Sunday, July 26, 2015

Ice Vest Improve Your Race Performance?

Cooling vests by Cozy winters
You may have seen elite athletes (like Alberto Contador above) donning an ice vest prior to their events and wondered if that really helps. Well they do, but a recent study showed that precooling your legs may be much more effective (than an ice vest) before a race in hot, humid conditions.

The researchers had their runners complete three randomized 5 km time trials on a treadmill in a laboratory at about 90 degrees Fahrenheit (about 32.2 degrees Celsius) and close to 50 percent humidity.

The runners did a 30 minute warmup consisting of jogging, static and dynamic stretches, more jogging and some short strides to finish.

One group of runners did warmup with an ice vest and another with ice packs covering the thighs (the researchers developed shorts with pockets on the front and back of each high to hold frozen gel packs). The third group was a control group with no cooling devices.

The runners' core and skin temperature, heart rates, perceived rates of exertions were measured during the time trials. Runners with ice packs on their thighs ran the 5 km 85 seconds faster than the control group. Those with the ice vests ran 45 seconds quicker than the control group.

The 5 km times in the study were a lot slower than the runners' own personal bests (19:30 on average compared to 23:45 min after the thigh pre cooling). The authors suggested that this was due to the hot conditions, the fact that the runners could control their pace on the treadmill and that they were not in a race environment.

The authors suggested improvements even in cooler conditions, down to 70 degrees Fahrenheit (or 21.1 Celsius).

The authors cautioned that not everyone will shave 85 seconds off their 5 km race times if you employ such a strategy before your next race in the heat, but there will be some level of benefit.

This study is unique as the runners performed an active, sport specific warmup before the race to mimic what runners actually do before a race.

The authors suggest using an elastic bandage over frozen gel packs on your thighs as an alternative to ice shorts or vests.

Oh, and remember to drink a slushie too.

Reference

Randall CA, Ross EZ et al (2015). Effect Of Practical Precooling On Neuromuscular Function And 5-km Time-trial Performance In Hot, Humid Conditions Amonh Well-trained Male Runners. J Strength Cond Research. 29(7): 1925-1936. DOI: 10.1519/JSC.0000000000000840.

From Amazon

Sunday, July 19, 2015

Protein Before Bed Builds Muscle

Night time snack before zzzzz
You can't simply build muscle eating lots of protein. To build muscle you need a combination of resistance training and protein. Recent studies show that the most effective way to trigger muscle growth is to spread your protein intake in several doses of 20-25 grams throughout the day.

A group of researchers have previously demonstrated that if you consume protein right before sleeping it can increase the rate protein synthesis (the process of making protein) by 22 percent during overnight recovery from exercise.

This same group of researchers now wanted to know if consuming protein before bed would increase the muscle adaptive response to weight training.

They did a 12 week double blinded study on a bunch of volunteers who weight trained three times a week. The subjects drank either a protein drink or placebo before bed. The protein drink contained 27.5 grams of protein and 15 grams of carbs.

The results showed that the group that had the protein drink had significantly greater improvements in muscle strength, muscle size and even muscle fiber size (done by muscle biopsy).

The subjects were already consuming diets that were fairly high in protein (1.3 grams/kg) and they also had a protein snack (10 grams of protein) after each workout.

How should you snack up on your pre bedtime meal? A cup of low fat milk has about eight grams of protein, and if you had some toast and peanut butter that will probably do the trick.

Don't forget to weight train too.

Reference

Snijders T, Res PT et al (2015). Proten Ingestion Before Sleep Increases Muscle Mass And Strength Gains During Prolonged Exercise Training In Healthy Young Men. J Nutri. 145(6): 1178-1184. DOI: 10.3945/jn.114.208371.

Sunday, July 12, 2015

How Much Water To Drink After Exercise?

Picture by Daniel Orth from Flickr
I was reading a paper on the 24-hour hydration status in runners after a dehydrating run and testing what measurements are reliable to detect this when I thought of a very funny thing that happened at the Olympics.

As Team Singapore's Physiotherapist at the Beijing 2008 Olympics, other than treating the athletes, I was sometimes roped in to help test our Singaporean athletes' hydration status (since we only had one nutritionist and no exercise physiologist at the games).

Director of High Performance and other senior management at Singapore Sports Council (now SSI) decided that in order to perform well and/ or win medals, our athletes needed to be amply hydrated at all times.

Some of our athletes complained about this rather strongly as they were asked to drink more water when their hydration status showed that they needed more fluids. These athletes complained that after consuming more water they had to get up in the middle of the night to pee and afterwards could not fall asleep again for a long time.

You know what they did? They simply added water to their urine samples to pass the hydration test. Our staff got their testing done, the athletes got their much deserved sleep. Team Singapore won the medals they came to win. Win win situation for all parties. No names will be mentioned to protect the athletes involved of course.

Anyway, back to the study.

The group of runners in the study ran in hot conditions until they lost about three percent of their starting weight on three occasions. The three rehydration protocol was either 3.2, 4.2 or 5.2 litres of fluid over the next 24 hours.

Rehydration in the first 24 hours were assessed by measuring body weight of the runners, urine colour, urine specific gravity (a measure of urine concentration) and reported thirst sensation.

The most sensitive marker for fluid consumption during the first 12 hours was urine specific gravity. (Atago - which measures devices to measure specific urine specificity was used and they also sponsored this study).

Thirst emerged as a very sensitive and reliable marker by the end of the 24 hour period. The problem is that differences in thirst did not appear after the run but only emerged the next morning so you may go to bed not knowing you've not drunk water.

When the runners drank a lot, they urinated more, when the drank less, they urinated less. You may be surprised with this but when food and fluid intake were tightly controlled, the runners' body weight was unable to detect low fluid intake. The researchers concluded that body weight wasn't a particularly helpful way of tracking how much you're drinking.

There were only subtle changes in urine colour when measured on the researchers 8-point scale. So you have to pay close attention to the shade of your urine colour should you choose to to use this cue.

4.2 litres corresponded to replacing about 100 percent of the sweat losses within the first 12 hours of their run and 200 percent within 24 hours. This was sufficient to return the runners to normal by the time they were ready to run again the next day.

Turns out it corresponded most closely to how much the runners would have normally drunk too.


Reference

O'Neal EK, Stevenson MC et al (2015). Hydration Assessment Technique Over 24-h Post-run With Low, Moderate, And High Fluid Replacement. ACSM Annual Meeting. May 28, 2015. Abstract here.

With the then Singapore President at the 2008 Olympics

Sunday, July 5, 2015

Blood Poisoning In Extreme Endurance Events

Picture by orangefan_2011 from Flickr
If you haven't trained hard enough for your upcoming marathon or ultra marathon race, beware for there may be more adverse effects than you think.

Extended exercises beyond four hours can put your body at risk if you are not sufficiently prepared. Stomach bacteria may seep into your bloodstream and cause poisoning.

Two different studies looked at runners taking part in two different ultra distance races in Scotland (between 78-130 miles) and Spain (5-day 143 miles stage race).

Before and after the races, blood samples were taken from the runners and a control group not racing.

Blood markers in most of the runners after the races showed traces of blood poisoning. This was similar to what you see if you were admitted to the hospital for food poisoning. Almost all the runners had stomach issues during the race as well. None were hospitalized though.

Some runners even had blood markers resembling those who have sepsis - a potentially life threatening illness where chemicals released into the bloodstream to fight infection actually generate heavy inflammation.

This happens when blood moves away from the stomach area to the working muscles when we exercise. This causes the stomach wall to spread apart and leave open gaps. Endotoxins (naturally occurring bacteria in the stomach) fit through these gaps and leach into the blood. This activates an inflammatory response in the body.

Usually the body can easily clean up this sort of bacteria leaching. Only under heavy duress the body can be overwhelmed. This can occur in extreme exercise conditions, heat stress, illness and infection.

When the weather is hot, blood flow away from the stomach to the working muscles will be more extreme, so strategies to keep the body cool during training and racing is critical.

The researchers added that repeated bouts of inflammation like this can cause long term fatigue, stomach problems and immune disturbances.

What was interesting was that in both studies, runners who trained sufficiently had higher levels of Interleukin-10, a small anti inflammatory protein that helps offsets negative health effects.

Now you know, make sure you train enough for your race.

References

Gill SK, Hankey J, Wright A et al (2015). The Impact Of A 24-h Ultra-marathon On Circulatory Endotoxin And Cytokine Profile. Int J Sports Med. 36(8): 688-695. DOI: 10.1055/s-0034-1398535.

Gill SK, Texeira A, Rama L et al (2015). Circulatory Endotoxin Concentration And Cytokine Profile In Response to Exertional-heat Stress During A Multi-stage Untra-marathon Competition. Exerc Immunol Rev. 21:114-128.