Greetings!

I just have a sec here since Jodie is stopping by this AM for a special surprise for me!  I don’t know what she has planned for the day, but I am sure it will be fun.

While I was doing some early AM research (yikes, that makes me sound like an even bigger geek), I found this study below about pain and performance.

In general, pain wil limit performance.   If you are in pain, the best thing you can do to boost your strength is to get out of pain! Pain becomes a huge priority in the body.

I wish the study would have actually measured strength, since the changes they describe may or may not alter strength.    Since it was not measured, from this study, we don’t know.

See the following studies that did look at this though from a previous post I did

Needles in Nerves and Jumping Out of Planes

The abstract

J Physiol. 2009 Jan 15;587(Pt 1):183-93. Epub 2008 Nov 17

Effects of deep and superficial experimentally induced acute pain on muscle sympathetic nerve activity in human subjects.

Burton AR, Birznieks I, Bolton PS, Henderson LA, Macefield VG.

Prince of Wales Medical Research Institute, Sydney, NSW 2031, Australia.

Human
studies conducted more than half a century ago have suggested that
superficial pain induces excitatory effects on the sympathetic nervous
system, resulting in increases in blood pressure (BP) and heart rate
(HR), whereas deep pain is believed to cause vasodepression. To date,
no studies have addressed whether deep or superficial pain produces
such differential effects on muscle sympathetic nerve activity (MSNA).
Using microneurography we recorded spontaneous MSNA from the common
peroneal nerve in 13 awake subjects. Continuous blood pressure was
recorded by radial arterial tonometry. Deep pain was induced by
intramuscular injection of 0.5 ml hypertonic saline (5%) into the
tibialis anterior muscle, superficial pain by subcutaneous injection of
0.2 ml hypertonic saline into the overlying skin. Muscle pain, with a
mean rating of 4.9 +/- 0.8 (S.E.M.) on a 0-10 visual analog scale (VAS)
and lasting on average 358 +/- 32 s, caused significant increases in
MSNA (43.9 +/- 10.0%), BP (5.4 +/- 1.1%) and HR (7.0 +/- 2.0%) – not
the expected decreases. Skin pain, rated at 4.9 +/- 0.6 and lasting 464
+/- 54 s, also caused significant increases in MSNA (38.2 +/- 12.8%),
BP (5.1 +/- 2.1%) and HR (5.6 +/- 2.0%). The high-frequency (HF) to
low-frequency (LF) ratio of heart rate variability (HRV) increased from
1.54 +/- 0.25 to 2.90 +/- 0.45 for muscle pain and 2.80 +/- 0.52 for
skin pain. Despite the different qualities of deep (dull and diffuse)
and superficial (burning and well-localized) pain,

CONCLUSION We conclude that
pain originating in muscle and skin does not exert a differential
effect on muscle sympathetic nerve activity, both causing an increase
in MSNA and an increase in the LF:HF ratio of HRV. Whether this holds
true for longer lasting experimental pain remains to be seen.

Rock on!

Mike T Nelson

PS

Any questions on this study, post them in the comments and I will get back to you there.  Comments are cool.

Updation

So I have decided to do a few random updates here while I am working out the video issues. I am keeping the web people hopping!

I just got done with an interview with Mark Young, a fitness professional in Canada who also writes for T-Muscle.  We chatted about the power of the nervous system, neuroplasticity, working the opposite joint for better strength, arthrokinetic reflex (bad joints= piss poor strength),  how the brain gets information for performance (hint, think joints, eyes and inner ear), Z-Health and much more!  Mark will drop me a line once it is live and I will have a link here too for all of you!  In the meantime, check out Mark’s blog at

Mark Young Training Systems

Treadmills

By now everyone is familiar with my disdain for treadmills and the cardio bunnies you see on them putting in countless hours.

Get Off the Treadmill

They have the best intentions, but there is a much better way.   Go outside, grab a kettlebell, pull something, push something, heck, even do bodyweight drills.  If you are in Minnesota, come out by my place and you can smash some tires with a sledgehammer, play with kettlebells, push cars, pull the tire sled, deadlifts, heavy tire flips, etc.   Kick your butt and have fun doing it!  Plus it is summer now, so get out in the sun and stock up on your Vitamin D!

Below is an article from Alwyn Cosgrove discussing treadmills (may not be uber work friendly site) and thanks to Nate Green for doing the Myth Busters article series.

Myth: Sweating on a treadmill is just as good as sweating outside.

Mythbuster: Alwyn Cosgrove

I predict a treadmill backlash coming.   I wrote a whole very technical article on treadmills and have submitted it awhile ago.   I can’t say much more at this point, but I am hoping it will see the light of day in August and hopefully sooner.  I have a lot of the literature reviewed in it; so I can’t go into detail here.

Have a great weekend!

Rock on

Mike T Nelson

Ok, so I thought I was a smart monkey and finally figuring out how to embed video in a new player, but there still seem to be a few glitches.  Grrrrrrr.   I also managed to vaporize a comment that was left too–bugger.  I feel like I am trying to learn a foreign language, but I will get this thing figured out.  Thanks for your patience on this and we will be rockin’ soon!

Below is a killer grip video from the one and only extreme human Adam T Glass.  This is some secret inside footage from the post Tactical Strength Challenge seminar that Adam did at B-Rad’s torture chamber (aka Kinetic Edge in Woodbury Minnesota).  If you are looking for a simple way to increase your pull up grip, check this out!

The key is to grip the bar tight with ONE hand and don’t spin around
like a top under the bar.  Overload can be added, but work to add time
first.

Rock on!

Mike T Nelson

Greetings and welcome to my new site!  I appreciate you taking the time to come over from my old Mike T Nelson Ramblings blogspot to my new home.

We are still under a bit of construction here, but many changes coming this summer such as

• New graphics and top banner
• Newsletter sign ups
• More video
• More audio–I have some very cool interviews already done and in the can
• and much more.

So bear with me as I am far from a HTML wizard, but I am learning more each day and will have it second nature soon.

To kick off the new site, I will be having some videos from the Xtreme Human himself, professional strongman Adam T Glass.    These were filmed at the seminar after the Tactical Strength Challenge (TSC) this past Spring at B-Rad’s Kinetic Edge.   I am working through some video issues with the new site, but I hope to have the coming to you in the next day or so.   Hopefully the video will work below and if not, know that I will be working on it!

Video of Adam T Glass Tearing Cards

Rock on!

Mike T Nelson

Read the rest of this entry »

So I am moving into the 21st Century to better serve you, my loyal followers.

Bear with me as it will be a bit of time until I get all the new stuff figured out here.

Keep your eyes peeled here for more killer information on all ways to increase your athletic performance.   I remember Dr. Cobb stating that it is unnatural to NOT be athletic and I fully believe that.

As always, ANY comments on how I can improve let me know

Rock on!

Mike T Nelson