Motion trackers and lifestyle technology

I have been recently looking at various activity monitors and apps as I am developing an interest into stress related research and wellness. Most of the research published in this field in the last twenty years suffers in fact from lack of technology to quantify more aspects of wellness and physical activity. Original studies in this field had to rely on questionnaires (reported activity/sleep/food intake), but now with the development of small portable technology measurement opportunities have improved.

In the last few years I used mainly heart rate monitors, actigraphs, and the sensewear armband to look at activity patterns, energy expenditure and sleeping patterns of athletes.

One of the most interesting tools I have come across is the Jawbone bracelet and its iPhone® app.

Jawbone seems to be a true wellness device. In fact it is capable of tracking your activity, your sleep and your meals. The Jawbone band has a built-in precision motion sensor that automatically tracks your movement (steps, distance, calories burned, pace, intensity level and active vs inactive time ) and sleep (hours slept, time to fall asleep, light vs. deep sleep and sleep quality). No information is available on validity and reliability of its measurements, and at the moment I am not aware of any study published using it.  The reviews from various bloggers and magazines (see this one on Wired) have been positive. However I still have not managed to see one in action as it has been impossible to buy one online (perennially out of stock). If I can get hold of one, I promise I will write about it.

This seems to be potentially a great product for wellness and elite sport which can allow us to understand more about activity patterns, sleep and eating patterns of our athletes/clients. If it is precise and reliable.

 

Technorati Tags: Sports Science,technology

High intensity interval training in health and disease

I have been reading in the last two days the very recent review from Martin Gibala on high intensity interval training (HIIT) and its effectiveness on health and disease. This is an excellent review paper which shows how effective this training modality is as well as how efficient it is, considering that gains can be obtained with a lot less time than conventional aerobic exercise modalities.

Considering the body of knowledge so far accumulated on the beneficial effects of high intensity exercise, sometimes I wonder why I still see team sports players spending precious training time on an athletics track running 1000 meters and above.

Evidence suggests that  when compared on a matched-work basis or when estimated energy expenditure is equivalent, HIT can serve as an effective alternate to traditional endurance training, inducing similar or even superior changes in a range of physiological, performance and health-related markers in both healthy individuals and diseased populations (Hwang et al 2011; Wisloff et al 2007).

Growing evidence suggests also that low volume HIT stimulates physiological remodelling comparable to moderate-intensity continuous training despite a substantially lower time commitment and reduced total exercise volume (Gibala & McGee 2008).

In fact, many authors found similar training-induced improvements than conventional endurance exercise in various markers of skeletal muscle and cardiovascular adaptation despite large differences in weekly training volume (~90% lower in the HIT group) and time commitment (~67% lower in the HIT group). In addition to an increased skeletal muscle oxidative capacity, other endurance-like adaptations have been documented after several weeks of low-volume HIT include an increased resting glycogen content, a reduced rate of glycogen utilization and lactate production during matched-work exercise, an increased capacity for whole-body and skeletal muscle lipid oxidation, enhanced peripheral vascular structure and function, improved exercise performance as measured by time-to-exhaustion tests or time trials and increased maximal oxygen uptake (Burgomaster et al., 2005; Burgomaster et al. 2008; Gibala et al. 2006; Rakobowchuk et al. 2008).

The protocols used are pretty similar. Here is a summary table.

Protocol	Reference
30 s “all out” × 4–6 repeats, 4.5 min rest. 3 sessions per week	Burgomaster et al., 2005; Burgomaster et al. 2008
30 s  “all out” × 4–6 repeats, 4 min recovery. 3 sessions per weel	Gibala et al. 2006
30 s “all out” × 4–6 repeats, 4 min recovery. 3 sessions per week	Rakobowchuk et al. 2008

The results are of course pretty impressive and compare well with conventional endurance exercise.

In Burgomaster’s et al. study (2008), VO₂peak increased after training, with no difference between groups (HIT vs. conventional aerobic (ET)). Peak power output elicited during the Wingate Test increased by 17% and 7% in the HIT and ET groups, respectively, with no difference between groups, whereas, mean power output was increased by 7% only in the HIT group. ET consisted of continuous cycling on an ergometer, 5 days per week (Monday–Friday) for 6 weeks, at a power output corresponding to ∼65% VO₂peak. Subjects performed 40 min of exercise per training session for the first 2 weeks. Exercise time was increased to 50 min per session during weeks 3 and 4, and subjects performed 60 min of exercise per session during the final 2 weeks.

Time trial improved more in the HIT group (SIT in the figure below) when compared to the ET group (6 sessions of sprint interval training (SIT) or endurance training (ET) over 2 weeks). The ET group performed training consisted of 90–120 min of continuous cycling at an intensity corresponding to 65% of VO₂peak. Training progression in the ET group was implemented by increasing the duration of exercise from 90 min during sessions 1 and 2, to 105 min during sessions 3 and 4, and finally to 120 min during sessions 5 and 6.

Considerable evidence currently exists to support a role for low-volume HIT as a potent and time-efficient training method for inducing both central (cardiovascular) and peripheral (skeletal muscle) adaptations that are linked to improved performance and health outcomes. However few things should be considered when prescribing training programmes involving high-intensity training.

1) HIT requires “all out” supramaximal efforts followed by low intensity efforts. If you prescribe a programme asking your athletes to sprint at “60% of their max” or anything like that, they are not performing high intensity interval work.

2) Maximal means “all out”, I see too many “interval sessions” with intensities below 100% of an athlete’s max.

3) Adequate recovery is needed and workloads planned should take into account the ability of the individual involved.

4) Heart rate and blood lactate monitoring will provide you with the necessary  information to be able to manipulate sets vs reps as well as recovery protocols, as well as giving you feedback on how your athlete/client is progressing.

Technorati Tags: Intermittent Exercise,sports science

In the Zone launched

Endorsed by Sir Steve Redgrave, In the Zone aims to engage young people and the general public with the science of how their body works during sport, exercise and movement. I was involved as a member of the advisory group to define the experiments and kit and provide ideas and advice on the interactive touring exhibition. It was a true multidisciplinary effort with experts from a variety of fields from education to textile technology to art. I think the result is amazing and I hope many schools will contact the Wellcome trust to receive the FREE educational kits (you can see them below).

Make sure you visit the website http://www.getinthezone.org.uk/ with all the information about this project as well as details on how to obtain the free kits for your school and the dates of the touring exhibition.

(Primary School kit – credits The Wellcome Trust)

The initiative will send free science investigation kits for every primary school, secondary school and further education college in the UK.

(Secondary School kit – credits The Wellcome Trust)

For primary schools

Download the Curriculum Planning Guide - ages 4-11.

Brilliant Bodies (ages 4-5)
Investigate balance and find out about different parts of the body.

Stupendous Steppers (ages 5-7)
Explore how quick off the mark you are and how many steps you take to do different activities.

Super Athletes (ages 7-9)
Discover whether having longer legs helps you to jump further.

Heart Beaters (ages 9-11)
Find out the effect exercise has on your body and what affects recovery.

For secondary schools and colleges

Download the Curriculum Planning Guide - ages 11-19.

On Your Marks…Get Set…Breathe! (ages 11-14)
Discover how exercise affects your breath and your breathing rate.

From Strength to Strength (ages 14-16)
Explore the strength of your muscles and discover how they are used during movement.

I've Got the Power (ages 16-19)
Investigate how the cardiovascular system adapts during different exercise or sports.

Here is a short movie about the project.

New interesting article on massage

I am currently editing a publication on recovery modalities and have been reading a lot about various recovery methods. Massage is and intervention that fascinates me, mostly because it has been used for centuries to treat athletes (if you want to read more, go here).

Massage consists of physical manipulation of muscle and connective tissue at a site of injury, inflexibility or soreness mainly to promote recovery and/or reduction of pain. It is very popular not only in sport. In fact, apparently 18 million individuals undergo massage therapy annually in the USA. The effectiveness of massage is contentious if you read recent reviews (or here). However despite the lack of clear information about the physiological effects of massage, it is used intensively in the sporting community due to the reported beneficial effects on perception of pain and general wellbeing. In some preliminary studies I have been involved as well as empirical observations with the athletes and teams I worked with clearly suggest that the “perceived” effectiveness of massage depends a lot on who is administering this form of manual therapy and in my experiences the relationship between the perception of beneficial effect and the quality of the practitioner did not support a strong link with the masseur’s ability but rather supported the link with personality traits/gender and other placebo related aspects.

A very interesting recent paper published by Prof. Tarnopolsy’s lab seems to show some promising effects of massage on inflammatory signaling after exercise-induced muscle damage. This is the first study to my knowledge where muscle biopsies were obtained and whole-genome microarrays were used to screen for expressed genes induced by massage. Biopsies were obtained in 11 young male subjects at rest, immediately after administration of massage to a randomised single leg and after 2.5 hours period of recovery. The subjects acted as their own control as one leg recived massage and the other leg no massage following cycling to exhaustion on a cycle ergometer starting at an intensity of 60% of their predetermined VO2 peak.

Here are the details of the experiment as presented in the methods section.

“The exercise bout consisted of upright cycling exercise on an electrically braked cycle ergometer (Lode Excalibur, Lode) pedalling at a workload calculated to elicit 60% of their predetermined VO2peak for 30 min at a cycling cadence between 70 and 90 rpm. After 30 min, the intensity was in- creased to a workload equivalent to 65%VO2peak for 5min, then dropped back to 60% for 5 min, increased to 70% VO2peak for 5 min, dropped to 60% for 5 min, etc., to a maximum of 85% VO2peak. If 85% VO2peak was attained, then subjects continued with intervals of 85% VO2peak for 2 min followed by 60% VO2peak for 2 min, etc., until subject exhaustion. Test completion was ascertained when subjects were unable to maintain a cycling cadence above 70 rpm.

Immediately after exercise, subjects were allowed to recover for 10 min while massage oil was lightly applied to both quadriceps. Thereafter, a single leg was randomized to receive massage treatment for 10 min from a registered massage therapist. The massage treatment was composed of three types of soft tissue manipulations while the subject remained in the supine position. Treatment was focused on the knee extensors muscles, encompassing a range of pressures and movement patterns typically provided during a therapy session. The treatment consisted of (i) 2 min of effleurage, a light stroking technique delivered with a moderate pressure; (ii) 3 min of petrissage, a firm motion involving compression and subsequent pres- sure release from the muscle; (iii) 3min of slow muscle stripping, con- sisting of repeated longitudinal strokes of ~40 s; and (iv) an additional 2min of effleurage. All members of the study team were blinded as to which leg was massaged, with the exception of the massage therapist. After massage, the subjects rested for 10min and a muscle biopsy was obtained from the vastus lateralis of each leg (0 hours). Two and a half hours later (3 hours after the cessation of the exercise bout), a biopsy was again obtained from each leg (2.5 hours).”

The results were quite interesting. First, despite the fact that the model used should not produce large muscle damage, it was enough to disrupt a large number of muscle fibers. Muscle metabolites were shown not to be affected by massage. Massage had no effect on muscle lactate levels and glycogen levels measured immediately after massage or 2.5h later. Furthermore, no significant effects were seen in anabolic signaling (phopshorylation of Akt, mTOR, GSK-3a and GSK-3b was not changed by massage).

Muscle from the massaged leg had larger FAK and ERK1/2 phopshorylation immediately after massage, showing the impact of the mechanical stimulation produced by massage.

The most interesting findings related to the increase in the in MAPK-related signaling proteins 2.5 hours after massage, suggesting an augmentation of mitochondrial biogenesis signaling with massage therapy.

Genome profiling results showed a reduction in the nuclear abundance of NFkB 2.5 hours after massage, in parallel with reduced phopshorylation of HSP27 and IL-6 protein content.

In summary, these findings suggest that massage could contribute to an attenuated production of inflammatory cytokines which may reduce pain by similar mechanisms observed by conventional anti-inflammatory drugs. With this in mind, for sure there is a need of more studies using such techniques to understand more about the most effective massage protocols. Moreover, more is needed to understand when not to use massage. In fact, considering the possibility of such intervention of reducing the inflammatory response, one wonders the potential of such intervention to impair the adaptive responses to resistance exercise. Needless to say that more studies are needed using resistance exercise models and well trained individuals to ascertain the potential and the limitations as well as the contra-indications of massage therapy.

Technorati Tags: massage,muscle,inflammation,sports science