Since it's part of my job to read research on nutrition and fitness, and bring you the latest breakthroughs, today I'd like to give you the top 10 shocking fitness research from the first part of this year. These are shocking, compelling, and unbelievable, but I thought you should know about them:
1. Researchers find that since you primarily burn fat as a fuel during aerobic exercise, you should precede aerobic exercise sessions with 10-15 calories per pound of body weight of a healthy saturated fat source, like coconut oil.
2. Study discovers that with 90-120 seconds of high intensity interval exercise per week, participants were able to successfully finish an Ironman triathlon in under 10 hours.
3. Compared to a sedentary control group, individuals engaging in isometric glute contractions (aka Butt Squeezes) while driving a car were able to improve vertical jump by 4-6 inches.
4. High consumption of alcohol during 85%+ intensity exercise allowed participants to lower rating of perceived exertion by up to 20%, and increase time to exhaustion by 90-120 seconds.
5. Consuming wood bark fiber improved absorption and gut transit time of fish oil capsules by up to 170%.
6. Forward lever footwear created by implanting a 7 inch toe rise at the end of the shoe allowed elite 5K runners to increase economy by 28%.
7. By tying a tight tourniquet above the muscles and then exercising, participants significantly increased strength by over 25% post-resistance training, compared to a non-tourniquet trained control group.
8. Women who wear weighted vests during pregnancy decreased post-partum body fat at an accelerated rate of 34% higher fat loss compared to a non-weighted vest control group.
9. When applied to temporal area of head (directly anterior to both ears), electrical stimulation devices at 100hz found to improve short-term memory recall and focus by up to 315%.
10. Collegiate swimmers who were subjected to 11 weeks of training in the National Football League (NFL) reduced 500m swim time by up to 75 seconds, controlled to a non-NFL control group.
Unbelievable. Aren't you glad I'm here to let you know about these important and life-changing studies?
One other thing…
Happy April Fools.
Yes, pretty much none of these shocking fitness stories are true.
But one is.
Which one do you think it is true? Tell us below.
17 Responses
Gluteal squeezes
sure, I'll eat 2700 calories prior to training (thats like 12 oz or almost a whole bottle of coconut oil ;)
I was waiting for someone to nail this! Dale got it. It's called ischemic training, among other things. Way to go Dale. You've won a free tourniquet. ;)
I'm feeling like 5 or 8 is true.
#1 is true
Number 1 is true.
I'm feeling #10.
Ben, You silly head!!!!! #1 ????
numbernine numbernine numbernine numbernine numebrnine …what was the question?
I'm gonna guess it's #4 – alcohol during exercise – and now I'm gonna Google it = )
I'm with Chef Todd…I really want it to be #4! But, I think #3 seems the most plausible?
It comes down to plausibility and whether there has really been any testing done. 3, 8 and 10 don't seem crazy since they all involve some level of strength training and muscle building.
I’m hoping it’s #2 because I have a marathon in 7 weeks and haven’t started training yet!
I was thinking to myself, this is pretty wierd stuff but hey, Ben’s the expert! #1 is true.
LOL!!!! Of course, #4 would be awesome if it were true. And I love the visual of trying to run with a 7 inch toe rise at the end of the shoe. I can see where butt squeezes might help vertical jump because of changes in muscle recruitment patterns, but while driving a car??!! My guess is #8 — at least that would be nice if it were true.
Arghh! You fooled me. I was already planning to tell my daughter to do some butt squeezes, while simultaneously laughing to myself about the crazy things that researchers will test. I have no guess about which one is true.
I’m hoping the true item is the one about heavy drinking. Please say it’s so! It’s tough to swim in a straight line with a beer buzz.
Thanks for the chuckle today Ben.