Podium Talk

Oh, how we all love to push ourselves to the very limit. When the last rep is moving slower than a snail. Yet we ask our spotters not to touch the bar, because ‘we got it’. We push on until the muscles burn and our heart rate is skyrocketing. It’s an exhilarating feeling. It gives us a sense of accomplishment and satisfaction to know we did our best. In addition to the feeling, many trainers also advise training to failure. The claim is that this results in a higher degree of muscle damage and thus greater muscle hypertrophy. It has been advocated by many lifters and bodybuilders as well. I hate to break it to you, but we might be wrong about this belief. Researchers have found that if the volume is equated, hypertrophy is greater for the people who do not train to failure. Volume is the total number of repetitions in a given time for a particular muscle group. This means if the same amount of work is being done, maybe with an additional set to make the number of repetitions in the wor...

Caffeine is originally obtained from coffee, which seemed to be discovered and put to use in Ethiopia in the 15th century. Coffee beans made their way around the globe through mysterious trade routes and a treasury of interesting stories. At this point, this super drug is commonly found in kitchens all around the world and enjoyed as a beverage by a large number of people. Caffeine was first extracted from coffee in 1819 and has opened up many possibilities by which it can be consumed. The cultural history is just amazing, but I wouldn’t attempt to explain the history for the sake of relevance. What we are concerned about is how the contents of this bean is critical to the performance of professional and recreational endurance athletes. At first glance, knowing caffeine’s effect on the heart rate, one would assume that it would not be beneficial to begin a long run with your heart racing before your feet get a chance to catch wind. However, this cannot be further from the truth. Caffei...

We always hear about how important movements like the squat, deadlifts, cleans are for lower body development, having a stronger historical foothold. In these, it’s generally about raw strength and power, and the topic of discussions in changing rooms, where people claim extraordinary personal records or targets.   Lifters are underwhelmed about unilateral (single leg/arm) exercises as a whole. We rarely hear people discuss about how amazing a particular lunge was for their gains. If we look at any isolated movement from a functional activity or competitive sport, it is almost always a unilateral one. Think about it. Running, jumping, vertical and horizontal leaps, changing direction, they are all predominantly unilateral. Granted, the weight on the bar while performing a split squat, lunge or any single leg movement isn’t anything to brag about, whereas the effects these produce on the overall strength and power is astoundingly comparable and is sometimes seen to exceed that of th...

We can all agree on the importance of water in our bodies. Having an adequate level of hydration ensures optimum operation of the various systems of the body. Water content is also important for physical and mental performance in sports. Excessive water loss through sweat is very common in athletes, especially in endurance sports. Hence, every athlete, professional and recreational should be aware of this aspect of sports physiology. A dehydration of even 2% has been shown to significantly compromise physical performance and work capacity. This applies not only for endurance events like the marathon, but also for activities requiring strength, power, and high-intensity endurance. Dehydration has also been linked with impairing mental functions like attention, working memory capacity, reaction time, coordination, decision-making, and mood. The effects are experienced differently based on ethnicity, level of fitness, gender, previous hydration levels, and individual adaptation to environ...

Are you losing weight for likes and comments on the transformation post that you would upload on your social media, only to regress a few weeks later? Do you want to just let it be; or quit the weight loss program? Of course not. Nobody will agree to either of these. Although reality paints a different picture about the adherence and dropout rates, despite fully knowing the risks and dangers of obesity. Adherence and compliance are crucial in successful obesity management. It refers to the behavior of an individual relative to the medical and professional advice including diet and lifestyle modifications, and physical activity participation. Many individuals don’t end up completing their journey. It’s not an easy process as it is, and a few additional factors make it worse. You might be wondering why are we talking about the negatives at all, but trust me. Knowing about the reasons will help you relate and understand that you’re not alone here. Mental stress, anxiety, body shape concer...

Workout accessories have evolved to include very niche products, the likes of which are probably never purchased or used by the majority. However, the weightlifting belt is one of the oldest and most popularly recommended and used worldwide. It’s not just the elites, but many recreational lifters swear by its efficiency. Some of the more common claims are its stability benefits, back injury prevention uses, and many claim that it helps them lift heavier. Today we will put these claims to the test by reviewing some research on this very subject. Firstly we need to understand the possible reasoning for the above claims. The stability aspect could be explained by the abdominal compression that the belt provides. It is often applied in a way that would squeeze the torso and this is thought to add to the natural intra-abdominal pressure that is generated by the core muscles. Next, the claim of reducing the risk of back pain comes from the physical support that it may provide to the lower ba...

We don’t usually see bodybuilders compete in the strongman or powerlifting competitions, but we immediately assume that a jacked-up guy on Instagram must be incredibly strong. Looking at lifting videos of the 8 times Mr. Olympia Ronnie Coleman makes me think: Does size and strength really go hand in hand? For you to be strong, must you also have to look that way? What about the other way around — Does a muscular, lean body translate to tremendous strength? This has been a topic of discussion going back a few decades. Today we’re a lot closer to answering the above questions. Let us quickly get through the basics. Hypertrophy is an increase in size of, in this case muscle tissue. This can be of various types, since muscle is made up of protein and fluid. There can be an increase in protein mass, or volume (which includes fluid). Technically speaking, myofibrillar hypertrophy, or connective tissue and sarcoplasmic hypertrophy. Strength on the other hand is the functional nature, which de...