Posts by stevemagness
A Scientific look at Viagra enhancing endurance performance? No, not that kind, actual running performance…
Chicago Bears wide receiver Brandon Marshall made a little bit of noise in the news when he said: “I know guys, it’s such competitive league and guys try anything just to get that edge…I’ve heard of guys using Viagra, seriously, because the blood, it’s supposed to thin . I don’t know. Some crazy stuff. It’s…
Read MoreStimulus and Adaptation- A complex and simple look at the training process
I’m going to be a bit ambitious here and try and break down the process that is training. If you read my last post on stress, hopefully you realized the myriad of factors that might affect training and adaptation. What I want to try and potentially accomplish is to break that process down and look at…
Read MoreThe Stress of Life: How stress can impact your workout
The Stress of Life: Adaptation is a fairly simple process. You apply a stimulus, or a “stressor” to the body and it adapts. Go lift weights, break down some muscle, and your body responds by making the muscle stronger. The actual process along that path is very complex and we’ll go into that shortly, but…
Read MoreRethinking the cool down AND XC coach at University of Houston
The Cool down- what does it do? I’ve contemplated for a while writing about the role and function of cooling down after a workout or race, but never I have never fully been able to put all the pieces together to do so. The cool down seems like such a normal/given thing. It’s a rite…
Read MoreMoving on
Brief intermission from normal blog stuff for an interruption from my real life. Most have probably seen but I’m moving on from the Nike Oregon Project. It’s been a great learning experience for the last almost 2 years, but it’s time move on and do my own thing. Thankful to Nike for giving me the opportunity…
Read MorePhysiological Model of Training- Why it and “zone training” are outdated
I hate zone training. It’s a pet peeve of mine. I hate the idea and the concept behind it. But so many coaches out there use it, and in actuality we all tend to classify workouts into different zones. I’ve wrestled with trying to explain my hatred for zone training and what I’d call the…
Read MoreA bunch of Scientific research from ACSM conference
Last week was the big American College of Sports Medicine annual meeting. I wasn’t in attendance as I was at the Prefontaine classic. So instead I had the pleasure of browsing through the 3,500+ abstracts that were presented at the conference. There were a lot of interesting studies to pop up, so I figured I’d…
Read More10-20-30 workout- Research flaws and Why there are no secret workouts.
Every once in a while a scientific studies simple concept crosses over the main stream and explodes in the exercise world. A decade ago it was Billat’s famous 30/30 which consisted of 30sec at supramaximal speeds with 30sec jogging. It was supposed to be the secret workout that improved VO2max and lactate threshold at the…
Read MoreWhy timing matters
Why timing matters Knowing what to do or what supplement to take doesn’t cut it anymore. Knowing what and why is great but there’s another dimension that is often neglected and that is to ask the question of when. While it is easy to get lost in the minutia that is increased knowledge of genetic…
Read MoreStress, Caffeine, recovery, and the immune system
I just started writing articles for Competitor.com and the first one went up today. In it I take a look at the negative side of taking Caffeine pre-race or workout. Caffeine is generally thought of as only a performance enhancer, which it does well, but there are drawbacks if you chronically use it. In the article…
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