Grunting, the hidden 'muscle power'

Grunting is a recent and growing phenomenon in tennis. Spectators often complain about the fact that "the so called 'decibelchampions' ruin the experience", while opponents quote distraction and unfairness as major complaints. Maria Sharapova – who is in run for the decibel title – reaches 101 decibels during competition, which is louder than a drill and even corresponds to a subway passing by! But, does this complaint make sense, do we have to put limits or even eliminate decibels? Is grunting helping you in achieving a competitive advantage to hit the ball even harder or is it just a strategy to distract your opponent?

Training in the heat to boost performance in the cold?

Muscle building by endurance exercise?

Can we get bigger muscles from endurance cycling? And is there any difference between high-intensity and low-intensity cycling? In an attempt to provide an answer on this question, Canadian researchers recently performed a study in 8 moderately trained cyclists (Di Donato et al. 2014). The two trials were ?energy-matched?: the subjects expended an identical amount of energy during the two sessions (~88 kcal) because exercise duration in LOW was twofold longer than in HIGH Muscle myofibrillar and mitochondrial protein synthesis rates were measured.

Exercise in the heat: too hot or not too hot?

The recent events at the Australian Open tennis championships, as well as the ongoing discussion about the organization of the World Cup football 2018 in Qatar, has rebooted the discussion as to whether it is justified to organize sports competitions in extremely hot environmental conditions.

Stronger muscles for better golf?

Is Tiger Woods a sprinter, a rower or does he play golf? This is a genuine question someone who doesn?t know the man could ask. The top 20 players of the Official Golf World Ranking (hyperlink: www.owgr.com) all are fit and strong athletes, much different from ~25 years ago. Where does this interest in ?fitness for golf? come from? Why are top-players getting stronger and better athletes? And why are core-stability and sprint training important ingredients of the daily training schedule of elite players? The answer is easy: more strength allows to hit the ball further with more consistency.

Cottage cheese: a good pre-bed protein snack?

Eating cottage cheese before bed rest has become a popular custom in strength and power athletes. Cottage cheese is a milk product rich in casein protein, which is slowly digested. It provides a gradual release of amino acids into the bloodstream. That is why these so called “meat heads” use it to bridge the 7-8 hour fasting period during sleep. They claim that eating cottage cheese before sleep reduces overnight muscle breakdown and helps to maintain and build muscle mass. Is there some scientific evidence in support for late evening protein intake in the form of cottage cheese?

Resistance training: muscle mass or just more strength wanted?

In conclusion, athletes who are targeting muscle strength should manage a rest interval of 2-4 min, while athletes primarily aiming at increasing muscle mass should rest for only 30-45 sec between sets.

Boost the benefits from your altitude camp and be a responder!

Endurance athletes often participate in altitude training camps and live up to it with great expectations. Indeed, scientific findings reveal that participation in a training camp performed at terrestrial or simulated altitude can enhance exercise performance up to 10 %. This gain in performance is largely due to an increase in red blood cell production (erythropoiesis) resulting from a higher rate of erythropoietin -(EPO) secretion in a low-oxygen environment.