Category: Wednesday Wisdom

Heavy or Light Weights Part 3 In our third instalment of articles on this topic, we are going to look at another study which compared the effects of either high repetition low load versus low repetition, high load on muscle hypertrophy.  What makes this particular study interesting is firstly, the researches this time used a.. read more

Continuing from last week’s first article on hypertrophy, this week we are going to look at a similar study. However, this time the research was conducted over a 10-week period. Longer term training studies provide more significant evidence of a training effect. Once again, this data comes from the McMaster University research group, headed by.. read more

Building or increasing lean muscle mass, is an important goal for many clients in the fitness industry. However, many of the well established training routines that lead to these goals, are often not compatible an environment with limited strength training equipment. Therefore, an important question that should be asked is there another training method that.. read more

In the last instalment of research reviews on the battling ropes, we are going to look at a study which looked at the effects of battling rope training has on muscle activity, when combined with whole body vibration. Vibration plates and more recently vibration foam rollers are now common place in many fitness training environments,.. read more

Last week we looked at the immediate (acute) effects of battling rope (BR) training. This week we are going to look at some research which has investigated the long-term effects of battling rope training on general fitness. Longer term battling rope studies are uncommon, therefore if battling rope training is going to become a more.. read more

The versatility of the battling ropes is well known among fitness trainers and coaches alike.  Previous research has shown regular training with battling ropes can improve grip strength, stimulate the aerobic energy system, recruit several important core muscles and improve metabolic conditioning in general populations. However the benefits of battling rope training is not restricted.. read more

HIFT improves strength, fitness and flexibility In this final instalment of articles on high intensity functional training, we are going to look at an interesting military study which compared the effects of HIFT versus conventional fitness training on strength, fitness and flexibility in well trained younger male and female army personal. This may particularly relevant.. read more

The Kettlebell swing is widely regarded as the ‘King’ of all Kettlebell exercises. It trains the commonly weak posterior chain muscles like no other exercise. It strengthens the core and has been found to combat back pain in many individuals. It’s hard to argue with its standing… As good as the swing is as a.. read more

In our third instalment in this series of articles on high intensity functional training, we are going to look at the results of another study, which investigated the effects of HIFT on body composition in sedentary overweight and obese women. Simultaneously reducing body fat and improving lean body mass is important to a large majority.. read more

Recently, a group of researchers (Feito et al. 2018) have made a call to label and define high intensity functional training or “HIFT” a type of exercise training that consists of functional, multi-joint movements incorporated into either aerobic or resistance based training to improve general fitness (Feito et al. 2018; Heinrich 2015). I find it.. read more

For many trainers and coaches, functional movement assessments such as the overhead squat, and others due to their complexity, are a barrier to performing the important task of observing movement competency, before progressing to load.  Given, the squat pattern is fundamental to many of the functional training movement patterns, utilised with kettlebells, functional bags, battling.. read more