wise athletes podcast

Sponsor: RePowerU — a free fitness practices assessment (a 10-minute questionnaire) Our Guest Today: Chris Schwenker, P.T.: “Indoor Virtual Cycling is the evolution of our great sport.  The Zommunique’ (theZommunique.com) has it covered with in-depth reporting, eSports racing news, community features, cutting-edge training and performance research, tips, and suggestions.  The ZOM’s authoritative content team, led by its founder, Chris Schwenker, P.T., an avid virtual cyclist and Physical Therapist with over 25 years of experience, focuses on the athlete, the avatar, and everything in between.” Chris Schwenker, P.T. Chris Schwenker, P.T. background Semi-retired as owner and director of his private Orthopedic Physical Therapy practice after over 20 years, Chris is blessed with the freedom to pursue his passion for virtual cycling and writing. On a continual quest to give back to his bike for all the rewarding experiences and relationships it has provided him, he created a non-profit – The DIRT Dad Fund (www.DIRTDadFund) to support members of his online cycling team.  Through the pages of his cycling and fitness blog site, The Zommunique’ (www.TheZommunique.com), Chris is committed to helping others with his bike. Chris graduated with top honors as valedictorian of his hometown high school and received a full academic scholarship.  He attained a biology degree from Brandeis University, where he played Division 3 soccer as a Justice Brandeis Scholar.  Chris received his professional post-graduate degree from the SUNY-Stony Brook School of Physical Therapy and has been in private practice for over twenty years.  Chris has co-authored several research papers, been a guest on multiple fitness and cycling-related podcasts, and written and interviewed for many articles on the subject.  You will find him behind his desk when not riding on the North Fork of Long Island roads, where he lives with his beautiful wife and is proud of his two college student children.Love all of virtual cycling, not just Zwift.Always loved sports.  Soccer in college, then powerlifting.  Got big (192 lbs with very low body fat), and didn’t do any cardio.  When Chris’s father died young (before he met any of Chris’s children), Chris shifted into cardio sports.Raced up and down the east coast.  Transformed his body:  from 192 lbs to 128 lbs with single digit body fat.  Now his son is 21 years old.He now rides mostly indoors.  The original issue was the time constraint for when he could ride.  He only had a window early in the day, before the sun rose, so he was riding indoors mostly at 4 – 630am.   Chris was also concerned about safety on the roads he had easy access to ride.He did try freezing cold rides, but didn’t like it.He is a member of the DIRT team, which has 10,000 members.  It’s the biggest club on Zwift.Chris rides a lot.  15,000 miles last year.Chris started virtual cycling to stay warm, and stay safe, but that isn’t why he does it now.  He now is attached to the community, camaraderie, ….his friends are on Zwift.  The racing teamwork is much better than real life in his amateur experience.  AND, you don’t have to crash.Racing in virtual cycling is real racing.  The thrill of victory and the agony of defeat lives on in the virtual environment.Chris’s team uses team tactics to make the virtual racing more exciting than real life racing. Any advice for people transitioning from riding outdoors to riding indoors for the winter? Make sure the bike fits.  If you are using your “old bike” on the trainer, make sure it fits you properly, and like your regular bike fits you.  If you haven’t had a bike fit ever or in a while, get a bike fit.  It will pay off in comfort and healthcare bills.  Cycling is so repetitive, that even small problems can get magnified into painful issues.Beware going hard too often.  Virtual cycling makes it all the easier to feel competitive and to lose your training discipline.  You have to let your body recover, so you can’t go hard every day.  On your easy days, don’t chase every rabbit.  Periodize your training.And just like when you are riding outdoors, make sure you have sufficient flexibility, and that you have addressed muscle imbalances.  Make sure your core strength is addressed and is as strong as possible.The riding indoors is much more static than riding outdoors.  There are some devices that can help.  The Wahoo Climbr and others.  Deciding to get out of the saddle every 15 minutes or so can be a help to people who get saddle issues when riding indoors.  In fact, since you are riding indoors, aerodynamics isn’t an issue so make yourself comfortable on the bike.  Move your hand position often.  Raise your bars even to find more comfort. Other differences: No steering.  There is a product (sterzio) that you can add on below your front wheel, but it isn’t like real steering obviously.Less movement of the bike underneath you.  You can build or buy “rocker plates” that provide some movement, but again it is not really like the natural movement of a bike out on the road, so it might help with comfort due to shifting on the saddle but won’t replace a real-life experience. THINGS CYCLISTS SHOULD BE SURE TO DO Staying healthy as a masters cyclist Vary what you do.  You can’t just ride all the time.  Do weight bearing activities.  Do strength training. Core strengtheningWork on having enough flexibilityResolving muscle imbalances Because cyclists are in a flexed position for so long, we experience adaptive shortening of the muscles in the front of the body that are in a shortened position, hip flexors, .  They get an accelerated shortening…a lose of flexibility.   On the opposite side of the body, hamstrings, glutes, hip rotators, spinal extensor muscles, muscle get turned off due to being used in a stretch position so long. Cyclists need to open up the hips.  Improve flexibility in hip flexors and hamstrings.  Do strengthening on glutes, spinal extensors. Note:  see episode on Muscle Activation Technique for additional tips on addressing tight muscles and inactivated muscles. https://www.wiseathletes.com/podcast/42-muscle-activation-technique-for-performance-and-pain-with-rhonda-mansell/ Phil Cavell, Mid-life Cyclist.  Expert in pedal stroke and bike fitting.  Nordic / cross-country skiing is the ideal cross training for cyclists:  use of arms, upright trunk position for full extension. The Midlife Cyclist – A Book Review and Interview with the Author Phil Cavell Chris in his element THINGS CYCLISTS SHOULD BE SURE TO AVOID poor air quality in the riding environment.  Not just temperature and humidity but CO2, particulates (can get particulates meters to test the air).    In Chris’s experiment, he closed the windows and then started riding.  The CO2 levels became unhealthy in a short period of time.  He couldn’t tell just by the feeling in his body.  Washer / dryer, oil burner.  Check it out.  Chris uses an air filtration device.Temperature and humidity.  A powerful fan is a key tool for inside riding.  Chris uses a power fan and an air conditioner that pulls air from and pushes untreated air outside.Riding a bike that doesn’t fit you.  Lot’s of people use their old bike on the indoor trainer.  The problem is the old bike has an old fit….a badly fitting bike will create problems.Make sure your shoes and pedal cleats and pedals are not worn out.  All of your power does through your feet and the pedals.  Why waste power and/or create body issues with unstable platform?Going too hard too often.  Zwift is a game.  It is built to make it addictive.  You score points by riding more, so you want to ride more.  You get your name at the top of lists (think real time Strava KOMs), so you want to go for it every time.  Plus the regular old chasing of rabbits that we do in real life. Chris did a vEverest challenge. He started riding at 3am (got up at 2am).  12 hours to complete for chris.  A fast time for pros is around 6 hours.Virtual Everesting (29,032 feet of virtual climbing).  This has been done a lot in real life by picking a climbing circuit to repeat until climbing 29k feet of climbing.  It is also a Zwift thing where people do Alp du Zwift over and over again to collect the 29k feet of climbing.  You are allowed to get off the bike (generally while the bike is descending) and stretch and use the bathroom…which is a huge advantage. DIRT DAD FUND Chris created a non-profit to help club members financially.  It is funded via sale of cub branded product sold to members.  DIRT members have been extremely generous.  They have helped families with cancer bills, college bills after the death of a parent.  Even just small gifts to people who deserve a celebration.    It’s a Schwenker family affair with both wife and children participating in the management of the non-profit.  Conclusion: Virtual cycling is just a small fraction of all the ways cycling is a great sport.  The rider on a bike can just “lose themselves” mentally by riding along without thinking about work or other problems, or they can use the bike to get great exercise including exploring how their body works when they ride hard to get more fit or ride long to build endurance.  And you can just explore the world to find new experiences.  But virtual cycling adds to the total experience, and you should try it if you haven’t. Another key to having a long cycling experience as a part of a long life, is that you have to take care of the engine.  Keep the body strong, resolve pain issues quickly, avoid getting hurt.  Virtual cycling can play a big role in extending the time in life we can ride our bike for fun and exercise. Great review of the book, “The Midlife Athlete”: https://thezommunique.com/2021/09/22/the-midlife-cyclist-a-book-review-and-interview-with-the-author-phil-cavell/ The “Gain Cave” Chris Schwenker, P.T.Webmaster / The Zommunique’ www.theZommunique.com The DIRT Dad Fund https://thezommunique.com/dirt-dad-fund/ Chris was recently quoted in this article.  https://www.nextavenue.org/bicycling-into-50s-60s-beyond/Long form interview with Chris recently published.  https://thezommunique.com/2021/10/01/authority-magazine-and-thrive-global-esports-christopher-schwenker-on-the-5-things-you-need-to-create-a-highly-successful-career-in-esports/ The Midlife Cyclist by Phil Cavell book review by Chris https://thezommunique.com/2021/09/22/the-midlife-cyclist-a-book-review-and-interview-with-the-author-phil-cavell/A Virtual Cyclist Reluctantly Takes a Vacation  https://thezommunique.com/2021/07/24/a-virtual-cyclist-reluctantly-takes-a-vacation/Poor Indoor Air Quality Part One -The Invisible Danger to the Virtual Cyclist https://thezommunique.com/2021/07/19/part-one-poor-indoor-air-quality-the-invisible-danger-to-the-virtual-cyclist/Poor Indoor Air Quality Part Two – The Invisible Danger to the Virtual Cyclist  https://thezommunique.com/2021/07/21/part-two-poor-indoor-air-quality-the-invisible-danger-to-the-virtual-cyclist/Rhabdomyolysis – A HIdden Risk of Virtual Cycling  https://thezommunique.com/2021/06/26/part-one-rhabdomyolysis-a-hidden-risk-of-virtual-cycling-2/Core Strengthening Page https://thezommunique.com/core-strengthening/

Sponsor: RePowerU — a free fitness practices assessment (a 10-minute questionnaire) Yoga for Cyclists? YES! Yoga is everywhere, but is it for cyclists? YES! Hunter Allen was one of the first coaches to bring yoga to his clients to help them be more resilient, recover faster, and get stronger on the bike. Using yoga to recover faster and get stronger on a bike…. with Coach Hunter Allen Hello, and welcome back to the Wise Athletes podcast with Joe Lavelle and Dr. Glen Winkel.  On today’s episode, number 43, we are joined by the legendary cycling coach Hunter Allen. Hunter was co-author of the book  “Training and Racing with a Power Meter” (with Dr. Andy Coggan) which has been translated into 8 languages and sold over 120,000 copies.  He also co-wrote “Cutting-Edge Cycling” with Dr. Stephen Cheung, was the co-developer of TrainingPeaks WKO software, and was the founder of Peaks Coaching Group. Episode 40 with Hunter Allen: https://www.wiseathletes.com/podcast/40-power-meter-find-your-superpower-with-hunter-allen/ What Hunter is less well known for is his work in bringing yoga to cyclists with his Yoga for Cyclists video.  When Hunter was a professional cyclist, he was looking for ways to help him recover and become more supple without adding to his exercise regime.  He found yoga, and over the years was able to curate a set of yoga poses that work best to help cyclists recover and, over time, develop supple, resilient muscles. Widely known as one of the top experts in the world in coaching endurance athletes using power meters, Hunter Allen has been instrumental in developing and spreading the power training principles. Hunter is a USA Cycling Level 1 coach, was the 2008 BMX technical coach for the Beijing Olympics and has taught the USA Cycling Power Certification Course since 2005. A former professional cyclist for 17 years on the Navigators Team with over 40 road victories to his credit, Hunter has been coaching endurance athletes since 1995, and his athletes have achieved more than 2000 victories and numerous national, world championship titles and Olympic Medals. Hunter Allen — Yoga for Cycling Pioneer Hunter Allen Yoga http://www.peakscoachinggroup.com/ https://shoppeaks.com/product/yoga-for-cyclists/ Hunter was one of the first to bring the benefits of yoga to the cycling world.  He started when he was a professional cyclist….he was looking for ways to recover better. How did you bring yoga into cycling?  When you start to understand the idea of muscles and how bound up we become as cyclists because of the awkward position we  are in for so many hours.  Bent over, arms out in front, never extend legs fully, craned  neck.  Because of the 1000s of hours we are in that position we develop muscles very specific to that. I can always tell who is a cyclist because they have stand with knees slightly bent.  Never straighten legs.  Hamstrings are tight.  Never extend through heels.  Tight hip flexors.  Needed to create suppleness in those muscles to become a better cyclist.  Prevent muscle cramps.  Create more relaxation in those muscles to relax more, and ride faster, and avoid becoming that hunched over old man. Yoga helps us to open our chest, get more in alignment with gravity to let gravity go through you. Help on the bike and off the bike. Looking for a solution to undo some of that tension I had put into my body by riding so much for so long. Stand upright.  Muscles that were more supple…not just chiseled and ripped but also flexible and resilient. I went to a lot of yoga classes… to try a lot of different types to find what would work best in my situation as a cyclist who was exercising a ton every day.  I didn’t want to go to a yoga class that was a workout because I was already getting a ton of work.  I wanted a recovery tool.  Relaxation place, to bring awareness to my breathing.  To create suppleness.  That’s why I wanted an “easier” class. Why yoga per se?  It was a class I could take…someone would instruct me….there was a system:  poses, stretches to warmup, then progressively move through the body.  I like a step by step method.  Yoga provided that. It makes sense to want something you can follow without mental stress either to facilitate the entire relaxation goal. What other benefits? (1) Super efficient post ride recovery tool.. most of us have limited amount of time.  We tend to use up our available time for training, and then we don’t have a lot of time for recovery.  Yoga is very efficient time-wise. (2) Helps identify areas of your body that needs additional help.   Yoga is relaxing but it touches on the entire body so you can be in touch with where it hurts and needs some attention, whether as a part of recovery or to explore whether there is something wrong on the bike. (3) The breath awareness.  Most endurance athletes have incredible breath awareness because breathing hard is a part of our everyday workouts.  But cyclists on the flats do not move in harmony with our inhales and exhales, unlike runners and cycling going up a mountain.  The breathing becomes a rhythmic part of the exertion.   Yoga can bring that back to cycling.  If cyclists become aware of their breathing, it can become a subtle way to get the brain and the body to get into synch. The benefits of breathing with intention makes sense since breathing is a gateway into the nervous system.  You can use breathing to calm or to excite.  If you are stressed and breathing shallow while riding, you will breath faster (wearing out your breathing muscles) and still not get maximal oxygen / CO2 exchange (as you would with slower, deeper, belly breathing). 908 yoga poses.  How did you select the few you use, Hunter? The video Hunter made was the culmination of 5 years of taking yoga classes, yoga retreats, and then 5 years of teaching yoga…then boiled it down to the poses that seemed to provide the most help for the needs of cyclists.   https://shoppeaks.com/product/yoga-for-cyclists/ Not a Yogi.  Hunter is level 5 of 100…just enough to know what helps the cyclist. Legs:  hamstrings, calf muscles, quads, supports knees / not strains knees.  Have to avoid straining knees.  If you feel pain you are doing it wrong.  Keep the knee in alignment, even when you are sitting in lotus position.  It took hunter 3 years to get the full flexibility in the hips to be able to get full extension.  Don’t push it, let it come.  If you get competitive in yoga, you’ll get hurt. Chest:  think of lungs as a balloon.  If you put the balloon in a cardboard box and then blow it up, the ballon can only expand to the limit of the box.  If you expand the chest, you can expand the lungs more fully.  So open the chest, make the spine long…get 30% more area to expand into.  So instead of rounding my back keep a flat back (roll pelvis forward) to keep chest big and lungs expanding fully. A key point:  Don’t hurt yourself.   Don’t push it too fast.  Consistent effort will pay off far better than hard effort when it comes to recovery.  Remember that you’re never going to undo 5 hours of sitting on a bike working hard by doing 30 minutes of yoga afterwords. Now is a perfect time.  The season is drawing down.  Go take a yoga class on your recovery day.  You’ll have more time.  That’s how Hunter started….just once a week for 2 years.  Then he expanded to more days per week.  Your intention is key:  (1) to recover, (2) make your muscles more supple…be more at ease in your body, and (3) increase longevity…don’t become the hunched over person who can’t standup straight.  Keep the body in harmony with gravity. Say out loud, “I’m doing this for recovery”…avoid competing with other people on flexibility.  This will be hard for competitive people but it is critical.  And for the guys, don’t even think about being more flexible than the women.  Not going to happen. In particular, if you have never done work to get mobile in your hips, such that you could squat all the way down, then when you try it you will find out how dysfunctional you are.  And, correcting that inflexibility will take time.   But you will be a better athlete. Any advice about a psoas muscle stretch? The psoas muscle is really two muscles (the tenderloin) that are behind your organs but in front of your spine.  You cannot touch the psoas muscle to massage it.  It supports the inside of the spine.  It doesn’t contract like most other muscles but it can cause pain.  The best pose for psoas is also the king of poses for cyclists is the Pigeon Pose.   https://www.yogajournal.com/practice/beginners/pigeon-pose/ if you have sciatic pain or numbness going down your leg, you should work on your periformis muscle. https://squatuniversity.com/2017/11/21/how-to-correctly-treat-piriformis-syndrome/ https://shoppeaks.com/ Rolfing is the only technique that actually touches the psoas muscle….which will feel very strange the first time it happens to you. Yoga for cyclists is not about becoming as flexible as possible.  It’s a tool to become a better cyclists, not the best yoga practitioner possible.  You want to recover and develop suppleness in your muscles.  Give yourself some space in the joints.  As cyclists, we get stressed in the knees and hips.  They get pulled tighter and tighter together.  So we want to create space to give the knees and hips more room to move freely. One of the issues for athletes who don’t use their balance and proprioception of their body in space is that they lose those skills.  Yoga is a important way to reconnect with your body.  Yoga helps with another cyclist issue:  where you push with your foot.  A lot of cyclists push on ball of foot, pronate or supinate, but we really want to push on the center of the foot….about ½ inch further back than you think.  Between the arch and the ball of the foot.  During yoga, when you are balancing, you want to stand evenly on the the full foot.  The same amount of weight on the toes, ball, arch and heel.  This is good practice for pushing on the center of the foot on the bike pedal.  You produce more wattage, and reduce injury potential.  Foot pain is not a normal part of cycling.  If you have pain you are doing it wrong somehow. How to recommend anyone get started with yoga? Could try my video:  https://shoppeaks.com/product/yoga-for-cyclists/ Or signup for a yoga class to get instruction.  Be sure it is going to work for recovery.  No hot yoga.  Not a ashtanga or vinyasa class which are too aggressive for recovery purposes.  Slow vinyasa maybe.  Slower more relaxed class is what you are looking for.  Moving through poses at a slower pace.  More time in each pose.  Iyengar Yoga was a favorite. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iyengar_Yoga Wrap-up points: (1) yoga is something you should think about adding to training to be a better athlete (2) it doesn’t take a lot….one time a week will be enough for a long time (3) don’t have to be a hunched over person because you ride your bike a lot.  With a small amount of the right work, including yoga New book coming out in Fall 2021.  Triathlon training with power.  Co-authored with Chris Meyers. Peakscoachinggroup.com Hunter Allen – Contact & bio Legendary cycling coach, co-author of:Training and Racing with a Power MeterCutting-Edge CyclingCo-developer of TrainingPeaks’ WKO+ software, and founder of Peaks Coaching Group. Widely known as one of the top experts in the world in coaching endurance athletes using power meters, Hunter Allen’s goal has always been to teach athletes how to maximize their training and racing potential through professional analysis of their power data. This goes hand in hand with his philosophy that a power meter helps athletes discover their true strengths and weaknesses, quantitatively assess their training improvements, and refine and maximize the focus of their training.  http://www.peakscoachinggroup.com/hunterallenhttps://shoppeaks.com/category/training-plans/

Sponsor: RePowerU: 12 Elements of Fitness Assessment (a free service): https://formfaca.de/sm/SR_8_j7es ——— MAT is based on four pillars: Look at limits in range of motion (ROM), and where a limited ROM is found,  look at the muscles involved in creating the normal ROM…those are the muscles that are weak or are not firing wellTest those muscles to confirm inhibition Treat those muscles to reactivate themThen retest the range of motion to confirm resolution So, how long does the effect last?   “Until you break it”.   ——— Outline of Discussion What is MAT? It’s a biomechanically based process designed to identify and correct muscular imbalances that are responsible for chronic tightness…pain….decreased performance.  MAT practitioners do not treat pain directly…they don’t seek pain and go to the location of the pain to provide treatment.  Instead, MAT practitioners look for imbalances between right and left side of body, which would indicate an area of weakness which may be the cause of the tightness, pain, decreased performance.   Rhonda Mansell background: Been in the fitness industry for 30+ years.  10 years ago had a client go to MAT, which intrigued Rhonda.  She looked into MAT and decided to learn it.  The first day experience in class included every person had a story about how MAT solved their long-standing problem. Rhonda has treated olympic athletes, elderly parents of clients and athletes of all types. What is a neuromuscular (brain to muscle) connection?  What is inhibition? It you use a box as an analogy for brain to muscle connections, an elite athlete’s box would be full of connections.  The elite athlete would be able to engage all or nearly all of his/her muscle fibers on demand.  The typical person’s box would be much less full.  The typical person cannot actuate his/her muscle fibers on demand due to a variety of possible reasons including a lack of training to tell the brain such connections are needed. Imagine a graph.  At the top is the maximum threshold and at the bottom is the minimum threshold.  Above the top / maximum is injury and muscle failure.  Below the minimum is muscle atrophy and possibly cell health (from non-use).  In between is the “set point” for that muscle. Ideally the set point is close to the maximum.  But as we age our muscles do not function as well or recover as quickly as when we were younger.  The set point can be far below the maximum due to over training, injury, overuse, muscle inhibition, not recovering well.  By increasing the connection between the brain and the muscle, you can improve the set point to get it closer to the maximum threshold. What is set point?   it is the physiological operating window.  The load that the muscle can handle.  If you exceed it, you are going to get inhibition of that muscle, especially if you keep exceeding the set point.  That means, the set point (and power output) will fall further below the maximum threshold (where the set point would be with zero inhibition).  It shows up as tightness or pain.  The muscle fibers are not actually being damaged. Muscles are a set of muscle fibers.  Muscle fibers in a muscle do not all turn on at the same time, not even if you want to lift the heaviest thing you could.  We’ve all heard of stories of people lifting amazing heavy objects under extreme stress (lift car off of child), but normally a person cannot make all the muscle fibers contract all at once.  The fewer of the muscle fibers that a person can make activate at once is related to the set point…and the maximum threshold is all the fibers firing at once.  If you exceed the set point, you can create additional blockages (chronic inflammation) between the muscle fibers and the brain so that even fewer of the muscle fibers will activate.  This condition can require a physical intervention to reverse.  That is the target of Muscle Activation Technique. This tends to relate mostly to slow twitch muscle fibers which are the always on muscles that guide joint movement. So, you exceed the set point which creates additional inhibition.  If that does not recover, then the next thing that can happen is pain.  The brain is sending a signal to “check engine”.  Without correction, compensation will occur naturally to work around the inhibition.  And, over time the compensation can become the “natural” movement pattern that locks in the suboptimal movement. We need to get the movement of the body’s parts to be functional to get maximum power from the muscles we already have.  We need to fix muscles imbalances and learned compensations before we increase the stresses on the joints in an attempt to get stronger. Why do the muscles turn off? Many things can cause inhibition.  Over use, stress, trauma, dehydration, nutrition…and, yes, non-use. When we contract a muscle, a signal is sent to relax or inhibit the opposing muscle to avoid conflicting with the contracting muscle.  But if the first muscle is itself inhibited, it cannot contract, and then a inhibitory signal is not sent to the opposing muscle, so it remains tight. With MAT, we try to improve the messaging between the brain and the muscle that should not be inhibited.   And resolving that issue should address the tightness and pain that is occurring on the opposite side. So why do cyclists get tight hip flexors? Lot’s of times it over use of the hip flexor but it can be caused by weaknesses in other muscles, such as erector spinae. Getting back to the thought that cyclists don’t use their glutes, and that cyclists tend to have tight hip flexors, and given their relative positions on the body, are these phenomenon related? Yes, maybe the hip flexor is doing extra work (too much work) because of some weakness elsewhere, but it’s not just the glute.  Glutes, hamstrings, quads, even calves can be involved. One of the reasons MAT lessens pain is because there is an inverse relationship between mechanoreceptor and nociceptors which lie within the joint attachment site (where the muscle attaches).  When you stimulate those areas, it increases the mechano-reception and reduces the nociceptors communication (less pain). MAT is based on four pillars: Look at limits in range of motion, and where a limited ROM is found,  look at the muscles involved in creating the normal ROM…those are the muscles that are weak or are not firing wellTest those muscles to confirm inhibition Treat those muscles to reactivate themThen retest the range of motion to confirm resolution So, how long does the effect last?  “Until you break it”.   In Rhonda’s experience, she doesn’t usually need her clients to do any or much in the way of specific exercises to keep the muscles turned on once she helps the muscle to start firing again.  This is because she is usually turning on a small group of slow twitch muscles which activate (once turned back on) just doing regular everyday activities, such as walking. One of the biggest things to tell people:   the issue is inhibition, not strength.  Even though people do get stronger after treatment, is isn’t because of exercising the muscle to grow stronger.  It is due to removing an inhibition to activating the muscle. So what exercises should people do to keep their glutes activated?  Just walking should be good enough.  After 1 treatment, 60-70% are still good after 1 week, and after a few treatments, everyone is good, meaning the previously inhibited muscle doesn’t turn back off.  In fact, doing too much too soon can be a cause of the muscle shutting back down.  The affected muscles tend to have a low threshold, and so are not capable of handing much stress at first even though the muscle is big enough to do more, the neuromuscular connection is not ready for a lot more at first. Does an athlete need to scale back his/her normal activity? But what about the person who is exercising a lot, and now a big muscle that was turned off is now turned on…it is suddenly getting a lot of exercise.  Is that bad?  Will that turn off the muscle because the level of exercise will exceed the low threshold for that muscle? No, not if it is a normal moving the body exercise, like riding a bike.  This is because the muscle in question is being used with many other muscles (not in isolation), so the other muscles using in that complex process will pick up the slack for the newly activated muscle.  If the exercise is isolating the newly activated muscle, then there is a risk of overwhelming the newly activated muscle. How does the athlete relearn to move properly? So how does an athlete with long-standing inhibited muscles, who has learned to compensate for that inhibition, restore the symphony of movement…the coordination of all the muscles involved in a movement once the inhibited muscle is now back in the game…how do the other muscles learn to stop the compensation pattern and go back to the nature movement they had before the inhibited muscle stopped doing its share of the work? That is beyond MAT, but usually the athletes body knows what to do.  The pain, if there was pain, will stop, and the movement patterns will go back to the proper motion that will produce power appropriate for that body with those muscles.  Getting stronger still will require training as per usual. Episode with Menachem Brodie on learning to move properly before using strength training to get stronger; https://www.wiseathletes.com/podcast/41-how-to-combine-strength-cycling-training-to-get-faster-on-the-bike-menachem-brodie/ Is “activating muscles” in a warmup process the same sort of thing? It’s not exactly the same, but a good warmup does wakeup the muscles to get them ready to perform.  It is still about improving performance and movement, but it doesn’t include the physical manipulation that is a part of uninhibiting a muscle that has been turned off.  Plus MAT is usually focused on a very small subset of muscles or just a single portion of a single muscle, which a warmup would involve all the muscles. What can people do on their own?  Let’s say they are not in a place of pain or where a muscle is totally shut down.  What can people do without working with a specialist that will help? The main thing is to start recognizing that when you have a tight muscle, just stretching that muscle all the time might not give you what you want.  You might be able to increase your range of motion by stretching the tight muscle, but you probably won’t have good power in the additional ROM you achieved via stretching.  You need to pay attention to the muscle that is or should be moving the limb instead of the muscle that is tight and limiting movement. Think about doing a super light isometric exercise in the opposite direction.  Hold it 6 seconds and repeat 6 times.  See if that doesn’t open up the range of motion better. Any last tips? Don’t wait too long to get help.  If you are having a problem, go get help from whatever modality you have had success using in the past.  If you wait too long, then it is much harder to unwind all the problems that have accumulated while you were hoping the problem would go away. About Rhonda Mansell Rhonda has been a certified personal trainer for over 30 years and has worked with professional athletes to recreational athletes of all ages. She has experience in designing programs for general fitness, improved athletic performance, and post surgery recovery. “I discovered Muscle Activation Techniques in 2009 when learning that the Denver Broncos were using this modality to keep their players on the field and healthy. After getting certified I came to the realization that this was the missing piece in my own practice of personal training and that everyone needs to have their muscles firing optimally to feel their best!” Rhonda’s website: bouldermuscleactivation.com https://bouldermuscleactivation.com/ More MAT Info & The Law of Reciprocal Inhibition: MAT is a system of training that is designed to restore balance and enhance function in the human body. When a muscle becomes too tight (hypertonic) or weak (inhibited) it can affect the function and range of motion (ROM) of the joint it crosses. The foundational principle of MAT is that muscle tightness is a form of protection in the body and is secondary to muscle weakness. For example, if a particular muscle remains stuck in a tight or shortened position, it changes the ability of that muscle to effectively produce or reduce force, which could lead to altered joint ROM and potential injury. Roskopf compares the effects of muscle tightness to walking on ice. “When someone is walking on ice their movements are shortened with a restricted ROM to ensure stability and avoid falling on a slippery surface,” Roskopf explains. “When muscles become too tight they have the same effect, which limits joint motion and could be a potential cause for injury.” A tight muscle does not receive the appropriate sensory motor feedback from the nervous system, causing the other muscles it works with to change their resting lengths and proprioception. According to Roskopf’s research, when muscles become hyerptonic the spindles (intrafusal muscle fibers) that sense length change become slack, thereby providing limited sensory feedback. Roskopf compares this to a battery cable coming loose in a car engine. “If the cable comes loose, the car will not effectively conduct the charge to start the engine,” he explains. The goal of MAT assessments and training is to identify muscles that are not able to produce adequate force and to restore optimal muscle function and subsequent joint ROM. The inhibition of a muscle—or the inability to produce the appropriate force when necessary—can be related to impaired communication between that individual muscle and the central nervous system (CNS). External stressors such as overuse, impaired movement mechanics or trauma can affect the function of a particular muscle. If a muscle becomes overstressed it results in an altered feedback mechanism between that muscle and the CNS. Changes in muscle sensory reception can lead to a reduced ability to generate the appropriate force to move or stabilize a joint. If a muscle does not receive the appropriate communication with the CNS, then it could cause positions of joint instability, which create the potential for injury. The Law of Reciprocal Inhibition describes the fact that as one muscle contracts, its opposing muscle (on the other side of the joint) has to lengthen to allow motion to occur. For example, when the gluteus maximus contracts to extend the hip, the iliacus and psoas major muscles (commonly called the ilipsoas) need to lengthen to allow the motion to occur. The Law of Reciprocal Inhibition is the reason why tightness from one muscle can affect other muscles that surround the same joint and ultimately alter joint ROM. “An imbalanced muscle structure results in other muscles tightening to compensate for the compromised muscle,” explains Kate Allgood, a San Diego−based MAT Specialist. “The end result is a negative impact on functionality, pain or discomfort.” As such, the primary goal of MAT training is to identify whether or not the muscles that cross a particular joint have the appropriate sensory input and neural feedback to perform their designed function to control stability or mobility at that joint. MAT teaches a systematic approach to assessment, which can determine whether or not a muscle is working optimally to control motion at the joint it crosses. The evaluation process of MAT is to determine whether or not the specific muscles that support a joint have the proper neurological input to perform their respective function at that joint. Each individual muscle of a muscle group around a joint must be able to generate the forces necessary to provide stability or mobility as needed for efficient movement mechanics. “The MAT testing protocols and follow-up exercise programming allow me to see if my training is having the desired effect,” explains Manhattan-based personal trainer and MAT Specialist Lara Licharowicz. The basis of MAT exercise programming is to use low-threshold isometric contractions to restore neural drive and function to muscles to allow them to produce force effectively. Low-threshold isometric contractions can stimulate and innervate muscle spindles and the associated gamma motor neurons responsible for muscle contractions. Once muscles have been “re-activated,” they can be used to control and enhance joint ROM. From the MAT website: Our 77 Range of Motion Exams and 214 Muscle Tests help practitioners identify which muscles are not “firing” (receiving and/or acting on the brain’s signal). Once the cause for the pain and impaired mobility is identified, practitioners begin a series of muscle tests in an established process and work to “reactivate” the affected muscles. Other methods attempt to relax the muscle to lengthen or change it by stretching, heating, kneading, or foam rolling. In contrast, MAT activates your muscle so that it will become better prepared to handle the force applied to it through everyday movements and exercise. MAT website: muscleactivation.com https://muscleactivation.com/

Sponsor: RePowerU — FREE Fitness Practices Assessment (a 10-minute questionnaire): https://formfaca.de/sm/SR_8_j7es Outline of Discussion – Year-Round Strength Training is a non-negotiable requirement for masters cyclists; Menachem tells us how to do it to get faster on the bike Previous Episode with Menachem: https://www.wiseathletes.com/podcast/38-truth-in-strength-training-for-masters-cyclists-with-menachem-brodie/ Videos referenced: Prone Glute Raise: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oIXiUdgUZ38Anatomical Adaptation Stage details: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m1f-HCWm5wEGoblet Squat: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZaMwB7ANueY3 Core Exercises for Cyclists: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QK5reUmwMsQBretzel: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-VczZv4Pbq8 Topics: Why Year-round is a non-negotiable for masters cyclistsHow to get the most out of your strength trainingThe importance of postureWhat IS true core training“? 5 stages of strength training to cover throughout the year. Anatomical adaptation (3-6 weeks, low to no weight, building up movement skills) – Oct/NovHypertrophy (8-12 weeks; more weight but only RPE 7/8) – Dec/Jan/FebMax strength (endurance athletes shouldn’t lift very heavy … avoid injury)Conversion to sport specificMaintenance (not covered today) (Unless you are an elite level, you only need to go thru the first 4 stages.) The Strength Training Calendar (1) September/October — end of season…take a couple weeks off to recharge, then begin strength program in the Anatomical Adaptation stage.  4-6 weeks (less, if you’ve been lifting all year; more, if you are new to strength training) of anatomical adaptation…just learning to move properly in the fundamental 5+1 movements.  This is where most of the benefit comes from if you are not well trained in proper body movement.  Just body weight or very low weight.  Need to learn how it feels to move properly, then you can tell if you are doing it right without watching in the mirror. front squat (e.g., goblet, weight in front of you) is preferable to back squat. prone glute activation is one Menachem really likes.  Lay on stomach, hands under chin.  Cyclists generally have a hard time doing this because they don’t have a conscious brain connection to the glute is they haven’t been using it (very common among cyclists).  The glute is supposed to generate 30% of the power in the pedal stroke.divots on the side of glutes indicates low muscle tone in glutes.  Glutes should be round and full.   Example movements: Prone glute activation – Tempo goblet squat (3-1-3-1….3 seconds down, 1 second pause at the bottom with tension throughout the glutes and spreading the floor, 3 seconds to come up using glutes and quads, 1 at top, and start overkettle bell dead lift not to floor with a very light weight….learn to squeeze oranges in armpits…keep chest up, not rounding back and moving from spine.  Bend at the hip not the back. Take your time.  Get it right.  This is important.  Build the mind muscle connections with proper movement.  This will make you stronger without lifting weights.  If you start lifting and getting stronger using poor movement patterns you’ll have a bigger chance of injury and it will be harder to unlearn the bad movement patterns later.  Do it right the first time. Posture is central to everything;  joint position dictates muscle function.  The body is good at compensating but that leads to injury and suboptimal strength. The core is all the muscles between your neck, elbows and knees.  Great core strength and great posture tie everything together. (2) November/December —  the Hypertrophy stage (8-12 weeks) s about putting tension and stress onto the connective tissue…building the muscles ability to rebuild itself, become more resilient to make it through the season without injury, and to increase the muscle density.  But the idea is NOT to get big, NOT to put on a lot of muscle weight.  And, unless you are a mutant, you won’t. This stage starts off with RPE (perceived effort) of 6/7. Start with 2 sets of 8-10, but progress up to 3-6 sets of 5-10 reps (perhaps up to 15 reps). Sessions take 65-75 minutes.  Rest 3-5 minutes between sets.  Shorter rests will not be as effective.  The goal is to wake up feeling the workout still but to feel good after breakfast. In the hypertrophy stage we move heavier weights but not the heaviest we’ll do.  Don’t get sore, and keep the riding time up to at least 5 hours a week. If you can’t do 5 hours, do high-intensity workouts on the bike.  The whole point is to get faster and stronger on the bike, not to get better in the gym.  This is usually done in a mid-to-late base phase of cycling training.  The “interference effect” reducing the muscle bulking will happen as is a good thing for cyclists who worry about weight. To be time efficient, we do recovery work while we are waiting the 3-5 minutes between sets.  The bretzel is a breathing and postural exercise all in one.  Example primary exercises (and paired exercises) Squat (with chest exercises)Seated RowDeadlift (with other back exercises) (3) January/February/March — Max Strength stage.  At this point we’ve built the neuromuscular connections, we built the tissue resiliency, refined and improved the movement patterns, …and now, to get the full benefit of the work we’ve done, we need to challenge the system by forcing it to generate max effort. All that changes moving to Max Strength is the level of exertions and the weights get higher.  RPE of 7/8 to make sure the technique is perfect which is much more important than heavier weight for the cyclist.  1-4 reps per set, 4 sets.  Not going to failure but lifting heavier so you could have done a rep or two more than the 1-4 reps in the plan.  This provides a margin of safety and requires less recovery but still gets nearly all of the benefit. And, yes, we still are riding the bike.  A non-traditional “build” effort (intensity in base), which matches up well with these weight lifting sessions.  Compared to hypertrophy stage, the riding training volume and intensity starts to rise. (4) April/May – Ride volume goes way up.  Pair this with more hypertrophy or more max strength but at lower intensity / less weight / fewer sets to interfere less with riding.  You have to decide what is more important for you.  Warmup set of 10, then 2 sets of 3 (5) June/July – conversion into sports specific ability.  Ride volume goes way up.  Sign up for some skills workshops: bunny hopping, braking, cornering, gear selection, power slides,  how to change gears properly. Strength on the bike is a skill.  The coordinated activity of the hands through the core down the legs into the feet is an act requiring power and amazing coordination to put as much of the power down into the pedal.  Plus the joints have to be in the right position to function optimally…what we learn in the Anatomical Adaptations stage. Strength Training offers many benefits to the cyclist, including:  bone density, muscle mass.  But to get and keep these benefits you need to strength train year round.  If you take off 3 months, you have wasted your time. Posture & Core Strength? Posture is central to everything;  joint position dictates muscle function.  The body is good at compensating but that leads to injury and suboptimal strength. The core is all the muscles between your neck, elbows and knees.  Great core strength and great posture tie everything together.   You cannot just ride the bike. You have to do enough of non-riding things to balance out your posture, core strength, and even the limb muscles you don’t use that much on a bike.  That keeps you healthy and strong…and it makes you faster on the bike. Check your ego at the door — One of the keys to training in general that applies double when adding strength training to a cycling training schedule is minimum effective dose.  If you over do it, you won’t get stronger.  In addition, the strength training is done in support of the cycling, not the other way around.  Don’t over do it in the gym.  Lift just hard enough to get an adaptation.  Not so much you can’t recover in time for cycling training. Match Nutrition — Get more protein.  1.6 g/kg of body weight every day.  A performance human being starts with enough protein. Get enough healthy fats, vegetables, leafy greens, and then add extra carbs as needed for activity level each day. Contact Info Website: humanvortextraining.comYouTube: https://www.youtube.com/user/HVTraining\Instagram: http://instagram.com/hvtrainingFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/HVT412/Strength training certification course: http://s.bl-1.com/h/dl5nV3pk?url=https://strength-training-for-cyclist-certification.mykajabi.com/hvt-launch-closed Menachem Brodie Bio With over 20years of coaching experience and a sports-medicine background spanning from Emergency Medicine & Physical Therapy settings, to the NCAA Division I Strength & Conditioning setting, Coach Brodie brings with him an incredibly unique & diverse skill set, which has led to his work as a Health & Fitness Engineer for international companies in the Health, Wellness, & Fitness fields. Coaching since 2000, Menachem Brodie has been working with athletes in a number of settings, and a broad variety of sports. From Basketball and Cycling, to CrossFit and Triathlon, Brodie has helped numerous athletes to attain their goals, and beyond. With his belief that one should Train Smarter, Not Harder, he has developed and polished his training philosophy over the last 2 decades, in order to allow his clients and athletes to not only excel in their sport of choice, but also in their professional lives. Having earned a degree in Exercise Science from the University of Pittsburgh, Brodie has experience across the Health & Fitness spectrum including having worked as an Exercise Physiologist for a Bariatric Surgery Center for 2 years, working as the Strength & Conditioning coach in a Physical Therapy clinic for those who needed more guidance and direction to return to their sport or hobby, and working as an EMT running 911 calls. Suffice it to say, Brodie’s experience and background are far more reaching than the average coaches.  Menachem‘s Certifications include: USA Cycling Expert Coach, with DistinctionUSA Cycling Power Based Training CertifiedLEOMO Type-R Certified CoachNSCA-Certified Strength & Conditioning SpecialistPrecision Nutrition Level 1 Certified CoachPostpartum Corrective Exercise Specialist

Sponsor: RePowerU — FREE Fitness Practices Assessment (a 10-minute questionnaire): https://formfaca.de/sm/SR_8_j7es Power meters are everywhere, but few people really know how to use one to get higher performance Using a Power Meter to find your super power on a bike…. with Coach Hunter Allen Hello, and welcome back to the Wise Athletes podcast with Joe Lavelle and Dr. Glen Winkel.  On today’s episode, number 40, we are joined by the one and only, the legendary cycling coach  Hunter Allen. Hunter was co-author of the book  “Training and Racing with a Power Meter” (with Dr. Andy Coggan) which has been translated into 8 languages and sold over 120,000 copies.  He also co-wrote “Cutting-Edge Cycling” with Dr. Stephen Cheung, was the co-developer of TrainingPeaks WKO software, and was the founder of Peaks Coaching Group. Widely known as one of the top experts in the world in coaching endurance athletes using power meters, Hunter Allen has been instrumental in developing and spreading the power training principles. Hunter is a USA Cycling Level 1 coach, was the 2008 BMX technical coach for the Beijing Olympics and has taught the USA Cycling Power Certification Course since 2005. A former professional cyclist for 17 years on the Navigators Team with over 40 road victories to his credit, Hunter has been coaching endurance athletes since 1995, and his athletes have achieved more than 2000 victories and numerous national, world championship titles and Olympic Medals. If there is one person on the planet who can help us get more from our power meters, it is Hunter.  Listen in as Hunter walks us through the basics of what to track and how to use the information to get faster on your bike.  Outline of Discussion To get benefit from owning and using a power meter, you need to collect data.  Just ride it in various ways;  go up hill, do some sprints, what does 300 watts mean, that is the first step. You have to test.  Testing is training; training is testing.   Test a few different areas of philology: Neuromuscular power:  ability to contract a muscle as hard as you can for a very short amount of time.  Do a 15 second sprint.  Use the best 5 second portion of that 15 second effort.Anaerobic ability.  Test for about 1 minutes for as hard as you can do for 1 minute.  Average power for 1 minutes.  A 6-8% hill or ride into the wind.  The last 30 seconds will be hell, but push through.VO2Max:  the volume of oxygen you can bring into the lungs and deliver to the muscles.  3-8 minutes.  Use 5 minutes.  Go hard but pace yourself.  Remain at your VT2 threshold at the end.Functional threshold power.  FTP.  The hour of power.  The original thinking was that the gold standard for endurance efforts was the 40k time trial, which takes about 1 hour.  Less if you are really strong (25 mph with no draft).  Hard.  That’s the baseline.  This also correlates will with a threshold and seemed to be a good metric for ability to be successful as a cyclist.  One of the key mistakes people make relates to the short cuts used to estimate FTP in less than an hour.  They came up with a 20 minute test and subtract 5% off the result to estimate FTP.  The problem comes in where people forget to the the 5 minute test before doing the 20 minute test.  Cannot do the 20 minute test fresh…will result in too high FTP as a result of too much anaerobic power available to artificially boost the hour of power metric. Power curve is the plotting of your best power levels over every timeframe.  Mean maximal power.  Then the software fits a curve…a power duration curve, that is able to be used to derive other metrics for targeting and assessment performance improvement over time.  Each person has his/her own curve, although the curves look very similar in shape, but a shifted up or down based on ability and fitness.  FTP is often used as short hand to compare different riders but power duration curves also can vary by how high the short time power is compared to the FTP.  Sprinters have a wider range of neuromuscular and anaerobic power to FTP than does a Time Trialist or steady state climber. The power duration curve is then turned into a power profile.  There are 4 power profile archetypes; nearly all riders fall into one of them.  The original idea was to let individual riders compare their own curves to the curves of world champions in each respective area.  Track sprinter, Track pursuiter,  chris Boardman’s 1 hour record, plus other “best in the world”.  Let people compare to the best to see what they are good at. Sprinter 30 seconds of massive powerPursuiter:  < 5 minutes of very high powerTime Trialist/climber / steady state :  go for a long time at a high steady powerAll Arounder:  pretty good at everything.   Then nexts step is to identify the demands of the events to make sure it matches our ability. Can people train /change their power curve shape or is the shape based on genes and is shifted up by training (or down by a lack of training)? A little bit of each.  Sprinters are born not made.  A lot of fast twitch muscle fibers, which is largely genetic. Told story of rider who kept losing in the sprint.  He wanted to improve his sprint to stop getting 2nd place and start getting 1st place.  But working on his sprint could not make enough difference to allow him to beat his competitor who was a natural sprinter.  The key was to drop the sprinter before the sprint.  To do that he had to improve his FTP so he could up the pace far enough out from the finish that the sprinter could not hang with him to the end.  He started winning by avoiding a sprint at the finish. The old adage is train your weakness, race your strengths.  But that doesn’t work for people who cannot get enough benefit in their area of weakness.  Those people need to train their strength and race their strength. If you are an All-Rounder, then you can train to become other specialties.  But generally people have to pick because there are tradeoffs. Glen says he’s an all-rounder.  Good at a lot of things but not the best.  High VO2Max and good Pursuiter type power. “Grand Masters” — 60+ & 70+ Once you understand your power profile.  You can select the type of events that suit your type, if you want to do well.  If you just want to have fun, then do whatever appeal to you. One of the keys to athletic longevity is staying with it.  A key to consistency is enjoyment.  Do things you like, and if you like things that you are born to be good at then all the better.  Plus, no one can stand to do intervals all the time.  Take some time off from hard workouts.  Just enjoy yourself when you feel sick of the hard stuff. Runner power meters?  Stryd:  https://www.stryd.com/en/. A pod on your foot plus accelerometer on your HR strap.  Runscribe is another one.  https://runscribe.com/ Running power meters work by measuring impact of foot on the ground.  Hitting the ground harder is higher power, but that is not directly related to speed due to vertical oscillation.  Swimming.  Not really. A dry land training tool vasa swim trainer is interesting.  You lay on tummy doing the swim motion, and they measure watts.  It seem to translate well to the actual pool work. Sprint training needs to be done in series to match the work needed in a race.  You rarely just need to do 1 sprint.  You often need to move up and then do the sprint, so you do the sprint tired or merely recovered somewhat from a recent sprint effort. Lot’s of people have power meters, but few really know how to use them to tailor their training to get the full advantage of knowing power in watts.  What do you recommend, Hunter? There are 3 things:   You have to track the training stress score (TSS).   It starts with FTP.  If you ride at your FTP for 1 hour, you get 100 points.  So TSS is relative to each person’s power curve, and is time based.  The more time riding, the higher the score, and the higher the average power during the ride, the higher the score.  If your FTP is set incorrectly, your TSS is wrong.  TSS is a good metric every day but it is greatly important to track over time.Performance manager chart looks at chronic training load (CTL).  It is the last 42 days of training.  Physiology changes over 6 week cycles.  Generally, the higher the CTL is, the FTP is, the higher your fitness.  ATL…acute training load is the last 7 daysCTL is your fitness level, based on your average TSS ever day over the last 42 days.  You subtract your ATL (acute training load) from your CTL to find your training stress balance.  If negative, you are fatigued.  if positive, then fresh but detraining.  The key is to push the CTL higher without getting over trained, and then get fresh right before an event where you want to perform best.  This timing is hard, and is one of the key roles for a coach.  Training stress balance. Looked at hundreds, and now thousands of athletes to figure this out.  If you track over time, you can find your own pattern of freshness to hit PRs and tiredness to push your fitness higher.  But doing both to land a higher peak on a particular day is the hardest and most important objective. Power meters are certainly power data collection devices that are rather new to the cycling scene.  Even newer are the “life stress” trackers and recovery trackers like the Whoop Strap.  Helps to make an even more full picture of the total stress and recovery status. Being able to find that peak performance when you want it…that is the pot of gold. Are training zones based on power or on heart rate?  Both. Hunter likes systems based on Threshold HR.  So if you can determine your FTP, then find your HR at that effort.  Then build the HR zones around at base. The problem with HR is it is a response.  It is dependent on many things.  Caffeine, sleep, heat, altitude, etc. so it fluctuates so much it is hard to use as a target. Power is more stable.   But what do you do if power and HR are not matching up on a particular day?  Endurance power of 200 watts but it feels hard and HR is above endurance HR.  Push through?  Back off? It a tough question.  It can depend on what you’ve done recently.  If you are fatigued according to your Training Balance, just back off. If you are just not feeling good on a day when you should be recovered, then you might just push through to get the benefit of the work out.   So, again, the key is to have done the work to track the data so you can interpret the data and not lose a workout unnecessarily or hurt yourself by pushing a bad situation.   Glen, what was the best zone for training to improve FTP.  Answer:  I find training too hard burns me out….my hardest training is in races where the hard efforts are not as taxing mentally. Racing is always good training. 2 kinds of athletes:  Race Up & Race Down.  Race Up people race better than they train while Race Down people train better than they race. The best road racers are the ones who don’t pedal at least 18% of the time…sitting in the field…saving energy.  It’s a game of conservation of energy. Racing is about tactics, while training is about improving physiology. Use both to be your best. The last point is to listen to your body.  The data is super important but you have to listen to what your body is telling you also.  With the purely objective power meter, you can learn to read the signals from your body…the feelings in your body more clearly. New book coming out in Fall 2021.  Triathlon training with power.  Co-authored with Chris Meyers. Peakscoachinggroup.com Hunter Allen – Contact & bio Legendary cycling coach, co-author of:Training and Racing with a Power MeterCutting-Edge CyclingCo-developer of TrainingPeaks’ WKO+ software, and founder of Peaks Coaching Group. Widely known as one of the top experts in the world in coaching endurance athletes using power meters, Hunter Allen’s goal has always been to teach athletes how to maximize their training and racing potential through professional analysis of their power data. This goes hand in hand with his philosophy that a power meter helps athletes discover their true strengths and weaknesses, quantitatively assess their training improvements, and refine and maximize the focus of their training.  http://www.peakscoachinggroup.com/hunterallenhttps://shoppeaks.com/category/training-plans/

Sports Hypnosis Sports Hypnosis is not the magic show you’ve seen in the movies or on TV.  Sports hypnosis is a form of mental training and can used by a hypnotherapist or by the athlete using self-hypnosis to improve athletic performance. Wikipedia – Definition of Sports Hypnosis “Sports hypnosis refers to the use of hypnotherapy with athletes in order to enhance sporting performance. Hypnosis in sports has therapeutic and performance-enhancing functions.[1] The mental state of athletes during training and competition is said to impact performance.[1] Hypnosis is a form of mental training[2] and can therefore contribute to enhancing athletic execution. Sports hypnosis is used by athletes, coaches and psychologists.[2]“ Background paper on Sport Hypnosis science: https://medcraveonline.com/JPCPY/a-review-of-the-development-of-sport-hypnosis-as-a-performance-enhancement-method-for-athletes.html Outline of Discussion Athletes can develop (or even carry forward from childhood) certain thought patterns that are detrimental to their sports performance.  Something triggers a certain fear of failure or of embarrassment or whatever, and the thought is a distraction or directly impairs the skill deployment or physical act of performing the sport.A patient experience in little league baseball was impairing his golf performance.  Wendi helped him to avoid that connection and negative impact on his performance.Via hypnosis, people can make changes that they think is impossible.  Like the smoker who has tried many times to quit smoking and now thinks it’s impossible.  Using hypnosis, that person can acquire the feeling of being so proud of having quit…and that feeling gives them extra strength of will to stop smoking.With a hypnosis strategy….having a anchor to bring them back to a balanced state.  Using hypnosis to create a anchor word to reestablish control…..such as golfers when they address the ball, or the cyclists when descending and the bike starts to wobble.The hypnosis strategy can remove the distraction problems so athletes can perform to the full level of their skill..Also able to get faster, cleaner feedback for skill improvement.Golfers went from 0-1 out of 5 to 3-4 out of 5.  Basketball free-throws can also be improved dramatically.The trigger should be initiated automatically, not just by remembering to think of a trigger word.  The dimples on the golf ball, the front of the rim on the basketball court.  Something that will always be there and be noticeable without remembering to look or think of it.Everybody is hypnotizable, and everybody can learn how to do self-hypnosis to create these effects on themselves.  You don’t have to be in some zonked out state.Just relax in a recliner.  A comfortable chair.  But not a bed because you might fall asleep.  Then relax your body.  Start at the top of your head.  Relax your face, your neck, then your shoulders.  You slow your breathing down and notice your arms are heavy.  You belly is limp and your legs are heavy.  Take your time, but let your body get so heavy that you don’t even want to move and nothing needs to happen.Count down from 10.  And say to yourself then when you get down to 1, my unconscious mind will be open to making some changes.Count slowly.  Trust that your unconscious mind is ready.  Take one specific aspect of your sport that you want to focus on.  Think about doing it perfectly and without effort, in a state of flow.Put yourself in the competitive situation and then notice that you are mentally relaxed but also aware and focused mentally while your body is doing the physical movements perfectly and without effort.Do not use negative words, e.g., “I am not afraid”, “I am not nervous”.  Use positive words to describe how you ARE and WANT to be.When you see your competitors, you notice you get a surge of power and you notice how good you are doing and how good it feels.Notice the sounds around you that happen in the sport.  The sounds that used to make you nervous or concerned, they now make you feel powerful and in control.Take yourself to the finish line or wherever the athletic event finishes and let yourself win and feel how good it feels.Then create something to be the auditory  anchor.  A word or a phrase.  (I’m in the flow…I know I can win….this is the best I’ve ever felt).  Also get a physical / kinesthetic anchor.  (A squeeze of the handlebars, a certain way to squeeze the golf club, etc.).  And a visual anchor.  (Something on your handlebars, etc.).Visualization and positive self-talk are similar techniques but hypnosis is a more stable version since it was planted behind the firewalls of your mind.  So you are not trying to convince yourself that you can do it, you KNOW you can do it because you already have done it in your mind.If you have a habit of negative self-talk….”that was stupid”.  After you say the negative thought, take a deep breath, and then say “no, that’s not true anymore.  I’m really sharp and on top of it.”  Be sure not to compound the problem by getting angry with yourself for think negative thoughts.  Just reset and move forward.With exercise / sports, you need to like it….to want to move towards it…getting better for the pleasure of getting better.  Being proud of yourself.  You cannot hate it and be thinking of how to get out of doing it, because then you will quit.Wendi has a program to help people learn to love exercise that works wonders.  For every athlete, just notice negative self-talk.  Stop beating yourself up.  Let it go.  That was in the past and now this is how I feel”  Start to enjoy yourself to get better.By clearing out the interference of your emotions negatively affecting your skills, you have better performance.  It isn’t that hypnosis gives you better skills.  You have skills already.  By eliminating the interference effect of intruding thoughts, negative feelings, etc. you get to rely on just the pure skills you have.  Plus, if you can be rid of the interference effect, you will get a cleaner feedback for accelerating learning. Contact Info: twitter.com/wenditvyoutube.com/user/WendiFriesenfacebook.com/pages/edit/?id=227110236651#/pages/Wendi-Friesen/227110236651?ref=mfWWW.WENDI.COMTheAddictionProject.com

Sponsor: RePowerU — FREE Fitness Practices Assessment (a 10-minute questionnaire): https://formfaca.de/sm/SR_8_j7es Outline of discussion – How to really use strength training to improve endurance athletics Strength training for cyclists, done the right way, is not sexy. Upper body and rotatory stability (ability to lock the hips and ribcage together to resist twisting that would result in power leakage) work plus some other function movement pieces form a holistic approach to making a cyclist stronger. Need to counteract adaptations you get on the bike and counter balance the parts of the body not being trained by riding on the bike. “Niche strength training” We went from low weight , high reps to high weight, low reps.    From endurance sets to “lift heavy shit” Research is hard to do in a way that shows real benefits to cyclists. The main point is technique matters more than weight lifted.  What are you thinking:  push weight up, push floor down, brace core?  This is what matters. Its hard for people to do it because they have already been brainwashed into thinking that lifting heavy weights is what will make them better athletes. First athletes have to learn the skill to create intra-abdominal pressure to stabilize the core, bracing / locking / using the glutes to create power before you start to load them with weights.  These are skills that translate into improved performance on the bike even before starting to lift heavy weights. People are getting hurt by lifting heavy when they are not ready. Resistance training is not just about getting stronger, it is about learning to move properly to apply the greater strength in just the right way to make power on the bike.  But you need the bike skills too.  Braking, cornering, climbing out of the saddle.   When you learn how to move well as a human being, that will translate into feeling better, more powerful on the bike.  Then, when you also get stronger by lifting heavier weights, that will also translate into more power on the bike.  It might just manifest as a much easier feeling when riding or it might show up as a bigger number on the power meter. Maybe it shows up as no pain anymore, which is hard to recognize unless someone asks you about it. Resistance training has two big benefits:  teaches the rider to lock the hips to the rib cage to reduce power lost (power going into moving the body vs power going down into the pedals) and strengthening muscles makes the body more resilient (less prone to injury and faster at recovery to allow for harder and more consistent training). The “core” is everything between the neck, elbows and knees. Will share a video on the shielded breath.  http://s.bl-1.com/h/dl5nVkCZ?url=https://youtu.be/6X3zkh66KVo This plus the McGill curl up done properly.  http://s.bl-1.com/h/dl5nVpdc?url=https://youtu.be/2naoyUMxE20 This is where most of the benefit form strength training for cycling will come from.  Call it 3-5 exercises, that doesn’t include:  squat, deadlift, …. It being able to coordinate things between the shoulders and the hips. http://s.bl-1.com/h/dl5nVt1f?url=https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PL2scKg9aZ87wtgyybpq3HDQUsSdFFAXut Force create motion.  Stiffness controls motion.  We need to pulse the core to create a moment of stiffness at just the right moment to control the force we create with our strong muscles that we want to direct down into the pedal, not back up into the body which shows up as twisting in the hips and back. Highly experienced cyclists can show up at the gym knowing nothing about resistance training.  That’s okay as long as they bring a “beginner mind”…being totally open to learning and following directions. Beginner gains….if you are new to strength training, anything will make you stronger at first.  That is good.  It’s like when you were new to the bike…..you got faster very quickly.   Muscular strength and resiliency are separate.   Who needs year-round resistance training the most?  Cyclists over the age of 50.  How to fit in strength training and what about the interference affect.  The interference effect comes from the brain.  We’re over thinking it.  We need to keep strength training to change the internal environment.  Hormone environment.  It doesn’t come from the list heavy session.  Heavy is relative.  We need the connective tissue has to adapt, and it takes longer than the muscle take to adapt due to limited blood flow.  So we have to take our time to let the connective tissue get used to the new movements and the beginning weights before we ramp up the weight lifted. 2 week easy. Body weight only.  Then another 2 weeks with slow add-on of weight. If we want resilience on the bike, we need regular dosing of resistance training.  Slow ramp up.  If you go too fast, you get sore and you can’t ride anymore.  This is the interference. If you do 3 days a week of 20 minutes.  RPE of 5, 6,7…not to failure. Not sore the next day.  2-3 days a week.  Spaced at least 24 to 36 hours apart.  And we don’t lift to get sore.  If you got sore you did too much, especially if you were more sore on the 2nd day than the 1st day after lifting. Lifting after cycling workout when cycling is the main focus.  The idea is to have quality in the most important training.  Lifting while a little tired is okay when you are not going to failure.  But you need to keep doing the weight training to keep the adaptations.  If you stop weeks ahead to taper for a race or worse for a race season, you will lose the strength gains you made.  Why?  There is no need if you are doing the weight training correctly…not to exhaustion…not lifting to failure. Mechachem lifts heavy only 1 day a week (1.25 hours) due to new baby related lack of sleep.  Some additional work at home daily….just built into the day. “Interference effect” — can mean more than just the cellular signaling effects involved.  It can also refer to other interference effects such as getting too tired in the gym to train well on the bike (mistake), or getting inconsistent instruction from different coaches (or just bad info on the internet) that cause resistance training and on bike training to not work together optimally. Resilience only happens when you are able to build the core stiffness to allow you to produce the forces you need, mostly at the shoulder and hip, not so much the spine.  2-3 regular strength training sessions a week year round..  exceptions:  family vacation.  Week long stage race.  But even during stage race we’ll do some mobility and breath work. Minimum effect dose.  RPE 5/6/7 especially if you haven’t been a strength training athlete in the last ten years and are over 40.  Leave reps in reserve. There are 5 stages of strength training to go through during the year:  Anatomical AdaptationHypertrophyMax StrengthConversion to sport specificMaintenance Max strength stage coincides the the late build phase of the cycling training calendar.  May & June.  Just the time a lot of cyclists are cutting out strength training to focus on being outside since the weather is now good. Max Strength workout prep: Do a dynamic warmup.  Foam rolling.  breathing.  Then do heavy weights to an RPE of 8/9.   3 triggers for muscle growth Mechanical overleadMetabolic stressTime under tension Bodyweight exercises….is enough or can be enough for a set of time.  Developing skill through body is essential.  If you don’t have access to a gym or don’t like it, start with body weight. The returns taper off after some point.  Over the age of 40, testosterone responds better to external loads…weights, bands, TRX.  Body weight isn’t enough. How to get you faster without huge hours on the bike?  Some strength, some intensity on the bike Can use body weight plus bands or body weight plus a single kettlebell. Back pain can be the consequence of years of abuse…sitting too long, sitting in poor posture on the bike.  Stretches out the ligaments in the back which leads to movement in the spine…and that leads to irritation and pain. Speed skating is also a contributing factor for Glen, probably.  Some tissues have stretched and other have shut down.  Muscles have 3 jobs.  Protect, stabilize which another joint moves, or move a joint.  Glen’s solution is probably not stretching but strength training fo the muscles that have shut down. Over 45 yo….chest stretching before and after riding on the bike.  http://s.bl-1.com/h/dl5nVyQh?url=https://youtu.be/hOJoVx4hzMM Flexibility is important but strength and control through range of motion is also critical. Check flexibility.  See how flexible fingers are.  Pull index finger down to forearm.  Or use the thumb to see how much flexibility.  Stretching is tricky.  For some people, stretching can help relieve pain.  But for others, stretching just reduces the springiness in the muscles and make them more susceptible to injury. If you want to stretch, stretch the quads.  Then do side planks with the top foot forward. Long stretching of hamstrings and posterior chain after a ride is just stretching muscles that have already been stretched.  Don’t.  Just stretch the quads. Other references in discussion Miguel Aragoncillo is Menachem’s strength training coach.  Thomas Meyers book, Anatomy Trains. https://www.anatomytrains.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/Fascial_Fitness__Training_in_the_Neuromyofascial_Web1.pdf Joe Dantonis – muscle activation (MAT) expert.  Facial system determines movement. Joe Friel’s Fast After 50 book is great.  Time Crunched Cyclist — Chris Carmichael Coach Paul Wade’s book: Convict Conditioning….body weight only  Contact Info Website: humanvortextraining.comYouTube: https://www.youtube.com/user/HVTraining\Instagram: http://instagram.com/hvtrainingFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/HVT412/Strength training certification course: http://s.bl-1.com/h/dl5nV3pk?url=https://strength-training-for-cyclist-certification.mykajabi.com/hvt-launch-closed Menachem Brodie Bio With over 20years of coaching experience and a sports-medicine background spanning from Emergency Medicine & Physical Therapy settings, to the NCAA Division I Strength & Conditioning setting, Coach Brodie brings with him an incredibly unique & diverse skill set, which has led to his work as a Health & Fitness Engineer for international companies in the Health, Wellness, & Fitness fields. Coaching since 2000, Menachem Brodie has been working with athletes in a number of settings, and a broad variety of sports. From Basketball and Cycling, to CrossFit and Triathlon, Brodie has helped numerous athletes to attain their goals, and beyond. With his belief that one should Train Smarter, Not Harder, he has developed and polished his training philosophy over the last 2 decades, in order to allow his clients and athletes to not only excel in their sport of choice, but also in their professional lives. Having earned a degree in Exercise Science from the University of Pittsburgh, Brodie has experience across the Health & Fitness spectrum including having worked as an Exercise Physiologist for a Bariatric Surgery Center for 2 years, working as the Strength & Conditioning coach in a Physical Therapy clinic for those who needed more guidance and direction to return to their sport or hobby, and working as an EMT running 911 calls. Suffice it to say, Brodie’s experience and background are far more reaching than the average coaches.  Menachem‘s Certifications include: USA Cycling Expert Coach, with DistinctionUSA Cycling Power Based Training CertifiedLEOMO Type-R Certified CoachNSCA-Certified Strength & Conditioning SpecialistPrecision Nutrition Level 1 Certified CoachPostpartum Corrective Exercise Specialist

This is episode 37 with Shawn Anderson, who is just back from a 250 mile trek across Spain.  Shawn is a guy who does things.  Big things that most people wouldn’t dream of doing.  But Shawn thinks we all should get out of our comfort zone….do something, anything bigger than we are comfortable doing.  If only just to stretch ourselves a little bit.  And once you start, who knows where you’ll go. I asked Shawn to join us on the wise athletes podcast because I was feeling that I had lost my own adventurous heart, and I hoped he could help me see a path back to being that person who did adventures.  I gave up doing adventures some years ago because I was getting “too old”.  But that was a mistake. Shawn Anderson Bio: Shawn is a #1 ranked motivational author with a history of inspiring others. A seven-time author, Shawn is also the creator of Extra Mile Day…a day recognizing the power we each have to create positive change when we “go the extra mile.” (On 11/1/20, 512 cities made the declaration and recognized local extra-mile heroes.). Shawn walks his talk.  Besides having inspired tens of thousands through his speaking and writing, Shawn’s pedaled a bike solo across the U.S. (twice), and created adventures in 50+ countries including having walked over 3,000 miles across eight countries since 2014 (England, Ireland, Spain (twice), Portugal, Italy, France and 750 miles around Shikoku, Japan.)  Still…he believes his greatest adventures and success are waiting to be lived.  Book titles:  The Four FibsSOAR to the Top!Amicus 101: A Story About the Pursuit of Purpose and Overcoming Life’s ChaosExtra Mile America: Stories of InspirationPossibility and PurposeLessons From A. FriendA Better Life: An Inspiring Story About Starting Over Twitter: @ToShawnAnderson Extra Mile Day & Extra Mile America History: In 2009, in order to symbolize the “go the extra mile” message, Shawn Anderson (a non-bicyclist) pedaled 4,000 miles ocean-to-ocean, interviewed 200+ people along the way whom had been identified as having gone the extra mile, and then gave $10,000 of his own money to the people and organizations whose stories most inspired him. As a part of that cross-country extra-mile ride, Extra Mile Day (11/1)……a day recognizing the capacity we each have to create positive change in our families, our organizations, our communities and ourselves when we “go the extra mile”… was created with 23 inaugural cities. The momentum of this unique day has continued to build each year since, and on November 1, 2020, 512 mayors and cities made the “Extra Mile Day” declaration and recognized people who are “going the extra mile” to make a difference in volunteerism and service in their community. Facebook:www.facebook.com/ExtraMileAmericaLinkedIn:www.linkedin.com/in/gotheextramileWebsite: www.ExtraMileAmerica.org Camino de Santiago (treks): en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Camino_de_Santiago

TriDoc Jeff Sankoff is the TriDoc, an emergency physician, triathlete and USAT and Ironman University certified triathlon coach. Jeff is an accomplished triathlete with more than 75 70.3 finishes including six World championship finishes and six Ironmans including one World Championship finish. He has been a medical contributor to Triathlete, Inside Triathlon and Beginner Triathlete magazines and websites; and now produces the TriDoc podcast, a bi-weekly show covering health and wellness issues as they relate to the endurance athlete. CREDENTIALS Board Certified Emergency PhysicianUSAT Level 1 CoachIRONMAN University Certified CoachLifeSport mentored coachExperienced triathlete; national age group team member.Founder, Tri-Doc PodcastRegular contributor to Training Peaks and other publications Discussion Outline Training Secrets from the TriDoc — Jeff Sankoff Consistent Training is the key to endurance successReverse J Curve — do enough work but not too muchHRV – not that useful yetStrength training is super importantNo supplementsLots of tech for measuring effort in workoutsAlcohol impairs performance and recoveryBiggest mistakes of masters athletes (beware shortcuts)Eat food on the bike (not just fluids)Mostly plant-based. Some fish too.Sleep is a challenge but importantTraining is a key stress management toolAge is a state of mind (you are as old as you think you are) Keys to athletic longevity:   Keep a youthful mindsetKeep weight under controlKeep moving, alwaysFind something you love, and just do it. Contact info for TriDoc www.tridoccoaching.com www.tridoccoaching.com www.tridocpodcast.com www.tridocpodcast.com http://twitter.com/triathmagtridoc https://www.facebook.com/tridoccoach https://www.instagram.com/tridoccoaching

The Science and Practice of Extending Healthspan and Athletic Performance Longevity for Older Athletes via Biomarker and DNA Analysis Today’s WiseAthletes episode is with one of the leading minds in the basic biology of aging and translating scientific discoveries into new ways of detecting and preventing age-related conditions. Gil Blander, PhD. Gil is the founder of InsideTracker, the only fitness program that analyzes a sample of blood and, in conjunction with your DNA and your wellness and lifestyle goals, provides a personalized diet, nutrition, exercise plan, which is best for your body and your goals. Outline of discussion In general, what are the things that older athletes can do to shift their trajectory toward better health and athletic performance, both now and for a healthy aging future? The discussion was broken into 3 buckets (with timestamp):   2:50 — Nutrition13:50 — Lifestyle27:32 — Movement (1) Nutrition (starts at 2:50) We’ll start with what not to do. Packaged foods aren’t the best. In addition, too much sugar, too much fat, too much sodium in foods prepared in restaurants — make your own food to have more control over what goes into your foodAnd, don’t drink liquids full of chemicals..no sodas, etc.  Just drink water.USDA database has 8000 food items Average American in an average day eats only 20 food items, and the variation between people tends to be low.  Meaning there are only a small number of things nearly all of us actually eat.Eat more variety of foodsFind for each person the superfood that works for them.  Is it kale?  Is it a Paleo diet?  We can find out by looking at what is happening inside the bodyGeneral rules can get you 60% of the way there, but to refine e even more takes more personalized data.And it’s more than what you eat.  It’s also when you eat and how often you eat.Social pressures can be difficult, so one solution is to try to do these changes with your family.Oatmeal and blueberries are generally thought of as excellent food choices partly because they are high fiber foods which help us even out the rise in blood glucose (avoid spikes) and absorb some of the fats eaten at the same time.Glucose is one of the key biomarkers for longevity.Oatmeal and blueberries are some of Dr. Blander’s superfoods but other people’s could include: avocado, beans, kale.It’s a 60/40 rule.  60% of superfoods are good for all of us, but the other 40% is individual, which can only be discerned by looking at the body’s biomarkers. (2) Lifestyle (starts at 13:50) Sleep is so important and people are not paying close enough attention to it.The body is like a machine.  We have to maintain it at least as well as we maintain our car.  Sleep is like regular maintenance.  If you want to be healthy, let your body sleep more.Plus, we can look at your blood to see what is going on inside, just as the car technician can plug into the car computer to see what needs repair.In addition to getting enough sleep, consistent sleep is also important.Enable this by getting the technology out of your life when its time for bed.  For most of us, we can live without it for a few hours.Other factors:  temperature of room, light coming through windowsHave to manage stress as well.  So much of our stress is manufactured stress…the stress of modern life.  Including that strange modern version of loneliness that also causes stress.  We have to seek out ways to feel happier and more satisfied.  In addition to adequate sleep, meditation, enjoying a good meal, yoga,   Try to think positively.It’s the chronic stress that is the problem.  Some stress is good, but not all the time.We’re all so good at getting charged up, but few have the skills for calming down.  Chemical solutions can work but they come with their own problems.  Alcohol is one of the areas InsideTracker is looking into regarding biomarkers of liver damage as well as DNA based markers of sensitivity to alcohol.  Alcohol in moderation is probably okay. (3) Movement (starts at 27:32) For the older athlete, largely the problem is getting to much exercise.  From a longevity perspective (and probably performance), it is important to recover.  The absolute amount of exercise that is healthy will vary by person, but take time away from exercise to recover well.If you want to do something everyday, do yoga or swimming or other activities that are less stressful on the musclesCross training becomes even more important for the older athlete….lots of benefits.And strength training is very important to include as well.  At least 1-2 times per week.And core training is also important.Biomarkers include:Creatine Kinase for tracking muscle damageCortisol — high level can result from stress, which includes exercise stressTestosterone — low levels can indicate too little or too much exerciseAreas not covered by InsideTracker because the science is not ready yet:  continuous glucose monitoring and gut microbiome. GIL BLANDER, PhD, Founder, Chief Scientific Officer Inside Tracker: https://www.insidetracker.com/ Dr. Gil Blander is internationally recognized for his research in the basic biology of aging and for translating his discoveries into new ways of detecting and preventing age-related conditions. He received a PhD in biology from the Weizmann Institute of Science and completed his postdoctoral fellowship at MIT. He’s been featured in CNN Money, The New York Times, Forbes, The Financial Times, and The Boston Globe. At InsideTracker, Dr. Blander leads a team of experts in biology, computer science, nutrition and exercise physiology. He founded the company in 2009, alongside top scientists from acclaimed universities in the fields of aging, genetics, and biometrics. InsideTracker’s mission is to help people realize their potential for long, healthy, productive lives by optimizing their bodies from the inside out. InsideTracker’s proprietary algorithm analyzes its users’ biomarker and physiomarker data to provide a clear picture of what’s going on inside them. Based on this analysis, InsideTracker offers its users ultra-personalized, science-based recommendations for positive changes to their nutrition, supplementation, exercise, and lifestyle, along with a plan of action to track their progress toward their goals.  The InsideTracker platform analyzes blood test results for biochemical and physiological markers, and then applies algorithms and a giant scientific databases to determine optimal zones for each marker.  Based on the findings, the system provides nutrition, exercise, supplement, and lifestyle advice designed to improve overall health AND athletic performance as well as extend healthspan. Links Dr Blander on Twitter (@gblander1)InsideTracker on Instagram (@InsideTracker)