Social Workout

Body Clocks

Chronobiologists Say Your Heart is Different at Night

Gina Kolata, New York Times fitness writer, has stumbled onto a strange phenomenon: Her heart beats faster in the evening, given the same apparent exertion, than it does in the morning. Why, she wondered, staring at her heart rate monitor? The question led her on a fact finding mission among exercise physiologists and "chronobiologists," i.e. those who study the human body clock. Love that.

And here's the counterintuitive upshot: First, your body is most "biologically efficient" in the evening. "Most components (strength, power, speed) of athletic performance are worst in the early hours of the morning," one doc told Kolata. Basically, your body is warmed up later in the day. So, you would think that your heart would beat faster in the morning when you're less "efficient," and slower during evening exercise. Apparently, not the case. The heart seems to beat faster, even though the exercise is easier on the body. Why?

Alt.Rehab

Times Science Writer Shoots Up with Own Blood

Gina Kolata, veteran Times science writer and serious cardio junkie, has a pulled hamstring. You and I might simply ice that baby and wait. Not Kolata. She's the sort who really needs her exercise -- like, the sort that signs up for four hour, up hill, "Mt. Everest," spin classes (about which she wrote an excellent book.) Screw icing, Kolata heads to the Hospital for Special Surgery and drops a cool $1,000 to get her hamstring injected with her own blood. Huh? Apparently this is an experimental treatment which doctors think can help accelerate the repair of injured tissue.  But Kolata is the first to acknowledge the procedure is entirely unproven. "It’s one thing to be a professional reporter and quite another to have a running injury and be desperate for relief," she confesses. "Is there an unproven treatment that might help? Give it to me, whatever it costs, even if my insurance does not pay." You go, girl.

On Body Types

Women and Bulky

If a women lifts weights, do their muscles get bigger? Sounds like a dumb question. Common sense suggests -- and most women would agree -- that lifting weights creates "bulk." But experts seem to say it ain't so. Here's our fave Gina Kolata on the subject in May: "While women often say they are afraid they will bulk up, this fear is unfounded....Acquiring muscle mass requires testosterone levels that women don’t have." We've tried to hold that line in casual conversations, but it's generally met with a blank stare. Blogger-trainer Leigh Peele tackled the issue recently in a long, thoughtful post -- complete with semi-legit survey of 2000 women who provided their reactions to various archetypal Hollywood bodies. Think Jessica Alba, Madonna, and Hilary Swank.

Overachieve

Everyone Needs a Coach

Our hero Gina Kolata topping the charts in the Times today with a piece on training. Her point: Most people don't fully understand or appreciate the power of "training," which is to be distinguished from just sort of doing your same old fitness thing. Training "is the ultimate performance enhancer," she writes, "with effects that can dwarf those of illegal drugs." You too can break three hours in the marathon! But here's what caught our attention: Real training almost always requires help from others. Rocky had Mic, Agassi had Bollittieri, Seabiscuit had Tom Smith.

Performance Enhancing

Coffee is the New HGH

Gina Kolata, the best name in fitness journalism, writes today about the performancing enhancing effects of caffeine. To sum up: Caffeine makes you better, stronger, faster...

Exercise physiologists have studied caffeine’s effects in nearly every iteration: Does it help sprinters? Marathon runners? Cyclists? Rowers? Swimmers? Athletes whose sports involve stopping and starting like tennis players? The answers are yes and yes and yes and yes.

Apparently not much caffeine is required to get a bump -- the equivalent of four ounces of coffee. And, in lab conditions, we're talking about a 20-25% bump. In baseball terms, that's the difference between, say, an average of .250 and .313. Yo, A-Rod: Stop with the Primobolan, and start hitting the double soy vente lattes.