Sunday, January 24, 2010
HIIT (on bikes) - why it results in both more fat reduction, and Spot Fat Reduction at That, too than Hearty Steady State
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There are lots of folks espousing the value of HIIT as an effective calorie burner when trying to burn fat. But is there really a special role for HIIT in the fat burning lexicon, or should we just strive to work harder - like 50-75% VO2max - throughout a cardio session? Some more recent work suggests there may be in terms of metabolic activity and even spot fat reduction. But before we go there, let's refresh a bit about HIIT.
The old argument that HIIT burns more calories than Steady State and so is beter has been given a good walloping by Lyle McDonald. Especially in his head to head of steady state with HIIT he pretty persuasively shows that "The intervals only come out a TINY bit ahead if you compare workouts of identical length and even there the difference is absolutely insignificant."
Review: What's HIIT supposed to Do?
Indeed, work from 2008 lead by Shannan E.
Gormley comparing intervals to a decent level of steady state effort did show a benefit for intervals of a sort, but the question for the researchers is what's the optimal time to spend at that peak intensity in an interval to elicit this effect? As cited previously here, the authors state:
So what about fat loss & HIIT, then?
HIIT means high intensity interval protocol. But what is the best HIIT to do if you're tuning it for fat lost first, and anything else second? And does it make a difference if you're dealing with elite athletes or people who are just well enough conditioned so their hearts won't explode if you ask them to go "really hard" for a bit? Is it 60 secs on? 30 off? 60:60? The infamous tabatta on for 20 off for 10 - and remember that was not primarily a fat burning study but an anaerobic/aerobic capacity study.
In 2007 & 2008 a couple studies came out on HIIT from New South Wales as part of some cool PhD work lead by Gail Trapp that i have come to cite frequently about a great HIIT protocol for fat loss and other cool, related benefits that looked explicitly at intervals for fat burning and effects between conditioned and less conditioned participants. Here's the first one, looking at what different HIIT intervals stir up metabolically.
Any type of heart rate elevation triggers some catecholamine response - so does drinking green tea. But what the authors show
here is that both long and short high intensity efforts - sprints in this case - can be effective to trigger greater catecholomine release, but the longer 24 sec sprint with its equivalent longer recovery seems to be better overall for fat mobilization. That's cool. That's actually less work/minute at 24 secs on 36 off than the shorter burst of 8on/12off (24sec vs 40secs of work). Wow. So longer more intense intervals - not necessarily more work - yields higher levels of fat release for fuel - but both the shorties and the longies are good.
Applying these Inervals to Fat Loss. Trapp and Co. then took this finding to a larger cohort of 45 participants (up from 8 and 8), and went longitudinal running a 15 week study. 15 weeks is *good* for 45 people to hang in there.
To be clear, in the second study, gals in the HIIT group did a five minute warm up, followed by 20mins of 8sec sprint followed by 12s of 20-30rpm recovery. The load was continually adjusted over the course of 15 weeks, starting at everyone getting to 20mins at .5kg of resistance. Based on heart rate, the load was upped by .5kg so that the heart effect was consistent as folks got stronger.
The steady state group worked at 60%V02peak - that's a good clip - about 75% maxHR so no slouching there. They worked up from 10mins to 40mins. The mean heart rate of the groups was 168.6 for the HIIT group; 155.7 for the steady state group (participants were 18-30 years old).
As to the fat loss: There was significant FM loss (P less than 0.05) r="−0.58,">This last point is not surprising, based on energy available for fuel from fat relative to bodyfat % (discussed here). The authors come back to this point stating:
Discussion of Findings - Cautious optimism for Intense Intervals
The authors in true geek science-ness don't overegg the results:
more fat available as fuel in the blood ready to be used, Trapp's crew hypothesizes, maybe people doing HIIT just aren't homeostatically tweaked to reach for calorically dense foods - their bodies know they have that covered. That's a really intersting idea. I wonder if doing HIIT closer to meal times enhances this effect, if that's what's going on.
What about this seeming spot reduction? But even if you want to say there are interesting side effects going on with HIIT that are causing these fat loss responses, the authors' key result is this abdominal fat difference. HIIT took OFF some ab fat; Steady state, i'm sorry to say, put some on. Dang.
Here's where exercise type may play an important role in whether or not this spot effect is achieved. The authors postulate the following:
Translating Results to Other Modes? Do these findings translate to other modalities for HIIT - like oh i dunno, maybe kettlebells? Don't know. Perhaps that would be an interesting comparison for bike, hardstyle with it's tension at the top of the swing say, and that hip/core/lat activation, and GS with its more relaxed swing. Do GS/HS differences fall away as the bell weight gets heavier?
In the meantime, the authors offer the following:
While the authors tested their participants with the 8/12 interval, their earlier work with the 24/36 suggests the benefits might be even greater - on a bike, but maybe with a kettlebell or a rowing machine, too.
Take Away: the Skinny on the Fat & HIIT
There are at least two ways to talk about HIIT - in the performance arena, and in fat burning. In performance, there is a small but not insignificant edge to interval work over intense steady state. In fat burning there is a really significant effect. Here's what i think it is.
While the authors make much of the spot fat reduction - and that's not nothing - the more intriguing thing is that *only* the HIIE group lost fat & had their lean body mass go up.
I've cited before work to show that without diet, any weight loss changes, even over 12 weeks of working out are small. In this case, there was no deliberate dietary intervention. So that there was such fat loss without more or less trying dietarily as well is really kinda eye openingly "what the heck?"
So i am intrigued by the authors' speculation about that catecholamine effect and glycerol release and potential effect on let's say homeostasis - a reduced reach for high cal foods, naturally. Wow. That makes HIIE worth looking at from a whole other point that has a whole lot less to do with the calories burned on the bike and the effect of those intervals throughout every other day of the week. And that's only 3*15. What would 3days at 20 or 30 or 40 minutes do? More is not always better - and intervals can be fatiguing but. Hmm.
Related Posts
main refs
There are lots of folks espousing the value of HIIT as an effective calorie burner when trying to burn fat. But is there really a special role for HIIT in the fat burning lexicon, or should we just strive to work harder - like 50-75% VO2max - throughout a cardio session? Some more recent work suggests there may be in terms of metabolic activity and even spot fat reduction. But before we go there, let's refresh a bit about HIIT.The old argument that HIIT burns more calories than Steady State and so is beter has been given a good walloping by Lyle McDonald. Especially in his head to head of steady state with HIIT he pretty persuasively shows that "The intervals only come out a TINY bit ahead if you compare workouts of identical length and even there the difference is absolutely insignificant."
Review: What's HIIT supposed to Do?
Indeed, work from 2008 lead by Shannan E.
Gormley comparing intervals to a decent level of steady state effort did show a benefit for intervals of a sort, but the question for the researchers is what's the optimal time to spend at that peak intensity in an interval to elicit this effect? As cited previously here, the authors state:It should be noted that although interval training groups spend some of their training time at a very high intensity, a similar amount of time is spent at a lower intensity, and therefore the mean intensity of training may not be any higher than that of a continuous training program. In the current study, the interval training group used 5 min each for the work and the recovery phases of the intervals and had an average intensity of 72% HRR, which is slightly less than the 75% HRR of the vigorous [the steady state -mc] group. The work-recovery periods of Helgerud et al.[16] were 4 min at ∼93% HRmax and 3 min at 70% HRmax, for a mean intensity of 83% HRmax in the interval group, whereas one of the continuous groups used 85% HRmax. Warburton et al.[37] used 2 min at 90% HRR and 2 min at 40% HRR for the work and the recovery phases, yielding a mean intensity of 65% HRR in the interval group, and had the continuous training group use 65% HRR. Wisloff et al.[38] used 4-min work phases at ∼93% HRmax and 3-min recovery phases at 60% HRmax, for a mean intensity of 79% HRmax in the interval group, and used ∼73% HRmax in the continuous training group. Despite the similarity of mean intensity between the interval and the continuous training groups, the interval groups in all of these studies experienced greater improvements in aerobic fitness after training. Therefore, although intensity is a key variable in cardiorespiratory training (as shown by comparing the two continuous training groups in this study), the mean intensity may not be as important as the highest intensity that is used for a significant portion of the training. A topic for future research is to determine what portion of training should be done at high intensities and using what work-recovery periods to obtain the greatest resultsThe above is looking not at fat loss effects of intervals, but training to enhance oxidative capacity for performance. More recently even really brief intense bouts of exercise (like 6 mins a week of effort compared with hours of steady state for the same physiological effect as hours of 60% MaxHR), there are similar kinds of performance benefits. So, there seem to be some performance optimization benefits from (a) looking at finding the right balance of peak intensity to recovery for work sessions and (b) looking at supramaximal efforts that may have similar effects in less time. Again, that's performance, not fat loss, and in the former case, we are talking really small degrees of difference.
So what about fat loss & HIIT, then?
HIIT means high intensity interval protocol. But what is the best HIIT to do if you're tuning it for fat lost first, and anything else second? And does it make a difference if you're dealing with elite athletes or people who are just well enough conditioned so their hearts won't explode if you ask them to go "really hard" for a bit? Is it 60 secs on? 30 off? 60:60? The infamous tabatta on for 20 off for 10 - and remember that was not primarily a fat burning study but an anaerobic/aerobic capacity study.
In 2007 & 2008 a couple studies came out on HIIT from New South Wales as part of some cool PhD work lead by Gail Trapp that i have come to cite frequently about a great HIIT protocol for fat loss and other cool, related benefits that looked explicitly at intervals for fat burning and effects between conditioned and less conditioned participants. Here's the first one, looking at what different HIIT intervals stir up metabolically.
Am J Physiol Regul Integr Comp Physiol. 2007 Dec;293(6):R2370-5. Epub 2007 Sep 26.Fat Mobilization: Freed for the Burning. Ah ha you say, there's no fat loss measured here. Right. But what IS measured here is catecholamine activation. Those threat response fight or flight hormones are what mobilize fat to get burned, baby burned. And from these the authors suggest a correlation to the level of catecholamine released and the level of glycerol to be found in the blood stream. In other words, higher degree of intensity, greater catecholamine release, more fat mobilised to be used for fuel.
Metabolic response of trained and untrained women during high-intensity intermittent cycle exercise.
Trapp EG, Chisholm DJ, Boutcher SH.
School of Medical Sciences, Faculty of Medicine, Univ. of New South Wales, Sydney 2052, Australia. e.trapp@unsw.edu.au
The metabolic response to two different forms of high-intensity intermittent cycle exercise was investigated in young women. Subjects (8 trained and 8 untrained) performed two bouts of high-intensity intermittent exercise: short sprint (SS) (8-s sprint, 12-s recovery) and long sprint (LS) (24-s sprint, 36-s recovery) for 20 min on two separate occasions. Both workload and oxygen uptake were greater in the trained subjects but were not significantly different for SS and LS. Plasma glycerol concentrations significantly increased during exercise. Lactate concentrations rose over the 20 min and were higher for the trained women. Catecholamine concentration was also higher postexercise compared with preexercise for both groups. Both SS and LS produced similar metabolic response although both lactate and catecholamines were higher after the 24-s sprint. In conclusion, these results show that high-intensity intermittent exercise resulted in significant elevations in catecholamines that appear to be related to increased venous glycerol concentrations. The trained compared with the untrained women tended to show an earlier increase in plasma glycerol concentrations during high-intensity exercise.
Any type of heart rate elevation triggers some catecholamine response - so does drinking green tea. But what the authors show
here is that both long and short high intensity efforts - sprints in this case - can be effective to trigger greater catecholomine release, but the longer 24 sec sprint with its equivalent longer recovery seems to be better overall for fat mobilization. That's cool. That's actually less work/minute at 24 secs on 36 off than the shorter burst of 8on/12off (24sec vs 40secs of work). Wow. So longer more intense intervals - not necessarily more work - yields higher levels of fat release for fuel - but both the shorties and the longies are good.Applying these Inervals to Fat Loss. Trapp and Co. then took this finding to a larger cohort of 45 participants (up from 8 and 8), and went longitudinal running a 15 week study. 15 weeks is *good* for 45 people to hang in there.
Int J Obes (Lond). 2008 Apr;32(4):684-91. Epub 2008 Jan 15.
The effects of high-intensity intermittent exercise training on fat loss and fasting insulin levels of young women.
Trapp EG, Chisholm DJ, Freund J, Boutcher SH.
Faculty of Medicine, University of New South Wales, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. e.trapp@unsw.edu.au
OBJECTIVE: To determine the effects of a 15-week high-intensity intermittent exercise (HIIE) program on subcutaneous and trunk fat and insulin resistance of young women. DESIGN AND PROCEDURES: Subjects were randomly assigned to one of the three groups: HIIE (n=15), steady-state exercise (SSE; n=15) or control (CONT; n=15). HIIE and SSE groups underwent a 15-week exercise intervention. SUBJECTS: Forty-five women with a mean BMI of 23.2+/-2.0 kg m(-2) and age of 20.2+/-2.0 years. RESULTS: Both exercise groups demonstrated a significant improvement (P<0.05) in cardiovascular fitness. However, only the HIIE group had a significant reduction in total body mass (TBM), fat mass (FM), trunk fat and fasting plasma insulin levels. There was significant fat loss (P<0.05) in legs compared to arms in the HIIE group only. Lean compared to overweight women lost less fat after HIIE. Decreases in leptin concentrations were negatively correlated with increases in VO(2peak) (r=-0.57, P<0.05) and positively correlated with decreases in TBM (r=0.47; P<0.0001). There was no significant change in adiponectin levels after training. CONCLUSIONS: HIIE three times per week for 15 weeks compared to the same frequency of SSE exercise was associated with significant reductions in total body fat, subcutaneous leg and trunk fat, and insulin resistance in young women.
To be clear, in the second study, gals in the HIIT group did a five minute warm up, followed by 20mins of 8sec sprint followed by 12s of 20-30rpm recovery. The load was continually adjusted over the course of 15 weeks, starting at everyone getting to 20mins at .5kg of resistance. Based on heart rate, the load was upped by .5kg so that the heart effect was consistent as folks got stronger.
The steady state group worked at 60%V02peak - that's a good clip - about 75% maxHR so no slouching there. They worked up from 10mins to 40mins. The mean heart rate of the groups was 168.6 for the HIIT group; 155.7 for the steady state group (participants were 18-30 years old).
As to the fat loss: There was significant FM loss (P less than 0.05) r="−0.58,">This last point is not surprising, based on energy available for fuel from fat relative to bodyfat % (discussed here). The authors come back to this point stating:
High-intensity intermittent exercise training had a marked effect on fat levels for some individuals and a moderate effect for others. The correlation (r=0.58, P less than 0.01)43, 44 The four moderate fat loss responders in the HIIE group (women who had a 3% or less decrease in total fat) possessed significantly lower initial FM than the other women. With the four lean women removed, the mean fat loss in the HIIE group was 3.94±0.91 kg resulting in a 4.3% decrease in body mass and a 14.7% decrease in total FM. This 3.94-kg fat loss compares favorably to the 1.15-kg weight loss reported in a recent meta-analysis of the effects of SEE on weight loss.That all sounds good and reasonable and wonderful, but then comes the particularly interesting bits - gosh what would almost seem like spot fat reductions:
High-intensity intermittent exercise led to a significant decrease (P less than 0.05) in central abdominal fat (−0.15plus or minus 0.07 kg), whereas the SSE and CONT groups had nonsignificant increases in central abdominal fat (SSE group, +0.1 plus or minus 0.08 kg; CONT group, +0.03 plus or minus 0.04 kg).So more weight off the gut area in HIIT, legs and trunk (other newer work (like this one Nov 08 lead by Irving, and this one Aug 09 lead by Coker ) has seen similar results with gut fat). Intriguingly all groups put on fat in the arms (but not a lot). Indeed, the gut fat loss the authors cite as THE finding of the study. Even more, they state
Despite exercising half the time, HIIE subjects in the present study lost 11.2% of total FM with SSE subjects experiencing no fat loss.That's a pretty big difference between the two groups
Discussion of Findings - Cautious optimism for Intense Intervals
The authors in true geek science-ness don't overegg the results:
Collectively, these results demonstrate that intermittent sprinting compared to SEE is a more effective and efficient way of controlling body composition. However, our estimates of energy expenditure and intake lack sufficient precision to comfortably conclude that energy balance was unaffected in the HIIE condition. Thus, it is feasible that the change in FM that occurred in HIIE may have been influenced by unreported changes in diet. Indeed, HIIE-induced suppressed diet intake may be one of a number of possible factors underlying the fat loss effect of HIIE.11 For example, HIIE may have suppressed appetite or decreased attraction for energy-dense foods.24, 25 Another explanation for the HIIE fat loss effects is that this type of exercise may result in enhanced lipid utilization. Prior research in our laboratory has shown that lipid release, as indicated by blood glycerol levels, gradually increased over 20 min of HIIE.20 Catecholamine levels in this study were also found to be significantly elevated after HIIE.20Free Fat. I love this! Because of that catecholomine hit we saw earlier, and because there's
more fat available as fuel in the blood ready to be used, Trapp's crew hypothesizes, maybe people doing HIIT just aren't homeostatically tweaked to reach for calorically dense foods - their bodies know they have that covered. That's a really intersting idea. I wonder if doing HIIT closer to meal times enhances this effect, if that's what's going on. What about this seeming spot reduction? But even if you want to say there are interesting side effects going on with HIIT that are causing these fat loss responses, the authors' key result is this abdominal fat difference. HIIT took OFF some ab fat; Steady state, i'm sorry to say, put some on. Dang.
Here's where exercise type may play an important role in whether or not this spot effect is achieved. The authors postulate the following:
It is considered that spot reduction (that is, deliberately reducing fat stores in specific areas of the body) is not possible, and the body will mobilize preferentially those stores with the highest concentrations of adipose cells.36, 37, 38 There is evidence in the current study that this principle may not apply to every exercise modality. In HIIE, where work is done primarily by the musculature of the legs and the trunk muscles act as stabilizers, there was a decrease in FM and an increase in lean mass, which summated to a significant change in percentage of fat in these two regions. This was not the case with the SSE group.So where work triggers core stabilizers to get that extra intensity, there may be a seeming spot fat loss effect. It's also interesting to note that only the HIIT group had lean body mass increase.
Translating Results to Other Modes? Do these findings translate to other modalities for HIIT - like oh i dunno, maybe kettlebells? Don't know. Perhaps that would be an interesting comparison for bike, hardstyle with it's tension at the top of the swing say, and that hip/core/lat activation, and GS with its more relaxed swing. Do GS/HS differences fall away as the bell weight gets heavier?In the meantime, the authors offer the following:
In conclusion, 20 min of HIIE [on a bike - mc] , performed three times per week for 15 weeks compared to the same frequency of 40min of SSE exercise was associated with significant reductions in fasting insulin, total body fat, subcutaneous leg fat and abdominal fat.
While the authors tested their participants with the 8/12 interval, their earlier work with the 24/36 suggests the benefits might be even greater - on a bike, but maybe with a kettlebell or a rowing machine, too.
Take Away: the Skinny on the Fat & HIIT
There are at least two ways to talk about HIIT - in the performance arena, and in fat burning. In performance, there is a small but not insignificant edge to interval work over intense steady state. In fat burning there is a really significant effect. Here's what i think it is.
While the authors make much of the spot fat reduction - and that's not nothing - the more intriguing thing is that *only* the HIIE group lost fat & had their lean body mass go up.
I've cited before work to show that without diet, any weight loss changes, even over 12 weeks of working out are small. In this case, there was no deliberate dietary intervention. So that there was such fat loss without more or less trying dietarily as well is really kinda eye openingly "what the heck?"
So i am intrigued by the authors' speculation about that catecholamine effect and glycerol release and potential effect on let's say homeostasis - a reduced reach for high cal foods, naturally. Wow. That makes HIIE worth looking at from a whole other point that has a whole lot less to do with the calories burned on the bike and the effect of those intervals throughout every other day of the week. And that's only 3*15. What would 3days at 20 or 30 or 40 minutes do? More is not always better - and intervals can be fatiguing but. Hmm.
Related Posts
- Kettlebells and Cardio - it doesn't have to be VO2max all the time
- Viking Warrior Conditioning, the Review with Kenneth Jay
- Does Cardio interfer with Strength work? How 'bout No
- Running the bells - hill workouts with kettlebells
- Weight loss doesn't work without Diet - really [story 1, story 2]
- Fat, the amazing fuel.
- Getting a handle on the habits of thinner peace (as martha beck calls it)
main refs
Trapp, E., Chisholm, D., Freund, J., & Boutcher, S. (2008). The effects of high-intensity intermittent exercise training on fat loss and fasting insulin levels of young women International Journal of Obesity, 32 (4), 684-691 DOI: 10.1038/sj.ijo.0803781Tweet Follow @begin2dig
GORMLEY, S., SWAIN, D., HIGH, R., SPINA, R., DOWLING, E., KOTIPALLI, U., & GANDRAKOTA, R. (2008). Effect of Intensity of Aerobic Training on VO2max Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise, 40 (7), 1336-1343 DOI: 10.1249/MSS.0b013e31816c4839
Trapp, E., Chisholm, D., & Boutcher, S. (2007). Metabolic response of trained and untrained women during high-intensity intermittent cycle exercise AJP: Regulatory, Integrative and Comparative Physiology, 293 (6) DOI: 10.1152/ajpregu.00780.2006
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Thursday, January 21, 2010
Fasting and Workouts: does it work out?
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There is growing interest in intermittent fasting and athletic performance - or how can i train if i'm not eating? In the past year 
there have been a couple of cool studies looking at athletic performance and the effects of the Ramdam fast on same. The Ramadan fast is, to the best of my knowledge, a total break in eating for part of a day: from sun up to sun down, no food. Since this is the time of day most athletes train, one might think going without food would make training impossible, or that athletes would start to cave in competition against their opponents.
So no kidding this particular combo of IF and Sport has been studied a LOT - just put ramadam and exercise into Pubmed, and you'll see.
There was a large study, however, carried out in 2006 and reported on in 2008. The study involved three teams that lived in residence at the training ground. The abstract is so complete, rather than paraphrase, let me present it here.
What this and other studies have noted, however, and you can see it in the recommendation of the last line - is that athletes' biggest issue was their perception of sleep quality - feeling like the had about an hour less a night than when they weren't fasting. One other report was that, even though the actual performance measures were not impacted, they did subjectively feel less ready to train than when they weren't fasting. Training was about an 11h day, by the way.
CAVEAT: I have to note that the funding for the study was provided by FIFA, and it makes sense that it would be in their interests to find that religious observance did not interfere with physical/professional requirements. On the other hand, they might be just as keen to know if there was a problem with their highly paid athletes not being able to perform optimally.
So what's a geek to do? Look for more evidence. A 2009 review of the literature on athletes and Ramadam seems to concur with the above outcomes being repeated in other studies, and so it asks a new question: what the heck is going on to let athletes perform well under these conditions?
Take Away: In the context of a 30 day, summer daylight fast (long days; shorter nights) as Ramadan is at least for people practicing it in Tunisia, it is possible to fast during that time, when eating and resting appropriately on either side of the fast to support athletic training consisting mainly of endurance style effort for football.
This approach to eating for training at very limited times raises interesting questions about nutrient timing. We also don't know what would happen if this approach to training were carried on longer than a month.
Indeed, in the fifa funded study (the first one, above) there's a reported satelite study that showed that after the fast, in the two weeks of follow up, the post-fasting team members' endurance went up.
While this finding is different than the approach in Intermittent Fastingof work like Eat Stop Eat (24hour long fasts, max) that says it's ok to fast and resistance train in a fasted state; there's no muscle loss as long as resistance work is kept up, can we say categorically that fasting and training go well together? There's a seemingly obvious kind of correlation that says, at least for brief periods - whether 24 hours of no eating, or 30 days of daylight limited eating - we can handle training in a fasted state.
Whether this is optimal or not is not clear, but it seems to be at least ok.
Related Posts
citations:
Zerguini Y, Dvorak J, Maughan RJ, Leiper JB, Bartagi Z, Kirkendall DT, Al-Riyami M, & Junge A (2008). Influence of Ramadan fasting on physiological and performance variables in football players: summary of the F-MARC 2006 Ramadan fasting study. Journal of sports sciences, 26 Suppl 3 PMID: 19085447
Chaouachi A, Leiper JB, Souissi N, Coutts AJ, & Chamari K (2009). Effects of Ramadan intermittent fasting on sports performance and training: a review. International journal of sports physiology and performance, 4 (4), 419-34 PMID: 20029094 Tweet Follow @begin2dig
There is growing interest in intermittent fasting and athletic performance - or how can i train if i'm not eating? In the past year there have been a couple of cool studies looking at athletic performance and the effects of the Ramdam fast on same. The Ramadan fast is, to the best of my knowledge, a total break in eating for part of a day: from sun up to sun down, no food. Since this is the time of day most athletes train, one might think going without food would make training impossible, or that athletes would start to cave in competition against their opponents.So no kidding this particular combo of IF and Sport has been studied a LOT - just put ramadam and exercise into Pubmed, and you'll see.
There was a large study, however, carried out in 2006 and reported on in 2008. The study involved three teams that lived in residence at the training ground. The abstract is so complete, rather than paraphrase, let me present it here.
J Sports Sci. 2008 Dec;26 Suppl 3:S3-6.SO, pretty much doing a ramadam style sunrise to sunset fast doesn't negatively impact pretty durn intense competitive training.
Influence of Ramadan fasting on physiological and performance variables in football players: summary of the F-MARC 2006 Ramadan fasting study.
Zerguini Y, Dvorak J, Maughan RJ, Leiper JB, Bartagi Z, Kirkendall DT, Al-Riyami M, Junge A.
Centre d'Evaluation et d'Expertise en Medecine du Sport, Algiers, Algeria.
The timing of food and liquid intake depends on the times of sunset and sunrise during the month of Ramadan. The current body of knowledge presents contradicting results as to the effect of Ramadan fasting on body mass, body composition and metabolic changes. The main objective of the present investigation was to gain additional information and scientific data in conformity with the philosophical background of Islam to allow optimisation of the daily training and dietary regimen in relation to the mental and physical performance of football players. The four teams, along with their coaches and trainers, attended a residential training camp at training centre 3 weeks before the start of Ramadan and throughout the study. Energy intake was relatively stable in the fasting group, but there was a small, albeit significant, decrease of approximately 0.7 kg in body mass. Water intake increased on average by 1.3 l/day in line with the greater energy intake in the non-fasting group in Ramadan. Daily sodium intake fell during Ramadan in the fasting players but increased slightly in the non-fasting group. Fasting players trained on average 11 h after their last food and drink, and reported that they felt slightly less ready to train during the Ramadan fast. None of the assessed performance variables was negatively affected by fasting while nearly all variables showed significant improvement at the third test session, indicating a training effect. Heart rate measurements in one training session during the third week of Ramadan appeared to suggest that the training load during training was marginally greater for the fasting than for the non-fasting players. However, the overall exercise load measures indicated that there was no biologically significant difference between the fasting and non-fasting groups. In the present study, biochemical, nutritional, subjective well-being and performance variables were not adversely affected in young male football players who followed Ramadan fasting in a controlled training camp environment. Physical performance generally improved, but match performance was not measured. We recommend that players should ensure adequate sleep and good nutrition during Ramadan to preserve football performance and general health.
What this and other studies have noted, however, and you can see it in the recommendation of the last line - is that athletes' biggest issue was their perception of sleep quality - feeling like the had about an hour less a night than when they weren't fasting. One other report was that, even though the actual performance measures were not impacted, they did subjectively feel less ready to train than when they weren't fasting. Training was about an 11h day, by the way.
CAVEAT: I have to note that the funding for the study was provided by FIFA, and it makes sense that it would be in their interests to find that religious observance did not interfere with physical/professional requirements. On the other hand, they might be just as keen to know if there was a problem with their highly paid athletes not being able to perform optimally.
So what's a geek to do? Look for more evidence. A 2009 review of the literature on athletes and Ramadam seems to concur with the above outcomes being repeated in other studies, and so it asks a new question: what the heck is going on to let athletes perform well under these conditions?
That's cool when a summative paper actually says ok, based on this what are the cool questions to look at, and there are at least two: (a) what's happening physiologically to allow this kind of performance, despite less than optimal feelings about it and (b) how come this doesn't seem to work for some people - some people's performance does go down. Why/how are they different?
Int J Sports Physiol Perform. 2009 Dec;4(4):419-34.
Effects of ramadan intermittent fasting on sports performance and training: a review.
Chaouachi A, Leiper JB, Souissi N, Coutts AJ, Chamari K.
Research Unit "Evaluation, Sport, Health," National Centre of Medicine and Science in Sport, Tunis, Tunisia.
The month-long diurnal Ramadan fast imposes a major challenge to Islamic athletes. Sporting events are programmed throughout the year, with the result that training and competition are often scheduled during Ramadan. The small numbers of well-controlled studies that have examined the effects of Ramadan on athletic performance suggest that few aspects of physical fitness are negatively affected, and only modest decrements are observed. Whereas subjective feelings of fatigue and other mood indicators are often cited as implying additional stress on the athlete throughout Ramadan, most studies show these measures may not be reflected in decreases in performance. The development and early implementation of sensible eating and sleeping strategies can greatly alleviate the disruptions to training and competitiveness, thus allowing the athlete to perform at a high level while undertaking the religious intermittent fast. Nevertheless, further research is required to understand the mechanisms and energy pathways that allow athletes to maintain their performance capacities during Ramadan, and which factors are responsible for the observed decrements in performance of some individuals.
Take Away: In the context of a 30 day, summer daylight fast (long days; shorter nights) as Ramadan is at least for people practicing it in Tunisia, it is possible to fast during that time, when eating and resting appropriately on either side of the fast to support athletic training consisting mainly of endurance style effort for football.
This approach to eating for training at very limited times raises interesting questions about nutrient timing. We also don't know what would happen if this approach to training were carried on longer than a month.Indeed, in the fifa funded study (the first one, above) there's a reported satelite study that showed that after the fast, in the two weeks of follow up, the post-fasting team members' endurance went up.
While this finding is different than the approach in Intermittent Fastingof work like Eat Stop Eat (24hour long fasts, max) that says it's ok to fast and resistance train in a fasted state; there's no muscle loss as long as resistance work is kept up, can we say categorically that fasting and training go well together? There's a seemingly obvious kind of correlation that says, at least for brief periods - whether 24 hours of no eating, or 30 days of daylight limited eating - we can handle training in a fasted state.
Whether this is optimal or not is not clear, but it seems to be at least ok.
Related Posts
- time of day to train? location location location
- b2d nutrition articles
- review of science claims of warrior diet
- glucomannan - help feeling full when going low cal
- precision nutrition - learning about one's body and food for body comp
citations:
Zerguini Y, Dvorak J, Maughan RJ, Leiper JB, Bartagi Z, Kirkendall DT, Al-Riyami M, & Junge A (2008). Influence of Ramadan fasting on physiological and performance variables in football players: summary of the F-MARC 2006 Ramadan fasting study. Journal of sports sciences, 26 Suppl 3 PMID: 19085447
Chaouachi A, Leiper JB, Souissi N, Coutts AJ, & Chamari K (2009). Effects of Ramadan intermittent fasting on sports performance and training: a review. International journal of sports physiology and performance, 4 (4), 419-34 PMID: 20029094 Tweet Follow @begin2dig
Tuesday, January 19, 2010
Glucomannan: the Super Weight Loss Satiety Support Supplement (with Fiber, too)
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Lawd, it can be hard when dieting to get enough fiber. Turns out there's a supplement that's been investigated since the 198o's at least that actually seems to keep showing up only positive results in all sorts of contexts. Glucomannan. The fiber of the Konjac root. A soluble fiber, but, what's more, it seems to enhance satiety with less food. And is safe. And seems to do many other Wonderful Things.
I first heard about this stuff in a Precision Nutrition interview with phd Casandra Forsythe of New Rules of Lifting for Women fame. Then there's this cool video on T-Nation showing how much liquid a bit of glucomannan absorbs.
Success -on so many levels.
Studies looking at adding glucomannan to calorie-restricted diets have consistently found that glucomannan groups lose more fat than the non-fiber'd up groups. In one study in 2005, over 5 weeks, the GM group dropped an additional .8/kg. Indeed, in a review of research done on GM and obesity up to 2005 found that adding 2-4g of the stuff to food a day had good weightloss effects while also doing other good things like lipid status, carb tolerance and satiety (as talked about way back in 92 as well).
Fat Related. The review reiterated what's been one of the earliest findings with GM: resduced serum cholesterol AND ldl (1984). IN looking at likely the most popular soluble fiber sup, psyllium, it *seems* that the results on lipoproteins levels are better with GM too.
Weight Loss. In the weightloss space, though, terms like carb tolerance and statiety are really important. Does the person on the calorie restricted diet feel full? That may reduce cheating. Satiety turns out to be a huge topic, and achieving satiety on 1200kcals, for example, is no small thing.
Likewise, being better able to handle starchy carbs means better insulin sensitivity means potentially not taking on board quite so many since one's getting the benefit from them that's approriate with appropriate insulin response.
Related Symptoms? Heck probiotics (eat yogurt) + GM have been shown to reduce acne.
Better Movement. Likekwise having good bowel movements while dieting can be a real challenge. Since gut health is a huge indicator it seems of overall wellbeing, lots of dieters tend to reach for psyllium as a main fiber solutions.
Turns out, though, there are advantages to going the soluble route with glucomannan. Besides just getting better more regular BM's, in a 2006 study, the group using GM (aka Konjac) also shows a significant increase in bifidobacteria, lactobacilli and total bacteria. You know, that friendly stuff we need. The GM "supplement also promoted colonic fermentation as shown in the decreased fecal pH (P < href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19282532">this is one supplement that's actually being suggested can play a role as part of a regimen with kids, where other diet approaches - like drugs - cannot.
Why Does it Work for Weight Loss?
Glucomannan does so many good things, it sounds like it's compressing every thing that goes
along with just eating right into one humble but potent powder. But for most folks doing diets, a biggie reason for adding a little GM (like 4 g, 1.5/meal mixed in with food, not caps) to our lives may be that simply eating less leaves us feeling fuller rather than lesser.
This effect of feeling full is not necessarily obvious - having a full gut does not always leave one feeling satisfied (review of gut triggering brain mechanisms; review of meal size brain signaling). One can have their stomach filled up with water, and as many dieters know, a stomach that's full - of water - doesn't necessarily result in a lack of desire to eat more. So what glucomannan seems to be doing within food use is to assist in having less food register as more satisfying, tripping off those sensors in the gut/brain signaling that say less is more in this case. That is very cool.
That it also helps with "increased fecal energy" as that 2005 review suggests, may be one more reason towards simply feeling better with what one is doing more of the day - i speculate. But feeling good is feeeling good.
Recommendation: If you are struggling with aspects of low-cal'ing, from feeling full, to having healthy bowel movements, glucomannan may be just the ticket. If you have LDL issues as well and are dieting, this may also be a good supplement in any case. Check with your Doc if you're on any medication that may be counterindicated.
Related:
Citations
Lawd, it can be hard when dieting to get enough fiber. Turns out there's a supplement that's been investigated since the 198o's at least that actually seems to keep showing up only positive results in all sorts of contexts. Glucomannan. The fiber of the Konjac root. A soluble fiber, but, what's more, it seems to enhance satiety with less food. And is safe. And seems to do many other Wonderful Things.I first heard about this stuff in a Precision Nutrition interview with phd Casandra Forsythe of New Rules of Lifting for Women fame. Then there's this cool video on T-Nation showing how much liquid a bit of glucomannan absorbs.Success -on so many levels.
Studies looking at adding glucomannan to calorie-restricted diets have consistently found that glucomannan groups lose more fat than the non-fiber'd up groups. In one study in 2005, over 5 weeks, the GM group dropped an additional .8/kg. Indeed, in a review of research done on GM and obesity up to 2005 found that adding 2-4g of the stuff to food a day had good weightloss effects while also doing other good things like lipid status, carb tolerance and satiety (as talked about way back in 92 as well).
Fat Related. The review reiterated what's been one of the earliest findings with GM: resduced serum cholesterol AND ldl (1984). IN looking at likely the most popular soluble fiber sup, psyllium, it *seems* that the results on lipoproteins levels are better with GM too.
Weight Loss. In the weightloss space, though, terms like carb tolerance and statiety are really important. Does the person on the calorie restricted diet feel full? That may reduce cheating. Satiety turns out to be a huge topic, and achieving satiety on 1200kcals, for example, is no small thing.
Likewise, being better able to handle starchy carbs means better insulin sensitivity means potentially not taking on board quite so many since one's getting the benefit from them that's approriate with appropriate insulin response.
Related Symptoms? Heck probiotics (eat yogurt) + GM have been shown to reduce acne.
Better Movement. Likekwise having good bowel movements while dieting can be a real challenge. Since gut health is a huge indicator it seems of overall wellbeing, lots of dieters tend to reach for psyllium as a main fiber solutions.
Turns out, though, there are advantages to going the soluble route with glucomannan. Besides just getting better more regular BM's, in a 2006 study, the group using GM (aka Konjac) also shows a significant increase in bifidobacteria, lactobacilli and total bacteria. You know, that friendly stuff we need. The GM "supplement also promoted colonic fermentation as shown in the decreased fecal pH (P < href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19282532">this is one supplement that's actually being suggested can play a role as part of a regimen with kids, where other diet approaches - like drugs - cannot.Why Does it Work for Weight Loss?
Glucomannan does so many good things, it sounds like it's compressing every thing that goes
along with just eating right into one humble but potent powder. But for most folks doing diets, a biggie reason for adding a little GM (like 4 g, 1.5/meal mixed in with food, not caps) to our lives may be that simply eating less leaves us feeling fuller rather than lesser.This effect of feeling full is not necessarily obvious - having a full gut does not always leave one feeling satisfied (review of gut triggering brain mechanisms; review of meal size brain signaling). One can have their stomach filled up with water, and as many dieters know, a stomach that's full - of water - doesn't necessarily result in a lack of desire to eat more. So what glucomannan seems to be doing within food use is to assist in having less food register as more satisfying, tripping off those sensors in the gut/brain signaling that say less is more in this case. That is very cool.
That it also helps with "increased fecal energy" as that 2005 review suggests, may be one more reason towards simply feeling better with what one is doing more of the day - i speculate. But feeling good is feeeling good.
Recommendation: If you are struggling with aspects of low-cal'ing, from feeling full, to having healthy bowel movements, glucomannan may be just the ticket. If you have LDL issues as well and are dieting, this may also be a good supplement in any case. Check with your Doc if you're on any medication that may be counterindicated.
Related:
Citations
Birketvedt GS, Shimshi M, Erling T, & Florholmen J (2005). Experiences with three different fiber supplements in weight reduction. Medical science monitor : international medical journal of experimental and clinical research, 11 (1) PMID: 15614200Tweet Follow @begin2dig
Keithley J, & Swanson B (2005). Glucomannan and obesity: a critical review. Alternative therapies in health and medicine, 11 (6), 30-4 PMID: 16320857
Walsh DE, Yaghoubian V, & Behforooz A (1984). Effect of glucomannan on obese patients: a clinical study. International journal of obesity, 8 (4), 289-93 PMID: 6096282
Sartore, G., Reitano, R., Barison, A., Magnanini, P., Cosma, C., Burlina, S., Manzato, E., Fedele, D., & Lapolla, A. (2009). The effects of psyllium on lipoproteins in type II diabetic patients European Journal of Clinical Nutrition, 63 (10), 1269-1271 DOI: 10.1038/ejcn.2009.60
Al-Ghazzewi FH, & Tester RF (2009). Effect of konjac glucomannan hydrolysates and probiotics on the growth of the skin bacterium Propionibacterium acnes in vitro. International journal of cosmetic science PMID: 19818083
Marsicano LJ, Berrizbeitia ML, & Mondelo A (1995). [Use of glucomannan dietary fiber in changes in intestinal habit] G.E.N, 49 (1), 7-14 PMID: 8566676
deFonseka A, & Kaunitz J (2009). Gut sensing mechanisms. Current gastroenterology reports, 11 (6), 442-7 PMID: 19903419
Grill, H. (2010). Leptin and the systems neuroscience of meal size control Frontiers in Neuroendocrinology, 31 (1), 61-78 DOI: 10.1016/j.yfrne.2009.10.005
Monday, January 18, 2010
Eye Health: How Fast can You Switch Focus?
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There are huge benefits from actually practicing eye movement, speed of focal accommodation being one of them. How quickly can we shift from where we're looking now to refocus where the next target is?
Tech Tip of the day: Near Far Eye Drills. The idea of this simple drill is to work the muscles of the eye that help focus. The drill is taught as part of a suite of eye health movement drills in z-health (what's that?) on both the Neural Warm Up I and the S-Phase Complete Athlete, Volume 1 DVDs (reviewed here).
In the following excerpt from the S-Phase DVD, Master Z-Health Trainer and Sr RKC Sara Cheatham demos how the drill works: one hand far, one hand near; switch focus between hands as quickly as possible for reps; switch hands.
The goal of the drill is not just to move our eyes from the near hand to the far hand, but to move our eyes to the other object and FOCUS on that object, so it's important to make sure that our hands are set at distances relative to our eyes that will require that re-focus/acquisition. By practicing this simple drill, we can improve the speed of acquisition. We likewise help keep our eye muscles in better responsive physical shape.
Start off with this drill slowly: when we're not used to working our eyes, we can get a headache pretty quickly. Also watch for signs of stress: shoulders hunching up, face getting tight. A few deep breaths in through the nose, out slowly through pursed lips, and we're likely good to go again.
The benefits are huge in a sport context of speedy target acquisition, but in regular life, practicing responsiveness can be a life saver, too. The eyes are our primary sensory system - before vestibular, before proprioception. The more quickly we can detect something with practiced efficiency, the less stress in an actual event, the more skill brought to the action requiring a response.
Another quick tip? Try using your eyes to see something before turning your head - but again, go slowly. This can be fatiguing quickly when unaccustomed to the motion. Eye rather than head movement has lots of neurological benefits too, described in this post on the arthrokinetic reflex. Doing so also simply works the muscles of the eye in a more complete range of motion, enhancing perfipheral view.
More Eye Work for more kinds of Performance Strength. There are many other drills that can be practiced with the eyes that have a range of benefits including amazingly strength and cognition. Many of these eye drills, based in sports vision and behavioural optometry, are on the Nerual Warm Up 1 and 2, the S-Phase Video, and many are taught at the Elite Performance Workshop. More focal accomodation drills are on the NWU vids; more of the cognition/performance drills are on S-phase. Many can be practiced seated at a desk with just your hands or with a pencil, so they're easy to do anywhere. The point is to know 'em, love 'em and do them.
Related Posts
Tweet Follow @begin2dig
Our eyes are moved by a set of 6 muscles. Intriguingly, we rarely work these muscles with any of the attention we give to our other more obvious prime movers like hips or arms; how we work them is usually only in a very restricted range of motion and action. And like any other tissues in the body, use 'em or lose 'em.
Tech Tip of the day: Near Far Eye Drills. The idea of this simple drill is to work the muscles of the eye that help focus. The drill is taught as part of a suite of eye health movement drills in z-health (what's that?) on both the Neural Warm Up I and the S-Phase Complete Athlete, Volume 1 DVDs (reviewed here).
In the following excerpt from the S-Phase DVD, Master Z-Health Trainer and Sr RKC Sara Cheatham demos how the drill works: one hand far, one hand near; switch focus between hands as quickly as possible for reps; switch hands.
The goal of the drill is not just to move our eyes from the near hand to the far hand, but to move our eyes to the other object and FOCUS on that object, so it's important to make sure that our hands are set at distances relative to our eyes that will require that re-focus/acquisition. By practicing this simple drill, we can improve the speed of acquisition. We likewise help keep our eye muscles in better responsive physical shape.
Start off with this drill slowly: when we're not used to working our eyes, we can get a headache pretty quickly. Also watch for signs of stress: shoulders hunching up, face getting tight. A few deep breaths in through the nose, out slowly through pursed lips, and we're likely good to go again.
The benefits are huge in a sport context of speedy target acquisition, but in regular life, practicing responsiveness can be a life saver, too. The eyes are our primary sensory system - before vestibular, before proprioception. The more quickly we can detect something with practiced efficiency, the less stress in an actual event, the more skill brought to the action requiring a response.
Another quick tip? Try using your eyes to see something before turning your head - but again, go slowly. This can be fatiguing quickly when unaccustomed to the motion. Eye rather than head movement has lots of neurological benefits too, described in this post on the arthrokinetic reflex. Doing so also simply works the muscles of the eye in a more complete range of motion, enhancing perfipheral view.
More Eye Work for more kinds of Performance Strength. There are many other drills that can be practiced with the eyes that have a range of benefits including amazingly strength and cognition. Many of these eye drills, based in sports vision and behavioural optometry, are on the Nerual Warm Up 1 and 2, the S-Phase Video, and many are taught at the Elite Performance Workshop. More focal accomodation drills are on the NWU vids; more of the cognition/performance drills are on S-phase. Many can be practiced seated at a desk with just your hands or with a pencil, so they're easy to do anywhere. The point is to know 'em, love 'em and do them.
Related Posts
Tweet Follow @begin2dig
Sunday, January 17, 2010
Audio Fitness & Ear Health for the iPod'ing Athlete: In Ear Phones + Custom Sleeves
Follow @mcphoo
Tweet
You're going deaf and it's your ipod+gym's 
fault. The volume needed to crank the phones on a pod to counter act the noises of the environment usually verges on or goes beyond 80db's. That's not good. In fact it's actually bad. And the rate of youth hearing impairment has gone up so much in the era of the iPod, that the EU is freaking out.
The typical ear bud phone (like the one that comes with ipods) is a big part of where the blame sits, as it sits right beside the ear canal, thus having to crank the volume to be heard - over other competing sounds.
Isolation from the Noise Environment.
There is a fix. It's earphones that support noise isolation. This approach is different than noise cancelation, done by batteries and mics on headphones. Noise isolation is simply achieved by blocking off a great deal of incoming sound into the ear.
The usual method is to use an "in ear" or "canal" headphone design, rather than having something sitting beside the ear canal, ie ear buds. Simply think: earbuds = bad. In ear phones = much better. These enable the ear, effectively, to be plugged, isolating one's hearing from the outside noises; focusing on inner audio peace. The consequence of these monitors is also awesomely that the actual volume of the music can then be turned DOWN substantially. And thus, one's ears are getting the same audio experience at lower decibles. That's critical.
Another plus is that audio quality can improve with better isolation and less drive. This one change can make an audio system feel like new, and a better quality new (more on this elsewhere)
IEM's - In Ear Monitors - the rich variety of type and price
There are numerous types of these headphones now available. Here's a sample listing. The best solution is (of course) a custom made "in ear monitor" designed to fit just YOUR ear. You'll see stage musicians using such monitors rather than those big black speakers facing towards them on stage. More recently, these IEMs have taken off in the audiophile space for simply great listening.
So how get, good audio and the audio isolation to protect one's hearing?
A great solution to bring out the best of great audio and excellent hearing protection isolation in a package that is gym safe is to combine some decent off-the-shelf in ear phones with custom sleeves.
Enter Etymotic Research and ACS. Delighted was i to learn that my fave get around in ear
phones, the Etymotic Resarch 6i's, were being paired (so far just in the UK/EU) with such custom sleeves via customearphones.co.uk (i have nothing to do with this company). I've reviewed the Ety 6i's and Ety's awesome customer service previously (again, no association with the company).
The sleeves are produced by the UK's Advanced Communication Solutions (again no affiliation other than customer), makers of those awesome T2's that Stephen Fry's been blogging about.
Why i like this particular set up is that the Ety 6i's really are a just-right headphone for the quality audio most of us put on our ipods for regular listening (mp3's of 320kbps or less, or aac of some sort; rarely aiff). The 6i ( i is for iPod) is specifically balanced, especially in the bass, for the iPod. If a person wants more audio oomph while staying true to the sound, then it's time to consider a wee exernal amp to drive the ipod sound, like Robert Gerkhe's, discussed here. But that is not a typical gym set up where you may also be using your ipod with an interval timer, say.
Indeed, the 6i is beyond just alright, especially when considering price, value and function and of course audio quality here. They are so infinitely beyond the phones that come with the ipod, it really is like getting a whole other instrument to hear one's music, but they have an unfussy, robust build that can well handle typical ipod scenarios. Like the gym.
Adding custom sleeves makes a great earphone headset even more resiliant and effective.
Sound Comfort. The advantage of the sleeves is at least two-fold. Of the many of these in-ear stock phones i've
sampled, none feels effortless to wear. You do notice them. The Ety's stock sleeves of silicon are likely some of the easiest wearing stock configurations (shown in the white headphones above) and are used by the company's primo Ety 4's as well, but compared to a custom sleeve, well there's no comparison.
The ACS sleeves, shown right in clear and above in colors, is not made of acrylic (like some customs) but a special silicon blend that can be worn all day long (sometimes all night long if one falls asleep to music).
Form = Function. Perhaps more importantly, because they are custom fit, the sleeves do their job as noise isolators better than the non-custom types with that added comfort that makes them really a joy to use, along with the enhanced sense of audio precision. I think i mentioned comfort? They can also be washed, which is great, cuz well, we're talking workouts and sweat here.
How it (the customization + iem purchase) Works
Other Phones
Personally, for the gym and related to'ing and fro'ing, i
think the ety's and the customs are the perfect blend, but you may already have in-ear phones that you love. If you would like to customize these for this comfort, db isolation and enhanced audio zip, you can. As a quick note, ACS does sleeves for most IEMs, too. Here's the page on their site for the info and a list of the brands for which they do customs.
Improving All Parts of Well Being
Working out the physical parts while compromising the vestibular/audio parts is sort of a health contradition, but a lot of us do it: playing our audio to create our own private universe meaning that we have to play it way loud to get the isolation. In ear phones go a long way to redressing the audio overload while improving audio quality. Custom sleeves make that experience that much better - and way more comfortable.
Indeed, in trasit, these are great to wear on trains or planes or the occaisional automobile without being plugged into the 'pod, just for noise isolation. No batteries required.
Again, i'm not remunerated by either Ety or ACS. I do know that they make great products and have awesome customer service. And intiguingly, there's something it seems the UK has put together (with a US partner) in a consumer friendly pacakge ahead of it's US or Euro cousins that is da wee audio bomb - but it a good way.
UPDATE: even more options for iPhone Athlete, via ACS, Ety and the Apple Store
Related Posts
Tweet Follow @begin2dig
fault. The volume needed to crank the phones on a pod to counter act the noises of the environment usually verges on or goes beyond 80db's. That's not good. In fact it's actually bad. And the rate of youth hearing impairment has gone up so much in the era of the iPod, that the EU is freaking out.The typical ear bud phone (like the one that comes with ipods) is a big part of where the blame sits, as it sits right beside the ear canal, thus having to crank the volume to be heard - over other competing sounds.
Isolation from the Noise Environment.
There is a fix. It's earphones that support noise isolation. This approach is different than noise cancelation, done by batteries and mics on headphones. Noise isolation is simply achieved by blocking off a great deal of incoming sound into the ear.
The usual method is to use an "in ear" or "canal" headphone design, rather than having something sitting beside the ear canal, ie ear buds. Simply think: earbuds = bad. In ear phones = much better. These enable the ear, effectively, to be plugged, isolating one's hearing from the outside noises; focusing on inner audio peace. The consequence of these monitors is also awesomely that the actual volume of the music can then be turned DOWN substantially. And thus, one's ears are getting the same audio experience at lower decibles. That's critical.
Another plus is that audio quality can improve with better isolation and less drive. This one change can make an audio system feel like new, and a better quality new (more on this elsewhere)
IEM's - In Ear Monitors - the rich variety of type and price
There are numerous types of these headphones now available. Here's a sample listing. The best solution is (of course) a custom made "in ear monitor" designed to fit just YOUR ear. You'll see stage musicians using such monitors rather than those big black speakers facing towards them on stage. More recently, these IEMs have taken off in the audiophile space for simply great listening.
But even saying you got yourself this little piece of audio heaven like these awesome custom made ACS T2's, would you want to use these in the gym? Or out and about? Maybe not so much.
Aside: Indeed, good 'phones and a good headphone amp is a great way to get audiophile audio experience at literally or proportionally a tenth of the price. And if you haven't tried that, and you love music, you owe it to yourself. Here's an entire article on high fidelity on the cheap (another passion of mine)
So how get, good audio and the audio isolation to protect one's hearing?
A great solution to bring out the best of great audio and excellent hearing protection isolation in a package that is gym safe is to combine some decent off-the-shelf in ear phones with custom sleeves.
Enter Etymotic Research and ACS. Delighted was i to learn that my fave get around in ear
phones, the Etymotic Resarch 6i's, were being paired (so far just in the UK/EU) with such custom sleeves via customearphones.co.uk (i have nothing to do with this company). I've reviewed the Ety 6i's and Ety's awesome customer service previously (again, no association with the company).The sleeves are produced by the UK's Advanced Communication Solutions (again no affiliation other than customer), makers of those awesome T2's that Stephen Fry's been blogging about.
Why i like this particular set up is that the Ety 6i's really are a just-right headphone for the quality audio most of us put on our ipods for regular listening (mp3's of 320kbps or less, or aac of some sort; rarely aiff). The 6i ( i is for iPod) is specifically balanced, especially in the bass, for the iPod. If a person wants more audio oomph while staying true to the sound, then it's time to consider a wee exernal amp to drive the ipod sound, like Robert Gerkhe's, discussed here. But that is not a typical gym set up where you may also be using your ipod with an interval timer, say.
Indeed, the 6i is beyond just alright, especially when considering price, value and function and of course audio quality here. They are so infinitely beyond the phones that come with the ipod, it really is like getting a whole other instrument to hear one's music, but they have an unfussy, robust build that can well handle typical ipod scenarios. Like the gym.
Adding custom sleeves makes a great earphone headset even more resiliant and effective.
Sound Comfort. The advantage of the sleeves is at least two-fold. Of the many of these in-ear stock phones i've
sampled, none feels effortless to wear. You do notice them. The Ety's stock sleeves of silicon are likely some of the easiest wearing stock configurations (shown in the white headphones above) and are used by the company's primo Ety 4's as well, but compared to a custom sleeve, well there's no comparison.The ACS sleeves, shown right in clear and above in colors, is not made of acrylic (like some customs) but a special silicon blend that can be worn all day long (sometimes all night long if one falls asleep to music).
Form = Function. Perhaps more importantly, because they are custom fit, the sleeves do their job as noise isolators better than the non-custom types with that added comfort that makes them really a joy to use, along with the enhanced sense of audio precision. I think i mentioned comfort? They can also be washed, which is great, cuz well, we're talking workouts and sweat here.
How it (the customization + iem purchase) Works
- First a person orders their custom ety 6i's from the web site's partners. The pack includes the 6i's and a voucher to get the custom moulds done (if you already have 6i's you can get the custom sleeve pack separately)
- ACS has partnered with a number of audiologists thoughout the UK that will take the ear impressions on presentation of said voucher (yes that's right: an audiologist puts goo into the ear canal that takes the shape of your ear, and from these shapes, the sleeves are fit).
- Within two weeks, the custom sleeves are deliverd to your door.
- Swap the ear flanges on the ety's for the custom sleeves.
- enjoy enjoy enjoy.
Other Phones
Personally, for the gym and related to'ing and fro'ing, i
think the ety's and the customs are the perfect blend, but you may already have in-ear phones that you love. If you would like to customize these for this comfort, db isolation and enhanced audio zip, you can. As a quick note, ACS does sleeves for most IEMs, too. Here's the page on their site for the info and a list of the brands for which they do customs.Improving All Parts of Well Being
Working out the physical parts while compromising the vestibular/audio parts is sort of a health contradition, but a lot of us do it: playing our audio to create our own private universe meaning that we have to play it way loud to get the isolation. In ear phones go a long way to redressing the audio overload while improving audio quality. Custom sleeves make that experience that much better - and way more comfortable.
Indeed, in trasit, these are great to wear on trains or planes or the occaisional automobile without being plugged into the 'pod, just for noise isolation. No batteries required.
Again, i'm not remunerated by either Ety or ACS. I do know that they make great products and have awesome customer service. And intiguingly, there's something it seems the UK has put together (with a US partner) in a consumer friendly pacakge ahead of it's US or Euro cousins that is da wee audio bomb - but it a good way.
UPDATE: even more options for iPhone Athlete, via ACS, Ety and the Apple Store
Related Posts
Tweet Follow @begin2dig
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