In the news: a better way to repair a rotator cuff?

An orthopedic surgeon at Emory University has pioneered what he believes to be a more effective technique for the surgical repair of the rotator cuff:

Dr. Spero Karas, assistant professor in the Department of Orthopaedics, Emory University School of Medicine, is using a new technique for rotator cuff repair called the "double-row" arthroscopic repair. This procedure secures the tendon to the bone at two sites rather than one.

"It is much stronger than a typical 'single-row' arthroscopic repair and does a better job restoring normal rotator cuff anatomy," says Dr. Karas, who is part of the Emory Sports Medicine Center. "Recent studies also reveal that the 'double-row' repair heals in a more stable fashion, which results in better long-term outcomes.

It'll be interesting to see if this bears fruit.

In the News: Exercise slows aging

The boys in the lab are at it again. You couldn't ask for better marketing:

Physically active people have cells that look younger on a molecular level than those of couch potatoes, according to new research that offers a fundamental new clue into how exercise may help stave off aging.

The study, involving more than 2,400 British twins, found for the first time that exercise appears to slow the shriveling of the protective tips on bundles of genes inside cells, perhaps keeping frailty at bay.

So they're looking at twins and these cellular thingamajigs called telomeres. Beats me, but the bottom line is very promising:

"We're using telomere length as a marker of our rate of biological aging," Spector said.

The length of the twins' telomeres was directly related to their activity levels, the researchers found. People who did a moderate amount of exercise -- about 100 minutes a week of activity such as tennis, swimming or running -- had telomeres that on average looked like those of someone about five or six years younger than those who did the least -- about 16 minutes a week. Those who did the most -- doing about three hours a week of moderate to vigorous activity-- had telomeres that appeared to be about nine years younger than those who did the least.

So keep up the good work folks. And if you aren't training, why aren't you training? Get going, it's important.

First look: Starting Strength 2nd edition

I got home from work and the package was waiting for me. I opened it and the first thing I noticed about the 2nd edition of Starting Strength by Mark Rippetoe and Lon Kilgore was that it is a heftier book than the first edition. Obviously there was going to be a good bit of new content in this edition. Given the quantity and quality of the content of the first edition, this is something to be excited about. The second thing I noticed is that the new edition is designed not just for coaches and trainers (as was the emphasis of the first edition), but rather is intended for anyone who wants to train with barbells. This is emphasized by the new subtitle: "Basic Barbell Training." Thus an already great book extends its reach and usefulness.

I was anxious to get reading but I had to put the book down as I was due at the gym. I figured I'd get around to it in a day or two. Later that night, at about two a.m., I stopped on my way to bed and picked it up to have a quick look at the table of contents. The next thing I knew, my knees were getting stiff from standing in the same place for thirty-five minutes utterly absorbed in the book. In that time I learned a new assistance exercise, a helpful tip for a staple of my deadlift program, a variation on an important exercise, had a mental argument with Rippetoe, decided he was probably right, and found a good way to start improving my wrist flexibility for Olympic lifts and front squats. And man did I want to go back to the gym and train right that minute. Few training manuals can give you that kind of return on investment. And I'd barely scratched the surface. I can't wait to dig deeply into this book.

You should pick it up. It's available here or here.

In the News: the riddle of muscle fatigue solved?

Why do muscles get fatigued? For a long time we thought it was due to the buildup of lactic acid. The best evidence now says that's not correct. So we still don't really know why muscles get tired. But new research suggests that it may be caused by calcium leaks:

In a report published Monday in an early online edition of Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Dr. Marks says the problem is calcium flow inside muscle cells. Ordinarily, ebbs and flows of calcium in cells control muscle contractions. But when muscles grow tired, the investigators report, tiny channels in them start leaking calcium, and that weakens contractions. At the same time, the leaked calcium stimulates an enzyme that eats into muscle fibers, contributing to the muscle exhaustion.

Drugs are in the works for heart patients, but athletes shouldn't start licking their chops over this just yet:

So the day may come when there is an antifatigue drug.

That idea, “is sort of amazing,” said Dr. Steven Liggett, a heart-failure researcher at the University of Maryland. Yet, Dr. Liggett said, for athletes “we have to ask whether it would be prudent to be circumventing this mechanism.”

“Maybe this is a protective mechanism,” he said. “Maybe fatigue is saying that you are getting ready to go into a danger zone. So it is cutting you off. If you could will yourself to run as fast and as long as you could, some people would run until they keeled over and died.”

And whose problem is that exactly? If such drugs exist, athletes will find a way to use them. It's inevitable. And those athletes should be responsible for the consequences of doing so.

In the News: grueling achievement

Research suggests that proper nutrition in the first two years of life is of the utmost importance, influencing not just health but educational achievement and economic status. Eat gruel, go far in life:

In two of the Guatemalan villages, children under the age of 7 were given a gruel made of skim milk powder, sugar and vegetable protein. Children in the other two villages were given a drink that was low in energy and had no protein.

The experiment ran from 1969 to 1977. Then, in 2002-2004, researchers returned to see what had become of their young subjects. The results were unambiguous: The boys, now young men, who were given the gruel for the first two years of their life benefited substantially from improved nutrition. They earned on average wages that were nearly 50 per cent higher than boys who had not been given the supplement.
...

It was the first two years that proved critical, according to the study, which was published last month in the British medical journal, the Lancet. The adult earnings of children first given the supplement after age 3 did not show as large an increase.

"The study confirms that the first two years of life are the window of opportunity, when nutrition programs have an enormous impact on a child's development, with life-long benefits," said Reynaldo Martorell, one of the original researchers and professor of international nutrition at Emory University...

Start sharing those protein laden post-workout shakes with the little guys and watch them grow up to be not just big and strong, but smart and successful!

Review: Elite Pull Through Handle

If you don't already do pull-throughs, you should start doing them. If you already do them using a rope or some other handle, you should pick up the Elite Fitness Systems pull-through handle. If you go to a commercial gym, like my horrible horrible gym, then chances are you don't know what a pull-through is. The pull-through is a great exercise for your posterior chain. Don't know what the posterior chain is? You've got a lot of work to do pal. Jim Wendler explains its importance in this interview.

The average trainee sorely neglects the posterior chain, probably because he/she can't see it in the mirror, but it is unquestionably one of the primary keys to being truly strong and it is also of vital importance to anyone who wants to be faster. In fact, I'm sorry to have to break it to you, but we can safely say that if your posterior chain is weak, then you are not strong. Nice peak on those biceps though!

The heavy work for the posterior chain is done with variations of deadlifts, squats and good mornings but there are a number of other exercises that are excellent, like glute-ham raises and reverse hypers or sled work, but these require equipment that the average gym is not likely to have. That's why pull-throughs are so invaluable. All you need is a cable machine, or a place to affix a band. Using a cable pulley and a rope handle will get you started nicely. But the specially designed pull-through handle is an inexpensive and helpful way to improve your pull-throughs.

You notice right away that it is durable and well-constructed. It has a little weight to it and it's clearly built to withstand the abuse of a serious gym. It's also designed to allow a comfortable pronated grip which is nice. You can use it in the gym on a cable, or you can use it with a sled outdoors. Not only is it functional, cheap and well built, but it provides considerable amusement as well: the bicep curlers in my horrible horrible gym stare in utter bewilderment when I whip this baby out of the gym bag and start doing pull-throughs. I guess they're trying to figure out how it works the biceps.

You can only get one here.

Review: Original Rehband Knee Sleeves

In training terms I'm an old dude. I've been doing this for most of two decades and I've accrued a long laundry list of chronic ailments (right elbow), nagging injuries (hello shoulders!) and various aches and pains (too many to note). A year or two ago I had a painful clicking in my left knee that I ignored mostly...until it began interfering with my training. It was then that I read Mike Robertson's article "18 Tips for Bulletproof Knees" on T-nation. He suggested wearing knee sleeves. I'd wrapped my knees when squatting heavy but I'd never used knee sleeves. I already knew enough by then to take Robertson's advice seriously (dude knows his stuff) so I got a pair of Inzer knee sleeves, the ones with all the velcro straps on them. They were sort of awkward (more on that in a separate review) so I tracked down the Rehband knee sleeves. For those not familiar with them, they are the kind all the strongmen on ESPN use. These were a distinct improvement. I've used them regularly ever since, whether I'm squatting, deadlifting or doing single-leg work. They keep the knees plenty warm--in fact they are usually soaked with sweat after a workout--and they provide a little extra stability to the joint, or at least the feeling of extra stability, which in turn provides a little psychological comfort and a small mental edge when approaching a difficult lift. For those of you who are accustomed to wrapping but have never tried the sleeves, don't expect them to work the way wraps do. The sleeves provide absolutely no rebound in the hole--which is mostly what wraps are good for. Nor will you bodybuilders get to look cool while enjoying the ritual of wrapping. The sleeves are strictly functional and they aren't much to look at. But I am sold on them. They've held up really well with time, and considering that I've never quite gotten around to washing them, they don't even smell too bad despite all that sweat they've absorbed.

Highly recommended and not just for old dudes!

Rehband has since come out with a new style of sleeves and I've only tried the elbow variety but I believe you can still get the original style sleeves at Jackal's Gym.