrast Bathing/Dousing
Sauna, Steam Room

Among the more movement oriented stuff:
High Rep Fascial Loading (modified I-Phase drills)
Opposing joint/muscle/movement mobility
Vibration Training
Active Cryo-kinetics
Respiratory Retraining

Any comments, let me know. Some of these were pulled from the comments to other posts here, but I thought they were worth reposting.

Rock on
Mike N

Q and A: Cardio Work and Intervals

A buddy of mine is looking to increase his cardio and you have talked about interval training as the way to go over slow, steady state cardio. What were the specifics of your recommendations again? He's a muscular 202lbs and is looking to do some treadmill work to increase the strength of his heart and lungs.

Good question! Yes, higher intensity work is the way to go!

What is his main goal? Increased performance on a sprint or overall conditioning? What does he use to measure “success" --that will determine the exact proto used. Even the word "conditioning" is very vague.

Assuming he is looking for overall general cardiac health and to increase his speed a bit my first recommendation is to NOT use a treadmill. I will have a post coming up soon with all the details on why I believe this, so hold tight.

"It isn't Cardio if it isn't plugged in!" Geoff Neupert

If you have no other option (I even like bikes better) and still insist on doing the treadmill, a good starting point is about 30 seconds of all out running with 1:30 min at a fast walking pace for someone who is in pretty good "shape". Total time about 6 minutes to start and work up from there. As you progress your total time and time spent running will increase and your low intensity time will decrease.

I also don't recommend anyone do high intensity running without a gait analysis as running on "jammed/ poor mobility" joints will eventually cause issues. This is not a matter of "if" it is a matter of time and repeated impact. Think of landing from a jump without bending your knees to absorb the shock---same idea if the joints are not working correctly. If you are in the MN area and need a gait analysis, contact me and see this link for more info.

Other options are Kettlebells (hey, I do that too!--shameless I know), sandbags, DB intervals, car pushing, BW (body weight) drills, jumping rope, etc. I prefer all of them to the treadmill.

If you have access to a HR (heart rate) monitor, that is my preferred way to set up intervals since you can take the person's actual biofeedback and use that to set up intervals instead of guessing at a time. You can also get fancy and record HR recovery times and new ones even use HRV (heart rate variability) to assess your ability to train that day. Most people can use just a basic one and even pick up a cheap one off ebay.

Hope that helps! Any comments, let me know.

Rock on

Mike N

Z Health and KB Demo/ACSM Presentation

Z Health and KB Demos at the Press Gym Sat Feb 9 at 12:30pm
Sorry for the late post here as this week has been crazy busy. More great stuff on the way though!
In the mean time, Fawn Friday RKC and I will be a very short demo (about 30 minutes total) at the Press Gym (Little Canada MN) this Saturday, Feb 9 at 12:30pm. The cost is FREE, so pop in and say hi.

ASCM in May--Count me in!
Another heads up that I will be at the American College of Sports Medicine (ACSM) Annual Conference in late May this year. My abstract was accepted (yeah!!), so I will be there presenting on
"Reliability of Heart Rate Variability by Sample Entropy at Rest and During Light Exercise in Children".

Special thanks to Dr. Don Dengel, Dr. George Biltz and Dr. Winsley for all of the help on the abstract.
So if you are going to ACSM, please drop me a line and we can talk shop there. Heck, I may even need a couch to surf on to save some coin too.

More soon,
Rock on
Mike N