Our Perspective on Human Performance
All my posts are an original perspective on current sports science and exercise physiology topics. I tend to cringe at the term ‘hack’ or ‘pseudo’ as this brings about connotations of ‘fake’ which no scientist wants to be associated with. Although some individuals do succumb to the delusional yet real pressure to perform and publish results […]
During my recent visit to Cape Town, my disappointment for not racing the full version of the Cape Argus (road closures due to severely destructive mountain fires) was more than balanced by the hour long chat I was fortunate to hold with Prof. Timothy Noakes at the Sports Science Institute of South Africa (SSISA). Prof. Noakes is […]
During my fascinating meeting with Prof. Noakes, I still had time to discuss his stance on one of his more recent publications, the re-invigoration of the Central Govenor Model or Hypothesis (CGM) which I wanted to share as a conclusion to my time spent at the SSISA. The theory exposes A.V. Hills 1923 traditional ‘peripheral fatigue model’ of […]
It has been an interesting and busy 2015 so far, too busy even to write up the mountain of new information I have taken on board during a few recent professional experiences and work sessions, until now. I hope I will be able to translate them to those around me who are interested enough in contemporary sports science and are […]
This live demonstration of a full lactate threshold profile will provide valuable insight into current endurance sports performance assessment and best practices. VeloSport’s own Steve James will be the test subject on the night…so come along and witness his suffering! The lactate threshold power/ heart rate is an important parameter of cycling performance, and is now commonly used […]
This is the time of year we need to be confirming what our events next spring will be, for a couple of good reasons; entrance registrations for the more popular public races open and close relatively quickly due to limited numbers. In particular events abroad have restricted foreign participants to save disappointment unless you have previously seeded or qualified, […]
Since my first experiences as a youthful spectator of professional cycling watching Gianni Bugno win the 1990 Wincanton Classic in Brighton, I have been fascinated by what it takes for performance cycling passionistas like us to achieve elite status and I am still learning how the process can be accelerated for all of us, with precious little time […]
As a member of BASES looking to gain accreditation as a Chartered Scientist in Sports and Exercise Science I am obliged to follow the code of conduct which is formed around World Medical Association guidelines for conducting scientific experimentation on human volunteers and subjects enrolled into novel investigation for the purposes of scientific progression. Even […]
Finishing a long season of training and racing usually means that we have taken our body to endurance extremes compared to more sedentary individuals. Stressing our muscles and cardio-respiratory system week in, week out can take its toll. So that we remain fresh and strong to start the virtuous training cycle again, we need to change our […]
Scientists can tend to over think things. Analysing results and being as objective as possible is part of the culture, as to differentiate white from black in a world of grey. Scientific processes [hopefully] use techniques to answer yes / no questions regarding uncertain hypotheses and concepts which may never be understood properly. Using a […]
The club 10 or an odd half-marathon now and again don’t seem to satisfy us endurance athletes anymore, as we seek bigger and bigger challenges the fitter we get. The number of sport science publications have also rocketed in the last few years, on hydration, fuelling and general long distance performance. Ultra-distance events are definitely […]
I have previously described the three primary independent factors which dictate endurance cycling performance which are known to applied exercise physiologists…. 1. Gross cycling efficiency – the ability to use oxygen and convert fuel (carbs/fats/ protein etc) to energy in the muscles and is dictated by individual expression of specific metabolic enzymes which control […]
