Basic Pursuits

Here are five things you can do to enhance the results of your workout. These techniques cost little or nothing, they are all perfectly legal and they are based on scientific observation.

Cool the muscles

Two Stanford professors have invented a device called the Glove which enhances athletic performance by promoting rapid cooling of overheated muscles.

The athlete simply inserts his or her hand into a "coffee-pot-like contraption" that works by cooling the body from the inside out. It cools the blood in the palm of the hand. The cooled blood then lowers the temperature in the rest of the body.

The palm is an ideal radiator because blood flow increases there as the body temperature rises.

There is a downside to everything. Take extreme fitness. People will argue the all that training stresses out the body. And I'm sure that it does. But a recent study shows that the oxidative stress of extreme fitness does not damage DNA.

The key to exercise progress is effective recuperation. Your exercise is only as good to the extent that the benefits outweigh the stress you put on your body.

The best recuperation is rest. Period.

We earlier reported on a little hack that improved muscle growth. Older exercisers who took a bottle label recommended dose of Ibuprofen accumulated greater muscle mass than controls who didn't. The Ibuprofen's anti-inflammatory properties perhaps speed recovery.

We all go through phases in our lives that prevent us from training on a consistent basis. However, the main problem is that

Recent research on sleep is enough to give sleep experts insomnia.

Cheri Mah of the Stanford Sleep Disorders Clinic and Research Laboratory reported that athletes who get extra sleep over an extended period of time improve performance.

“While this study focuses specifically on collegiate swimmers, it agrees with data from my other studies of different sports and suggests that athletes across all sports can greatly benefit from extra sleep and gain the additional competitive edge to perform at their highest level,” she said.

I took some measurements before starting my six-week Tabata experiment. These metrics would not stand up to peer review, but they are interesting nevertheless. I believe that they reveal modest muscle growth in my arms and legs. This makes sense considering that most of the Tabata exercises involved legs, and I did pull-ups and chin-ups very often to warm up.

At the Experimental Biology 2008 scientific conference in San Diego, Dr. Chad C. Carroll working with Dr. Todd Trappe of the Human Performance Laboratory at Ball State University, Muncie, Indiana, reported some surprising results. Elderly men and women, taking Ibuprofen (as in Advil) and acetaminophen (as in Tylenol) had bigger gains in muscle building and strength, than elderly exercisers taking a placebo.