SuppVersity - Nutrition and Exercise Science for Everyone

The SuppVersity Science Round-Up every Thursday live on Carl Lanore's Super Human Radio -- tune in live at 1PM (EST=  6PM GMT)! I hope that most of you have already had a chance to listen to yesterday's installment of the SuppVersity Science Round Up on Super Human Radio . In case you didn't, or have been waiting for me to post the link to the podcast (just a reminder: you can always download the latest show, from the navigation bar on the right, where it says: " Physical Culture for your Ears "), I'd suggest you go and download the podcast either now, or after going through today's SuppVersity Science Round Up Seconds . The "Seconds" are as the name implies no "leftovers", but actually yet another selection from the selection of god knows how many interesting newsbits I usually pile up for the short 1h show, Carl and I are doing every Thursday. I would therefore encourage everyone to do both, listen to the podcast and read...

If there is a one body part, where Adelfo has really made awesome progress in the last months, it's his back - by the wa that's a different "back" than in "training back-to-back" of which you'll read in this installment of his now biweekly posts ;-) It probably sounds strange, but last week I have really been missing Adelfo's update. Not because it's more work for me to write yet another blogpost... ah, whatever. There's another one today and there will be the next one in two weeks time from now :-) Before we are getting to more details on how Adelfo's contest prep and the rest of his increasingly busy (as you will see in a very positive kind of way) life, let's get to the sneak peak on today's SuppVersity Science Round Up . I felt the show last week was awesome and must pad my own shoulder for having the ingenious idea to simply pack those news that did not fit in, as well as "bonus material", into a writte...

Don't worry if you have not heard of Polypodium leucotomos before. After all, that's why you're here! To get your daily dose of SuppVersity news and learn , right? It's starting to get cold and wet outside and aside from my always healthy self, everyone around is getting sick... sounds familiar? Or are you one of those ailing people who always wonder how the others beard the common cold and did not have a single flu in their whole life? I can assure you, it's not just zinc + vitamin C ;-) That said, I honestly don't believe that the supplement today's news is about will get the job done, if you don't have your diet and workout regimen in check, but if it reduces the incidence of infections in high performance athletes by 75% it can hardly be useless when it comes to protecting yourself from the sniffers and nose blowers all around, can it? Dear SuppVersity reader, meet Polypodium leucotomos your immune systems best friend!? Assuming that I...

You want to build big wheels? Look no further get yourself the "Squat T-Bar" with integrated 15mA electrical 'motivator' (Aguiar. 2012) "A rodent study investigating strength workouts?" Yeah, I know it does not sound like that would be in any ways news-worthy, but if you take a look at the image on the right, you will immediately realize: This study is different! Instead of using a treadmill or simply stitching down (or rather up) one of the hindlimbs of the rodents to induce a chronic overload on the other one (don't laugh, many rodent studies have done just that), the study at hand (Aguiar. 2012), which is going to be published in the next issue of the International Journal of Sports Medicine , used a not innovative, but unfortunately largely forgotten (or overlooked?) torturing device that has been developed by Japanese researchers roughly 20 years a ago (Tamaki. 2012). The rodent torture... ah pardon squat rack ;-) After being fitted with ...

Do thermogenic fat burners only work if you already look like this? I mean, what would be the sure, then and why did the ECA stack work for overweight people, as well? I don't know if you have ever thought about the problems mostly involuntarily obese individuals are facing in their everyday lives!? Even if you discard the constant bullying and the subliminal messages they receive from their peers, not fitting into a regular seat in an airplane certainly is more than just an embarrassment. Now what would you say, if I told you that they are discriminated against even, when they shop at their local GNC, or whichever other supplement vendor they may be using? And I am not talking about the lean guys and girls on the labels of the supplements, here! No, I am referring to a discrimination that takes place on a more fundamental level and it happens right in front of the shelf with every overweight person's favorite supplements: The so-called fat burners! Ok, now that I got eve...

Lactobacilli are hip, vitamin A is not - at the SuppVersity you still get news on both 1kg! That's the amount of weight you could probably lose if you rid yourself of all the microbes in your gut - from the weight of the bacteria alone, of course. Whether this would be a good idea or not, is however very questionable. On the one hand, we do have the still not fully understood studies on obesity-resistant germ free mice and an accumulating amount of evidence that having the "wrong" bacteria in the gut is at least associated with an increased obesity risk (Blaut. 2012). On the other hand, however, we are seeing new studies on the various benefits of having the "right" gut microbiome being published on an almost daily basis. So what? Before we take a closer look at a definite benefit of having the "right" gut bacteria, though, let's start out with another likewise gut-related news item on the role of retinoic acid in T-cell education. In a way i...

Weight-supported sports such as cycling precipitate overtraining "20%", that's the SuppVersity figure of the week. It tailors directly to the first item in today's installment of On Short Notice and denotes the amount of professional athletes who exhibit symptoms of overtraining syndrome at any given time in their career. "The prevalence varies by sport and is thought to be highest in endurance sports requiring high volume intense training, such as swimming, triathlon, road cycling, rowing and, to a lesser extent, distance running."  (MacKinnon. 2000) What all those sports (except for distance running) have in common are long training hours on 6 days per week for several months without appreciable time off. Notably, the chances of overtraining also increase, when the equipment supports your body mass. With weight-bearing activities, such as distance running, on the other hand, the risk of musculoskeletal injury limits training volume and therefore r...