Mechanical Doping

Interesting article on the latest "buzz" involving cycling and doping...

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/05/sports/cycling/05cycle.html

Playing Active Video Games Similar To Moderate Exercise?

Some active video games, such as Wii Sports and Wii Fit, may equate to moderate exercise, according to latest research. One Japanese study showed that around one-third of the "virtual physical activities" evaluated require an energy expenditure of 3.0 METs or more, considered to be moderate-intensity exercise. METs, metabolic equivalent values, are a standard method of evaluating energy expenditure/cost of activities. The American Heart Association's exercise guidelines show moderate intensity is 3.0 to 6.0 METs. An adult walking at 5 km per hour on a level surface is expending about 3.3 METs.

Researchers found:
- Nine activities had less than 2 METs.
- Twenty-three activities had 2 - 3 METs.
- Nine activities had 3 - 4 METs.
- Five activities had more than 4 METs.

Wii Sports are a collection of five simple games based on boxing, golf, tennis, bowling and baseball. Boxing is the best activity to increase energy expenditure, around 4.5 METs, according to the study findings. Golf, bowling, tennis and baseball are 2.0, 2.6, 3.0, and 3.0 METs, respectively.
Wii Fit includes yoga, resistance/strength training, balance and aerobic exercises with more than 40 different activities, including push-ups, torso twists and single leg extensions. The 'single-arm stand' (Wii Fit), 5.6 METs, is regarded as a difficult resistance exercise and the highest energy cost. Intensities of yoga and balance exercises were much lower than those of the resistance and aerobic exercise, but are still effective in improving flexibility and in fall prevention.

Another research study also suggests that active video games present a good alternative to medium intensity exercise for children. When compared to watching television, calories used while walking will increase 2 to 3 times. Similar rates of energy expenditure, heart rate and perceived exertion were obtained from playing the games Wii Boxing, Dance Dance Revolution (Level 2) or walking at 3.5 mph (+-5km/h). Overall, the energy expenditure during active video game play was comparable to moderate-intensity walking.

Over 60 million sets of Wii sports and Wii fit have been sold worldwide.


The Gravity fitness centre at Le Parker Meridien hotel in New York on West 57th Street decided they would transform their old squash court into a Wii Fit and Wii Sport room so that New Yorkers with small apartments have a place where they can comfortably play on the Wii. Not only does this Wii installation have a nice digital projector, Wii Fit and Wii Sports, they even have a personal trainer. A Wii Sports session is pretty expensive, you pay $120 but you get personal one-on-one coaching from the human coach while you give the best of yourself in Wii Sports or Wii Fit. Some players claim that the personal trainer really motivates you to do the best you can. But there’s also a cheap $50 one hour session without the helpful personal trainer.

Altitude Training

Here’s an extract from the book "Physiology of Sport and Exercise" describing a climber’s experience during an expedition up Mount Everest. The climber did this climb without supplementary oxygen at 8 600m above altitude. “Our pace was wretched. My ambition was to do 20 consecutive paces uphill without a pause to rest and pant, elbow on bent knee, yet I never remember achieving it - 13 was nearer the mark.”

A person’s ability to consume maximal amounts of oxygen during exercise at altitude decreases as the altitude exceeds 1500m. For every thousand metres above 1500m the individual’s VO2 max will decrease by 11%. This means at extreme altitudes people barely have sufficient oxygen to function properly let alone thinking about moving.

Firstly we need to realize that there is a lower atmospheric pressure of gases and also a lower partial pressure of oxygen at higher altitudes. The partial pressure of oxygen at sea level is 104mmhg when compared with 46mmhg at 4,300m above altitude. So from this you can see how altitude drastically decreases the partial pressure of oxygen, which in turn will affect the pressure gradient that is required in order to move gases in and out. So at higher altitudes there is a smaller gradient between the arteries and working tissues resulting in less oxygen being diffused into the required areas. This is why when you exercise at altitude you immediately start to breathe at a greater rate to compensate for the lower pressure gradients and to deliver the adequate amount of oxygen into your system.

The body has its own system which evolves to overcome this lack of oxygen being diffused to the working tissues. In my previous article I talked about the hemoglobin saturation curve, now if you remember at lower partial pressure oxygen that is bound to hemoglobin is released. At altitude the partial pressure of oxygen is very low, meaning that oxygen is getting released from the hemoglobin protein very rapidly, so to counter this the blood pH increases resulting in a term known as respiratory alkalosis. If you think back to what changes the saturation curve, two things affect it, one being temperature and the other being blood ph level. Both of these factors result in the curve shifting to the right. In terms of respiratory alkalosis it’s the opposite, the curve shifts to the left resulting in more oxygen being bound to hemoglobin at lower partial pressure.

Changes that occur during training at altitude include a decrease in blood volume and an increase in cardiac output. A person’s blood volume decreases due to an increase in urine production, and also due to a loss of respiratory water. At higher altitudes there is less humidity present resulting in the body losing more water because the water that is lost during sweating gets evaporated straight away. This can be detrimental to training because it means athletes can dehydrate very rapidly. There is also a greater production of erythropoietin meaning more red blood cells and more hemoglobin gets produced. This is to ensure that there is more oxygen within the blood when it circulates around the body. Cardiac output is the volume of blood to be pumped by the ventricle per minute. It takes into account the blood volume and heart rate, which can be expressed as heart rate multiplied by stroke volume. During acute altitude exposure cardiac output increases due to an increase in heart rate so that greater amounts of blood can flow around the body to deposit oxygen to the needed areas. This is to compensate for the decrease in partial pressure of oxygen.

Trev

Sync or Swim

In response to our latest poll (Apr 2010), here's a sport and some info on it you may not have known. Synchronized swimming is an Olympics aquatic sport, combining elements of dance, gymnastics and swimming. Here's a link to an overview of the sport, including history, competitions, rules and regulations: http://www.faqs.org/sports-science/Sp-Tw/Synchronized-Swimming.html

A link to a docu-video of "synchro" training : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GGlyyPAnjAc

One of the most demanding sports, the athletes can train up to 10 hours/day, 6 days a week. This will include endurance, strength and power development, as well as extensive flexibility exercises. Various types of training are undertaken, including: gymnastics, cross-training, choreography (in and out of the water), core stability, trampolining and underwater work.

http://www.popsci.com/know-your-olympic-sport/article/2008-08/secrets-synchronized-swimming - An great article on the more "out there" concepts of synchronized swimming.

Hypertrophy - The Science of getting BIG (part 1)

In this part 1 of hypertrophy, I will focus on the physiology and anatomy of how and why our muscles grow through training. In parts 2 and 3, I will focus on the training needed for maximum hypertrophy and the nutritional demands and supplementation.

There are two ways that a muscle can grow and increase in its cross-sectional area (CSA). The increase in whole muscle CSA is primarily attributed to an increase in individual muscle fiber CSA. The other way of increasing muscle CSA is fiber hyperplasia, or the increase in number of muscle fibers within a certain muscle. This is still an ongoing debate within the topic of muscle hypertrophy (the fiber hyperplasia that is).

Individual fiber hypertrophy is a result an increase of protein synthesis (creation or building of more). Protein synthesis is always changing but the rate at which it changes is a result of the net gains of protein synthesis and protein degradation. Resistance training results in a net protein synthesis (Synthesis > Degradation).

During the exercise, degradation is higher than synthesis, but after exercise, during recovery, the synthesis increases and a net protein gain is the result. So adequate recovery is vital in gaining muscle mass (see article on exerQ – Strength training and recovery times). It involves an increase of contractile proteins actin and myosin (within myofibrils) and an increase in the myofibrils themselves. Other proteins such as structural proteins titin and nebulin for example also increase proportionally. A 2002 study by Roth et al. showed than resistance training alters up to 70 genes that almost all result in up regulation of muscle growth and down regulation of growth inhibitory factors.

Fiber hyperplasia has been shown to occur in animals but there is limited research and evidence that it occurs in humans. It has been shown to occur in animals under very high intensity resistance training. It has been shown that well trained athletes possess more fibers than untrained but it is uncertain whether or not it is to do with natural genetics or induced changes from training. Hyperplasia therefore cannot be thought of as a major contributor to muscle hypertrophy as there is little evidence of it in humans and if there is, it only contributes to > 10% of total hypertrophy.

So overall, individual muscle fiber hypertrophy and an increase in fiber CSA is the main reason for muscle mass increases following correct hypertrophy training periods.

JJ

check out these books
Essentials of strength training and conditioning 3rd edition - Baechle and Earle
Physiology of sport and exercise 4th edition - Wilmore, Costill, Kenney

Astronauts and Exercise in Space: New Developments

Astronauts in space can spend hours exercising everyday. This aims to counteract the detraining effect of zero gravity conditions, which cause numerous physiological changes in the body. In muscle tissue, mass and strength decrease over time. The strength loss is especially evident in the muscles used to maintain posture, as they become largely irrelevant whilst floating around a spacecraft. Another significant effect of weightlessness is a decline is the density of bone, about 2% per month on average in space. This is less reversible compared to muscular changes and can have a particularly debilitating impact on return to earth.

Cardiovascular changes include increased blood return to the heart, due to less gravity-induced pooling of blood in the legs, while the “puffy faces” of astronauts develop due to this redistribution of blood in the body. Decrease in overall blood volume also develops and can cause low blood pressure and fainting when back in normal gravity environments. Many of the changes contribute to an overall drop in maximal aerobic capacity/fitness (VO2 Max). These negative adaptations to out-of-orbit travel have generated more and more research in designing relevant exercise programs and equipment, which seeks to safeguard the future health of astronauts.

Many different types of exercise and training have been used, some proving more effective than others. Heavy “push-pull” equipment attached to the spaceship, elastic bands/cords/belts and resistive equipment have been developed, while “strap-down” treadmills and bicycles are the norm. One device, currently in use, is the advanced Resistive Exercise Device (aRED). This works with vacuum cylinders, similar to bicycle pumps in reverse, which can apply loads up to 250 kg, according to NASA. In the example of a squat, the vacuum engages as the astronaut stands up, and when squatting back down, the vacuum draws the bar back to the origin position. The main concern, even with creating beneficial weight-bearing or elastic equipment, is still a lack of a total unilateral force acting on the body such as gravity. This leaves the decreases in bone density largely unaffected.

Latest research mainly revolves around creating artificial gravity-like forces. One design, dubbed “The Space Cycle” by researchers at the National Space Biomedical Research Institute (NSBRI), aims to accomplish this while aiming to be small enough and simple enough to operate and/or repair in a spacecraft. Picture a two-person, hanging merry-go-round. A rotating wheel sits on top of a central column. On one side of the wheel a reclining bicycle is suspended. Opposite is a cage-like platform, where a second person will stand. As the one astronaut pedals the bicycle, the whole apparatus starts to spin, causing both the bicycle and the platform to rotate around the column. As the rotational speed increases, both astronauts begin to experience effects of this centrifugal force as a form of artificial gravity.

Astronauts on long-term missions presently need approximately two hours of standard exercise a day to resist the effects of micro-gravity. The Space Cycle is seen as a way of reducing this exercise time, therefore increasing the productivity of those onboard. The weight of the mechanism, which is currently constructed out of steel, poses a problem. This may be reduced in the future using carbon composite materials, which may also slightly reduce its diameter, making it possible for use on the International Space Station.

Jed

Gene Doping: From The Inside Out

Defined by the World Anti-Doping Agency as “the non-therapeutic use of cells, genes, genetic elements, or of the modulation (adjusting) of gene expression, having the capacity to improve athletic performance", this relatively new form of performance enhancement is possibly going to turn doping on it’s head, while pushing ethics and morality in sport and the sport industry to the fore.

First of all, what is a Gene?
Inside human cells, genes provide a sort of “blueprint” or instruction for protein production. Genes are made up of chains or arrangements of DNA. This determines how the cell will function and also its physical attributes.

Gene doping developed out of the concept of gene therapy; treatment developed to cure or ease genetic diseases and disorders such as muscular dystrophy or sickle-cell anaemia. Damaged or flawed genes are replaced with modified, functional ones. These same techniques that can help ordinary people stay healthier could be used to create “superathletes”; weightlifters who “naturally” have larger thigh muscles, cyclists who have more aerobic/type 1 muscle fibers or higher aerobic enzymes produced in those muscles.

Changes in the expression of genes is not a new concept in the science of the human body. Many ordinary medicines can have this effect, as well as daily activities. Training and exercise at least partly modify the expression of one’s genes. But it’s this possibly permanent baseline transformation of the building blocks of the athlete’s body using technology that could be the next big illegal thing. (And possibly is already...). Universities of Washington and Florida were able to give trichromatic vision to squirrel monkeys (naturally dichromatic, using only two primary colours) using gene therapy, possibly leading to a treatment for colour blindness in humans in the future. Higher endurance and increase in musculature in “marathon mice” arose when a group of scientists studied three proteins controlled by a gene that influence how the body manages fats and sugars. This type of research eventually turned towards athletic performance.

How does gene doping work?
Usually a performance-enhancing gene is injected into an athlete carried in a harmless/damaged virus or bacteria (a vector; vehicle to transfer foreign genetic material into another cell). These synthetic genes now in the cells result in altered production of proteins/chemicals and cell function, continuing long-term in most cases.

One of the first gene therapy products associated with genetic doping appeared on the eve of the Turin 2006 Olympic Winter Games, where Repoxygen emerged as a possible substance in use at the Games. This medication was initially considered as a way to fight anaemia.

Detection can prove very difficult. The synthetic genes used most likely appear identical to the natural genes. Identifying the vector or particles of it is possible, but only through muscle biopsies (procedure in which a piece of muscle tissue is removed and examined microscopically). This is not ideal for athlete as some damage, swelling and weakness for a short time results. Genetic “bar codes” or markers can be produced by manufacturers/scientists for their therapeutic products, but this would require input from all relevant parties and administrators. Patterns of protein production and protein levels can also sometimes be analysed. The World Anti-Doping Authority is currently working on a test to check the expression of all 25,000 of the human body's genes, which will look for abnormal patterns.

There are many dangers and possible side effects of gene doping. Often a single gene will have more than one effect in the body and over time illicit other unwanted responses from the body. As with most substances, people’s bodies respond differently and their immune systems especially so. What looked like a successful bid to cure a severe immuno-deficiency disorder, the so-called bubble-baby syndrome, was stopped when some of the children in a French study developed leukaemia, which proved unexplainable. Increased risk of cancer is often a result of the change in DNA within cells. Some hereditary genes might become altered which will then affect children born to athletes. (Interesting thought: If those children grow up to be athletes, would they then also be identified and banned from competition...?)

The ethical issues raised are ever increasing. Cheating is taken to a whole new level. Are we getting closer and closer to playing God? With regards to the uncertainty of long-term effects, who’s to blame when things go wrong? Not only the athlete, but the sports community and society as a whole, will be harmed. Overall, the uniqueness and variety of sport would be removed.

BELGIAN BLUE BULL demonstrates the effect of blocking the antigrowth factor myostatin. A natural genetic mutation in this breed produces a truncated, ineffective form of myostatin, which allows muscle growth to go unchecked. The absence of myostatin also interferes with fat deposition, making these “double-muscled” cattle exceptionally lean.

Here's a really interesting case of when things go wrong:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jesse_Gelsinger

Jed